Category — Living Counterclockwise

You already know the grand trifecta of avoidable age-promoting, illness-enhancers, the short what not to do list: 1. Don’t smoke. 2. Don’t sit around on your butt. 3. Don’t eat junk. Also: Please please don’t fall for any product, therapy or treatment that sounds too good to be true. (It is.)

Now here’s some fresh advice, especially for mid-life and beyond:

Don’t use your chronological age as an excuse for not living a vibrant, full engaged life.
Have you heard yourself (or a friend/ colleague) say: “I’m getting too old to…” “I’m just slowing down…” “Of course I’m tired, I’m x years old now. All I can say is: Tell it to Jimmy Carter, who will be 90 this fall. Did you see him on the Colbert Report a few nights ago? Damn. I mean, damn. That guy is doing more in and for the world than any dozen people who clock in a half-century younger. Or take note of Deborah Szekely, a 92-year-old whirlwind of wise and wondrous activity. And etch this particular saying into your still plastic and craving-new-experiences brain:
You’re not slowing down because you’re getting old; you’re getting old because you’re slowing down.

Don’t opt out.
Retiring — if that’s what you want — could be a great thing. For my father retirement meant no more three-hour commutes, no more suits and ties, and no more being hated by everyone. (He was a Treasury Agent working for the IRS. Need I say more?) In his retirement, which stretched close to 30 years, he loved playing the stock market, playing tennis, wearing Brando-esque wife beaters paired 30-year-old, baggy brown trousers and eating Mounds bars. Who am I to say that wasn’t a meaningful life?

My own personal bar is set higher. I want to make a bigger, more consequential contribution during the third third of my life than I’ve been able to do previously. At the very least, I want to remain in the thick of it. Decades of credible research point to three habits/ attributes that distinguish the world’s oldest healthiest people from the rest of us: they eat mostly plant-based diets; they are physically active; they continue to be full, active and valued contributors to their communities.

Which brings me to my third piece of anti-aging, pro-wellness advice for mid-life and beyond: Don’t segregate yourself. Gated communities, retirement communities, resort communities…why circumscribe your world by living only with your “own kind.” We stay youthful and vibrant – and interesting – by exposing ourselves to new adventures, new ways of thinking, new people.

Research has consistently revealed the phenomenon of “environmental aging,” – which, no, is not toxicity in the environment making you older and unhealthier (although yes, it does). “Environmental aging” is the documented biological aging of those who surround themselves with chronologically/ biologically old people. Women who marry much older men, for example, accelerate their own biological aging. “Old” mothers who hang around and participate fully in the life and culture of being a younger mother are biologically younger than their age. Think about that when you make a decision to live in an age-segregated community.

Don’t always look back. Don’t assume your best years are behind you. Don’t assume because you haven’t yet done something, you can’t do it. Remembering and reminiscing is fine. And processing the past is an important part of growing into the next phase of your life – but so is looking ahead with curiosity, energy and excitement. In fact, that is the definition of a youthful, counterclockwise life.

“What’s all that?” the woman I was sitting next to at breakfast last week asked.  She was referring to the small pile of pills on my placemat.  I started to explain.

     “This one is a multi-vitamin,” I said, popping it in my mouth. She nodded.  “And this one is extra calcium.”

     “Oh,” she said, shaking her head, “my bones are just great.  I don’t need that.”  She was a (chronologically) 60-ish, smallish white woman, so I kind of doubted that.  But I said, “That’s great.  So when did you last have a bone density scan?”  She’d never had one, it turned out.  Her bones were “great” because she’d never broken any.

     “Most of the rest of these are supplements are to boost immunity and bolster heart health,” I told her, as I swallowed a B vitamin, a D, turmeric, Alpha-lipoic acid, L-carnitine and CoQ10. 

     “Oh, I’m healthy,” she told me, adding – with a mixture of personal pride and, it seemed, concern for me — “I don’t need to take any of that.”

     “I’m healthy too,” I said (attempting – I am afraid unsuccessfully – not to be defensive).  “You know,” I added (trying – I am afraid unsuccessfully — not to sound all lecture-y), “It’s easier to preserve health than it is to come back from disease.”

