Reminds me of something I saw when I was younger. It was on the news, not sure if it was local or national, but it was a story about a man that had just turned 100, and when they asked him what he thought was the secret, he said daily whiskey and 2 packs of filter-less Camel cigarettes. I kid you not. Whether he was putting one over on the news people or not, I don't know, but he was smoking a cigarette on camera.
Helpful relaxing tips can be found in a strange places. I've been recently blown away by the work of Dr. William H. Bates. His method of having "Better Eyesight Without Glasses" (his 1940 book's title), seems very much real. Eyesight is linked to emotions! Who knew? Not me, but it makes perfect sense, all of it.
Highly recommend his book - I found it on Thriftbooks, but then realized it is sold everywhere. I've found Ytube's and other sites, using his method.
Even if I fail, and still have to wear my readers, I'm lovin the relaxing methods he teaches. I see clearer just doing his "Palming" for a few minutes.
Living to 100 is all well and good but what I don’t ever hear when it comes to living long is enjoying life. It is all like let’s eat grass and all this stuff that’s great for you and you’ll be healthy and oh you gotta beat the hell outta yourself with exercise to boot. All well and good but I’m gonna enjoy myself and when my number is up it’s up. I broke my ass for 30 years to retire early with some things breaking my way to help that along but I do what I want and enjoy myself. I eat meat and eggs and I love my meals. I love veggies and they are always with every meal. I walk almost daily with no mile marker installed when I start. I don’t drink which I think is good. I do a physical yearly and have my blood work done at least twice a year with no diabetes even close and the rest of it great for my age. No hypertension either my BP is always. 120/70. Has been since I was a kid. Can’t say I’m not carrying a few extra pounds as I am but I don’t gorge myself on food either. Life is worth living if you’re happy and to me I do what makes me happy. If I make it to 100 I’ll have a piece of cake. Until then I’m gonna enjoy what’s on my plate and the rest of you can worry about living forever.
Good summary Doc. I've integrated nutrition heavily into my practice for 30 years and followed closely the work of Campbell (the china study), Buettner and Esselstyn (prevent and reverse heart disease) - and more recently Dr Greger (how not to die). Whole foods priority, limited processed foods, and all the social factors. That's the answer! Keep up the great work - I fervently enjoy your substack. imcw.com
Appreciate the explanations. Began to suspect problems when an Arizona community "earned" the Blue Zone inclusion making no sense at all. Essentially the diet fads come and go - and the basic consumption guidelines stay the same: "as close to nature as possible." (Just wish the spraying would stop.)
It’s interesting that so much is made of the Blue Zones and a purported plant based diet for health and longevity. Rarely do you read in the literature about the Swiss. The Swiss diet includes cheese as a staple, milk, yogurt, butter, pork, beef, veal, sausage, whole grain bread, pasta and potatoes . Low processed foods and sugar. Cardiovascular mortality, obesity and diabetes are a fraction of that in the USA. Use of statins in Switzerland is 1/3rd of that in the USA. The Swiss are the third longest lived in the world ( next to Japan and Singapore) with male life expectancy of 82.7 years and female of 86.2 years. No wonder Ancel Keys was careful not include Switzerland in his seven country study.
We live in an information age where unfortunately much of that information is misinformation. The only answer to this is self educating oneself to the point where one can distinguish between the two.
