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- Herausgeber: David De Angelis
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
You can live 6 times 20 years
Follow the rule of Flourens
Some peculiar facts
Things are really turning for the better
But there is another good reason to rejoice!
The means we propose
KEY N° 1 - LEARN TO KNOW AND LISTEN TO YOUR BODY
CHAPTER 1- Recognize the signs of your vitality
- Longevity test
- Iridology
- General examination
CHAPTER 2 - Recognize the signs of aging to better prevent it
- Your connective tissue
- Your blood
- Your heart and arteries
- Your liver, kidneys and endocrine glands
- Your lungs
- Your basal metabolic rate
- Your bones and muscles
CHAPTER 3 - A very visible sign: the state of your skin
- How to fight wrinkles
- Other external signs
KEY N° 2 - APPROACH THE SECRETS OF SUPER NUTRITION
CHAPTER 4 - Trace Elements: A Small But Powerful Amount
CHAPTER 5 - Take 200 mg of vitamins daily
- A Brief History of Vitamins
- How do they work?
- Does a deficiency threaten you?
CHAPTER 6 - A Little Guide to Superfoods
- Discover the magic of biodynamic foods
- Wheat Germ and Wheat Sprout: At the Heart of the Ear of Wheat
- Brewer's yeast: an exceptional resource
- Parsley: modest but unique
- Yogurt: the food par excellence of centenarians
- Pollen
KEY N° 3 - CHOOSE YOUR FOODS ACCORDING TO THEIR COMPOSITION AND PROPERTIES
CHAPTER 7 - Meat: find the right dose
CHAPTER 8 - The Fish Alternative
- How to consume it
- Its nutritional virtues
- Who should avoid fish?
CHAPTER 9 - Crustaceans, molluscs and echinoderms
- Foods not without risks
- The exception to the rule: the oyster
- Attention to oysters and wild molluscs
- Freshness is a must
CHAPTER 10 - The Many Virtues of Eggs
- What it contains
- A Medicine-Food?
- Contraindications and risks
- How to recognize a fresh egg
- Eggs to avoid
CHAPTER 11 - Milk: there is no reason to avoid it
CHAPTER 12 - Cheeses: First Rate Foods
CHAPTER 13 - Wheat and the Bread Problem
- Things are not what they used to be
- How a grain of wheat is formed
- The misdeeds of modern agriculture
- And that's not all!
- The milling industry: an art in decay
- It is not enough to have a good flour to make good bread
CHAPTER 16 - Legumes
CHAPTER 17 - Sulfur Vegetables
CHAPTER 18 - Green and White Vegetables
CHAPTER 19 - Fruits-Vegetables and Mushrooms
CHAPTER 24 - Sugar and Sweet Foods
- Why is sugar an anti-physiological food?
- One of the major causes of diabetes
- Its effect on teeth
- A little, a lot, not at all?
- The problem with chocolate
- Honey, this "blond gold of the bees"
CHAPTER 25 - Fat bodies
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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LONG LIFE
The Complete Guide to Health and Longevity
To rejuvenate and be fit at any age
ROBERT TOCQUET
Translation and 2021 edition by ©David De Angelis
All rights reserved
INDEX
Introduction
KEY N° 1 - LEARN TO KNOW AND LISTEN TO YOUR BODY
KEY NO. 2 - APPROACH THE SECRETS OF SUPER NUTRITION
KEY #3 - CHOOSE YOUR FOODS BASED ON THEIR COMPOSITION AND PROPERTIES
KEY N° 4 - COMPOSE YOUR MENUS ACCORDING TO YOUR PHYSIOLOGICAL STATE
KEY N° 6 - MAKE GOOD USE OF YOUR STRENGTH AND SLEEP WELL
KEY #7 - TAKE CARE OF YOUR STRENGTH AND MENTAL HEALTH
KEY #8 - TRY GERIATRIC THERAPIES
Conclusion
Introduction
You can live 6 times 20 years
Do you know this phrase from the Bible: "Man shall live to be 120 years old"?
Surely it will not be Mrs Jeanne Calment who will find this statement exaggerated, since she was happily crossing the magical 120-year barrier while we were writing this work. This venerable Frenchwoman has thus become the doyenne of humanity.
After all, you only need to look at the recent past of humanity to see that we can do even better.
