Living past your “normal” live expectancy in the US means living until 74 for a man and 79 for a woman, two figures which would seem laughable in many 3rd world countries. Countries, mind you, which have a smaller GNP than Dallas.
One of the biggest reasons for this is the lack of funds for all our miraculous 21st century technological achievements. Things like: triple bypass surgery, angioplasty, full body scans, vaccines, and even highly processed food are virtually unknown. You would think these people would succumb to every microbial threat that comes down the pike, but they do not.
Granted, in many of the poorest South American and African countries near the equator, the biggest killer is Malaria, which we have real cures for. In fact, Malaria is the #1 cause of death in the entire world. Pity some of the cash we throw around in the US isn’t utilized to combat that figure. But, I digress.
Disease, whether contagious or degenerative, is looked at in an entirely different light depending on where you are standing. In America, concentration on addressing the symptoms is the norm, but the opposite is true in much of the rest of the world.
Here, when you have a headache, you are told to take a couple of aspirin or other NSAID. These over-the-counter pain relievers address inflammation without steroids, but without addressing the real cause of the pain either.
In other cultures, the cause of your headache would be addressed; could it be a lack of sleep, eyestrain, reaction to food or drink, or even, simply dehydration! Imagine a doctor in the US suggesting you drink water because of a minor pain. Studies have shown a direct correlation between dehydration and many different kinds of pain and illness, a connection which has managed to elude the AMA. Adequate hydration has, in fact, cured many ills.
In pure nutritional terms, does a headache suggest a deficiency of aspirin?
Listening to your body and truly addressing its deficiencies is the real source of health and longevity. Unfortunately, this is the antithesis of the approach the American healthcare industry takes. Here, we routinely think being put on a lifelong course of medication for hypertension or high cholesterol as perfectly OK. Even though, quite often, there are NO studies on the long-term safety or effects of these drugs. Forgetting, for a moment, the undesirable short-term side effects which are known.
Fooling with your body’s natural biochemistry is like playing Russian roulette. Every single chemical compound NOT found in the natural food chain has unknown and possibly profound effects on the way your body is trying to keep you healthy and alive. The body has no superfluous organs, meaning that every single organ and gland are conspiring to keep you alive and well. Throwing a monkey wrench into the works in the form of a pharmaceutical sets off a chain reaction that nearly always has serious repercussions. Effects that may not surface for years to come but will nearly always be blamed on “signs of aging”.
Well, I’m here to tell you that these issues are NOT normal signs of aging.
Remember Jack LaLanne? At age 70, he fought strong winds and currents as he swam 1.5 miles handcuffed and shackled while towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queen’s Way Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary. Jack’s motto was and still is (he is 95) “If man made it don’t eat it”. In other words, eat nothing that is not absolutely natural. By the way, Jack just came out with his latest book, Live Young Forever.
In addition to avoiding unnatural foods and chemicals, Jack has exercised two hours every day for most of his life, and another motto of his is: “Exercise is King and diet is Queen”. This man, five years short of his centennial birthday, is a testament to giving the body what it needs and reaping the benefits.
Now, not everyone is willing to exercise for two hours a day and eat like a rabbit, but giving the body what it needs to thrive, not just survive, is definitely something to strive for. Natural whole foods, pure water, adequate sleep, regular exercise, and addressing issues that do surface with natural, nontoxic therapies is the way to live not only to 100, but possibly beyond. 