So many variables! My ancestors on my father's side were farmers from Platte County, Missouri, and typically lived to their 90s, and one aunt to 106. After being "enlightened" in medical school in the 1960s, evils of cholesterol, animal fat, butter, etc., I wondered how they dd it. They drank unpasteurized whole milk from their dairy cows, smoked their own Virginia hams, also sausage, bacon, and rendered the lard from their Poland-China hogs. Eggs from their chicken house, chickens, too. Vegetables and fruit from their truck garden and a few fruit trees. Any excess that could be preserved was preserved in lots of sugar and salt. Lard, lard, lard in everything. I have vivid memories from my childhood visits there: 7 acres in town where they kept their couple of cows and Poland-China hogs, and the chicken house, the garden of about an acre or so, the small patch of wild persimmon trees up the hill (Oh, NEVER bite into a green persimmon---nasty taste plus causes immediate puckering-up of your lips--wait till that persimmon is ripe!). Their "real" farm was 160 acres of corn outside of town. They ate all that "bad" grease, lard, butter, salty/sugary food, lived so long anyway. Contradicted what I was learning in med school. But they worked physically hard from sunup to sundown. They were also ornery. Seventy-plus years later I've come to the conclusion that the secret to their longevity must have been the constant physical labor and orneriness. I've inherited their orneriness, not nearly as physically active as they were. I'll be 90 in 3 months. After all these years I realize that a lot of the cholesterol hype was a clever sales pitch for margarine over butter, overpromotion of cholesterol-lowering drugs, etc. At least a couple of decades ago I came "to believe my lyin' eyes" where my experience contradicted academia or Pharm promotion narrarives. The damnable Covid fiasco only (Oh, the horror!) hardened my "lyin' eyes" stance. I appreciate all you do, was an early subscriber to your substack, don't always agree, but always enriched by your essays.
If my memory serves me correctly, the whole basis of the Mediterranean diet study was flawed because the study was done during Lent in predominantly Catholic countries.
that's funny. This is probably true. I ordered fish outside of Lent one summer with a group of Catholics in an Italian restaurant and the people I was with were shocked i was choosing fish when I didn't have to.
If they ever mention “climate change” or “plant based diets” or “sustainability”, then they are indoctrinated idiots. Disregard everything that they have to say. Hard to know if any of it is true. Certainly, most of it is false. Not knowing when you were born and guessing might be a real problem in trying to assess longevity. Just sayin’.
When I first started really paying attention to diet because of concerns over heart disease I rapidly discovered that (1) the doctors had no idea about diet, at all; (2) they kept advising a “Mediterranean diet”, but couldn’t describe it; (3) the doctors automatically used drugs, that were largely ineffective in treating heart disease; (3) vegetarians and vegans were all certain that their diet was best, but the trouble was they died younger than others, just not from heart disease; & (4) bread, pasta, sugars and seed oils are everywhere and clearly did cause diabetes and heart disease; (5) the entire Mediterranean diet thesis was based on selective editing of data and short snap shots of time with a very limited set of populations were seriously compromised by confounding influences.
Following my research I started to loosely follow a keto diet, avoiding like the plague all bread, pasta, sugar, grains and seed oils. Immediately my lipid panel improved dramatically. Statins had never had that kind of effect. Some doctors were supportive. Others kept urging me to resume a diet high in carbohydrates. I refused. I still took low dose statins, but over time they started causing pre-diabetes, so I stopped. I am constantly being pressured to get back on statins and the unidentifiable ‘Mediterranean diet’. Just not going to do that.
Hong Kong - ranks among highest in life expectancy and highest in meat consumption. Go figure! Consider that the human gut does not resemble the gut of a herbivore; more closely resembles carnivore of carrion eater guts. Also, gastric pH favours carnivore. Beware the charlatans pushing plant-based diets supported by rubbish "science" of which there is plenty.
The Mediterranean diet is a scam. According to Nina Teicholz “The Big Fat Surprise” she did a deep dive in Professor Keys behind the first report. He disregarded several thousand blood samples and based it only on blood from 78 men. From two islands Crete and Cypress, blood drawn days after Eid which matters for Cypress. But only focusing on low cholesterol … read it amazing work she did here
Spot on Doc. Blue Zone diet bullshit. The key to the "blue zones" if there is any, is that they live vigorous lives in very hilly regions and have rich social lives. Their diet is not plant based but they eat minimally processed fish and other seafood and animal protein. There are just so many bs artists around who know little to noting of nutrition and draw precisely the wrong conclusions. We need animal protein and fresh vegetables and fruit. Along with the absence of pesticides, herbicides and over processing. Most of this really isn't that difficult.
Thank you for your honest research on a new fad vegetarian pushed, save the animals diet ! There was no mention encouraging a bug eating diet. This was a refreshing analysis, truth, as community is key! My Grama lived two years short of 100. She could hardly walk, bad hips, bunions, arthritis, she lived a hard life, a migrant from Sweden. She saw four of her children, even three grandchildren, die before her. She would often say, " God has forgotten me." Living a good quality of life with joy is the real storyline, not a number. Living with faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of those is love. There is way too much focus on drugs, seeing your doctor (little d) regularly, what foods we eat, exercise, and geographic locality!
