The One Thing You Must Do To Stay Out of the Nursing Home
One in seven people ages 65 and older live in nursing homes and the numbers are projected to increase as you age. I wouldn’t want you or any of your loved ones to spend your last years at such a place. Surprisingly, many people actually fear moving to a nursing home than they feared dying!
If you really want to stay out of a nursing home for your last 20 years on earth…then you need to get serious about carbohydrate control.
Back in 2007 a study released from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, discovered that reduced insulin-like signaling extends the lifespan – proving that carbohydrate control and longevity are linked.
It pointed to the importance of carbohydrate metabolism and the way in which persistently raised insulin levels trigger degenerative diseases, notably diabetes. In fact, you will find me saying often in my writing that diabetes is a kind of mirror for the aging process. If you are unlucky enough to contract diabetes, the whole aging cycle moves very much quicker with you than for a normal person.
You do NOT want raised insulin levels, at any cost.
We already know from laboratory studies that keeping insulin unnaturally low extends the lifespan of a nematode worm called Caenorhabditis elegans and fruit flies quite significantly. Both creatures are used to study aging mechanisms.
The big question remains: does this apply to mammals?
This interesting trial centers on mice bred to have low insulin signaling in their brains; they simply did not secrete the hormone, even in the presence of raised blood glucose. In fact even when put on a high glycemic index diet (rich in carbs), they still did not secrete much insulin. This is very different from the normal response, which is that insulin levels go up when blood glucose levels go up.
Eventually, on a chronic high refined sugary carb diet, the body tires of the whole process, and more and more insulin pours into the blood, but the cells no longer listen and blood glucose levels are not brought down.
We call this state insulin resistance!
The next stage is diabetes, a result of control mechanisms that are dysfunctional. The interesting thing is that once diabetes is established, even while keeping blood glucose levels low by means of drugs or insulin injections, that the massive degenerative process takes place anyway.
It’s bad news all the way.
You have probably already learned that keeping insulin levels down is one way to live longer.
Now genetically-engineered mice that have a lowered insulin response have a 17% longer lifespan, despite being push-fed on carbs. That just rams it home yet again. In human terms, avoiding carbohydrates and managing your insulin levels within safe limits would mean, according to this trial, an extra 12.75 years. That’s more than a whole decade of bonus living!
These results, the investigators write, “point to the brain as the site where reduced insulin-like signaling can have a consistent effect to extend mammalian lifespan.”
They also concluded that the findings support the idea that the reduction of circulating insulin through moderate daily exercise, calorie restriction, and weight loss may also increase lifespan by keeping insulin signaling in the brain low.
“This study provides a new explanation of why it’s good to exercise and not eat too much,” lead investigator Morris White, PhD, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in Children’s Division of Endocrinology at Children’s Hospital Boston, said in a news release. “It has less to do with how we look, and more to do with a healthy brain, especially in old age.”
Interestingly, human centenarians display increased peripheral insulin sensitivity and reduced circulating insulin concentrations. That’s probably not because they lived to 100 but why they lived that long.
Benefits of A Low Carb Diet – Live Longer & Control Weight
When you compare the benefits of a low glycemic diet compared to a high glycemic diet in respect to weight loss and blood lipids, avoiding carbs or eating low glycemic index foods is more beneficial in terms of overall weight loss and improving total cholesterol levels.
I joke and say, “It’s just as Buddha Atkins, pronounced!”
Just please remember Robert Atkins was actually very late in the sequence. Low carb diets have been going around since the 19th century. The first was William Banting; in fact Banting became a verb and society debutantes and flappers in the 1920s used to say “No cake for me, I’m Banting!”
Then in the 1970s my great mentor Richard Mackarness brought out a book called “Eat Fat and Grow Slim.” I don’t think it sold terrifically well, because the title seems to be too unbelievable. But if he’d called it the “Dr Atkins Diet Revolution”, I expect he would have made many millions of dollars!
How You Can Take Action Today
- Eat no refined carbohydrates.
- Eat whole complex carbohydrates sparingly. There is PLENTY of sugar and carbohydrates in foods like peas, beans, carrots and root vegetables. Use mashed butternut squash instead of potato and mashed cauliflower instead of rice for a curry dish.
- Eat frequent small meals, rather than single heavy meals. Nibble something every 90 minutes or so: just nuts, an apple or even cheese, whatever. We call this grazing (like a cow) and it’s far healthier.
- Exercise regularly. It’s hard to set standards but the minimum, if you are serious about staying out of a nursing home for your last 20 years on Earth, is 30- 40 minutes of vigorous walking 3 times a week. It will do nothing for your weight or body mass index but it WILL make you more insulin sensitive and help lower blood glucose.
Remember we are designed us as hunter-gatherers. Make as if you are walking along in the forest and eating food as you go. Keep moving! Keep nibbling! That just about sums it up. No heavy meals followed by laying out on the sofa.
If you want to set yourself up for a Great Third Age, then you will want to check out my Diet Wise Academy. It is my groundbreaking comprehensive program that more than just eating right, it’s really about creating your best life – for health and vitality.
You can’t just hope you’re going to be okay when you get in your 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or beyond. You’ve got to do something about it now to protect yourself into old age.
I’ll teach you how to moderate your stress response, boost immunity, balance your hormonal responses, and much more to be able to live well into your 70s and beyond!
If you’re ready to take action click here and find out what Diet Wise Academy can do for you.
References:
1.Taguchi, A., Wartschow, L., & White, M. (2007). Brain IRS2 Signaling Coordinates Life Span and Nutrient Homeostasis. Science, 317(5836), 369-372.