The ill state of the nation’s economy is headline news, and we are all facing the challenges of a difficult and uncertain economic future. You can plan for yourself and your family’s financial security by readying your personal health. By extending the number of your productive healthy years, you reap the benefits of an enhanced quality of life, and reduce the costs of disease and disability to society. As American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) wrote, “The first wealth is health.”
The first step to prepare your personal health and longevity is to start living the anti-aging lifestyle. There are no “magic bullet” anti-aging medicines. Anti-aging medicine is, in fact, a strategic multi-faceted lifestyle program involving diet, exercise, nutritional therapies, and other natural approaches to beneficially alter the series of biological changes that take place in the body as we age. Physician and health practitioner members of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M; www.worldhealth.net) seek to understand these age-related declines to serve as your partner in a personalized medical program to help you reap the benefits of the anti-aging longevity dividend. You can find a board-certified, fellowship trained physician member of the A4M near you by logging on to the A4M’s Web site, and selecting to search the online physician directory.
The anti-aging lifestyle can add 24.6 more years of productive lifespan. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that the longest-living Americans are Asian-American women residing in Bergen County, New Jersey USA. They live longer than any other ethnic group in the United States, to an average lifespan of 91.1 years. In contrast, the Harvard team found that the shortest-living Americans are Native American populations in South Dakota, despite receiving free or low-cost government provided medical care, living an average lifespan of 66.5 years. The distinguishing characteristic of the Bergen County women, and hence their extended longevity, is that they avail themselves of the armament of state-of-the-art biomedical technologies in advanced preventive care, including preventive screenings, early disease detection, aggressive intervention, and optimal nutrition—all of which are cornerstones of the anti-aging medical model. “Bergen County, NJ is long in longevity,” New York Times, September 12, 2006; “Asian women in Bergen have nation’s top life expectancy,” Free Republic, September 12, 2006.
In the latest study to validate the anti-aging lifestyle for both extending lifespan as well as prolonging health span, Mark Kaplan, from Portland State University (Oregon, USA), and colleagues examined the maintenance of exceptionally good health among 2,432 elder Canadians. They tracked participants’ health for a 10-year period, from 1994 to 2004. The researchers found that the most important predictors of excellent health over the entire decade were: absence of chronic illness, income over U.S. $30,000, having never smoked, and drinking alcohol in moderation. In addition, maintaining a positive outlook and managing stress levels were positive contributors to health in age. The team comments that: “Many of these factors can be modified when you are young or middle-aged. While these findings may seem like common sense, now we have evidence of which factors contribute to exceptional health [as we age.]” 1
Aging poses a costly burden to this nation, in terms of personal, financial, and societal costs. Anti-aging medicine addresses aging as a treatable medical condition, aiming to reduce or eliminate the disabilities, diseases, and dysfunctions we have simply assumed are a part of growing older. The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, and its 22,000-plus member physicians and health practitioners from 105 nations embrace a hopeful and innovative model for advanced preventive health care, one in which the healthy human lifespan is optimized and maximized. Your personal health equals your family’s fiscal fitness. By extending the number of your productive years of health, you help to conserve worker productivity, reduce disability and hospitalization costs, and slash the burden of costs associated with chronic long-term medical conditions.
Take control of your health destiny today. Partner with a qualified anti-aging physician or health practitioner near you, one who is a member of The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), the world’s leading medical organization dedicated to the advancement of technology to detect, prevent, and treat age-related disease and to promote research into methods to retard and optimize the human aging process. Find a board-certified, fellowship trained physician member of the A4M near you by logging onto The World Health Network, the A4M’s educational Web site, at www.worldhealth.net, and select to search the online physician directory. While at The World Health Network, join more than 550,000 physicians, health practitioners, and members of the general public and opt-in to receive the A4M’s FREE Anti-Aging News Journal.
References:
- Kaplan MS, Huguet N, Orpana H, Feeny D, McFarland BH, Ross N. “Prevalence and factors associated with thriving in older adulthood: a 10-year population-based study.” J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2008 Oct;63(10):1097–104.