Thus, Thomas Parr, a farmer from Surrey, died at the age of 154 arms as a result of indigestion. He had outlived 9 English kings and remarried at the age of 120 to a widow, with whom he lived 12 years and who he said did not realise her husband's age.
The celebrated physician Harvey, who performed the autopsy, stated that it was wonderfully preserved and could have lived many, many years more.
The example of Henri Jenkins is no less interesting.
He was a poor fisherman of York County. At the age of 100 he was still swimming across the rivers and died at the age of 169 from a cold.
Let's mark it:
- Drakemberg who died at the age of 146;
- the American Raglan who died at the age of 114 after remarrying a few years earlier and for the third time to a young woman of 30;
- the Venetian consul Frangois Secardi Ilongo, who died in 1702, in Smyrna, at the age of 114 years and 10 months, and who had had 49 children from 5 successive marriages;
- Desfournel, author of La nature dévoilée, who died at the age of 119, in 1802, having remarried at the age of 102 to a young woman of 26 by whom he had children;
- Pierre Joubert, born on July 115, 1701 in Charlesbourg, Canada, and who lived exactly 113 years and 100 days;
- the cabaret owner Durin, born in Lyon in 1717 and died 140 arms later, in 1857;
- the painter Waldeck, who died in 1875 at the age of 109;
- Englishman Taylor, postmaster, died at age 134 in 1898;
- Norwegian farmer J. Gurvigton, who died at the age of 160, and left a son of 9 arms, from his last marriage, who happened to have an older brother of the age of ....108.
Among the most recent cases, we can also mention:
- Mrs Margaret Ann Neve, who was born in 1792 on the Isle of Guernesey and died on 4 April 1903, 44 days before celebrating her 111th birthday;
- Mrs Ann Powder, of Baltimore, who died July 10, 1917 at the age of 110 years and 64 days;
- Catherine Plumket, born in 1820 in Kilsaran, Ireland, and died on15 October 1932, aged 111 years and 327 days;
- Iegor Koroiev, born in 1801 in the Djavsk district of Georgia, and died in 1957 at the age of 156.
We also note the absolutely exceptional and seemingly authentic case of Mrs. Kumru Der-mir Sine. This doyenne of Turkish women died on 8 August 1955 at the age of 172, in the small town of Mardin.
Born when Louis XVI reigned in France, she was 74 years old at the end of the Crimean War. The mother of eight children, she had 48 grandchildren, one of whom is currently 97 years old. For about a century she fed herself only on yogurt and fruit.
Follow the rule of Flourens
These facts - apparently exceptional - indicate, in reality, the future of humanity. In all fields, the role of the precursors is to open doors, to show the way.
Sooner or later, what was the preserve of a minority ceases to be a "privilege" and becomes a "norm".
This is after all the theory of Dr Flourens, the famous French physiologist of the 19th century, who shows that being a centenarian is completely "normal". And here's why:
According to Flourens, you can roughly determine the normal lifespan of mammals by multiplying the time it takes them to grow by 5 or 6.
You can live 6 times 20 years
Let us first consider the following growth times.
the rabbit: 12 months 20 months
the cat: 2 and a half years old
the dog: 4 years old
the lion and the ox: 5 years old
the horse: 5 years old.
According to this rule of Flourens, the average length of life will be, therefore, for the rabbit, from 5 to 6 years. For the cat: between 8 and 10 years. For the dog: from 12 to 15 years. For the lion and the ox: from 20 to 24 years. And, finally, for the horse, from 25 to 30 years.
Indeed, direct observation confirms Flourens' rule.
On the other hand, it is worth noting that the maximum individual longevity can be higher than the figure you have given. In fact, several dogs exceed 15 years of life. Some even reach 17 or 20 years.
Similarly, the cat can live up to 20 years and the horse up to 50.
Applied to man, Flourens' rule gives a normal longevity of 100 to 120 years. In fact, the growth period of the human being is about 20 years.
Certainly, as has been said of animals, man's longevity may exceed 100 or 120 years.
But, except for cases of exceptional longevity, most human beings, and therefore you, my reader friends, should LIVE AT LEAST 100 YEARS.
This is the point we care most about in this book: enabling you to achieve at least NORMAL longevity.
Some peculiar facts
By the way, do you know how specialists calculate the average longevity of the population?
It involves simply adding up all the ages at which individuals died, including, of course, stillborn children or those who died in infancy, and dividing this sum by the total number of births.
