General Diet Advice
Eating for better health and to reduce risk of cancer (or to reduce
cancer if you have it): http://www.oism.org/oism/s32p1075.htm,
which links to http://www.nutritionandcancer.org/view/nutritionandcancer/index.htm
The upshot is to fill up on indigestible fiber by eating mostly fruits
and vegetables, and so implement the CRAN concept (Caloric Restriction
with
Adequate Nutrition) - or in cancer cases, poor nutrition. Too much
macronutrients
- protein, carbohydrates, fat -- are not goood for you. Too much
micronutrients - vitamins - would be bad for you too. This is somewhat
tautological; see the webpage quoted for details. General health
improvement, irrespective of cancer, has been reported from increased
consumption of high fiber (ie bulk-intensive), low-nutrient fruits and
vegetables. See also general interest, health and weightlifing
magazines. Getting standout abdominals, for example, is as much a
function of learning how to eat to stay lean as it is of exercise. An
important technique is to eat six small meals, equally spaced during
waking time, rather than three large meals a day, and even to get up in
the middle of the night to eat, in order to prevent the body going into
catabolism, i.e.
fat conservation mode. One might be able to stay slim by "starving",
but
it's painful and takes considerable willpower; and it's impossible to
build
muscle (i.e. lean body mass) while avoiding fat accumulation via the
"starving"
technique. Teeth should ideally be brushed after every meal, but it's
basically
acceptable to floss and brush well once a day to protect the teeth from
cavities,
if not for good breath.
I calculate that 6 meals over a 16 hour waking time would be one meal
for each 2hr and 40 min period. Breakfast, coffee break, lunch, coffee
break, dinner, bedtime meal, midnight snack should do it. Make the
morning coffee break early (shoot for 8:30AM), lunch at 11:30 or noon,
afternoon coffee break
early, at 2:30, dinner at 5 or 6 and bedtime meal at 8 or 9. A midnight
snack
at 3AM would be nice if you can wake yourself up somehow (the prospect
of
an obnoxious clock-radio setting for 3AM is not a pleasant one;
sleeping solidly
throughout the night is also very beneficial) or if you can't sleep
(then
it will help you sleep).
From the April 2003 "Mens' Health", pg 163
Suggestion: take 200mg of alpha-lipoic acid and 500mg of
acetyl-l-carnitine twice a day. Studies from the University of
California, The Henry Ford Health System, and the Linus Pauling
Institute* found that elderly rats fed this amino acid/antioxidant
combo stopped acting their age. They performed better on memory tests,
had less age-related brain deterioration, held onto their hearing
longer and and got around their cages quicker than untreated rodents.
The theory is that the supplements tune up the mitochondria, the
cellular machines in all living things that convert food into energy.
As we age,
these little engines become less efficient at burning fuel (slowing us
down)
and begin spewing out free radicals (rusting us from the inside out).
"Human
clinical trials are still needed, but I'm optimistic that we're going
to
add years to peoples' lives", says Bruce Ames, PhD, one of the study
authors. Cost is about $35(US) for a one-month's supply or more
in brick-and-mortar stores or about a quarter of that online.
See "The Life-Extension Foundation" http://www.lef.org.
*A note of skepticism: I'm not too impressed with the Linus Pauling Institute. Linus Pauling is the one who started the "Vitamin C as a magic bullet" popular "wisdom", which doesn't seem to bear up under scrutiny. Although Pauling was an incredibly knowledgeable scientist -- if he didn't know something about biologgy or chemistry, then the human race didn't have that information -- who has done important biological research for which he won a Nobel Prize, he later became famous for political stunts and saying things like "People believe me because of who I am". When his chief researcher, Dr. Arthur Robinson, began to find evidence to disprove Pauling's glowing hypotheses about Vitamin C, Pauling took action against him, even though it is supposed to be a scientist's duty to disprove his own hypotheses. Robinson had to sue, and Pauling ended up paying a hefty settlement. The details are in the "Access To Energy" (AtE) back-issues, ca. 1993 when Dr. Petr Beckmann, before his death, handed his newsletter over to Robinson. A CD of the AtE back-issues is available; see their website at http://www.accesstoenergy.com and http://www.oism.org.
Miscellaneous
Cryonics: see Alcor (given a good article in the same issue of "Mens'
Health"), at http://www.alcor.org/,
and http://www.benbest.com/, for
the website of a cyronicist.
[Top]
Last updated Aug 17, Feb 7, 2004
Dec 14, 7, May 17, 2003, April 15, 12, April 9,
April 6, April 3, 2003