One piece of equipment.

“IF THERE WAS ONE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT, I’D SAY EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A FOAM ROLL.”

The core, (center of gravity) is where all body movement originates. This cylindrical group of muscles^** should be on at low levels all the time in preparation for action and motion from simply picking up a pencil to swinging a golf club.

Using a foam roll to stabilize your core will improve your posture and protect you from low back pain and sports injuries.  Come back next week for a foam roll video that life long will maximize your quality of life, especially if you spend time in front of a computer screen.

As for 120 and Beyond,
it's my way of shattering the old paradigm pairing infirmity and aging.
Instead, let's take care of our bodies for a high quality of life for the remainder of our days. Carpe diem, Seize the day, every day.

If you've been sitting at your computer for a while,
notice the tilt of your head, the position of your back.
Remember our mother's admonition?
"Sit up straight."
If you sit up straight, notice the delta, between where you were and sitting up straight. Over a lifetime, that small difference in posture leads to that all too common back pain as we get older.

Laying with your spine on a foam roll 5 minutes a day, allows gravity to return our upper back to a more optimal posture, countering the way we round our backs as we work or sit.
We should hold our bodies as do
the Maasai, standing, sitting tall.

Little things, optimal life.

** Core muscles: transversus abdomnis, multifidus, diaphragm, and pelvic floor. 

New developments...

in medicine, exercise physiology, brain science, and physical therapy are rapidly transforming our view of how the human body can me maintained at optimal levels.  One quick example: at this very moment, you're reading, learning, you're in the process of growing brand new dendrites, the nerve branches that connect brain cells as new learning takes place. Follow this blog and you'll learn how to grow new dendrites to replace brain cells die during the natural aging process.  Prior to these developments, people aged without accelerated dendritic growth. As years passed, evidence of diminished mental capacity became visible.  No more. With mentally challenging activities like playing instruments, learning new languages, new dendrite growth is stimulated at rates that can maintain high level functioning far beyond 100.


BRAIN MAY AGE FASTER IN PEOPLE WHOSE HEARTS PUMP LESS BLOOD. American Heart Association Rapid Access Journal Report
Click on Study Highlights below to read entire article.


Study highlights:
Keeping your heart healthy may slow down brain aging.
Cardiac index, a measure of heart health, is linked to diminishing brain volume, a sign of brain aging.
Brains may age faster in people whose hearts pump less blood.

IN ANOTHER STUDY:
Researchers say that that aerobic and resistance training exercise is a promising strategy for combating cognitive decline and that this been shown to enhance mental performance in people as they age. 


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/behindtheheadlines/news/2012-04-24-can-exercise-stop-mental-decline/


IN CONCLUSION: In order to optimize life, it's increasingly important to include exercise 3-5 times a week, for a better experience in your coming years....

Old School.

Think of the oldest person you've ever seen. Zoom in on that image. Now dissolve that old school image because a very high quality of life is now available to you, one that will allow you to hike, dance the tango, ski or engage in other physical activities on your 120th birthday and beyond while enjoying a high quality of life along the way.


The speaker, Aubrey de Grey is Chief Science Officer of the SENS Foundation (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence). SENS is one of the many sources you'll be hearing from in the years to come.

Here is a prime example of Grey's point of view.
Kevin Stone treats joint injury using the new developments in bio-medicine: reconstructing damaged tissue or replacing whole joint parts, with lab-grown ligaments and cartilage, hereby ushering in the transition from hardware prosthetics like an artificial knee to FDA approved bio replacement using your own stem cells. These developments will prevent arthritis from immobilizing millions of active people.




As you follow this blog, you'll pick up clues that will position you for a lifetime where every day is better than the last. In the clip below, Daniel Kraft, pediatric cancer doctor, introduces the idea of banking your younger, healthier stems cells for use in the future.

This week's puzzler. What's this got to do with 120 and Beyond?