From this observation, statistics have revealed a number of singular facts:
- 1. The low rate of deaths between 5 and 14 years (less than 1 death per 1000 subjects) and the very high rate of deaths among infants, which, however, is decreasing;
- 2. The mortality rate of married persons shall be lower than that of single, widowed or divorced persons;
- 3. The male mortality rate higher than the female mortality rate;
- 4. the mortality rate of the liberal professions and ministers of religion is much lower than that of the population as a whole (except for doctors, who fall within a normal mortality rate);
- 5. The mortality rate of employees, blue-collar and white-collar workers is higher than that of entrepreneurs;
- 6. The high mortality rate in the poor and rich classes.
These statistics are revealing of certain longevity factors that we will consider in the course of this work. To this end, consult in particular Keys 6 and 7 where we list excellent means to improve the quality of your life.
Things are really looking up.
The average longevity of the population has not ceased to increase in civilized countries. This is first and foremost a consequence of the improved conditions of life of the population as a whole: food, housing, general hygiene - especially child hygiene -, the fight against epidemics, etc.
The fact remains that, among men of the white race, 100 years is at present and practically the maximum longevity.
In France, out of a population of 56,700,000 inhabitants, about 130 people at or around the age of 100 die every year, the average longevity being 67 years.
In other civilized countries, the rise in average longevity has occurred in similar proportions and, sometimes, faster.
In the present day, the average longevity is: (the first figure refers to men, the second to women)
These figures may seem a little weak to you, but one must remember that "it is to death that we escape".
Thus, even today, in India, China and Egypt, countries regularly ravaged by epidemics, average longevity is often less than 50 years, if not even 40. Even lower is in isolated tropical regions.
And if we go back in time, we can grasp even better all the way through.
According to the anthropologist H.V. Vallois, the duration of the life with the man of Neandertal or of Cro-Magnon was very low.
"The short life-span of primitive men," he writes in Anthropologie, emerges, indeed, from all our data. Of 187 subjects of determinable age, more than a third died before the age of 20, most of the remainder dying between 20 and 40. Beyond this limit only 16 subjects remain, of whom most died between 40 and 50 years. Only three were over the age of 50."
At the beginning of our era, the average lifespan among the Romans and the Egyptians was still in their twenties.
In our country, it was only 14 in the Middle Ages, 19 in the 15th century, 21 in the 16th.
Then it went to 25 in the 17th century, to 30 in the reign of Louis XVI, to 38 in 1830, to 40 in 1880, to just over 47 in ne11900.
In 1921, it reached 53 years of age. In 1945, it rose to 56, and by 1951, it was 66.
It then progressed slowly, but can be expected to soon exceed 80 years of age.
But there's another good reason to rejoice!
Indeed, poor hygiene, under-nutrition or, on the contrary, exaggerated overeating, once gave men in their 60s the appearance of suffering or obese old men.
On the other hand, the 60-year-old man of today, compared, for example, to that of 1860, is, as far as his external appearance is concerned, 20 years younger!
On the other hand, let us point out that, in the immediate term, the increase in average longevity does not necessarily mean that the maximum human lifespan increases. As Dr Carrel subtly puts it: "People do not live longer, but more people live longer".
Of course, this is already an appreciable result. But what we want more, what you want, is to reach or even exceed the age indicated by Flourens.
We propose
To this end, modern medical science strongly recommends various more or less empirical behaviors that are intended to rejuvenate aged organisms. We will consider them in Key No. 8 (see page 343) and you can use them if you see the need and if circumstances permit.
However, instead of trying to rejuvenate deciduous organisms, we thought it preferable to delay aging in the first place.
As Professor Bourlière, one of France's most eminent gerontologists, notes, "Old age begins at 20". In fact, it creeps in progressively, its long evolution beginning in youth and unfolding throughout adulthood.
Much more, for certain organic functions, and always according to Professor Bourlière, "the senescence reveals itself more rapid between 20 and 60 years than beyond this age".
The method we are proposing, and which, in relation to what has just been said, applies to all ages of life, does not refer to special substances or behaviours.
Verte essentially:
- on using simple tests to assess your health (see chapter 1);
- on a better knowledge of your organism that will allow you to perceive - before anyone else - the premonitory signs of ageing (see Key n° 1);
- on the application of the most recent discoveries in dietetics (see Keys No. 2, 3 and 4);
- On the need to make judicious use of your strength and to protect your sleep (see Key #6);
- On sensible use of exercise (see Key #5);
on the use of certain psychic factors (see Key No. 7)
on the strength of sexual energy - and at every age! (see chapter 44).
