'Feed a cold' is good advice

No I'm not unfortunate to become sick just yet with a cold. But my niece, nephew, older brother, cousin became ill with it now. I had a fairly good sleep last night and slept 10 hours with just waking up once after about 4 hours. Sleeping is an excellent idea if you are run down with something. Otherwise I've been throwing down garlic to see if that helps. If it doesn't work to kill the virus or boost immune system, maybe it will keep people away for a short while because of the odor coming from my body haha :)

Here is another interesting article I found a while back. The advice that one should feed a cold seems quite valid according to this study.

Dutch scientists have conducted small-scale experiments which suggest that both approaches are the best way of priming the immune system to cope with different infections. The research, reported on the New Scientist website, found that the different approaches may activate different types of immune cell.

Viral Infections
After the liquid meal, levels of a body chemical called Gamma interferon had multiplied by four. This chemical indicates that the body is using a type of immune response designed to kill cells which have become infected, and tends to be directed at viral infections.

Bacterial Infections
The water-only diet, however, produced almost a fourfold increase in levels of a different chemical, called interleukin-4. This is a sign of an immune response which launches attacks on invaders lurking outside the cells. Most bacterial infections require this kind of response.


However one of the things you might get from this advice is more cold symptoms, if you think about it, increasing levels of interferon while fighting a viral infection might cause an increase in temperature, fatigue, tiredness etc... but you might get over it quicker? I don't know :p

Back after the new year

I haven't been posting lately because I've been quite busy and generally away from the computer... but will post more often after the new year, and I hope everyone has a good time over the holiday's. Christmas in a couple days and I love this time of year, even though I'm an athiest, I still call it Christmas lol. This anti religious stuff is just dumb if you ask me, people should be allowed to celebrate and have freedom of expression in whatever they believe in. I just wish I was a kid again and believed in all this 'magical' stuff, got lots of presents and generally enjoyed 25th of December much more than I do now, but it is still a nice day.

A lot of people having miserable holidays around here though because everyone has got this cold or flu that is going around, you can never know because people say they got the flu and they haven't. Everyone has been ill with it in my house, I know at least 12 close family members with it, a few friends are ill... It's also a rarity that my father gets ill and last night he came down with the cold too! Maybe it is to do with the lack of Vitamin D this summer, because err, we had no summer in the UK! I am doing what I can to avoid the thing because of my tinnitus will just go insanely loud if I get it! I've been eating garlic regularly ( see BBC:Garlic prevents common cold

"Over a 90-day period during the winter when most colds occur, just 24 colds were recorded among those taking the supplement, compared to 65 amongst those taking the placebo."

That is a 'HUGE' reduction in the colds, and those that caught it also experienced fewer symptoms and the cold didn't last as long, and they were less likely to get re infected! Few chances of secondary bacterial sinusitis I assume too.

There are also other things I've been doing to help like regularly steam inhalation (twice a day), regular washing of hands for 30 seconds. 10 cups of green tea per day /with ginger. I've ran out of my Vitamin D3 but it lasts a long(ish) time in the body anyway so should be ok until I can afford to get some more. I was taking in around 5000-7000 IU of it over the last couple months, and 2000IU for over 2 years so I should be OK! Another good thing is that my sinusitis hasn't come back and my last cold was the week that got *cured* oddly by a cold virus itself! lol. I think I might have been catching colds regularly before because the lining of my nose was broken, bleeding and clogged up. Viruses would easily get pats the barrier and infect me. 7 months and not caught a viral infection yet, I hope this continues !


Anyway enough rambling on from me, have a nice holiday everyone. See you in 2008!

New CR video

A video with mostly Liza May in, some conference video footage and Michael saying a few words too. Although Liza doesn't seem to weigh anything, so I'd be surprised if her calorie count is accurate. Though she says she's healthy and she looks quite healthy for her age and thats important.


FoxTV Calorie Restriction Video

Finally!

So after I printed out the report and gave it to my father he probably spoke to my mum and it seems she is now willing to eat properly! So she asked for some advice on what foods to eat and so I'll help her -- as I've always wanted to! Just really hope she can stick to it. I'll keep you updated :)

What we still don't know

This is a brilliant 3 part series that I missed most of a few years ago and wasn't able to find it on the internet back then. I watched the one "are we real' and it was so fascinating, it really makes you think. This is probably one of the best documentaries I've seen on these topics. Here are the three videos... The philosophical questions in these are brilliant.

The kind of questions in this videos are the ones I hope to see answered at some point in the future, and is part of the reason why I do calorie restriction and why I want to live forever. It is just so fascinating to me and provides me with a strong purpose to do CR, and is reason for my success in sticking to it. Rather than just to 'lose weight' which for most people is a short term goal. If you have a very good purpose in why you want to do CR, you will stick to it. For me, living to see the emergence of post humans, detection of other civilizations and colonization of the galaxies, to see how the world and technology evolves are good reasons to stick around. These reasons among others are why eating unhealthy will NEVER happen ever again until we have a good control over human health using advanced biotech and nanotech. Also the fact that being dead for eternity, non existence, doesn't really comfort me... even though I didn't exist for around 14 billion years anyway... Stay alive for as long as possible.

Episode 1: Are we alone?
Sir Martin explores the possibility that life exists on planets beyond our own.
He unveils an unsettling scientific debate that has startling consequences for
us Earthlings. Do you believe in aliens? If not, a quick glance through these pages might change your mind!


Episode 2: Why are we here?
Everything you thought you knew about the universe is wrong. It’s made of atoms, right? Wrong. Atoms only account for a measly 15% of everything that exists. The mass of the universe consists of something so mysterious and elusive that it has been dubbed ‘dark matter’.

Episode 3: Are we real?
There is a fundamental chasm in our understanding of ourselves, the universe, and everything. To solve this, Sir Martin takes us on a mind-boggling journey through multiple universes to post-biological life. On the way we learn of the disturbing possibility that we could be the product of someone else’s experiment.

See the website here

Looks whos back... Willie

An old blogger is back posting again, for now it seems. Some of the earlier CR bloggers probably read this blog often. Every now and then I check there to see if there is anything new. He has posted twice recently.

CRONing for a future...

Error

Woke up this morning and found my Digital kitchen scales have died, well not quite, but is consistently showing an error message upon trying to weigh anything. I had no idea that such a simple device could screw up in such a short space of time of two years. So today it looks like I'll be guessing all my food portions and maybe I'll do OK because I've been weighing the stuff every day for almost 3 years. Plus I can check my morning weight to see if it's changed. I'll be trying to see if I can borrow some scales of people today anyway... I think I know a few people who might have one to lend me for a little while until I get new scales sometime end of next week when I get paid.

If not, then I'll just have to guess everything for a week... shouldn't be too much of a problem!

Sunny :)

Just quick post, it is really nice today as it feels warm and blue skies. I hope this lasts a few days because I need more sun and light! It makes me feel happy :) It's strange weather for November I must say :p

SAD

Many people know the feeling this time of year, and as expected it is starting unusually early because of the crappy summer we had this year. I don't know what it is, it's like a sudden shift in my mood. The clocks have just gone back and now it's getting dark extremely early, I think around 5pm -- it's annoying. Leave the clocks alone dammit! Doing a little exercise always help lift mood quite quickly so I did some running today and felt a bit more energetic and better. However I know this is going to feel like a long winter unless I get occupied with something. I haven't taken my Vitamin D3 in two weeks either because I ran out and have to order some more from AOR... maybe that got something to do with it, or it could just be the lack of light. Maybe I need to more in the winter and come back in the summer :) I managed rather well in keep SAD symptoms away last year because I was studying hard and working, so no time to feel bad reflect on how I felt really. It's not depression, not anxiety, just a feeling of 'blah' lol. Weird stuff. I think it might also have something to do with the very little amount of sleep I've had this week, need to sleep more I think.

GIVE ME LIGHT !



Here is some info on SAD
http://www.sada.org.uk/symptoms.htm

Tests for CRONies in Leeds, UK

I've been in contact with a researcher in Leeds who who studies athletes, energy restriction, anorexia etc... She is interested in the differences between these and how Calorie restriction with optimal nutrition differs, if at all! She wants a bunch of CRONies to undergo some tests... I haven't yet replied back to her last email, but spoke to Bob via email and hes going to draft out an email and send it to the list.

This was at the end of her email.
Cathy "All-in-all it’s a complex area. I am sure we could arrange some measurements of BMD, hormone status and bone health (etc.) in a group of CRs if you and your friends are interested to travel to Leeds for these?"

I believe she also mentioned looking at immune function too. Although I'll have to check back on my emails about this. So anyone in the UK interested, please respond to Bob's email!

Edit: From another email

"I would be interested to conduct some research in this field, especially on bone health and immune function. As far as I’m aware, there is no research of this nature occurring in the UK."