R and J Malone, your homesteading, animals, sharing of seeding, planting, and love is inspiring! Keep sharing, we feel loved by you as your share and inspire us to have lots of love in our own lives. Thanks!
There are always people who live to very ripe old ages, no matter where the live, no matter the culture, race, diet, or how hard they work. My best friend's Father is pushing 103 years old, his wife died late last year at 99. Both live in assisted living, but had only been there for a year before she died. Neither at a particularly great diet. The wife did not cook all that much and the ordered meals quite often and bought convenience foods quite a lot = think TV dinners. Both were quite healthy into their 90s. The biggest turning point was they took the Covid injections because their doctors insisted . They both became more confused and had more illnesses. As far as I can see both my friend and his wife, who never took the injections, got Covid from close association with the parents (shedding?). The wife appears to have "long covid" could no longer do arithmetic without a calculator and had chronic fatigue. My friend suddenly developed a Heart arrhythmia and had to have a valve repair. Note: both my friend and his father were veterinarians. My friend still practices at 78.
Great breakdown of what is too easily taken as Gospel. His take on writing the book was filtered thru his belief system, it seems to me. I appreciate the thoroughness of the review.
A few years back, ABC News 20/20 did a real in depth realization about Centennials' lives.
There were 47,000 aprox. in the USA still active. Reporters sent with Video and many questions
to help reveal the depth of family history on a timeline graph. Things such as DNA history among siblings, Diets, Alcohol, Drugs, Occupations, etc.
To shorten my story here is the end results tabulated how they'd been reaching 100.
The vast real reasons established via fact charts was "The ability to cope with a loss"!!
Guys like George Burns @ 101 said he still smoked cigars with his Brandy almost daily.
In summary, stress from losing those things you hold near and dear change everything.
These folks woke up every day with Optimism, Prayer, Faith, Meditation, and joy.
Seems like they were in control of what they wanted to show up daily, even at 100.
Each waking day the blessing of the well lived life on this planet. Love and understanding!
thank you for this.
Reminds me of something I saw when I was younger. It was on the news, not sure if it was local or national, but it was a story about a man that had just turned 100, and when they asked him what he thought was the secret, he said daily whiskey and 2 packs of filter-less Camel cigarettes. I kid you not. Whether he was putting one over on the news people or not, I don't know, but he was smoking a cigarette on camera.
Good point.
Helpful relaxing tips can be found in a strange places. I've been recently blown away by the work of Dr. William H. Bates. His method of having "Better Eyesight Without Glasses" (his 1940 book's title), seems very much real. Eyesight is linked to emotions! Who knew? Not me, but it makes perfect sense, all of it.
Highly recommend his book - I found it on Thriftbooks, but then realized it is sold everywhere. I've found Ytube's and other sites, using his method.
Even if I fail, and still have to wear my readers, I'm lovin the relaxing methods he teaches. I see clearer just doing his "Palming" for a few minutes.
Living to 100 is all well and good but what I don’t ever hear when it comes to living long is enjoying life. It is all like let’s eat grass and all this stuff that’s great for you and you’ll be healthy and oh you gotta beat the hell outta yourself with exercise to boot. All well and good but I’m gonna enjoy myself and when my number is up it’s up. I broke my ass for 30 years to retire early with some things breaking my way to help that along but I do what I want and enjoy myself. I eat meat and eggs and I love my meals. I love veggies and they are always with every meal. I walk almost daily with no mile marker installed when I start. I don’t drink which I think is good. I do a physical yearly and have my blood work done at least twice a year with no diabetes even close and the rest of it great for my age. No hypertension either my BP is always. 120/70. Has been since I was a kid. Can’t say I’m not carrying a few extra pounds as I am but I don’t gorge myself on food either. Life is worth living if you’re happy and to me I do what makes me happy. If I make it to 100 I’ll have a piece of cake. Until then I’m gonna enjoy what’s on my plate and the rest of you can worry about living forever.