If you follow our method rigorously, adapting to it in the different stages of your existence, you will reach, we are sure, a "canonical" age.
You will cope with the usual inconveniences of old age by preserving for a long time much of your vitality, your physical and intellectual activity and also the outward appearance, if not of youth, at least of adulthood or maturity.
You will avoid physical decay and its grievous aspects. You will avoid sinking into the sad path of old age where one after the other, days devoid of joy and beauty unfold.
Progressively, you will also acquire the serenity that must be the preserve of a true golden age.
KEY N° 1 - LEARN TO KNOW AND LISTEN TO YOUR BODY
Chapter 1 - Recognize the Signs of Your Vitality
Longevity test
In addition to the physical signs "inscribed" on your body, there are also the signs that constitute your lifestyle habits. Here are a series of questions that will allow you to make an initial assessment of your health.
Keep in mind that this is not a definitive score. In fact, those who don't advance will demote, and it certainly appears that this rule remains in place even after retirement age.
It goes without saying that if you suffer from a disease such as cancer or atherosclerosis, these results should be mitigated.
However, it remains valid that the greater the proportion of "YES" to "NO" votes, the better your prospects will be.
We recommend you retake the test in six months and then again during the year. Unless you already have maximum longevity potential, we bet your "YES" ratio will have increased.
Iridology
All this without any particular effort, simply because you will have grasped one of the essential principles of longevity: healthy living. Here is the best "recipe" for longevity.
It is a technique that consists in determining the organic state of an individual through the observation of his iris and the interpretation of the spots or marks that are inscribed on it.
It allows one to discover which organ is diseased even before the patient becomes aware of it. In fact, an organ that begins to be undermined reacts on the nerve centers on which it depends, so it is through the channel of the nervous system that the irritations are located on the iris, in the form of different signs.
Through iridology one can also estimate the "vital resistance" and the "organic terrain". These are valuable indications for diagnosis and treatment.
General examination
On the other hand, it is useful and indeed indispensable to undergo a general organic examination periodically, either by a general practitioner or a specialist.
In the specific case, a pulmonary X-ray may reveal an early stage lesion; an examination of the prostate, a tumor; a cardiogram, an onset of atherosclerosis; a blood pressure reading, a tendency to hypertension; a urinalysis, an onset of albuminuria, etc.
It will then be possible to prevent evil. The deadly diseases of man make their sly appearance especially in that critical period between the ages of 45 and 50.
"If you cross this dangerous threshold," declares Dr. Douglass, "and if you take good care of yourself, you can look forward to long, peaceful years."
"I know a young woman," says gynaecologist Richard in this connection, "who did not attach importance to va-
ridges.
By the time it was discovered that she had cervical cancer, it was too late. Now, an annual vaginal smear, a painless and inexpensive practice, allows for early detection of malignant cells and greatly reduces the risks of this type of cancer."
Similarly, more or less abundant bleeding outside the menstrual cycle or over 50 should be considered suspicious. They may be revelatory of uterine cancer.
"People are apt," writes Prof. G. Berge for his part, "to overlook the symptoms they may observe. We have known some who have endured chest pains without ever speaking of them to anyone. They feared that it depended on the heart and hoped that the trouble would pass. And yet, seeing a doctor in time, taking stock of one's health, can transform an existence, either by suppressing the fear of an imaginary illness, or by allowing a real illness to be cured.
In the latter case, however, as you will see in the following chapter, it is important not to be overly alarmed.
Follow proper hygiene and medical prescriptions when they are unavoidable. But do so with serenity. Above all, keep faith in your own self-healing potential.
Chapter 2 - Recognize the signs of aging to better prevent it
Many health problems have, despite their enormous diversity, a common cause: the gradual aging of the organism. If you are familiar with these different manifestations of aging, you will not be caught unawares when they occur and, to a large extent, you will even be able to remedy them. Let us remember that nothing is unavoidable for those who remain vigilant.
So that you can slow down - or even reverse - the aging process, here's how to recognize the precursor signs at the level of the most affected organ functions.
Your connective tissue
In the processes of aging, connective tissue is of considerable importance and entire books have dealt with this subject.
