Don’t ever do an online search for the term “Aging Gracefully” because none of us will live long enough to read the 11,300,000 “hits” (LOL). Let’s just agree that it’s a popular topic. From my perspective, we all have a choice. We can choose to live as healthy as possible, and to reap the benefits of that choice.

Our future is NOT ruled by our genes. It’s ruled by the interactions between our genes, our diet, our environment, and our mindset. Of course, there are no guarantees in life. Comedian Andy Kaufman, who played Latka on Taxi, never smoked a day in his life, but died of lung cancer. Stuff happens, but we can make positive choices that will improve our odds. THAT is how we will age gracefully. Choosing can change the course of our life.

Our body is an amazing chemistry set. If we hold our breath too long, carbon dioxide (CO²) builds up in our blood, and our brain makes us gasp or pant, to bring our oxygen saturation back within “normal limits”. If your blood becomes too acidic (H²) our body releases calcium carbonate from our bones (a base = CaCO³) into our blood stream, to neutralize that acid, via the classic acid-base interaction:

Because these processes can work in both directions (creating acids and then neutralizing them) our body can maintain “homeostasis” (or a stable equilibrium) while we are turning our food into energy and living tissues.   [2]

So, this is the first fact of life... eat right and live.

Do we need to review how industrial farming has reduced the quality of food? Between the pesticide sprays, and GMO species that “look” better than they are, force-grown with chemicals, picked green and then refrigerated for long periods, and finally force-ripened with ethylene gas [3] so that it “looks” ripe. Something gets lost along the way.

If you grow your own tomatoes, you KNOW the difference between a ripe, straight-off-the-vine and a straight-out-of-the-freezer version. It’s the same with most vegetables and fruits, although GMO foods are getting devilishly clever at making clone-food taste sweeter or saltier these days.

If you have the yard space to grown some of your food staples, or your town has a Farmer’s Market, you can get more of what Nature provides in your meals when you eat ripe and fresh. And naturally, Shaklee is always here, to fill in the missing bits. Plus, I always use Basic H spray to clean off any evironmental residues that may be left behind on my food, before I prepare it.

Life is more than food

We also need pure water, clean air, a little exercise, and a sense of “being part of something” to find a balance between just being alive and living a life with purpose.

The health data collected by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey database (or NHANES), gathered over the last 50+ years has been used to investigate various nutritional behaviors, and their overall impact on health. Data on large groups (up to 50,000 per year) has been gathered since the 1970s. [4]

Although considerable information had been compiled about the health impact of multivitamin use, the influence of long-term supplementation had never been explored. That’s why Shaklee recruited the esteemed epidemiologist, Dr. Gladys Block, from the Berkeley School of Public Health, and asked her to conduct a clinical trial.

It was agreed that her team would collect and analyze the health histories, physical exams, and blood test results. UC Berkeley would run all the statistical analyses, write the paper, and shepherd it through the peer-review process. Although Shaklee funded the study, UC Berkeley maintained absolute control over publication of the results, good or bad.

That Landmark Study — the first-ever investigation of a rare population of long-term dietary supplement users — revealed that people who take a multivitamin have better health than those who don't... and those who took Shaklee supplements had markedly better health than either of the 2 control groups, including both those who took generic vitamins and those who did not supplement at all.

The Shaklee users also fared much better in the blood testing department [5] for ALL the biomarkers of disease. Those include all the “usual” tests, for the medical diagnosis of disease.   [6]

The Biomarkers of Disease

High blood homocysteine levels are a key marker for vascular disease, and are also closely associated with heart attack and stroke. [7],   [8] The Shaklee group scored significantly lower blood levels of homocysteine than either of thh 2 control groups. That also helps explain why they also experienced much lower incidences of heart and vascular disease(s).

C-reactive protein (CRP) levels are an indicator of inflammation, and high levels are strongly associated with many disease processes, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.