Good summary Doc. I've integrated nutrition heavily into my practice for 30 years and followed closely the work of Campbell (the china study), Buettner and Esselstyn (prevent and reverse heart disease) - and more recently Dr Greger (how not to die). Whole foods priority, limited processed foods, and all the social factors. That's the answer! Keep up the great work - I fervently enjoy your substack. imcw.com
Appreciate the explanations. Began to suspect problems when an Arizona community "earned" the Blue Zone inclusion making no sense at all. Essentially the diet fads come and go - and the basic consumption guidelines stay the same: "as close to nature as possible." (Just wish the spraying would stop.)
It’s interesting that so much is made of the Blue Zones and a purported plant based diet for health and longevity. Rarely do you read in the literature about the Swiss. The Swiss diet includes cheese as a staple, milk, yogurt, butter, pork, beef, veal, sausage, whole grain bread, pasta and potatoes . Low processed foods and sugar. Cardiovascular mortality, obesity and diabetes are a fraction of that in the USA. Use of statins in Switzerland is 1/3rd of that in the USA. The Swiss are the third longest lived in the world ( next to Japan and Singapore) with male life expectancy of 82.7 years and female of 86.2 years. No wonder Ancel Keys was careful not include Switzerland in his seven country study.
Perhaps because it's another mountainous region where people walk a lot and get significant cardiovascular exercise?
We live in an information age where unfortunately much of that information is misinformation. The only answer to this is self educating oneself to the point where one can distinguish between the two.
Morning Mr. Nash
And to you Mr. Stoehr
So many variables! My ancestors on my father's side were farmers from Platte County, Missouri, and typically lived to their 90s, and one aunt to 106. After being "enlightened" in medical school in the 1960s, evils of cholesterol, animal fat, butter, etc., I wondered how they dd it. They drank unpasteurized whole milk from their dairy cows, smoked their own Virginia hams, also sausage, bacon, and rendered the lard from their Poland-China hogs. Eggs from their chicken house, chickens, too. Vegetables and fruit from their truck garden and a few fruit trees. Any excess that could be preserved was preserved in lots of sugar and salt. Lard, lard, lard in everything. I have vivid memories from my childhood visits there: 7 acres in town where they kept their couple of cows and Poland-China hogs, and the chicken house, the garden of about an acre or so, the small patch of wild persimmon trees up the hill (Oh, NEVER bite into a green persimmon---nasty taste plus causes immediate puckering-up of your lips--wait till that persimmon is ripe!). Their "real" farm was 160 acres of corn outside of town. They ate all that "bad" grease, lard, butter, salty/sugary food, lived so long anyway. Contradicted what I was learning in med school. But they worked physically hard from sunup to sundown. They were also ornery. Seventy-plus years later I've come to the conclusion that the secret to their longevity must have been the constant physical labor and orneriness. I've inherited their orneriness, not nearly as physically active as they were. I'll be 90 in 3 months. After all these years I realize that a lot of the cholesterol hype was a clever sales pitch for margarine over butter, overpromotion of cholesterol-lowering drugs, etc. At least a couple of decades ago I came "to believe my lyin' eyes" where my experience contradicted academia or Pharm promotion narrarives. The damnable Covid fiasco only (Oh, the horror!) hardened my "lyin' eyes" stance. I appreciate all you do, was an early subscriber to your substack, don't always agree, but always enriched by your essays.
You've explained the Blue Zone BS well, Dr. Jill, and I agree.
If my memory serves me correctly, the whole basis of the Mediterranean diet study was flawed because the study was done during Lent in predominantly Catholic countries.
that's funny. This is probably true. I ordered fish outside of Lent one summer with a group of Catholics in an Italian restaurant and the people I was with were shocked i was choosing fish when I didn't have to.
If they ever mention “climate change” or “plant based diets” or “sustainability”, then they are indoctrinated idiots. Disregard everything that they have to say. Hard to know if any of it is true. Certainly, most of it is false. Not knowing when you were born and guessing might be a real problem in trying to assess longevity. Just sayin’.
