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Sunday, April 15, 2007

Chasing Life with Sanjay Gupta

Some facts I gathered from the special:

If we could maintain the vitality and healing capacity we had as a 10 year old we could live till we're 1,200 years old.
We reach our physical peak between 20 and 30 and begin a steady decline after that.
Stem cell therapy is growing in popularity in Eastern European countries to treat aging. Its success is largely unproven, it is possibly dangerous and is illegal.
At the turn of the last century the average life expectancy was 47 years.
With the advent of antibiotics and public health agencies controlling water and such the average life expectancy is close to 80 now.
In lab studies animals living on a calorie restricted diet tend to live longer lives then their fully fed counterpart.
Those on a 6 month calorie restricted diet experienced:
loss of weight
lowered cholesterol
higher HDL cholesterol
less damage to DNA
Lower body temperature is linked to longer life. Calorie restricted diet resulted in lower body temperature.
High HDL cholesterol is a good marker for longevity.
The Blue Zone is where people live disproportionately longer lives. These zones are found in Sardinia (polyphenol in local wine), Okinawa (higher purpose, lots of fish and tofu), Loma Linda, California(clean living) and Costa Rica (lots of fruits and vegetables).
American's spend several billion dollars a year on dietary supplements.
The benefits of growth hormones for adults are low, the risks are high.



Ewwww. Sorry but this was the scale that the couple who were eating a near starvation diet used. Healthy diet, probably, but the bacteria on that scale could kill a horse!






The meal that they prepared with Sanjay actually looked quite good. Heirloom tomato salad, asparagus, talapia, and a brownie sundae with fruit. Total calories for the meal? 630






Sanjay visited with Dr. Andrew Weil, at his ranch outside of Tucson. Dr. Weil is famous for his research in vitamin supplements. His recommendations for healthy additives? Alpha Lipoic Acid (fights heart disease and diabetes), Selenium (prevent cancer) and fish oil (omega 3 fatty acid).

So that's about it for part 1 of Dr. Sanjay Gupta's Chasing Life. Here are a few screencaps that I thought you might enjoy.


6 comments:

copperfish said...

I'm not much of a health buff but I believe in clean living and that "evrything should be in moderation".

Anonymous said...

@cooperfish: ...including the use of vowels! ;-)

Unknown said...

I'll have to catch it tonight....sounds good. Except the part about not eating junk food. :/

Sheryn said...

You are right, that meal sounds scrumptious.

Who was that a computer animation of in the first screencap (100 Yrs Old)?

It does sound like it was a very good special. Thanks for the awesome recap!

Phebe said...

The 100 year old man was a computer generated Sanjay! I'd hate to see one of myself.

copperfish said...

@anon 1:59, LOL! you got me on that.