Jul 11 2009
I’ll have three banana splits, please …
Pre-Ramble: So, a “long-awaited study” of aging in rhesus monkeys indicates that the human life span can be “considerably extended” by severely restricting calorie intake.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin report that test subjects are showing many beneficial signs as an outcome of the reduced calorie diet including “significantly less diabetes, cancer, and heart and brain disease.” Monkeys on the restricted diet were expected to enjoy a life span extension of 10 to 20 percent. Researchers apparently regard this as “very good news.”
Note to the UW research team — Good luck with that. Personally, I get crabby if I miss a snack; there is no way I am going to sign up to live 10 to 20 percent longer and be LITERALLY STARVING the whole time.
The Take-Away: It’s the old “quantity vs. quality” debate. Would you rather bite the bullet a little earlier with bits of chocolate-dipped waffle cone stuck in your teeth, or spend all of eternity on a treadmill popping flaxseed capsules?
Tofu-celery smoothie anyone?
Well, your comments are interesting and reflect the conversation that I just had –like moments ago with my 84 year old mother. She is sharp as a tack but careful who she converse with as ……well many “old people simple give up on current events”. My mom knows everything about the president. I mean ever president. This president and alllll the others. She can compare Roosevelt to Lincoln knows and understands the assets of Reagan’s trickle down economics and can talk intelligently (without me feeling stupid) what every cabinet member from the beginning did to advance democracy and what role they played in developing policy and applying it.
In a May 7th article in Forbes, “15 ways to live longer” ‘It’s been said that a man (women) dies simply because he doesn’t know how to live longer. Well, thank goodness for progress.
People are living longer these days. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 1920 the average life expectancy was 54. Today, people can expect to live to 78.
Feel free to speculate about why — better food supply, better medical care, better hygiene or any number of other factors. It’s not totally clear to scientists how they all add up. But what we do know is that studies are finding genetics don’t tell the whole story when it comes to which diseases will likely kill us.’
Speculate? My mom lives well and long as she is happy. She takes care of herself (exercises daily, eats moderately, drinks on special occasions but only one) and she loves each of her seven children and all of her 15 grandchildren. You could even say she lives for them.