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RE: [RC] Old Age & Healthy - Lif StrandAt 08:06 AM 3/21/2006, heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:Dr. Nik hit the nail on the head--a portion of being able to stay off of meds into old age is genetic, and a portion is exercise. Certainly our modern typical American fast-food and junk-food diet is a contributor---but one can "eat healthy" without going to extremes, and if one is blessed with decent genes and can combine reasonable eating habits with exercise, there is a good chance that one can live quite long before needing pharmacological help. You are right - there are many factors to being healthy in old(er) age. From what I read, genetics counts for about 30% of your overall health - a big chunk but not enough to keep you healthy. Genetics, exercise, stresses, food, water & air quality - ALL of it counts. You can't just dismiss one of the factors as not very important (not saying you are doing that, it was the generic "you"), and since we don't know enough about our individual genetic expressions of health, it seems pretty smart to keep the other 2/3 of the factors as high quality in our lives, and that of our horses, as possible. It is a real reach to suggest that older folks are on meds because they ate ground grains instead of whole grains, which is how your original post came across. Actually, my original post was that oats are less nutritious when rolled or crimped. And my comment about older folks on meds was a response to your comment in a later email saying "yet we tend to live to healthy ripe old ages" - my response was that I didn't agree, I think we humans these days are negating any tendency to live to *healthy* ripe old ages, and used the great number of people on prescription meds as evidence of why I believe that. Just doing a cursory search on longevity reveals a common thread among modern people who, as a group, used to enjoy vital, active lives even into their hundreds, who are, again as a group, dying younger and having more health problems (notably Sardenia and Okinawa where people routinely live into their 100s and are healthy and active). The common thread: a loss of family cohesiveness (stress), a change from active to sedentary lifestyle (exercise), and a change away from consumption of natural food (nutrition). Interestingly enough, Seventh Day Adventists, who also as a group tend toward longevity are not losing that tendency. But they remain vegetarians, they don't smoke, they are physically active and have strong family and community ties. Personally, I want to feed my horses the highest nutrition foods I can find for them, keep them stressed as little as possible through allowing them to live as naturally as possible and through how I manage and interact with them, and if I were still breeding, I'd breed for healthy constitutions as well as for great conformation and personality. ------------------------ Lif Strand, Research Associate Southwest Center for Resource Analysis Western New Mexico University (505) 773-4897 (505) 212-0108 FAX
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