Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

What are the anti aging foods?

Dr Md Abedur Rahman


Some of the features that characterise aging are formation of wrinkles, low energy levels, memory loss, health problems like osteoporosis, weak muscles and bones etc. It is not your age that decides your youthfulness, but it is your inner feelings that make you feel you are old.
Staying young and keeping fit are absolutely in your hands. It is not just anti aging creams that can help, but there are also other factors like nutrition and exercise, that keep you young.
Anti aging is possible. The body is designed to heal and repair itself with the aid of proper nutrition. The body requires two vital materials to complete this — energy and raw material. These two requirements are needed to maintain the cell's proper functions.
Each cell needs the proper food to keep it strong. Cells die and replace themselves at various intervals. To understand antin-aging, understand that when a cell replaces itself it has three options that it can replace itself with:
1. A cell may replace itself with a weaker cell each time. A cell will do this if it has not had the right nutritional foods available to it. This process is called degeneration.
2. A cell can replace itself with the same strength cell. This means the body does not improve. That is, you have a chronic condition.
3. The cell is capable of replacing itself with a stronger and better cell. This will happen only if the cell has an abundance of energy and the right raw materials. This process is called regeneration. It is anti-aging.
There are certain foods that have special properties, unique components that make them literally antiaging food. As scientific research reveals more and more about how the human body works, what foods promote a healthy body, and what foods cause physical stress, it is becoming evident that many of the life threatening diseases experienced by aging people are the result of an unhealthy lifestyle and a poor diet.
Viewed from this perspective, any food that forms part of a healthy diet might be considered anti aging foods, but it is also true that some foods in particular seem to have unusual properties.
Foods which can help regeneration and anti-aging include
* RAW nuts, seeds, soaked and sprouted grains
* Almonds, especially if they have been soaked in water for 24 hours ('sprouted')
* Allium Family: garlic, onion, leeks, scallions, chives, and shallots.
* Green leafy vegetables
* Beans and Lentils: black, kidney, navy, pinto, chickpeas, soybeans, peas, and lentils.
* Nuts: walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds.
* Hot Peppers: bell and chili peppers
* Brown rice that has been soaked for 22 hours. This makes it alkaline
* Organic Cottage cheese and yogurt. They are alkalline. The bacteria has changed the original milk.
* Spirulina
* Barley greens
* Aloe vera
* Antioxidants (eg vitamin C, vitamin E)
* Olive oil
* Gentle sunlight (vitamin D) In addition, frequent drinks of good water is crucial.
Many people's health problems and anti-aging would improve if they would just drink more good water!
The writer is a teacher in Dhaka Medical College; Tel: 8801819050041; E-mail: abeddmc@yahoo.com

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Meditation as anti-aging medicine

Oxidative stress is considered a primary agent of aging in many leading theories of aging, and is conceptualised as a product of oxygen radical formation during normal metabolic functioning and/or resulting from deficiencies in protective endogenous antioxidant, free radical scavenging capacities.

Several studies on meditation have demonstrated reduced indices of oxidative stress during meditation and such reduced levels of oxidative stress have been hypothesised to reflect a slower rate of aging. According to some scientists, meditation is the best anti-aging medicine.

In particular, the idea that normal metabolic functioning, which causes oxidative radical byproducts, in turn causes aging over time (i.e. the "rate of living" theory of aging), is currently a subject of broad and intense debate, with proponents and critics offering many explanations to resolve apparent inconsistencies and contradictions in the data.

If, as some contend, reduced metabolic rate leads to the (relative) retardation of aging, then the practice of the classic meditative regimen may indeed be associated with significant retardation of aging and/or extension of life span and health span on the basis of much data on the metabolism-lowering effects of meditation.

Of particular interest in this regard are studies by researchers from Stanford, Harvard, Rockefeller University, and other research institutions on the special ability of some long-term, virtuoso yoga practitioners to induce and maintain profoundly lowered metabolic rates during meditation, with reductions ranging from 38–64 percent below resting levels!

Such lowered metabolism is actually within the range of hibernating animals, and hibernation has been associated with extended longevity in some studies because of lowered metabolism, according to some investigators.

Research now shows that meditation also increases levels of melatonin. Melatonin has several anti aging effects, and studies done on the compound suggest that it helps protect against age-related degenerative diseases. The scientific connection between melatonin and meditation was first explored in 1995 by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center's Stress Reduction and Relaxation Programme.

A recent study published in the journal Biological Psychology confirmed this finding. A 1995 study conducted on rats however, suggests that consistent small doses of Melatonin may prevent the normal age-related decline in male testosterone levels, possibly increasing sexual activity levels in later years. The researchers found that meditation before bedtime increased melatonin levels for that night. No increases in blood melatonin levels were noted on nights where participants did not meditate. This suggests that regular practice of meditation is necessary.

One of the most popular results of meditation is that it can clean and transform your skin seemingly overnight. It is the "premier drug" for maintaining youthfulness and fighting aging.