Bogomoletz, whose works we shall discuss later, replaced the well-known axiom: One has the age of one's arteries" with this, "Man has the age of his connective tissue."
Let us first recall that this fabric occurs under two main states:
- 1. It constitutes more or less thick masses, filling the spaces between organs or between the different elements of the same organ, to which it acts as a link. So much so that connective tissue has long been regarded as a secondary, packing or "filling" tissue
"In such a case, there is no better comparison," we read in a classic work on human physiology, "than with the wadding that would serve to pack objects in a crate, where these objects represent the different organs or their different elements." But modern studies have done justice to this simplistic conception by highlighting the importance of the connective system in aqueous, ionic and metabolic exchanges.
- 2. It also forms more or less thick membranes which extend along the epithelia to give them greater resistance, serving, so to speak, as a "lining". In this way a similar connective membrane covers the whole outer side of the epithelium of the intestine.
Then, this is reflected at the level of the mouth to continue without interruption over the entire extension of the body, taking the name of dermis. In this way, the skin is composed of two parts: a stratified epithelium or epidermis, internally covered by a connective layer or dermis.
In terms of its structure, connective tissue is made up of three types of elements, immersed in a basic, fluid and homogeneous interstitial substance:
- 1. Star-shaped cells (histiocytes, fibrocytes, fibroblasts) connected to each other by their fine extensions.
- 2. Elastic fibres, fine branched filaments, wavy and bound to each other; they enjoy great solidity and many are found in the arteries and tendons to which they give great elasticity.
- 3. Connective or collagenous fibres acting as support. These are relatively thick, regularly sized filaments that are neither branched nor anastomosed.
Finally, the fundamental interstitial substance is a colloidal gel, consisting of voluminous gluco-protein molecules that form a more or less compact, more or less hydrophilic cement, through which exchanges take place.
Age, by modifying the physico-chemical characters of this colloidal gel, can alter the nutrition and oxygenation of your cells, thus accelerating the ageing process. As a rule, the total mass of connective tissue increases with age, while that of active parenchyma decreases. And if the star cells, histocytes and fibroblasts do not show any appreciable modification, on the other hand, the collagen fibres become thicker and more compact while the elastic fibres atrophy. The fact is relevant in the dermis and especially in the liver, the kidneys, the pancreas, where there is a real "interstitial fibrosis" which clearly harms the good functioning of the organs.
These collagen fibres can also undergo various morphological alterations and be the site of pigmental or even calcareous deposits, which occurs, for example, in the laryngeal, bronchial and intercostal cartilages. All these transformations, particularly harmful, as we have just said, are sly, hidden and practically irreversible. To get rid of them is therefore difficult.
However, you can delay or prevent their appearance by strictly following the hygiene and especially dietary rules proposed in this book.
Your blood
With age, the blood shows a gradual increase in cholesterol and then a slight decrease.
"Cholesterolemia," writes Prof. André Lemaire, "is low during the first few months of life, increases thereafter until around age 60 or 70, and decreases in old age."
Effectively it can, in the normal individual, go from 1.80 at 30 weapons, to 2.37 at 70 years.
Eosinopenia, i.e. the decrease of eosinophilic leukocytes, is frequent. In adults, there is an average of 315 eosinophils per cubic millimetre of blood, while in elderly subjects a figure of less than 70 is often recorded. Data of 10 and even 0 are not uncommon. This decrease is due to a functional slowdown of the bone marrow, which is the essential source of eosinophilic leukocytes.
Glutathione is found in the elderly in greater amounts than in normal adults.
Finally, and this is important, the nitrogen balance is generally negative in the elderly, meaning that nitrogen losses (fecal nitrogen or urinary nitrogen) are greater than dietary nitrogen intake.
Hence, a certain muscular atrophy as well as a progressively increasing tendency to fatigue. On the other hand, disturbances of the protein matrix of the skeleton, which promote osteoporosis, gradually begin to appear.
But, good thing, a positive nitrogen balance can be achieved easily:
- either by increasing the amount of animal protein in one's diet (meat, fish, milk, cheese), provided that the subject does not suffer from uremia;
- either with the administration of testosterone or similar substances, which temporarily increase anabolism and nitrogen retention.
Your heart and your arteries
In the elderly person, the heart and arteries represent chapters of fundamental interest, both clinically and therapeutically.
