How to Live Beyond Age 120 Part VI & VII – Medical News
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By The Eismans (And we should know as we are doctors)
PART VI
SUGAR AND ALCOHOL
There are experts in this field who feel that sugar is even more toxic than fat. When I was in training, back in the Cretaceous Period, the belief was that people who had a few ounces of alcohol a week, lived longer than those that had no alcohol at all. Today, we feel that it is best not to drink alcohol at all. Women who have three ounces of alcohol a week have a much higher risk of breast cancer. It is felt that the alcohol damages DNA and also converts to estrogen which accelerates the growth of small, estrogen sensitive breast cancers.5 Perhaps alcohol should be ranked with tobacco as an evil. Alcohol also makes you fat. Hay! I don’t drink beer. Fine, but alcohol itself is converted to sugar.7 Now, just to make you totally crazy. There are reputable studies to show that bourbon is good for you. I have sacrificed a great deal of space for the many references in this regard just to show you that there are two sides to every question.
About forty years ago I was asked to give a lecture regarding which foods are healthy, and which should be avoided. When I discussed sugar, I stated that its evil was that it was empty calories, and had no vitamins. Sugar should be avoided if you want to lose weight. Boy! Have things changed. Sugar is no longer considered harmless, and may increase inflammation of the arteries. Most soda is loaded with sugar, and people who drink one can of soda a day are FAT. Okay, you say, but I only drink diet soda. It has zero calories. Sorry, those people are fat also. But why??? We don’t know the answer, but perhaps those artificial sugars increase our appetite.
PART VII
EXERCISE
Okay, I would like to be a couch potato and just sit in front of the TV. There is no question; this is not a healthy activity. Observation studies (remember, since Hitler left power, we are not allowed to do true double blind studies), have shown that just sitting around leads to early death. We must put time aside to exercise. One unanswered question is; what kind of exercise? Should we do weight training or aerobic exercise such as long distance running. Many studies show that weight training causes some increase in caloric consumption and some weight loss. So, there are many studies that contradict each other. It appears that all forms of exercise are good (just avoid the testosterone). 8
One study, that I read, is interesting to the ladies. They took a group of fat women and told them that they are restricted to weight training. No bicycle, running, swimming etc. Now, weight training consumes only a few calories. It was not surprising that these women did not lose weight. BUT, they lost dress sizes. Muscle weighs much more than fat. I must apologize as I cannot find the article to add to the bibliography. Obviously, the best exercise is a combination of aerobic, i.e. running, and weight training.6
Beyond prolonging life with exercise, there are other factors to consider. Would you like to live to 120 years, but spend the last twenty years pushing a walker, or being pushed in a wheel chair? Living a few more years under those conditions does not sound great. Exercise is not the whole story, but might be a benefit for an active life to the end.
Dr. Eisman is the author of Bitter Medicine. To purchase a copy, click HERE.
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