Doctor Cathy Zanker
http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/carnegie/czanker.htm

Want to be happy?... Stop being unhappy

I thought this little video was good. There are many more by him on his profile.

Yoga of Happiness

Protect your hearing

I would like to post this because I think it's important for those rocking out hard with your guitar up loud, or drums, or going to loud concerts all the time. Tinnitus affects 50 million people in the U.S and around 10 million in the UK. For some reason about three months ago I developed tinnitus... it came out of the blue and no idea what caused it. My ENT doctor said my hearing is excellent in the right ear and slightly lower than it should be in the left, but still normal. Also an ear pressure test was abnormal in the left ear (can suggest ear fluid). Then he said that he did see fluid in both ears and can take many months to clear... and that it might be from a viral or that sinus problems I had. he think this is what is causing the mild tinnitus. It almost sounds like a high pitched noise coming from an old CRT monitor. I'm a fairly optimistic person, and tinnitus hasn't really increased anxiety levels or anything because I've just learned to get used to it! Until there is a cure there is no point in worrying about it because there is nothing anyone can really do says my doctor and ent doc.

Watch this video and see what I hear 24/7! -- This noise can be caused by excessive noise levels, bacterial or viral ear infections, allergies, antibiotics, chemotherapy, tumors and anxiety or stress can make it much louder. Anemia is also another cause of this problem. Tinnitus is not a disease, but a symptom of a problem which is usually benign. New research suggests that the brain is involved in picking up this noise that is supposed to be filtered out. In fact, if you stick anyone in a sound proof room for 5 minutes they will also begin to hear these high pitched noises. However this leaves them as soon as they are exposed to the natural environment again. 30% of those coming home from iraq also are suffering from tinnitus... and with all the kids now playing their music players up loud, there will be many more.

Protect your ears :)

I've almost got some people to join my new rock band. I'll definitely be wearing proper protection this time!

I thought so, I am programmed to love chocolate

Two of the findings in this study was that those who love chocolate, eat it daily, have a different metabolic profile. Those who really like chocolate have marginally high levels of albumin (yes so do I), they also have really low LDL cholesterol (I have that too). If I could I'd eat many bars of chocolate a day, but sadly I have to limit my intake of dark chocolate. However when I do eat it, it's always Lindt Dark chocolate! Yum :D

People 'programmed to love chocolate'
Friday, 12 Oct 2007 08:18

Story can be found here

Being a chocolate lover is down to a chemical signature in the brain, scientists have found. Their discovery, the first to link chocolate preference to a chemical process, explains why some people love the food while others are indifferent to it. Swiss and British researchers behind the finding argue it could be used to help design healthier diets customised to an individual's needs.

They studied 22 volunteer men, half of whom are indifferent to chocolate and half who love it. The men ate chocolate or a placebo over a five-day period while their blood and urine samples were tested. Chocolate lovers were found to have lower levels of 'bad' cholesterol and marginally elevated levels of albumin, a beneficial protein. They expressed this protein even when they ate no chocolate and activity of the gut microbes in the chocolate lovers was also found to be distinctly different from the other participants.

"Our study shows that food preferences, including chocolate, might be programmed or imprinted into our metabolic system in such a way that the body becomes attuned to a particular diet," said researcher Sunil Kochhar, a scientist with Nestle Research Centre in Switzerland. "We know that some people can eat a diet that is high in steak and carbs and generally remain healthy, while the same food in others is unhealthy.

"Knowing one's metabolic profile could open-the-door to dietary or nutritional interventions that are customised to your type so that your metabolism can be nudged to a healthier status."

The findings are published in the Journal of Proteome Research.

Some try extreme calorie restriction for long life

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20746251/


The link above is to the article on Paul and Meredith who have been doing CR for quite a long time now. It also contains two new videos which you can view on that page.

As I type this, 42% say they would try calorie restriction if it meant they could live a longer healthier life. There are have been 1794 votes in so far on the MSNBC story. So it looks good... but saying I would do it is an entirely different thing from being able to do calorie restriction for the long term ;)

I would also encourage you all to do something that wont take more than a few seconds. Go to this linkand share your CR experiences.

Also you can go over to this blog to comment back at some of the people who don't understand cr that well.

Immunity and cancer

Here is the video (related to my previous post) that was recorded at SENS3. To view it properly just enlarge the video at the bottom right. It is very interesting!

Zheng Cui
http://richardjschueler.com/wp-gallery2.php?g2_itemId=56888

There are also a few other videos there from SENS 3 conference.

Cancer cure 'may be available in two years'

Thats the headline from the telegraph
The results were actually quite amazing, and it looks promising. There were some important things in there that I think are relevant to our quest for longevity and good health. The resistance to cancer was heavily influenced by a) stress levels b) season. So it might be wise to practice yoga or stress relieving activities. The good news is that once the stress is gone, the neutrophil's become better at killing cancer cells. The other thing that should be quite clear now is that we need to keep our vitamin D levels up, by taking a supplement preferably if you want to stay looking young too :) And possibly getting enough daylight hours, so getting up when the sun rises and going to sleep when the sun goes down :)

Anyway, here is a cool little video (it's sped up) with a neutrophil chasing after bacterium. CooL eh!?



Here is another video with those granulocytes killing cervical cancer cells (video posted by new scientist 3 days ago

Responsible supplementation by MR

I thought I'd direct you to an excellent post on supplementation by Michael, which can be found at the CRS lists. Here is a direct link to that post.
Responsible supplementation

I've only been taking 1/3 of the full dose of Essential mix for a while now, this was not long after some of his earlier posts on the issue... While I've taking some taking more targeted supplements like zinc, magnesium, vitamin D3, and Calcium especially. It seems for myself my Magnesium need is quite high, I don't know if this was to do with the amount of stress I had earlier this year or what. But I know it prevents quite a few symptoms I was having... One of them being benign heart palpitations (had all sorts of tests done - check earlier posts) from excess adrenaline, and also little annoying muscle twitches. When one is low on magnesium you do produce more adrenaline so it has an effect on the muscles, including the heart... These symptoms 98% cured by extra Mg, even though I was already getting around 500mg or so from my diet! Unfortunately as Michael says there are few reliable tests for mineral deficiencies, magnesium is one of them as it is mostly intracellular.

Take a read of that post anyway, it's a sensible view on supplementing.

New video

A new video just got posted over at the CRS, so thought I'd put a link up here:


CR VIDEO

You've gotta check out this video, especially around half way when the comparison of the two monkeys come up. This one is different that what you may have seen before. Even though we have seen previous examples, I was amazed by this.

It really does look like CR with a very high probability will at least keep us looking far younger than our ages as we continue to do calorie restriction.

Face Book Calorie Restriction Group

You must have all heard about face book recently? It's very popular now and many use it to keep in contact with friends. I have found it amazing so far as I've now discovered that other people from my old high school have also got face book profiles.

Anyway, here is the link to the Calorie Restriction Face Book Group

I've put my profile settings so anyone can view it, others have chosen for theirs to be private. You can view their profiles by just adding them as friends.

Now go join!

September the sick?

...If you feel under the weather today you're in good company, because September 6th has been identified as the day Britons are most likely to fall ill...

Heres the article

So make sure you all sip your green teas, eat your garlic and wash your hands frequently. No picking your nose or putting your hands in your eyes either as these are other ways you are get infected.

Just the other day I was watching some Discovery science and a program came on about colds, and how easily it is transmitted. It did show that you have to wash your hands with soapy water for at least 20-25 seconds under a running tap to be effective. The more time the better, but don't get too obsessive ;p

I'm hoping this will be a good year for me, and for all you CRONies out there too. so far so good. Although I can't say the same for a few of my relatives and friends who have today come down with colds over the last couple days.

CBS Calorie Restriction Video (Paul and Meredith)

CR CBS VIDEO

The women from the ADA needs to do her home work, clearly.

Enjoy

Heres the article too

Memories...

Before I get started on this post, I have to say that Face book is one of the greatest sites since google! -- I can't believe just how many of my old school mates and friends from long ago are on there! It's an awesome networking site!

Running out of things to blog about -- which is a good thing because things are going well now, except that I will not be attending the conference this year in Cambridge. Still, I'm certainly going to the next one with much time to prepare and save.

My CR practice has been going good, no struggles, weight stable at around 110 lbs with no fluctuations. I've been looking at what other foods I can eat as my diet has pretty much stayed the same in the last 2 years 7 months I've been on CR. I'm going to arrange a full panel of blood tests shortly though, as I think its about time now... Everyone on CR who maintains a BMI below 18 should at least get 1 round of tests a year for safety and just for the fact it keeps you motivated to maintain that cholesterol level, or glucose level.

My legs feel a little weak right now though because I've been working on my legs by doing some squats with 30kg bar. Kind of too much for my little legs I think as I now have some tightness and cramp / weak / heavy feeling in my legs. Which usually happens when I push it too much. However my arms are startin to look a little better now that I started the weights. Still like skinny, but better muscle definition.