     Well, she wasn’t buying that one either.  “My mother is 93,” she said, “so I ‘m not too worried.”

     I finished taking my pills, washed down with double-strength green tea, and tucked into my usual breakfast of Greek yogurt, blueberries and almonds.  Here’s what I didn’t say:

     My grandmother lived to 94 and died in her own bed, her only illnesses being a mild case of diverticulitis and a dry eye problem solved with nightly drops.  She was of sound mind and body – and especially spirit – until she died in her sleep.  My great grandmother (aka “Old Oldie,” who, readers will recall, shows up in Counterclockwise) lived past 100, descending three flights of stairs every morning to bake breakfast breads for the family.  Until the morning she didn’t.  My mother, recipient of this amazing genetic heritage, died at 77 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s five years before.

     Which is to say:  It’s a blessing to have healthy, long-lived relatives. It is a blessing not a guarantee of your own health.  Being an active participant in your own health – especially when you are healthy – is not a guarantee either.  I know that.  Shit happens.  But you can stack the deck in your own favor by accepting responsibility for your wellness.  That’s what I wanted to tell the woman who sat next to me at breakfast.

If you read last week’s post on the habits of the healthiest and longest lived cultures on earth – and of course you did! – you may have said to yourself: Sure, those folks who live in isolated villages in the Andes can live healthy lives. They are far from interstates and internet, from mochaccinos and McDonalds, from the toxins and temptations of modern life. Hurray for them. But, really, what can I learn from them? That’s not my life. That’s not me.

Me either. So now I’m going to tell you about extraordinarily health and long lived people who live in the belly of the beast, aka 21st century America. And not just America: California. And not just California: Southern California. That’s right, land of smog and clog, land of freeways and fast food. Yet, the healthiest and longest lived people in all of North American live here.

These folks have a 60% lower (men) and 76% lover (women) death rate from all cancers than the rest of us. Their lung cancer rate is 21% lower, colorectal cancer 62% lower, and breast cancer 85% lower.
Coronary heart disease is 66% lower for men, and 98% lower for women. They suffer far less from type 2 diabetes. They have lower blood pressure, lower body weight, and better lean-to-fat ratios. They report enviable levels of happiness and satisfaction. Oh, and they live longer than the rest of us — 6.2 years (men) and 4.4 years (women).

Who are they?

They are the extensively studied Seventh day Adventists of Loma Linda, California, and there’s a glimpse of the lifestyle that keeps them weller than well:

They exercise.
They avoid alcohol, tobacco and “mind altering substances.” (I’m afraid that means caffeine, but I choose not to think too deeply about this.)
They eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet rich in legumes, nuts, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
They work to create, nourish and maintain strong relationships.
They are involved in their communities.
They believe that good health is “a gift from a loving God who wants us to live life in its abundance.” (Personally, I could get behind a God like that.)
They believe that “to not take care of our bodies, which is a part of the stewardship of the earth, is an affront to our God.

I’m not proselytizing here. But, come on, these folks are kind of awesome, aren’t they? Here they are, crafting vital, ultra-healthy, meaningful lives right under our noses, living smack-dab in the same age-accelerating, disease-promoting culture we live in.

If you dismissed the health and longevity lessons of the Abkhasians, Vilcabambans, Hunzas and Okinawans I wrote about last week because their cultures and geographies were so very different from our own, you can’t do the same for these southern Californians…can you now?

Healthspan – our years of healthy living – is what it’s all about. Many people focus on lifespan, the total number of years we live. But if that total includes 20 (or 10 even 2) frail, debilitated, medicated years at the end of life, who would opt for a longer lifespan if it didn’t also include a simultaneously longer healthspan? Not me. Not you.

The truth is, we’ve managed to significantly increase our lifespan (through drugs, surgeries and heroic end-of-life extensions with various interventions) – without increasing healthspan. So we’re are living longer, but with extra years of unhealthy, unenjoyable years tacked on at the end. Our old age is most often old, enfeebled age.

Does it have to be this way? No. Resounding no.

