Has The Fountain Of Youth Been Discovered?

Imagine that someone told you that the fountain of youth was discovered and all you have to do is put up forty bucks and you can have a jar of it to drink or eat. I’m sure you wouldn’t fall for that obvious line of baloney but you hear it all the time. But unfortunately many people do fall for this sort of stuff. Most people are like goldfish. Not that they have fins and swim around in a fish tank but because goldfish have an attention span of only three seconds. That’s right, only 3 little seconds!

This means that fish are slow learners. After all, what can possibly be learned in just three seconds? So if they eat a small disgusting worm that makes them sick, three minutes later they will eat another one and get sick again. Yes they will eat another little slimy worm and get sick all over again. So what happens after they give the salesman forty dollars for that fountain of youth in a jar and it doesn’t work? They forget all about the first sale and in a few seconds just like the goldfish that at ate the worm they give another forty dollars to the next salesman claiming the exact same thing. So to understand this, even though there is no fountain of youth in a jar, there are three important things to take into consideration that can make you live up to twenty percent longer and look years younger.

First is having a positive mental attitude. That’s right, positive thinking actually makes you live longer. In fact, a study done at the Mayo Clinic revealed that optimists lived 20% longer than pessimists! Imagine that looking on the bright side and cracking a smile every once in a while may put 10 or 15 years on your life. There’s another interesting side note to optimists. They have more friends!

The second thing to consider is exercise. Of course you’re aware that everyone is always talking about how good exercise is. You work hard at the gym and you run circles around the race track and maybe you live an extra year from doing this. Of course it may be the last year when you’re too old to care about it anyway. Well, it gives me great pleasure to tell you just how wrong you are when considering this. A groundbreaking study published in JAMA in 1994 showed that the bodies of forty postmenopausal women became fifteen to twenty years more youthful after the women lifted weights twice a week for a year.

Lifting weights twice weekly certainly is not slaving away in the gym. This is something you have to understand to get the full grasp of it. That’s something anyone can do to look years younger and feel great. I know it’s not quite as intriguing as the fountain of youth and may take a little more time but it really does work.

And here’s another interesting exercise fact, exercise can even overcome bad genes which most people thought was unthinkable. In a study of sixteen thousand sets of healthy twins, researchers kept track of their lifestyle for nearly two decades. At the end of the study, they discovered that those who exercised regularly and at thirty minute intervals twice a week cut their risk of dying almost in half when compared to their sedentary sibling that did not exercise.

This brings us to the third and final reason. It is reducing free radicals to avoid damage. Although most experts disagree about exactly what causes our bodies to become damaged and age quicker than others, one of the leading theories attributes it to damage caused by free radicals. These dangerous molecules that are missing an electron, bind with healthy cells in our body and wreak havoc on those cells’ ability to function. According to this theory, the most optimal approach to slowing the aging process is to provide the body with plenty of ammunition against free radicals. You can do this by increasing your intake of antioxidants and other healthy nutrients. Our bodies produce many antioxidants to counteract the damage, but if there is not a large enough supply in our body, cellular damage may not be repaired and sooner or later, we become very ill.

Forget for a few moments about carbohydrates, protein and fat. Instead focus on food as a source of antioxidants for your health. The most powerful food sources of these all-important nutrients are vegetables and fruits, so those should be the greatest portion of things on your plate. Round out each meal with whole grains, like brown rice, whole wheat bread, cereal and pasta, plus low-fat dairy products and lean meats. Sugar and fat should be the smallest category.

The National Cancer Institute did a study that shows how powerful a diet of this kind can be. It is the key to great health. Researchers examined eating habits of over forty five thousand women and found that those who ate a diet high in fruits, vegetables, grains, low-fat dairy and lean meats cut their risk of dying from disease by thirty percent. This is an outstanding finding.

So there are multiple ways to drink from the fountain of youth! These are maintaining a positive mental attitude, exercise regularly, and eat a proper diet can keep you happy and healthy as you become older and much wiser! And hopefully you will enjoy the process of growing older with that life has to offer.