Just a little while back I was talking to some one about my weight and he mentioned that I lost weight in 2003 when he seen me at a funeral we went to. This was about the time that I started reading articles by Ray Kurzweil, other science stuff and nutrition etc... It was the time that I started making subtle changes to my diet, not restricting on purpose, but replacing refined cereals with whole grain cereal, putting fruit like strawberries and banana on it. Drinking orange juice rather than fizzy drinks... all the little things one does to improve their diet. These things can lead to weight loss.

My mother also said to me after I came home from college in summer 2003 that I looked skinny, and not having a typical male physique, being more like a skinny girl! lol. Shortly after that I actually went to the doctors because my family made me worry about my weight. The doctor measured my height and weight and the BMI was 18.5. She said "it's nothing to worry about, you're normal a weight... some people are just skinnier than others". So that was that. Except my brother, mother and her friend (who is very obese) made me really nervous prior to seeing the doctor, making me feel phyiscally sick and weak with anxiety as it seemed they were suggesting I had some terminal illness or something. Of course that wasn't the case, i'm still here.

My cousin who I hadn't seen since 2002 also said to me in 2003 "matt you lost a lot of weight haven't you?". So it wouldn't actually suprise me that I might have actually already been through TWO STAGES of CR weight loss. One was unintentional, and the latter in march 2005 was intentional CRON. My weight prior to 2003 wouldn't have been that High because I know for a fact I've never gone above BMI of 20. Now memories are coming back to me when I weighed myself in the gym, I was actually close to 125 lbs at one time (I have it written down here somewhere because I was starting some weight lifting and measuring progress), and when I intentionally started CR I was 118 lbs. If this is correct, then my real plain old CR date would have been when I was only around 18 years old (and I'm 23 on October the 21st 2007).

Also I like it when this happens. Two days ago I woke up a little late, some plumber guy was sorting out something in the house, after he finished he asked me to sign the paper and said "you off to school now, you're in your last year?" (that would mean he thought I was 15-16 years old), I chuckled and said no I left high school over 6 years ago! -- he said "sorry". I said no, thats good, thanks, I'm trying to live forever!... and he laughed :)

See thats the thing, before I started CR I was actually gutted that I looked so young for my age, now its really good. It's amazing that If you look around on the net you find people just like the old me moaning about looking younger than my age.

This summer has helped me though, the dark circles that was quite apparent around my eyes has gone now... that was all the crappy stress I've had over the year. Finally things are better! whoooO!

Anyway, here is todays dinner... minus the tuna that I threw on the top. I don't really go for presentation, as long as its nice :)

Buster Martin oldest UK worker (almost 101years old)

Despite smoking and drinking from the age of 7, he is active, looks well and decades younger than his age and is britains oldest worker. Here is a short video interview from the show "doctor doctor" on channel 5 here in the UK every weekday morning. He was also in the news recently for fighting off three people who hit him to the floor. He got up and kicked them in the groin and they ran away.

He also would like to live to 150 if he could.

I've also updated my previous post by adding the video "the oldest people in the world" - It is 45 minutes long and quite interesting.



http://tinyurl.com/27umh8

I've also updated my previous post by adding the video "the oldest people in the world" - It is 45 minutes long and quite interesting.

The oldest people in the world

Today I just managed to catch a documentary called "The Oldest People In The World". Daisy Asquith meets centenarians from all over the globe and discusses the reasons for their longevity. I have the program recorded and may upload it at some point.

From watching the program a few things become quite clear. Centenarian men in the documentary were far healthier at the same ages as the women cents... They were more active, looked more healthy and younger, and they all wanted, desire, to go on living for as long as possible. The majority of the female centenarians were very frail, in wheelchairs, and all but a few wanted to die. However there were two female centenarians that seemed quite happy to live on... one of them was a seventh day adventist named Marge. She never smoked, never drank, exercised on her bike everyday, lifts weights a few times a week and keeps active. You can see an article on her here

There wasn't really much to learn about the secret of long life from the centenarians. All lead different lives, and nothing consistent about their lifestyle. But what if the centenarians (who probably had good genes) all lead a healthy life style. It seems that they might have been in far better health at 100+, or not, thats just speculation. But we do know that even with good genes, doing things like smoking, eating bad foods still can't be good.

One thing some of them wanted back was youth, to be young. If they had that, then I have no doubt they would like to continue living.

Update:

Heres the video, enjoy :)

SENS conference

Haven't blogged in a little while because things have been going generally ok, and nothing exciting has happened since. However, I MIGHT be going to the 3rd SENS conference from the 6th-10th September. I wasn't initially going to go because the cost of registration was so high at over 500 pounds, and from the talks listed for them days it's well worth it. I did receive an email from Aubrey yesterday offering a place for a little less than that, something that wouldn't bankrupt me for the next few months... but I've gotta call my manager tomorrow to see if I can get lots of hours to pay for it. Paying to go wont be the problem, the problems are a) I don't go this far out on my own b) Getting there, without getting lost. I would probably have to take a train which would take me from Cardiff train station to Paddington in London, from there I'd have to take a tube to Kings Cross, and then from there take a train to Cambridge. Haven't emailed Aubrey back on the offer to sign up to attend SENS3, but it's very good one and I'm going to really try go if I can. Over the next couple of days I've gotta see if it's realistic at all given the time I have left to organize travel (no car), find a place to stay, get lots of work (hasn't been any in over a month), and then build the courage to actually go to Cambridge on my own. I usually go with friends to London, but thats different, If you're lost its not that bad as when you're on your own lol.

Here is the program
http://www.sens.org/sens3/program.htm

Looks very interesting!

Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s Search for Biological Immortality

A good article over at L.E interviewing Sanjay Gupta on his book "chasing life", he also mentions now that he has himself cut back on his calories after his research.

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2007/aug2007_cover_gupta_01.htm

Secrets to longevity

I haven't put this up on my blog yet, so here it is. Dan talks about 3 cultures of longevity and summarizes them.

Peter pan of pop?

This morning I was watching GMTV and this women came on mentioning diets and how to eat properly. I just caught the end of it but they were talking about how some people only eat one meal a day to try and lose weight... the Dietician said that it was a bad idea, and I can see why... but the evidence suggests that it may actually be good for you. Intermittent fasting is known to extend lifespan in rodents and possibly humans also. Then the presenter mentions a few people who also eat only one meal a day and are quite slim, one of those was Sir Cliff Richard. I assume that most of you know who he is? Well he has always been thought to look very young for his age, and described as the 'peter pan of pop'. He has been questioned about how he still looks so young for his age numerous times. He's around 66 years old right now and for his age he is doing very well IMO. In interviews with the BBC he has stated that he has only eaten ONE MEAL a day for 35 years. He eats a diet with loads of vegetables, fruit, meat and fish and takes mutlivitamins to get good nutrition. So here is just an example of a guy who is possibly doing some form of CR or IF lifestyle in a good way, and clearly showing benefits. Others that follow 1 meal a day are prince Charles and Des O Conner (who at 75 looks quite good for his age). Although I don't know the length these have followed the diet. Here are just POSSIBLE examples of CR/IF in people who have more of an incentive to look well and young for longer. Thats why I say that CR or IF might have been done for years by actors, models, tv presenters, and of which some may have also eaten quite healthy, and some not. Pure speculation I know... but it's fun to speculate sometimes.

Face book and myspace

I forgot about this... Here is both of the above

http://www.myspace.com/foreveryoung1984

http://www.facebook.com - search for "matthew lake" and I'll see me on there.

Feel free to add.

noooooooooo ! ! !

My knee :(
I went running this morning at around 4:30am and I could tell how much my fitness level is improving still. Then I runs up to the other gate in the park and find that it has been locked, and there was some random horse tide to a tree with no owner near... Anyway I made my way back around to the other entrance and because it wasn't exactly the best visibility and I hit my left knee on the bar which stops bikes from getting into the park. I've smashed this knee against things maybe 3-4 times in the exact same spot a few months back... although there is no serious pain, it's kind of annoying because it was finally feeling back to normal over the last couple weeks. Now it just hurts when I walk up stair, or getting up from the floor. So do I wait until it heals to carry on with yoga? I mean, If it was serious then obviously it would be really painful, which it's not as I can still run fine...

