24 Longevity Products for 2024

Longevity as I define it is simply the ability to be able to continue to do the things you love at any age. Personally, I plan to live healthfully to 104 and have spent much of my life studying how.
We have few role models for healthy longevity in this country. So over the remainder of the year, I’ll be presenting my 24 for 24. These are my 24 favorite products to increase the likelihood that you can get there healthfully.

I’ll also tie in stories of how these things have made a difference to clients and myself.

Today I’ll start with Juice Plus+ 

The best evidence says that we should eat a large variety of fresh fruits & veggies daily. Actually, at least 8 servings! Few of us, myself included, do this daily.

What if there was a low-cost convenient answer? 

We know vitamins aren’t the answer. They contain only a small fraction of the necessary nutrients needed for good health. 

Juice Plus+ was founded by Dr. Huberto Santillo. He started drying fresh fruits & veggies, turning them into powders to put into his father’s feeding tube back in the 1990’s. Eventually, as his dad improved, connections ensued, and Juice Plus+ was born. 

Over the intervening 30 years, over 40 studies have been conducted on people (many double-blinded) and published throughout the world in peer-reviewed medical journals that show the positive effects of Juice Plus+. Studies show it is highly bio-available and positively impacts numerous biomarkers associated with decreased inflammation, increased cardiovascular health, better immune health, and more. It offers anti-oxidant protection and protects DNA from damage. It positively impacts skin health, lung health, gum health, metabolic health, athletic performance, and cognitive function. 

Juice Plus fruit, vegetable & berry blends are available in capsules and chewables for just a couple of dollars daily. They contain over 30 different fruits, vegetables, and berries. Ripe, fresh-picked products are dried using a low-temperature proprietary method. It maintains significant amounts of the inherent nutritional value of the whole produce. 

Because I believe that we can never get too much good nutrition into our systems, I take Juice Plus+ daily in addition to everything else I do for my health & longevity.

Thinking back to when I first started using this product over 10 years ago, I have more energy now than I did then. My stamina is better. My eyesight and my gum health have also measurably improved as noted by my optometrist and dentist.

The many clinical health professionals associated with Juice Plus+, myself included, consider the fruit, vegetable & berry blends to be essential. These 3 are what I personally take daily.

Now through March 1st, Juice Plus+ is also offering 10 free sachets each of their “Complete” vanilla & chocolate protein powders with each new order of Juice Plus Essentials capsules. (a $60 value)

In addition, Juice Plus also has a family Healthy Starts program and a referral that can help you & your family get free or discounted products. (You can check with me about details.)

To get started and get your free additional product, contact me.  

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And with CoVid-19 raging, people want easy answers to boosting immunity and decreasing the likelihood of serious illness. Recently green tea and dark chocolate have also appeared in the news as immunity boosters.

“One particular nutrient or food isn’t going to help you or hurt you that much.” Is usually the response they get from me.

Your health, overall, is about the totality of what you do day in & day out; not any one specific nutrient, no matter how potent.

It’s not about the individual food or the individual supplements but the totality. Vitamin C is good. Vitamin D is important, mushrooms have immune complexes in them. Turmeric is anti-inflammatory.

But all those things aren’t going to matter much if you’re putting them in an inflamed overweight body, burdened with damage that you may not even know is there and that you keep damaging by your everyday actions; what you put in your face.

And whether you know it or not, you could be further along on the path to disease and disability than you think.

Here’s the hard truth your doctor likely never told you: It is virtually certain you have atherosclerosis; the beginnings of heart disease, and maybe other diseases as well.

“Boy that’s a bold statement, Leslie, how do you know?” I can hear you saying.

Simple, studies (done at autopsy on children who died in accidents) show consistently that 50% of kids age 10-14 have ‘fatty streaks’ in their arteries; considered the first stage of atherosclerosis. That’s right, kids 10-14 years old! These are studies dating back to the Korean War, long before our current obesity epidemic!

