MUSING
Personal choices & longevity
Our normal biological age can most definitely be impeded by such things as excessive stress, drug abuse, lack of exercise, wrong diet, too much liquor etc. One must try to live a full life – mentally, physically, socially and emotionally. Our aim should be to stay biologically and functionally young. Obviously, the genes we inherit play a part in our efforts to attain a long life and we cannot choose them. But we can choose the kind of lifestyle we lead, and a good time to make that choice is now.
There is no one way to promote longevity, no chemical agent has been demonstrated to effect it, nor will longer life be achieved by becoming fanatical about just one or two aspects of your lifestyle – like, exercise or nutrition or whatever. Longevity is attained best by making a number of personal choices about how to live and some of these choices, such as how you decide to handle stress and gain more meaning in life, will be of greater importance than others.
Right exercise that is right for you can add years to your life. Each person knows the type of exercise that is most enjoyable for him or her. My personal choice is walking, right from Nariman Point to the Fly-over and back, early every morning. At a fairly brisk pace, it takes me an hour or so and I know it is best for me. Similarly, some people go religiously to the Gym or to Yoga classes. All persons have to decide for themselves. There are persons who go to work early each morning and return late in the evenings and hence the scope of finding time for long walks or Gym is not there. But even such people can do free-hand exercise at their home each day to remain fit and add years to their life.
In communities where people tend to live long, a common factor is they don’t have large meals. One has to eat only what is necessary to retain your bodily shape and energy levels – habitually eating big meals with rich diet is positively harmful. Dietary restriction should take place gradually – not sudden or drastic or else it will harm the body. Also, things best avoided are fats, sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol and deep-fried food.
The emphasis should be on raw foods, fruits, vegetables and grains. Processed foods are also to be avoided as far as possible – processing is inclined to strip away important content like fibre which is necessary for the body. Fat, especially animal fat is most damaging of all foods. Cholesterol is obtained only from products derived from animals – such as meat, prawns, oysters, organ meat and from dairy products such as cheese and eggs. Chicken with the skin removed or any lean meat cooked without fat is occasionally fine.
Much has been written and discussed about what constitutes the best diet for those aspiring a long life but not all agree on the details, but the following guidelines can be useful. Mealtimes should be happy and relaxed. Take your time and have only pleasant conversations at the table, leaving contentious things to be discussed at another time. A tense meal can be a poor meal; a meal that has too much excitement and activity can also be a poor meal, irrespective of the food that is served.
One of the worse things that anyone can do is to indulge in the “yo-yo method of girth control”. This involves losing weight, then gaining it again and continuing this loosing-gaining cycle for a number of times. Research shows that each time this cycle is repeated, it takes more and more time, either to loose or gain weight and each time we have to push harder and harder to achieve the desired results, leading to more and more stress.
Also for optimum health and longevity, we should opt for quitter environments. This will certainly help in keeping the tensions down. For most of us, noise – that is the unwanted sound, can be a source of much tension. We should try to keep the unwanted sound out of our lives – keep the TV and radio sound down, whereas external sound can be kept at bay by some sort of sound-proofing the house. It’s important not just to accept unwanted sound, because it could be affecting your mental and physical health adversely.
The last but not the least condition required for increasing our longevity is relaxation. Now each person has his own favourite way to relax. Some may get relaxed with their book, some by music, some may prefer long, quiet walks. Yoga is also good if you can strike the correct poses. There are times when it becomes necessary to cut off all incoming phone-calls. Your mind and body have to relax from time to time. This will definitely lead to better health, less tension and overall improvement in the quality of life.
Correct and healthy nutrition in right quantities, keeping body healthy by exercise or walks, keeping unwanted noise at bay and always striving for inner peace are some of the things that definitely have a bearing on our lives and helps us to stay stress free and healthy for a longer period of time in this world.
Our normal biological age can most definitely be impeded by such things as excessive stress, drug abuse, lack of exercise, wrong diet, too much liquor etc. One must try to live a full life – mentally, physically, socially and emotionally. Our aim should be to stay biologically and functionally young. Obviously, the genes we inherit play a part in our efforts to attain a long life and we cannot choose them. But we can choose the kind of lifestyle we lead, and a good time to make that choice is now.
There is no one way to promote longevity, no chemical agent has been demonstrated to effect it, nor will longer life be achieved by becoming fanatical about just one or two aspects of your lifestyle – like, exercise or nutrition or whatever. Longevity is attained best by making a number of personal choices about how to live and some of these choices, such as how you decide to handle stress and gain more meaning in life, will be of greater importance than others.
Right exercise that is right for you can add years to your life. Each person knows the type of exercise that is most enjoyable for him or her. My personal choice is walking, right from Nariman Point to the Fly-over and back, early every morning. At a fairly brisk pace, it takes me an hour or so and I know it is best for me. Similarly, some people go religiously to the Gym or to Yoga classes. All persons have to decide for themselves. There are persons who go to work early each morning and return late in the evenings and hence the scope of finding time for long walks or Gym is not there. But even such people can do free-hand exercise at their home each day to remain fit and add years to their life.
In communities where people tend to live long, a common factor is they don’t have large meals. One has to eat only what is necessary to retain your bodily shape and energy levels – habitually eating big meals with rich diet is positively harmful. Dietary restriction should take place gradually – not sudden or drastic or else it will harm the body. Also, things best avoided are fats, sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol and deep-fried food.
The emphasis should be on raw foods, fruits, vegetables and grains. Processed foods are also to be avoided as far as possible – processing is inclined to strip away important content like fibre which is necessary for the body. Fat, especially animal fat is most damaging of all foods. Cholesterol is obtained only from products derived from animals – such as meat, prawns, oysters, organ meat and from dairy products such as cheese and eggs. Chicken with the skin removed or any lean meat cooked without fat is occasionally fine.
Much has been written and discussed about what constitutes the best diet for those aspiring a long life but not all agree on the details, but the following guidelines can be useful. Mealtimes should be happy and relaxed. Take your time and have only pleasant conversations at the table, leaving contentious things to be discussed at another time. A tense meal can be a poor meal; a meal that has too much excitement and activity can also be a poor meal, irrespective of the food that is served.
One of the worse things that anyone can do is to indulge in the “yo-yo method of girth control”. This involves losing weight, then gaining it again and continuing this loosing-gaining cycle for a number of times. Research shows that each time this cycle is repeated, it takes more and more time, either to loose or gain weight and each time we have to push harder and harder to achieve the desired results, leading to more and more stress.
Also for optimum health and longevity, we should opt for quitter environments. This will certainly help in keeping the tensions down. For most of us, noise – that is the unwanted sound, can be a source of much tension. We should try to keep the unwanted sound out of our lives – keep the TV and radio sound down, whereas external sound can be kept at bay by some sort of sound-proofing the house. It’s important not just to accept unwanted sound, because it could be affecting your mental and physical health adversely.
The last but not the least condition required for increasing our longevity is relaxation. Now each person has his own favourite way to relax. Some may get relaxed with their book, some by music, some may prefer long, quiet walks. Yoga is also good if you can strike the correct poses. There are times when it becomes necessary to cut off all incoming phone-calls. Your mind and body have to relax from time to time. This will definitely lead to better health, less tension and overall improvement in the quality of life.
Correct and healthy nutrition in right quantities, keeping body healthy by exercise or walks, keeping unwanted noise at bay and always striving for inner peace are some of the things that definitely have a bearing on our lives and helps us to stay stress free and healthy for a longer period of time in this world.
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