Ted's Secret to Reaching 100 — Still Sharp, Still Active
Still active, sharp, and full of joy at 100 — here's what Ted credits.
Ted, my 100-Year-Old Longevity Mentor
At age 100, my friend Ted is still healthy and vibrant. He was recently teasing me as usual to make a point. “Doc, let’s talk about saving your life! What is the #1 killer in the US?”
“Cancer? …NO”. “Heart Disease? … NO.”
“In my opinion, the #1 killer is STRESS! And the person or the situation that’s stressing you out could eventually ‘kill’ you without touching you. Many of these experiments on ‘stress’ were conducted during World War 2.”
I thought about Ted’s warning for a minute and realized that he was absolutely right. Let me explain the physiology – how STRESS works on your body:
The Law of The Jungle:
When your body senses a STRESSFUL event – like a Lion coming to attack you and your family – your Adrenal gland (that sits on top of the kidney) goes into ‘overdrive’ (‘fight or flight’ or ‘KILL’ mode). The adrenal produces massive amounts of steroids to get you ready to “KILL” that Lion.
In the jungle, the steroids would give you and your buddies the extra strength to defeat the lion and save your family. Your Adrenal gland would then relax, and your Steroid levels would return to normal – until the next Lion came along.
KILL the Lion:
Those excess steroids will help you “fight the lion”, but if the stress is maintained, the increased steroid level in your blood can injure several body organs:
- Spike your heart rate (more prone to a Heart attack)
- Spike your Blood Pressure (more prone to a Strokes)
- Spike your Blood Sugar (Diabetes with increased risks of Vision loss and Kidney failure)
- Shut down your sex drive (“you can’t worry about sex now! You have to ‘KILL’ that Lion!”)
TB turned to me calmly: “Doc, in America you’re constantly under stress. You’re ‘fighting the Lions every hour of every day: you jump up to alarm clocks in the morning, fight long traffic jams to get to work, face deadlines, financial pressures, crazy politics, and war! Most of our friends are out there walking around in the ‘KILL’ mode – all day, every day!”
I was fascinated by Ted’s astute analysis. As a doctor, I knew the rest of the story. If you constantly train your adrenal gland to “KILL”, the gland will eventually overgrow. It will stay in the “KILL” mode and will oversupply your body with STEROIDS. That overactive gland and the excess steroids it produces can slowly “KILL” you.
What to do? I asked my friend
In the next issue of Good Health News© I’ll tell you how Ted has successfully battled stress to remain healthy for more than 100 years.