Suppose we take a lesson from those cultures on our planet that combine long lifespans with equally long healthspans. Who are the healthiest, longest lived people on earth live? And what do they do that we don’t? Listen up.

In 2000, the World Health Organization reported that Okinawa had the longest disability-free life expectancy in the world—the longest, healthiest lives. Life expectancy is up to 10 years longer there with sixth the rate of cardiovascular disease and fifth the rate of the big cancers like colon and breast. Diabetes is rare. Three other communities – the Abkhasians (Russia), the Vilcabambans (Ecuador), the Hunzas (Pakistan) – rank right up there too. In these so-called Blue Zones, a significant number of people live to be over 100, have 20/20 vision, perfect hearing, desirable cholesterol levels, clear arteries, strong teeth, strong bones and good memories. This means – and please hear this – it is biologically possible to age this way. This people have shown that the human body – your human body, my human body – can maintain biological youth while advancing chronologically.

These four cultures from four very different parts of the world, with different histories, different beliefs and philosophies, different climates and geography, have striking similarities that those who have studied them extensively (from cultural anthropologists to cardiologists, dieticians to dentists) believe are the “secrets” to their impressive life/healthspans. Here they are:

*The older people are fully integrated into the working life of their communities
*They live with a sense of purpose
*They maintain close relationships across generations
*Physical activity is a natural part of everyday life
*Their diet includes no refined or processed (or “fast”) foods
*Their diet is primarily plant-based (they eat meat less than 1x per week)
*They eat big breakfasts
*They seem to laugh a lot

It is interesting – and vital – to note that, in these communities, “aging” is not demonized. It is not a bad thing to be (chronologically) old. But neither are older people revered. They are merely (merely!) an ongoing, vital part of the life of their communities.

The “secrets” to these counterclockwise lifestyles are clear-cut and simple – and, I am sure you’ve noted, involve no expensive magic elixirs or celebrity-endorsed treatments. No one is taking hormones. No one is hanging out in CrossFit gyms. Makes ‘ya think, huh? What I’m thinking is: These are my personal marching orders. Join me?

She sits comfortably, smartly dressed, her legs crossed, her hands gesturing as she speaks. Her voice, the New York accent still evident, is clear and powerful. A lamp illuminates her thick, lustrous, shoulder-length white hair. She is talking, without notes, to a gathering of perhaps 80 people.

“I’m in the midst of figuring out a new career,” she says. “It is possible now for me to dream bigger dreams.” Her current dream, she tells the audience, is creating an alliance of nonprofits that are working on food, water and environmental issues – a kind of super PAC that can exert power and influence in Washington. She talks about the monopoly of food production in the U.S., shaking her head, citing statistics, her voice rising. She talks about food safety, about the diseases that come from being a nation of overfed and undernourished people.

She mentions, in passing, that she was in Cuba last month, and that she’ll be flying to San Francisco later this week for “breakfasts, lunches and dinners” with movers and shakers who can help her build this alliance. “Taking on these challenges is so important,” she says. “You have to wake up to the opportunity of each new day.” She looks out over the crowd, gives them a hard stare. “I mean you must use each day, really use it. I do. We all have to.”

The white-haired woman on a mission is Deborah Szekely, the founder of Rancho LaPuerta, the oldest destination health and wellness resort in North America. She gives these unscripted hour-long talks once a week at the ranch.

She will be 92 next month.

She mentions her age – although most of those gathered for this talk already know. Then she delivers a mini-lecture on cellular turn-over in the body, how quickly red blood cells and heart cells and stomach lining cells, skin cells, liver cells, all your cells turn-over. “We are in a constant state of renewal,” she says. Then she smiles broadly.

“Sitting here, there is nothing about me that is more than 30 years old.”

That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout.

It’s 8 days into the new year, which means 8 days past that magic day you were going to start changing your life.  You know…those New Year’s Resolutions to move more and eat mindfully and sleep deeply, to nourish curiosity and embrace optimism?  To go counterclockwise? 

What happened?  Are you stalled?  Maybe you have yet to come up with the big “why” — the reason to change, the deep, compelling reason that will keep you motivated.  Maybe this will help. It’s a post I wrote a few months back that I thought deserved re-posting.