School
And the second bad news is that my place on the course I needed to do to get was declined, and the person that did not accept my place on the course was the tutor that had a go at me right at the end of college year, she clearly did not like me and thought I was naive. But I was just being confident for once in my life... maybe that was a bad thing... or it is probably to do with my last years attendance, even though I had GOOD reasons for being off (and still passed and got high test marks). But there are other routes to where I need to get to, and almost as fast, but might make it a bit more difficult because of education and work, and trying to find suitable times. My tutor did send with the letter some other courses that she thinks might be suitable for me. So I have passed the course, but this is just a small setback. It sucks that the dental infection I had totally screwed up things for me though. But I'm persistent and I will achieve my goals. Still got thousands of years ahead anyway :D

Skinny Celebrities

I caught 3/4 of a program on UK Living earlier tonight where it discussed a few Skinny Celebrities and they had an 'anti aging' doctor on there who gave a calculation of how long they will all live. Some clearly admitted they had eating disorders but some did not, and claimed they were eating a healthy diet. But I would bet there are a few that are just eating really healthy and working hard to maintain a low body weight. Compared to the rest of the population that are continually shouting 'anorexic' at them, I bet a few are probably very healthy, and healthier than the majority of people their age. The anti-aging doctor Mario Kyriazis basically says that these skinny celebs will have lifespans that are around 50 years. He gave a life expectancy for Victoria Beckham of around 55 years. He said that be eating less and being skinny it would accelerate the aging process. Sure, we know that malnutrition is bad, but what we don't know is what EXACTLY do some of the celebs eat, maybe some of them do have proper nutrition and are in great health, then they're forced by the media to gain their weight back due to anxiety from the attention they're getting.

The attention I got from family and friends was huge when I hit my lowest weight with a BMI of 16.4, even TWO of my doctors said I was very healthy. I even said to them "How do you feel about my weight, Do you think I should gain some". They both said I was fine, and very healthy. This calmed my nerves a bit, but the stress I got from others moaning at me saying I was ill was quite immense. Now, no one says anything, in fact, just the other day some one said "he's not that skinny, i've seen much more skinny people" wow thats a first for me. Although I have gone up to 110 lbs and now stable weight again... maybe there is a different people can see. I'm happy anyway because I'm eating the exact same calories.

Curiously I went to google and typed in that doctors name, I then added 'calorie restriction' and found that HE himself recommended calorie restriction. Was he just paid by the production company to say what they wanted him to say?!

Anyway, rather than focusing on people being on the thin side, I think it's quite obvious that we have a MAJOR health disaster in the form of obesity going on. The media needs to stick with that.

note; Skinny don't always mean CR'd, but you can bet that skinny models, actresses and so on are probably CR'd. Whether they have good nutrition or not, I don't know. But most of time the media doesn't either.

update;

There are celebs that do look quite good for their age, here is one and I think she is really hot in this video, even though she is actually around 38 years old! She is a size 4 apparently, so quite small, and has been 'dieting' for the majority of her life, and she eats very healthy and works hard to stay in good shape she says. Although she says she eats a cookie or something small everyday. You can see the results too, she looks at least 10 years younger or more, and very healthy. Plus this song is quite cool :D This is not saying she is on a 'CR' diet, but they have more incentive to keep looking good with diet. Eating a good diet usually leads to eating fewer calories.

http://www.youtube.com/v/DEt-bERE6Sw

Updates

Lets start with the bad thing first: My rabbit died today, now I have no pets. Dog, Chicken, 2 Rabbits and a budgie all gone... :(

Second bad thing: WHERE IS THE SUMMER GONE!?!?!?! Rain, floods, Rain, Rain, floods, Rain ,Rain, rain, rain! everyday...

The sad part out of the way, now back to the CR stuff:

Weight
Something has changed over the last few months and my weight continues to creep up, I woke up this morning with a weight of 110 lbs. Although this may be something to do with the weight lifting I've started, I don't know! Even before I made any significant changes my weight just started going up... and as I've said before, I'm serious about Calorie Restriction and I weigh all my food. Either my metabolism has changed, some sort of infection was doing freaky things to me, or someone is spiking my food (gulp). So what do I do from here, I'm eating the same number of calories but I'm gaining, maybe it's time to slowly reduce my calorie level?

Sinus issues resolved
I'm not sure if I mentioned this on my blog but my sinus issues that I had for a while have completely resolved, and how did that happen? Again some freaky stuff, I developed a 'cold' infection and it just totally blocked up everything, my ears, sinuses... yet since that infection the discolored PND and other sinus related issues are totally 100% gone. The only things I can say is a) something was removed due to the excess mucous carrying it out b) More sinus inflammation (from cold), more immune cells attracted to the area to fight both infections. It has been over 1 month now and everything still looking good, no sign of it coming back at all. Although I continue to use Neti Pot.


Calorie Restriction and Eating Disorders
It's quite absurd when people claim that all CRONies have eating disorders, when in actual fact it's probably the majority of the Western population that has the problem with food. If anything Calorie Restriction has opened up so much for me, it has got me to eat foods that I would have never eaten. I've also started to experiment with food now too, I enjoy cooking, and I have learned life skills.

Only if people knew just how much I enjoy eating my food, not because I'm 'starving', I'm never actually starving at all. But because I've gotten away from sugar and processed foods that actually taste like utter crap. The last time I had chips was almost 3 years ago! I'm now more open to try new foods, something that I would rarely do before. There is absolutely no way that my attitude towards eating as it is today will lead into some kind of harmful eating disorder. I've never loved food more than any time in my life. The variety I eat is far more than previously too.

For me, as a person who wants to live forever, it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to develop anything like AN. It would be the complete opposite of what I'm doing CR for and would not help me to achieve my goals. I don't worry about it, and all my family are now convinced that what I'm doing is good. I sit down with them every day to eat my meal. Only my meal is like a huge mountain of food so I'm usually the last one to finish.

The losing weight aspect of CR was a negative for me, no way do I like to look as skinny as I do, 120 lbs for me was lean but on my small frame and at 5ft 7, but looked quite normal even though I still had a low BMI. Weeks before I started CR was to do serious weight lifting. A few years back I tried for 2 months and guess what? I gained a whopping 2 lbs of muscle! Not a lot for 2 months weight lifting. I was taking whey protein and it still was extremely difficult. So maybe trying for that physique would have never actually worked anyway. I just can't seem to gain significant amount of muscle, period.

Why do CR
Others have their own reasons for doing CR. I know myself, and I know I'm not capable of self harm. I am so open about my practice of CR to family, friends, and my doctors. My doctors even support me... They even tell me that according to all the tests I get done, I'm a very healthy person and my risk certain diseases is very small. For me it hasn't been much of a journey it terms of improving health markers though. My blood pressure when I started CR was close to 100/60, Fasting glucose was low, cholesterol was already low, Inflammation was low too. So I was already in good shape to start off with. I've never been overweight or had any serious health issues either.


Quality of Life and CR
People go on about how CR will lessen the quality of life, but aren't they forgetting the fact that ILL HEALTH is what causes poor quality of life for the majority of people! How can you have 'a life' when you have so many serious chronic diseases? Health is something you take for granted until its getting worse. Some people spend a decade or more with bad quality health. And whats sad is that most of it is self inflicted. People need to respect their body more. Sadly it would probably take a very long time before attitudes start to change.


Family eating habits
I've tried to tell both my mother and father about what they're doing to their health but they continue to not listen. They are both now going through at least 1 tub of ice cream a day! My mother will be in hospital soon if she don't change because for breakfast she has tea and biscuits, for lunch it' ice cream and dinner its usually ice cream again, and then later in the night guess what!? more ice cream. This has now been going on for 2-3 months... her hair is falling out, will she listen to me? Nope! She sees the same doctor as me so I'm going to mention that he needs to test her for nutritional deficiencies because she has been living on junk food now for a few years, only rarely has a proper meal.

My father listens to me a bit, he does eat nuts, fruit, soups and stuff. Hes quite healthy although I think is getting into a bad habit of eating junk food everyday. At 50+ he should be improving his diet drastically because its when aging really starts to accelerate.

My sister and brother. My sister is binge drinking almost every other day, certainly overweight now and just completely ignores my advice. My brother listen to me, but he really can't afford the food, otherwise he'd probably eat some of it. He likes to talk about CR and longevity, technology and stuff.

Other stuff
My brother J is doing better for himself now though as hes in a good Rock band who are signed and going on tour in the U.S, and around Europe shortly. They also got a number one on the download chart here in the UK and top 5 in the channel 4 charts. I on the other hand am writing new materials and actively looking to join a band. Work has been unreliable again with no work... So i'm going to start looking for another job on Monday.

Better go now, this is long enough!

I know I will never have an eating disorder, and thats the most important thing.

To long life :D

In a world far far away...

I've been installing all my games over the last few days, one game in particular I was looking forward to seeing with my new computer, and that is a game called "oblivion". Unfortunately I haven't got access to my old game files on the other hard drive until I can get a drive bay thing so that I can take all the files off the hard drive. But the game oblivion is so addictive, I could live in that world! It's simply beautiful world, the environment is absolutely huge and you could literally spend hundreds of hours on it as there are so many things to do. I was just walking around inside the game for half hour or so, shot some arrows at a few animals and just looked at the scenery. I have a video recording software called Fraps, so I'll probably make a small video or something sometime. Here are a few screen shots from the game. The new graphics card has shader 3.0 too and this enables something called (HDR) which makes lighting a bit more realistic.