So, it’s easiest just to assume you’re likely further along in the continuum than you think and start taking the action to undo the damage.

Here’s the good news: the human body has AMAZING regenerative & recuperative abilities.

Even people with advanced heart disease, heart failure, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and more can reverse much of their damage by eating a predominantly plant-based diet.

And with such a diet, people, even with advanced disease, can be more comfortable in weeks and can reduce the overall burden of disease in months.

Ok. So now the “what to do.”

(1) Start eating more plants: Starting today, eat salads that are twice as big (without fat-laden salad dressing) and eat them twice as often. So a big salad for lunch & another with dinner.

(2) Cut the amount of animal food you’re eating. I suggest that you take every potion & split it in 3. That way you’re effectively eating 2/3 less.

(3) Add whole, in tact grains & starches to your diet: brown rice, quinoa, millet, barley, sweet potatoes, etc. They will fill you up for far fewer calories and the added fiber will help feed the good-guy bugs in your gut and decrease inflammation.

(4) Work on eliminating dairy: dairy; even organic grass-fed, is loaded with naturally occurring hormones and growth factors that lay down fat, stimulate cell growth and reproduction and leave you more open to a large variety of diseases.

(5) Eat more fruits & vegetables (in addition to the salads mentioned above).

Now that you’re doing all this, adding in the turmeric, the Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and mushrooms makes sense on top of a good foundation.  The chocolate and green tea; good too. Just be sure the chocolate is non-dairy dark chocolate without a lot of added sugar and cocoa butter. Those changes can enhance immunity but remember that immunity starts with getting more of the basic building blocks found in fresh fruits & veggies into your body every single day.

Please share this with others that would enjoy it and watch for upcoming news of new programs.

The post Inflammation, Food, Immunity, and CoVID-19 appeared first on Dr Leslie K. Empowered Wellness.

I think much of the fear has moved beyond healthy respect, normal avoidance and prevention all the way into a full panic mode.

A couple of things about panic:

1. We don’t make good decisions when we are operating out of panic. This is how our brains are wired. When we go into ‘fight or flight’ response, our frontal cortex is essentially shut down & overpowered by the more primitive part of our brain that can’t see anything more than the two options of either running away or fighting back. Since we are being told there IS no ammunition to fight back, we’re all in fear mode dutifully panicking inside the 4 walls of our homes. I’m not necessarily saying this is wrong, but I AM saying it’s very difficult for us to look at the problem and bring sane science to bear here. (more on what some experts are saying next time).
2. The hormones racing through your system when you’re in ‘fight or flight’ are damaging to your body in multiple ways.
   • These hormones adversely affect the very immune system you want and need to be strong to fight this invader.
   • These hormones also adversely affect multiple other systems in our bodies, most notably our cardiovascular system and our digestive system.

How your body behaves differently in “Fight or Flight” response:

We all have heard about highly stressed executives and how much more prone they are to a heart attack.

But did you know that the same hormones that are active in fight or flight also cause digestive issues and a tendency to lay down extra fat!? Yup! It’s true; when Cortisol levels are high, we gain weight easier, our blood sugar levels are adversely affected and our hormones that regulate hunger and appetite are impacted as well. In addition to all that, the digestive system basically shunts everything you take in either for immediate use, raising your blood sugar levels or for immediate storage, laying down extra fat. Yeah, so basically, forget intermediate functions like glycogen storage, general repair, growth, immune function and more. By evolutionary standards, this makes sense; get through the crisis and then worry about repair. But when stress is chronic, it has devastating results.

So what are some basic mechanisms to get us out of the loop?