We emphasize first of all the importance of coronary atherosclerosis, on which we insist in Chapter 33. It begins in young subjects, especially males, and becomes more and more pronounced in the course of life.
Progressive stenosis of the coronary arteries is fortunately accompanied by a development of intercoronary anastomoses that provide suppletive circulation.
"This is the reason why," writes Dr. Pierre Vernant, "important modifications of the coronary network and even arterial obstructions are frequently observed in the elderly, which in the course of life have not caused any pathological modification, partly because of the greater development of the collateral arteries.
The heart of people in old age is somewhat larger than that of adults, and is often horizontally oriented. It beats frequently at an irregular rhythm, due to nervous or biochemical phenomena. However, under normal conditions, it is generally sufficient to meet the needs of the aging organism. However, it does not tolerate perturbations or sudden changes in habits due to physical alimentary excesses. You will therefore have to take this into account.
Arterial hypertension is not uncommon in the elderly and, after the age of 60, often appears as an epiphenomenon in conjunction with more or less important arterial sclerosis.
"But, as pointed out by Prof. Léon Binet, it is an epiphenomenon whose dynamic repercussion on the encephalic circulation is considerable and must therefore not be neglected. The finalistic conception of respecting hypertension, a compensating factor in cerebral hemodynamics, must disappear before the appearance of modern therapies, which will nevertheless be used with prudence."
The advice is good and we suggest that you heed this warning. Therefore, without resorting to allopathic drugs, we recommend, in this book, effective means of combating hypertension.
Your liver, your kidneys and your endocrine glands
In his medical thesis Etude clinique, fonctionnelle et anatomo-pathologique du foie du veillards, H. Destrem drew attention to a liver lesion specific to the elderly, "the senile liver" which would be a kind of hepatic arteriosclerosis. This anatomical transformation is, most likely, the cause of a number of liver disorders affecting the elderly.
For his part, Dr Denis Coullaud has experimentally demonstrated that, in old age, the liver has difficulty in synthesizing hippuric acid from sodium benzoate, with the implication of a correlative decrease in its metabolic functions.
The same happens with the kidney, whose functioning, with advancing years, often leaves something to be desired. At the same time, it is affected by mainly interstitial histological lesions and by glomerular and arterial lesions. The consequence is, in the elderly, a decrease of the filtration capacity and the relative frequency of a slight albuminuria as well as the presence, in the urine, of some haemias and cylinders'. These are not, however, serious disorders.
As for the decrease of the nitrogenous excretion, which is sharp and accentuates with age, it is probably due to the deficiency of the nitrogenous contribution. On the other hand, the excretion of water and electrolytes is normal.
As far as your internally secreting glands are concerned, a decrease in thyroid activity and a decrease in the androgenic function of the gonads (testes and ovaries) and of the cortico-adrenal gland have been noted. The pituitary gland also shows some signs of degeneration.
Your lungs
Radiological examination of the lungs of the elderly shows that they are often affected by sclerosis at the base and emphysema' at the top. In other words, there is excessive dilation of the pulmonary alveoli with rupture of the interalveolar septa. All this is accompanied by an alteration of the lung parenchyma and the bronchi.
There is also a certain horizontality of the ribs and calcification of the costal cartilages, which is more frequent in men than in women. As you age, certain problems therefore arise:
- First of all, there is a reduction in your vital capacity. This is the maximum amount of air you can exhale after a deep, forced inhalation. It is about 3.5 1 in the normal adult. But, in older people , it drops to 2.21 as the upper limit and 0.9 1 as the lower limit.
- The current air, which is the quantity of air inhaled or exhaled in each respiratory cycle, undergoes, on the other hand, a very slight decrease. It goes from 0.501 in adults to 0.371 in the elderly, which corresponds to a decrease of about 25%.
- Complementary air, i.e. the amount of air it is possible to inhale in forced inspiration starting from a resting position, which is normally 1.51, decreases to 0.75 in the elderly. So the decrease is 50%.
- Finally, reserve air, which is obtained beyond the resting position by forced exhalation, is the most severely affected factor among the respiratory factors since it is sometimes zero.
Your basal metabolic rate.
But let us hasten to add that the respiratory exercises we suggest in the present book can delay or even prevent the appearance of these respiratory disorders of aging. Provided, of course, that they are carried out as early as adolescence or at least adulthood.
Your basal metabolic rate.