When you're playing a game like oblivion , hours seem like minutes. I started oblivion up around 2am, it's now 3:52am as I type this, and it only seems like I had been playing it for half hour! I know I have to limit gaming time and not get too addicted =/ E3 just happened the other day and there are some impressive games coming out, which I'm sure will distract me a lot over the next year! I can obviously see how attractive virtual reality will be in the near future, especially with new technologies that will enable full virtual reality. Thats where I feel most people will spend their spare time, and possibly even have jobs in VR environments.

Games are getting more realistic all the time, if anyone has seen some of the new stuff coming out like Crysis, it's just mind blowing. It looks so life like its incredible!

Here is a good video showing the game Oblivion. it's a bit blurry of course because of the compression, but open it in full screen to see properly by going to the link HERE or just watch below (although it much better in bigger screen by going to that link and clicking full screen on the bottom right corner of the video player interface)

All set up!

So my power supply arrives today, installed it but never got to switch on computer until around 10pm tonight. It worked, a few little problems so had to change over jumpers with hdd and cd roms (master, slave etc...). I never bothered trying the 350watt or 550 watt. The Q tech 550 was a really cheap psu and poor quality, so I never wanted to try that. I ended up using one 80GB ATA hard drive to install XP on, and will get all the data using external case drive thing for the two other hard drives (which contains lots of videos, photos, music and so on). There wasn't really another way of actually booting up the system as the hardware was completely new. The first boot up I did monitor the hardware monitor in BIOS, to check CPU temperature, fans and stuff. Always do that first. The asus bored has some neat overclocking tools too, which i'll check out after I get all my software loaded.

Gregg, I was going to go with the quad core, but I was basically forced to upgrade, plus i'm not loaded lol. I was actually trying to wait it out to get the quad core, or even more! The 80 core processor should be arriving within the next 3 years according to intel, but probably delays will happen, so say 5+ years.

I am also a crazy multi tasker, sure the 2 core processor will help a bit, but I know what you're saying about quad core. I think that I may have been a little too hastey in choosing which CPU I went with this time. My first computer was an INTEL 166MMX, then a P3, and after than I went over to AMD and have stuck with them. I guess I fear change again a little. I always tend to go with ATI now too... not had an Nvidia card in a LONG time. I hope to sell this graphics card at the end of the year for a ATI HD2900XT 1024mb Graphics card and upgrade RAM to 4GB, as its real cheap at the moment.

Next on my list though is getting a new monitor as the one I have is REAL blurry. So might get the Samsung 22" or dell 24" monitor in the next couple months. Not played any games or anything yet, but doing general stuff, loading times etc... seem to be much faster now. Extremely quiet PC as well, good choice of fans.


This is the first time I've actually really bought myself anyway for a long time, usually my money all goes on food and supplements. One thing I told myself I have to do in the next week is CAP my shopping budget. So if I run out of something, tough... Its the only way, beacuse shopping is sometimes reaching like 40 pounds a week just for me! Thats around $80.

I'm also thinking about giving up my Multi and taking specific supplements or possibly lower the dose of Essential mix so that it lasts around 3 months or something.

anyway gotta go install, configure and stuff :)

Almost forgot!

What do you think of Vista. You reckon I should wait a bit until they sort out updates, fixes, compatibility issues.... ?

Computer nearly done!

I've been saving and buying the new computer parts such as mainboard, processor, processor heatsink/fan, ram, gpu, and now finally a power supply unit. Unfortunately I spent a bit of money on delivery as I bought a few things on special offer intially... then later on got the money for a graphics card (yesterday) and then found out that the power requirements is FAR greater than my old systems. I had three power supply units but not enough, only 2 350's and a very cheap 550 watt psu. So i've just gone and ordered another power supply which cost 92 pounds. Hopefully I can sell my other power supply units to friends for 10 pound or so. At least i'll get something back from the 3 deliveries, each costing 8 pound!


Note; if you're wondering why I don't use the pound sign, its cos I haven't changed it on this computer so keyboard settings are u.s right now.


Anyway here are the specs of the new PC!

Antec TruePower Trio 650W PSU - With 3x 12v Rails
ASUS M2R32-MVP Radeon Xpress 3200 CrossFire
AM2: Athlon 64 X2 5000+
2 GB (2x1gb) Ultra low latency GEIL RAM
Power Colour ATI X1950XT 512mb GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics card
Creative Audigy 2 6.1 surround sound
160gb hdd
2x 250gb s/ata hdd
Pioneer dvd writer

One thing I hate even though I've been building cumputers for over 12 years is the first power up of the pc. Somehow I've gotta try and save all the files on the hdd's . I'm not sure if the system is going to boot because of the completely new hardware config... I've got like 4 years of stuff on there which I just hope that I can get access to!

My father just ordered a new power pack for our Dell Inspiron 9100 Laptop too. That broke a week after my old pc lol. Before I actually used to upgrade my computer about every 12-18 months, now its more like every 4-5 years! Sure I buy little upgrades, but replacing a whole system often is something that I can't keep doing as i'm not rich... yet. This setup should at least get me to around 2010-2011, and i'll hopefully just have to upgrade graphics card possibly add another 2gb ram at some point.

I've really had to catch up on computer hardware lately... because i've not really been reading up on the updates as much as I used to, or never got much involved in the whole thing. Obviousl I had to do my research before I put together this PC, and I was suprised just how far technology has gone since my last upgrade.

Computer Crisis

I'm sending this post using my parents Dell Laptop. Last night my computer decided to stop working! Checked everything, all components and taken everything out of case to see if it was something simple like RAM, cleared CMOS, changd battery, and now it leaves me with one of two components... The motherboard or processor! and I can't test either because I have no spares. The crappy thing about this is that I have all my college work saved on the hard disks but can't access the work. I just recieved my grant today 450 pounds. Which 100 went to my parents as I owe them it, and now that leaves me with 350 to either a) upgrade (had pc since 2003) or try and figure out which I need to replace. So at the moment im calling everyone as I need to find a AMD Socket A processor fsb 333mhz. This will tell me whether im dealing with a screwed up CPU or mainboard. When I start the thing up I don't get any beeps, no POST and no video. All fans work, lights, hdd's, cd roms etc...

I can't believe this happened at this time, everytime I get a bit of money so that I can relax a bit, something like this happens.

to sara; email me at whoa182 AT hotmail DOT COM with the address so I can send you back that 10 pounds. I don't have any access to my inbox on the other pc atm.

Matt

New photo section - matt aging

Click HERE to see some photos. There are some more I want to put up, but can't right now. However, there are pictures there of me at 11, 15, 19, 21, 22, 22-8m old. One of them is taken with some of my cousins, anthony on the right is the same age as me but was HUGE compared to my tiny frame lol. The one at Disney is me and my sister, she is about 2 years younger than me.

EDIT: Oh yes, I forget... I'm going to get my cholesterol checked on friday. Its been almost a year so hopefully I see an improvement in HDL from the increased take of EVOO.

EDIT:
New album
https://www.facebook.com/foreveryoung1984/media_set?set=a.255440573153.179633.635673153&type=3

Adiponectin ^ SIRT1 > Healthier aging?

I posted a paper on centenarians a while back on the CR lists suggesting that Adiponectin is worth measuring in long term calorie restrictors. I’m unaware that this has been measured at WUSTL? If it was could you share the results? Anyway, an old paper on centenarians looked at various aspects of their health, and it hypothesised that adiponectin plays a crucial role in the their health and longevity of these centenarians. They had three groups and only the centenarians had a statistically significant higher level of this adipocytokine, despite have a control group who were around the same BMI. From Paper [1] “Mean concentration of plasma adiponectin in female centenarians was almost twice as high as those in BMI-matched female controls (20.3 ± 7.4, 10.8 ± 3.9, P < 0.001, respectively), and also higher than those in elderly controls (P < 0.001)”. SIRT1 wasn’t actually measured in this study but [2] shows that Adiponectin induces expression of the SIRT1 Protein. There could be a possibility that because of the significantly higher level of adiponectin, these centenarians also had higher levels of SIRT1, (which is thought to be important in mammalian aging) and thus increased longevity. Centenarians also maintained a low BMI, but this could be the fact that they were suffering from age related muscle loss, as what happens with age. Although in the case of CR, it is sort of attenuated, in rodents at least. Calorie restriction is also thought to increase adipoectin in both rodents and humans under calorie restriction, and even those that have AN.