The Why has to be big enough.

That’s what a very talented trainer (and a sweetheart of a guy), Sione Fa, recently told a group of people struggling with motivation to get and stay healthy.  I was in the audience, an I’ve-heard-it-all veteran of “get off your butt” speeches.  I’ve listened to dozens of talks from folks in the fitness biz, from headliners and gurus, from multi-degreed professionals in the health and wellness fields, from over-amped scammers.  I’ve been lectured to, preached at, goaded, pushed, harangued – and cheered on.  I’ve been educated, and I’ve occasionally even been inspired. But that single sentence stood out for me.  That single sentence really hit home.  There is a BIG truth in it for those of us not merely committed to our own health but also to turning back our biological clocks.

A counterclockwise lifestyle is a significant commitment.  It’s about incorporating physical activity into your life, about making healthy choices with food.  It’s about supplements and cleanses, about staying current with the science of anti-aging and guarding yourself against the hucksters.  It’s about mindful living, about learned optimism, about figuring out the balance between work and play, about seeking out and nurturing relationships that enrich, about keeping your hands off the Cap’n Crunch.

So why do it?  There are the little venal whys, as in:  I want to look good. I want to attract the admiring gaze of others.  I want everyone at my high school reunion to be in awe. (Not that I think this way, of course.)  Then there are the bigger whys:  I want to feel good.  I want to have energy and vitality.  Right, right.  But why?

The Why has to be big enough.

It has to be big enough, important enough, meaningful enough to motivate you when it’s raining and you’re cranky and you hate everyone at work and your agent nixed another book proposal and your husband hasn’t even noticed that you lost 10 pounds and your daughter just slammed the door in your face.  Not that any of this has ever happened to me.  The why has to sustain you through the tough times and for the long haul.

So here’s my Why, courtesy of one of the most inspiring talks I have been privileged to hear, which came in the form of 20 minutes of off-the-cuff remarks by Deborah Szekely, the then-90-year-old (now 92-year-old) co-founder of Rancho LaPuerta, a decades-ahead-of-its-time wellness retreat.  She talked about life lived in thirds, with the 60-90 year old span potentially being the best.  By that time in one’s life, she said, you’ve learned some things about the world, about human nature, about yourself.  You’ve seen things.  You’ve tried things.  You’ve acquired skills and maybe, maybe some measure of wisdom.  What if you also had health, high-level wellness, vitality, curiosity and on-fire creativity? In other words, what if you had been living a counterclockwise life and now had the youthful energy and optimism to use the knowledge and wisdom you acquired over the years in new, exciting and important ways.  In meaningful ways.

Can you think of a better reason to live counterclockwise?  A bigger Why?

I want to be younger – not older — this time next year.  Don’t you?  Of course you do.  We can’t do anything about chronological time – it keeps on ticking – but as readers of this blog (and my book) know, we can do something, often a BIG something, about biological time.  We can adopt habits and ways of being that help turn back our biological clocks and make us younger from the inside out.

The start of a new year can be an auspicious time to start new plans and projects.  How about starting your own up-close-and-personal anti-aging project? In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, I offer the following ten anti-aging action items.  Research on New Year’s resolutions shows that 1) making one big, amorphous resolution – “Get healthier in the new year” – absolutely doesn’t work and 2) taking on too many resolutionary tasks at once usually backfires. So…start by choosing ONE from the list below.  Choose another next month, and so on. 

I’d love to hear what you choose and how it’s going.  In the meantime, I wish you all a happy, healthy, vibrant new year.

1.    Eat breakfast. (No, not pain au chocolat et cappuccino.)

2.    Take vitamin D. (You need it, really you do.)

3.    Moisturize daily. (All that oil you worked so hard to get rid of as a teen?  Get it back.)

4.    Get up and move for 3-5 minutes every hour. (The only thing sitting is good for is middle-aged spread.)

5.    Hang out with upbeat, active people. (There really is such a thing as “environmental aging”: You become as old as those around you.)