The basal metabolic rate, which depends on the respiratory exchanges, corresponds to the minimum energy sufficient to maintain a good state of life in conditions of absolute rest and thermal neutrality.
It is expressed in large calories per hour and per square meter of body surface area. It may be regarded as an index of vital activity in old age. More on this later.
As a rule, it presents a progressive reduction with age.
In relation to the average value observed in the adult of 50 years and in good health, it decreases, according to Léon Binet:
18% between 79 and 89 years of age
^ by 25% between 89 and 99 years
However, it remains relatively high in very active, non-hypertensive subjects, and preserved from most symptoms of aging.
Your bones and muscles
Your skeleton is significantly modified by age.
Height decreases" little by little from the age of 50, due to the failure of the intervertebral discs. To this factor can be added a certain curvature of the spine, highlighting what is called kyphosis (1), which can be prevented by appropriate physical exercises. The loss of height is about 7 cm in men and 6 cm in women.
Your bones are also often affected by osteoporosis, usually accompanied by some decalcification. Calcific elements become fixed around the normal skeleton, thus producing exostoses and cockscombs, the resection of which may be necessary in cases of severe pain.
In parallel, your skeletal muscles and generally your entire muscular system decrease in volume. They present an alteration of their fibrils or myofibrils. This leads to a weakening of muscle strength and faster fatigability. Your gait and movements become slower and slower.
As a rule, the peak of muscular strength is between the ages of 20 and 25, and then declines regularly. In addition, neuromuscular excitability often undergoes changes, both in terms of an increase and a decrease.
But, it must be made clear once again: you can do a lot to curb this "age damage" through regular exercise. Don't forget that all the descriptions you read on these pages are about the "normal" person. In other words, the person who eats poorly, doesn't know how to relax and does little or no exercise.
Chapter 3 - A very visible sign: the state of your skin
Skin atrophy is mainly due to a decreased elasticity of the skin, to an alteration of the dermis that loses its adipose elements. It translates, in older people, in the formation of wrinkles and transformation of the features, especially around the mouth.
It is dried up by the sun, the weather, tobacco, whose nicotine causes the retraction of the skin tissue, by stress which, in anxious subjects, produces contractions that go as far as permanent wrinkling.
But thanks to regular beauty care you can, even if this is not strictly necessary, delay skin aging and erase wrinkles. That's what we'll see.
How to fight wrinkles
Over the years, your skin becomes progressively thinner and its adipose state is partially destroyed, thus marking with wrinkles the epidermis which is no longer supported.
At the same time, the elements necessary for the manufacture of collagen and elastic fibres are reduced.
As far as your face is concerned, wrinkles can appear on the forehead, between the eyebrows, around the eyes (where they are often accompanied by a bag on the lower eyelid), near the lips, around the neck, forming here a kind of rings with more or less important detachment of the skin. Let us consider the best solutions.
Beauty products
Aesthetic treatments can prevent the appearance of wrinkles and even make them partially or completely disappear.
For this purpose, women once used "virginal milk" which was a cosmetic composed of tincture of benzoin, melilot or rose water, or even almond milk.
Women also used glycerin and alcohol-based lotions containing aluminium sulphate, soda chlorate and soda borate. However, their efficacy was doubtful.
Currently, the products used and the treatments carried out are much more rational and generally effective.
The biological extracts that exist in the skin (elastin, collagen, amino acids, vitamins, etc.) are included in certain creams and help the skin regenerate.
Elastin and collagen tone slightly dilated fibers. Lactic acid, sodium pyroglutamate and sorbitol maintain a good state of hydration.
"Unsaponifiables" of vegetable oils, associated with certain unsaturated fatty acids (linolenic acid, arachidonic acid, etc.) formerly designated under the term vitamin F factors, actively participate in the formation of elastin and collagen fibers.
Plants such as centella asiatica (native to Madagascar) and blue orchid activate cell renewal. Extracts of aloe, algae or witch hazel stimulate blood circulation.
When the dermatologist is necessary
If these treatments, which you can apply yourself, prove insufficient, you can turn to dermatologists who use different techniques such as iontophoresis, intradermal injections and electrical muscle stimulation.
- Iontophoresis consists of electrically penetrating through the epidermis trace elements such as magnesium, phosphorus, cobalt and potassium, which are necessary for the manufacture of elastin and collagen fibres.