When I first started really paying attention to diet because of concerns over heart disease I rapidly discovered that (1) the doctors had no idea about diet, at all; (2) they kept advising a “Mediterranean diet”, but couldn’t describe it; (3) the doctors automatically used drugs, that were largely ineffective in treating heart disease; (3) vegetarians and vegans were all certain that their diet was best, but the trouble was they died younger than others, just not from heart disease; & (4) bread, pasta, sugars and seed oils are everywhere and clearly did cause diabetes and heart disease; (5) the entire Mediterranean diet thesis was based on selective editing of data and short snap shots of time with a very limited set of populations were seriously compromised by confounding influences.
Following my research I started to loosely follow a keto diet, avoiding like the plague all bread, pasta, sugar, grains and seed oils. Immediately my lipid panel improved dramatically. Statins had never had that kind of effect. Some doctors were supportive. Others kept urging me to resume a diet high in carbohydrates. I refused. I still took low dose statins, but over time they started causing pre-diabetes, so I stopped. I am constantly being pressured to get back on statins and the unidentifiable ‘Mediterranean diet’. Just not going to do that.
You're living proof! Great post, by the Great Santini.
Hong Kong - ranks among highest in life expectancy and highest in meat consumption. Go figure! Consider that the human gut does not resemble the gut of a herbivore; more closely resembles carnivore of carrion eater guts. Also, gastric pH favours carnivore. Beware the charlatans pushing plant-based diets supported by rubbish "science" of which there is plenty.
The Mediterranean diet is a scam. According to Nina Teicholz “The Big Fat Surprise” she did a deep dive in Professor Keys behind the first report. He disregarded several thousand blood samples and based it only on blood from 78 men. From two islands Crete and Cypress, blood drawn days after Eid which matters for Cypress. But only focusing on low cholesterol … read it amazing work she did here
Spot on Doc. Blue Zone diet bullshit. The key to the "blue zones" if there is any, is that they live vigorous lives in very hilly regions and have rich social lives. Their diet is not plant based but they eat minimally processed fish and other seafood and animal protein. There are just so many bs artists around who know little to noting of nutrition and draw precisely the wrong conclusions. We need animal protein and fresh vegetables and fruit. Along with the absence of pesticides, herbicides and over processing. Most of this really isn't that difficult.
Thank you for your honest research on a new fad vegetarian pushed, save the animals diet ! There was no mention encouraging a bug eating diet. This was a refreshing analysis, truth, as community is key! My Grama lived two years short of 100. She could hardly walk, bad hips, bunions, arthritis, she lived a hard life, a migrant from Sweden. She saw four of her children, even three grandchildren, die before her. She would often say, " God has forgotten me." Living a good quality of life with joy is the real storyline, not a number. Living with faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of those is love. There is way too much focus on drugs, seeing your doctor (little d) regularly, what foods we eat, exercise, and geographic locality!
R and J Malone, your homesteading, animals, sharing of seeding, planting, and love is inspiring! Keep sharing, we feel loved by you as your share and inspire us to have lots of love in our own lives. Thanks!
There are always people who live to very ripe old ages, no matter where the live, no matter the culture, race, diet, or how hard they work. My best friend's Father is pushing 103 years old, his wife died late last year at 99. Both live in assisted living, but had only been there for a year before she died. Neither at a particularly great diet. The wife did not cook all that much and the ordered meals quite often and bought convenience foods quite a lot = think TV dinners. Both were quite healthy into their 90s. The biggest turning point was they took the Covid injections because their doctors insisted . They both became more confused and had more illnesses. As far as I can see both my friend and his wife, who never took the injections, got Covid from close association with the parents (shedding?). The wife appears to have "long covid" could no longer do arithmetic without a calculator and had chronic fatigue. My friend suddenly developed a Heart arrhythmia and had to have a valve repair. Note: both my friend and his father were veterinarians. My friend still practices at 78.
There has to be repercussions for the wanton damage inflicted by those disgusting jabs. Heads need to roll.
Great breakdown of what is too easily taken as Gospel. His take on writing the book was filtered thru his belief system, it seems to me. I appreciate the thoroughness of the review.