6.    Sleep more.

7.    Try one new-to-you movement activity.  (Some hints: Barre workouts, boxing, fencing, tabata, zumba, crossfit.)

8.    Re-invigorate your curiosity. (Pose one question for yourself every week — something you’ve wondered about, something someone mentioned in passing — and dig into it.)

9.    Hunch your shoulders.  Now let them fall.  Rotate them up and back, pressing your shoulders down and your shoulder blades together.  (Stay that way.  Forever.)

10.  Close your eyes.  Visualize your older self, your vibrant, vital, meaningfully engaged older self.  (Hold on to that image. Forever.)

Thanksgiving is – and has always been – my all-time favorite holiday.  And now I have another reason (actually 10 of them) to love this day.  And so do you.  Here are the Top Ten Reasons Thanksgiving is the Ultimate Anti-Aging Holiday:

10. Family gatherings where you spend time with people younger than you are helps you “think young,” which translates into real biological benefits like lower blood pressure.

9. Cleaning the house before the guests arrive is good exercise.  Integrating functional physical activity into your life is probably the single most successful long-term anti-aging strategy there is.

8. Cooking turkey is one of the least anxiety-producing culinary activities you can engage in and still call yourself a cook.  Lower anxiety is linked to longer telomeres.  Longer telomeres are linked to a healthier, longer life.

7. Eating your largest meal mid-day is a proven weight-control strategy.  Maintaining a healthy weight is an important part of avoiding chronic illnesses (diabetes, heart disease) that decrease quality of life and shorten lifespan.

6. Turkey (breast) is a high-quality, super-lean source of protein.  Protein helps build muscle.  A favorable fat-to-lean ratio is a biomarker of youthfulness.

5.  Pine nuts or hazelnuts in the dressing (made with celery, mushrooms, tons of garlic and onions sautéed in olive oil, mixed with toasted multi-grain bread crumbs).  Oh yes! A new study from researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School reported that people who regular consumed nuts were less likely to die from a variety of diseases, most significantly cancer, heart disease and respiratory diseases. Nut eaters also tended to be leaner.  (I am guessing their nut-eating did not include slabs of pecan pie… so cross that off your list for tomorrow’s dessert.)

4.  Cranberries have powerful anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory – and perhaps even anti-cancer – properties.

3. The Center for Science in the Public Interest rates sweet potatoes as the number one most nutritious vegetable.  One cup of sweet potatoes (no, not carpeted in brown sugar and dotted with marshmallows) contains 65% of RDA of Vitamin C – a powerful anti-oxidant — and a walloping dose of beta-carotene (which converts to vitamin A in the body) that equals 700% of RDA. Vitamin A is key for good vision and a healthy immune system.

2. Giving thanks and being thankful are signs of self-efficacy and optimism, traits that are associated with greater health and well-being, and a longer lifespan.

…And the #1 reason Thanksgiving is the ultimate anti-aging holiday:

1. It’s a holiday that demands no gift-giving!  No gift-giving means less stress.  Less stress means less cortisol. Less cortisol means less inflammation. Chronic inflammation is linked to just about everything you don’t want to happen to you.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Every Wednesday, for a few hours, I volunteer at a local charity that provides hot meals for those in need.  I make coffee, pour milk and juice, serve desserts, bus tables, scrape plates, do kitchen prep.  When I arrive for my shift, I’m preoccupied with some stressful something – a kid with a cough that won’t go away, a deadline, a chore that needs doing, a work “situation.”  Then, magically, gloriously, four hours later, I feel great.  Great with a capital G:  Buoyant, cheerful, calm and centered but full of energy, brimming with energy.  I want to say “joyful,” but I know how over-the-top that sounds. I’ll say it anyway:  joyful.

 When people find out I do this volunteer work, they say:  How good of you to do this, how selfless of you to donate your time.  And when I reply that the work seems almost entirely selfish because I get so much more than I give, they think I’m playing humble (not generally a problem for me) or being a Pollyanna (not ever a problem for me).  No.  I am being utterly truthful.  My stint at Food for Lane County is, invariably, the best part of my week.  Yes, that’s right:  the BEST.  When I leave I feel deep-down, soul-satisfyingly healthy – emotionally, spiritually, psychologically and PHYSICALLY healthy.