[1]Yasumichi Arai,1 Susumu Nakazawa,1 Toshio Kojima,3 Michiyo
Takayama,1 Yoshinori Ebihara,1 Ken-ichirou Shimizu,5 Ken Yamamura,1 Satoki Homma,1 Yasunori Osono,6 Yasuyuki Gondo,2 Yukie Masui,2 Hiroki Inagaki,2 Kohji Kitagawa4 and Nobuyoshi Hirose1 High adiponectin concentration and its role for longevity in female centenarians Geriatr Gerontol Int 2006; 6: 32–39


[2] Anthony E. Civitarese*, Stacy Carling, Leonie K. Heilbronn,
Mathew H. Hulver, Barbara Ukropcova, Walter A. Deutsch, Steven R. Smith, Eric Ravussin Calorie Restriction Increases Muscle Mitochondrial Biogenesis in Healthy Humans
PLoS Med. 2007 Mar 6;4(3):e76
PMID: 17341128

Super Centenarians

VIDEO:
CNN: Gupta on Super Centenarians

This is from a few months ago but thought I'd post it, as I don't have much time to post anything else right now. The women in this video is 112 years old. She didn't smoke or drink all her life and took care of herself...

The scientist mentions that in general, super centenarians look younger at all stages of life and function much younger than their age. Researchers attribute reaching these ages purely on genetics, but I have a feeling that depending on where in the world you look, different influences on getting to these ages will turn up. For example, in the U.S, its more likely to be genetics, as there are fewer centenarians than say japan. Where in particular Okinawa is thought to be more diet related.

Calorie Restriction seems to give the majority of its followers characteristics similar to long lived people. Lower body temperature, extremely good insulin sensitivity, and hopefully slower declining DHEA-S, lower levels of oxidative damage, better DNA repair and more. If you look up the evidence that is SLOWLY being found from centenarian studies you will see that the theories or details on why these people might reach such ages are pretty much also influenced by calorie restriction. We could argue that some long term CRers do in fact look a little younger than their ages too. Whether or not we push 120 years is very much up for debate, but I think our chances of reaching 100 is MANY times greater than the general population. It could just be that 'super centenarians' experience the longevity that would be possible on a CR diet (but they didn't do CR). So because the population is so big, the chances of genes influencing lifespan, how CR influences lifespan could be likely possibility.

This is interesting, it's from the Baltimore study on aging. As I said above, CR influences all three markers. So it seems average lifespan should at least be extended. I think assuming that Life long Calorie Restriction will only give 1-2 years extra life as a few researchers are saying is extremely pessimistic. Especially since we know how long certain groups of people live longer, one comes to mind is Seventh Day adventists, and they don't even do calorie restrction. This is quite obvious as various studies have shown their average BMI to be around 24 (ref 18.5-25). And the men live upto 9-10 years longer than the average american. This is just by eating a healthy diet!

Below: Men that show the same characteristics influenced by CR live longer (without CR).

CR article and Vitamin D!

Michael Rae posted this CR article on the CRS lists today. He was interviewed a while back he said in the email.

Interview with Michael Rae. Six feet tall, 115 lb., and talking about eating less and living longer. KENNETH WHYTE

A good read anyway...

Another good article is this one

The Antibiotic Vitamin

In April 2005, a virulent strain of influenza hit a maximum-security forensic psychiatric hospital for men that's midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. John J. Cannell, a psychiatrist there, observed with increasing curiosity as one infected ward after another was quarantined to limit the outbreak. Although 10 percent of the facility's 1,200 patients ultimately developed the flu's fever and debilitating muscle aches, none did in the ward that he supervised.

"First, the ward below mine was quarantined, then the wards on my right, left, and across the hall," Cannell recalls. However, although the 32 men on his ward at Atascadero (Calif.) State Hospital had mingled with patients from infected wards before their quarantine, none developed the illness.

Amazing!

There was also another article on Vitamin D and TB the other week

Scientists have shown that a single 2.5mg dose of vitamin D may be enough to boost the immune system to fight against tuberculosis

There has been a lot of talk and research on the fole of Vitamin D3 on health in recent years and months. If you do a quick google search every few days theres usually always something new. I think around october time I'm goin to start supplementing at least 4000-5000IU of vitamin D3. Toxicity ranges are MUCH HIGHER than this dose. We typically make around 10,000+ just by going outdoors for around 30 minutes on summers day!

Shopping :)

Finally went food shopping, thanks agains to the two people that helped out! It was so nice of you :) It helped me avoid that junk food =/



So these are just a few things I bought, I kept a little bit of money just incase I need to pick up anything in the next few days

I bought:

Kale
almonds
2 bananas
Apples
Yeo valley organic bioactive plain yogurt
Sweet potatoes
Red Onions
Kale
Cauli (frozen)
broccoli (frozen)
green beans (frozen)
spinach (frozen)
Blueberries frozen
Tomatoes on vine
Ginger
Lindt 85% dark chocolate (50p!)

I also have a few things I bought the other day

Carrots
EVOO
Kale
Garlic
4 canned of beans (very low salt and sugar)

I must say I'm doing so well lately, I think its been around almost 4-5 weeks since my temperature returned to normal, I started to feel great. I still have no anxiety at all, I seem to be smiling all day, others can notice that I'm much happier and healthy too. I can concentrate better than ever and I feel so good, its hard to describe :D I FEEL so healthy!!! FINALLY! I knew things would work out. Now just gotta get one last problems sorted, which I have an appointment on the 4th with an ENT doctor. Its much more controlled now i'm using the Neti pot though.

I'm going to ask my doctor for a cholesterol test sometime this summer, my last one showed that my HDL decreased slightly, but total cholesterol was 109mg/dl and LDL at 58mg/dl. So pretty good, even for my age. When I get my grant I'm THINKING about getting a glucose monitor. I really want to understand exactly what my meals are doing to my glucose levels at the moment. Going to see student services this friday to check if I can get my grant now as my attendence has been 100% since I've been feeling better.

All done -- almost!

Last week left at college, well actually it officially ends around 29th june... but a lot of classes are finished now as we've completed all the units for this year. I just been organising the rest of my work. I have hundreds of papers which are completely spread out all over my room. Next time I need to be just a bit more organised :)

Over the summer I hope to get back to learning Spanish as I set out to do a while back. Its just I never had time this year as I've been swamped with college stuff and work. I also want to dive back into studying Cell Biology. I bought "Molecular Biology of the cell 4th edition" - Excellent book! but quite complicated and a lot to take in. Extracting and storing the most relevant stuff is quite a task. Although this will be critical for medical school. I'm going to have carry on learning to prepare for next year also, I need to work on my Maths especially. Its not that I don't like it or find it really hard... its just I never bothered at all during high school, so while others had around 5 years of learning during that time, I only spent a few months actually revising. Its quite a turn I took after reading Ray Kurzweils books. He completely changed my life for the better.

Anyway I going to cook some food now. Thank you so much to those who helped out I really appreciate it so much.

Good day 2 all :)

CR reading

I was looking around the AOR website to see what stuff they have these days... also check out some of their articles because they're quite good. Seen one which is about CR, maybe MR wrote it as it was back in 2003. When I have some time after I get this college work out of the way, i'll be posting up lots of articles on CR, and interviews with CRers on my website.

Get it here

CR'd - like it or not

As I've had no work over the last few weeks, college not authorising my grant because of attendence (re-evaluated at end of may), i've basically been living on around £5 a week for 3 weeks. So I've been portioning out food for myself, only its about to run out with the next couple days. So now what do I do? lol. I've gotta try and make the following last around 10 days. I get paid next friday because I work wednesday, thursday and saturday this week, and all next week. The problem is i'm doing a full time college course, so no benefits allowed. Work is usually reliable but there has been no surveys to do recently.

Wholemeal bread (around 20 slices each at 93k/cal each)
Olive oil (around 40g left in bottle)
14g almonds
250g of quaker oats
tomato sauce (half a bottle)
Two tubs of essential mix
800g of broccoli (frozen)
400g of cauli (frozen)
100g of green beans (frozen)
80g of baby carrots (frozen)
200g of peas (frozen)
30~ 25g servings of Whey protein powder
2/3 of a bottle of Cod Liver Oil / Fish Oil
1 130g canned tuna
Skim milk
3 green tea bags


I was just using beans everyday but have ran all out of that. Its useful in these situations because it has lots of protein and is a good low gi food and energy dense.

However, there is plenty of junk food here of course. Do I really want to touch that? no... but somehow I've gotta either become a little more CR'd to around 1500k/cal a day for around until the 25th or eat all junk food. I can easily meet almost every nutrient by taking higher dose of my essential mix. Of course there is other less than adequate cereals available that I can eat like wheatabix, they're Ok ish I suppose. I've also increased whey protein to 3 servings a day.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

CR website and other...

I've added a whole bunch of media on my website. Most are direct links to the videos... some I've already posted on here but not all. See them here

I thought I was going to be ill agains yesterday. Its coming to the end of college year and a lot of rushing around trying to get things organised. So I only managed around 4 hours sleep tuesday night, then on wednesday I thought I was getting a cold because it seems to be going around right now. However, this time I got a mild soar throat with that feeling of 'im going to be ill'. Then went to sleep and woke up without any sign of a cold :) Very similar to what I experienced in my first 1.5 years of CR, where I would have the start of some cold symptoms, then it would go away and never last more than a few hours. Summer holidays are nearly here, then I'll have some time to recharge, to have lots of rest and let my immunity to build up again. That college is a perfect place to catch nasty viruses and stuff.

