The Secrets of Radical Rejuvenation
by Mark Powell, Diet Transformation Coach
www.transformyoureating.com
“The whole system starts breaking down, not because of some mysterious process called ‘aging,’ but because your cells are soaking in sludge!”
There may come a day, perhaps in your 60’s or 70’s, when you get to hear your doctor give a remarkable explanation. You’ll tell him about your joints starting to hurt, about your memory getting faulty, about feeling tired a lot and maybe your hearing starting to go. And that’s when he’ll say it, that remarkable explanation. He’ll say, those symptoms are all “a normal part of aging.” What makes this explanation remarkable is simply how utterly, criminally wrong it is. These symptoms, and the thousands of others like them, are all considered “normal” signs of aging in our culture, and nothing could be more spectacularly far from the truth.
In books like those of Bernard Jensen’s there are photos of the Hunzakut people of Pakistan playing their daily, energetic game of volleyball. The players are all in their 90’s. Similar specimens of dazzling health have lived all over the globe, from the Vilcabambans in Ecuador to the peoples of Georgia (the nation, not the state), people who’ve been well studied since the twenties. And no, it’s not because of “genetics” (they’ve tested for that in many ways). It’s lifestyle. Period. These super healthy people show us how we are actually designed to age—with strength and vitality. Then, when our time is up, it’s normal for us to die healthy!
The horror show that we call “old age” in our culture is a disease process, pure and simple. It is abnormal degeneration resulting from grossly wrong living, usually over many decades. And that is exactly why we can turn it around, through awakening to a new lifestyle, a lifestyle that can literally regenerate us at every level. If you wish to look into this kind of “radical (meaning ‘to the root”) rejuvenation” you need to explore in three core areas: bio-chemical, physio-structural, and psycho-spiritual.
Bio-chemical
Your body is made of the food you have eaten. Each day your body makes millions of new cells, and it makes them out of what you eat. This may be obvious, but it’s also a vital point, because you and I are exactly as healthy as our cells. If the biological terrain of your body (the sea of extra-cellular fluid in which your cells float) is acidic, dirty, toxic—a “swamp” rather than a “clear, mountain stream”—your cells will become ever more weak, damaged and diseased.
They will be unable to receive nutrition or to have their cellular wastes washed away. The electrical charge of each cell will dim and weaken. Your vitality will diminish, glands and organs will start malfunctioning. The whole system starts breaking down. Not because of some mysterious process called “aging,” but because your cells are soaking in sludge!
The problem? Processed, refined, fragmented, lifeless, toxic “foods,” substances diabolically far from anything nature has made. The answer then? Transform the diet. Study and learn how to eat whole, pure, clean, real food, with a rich abundance of fresh, living foods. I recommend a diet similar to that taught by such nutritional “giants” as Bernard Jensen, Paavo Airola and Paul Pitchford.
Physio-structural
In this category I include exercise and structural health. A vibrantly healthy body requires muscular strength, hardy bones and cardiovascular tone—in a word, exercise. I recommend yoga, swimming, tai chi, gyrotonic, walking and some weight training.
Also the “normal” body is supple and pliant, even at 90. In our culture, older people often have bodies that are stiff and rigid. Older people are commonly hunched over, their shoulders rounded in, constricting rib movement, their heads are frequently craned forward. Everything is shortened and contracted, joints are compressed, motion restricted. We need alignment, openness, ease, grace, fluidity and tissues that are alive and responsive.
Yoga and RolfingŪ Structural Integration are two disciplines (one movement/exercise, the other bodywork) that create length throughout the body, space in the joints and alignment in gravity. A Rolfer’s hands or elbows carefully sink into areas where tissues have gotten short, tough or stuck, and they gradually “melt,” lengthen and free-up myofascial structures and layers. Rolfers do this in a systematic way that organizes the body, melting away the brittleness of years.
Psycho-spiritual
A huge and central dimension of turning back the calendar has to do with stress reduction and allowing the mind to become quiet, fresh, new and open—to see the world with new, loving eyes. It has to do with living more and more deeply in the mystery, the wonder, free of crusty mental accretions and attitudinal rigidity. For this dimension, therapy can help build a strong foundation, while disciplines like meditation and, for those so moved, a full spiritual practice, are often necessary to cultivate the deepest levels of radiant inner peace.
There are certainly numerous other considerations for health—environmental toxicity, sunlight, proper breathing, rest, energy work and so on. But I am convinced that the aspects I’ve touched on here are the big three, the solid ground upon which all other aspects of health must be built. They may even have you playing volleyball in your 90’s, too!