Longevity - 010

SPEAKER A The following program presents principles designed to promote good health and is not intended to take the place of personalized professional care. The opinions and ideas expressed are those of the speakers. Viewers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions about the information presented. SPEAKER B Welcome to healthy living. I'm your host, Margot Marshall. Life is very precious, and when someone lives to be a hundred, the question people will always ask is, what's your secret? Well, today we'll be sharing proven and vital secrets of living a longer, healthier life. Come and join us. SPEAKER C Healthy Living is a 13 part production of three ABN Australia television. Focusing on the health of the whole person body, mind and spirit. You'll learn natural lifestyle principles with practical health solutions for overall good health. SPEAKER B With me in the studio today is Jenifer Skues, a health psychologist, and Dr. John Clark. Welcome Jenifer. And welcome, John. SPEAKER D Thank you. SPEAKER B Nice to have you with us again. And John, you've got a bunch of stories for us today and we're talking about longevity, living longer. And so that's something I think we're all a little bit interested in, especially as the years go by. So let's hear your first story. SPEAKER D You know, people who Live longer have become known as living in the blue zone, a popular thing. I think National Geographic sort of started that off. And a lot of information has come out of what's called the Avenus Health Study. SPEAKER B Okay? SPEAKER D And the Avenus Health Study was done back in the least, the initial one. And so they became known as people who lived Longer. Well, the National Geographic, in looking for people lived longer. Tapped into that study for the Southern California Adventists. But they also found the Sardinians over in Italy and the Okinawans over in Japan, all with lots of centurions people who lived to 100 in their people group. Well, one of the things they noted when they went and viewed these people in person was they thought that they were going to lose their longevity edge because their great grandchildren were eating more food from crinkly bags, more refined foods, more foods that wouldn't have as good a nutrition. And this sort of brings me to an experience I had when I decided to go off to college. My goal was to work my way through college without debt. I called up the college and said, is there anywhere I can live that will be less expensive? They directed me to a lady who had kept students in her home for the last number of years and she was nearly 100 years old. SPEAKER A Good honor. SPEAKER B Taking in borders. SPEAKER D Taking in borders. And so I told her my story and she said said, well, come on out. I was in Oklahoma. I was going up to Massachusetts to go to school. She said, come on out. I've never done this before, but you're so far away, I can't interview you before you get here. And you have to have a place to land. So I went out there, and this lady was, as we say, sharp as attack. SPEAKER B Okay. SPEAKER D She was mentally there, and we had quite a conversation. And come to find out, she had taught my grandmother English in college. SPEAKER B Here she is feeding you and looking after you. That's incredible. SPEAKER D And she was in charge of the alumni at the college for alumni that had graduated between 50 and 60 years previously. Graduated? Well, she was active, very active. Well, what was interesting about her is she ate a very simple diet. I mean, oftentimes she'd have something like black eyed peas, cooked carrots and peas and beans or some kind of little salad or something. She ate very little, and she ate very simply, and she ate good food. SPEAKER A Okay. SPEAKER D Well, then the cafeteria decided to do her a great favor. Let's savor the trouble of preparing her own foods. Let's send her over a tray of food every day. SPEAKER A How old was she when they did that? SPEAKER D About 99. SPEAKER A Oh, wow. SPEAKER D 99 years old. And so every day, somebody from the cafeteria would come over, knock on the door, and sometimes I would open the door. They would bring in this tray of food, lots of refined foods, always a dessert, sometimes a juice, which is a refined food, and she would eat it within a year. She didn't know who she was. Her brain was gone. She couldn't take care of herself. They had to have somebody come in and take care of her. That was paid by the university. And within three years, at 103, she died. SPEAKER A That was massive deterioration rapidly with a danger change of diet. Yeah, that's right. SPEAKER B That's very sad, really, isn't it? SPEAKER A It is. SPEAKER B To think that happened. Tell us another story. You've got a bunch there, and I'd. SPEAKER A Want she had the longevity, and her diet was a principal factor. Yes, sadly, yes. She changed a diet. Didn't realize the change of diet was. SPEAKER B Going to impact her simple, whole plant foods. And the big too much either. That small amount, important thing, not overeating. SPEAKER D And the big things here that would happen in changing to a diet from the canteen is more of these prepared foods would have ingredients that would affect the brain. SPEAKER A Yes. Sugars, fats, refined foods, things that clog. They make the brain very cloudy. And mixtures combinations. I know do that. Like, you put milk and eggs and sugar together, and it just really affects the brain. SPEAKER D And your certain seasonings, like, natural flavors, excitotoxins stuff that makes the brain so it doesn't function properly. SPEAKER