Ending Aging

Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Biotechnologies That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime can be pre ordered on amazon now!

Authors include Aubrey De Grey and Michael Rae. If anyone is interested in the science and technologies that will enable us to finally deal with aging, then pick up this book. I'm ordering my copy when I get home from college :)

107 year old blogs

Thought i'd share this. Enjoy.

107 year old blog

Apparently she was really thin all through her life too. Which you can actually see in the photos. In her fourth post they mike and ollie talk about longevity.

Mike

"You don’t eat much, do you?"

Olive (centenarian)

"Not much."

Mike

"I used to know a centenarian called Roy Fox who lived round here. He was famous for two things. He was still driving at 100 and he knew the secret of long life, at least he thought he did."

Chloe

"What was it?"

Mike

"He chewed his food really slowly. He was convinced this was the reason for his reaching 100 and he may have been right because, his eating slowly meant that he was full quicker and so he actually ate less. So, Ollie, you do the same thing, you eat very little and that explains why you are still with us without a doubt!"

Website, progress and stuff...

Nothing to report so far. Everything seems to be going good... I'm back in work tomorrow and the rest of the week :) I feel much more upto going to work also, as before I didn't because of quite a few probs. However, things will hopefully get better still after I see the ENT doctor. I don't know what I should expect on the first appointment, he probably just wants some backround info and stuff, I'm not at all sure if the doctor will check up my nose and stuff with an endoscope?

I hope everyone is doing well. I hope I provided at least some valuable information during this whole thing over the last few months. Best to prevent things that learn from mistakes :D My website will be updated shortly with lots of new info, links to articles, videos, audio, documentary, CR general info and more. Just gotta get through the rest of college first.

picture update

Nothing interesting happen today... another nice sunnny day, just finishing and getting all my college folders sorted to be moderated. Heres a pic I took, which I thought I'd share as I don't think i've put one up of more than just my head in the photo lol. Click enlarge picture.

Body weight and mortality

Just because people have a low BMI does not mean they are on Calorie Restriction or have the optimal nutrition part. Controlling for all factors that result in a low body weight would be difficult. Usually they just exclude deaths in the first 5 years and see if it attenuates the increase in death among underweight and overweight people. Sometimes this actually works, but sometimes it doesn't and for those reasons it seems that something is being missed and that trying to figure out this mess will be difficult because the results are fairly inconsistent. I argue that the mere fact that some cohorts have actually shown a decrease in mortality and morbidity when at a low BMI then it gives us hope that [UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMNSTANCES] like CRON, we will have a more favourable response. Below are just a few studies that I have collected to show that low BMI doesn't always = higher mortality. The studies I've chosen here were for obvious reasons. Seventh day adventsts and Physicians for example would be more health conscious and therefor avoid some factors that could influence mortality.

Body mass index and mortality among US male physicians.
Ann Epidemiol. 2004 Nov;14(10):731-9.
PURPOSE: To assess the relationship between body mass index and mortality in a population homogeneous in educational attainment and socioeconomic status. METHODS: We analyzed the association between body mass index (BMI) and both all-cause and cause-specific mortality among 85,078 men aged 40 to 84 years from the Physicians' Health Study enrollment cohort. RESULTS: During 5 years of follow-up, we documented 2856 deaths (including 1212 due to cardiovascular diseases and 891 due to cancer). In age-adjusted analyses, we observed a U-shaped relation between BMI and all-cause mortality; among men who never smoked a linear relation was observed with no increase in mortality among leaner men (P for trend, <0.001). Among never smokers, in multivariate analyses adjusted for age, alcohol intake, and physical activity, the relative risks of all-cause mortality increased in a stepwise fashion with increasing BMI. Excluding the first 2 years of follow-up further strengthened the association (multivariate relative risks, from BMI<20 to > or = 30 kg/m2, were 0.93, 1.00, 1.00, 1.16, 1.45, and 1.71 [P for trend, <0.001]). In all age strata (40-54, 55-69, and 70-84 years), never smokers with BMIs of 30 or greater had approximately a 70% increased risk of death compared with the referent group (BMI 22.5-24.9). Higher levels of BMI were also strongly related to increased risk of cardiovascular mortality, regardless of physical activity level (P for trend, <0.01). CONCLUSIONS: All-cause and cardiovascular mortality was directly related to BMI among middle-aged and elderly men. Advancing age did not attenuate the increased risk of death associated with obesity. Lean men (BMI<20) did not have excess mortality, regardless of age.PMID: 15519894 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Body mass index and patterns of mortality among Seventh-day Adventist men.Int J Obes. 1991 Jun;15(6):397-406.
This study examines the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and 26-year mortality among 8828 nonsmoking, nondrinking Seventh-day Adventist men, including 439 who were very lean (BMI less than 20 kg/m2). The adjusted relative risk comparing the lowest BMI quintile (less than 22.3) to the highest (greater than 27.5 kg/m2) was 0.70 (95 percent CI 0.63-0.78) for all cause mortality, 0.60 (95 percent CI 0.43-0.85) for cerebrovascular mortality, and 0.80 (95 percent CI 0.61-1.04) for cancer mortality. Very lean men did not show increased mortality. To assess whether the protective effect associated with low BMI is modified by increasing age, the product term between BMI and attained age (age at the end of follow-up or at death) was included as a time-dependent covariate. For ischemic heart disease mortality, age-specific estimates of the relative risk for the lowest quintile relative to the highest ranged from 0.32 (95 percent CI, 0.19-0.52) at age 50 to 0.71 (95 percent CI, 0.56-0.89) at age 90. Interaction was also seen for the next lowest quintile (22.4-24.2). There was a significant trend of increasing mortality with increasing BMI for all endpoints studied. For cancer and cerebrovascular mortality the P-values for trend were 0.0001 and 0.001 respectively. For the other endpoints the P-values were less than 0.0001. Thus, there was no evidence for a J-shaped relationship between BMI and mortality in males. While the protective effect associated with the lowest BMI quintile decreased with increasing age for ischemic heart disease mortality, it remained greater than one at all ages. The relatively large number of subjects who were lean by choice, rather than as a result of preclinical disease or smoking, may explain these findings.PMID: 1885263 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


Relationship between morbidity and body mass index of mariners in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force fleet escort Force
To establish a practical weight management program for mariners in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) Fleet Escort Force, the relationship between morbidity and body mass index (BMI) was studied. To estimate morbidity, 10 medical problems were used as indices (hyperlipidemia, hyperuricemia, diabetes mellitus, lung disease, heart disease, upper gastrointestinal tract disease, hypertension, renal disease, liver disease, and anemia). A curvilinear relationship was found between morbidity and BMI, in which a BMI of 17.5 was associated with the lowest morbidity. This curvilinear pattern was more complex than a curve reported previously for Japanese civilians. Using the present curve and aiming for a BMI of 17.5 will help in the design and implementation of a practical management program for health promotion in the JMSDF.
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=1101215

NIHNC, CDC, & DHHS. (1985). Body weight, health and longevity: conclusions and recommendations of the workshop. Nutrition Reviews, February, 43(2), pages 61-3.
In 1985, the National Institute of Health, Centers for Disease Control, and the Department of Health and Human Services published a "special report" stating: "[S]tudies based on life insurance data, the American Cancer Society Study and other long-term studies, such as the Framingham Heart Study and the Manitoba Study, indicate that the weights associated with the greatest longevity tend to be below the average weights of the population as long as such weights are not associated with concurrent illness or a history of medical impairment.


Lee IM. et al. (1993). Body weight and mortality. A 27-year follow-up of middle-aged men. Journal of the American Medical Association, December 15, 270(23), pages 2823-8.
In 1993, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that concluded: "In these prospective data, body weight and mortality were directly related. After accounting for confounding by cigarette smoking and bias resulting from illness-related weight loss or inappropriate control for the biologic effects of obesity, we found no evidence of excess mortality among lean men. Indeed, lowest mortality was observed among men weighing, on average, 20% below the US average for men of comparable age and height.

Manson E. et al. (1995). Body wight and mortality among women. New England Journal of Medicine, September 14, 333(11), pages 677-85.
In 1995, a study published in New England Journal of Medicine concluded: "Among women who never smoked, the leanest women ... had the lowest mortality, and even women with average weights had higher mortality. Mortality was lowest among women whose weights were below the range of recommended weights in the current U.S. guidelines. Moreover, a weight gain of 10 kg of more since the age of 18 was associated with increased mortality in middle adulthood. These data indicate that the lowest mortality rate for U.S. middle- aged women is found at body weights at least 15 percent below the U.S. average for women of similar age.