My exercise and spin instructors and physical therapist are teaching me how to enhance my physiology for 120 and beyond.  Long known is the value of cardio exercise, but another important key is using our medical history as a navigator telling us where to go next to insure a continual high quality life style.  Each time a visit my doctors, I learn from them what I need to do for 120 and Beyond. Since each day is better than the last, I want to see how far this can go!

For a clue, see 1st ELEMENT.

RELATED RESEARCH:

Information is credible if published through the NIH. When it comes to health and medicine, the NIH, National Institutes of Health, is a most reliable source of information.
Like this abstract on prospects for brain rebuilding using integrated management.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16366737

In the future look for more in the area of:
"oxygen free radical species that may place the ultimate limit on lifespan."

Altern Med Rev. 2005 Dec;10(4):268-93.
Neurodegeneration from mitochondrial insufficiency: nutrients, stem cells, growth factors, and prospects for brain rebuilding using integrative management.

Kidd PM.

University of California, Berkeley, USA. dockidd@dockidd.com
Abstract

Degenerative brain disorders (neurodegeneration) can be frustrating for both conventional and alternative practitioners. A more comprehensive, integrative approach is urgently needed. One emerging focus for intervention is brain energetics. Specifically, mitochondrial insufficiency contributes to the etiopathology of many such disorders. Electron leakages inherent to mitochondrial energetics generate reactive oxygen free radical species that may place the ultimate limit on lifespan. Exogenous toxins, such as mercury and other environmental contaminants, exacerbate mitochondrial electron leakage, hastening their demise and that of their host cells. Studies of the brain in Alzheimer's and other dementias, Down syndrome, stroke, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Friedreich's ataxia, aging, and constitutive disorders demonstrate impairments of the mitochondrial citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) enzymes. Imaging or metabolic assays frequently reveal energetic insufficiency and depleted energy reserve in brain tissue in situ. Orthomolecular nutrients involved in mitochondrial metabolism provide clinical benefit. Among these are the essential minerals and the B vitamin group; vitamins E and K; and the antioxidant and energetic cofactors alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), ubiquinone (coenzyme Q10; CoQ10), and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, reduced (NADH). Recent advances in the area of stem cells and growth factors encourage optimism regarding brain regeneration. The trophic nutrients acetyl L-carnitine (ALCAR), glycerophosphocholine (GPC), and phosphatidylserine (PS) provide mitochondrial support and conserve growth factor receptors; all three improved cognition in double-blind trials. The omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is enzymatically combined with GPC and PS to form membrane phospholipids for nerve cell expansion. Practical recommendations are presented for integrating these safe and well-tolerated orthomolecular nutrients into a comprehensive dietary supplementation program for brain vitality and productive lifespan.

PMID: 16366737 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]Free Article

In another study:
"The researchers say that exercise is a promising strategy for combating cognitive decline and that aerobic and resistance training have been shown to enhance mental performance both in healthy people as they age."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/behindtheheadlines/news/2012-04-24-can-exercise-stop-mental-decline/

Masterful yet most strenuous Spin Class in my life!

On my longer health span journey I ran into George who said: 

"Thursday's spin class is extremely demanding". 

But I went anyway to see what exactly he meant.

I learned that George was not prone to exaggerate for he’d taken me to Ikumi’s Spin Class!

Never have I pushed the edge as did I today. 

Fifty minutes in, when I was about to throw in the towel...

Ikumi said: 

"You're changing your lungs, you're changing your heart,

YOU ARE CHANGING YOUR LIFE!"

The music pealed loud off the walls, but in a soft voice did I hear her say: 

"Thank you heart, 

thank you muscles,

THANK YOU BODY!"

  On did I spin, to the staggering end.

Now I'm more convinced that...

"The mindfulness we create today,

is the path to optimal living at 120 years and beyond,

which is of course

the mantra of this website.

You too are invited to all the festivities 

when we celebrate my 120th birthday!

Have you thanked your body today?