1. Limit your exposure to amped-up coverage. Do you really need to listen to the news, the President or local news conferences daily? Be selective.
2. Get some aerobic exercise. The hormones our body secretes in fight or flight are designed for us to have the capacity to run or fight back. Aerobic exercise mimics that; thus using up the hormones. This gets us back into a healthier state.
3. Meditate, do yoga, self-hypnosis, EFT tapping or use other methods. Most are working via video call) to bring your brain and nervous system back into alignment. (Contact me for a referral to a practitioner if needed)
4. Get a chiropractic adjustment. It also helps normalize nervous system function & helps the connection between your Nervous System and your Immune System
5. Eat your fruits & veggies: Keeping your diet balanced positively impacts all your systems. Just start here.
6. Breathe: If you’re not someone who has ever adopted meditation, yoga or other things, just the simple act of taking 10 long slow deep breaths several times daily can be a big help. Try it before you sit down to eat a meal. It will bring the hormone levels down a little and will help your digestive system do a better job of processing your food properly.

So, what this about CoVid 19 and it being an ‘equal opportunity invader?’

We’ve heard some amazing things over the past month: over a million cases of the infection, 100,000 deaths world-wide and tragic stories.

We’ve heard that most cases of death are in older people with weakened immune systems, but we’ve also heard of the tragic cases of healthcare providers and younger people dying. Let’s look a little closer: Much of the data is still being calculated and interpreted. However, a study undertaken by the Kaiser Foundation has concluded the following:

1. About 4 in 10 of ALL adults over 18 are at risk for more serious infection.
2. Just over ½ of those in #1 above are age 65 and older. (Therefore, a little less than 2 in 10 under 65 are at increased risk)
3. The adults between 18 and 64 that are most at risk have these co-morbidities: heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), uncontrolled asthma, diabetes, or a BMI greater than 40.

Note: They did not track cancer or immune system compromise as a co-morbidity (they chose to not track that so that it wouldn’t falsely elevate the stats).

Further research on the rates of the above conditions in the US indicates that in adults 18-64, about 9.4% have diabetes, about 8.2% of those living in rural areas have COPD and about 4.7% of those in metro areas have COPD. About 7.1% of adults in the U.S. have asthma and about 60% of that is uncontrolled. I was unable to find data that distinguished adults 18-64 from the rest of the population regarding morbid obesity but 18% of the general public is considered morbidly obese. (All found by simple google search)

Given all these factors together, a picture emerges of the ‘at risk’ adult under 65 which basically suggests that while there could be a very rare exception, almost all the people developing serious disease have one or more conditions that pre-disposes them to the disease.

Here’s the thing that most others won’t say: too many people with the conditions listed above (and other diagnosed health conditions as well) don’t really think of themselves as being chronically ill and so don’t want to recognize that they are more susceptible than others to this and other infections.

Add this to the fact that the media reports deaths by age and generally doesn’t mention mitigating factors and we can begin to see some of the reasons the public is so spun up about this infection.

Yes, it is theoretically possible for an otherwise healthy person to get Covid 19 and die of it, just as it’s theoretically possible for them to get some other infection they could die of. There are no guarantees in life.

Part of what I’m attempting to distinguish here is that too many of us who have chronic conditions and take medication to mitigate symptoms ignore our problems and consider ourselves ‘healthy’ or fool ourselves into believing we are invincible when the data clearly shows otherwise. These health conditions make people more susceptible to death from ALL causes. Considering that and in light of these stats, I’d like to suggest that it’s time that if you have any health condition, you take an honest look at it and make a choice to do something about it. Most chronic conditions can essentially be reversed with the right diet and lifestyle.

So while you’re stuck at home, you might give some thought to some questions like:

1. Am I going to use this time to begin to address some of my health issues that may make me more susceptible to other problems (including CoVid19)?
2. Are the health conditions I have amenable to being resolved with diet and lifestyle?  (the answer is likely ‘yes’ but you may need assistance)
3. Am I willing to put a plan in place that can help me reverse these conditions?
4. If you’re on any medication: Do I understand the long-term effects of the drugs and other conditions they are likely to cause?

And perhaps most importantly: Am I willing to accept the consequences of my inaction?

I’m happy to offer a Free Consultation about your condition.

The post CoVid 19-An Equal Opportunity Invader? appeared first on Dr Leslie K. Empowered Wellness.