Middle-age is being redefined. No l...

Middle-age is being redefined. No longer are men and women in their 40 and 50 considered "over the hill," not when a growing percentage of the population is living more than a century!

The U Census Bureau throw outs that by the year 2040 76 million Americans will be 65 and older and 13 million will be inching past the 85-year mark. Demographers at Duke University view the future even more brightly; they predict 138 million senior citizens in 2040 And the couple predictions agree that centenarians are the fastest growing age group

Some call it the "graying of America" and account for it through the growing number of "Baby Boomers" heading to retirement age, on the other hand the real cause of the exploding numbers of older adults lies in medical advances and improvements in health care -- and in a better understanding of the importance of prevention.

But is this just a numbers game of trying to break the triple-digit mark? Does anyone really want to live past 100 if his or her last several years are exhausted in a nursing home? Of course not. Our faithful goal should be to improve our health span, not just our life span. Researchers are already hard at work to understand for what cause nutrition can help us reach this goal of "dying young as late as possible."

Jean Carper, medical journalist and columnist for USA Weekend, writes in her 1995 volume Stop Aging Now!, that "evidence is piling up showing to what degree [nutrients] can fight aging. Prestigious medical journals are abounding of reports, unimagined 10 years ago, documenting the awesome powers of so natural substances to prevent, halt, and turn upside down the deterioration that comes with advancing years."

Antioxidants lead the fight

"Antioxidants are essential `body soldiers' which discomfit and eliminate unruly molecules called unrestrained radicals which wander through the corpse causing damage, degeneration, and disease," explains Carmia Borek, PhD in her main division Maximize Your Health-Span with Antioxidants (1995)

"Natural antioxidants as it was as vitamins C and E and beta carotene...should be cornerstones of treatment and prevention for the aging patient," agrees Dr Samuel Goldstein, associate director of the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center in Little asylum Ark., in his article in the journal, Geriatrics.

Other antioxidants institute in herbs also battle liberated radicals to help hold back the hands of the clock For example, verdant tea is a treasure-trove of powerful antioxidants called polyphenols that disarm exempt radicals before they can contribute to heart disease, cancer, or signs of premature aging. Other plant sources of these delivered radical-fighting antioxidants include ginkgo biloba, bilberry, turmeric, and grape seed

Don't forget basic nutrition in your anti-aging plan

Although the U commended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) are the same for everyone from one side of to the other age 51, the aging proces does appear to alter the absorption and requirement of several nutrients.

Katherine Tucker PhD at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center upon Aging at Tufts University discovers that "as metabolic rates decline and activity of the same heights decrease, energy [food] intakes also serve to decrease, and, in general, intake of the entire image of nutrients decreases with them."

Consequently improved intake of greatest in quantity of the essential vitamins and minerals is crucial for replenishing supplies in many aging individuals. A basic multivitamin/mineral supply can correct marginal deficiencies of nutrients that contribute to compromised immunity, fatigue, and steady impaired cognitive ability in older Americans.

A broad-spectrum postscript supplying all the essential vitamins and minerals, combined with other specialized antioxidative nutrients to ward most distant the youth-sapping free radicals, are solution components to an energizing, youth-preserving add to plan.

As Carper points gone out while the final word is not in addition in on the use of correlatives in preventing aging, it's worth a attempt since "it's gamble that could pay not upon as no other can -- with a longer life, les suffering, disease, and disability, and more happiness and happiness at being alive."

REFERENCES

Borek, Carmia, PhD Maximize Your Health-Span with Antioxidants. of recent origin Canaan, Conn.: Keats Publishing, Inc., 1995

Carper, Jean. Stop Aging Now! of recent origin York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1995

Goldstein, Samuel, MD "The biology of aging: Looking to defuse the genetic time bomb" Geriatrics 48(9):76-82 1993

Tucker Katherine, PhD "Micronutrient status and aging," Nutrition Reviews 53(9):S9-S15 1995

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