Solomon CG. (1997). Obesity and mortality: a review of the epidemiologic data. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October, 66(4 Suppl), pages 1044S-1050S.
In 1997, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study on body weight and mortality stating: "We conclude that when appropriate adjustments are made for effects of smoking and underlying disease, optimal weights [for longevity] are below average in both men and women; this appears to be true throughout the adult life span.

Easter Eggs

I hope you are all having a nice easter holiday :) -- As you all probably know by now I'm not religious at all anymore, but then again, i've never thought about easter as a religious occasion or whatever, for most kids its about easter eggs and a break from school. Religion, the bible and all that, its something I can never believe again... but still, I respect this religious time of the year.

So back to CR and food. Today I've stayed under 1900k/cal and managed to limit my intake to 300k/cal ~ of chocolate. Both from an easter egg, and some of my lindt dark chocolate with a cup of green tea. Occassionas like this I will enjoy some treats and not think too much about anything else other than the moment (chocolate is so nice!). There is no guilt from the one off consumption of less than adequte foods... but at the end of the day, I still end up quite CR'd relative to my ad lib intake. I think this a healthy attitude, I am in complete control, and continue on with my normal CR tomorrow. Not sure if I mentioned but I'm now at 1670k/cal per day (apart from today of course) and seem to be maintaing weight still. I seem to have this 'buffer range' where I can go over a certain amount and under, but nothing seems to happen to my weight... or its just too little to notice a difference over a short period. Anyway, thats all for today... thanks for the replies the other day :)

Spot the difference

Not much happen today... but I can't believe how fast this college year has gone by, its almost over! So i'm just making sure everything is done and handed in. So i've done lots of work and spent some time playing guitar and being creative.

After that, while being bored and came across a picture on the web from the Wisconsin University Primate study section. The difference is stunning...

One is CR'd and one is not. Both the same age!



As I cut down my porridge to two days a week, I now going to just have it one day a week and then probably less.



As april said before, it doesn't really provide much nutrition and there are far better foods that can contribute to a better CR.

Starvation for long Life

I posed this on the CRS Mainlist. But will post it here too cos I don't have anything to write about today. Basically there was a paper pubhsed which has been posted in the CR Mainlist and it said that there would be extremely little to gain from middle life CR and early CR. Anything from 2 years gained life expectancy if started in middle age, to 9 years if one started in their 20's and done 30% CR... and this what I think.

Starvation for long Life
If you look at the average person by middle-late age they usually suffer from multiple ailments such as pre diabetes or full blown diabetes, overweight, heart disease, high blood pressure, and other chronic debilitating conditions which can be attributed to a lifetime of neglect. The average person has poor food choices, poor micronutrient intake and usually several deficiencies, one being omega 3 which is quite common and under-diagnosed in the west.

If you look at Seventh Day Adventist their life expectancy is much greater than that of the average American by just engaging in a healthy lifestyle and NOT being CR'd at all. As reported before their average BMI seems to be in the upper end of normal around BMI 23-25. With vegetarians being leaner and gaining slightly increased life expectancy over non vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists. So diet alone.

[1] article states "Researchers discovered that the life expectancy of a 30-year-old vegetarian Adventist woman was 85.7 years, and 83.3 years for a vegetarian Adventist man. This exceeds the life expectancies of other Californians by 6.1 years for women and 9.5 years for men. Non-vegetarian Adventist women in the group had a life expectancy of 84 years, and non-vegetarian men, 81 years"

Their reduction in heart disease in Calorie Restrictors will be more significant. Looking at the data gathered in the study at WUSTL the risk for CRONies is extremely low. This spans across all age ranges from anecdotal reports. This effects isn't unexpected as it has already been observed in many other species. Human are more prone to heart disease and is right up there as the biggest killer... and CRON virtually eliminates it, our risk is almost 0. Not to forget an improvement in heart function from 15-20 years younger than a CRers actual age [5]. Sure, you can argue that we were going against some fat middle aged ad libers, but then who the hell do you think we compare to? These people are still part of the population with an average BMI of close to 25 than still manage to survive into their late 70's despite complete ignorance and neglect of nutrition and health.

There is also NO CHANCE unless you have some extreme predisposition to it for getting type two diabetes.

With low cholesterol, combined with low blood pressure our risk of both ischemic and cerebral hemorrhage will be quite low. At least from the evidence being gathered at the moment.... Those with extremely low lipids <150mg/dl combined with high blood pressure, be careful one of your arteries don't pop as you get older. Risk is usually after the age of 60. Although your risk would still be lower than that of a person who has high cholesterol which results in an ischemic stroke. CRON works wonders against both.

Survival to old age

In a study spanned over many years a report came out in JAMA showing that men with no risk factors had a probability of survival to oldest age as high as 69%. And the probability of reaching 85 years was 55% with no risk factors (which almost CRONers typically meet all Criteria) and fell to 9% with 6 or more risk factors, which most of the people in the U.S have by the time they reach 50. [4].

So the study above indicates that CRONers, just by disease reduction alone can expect much greater chance of survival into their late 80's without the help of Calorie Restriction to actually slow down *AGING* itself.

Aubrey De Grey

Good smart guy, but his theory of an absolute maximum of 2 year extension will be proven wrong in the rhesus monkey studies soon. Obesity avoidance studies at a university which I can't remember the name of right now showed that the average monkey on a CR'd diet lived to around 32 years (equivalent of 96 human years?) and was 30% longer than ad lib with 30% CR. Survival curves on the study from Wisconsin are still too early to tell, but they look like they are doing quite a good study here. NIA studies IMO are just messed up, way too low in fat also.

In the grand scheme of things what can we expect?

If you take a step back a minute and realise that CALORIE RESTRICTION is the only known consistent way to extend maximal lifespan in many species, then it becomes clear that your best bet, by a long shot is to CRON your way to 100+.

Think of the differences in human longevity, from person to person. One person can live decades than another. Isn't that AMAZING?! Calment lived DECADES longer than the average person... Her aging was much slower than the average person. There are centenarians that live to old age and centenarians that survive to old age. Calment lived and survived to old age with luck, genetics and possibly lifestyle factors. But it shows you just how much of a degree there can be between how much longer one can possibly live.

CR can be compared to having good genes. No actually, I'd go further than that... I'd say that CRON is BETTER in some cases than just having good genes. CRON = a genetic shift towards extreme longevity.

The question remains whether we can equal someone like Calments longevity, or can we surpass it easily. My bet would be that through CRON the person with good enough genes will come very close because the rate of aging will be slowed to an equivalent or better than a person who reaches extreme longevity 110+ years. And the extreme reduction in disease, combined with advanced medical care will enable most of us here to become centenarians. Especially for those that started young.

Was Walford being realistic with his numbers?

IMO I think the answer is yes, to a certain extent. I really believe that CR will put us on a survival curve that is ends much beyond what the average person is on. Maybe he was being a tad optimistic but I don't think he was that far off.

From what I've seen, our cohort attracts young looking people for their age, or long term CRON has dramatically slowed down how old they appear to be. Especially long term CRONers.... I wont mention names though, I love you all and don't want anyone to feel bad if I miss them out :p lol.

I believe by starting in ones 20's they will extend their own lifespan by 20-30 years at least. Optimistic ??? I don't care, I hear optimistic people live longer

I don't have the page reference. But DR Roy Walford mentions in his book, and its true.

In order to do LIFE LONG CALORIE RESTRICTION you have to maintain a conviction, a strong belief that Calorie Restriction will result in significant gains in life extension otherwise you probably wont stick to it all your life and gain those many extra years or decades.

The huge difference between when the average person dies, and when the oldest human ever documented lived is huge, spanning over 40 years? That’s a remarkable reduction in the rate of aging. Aging must have been slowed in her, and damn right, CRON will slow the aging for us. To what degree is up for debate. But I would bet that our average life expectancies will be up their with those lucky few who survived to extreme old age without the help of calorie restriction.

If anything is going to work, its CR for sure.


Matt



[1] Study Links Adventist Lifestyle With Longevity http://news.adventist.org/data/2001/06/0995375716/index.html.en

[2] Body mass index and patterns of mortality among Seventh-day Adventist men. Lindsted K, Tonstad S, Kuzma JW.
PMID: 1885263

[3] Fraser GE. Associations between diet and cancer, ischemic heart disease, and all-cause mortality in non-Hispanic white California Seventh-day Adventists. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 Sep;70(3 Suppl):532S-538S.

[4] Midlife Risk Factors and Healthy Survival in Men http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/296/19/2343

[5] Long-term calorie restriction is highly effective in reducing the risk for atherosclerosis in humans http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/101/17/6659

[6] Caloric restriction appears to prevent primary aging in the heart http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-01/wuso-cra011206.php

[7] http://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/guide/20061101/optimism-may-help-you-live-longer