That volunteering makes people feel useful and boosts their self-esteem is old (but still good) news.  Now there is scientific proof to back me up about the physical benefits I seem to derive:  It turns out that volunteering is good for your health.  It turns out that volunteering is a powerful anti-aging strategy.  Several recent studies have found evidence that those who volunteer live longer than their non-philanthropic counterparts. A 2013 study in the journal Psychology and Aging found that 50+ adults who volunteers about 4 hours a week (like I do) were 40 percent less likely to develop high blood pressure 4 years later.

Other studies are finding fewer health complaints, higher functional ability, less depression and anxiety, and less incidence of heart disease among volunteers than among matched sets of non-volunteers.  The booklet, “The Health Benefits of Volunteering: A Review of Recent Research,” is full of such happy news.  The research reviewed in the booklet focus on mid-life and older people – with health benefits increasing the older one gets – but I also found a study in which high school kids saw a drop in their cholesterol levels after volunteering with younger children once a week for 2 months.  So you are never too old – or too young – to volunteer.

It’s noon now, and my volunteer shift begins in 45 minutes.  I feel healthier (mind, body, soul) already.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog – and I hope you are – you’ll know that I don’t spend much time talking about the outward signs of aging.  I am interested in how and why we age from the inside out and, most importantly, the ways we can take control of that process.  But I know that millions of women and men (and I honestly have to include myself in their midst) care about the externals.  And I know that a significant percentage of the more than $88 billion global anti-aging business is devoted to turn-back-the-clock products and treatments that focus solely on looks.

In Counterclockwise, my book, I take readers on a somewhat harrowing plastic surgeon’s eye view of how the body shows its age.  The “cures” involve surgeries of any and all parts of the body, fillers, paralytics, lasers, fat transfers, peels, thousands and thousands of dollars and living with the fact that you let vanity triumph over good sense.  But there are ways we appear older than we might want to look (or older than our chronological age) that we might not be aware of and do not involve such drastic solutions.

Yesterday I took my work to my favorite local coffee hang-out and, in between typing up interview notes for a story and shopping for flannel sheets  (it is getting to be fall, you know) and, okay, checking out the boot sales at zappos, I people-watched.  I cold-heartedly, judgmentally, people-watched.  Oh you know you do it too.  And here’s what I saw.  Here are the visual “I’m old” cues I noticed.

Movement.  I wasn’t wearing my contacts so my far vision was blurry.  That means I could see how a person walked before I was able to make out that person’s face.  I could judge age by movement not other visual cues.  And movement communicated a lot.  Those with loose-limbed, easy walks looked youthful.  This group included an 82-year-old acquaintance of mine who, without my contacts, I did not immediately recognize.  She walked with the grace and lilt of a woman I at first guessed to be in her 40s.  Those with tight-hipped, stiff-kneed, hesitant walks looked old (and most were not).

Posture.  Hunched shoulders, curved backs, jutting necks.  I was astonished at how much posture communicated either health and youthfulness or weariness and age (or how much time we spend at our computers).

Hair.  Lots of ways to go wrong here: limp and lifeless; old-lady helmet-head hair; dark, stark, one-color dye jobs. No, no and no.

Teeth.  Wow do teeth make a difference. (Confession: Just before hitting the coffee joint I had spent a lovely hour with my dental hygienist, so I was particularly attuned to teeth.)  Yellowish, stained teeth say old.  And, a related observation:  People who smile a lot look younger – regardless of the hue of their teeth – than people who don’t.

Clothes.  Given that my observations took place in Eugene, Oregon and not on Park Avenue, I’m not talking high fashion here.  But some women dress old (Mommy jeans or, worse yet, pull-ons, with small-print collared shirts), and some women dress way too young (as in clothes borrowed from their teenage daughter’s closet) – and both extremes make these women appear older than they probably are.

“Cures” for these outward signs of aging involve low-cost, noninvasive actions:  daily walking, yoga, a good shampoo and a thoughtful hairdresser, whitening toothpaste, a pair of decent black slacks.  Presto. The clock ticks backward.