A Right. SPEAKER B Very sad. And so that usually happens to a lot of people a lot sooner than 100 if even if they make it to 100. SPEAKER A Most people start with that and then get better because they go the other way if they change. SPEAKER D Yeah, and let's talk about one that went the other way. We happen to be staying with a gentleman now, and his wife, who, when he was in his 70s wasn't that healthy, got readmitted to a hospital after an infection and the family didn't think he was going to make it. He then actually he was single at the time. His wife passed away and he married into a family of people who took health seriously and they started putting him on a much better lifestyle. And today he's 97, will be 98 very soon. He drives his own tractor, he splits his own wood. He's as sharp as attack. You ask him about the history, I mean, any history, history of England, he'll tell you which king came before which king, what happened in the Reformation during that time, just as sharp as we. SPEAKER A Actually the brain can grow cells. Diet is important, but what we do in our attitude, it's called neuroplasticity. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER A And neuroplasticity is like the actual neurons and cells, particularly in the brain, are like plasticine and they can be molded and grow. There's two main areas in the brain where they store memory, the emotional memory and visual memory, but it's always stored in the five senses. So that means things are activated by the five senses. But they find that the particular area of the brain where like those visual memories are about history or what we do, it's called the hippocampus. It actually enlarges as you grow it. And things like exercise, attitude, certainly I believe good food and that will do it, will enlarge that part of the brain and that's what he was doing. And I certainly believe diet can actually impact the brain on that level. So yet we all need to grow our brain because we will reach and that's part of the longevity factor, is growing the brain and having lots of memory cells. So even if we get impacted, we've still got a lot to use. SPEAKER B What I find interesting here is that this man not only was looking like he wasn't going to make it, as you say, he was close to death, but he was at an age when most people, if they haven't already died in their 70s, they're going to expect it. You expect that that's not an uncommon thing. But here was someone who not only turned their health around, as we've heard your stories in other programs, they've been able to turn their health around, but he was someone who was close to the age when you might expect that, well, it's time to go anyway. He went from his seventy s and now in his late ninety s and doing well, splitting his own wood and driving a tractor and whatever. And so to me that makes it all remarkable, all the more remarkable because it shows that health can be turned around and it can do it at any age. Am I allowed to tell a little story? SPEAKER D Oh, sure. SPEAKER B Because I had a lady come to one of our intensive health programs one time and she was 87 at the time, she had a really bad heart condition with angina. She couldn't make it to the letterbox without stopping. A couple of times when she went to the shopping center, she had to be taken in a wheelchair because she just couldn't walk around and she had the pain there and so on, and she had a few other things going on. And within that one we took over five weeks, and by then she was walking for 40 minutes a day, and she was able to do her own gardening again. She had had a carer. She couldn't do anything. She couldn't clean out a cupboard, she couldn't look after the place, she couldn't do the garden, and she loved the garden, and she had to have a carer to look after her. And not straight away. I just can't remember actually, how much later this was, but subsequent to doing that course, she was actually a carer for a very sick cancer patient in her home. So coming from being cared for, she became a carer. And we got a letter from her the other day, and I'm just trying to figure it out. I think she must be in her mid ninety s now. So just absolutely amazing. Interesting thing about that lady is she was already a vegetarian, but she was what they call a lacto OVO vegetarian that's using milk, dairy products, eggs and things like that, ice cream and whatever. And so she just eliminated all of those animal products, drank the water and did the exercise. And even at 87, even at 87, she was able to turn her health around. She had no angina, pain and so on, and she was just beautiful person, absolutely beautiful. So it is amazing, and I just would encourage anyone tuning in, whatever age you are, and however sick you might be, you can turn that around. And I hope that you will. I hope you'll be encouraged to do that. SPEAKER A We must never think it's too late. We're too old. I forget that I'm too old. I'm too set in my ways, and that's not true. You can change anything you want to. Just need to know what it is and how to change. And that's the sort of thing John and I do. We help people look at that. SPEAKER B That's right. And I think that's fantastic. And I think it's lovely, too, Jenny, the way that you let people know move forward at their own pace. Yes, because that's important. SPEAKER A Everyone's an individual, and they're individual personalities, and we're all unique, fortunately. And that means you need to learn and read the person and help them use their uniqueness to make these steps in the right direction. Yes, but I