- Intradermal injections of vitamin complexes, placenta or embryo extracts, procaine are carried out by means of very fine needles at the level of wrinkles or furrows. This process quickly gives sensitive results.
- the electric muscular stimulation, completely painless, is obtained with a medium frequency current that acts on every critical point. It allows to give back to the muscles of the face a certain tone lost over the years and, consequently, to erase more or less completely the wrinkles.
Surgical solutions
Other more radical methods require the intervention of a very competent dermatologist, or even a surgeon specialized in cosmetic surgery. This is the case with peeling, dermabrasion, lifting, eyelid surgery and liposuction.
- Peeling consists of applying a phenol paste to the face, which to a certain extent peels and burns the surface layer of the epidermis. A fortnight after the procedure, a fine pink skin without wrinkles appears. Unfortunately, the procedure is not without risks and some specialists advise against it.
- Dermabrasion is another delicate technique that is performed under local anesthesia. By means of a tiny grinding wheel rotating at high speed, the dermatologist smoothes the skin, thus erasing wrinkles. The procedure was first used to reduce acne scars.
- But when the wrinkles of the face, and especially of the neck, are very deep, they can only be suppressed by surgery and, in particular, the partial facelift or the complete facelift.
In the partial facelift, which does not eliminate neck wrinkles, the surgeon incises the hair at the temple and below the ear. The skin is peeled back, pulled up and back; a flap of scalp is removed.
The full facelift is a rejuvenation that works on all wrinkles of the face and neck. The incision is located in the hair, anterior and posterior to the ear. The skin, cleared over a more or less extensive area, is pulled upwards and to the sides and partially resected.
- Finally, eyelid surgery, which is performed around the age of 40, consists in the removal of fat bags and excess skin. The incision is made at the level of the lower eyelashes and, after the operation, the scar is masked in the natural fold of the eyelid.
- We quickly point out that liposuction, which has some similarities with lifting or eyelid surgery, and which was developed by the French surgeon Gérard Yves Illong, allows the treatment of certain body disharmonies due to excess fat.
It offers the advantage of not being damaging to vessels and nerves, subcutaneous or deep, and of leaving only a slight postoperative scar.
Under general anesthesia, the surgeon operates with a small incision at the level of the area where the fat is surplus and "with a system of suction cannulas," explains Dr. Vladimir Mitz, he digs unconnected tunnels through unwanted clusters, so that the skin remains in certain places glued deep and is not in danger of falling back."
"The whole difficulty," Dr. Raymond Vilain, head of the plastic surgery service at the Boucicaut Hospital in Paris, points out, "consists in removing the fat in the right places and in not too large an amount, so as not to risk seeing the skin sag."
You should also be aware that certain areas are more suitable for suction than others: for example the hips, thighs and knees. It is also preferable that you are still relatively young so that your skin, of good quality, can reattach itself when the volume of subcutaneous fat decreases.
If these conditions coexist, the aesthetic results can be very satisfactory.
The other "external" signs
In addition to wrinkles, dark or bister-colored spots appear on the hands and face that bear some resemblance to redness spots, called "senile macules," which a dermatologist can easily make disappear using liquid nitrogen, dry ice, or other means.
On the other hand, hair often begins to turn grey around the age of forty or fifty, then gradually falls out.
Finally, as Lecomte de Nouy points out in his work "Le temps et la vie", old age decreases the speed with which wounds heal.
KEY NO. 2 - APPROACH THE SECRETS OF SUPER NUTRITION
Chapter Four. The trace elements: a small but powerful quantity.
Certain metals and metalloids are present in the body in very small quantities and even in infinitesimal doses. However, their presence is necessary for growth or life.
They are the "infinitely small chemists" or "trace elements" (from the Greek olicros, little number) of Gabriel Bertrand.
These behave as physiological catalysts essential to the development of normal biological processes and their conscious introduction into the body allows the treatment of many diseases due to nutrition.
Here are your daily requirements for some of these:
Zinc 20 mg. Copper 2.5 mg.
Iron 18 mg. Fluorine 1 mg.
Silicon 12 mg. Iodine 0.3 mg.
Manganese 3 mg. Cobalt traces
Let's examine these elements.
Zinc
Zinc is currently regarded as an essential element in human development.
Experiments performed on mice showed that if their food ration was completely devoid of zinc, they lived an average of only seventeen days, despite the presence of vitamins. A trace of zinc ensured their survival.
In the man.