mean, these two people we're talking about are likely to reach the 100 mark, and I've often read stories about people who reach that 100 mark or above, and usually they have a very bright mind because they have kept their mind focused, bright and stress is a huge factor. So they don't carry the stress factor. They tend to have a good attitude or belief system that helps them deal with stress or deal with things that are happening and they just have a good attitude sort of positive, which makes a huge difference. SPEAKER B Yes, and that lady was able to draw on her spiritual resources, which is huge. And she had a lot of daughter was very supportive and so that's all important. The social, the mental, physical, spiritual, social, they all play a role in making us well. Or if they're neglected or if they're not going well, they can undermine. Like you're talking about stress, Jenny, that's the mind. What's going on here that's affecting what's going on in the body? And you said it goes both ways. SPEAKER A Well, the moment we get stressed, we lose our focus in the present. And what happens when we focus on the past and go over and over the past? It feeds depression. And when we focus on the future and we start fearing, it feeds anxiety. So all the disorders I see are focused either past or future and they're depression, anxiety and they'll switch. Instead of being in the present, they'll go back to the past and they'll fear the future again, this happened then, therefore they worry about that. I call it the worry wart syndrome. We can all do that. But I find a lot of what I do is get people to help them focus in the present and instead of worrying about the future, solve the problem. Now if that happens, let's work on it now. So they're simple things, but they're very powerful in getting the brain to be here. And these people with longevity are like that. They're very focused in the present and they really work in the present and enjoy the moment. And that's why like the spiritual focus and the social supports and a good attitude, it all combines to keep them here. SPEAKER B Very powerful. I remember speaking to you a week or two ago and saying something about you're getting excited about doing this program. You said, oh no, I live in the present, I practice what I preach. SPEAKER A Okay, I'll wait till I get there. SPEAKER B Then I might stream that's right, you're so what's the point? SPEAKER A Something I've learned because I used to be very anxious, I had a very anxious mother because we can learn those habits and so I've had to work on this. Hence what I've learned, I can now teach others. SPEAKER B Yes. So did that take you very long to actually be able to do that? SPEAKER A It took a long time because I didn't know the skills, because I'm going back like through the there wasn't a lot around. You didn't go and see a professional person or a psychologist. You just bumbled your way through life, literally. And it wasn't until I started to study more and I found some books to read and that's when I went into psychology and that I learned a lot there. And that was where I was able to help myself because I started to understand how my brain works and why I'm stressed and why I'm anxious. So it's really reprogramming, rewiring the brain. SPEAKER B And we just have to make a start. SPEAKER A Yes. And you have to keep doing it. So I help the person to keep doing it, not get them to give up. Or if they have a bit of a relapse or what I call a lapse, then encourage them. So it doesn't matter. You're doing really well. Let's get back on the horse, basically and ride again. Because as soon as they do that, they strengthen that new pathway in the brain. So it's getting them to never give up and not be discouraged if they make a mistake. SPEAKER B And look, we all do. We all do. It just happens. And one of the things I say to myself, and I would actually say it to the people tuning in, this is what I say to myself, today is the first day of the rest of my life. SPEAKER A That's right. SPEAKER B So whatever, I haven't got things right today in one way or another. I just think, well, that's past can't change it. SPEAKER A Some we can't move on, some we. SPEAKER B Can pick it up, pick up the threads where we are and just move forward. SPEAKER A But this is where when you keep your brain well tuned, you're going to and have a good attitude, you're likely to follow a better diet. You're looking after your body more and it reduces the stress factor. Stress is about the past and the future, not just about the present. SPEAKER B Okay? Yeah. So you said one was about the past, one's about the future. If you look on the past, you're looking at get depressed, depressed. And if you look at the future. SPEAKER A You get anxious and you worry about it. But also the brain function changes. The left brain is too active when we get depressed and the right brain is too active when we get anxious. And the right brain is the connection to the emotional brain, which is the fear and the anxiety. So when we get hyper vigilant, we've got an imbalance and that's that anxiety. And when we get depressed, we have another imbalance because of the left brain's being compromised. SPEAKER B Do you know, I read a study where prayer actually helps to coordinate yes. SPEAKER A The two that's because you're focused in the present. So whatever we do in a positive way, focused in the present, balances brain function. That means the whole brain is now in balance. And that means we'll digest our food, we'll make better choices, better decisions. You see how and we're more alert in the present, therefore we're going to pick up on things. SPEAKER B Thank you for that. I think it's time for another story. SPEAKER D Yeah. Discussion here reminds me the gentleman I told you about just before we got into this discussion that in his 70s, he was about to die. He had this time when his social group that he was a part of sort of rejected he and his wife. SPEAKER A Oh, wow. Traumatic. SPEAKER D His wife took it very, very hard, and she actually died. But he said when he reflected on it, well, I sort of liked the fight, and I sort of enjoyed it. SPEAKER B Same situation, but different reactions to exactly the same thing. Isn't that interesting? SPEAKER D And so, for people who have a superior longevity, one of the hallmarks is a lot of good social connection. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER A And a good attitude, being more robust. So if someone isn't right socially or doesn't like you, you don't go down with it. You can bounce off of it or sort it. SPEAKER D Maybe you don't personalize it. SPEAKER A Yes. You don't or catastrophize it or make it the focus of everything. SPEAKER D Yes. When I was in grade school, I was interested to find in the local newspaper a story about a lady they had found that claimed to be 135 years old. Wow. SPEAKER A That's old. SPEAKER D And the newspaper reporters went to her with the question, why you think you've lived so long? Her answer was this I chew my food until I can swish it through my teeth. SPEAKER B Come on. You know what? That's something kids do. But I cannot picture I cannot picture someone who's over 100 doing what I've seen kids do. SPEAKER A Well, maybe you could practice it. You'll get to 130. SPEAKER B Well, no, I'm sorry, Jenny. I'll try. The other things I'm fine with, but I just don't feel like doing that. But you know something? Now I think about it, I think she must have actually still had her own natural teeth, because I don't think you can do that with dentures. SPEAKER A She wasn't healthy. SPEAKER B I think we could probably say that's likely to be the case. But this chewing of the food, do you think that could have played a role? I mean, that was her belief. Is there any support for that belief that she had? SPEAKER D There certainly is. There's been studies done on chewing your food. Well, they often compare 15 chews to 40 chews. SPEAKER A Okay. SPEAKER D And when they compare the difference, those who chew their food 40 times, eat less food, have better satisfaction with their food, end up with better hormonal results with their digestive system. The hormones are better, and so it actually makes for a much healthier person. SPEAKER B Wow. SPEAKER D And you're actually getting your nutrition. I mean, we fed our dog a bunch of raw peanuts one time, and then we went around the yard and picked up the stools that had raw peanuts in it. SPEAKER A It wasn't chewing them, just gulped them down. SPEAKER D Yeah. You think he got any nutrition out of those peanuts? SPEAKER A Well, guess what? When you stress, you gulp your food, and you don't chew it. You see? SPEAKER B Yeah. SPEAKER A So one of the things for destressing is to chew your food taste the food, smell the food, activate the senses. SPEAKER D A recent study I read showed that if you chewed food or got food that required chewing, it actually had some substance to it, that it reduced depression. SPEAKER A Well, it would. SPEAKER B So we're looking at things like apples that we found out were good for the lungs and so on. SPEAKER D Apples, almonds, granola. I've got a carrot stick. SPEAKER A Good little story here. This happened to me when I was very young. I remember I was at my grandmother's, and she gave me a banana, and she said, you need to chew your food every mouthful 32 times. Well, if you've ever tried to chew a banana 32 times, goes very squishy. And I really couldn't. I think what I can't do it. That's that principle. But bananas are a bit soft for that. SPEAKER B John, you've got to reassure me about one thing. There haven't been any studies that say that squishing your food through your teeth has any benefit. SPEAKER A There are studies that show when you chew your food really well and break it down to very small parts, it goes into the cells a lot easier. SPEAKER B I could believe all of that. SPEAKER A So that's what the squishing the foods about? SPEAKER B Oh, yeah. I just couldn't help saying that. Well, that's incredible. So we've got a few different things going on here. In that story, it was chewing really thoroughly, and the other story you told was how your attitude towards an event, two people with a different thing. So that's really more in your department. Jenny, what's going on in the mind is affecting literally to the point of death. Well, yes, it can, because they looked at the same thing. They looked at exactly the same event that was happening to both of them. And one took it really hard, and the other actually enjoyed it. SPEAKER A Yeah, it's sad that one passed away, but she had an attitude that was very negative and that's for every thought you have, it goes straight to every cell of the body. So if it's a negative thought, every cell is impacted by every thought we have. So when I have a thought and we have our nervous system, the central nervous system runs from the back of the spine down the head, down to the spine, and then we've got radiating nerves, peripheral nerves. We've got an autonomic nervous system. So it's a telegraph wires that go through our body. Whenever I have one thought, it goes to every cell. Every cell is impacted. So you have one negative thought. For example, people who are depressed I'll never get over it. How do they feel? Their whole body is sagging down. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER A You see, when you think about the things you think, you can feel your body responding. SPEAKER B Think about the things you think. Okay, actually, what about self talk? Have you got a few thoughts on that? Because this is something we're doing all the time. Not even aware of it. Mostly, but we talked about thinking about what you think. SPEAKER A Well, we don't know totally the source of thought, okay. But we always think, and even when we think, we're not thinking, we're thinking, we're thinking, we're not thinking. SPEAKER B Okay, we'll get you to say that again. SPEAKER A But when we calm the thoughts, we feel at peace and calm full. It's very low level, gentle sort of thinking, that is. And it's usually in the present, right when we're stressed, we have a lot of thinking, and it's very negative. So it's like the chatterbox in my brain can bring me unstuck. So if I don't think I can do something and say I'm given something to do, and I go, I don't know if I can do that, it's too hard. And I remember before, my brain is doing overtime. I won't do it, I'll sabotage it, or I won't be able to do it. Whereas if I go, oh, no, I did that once before, and it's okay, and I'll just give it a go. And if I'm not, I'll get some help to do it. That makes a huge difference. So you can see how we talk to ourself, and we do a lot. SPEAKER B We do it. SPEAKER A We have to listen to what we're telling ourselves. SPEAKER B That's right. We often catch ourselves out and we. SPEAKER A Do give ourselves good advice, but we don't always listen to it. SPEAKER D And this is where on longevity, a lot of people give themselves self talk, well, I'm getting old, I'm going to be on medication, I'm going to die. SPEAKER A My days are nearly numbered. SPEAKER D Yeah. SPEAKER A I met a woman who believed she was going to die at something like 65, and every day she'd tell herself she was going to die at 65. I did not follow it up, but I can imagine that her health would have deteriorated. And it's highly likely it was a self fulfilling prophecy, because she believed it, she said it and she thought it. Every cell of the body's responding. SPEAKER D And this whole attitude thing. I met a gentleman that did research himself in the community near his school, where he went through from house to house and did a survey, okay? And he got to know the people and did the survey, and some people just kicked him off the porch and, get out of here, don't bother me. Ten years later, he came back and did a survey again, and those people who had kicked him off the porch were no longer alive. SPEAKER A Isn't that interesting? The people with the angry anger is huge. That is such a stress factor. We should never maintain our anger, and yet we have a lot of angry people out there, and that will longevity you cannot have, or longevity you can't have when you're angry all the time. The blood pressure, as we know, blood pressure, the heart's impacted, the brain is. SPEAKER B Impacted very powerful, isn't it? The effect that our mind, our thinking has on our body and it works the other way around, as you've said. SPEAKER A I was going to say self talk. What we think is what we feel and what we feel is how we behave. So if I think I can't I feel down, I feel discouraged, then I won't do it. And we can actually work from any angle. I can sing well, hang on, I'm not doing very well with what I'm doing and then what am I thinking and feeling? Or we can go, I'm thinking this, therefore I'm going to stop doing it. So we can actually pick up at any point. SPEAKER B So it's fascinating, isn't it? You've talked about the foods and so on and I don't know if we talked about activity today, did we? But that would have come into well. SPEAKER D The guy that runs his tractor and splits his wood. SPEAKER B Oh, yes. So being physically active is very important. And then our thoughts and the spiritual resources that play a role and social. SPEAKER D Support, this is a big thing. You don't find isolated people living to old ages generally. SPEAKER A And this is the sad reality of older people who end up in a home and no one visits them. And I know I've often visited elderly people or I go when I had my mum there, I'd go and visit someone and no one would ever visit them and the joy they would get, you see. So social structure is so vital. SPEAKER B Yes. Heaps of all of those things, all of those parts that make up a human being, the mental, physical, spiritual, social, they all impact one way or the other. If they're neglected, they will impact negatively, but they can all be utilized. And when they're all coming together, there's that synergy effect, it's even greater than the sum of the parts. So it's very, very helpful to utilize them all. SPEAKER A I think we need to remember that we can do anything we want to with the right attitude, the right beliefs, the right actions and staying focused in the present and actioning and having a good life. SPEAKER B Yes. SPEAKER A One of the things I find self focused, people don't live as long as people who focus externally. SPEAKER B Thank you for that. Well, I don't know whether we answered all your questions, but if not, you can contact John or Jennifer by emailing [email protected] Or to watch our programs on demand or download our fact sheets, visit 3abnaustralia.org.au and click on the Watch button. And remember, today is the first day of the rest of your life.