Anti Aging Part 4: The Role Of The Thymus In Health and Anti Aging

by Gary Null Ph.D. The thymus gland is the central control organ for the immune system. When it is functioning properly, the thymus gland acts like a thermostat to provide the right balance of immunity. It turns up to help the body fight infection or tumor and down to prevent autoimmune disease. The thymus gland may experience physiological changes which make it less effective, such as stress and the process of aging. This is problematic as studies reveal that an underactive thymus gland is associated with increased incidences of cancer and infections. It is imperative then to support thymus function. Dr. Terry Beardsley explains how to do so naturally: Zinc. Zinc has been studied as a critical mineral for immune function. Dr. Robert Good, who is considered one of the pioneers in understanding thymic function, has shown over the years, with many studies, that zinc is a critical mineral for immunity.

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Anti Aging Part 6: Resources

By Gary Null Ph.D. Dr. Terry Beardsley is president of Visale, Inc. Formerly, Dr. Beardsley was assistant professor in the department of biology at the University of California, in San Diego and a research scientist for SmithKline. Roberta Certner is a licensed acupuncturist and President of the New York State Association of Professional Acupuncturists.

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Anti Aging Part 3: Having a Healthy Heart and More

By Gary Null Ph.D. Heart Healing Foods Cardiologist Dr. Stephen Sinatra says that too much insulin, insulin resistance, or ineffective insulin, not fats, causes heart disease. Dr. Sinatra's heart-healing nutritional approach, which he calls the Mediterranean diet, contains about 50 percent coarse carbohydrates with a low glycemic index, about 20 percent protein, and up to 30 percent healthy fat. Dr. Sinatra states, "The healthy fats I recommend are from fish and flaxseed. I have a phytoestrogen shake, which I recommend to both men and women in my practice, and which I take myself. It uses soy milk, which contains healthy fat, with ground-up flaxseed, which has a lot of omega 3's. "In addition, it's high in phytoestrogens to help women going through menopause eliminate symptoms. These fats will prevent prostate cancer in men and ovarian cancer in women. I'll tell people to eat nuts, although peanuts do contain some rancid oils, and we have to be careful of that. But walnuts, chestnuts, even pistachios are okay. They contain a bit of saturated fat, but they're mostly monounsaturated. Walnuts are high in omega 3's. So, I'll tell people to eat these foods in addition to plant-based foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables, and lean meats."

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Anti Aging Part 2: Brain Boosters

By Gary Null Ph.D. Memory Loss and Alzheimer's Disease Memory loss is a generally accepted as an inevitable part of aging, with Alzheimer's disease being the most feared end of the spectrum. Dr. Arthur Winter, a neurosurgeon and the author of Brain Workout: Easy Ways to Power Up Your Memory, Sensory Perception, and Intelligence says that our basic beliefs about our brain potential is all wrong: "That the brain develops so far and nothing more can be added is not true. From our research, we know that the brain is plastic. [Brain development] starts before birth when the baby receives certain sensations from the mother. If she hears music her baby responds; if she's upset the baby responds; if she takes alcohol or smokes, it affects the development of the baby's brain. At birth, you can add to it by giving the baby an enriched environment, which means that the brain must be stimulated. There's a golden window of education, up until three to four years. If you want to enlarge the brain, you can teach the child languages, music, and so on, and the brain will absorb it like a sponge.

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Anti Aging Part 1: The Basics

by Gary Null Ph.D. History regards Ponce de Leon's search for "The Fountain of Youth" as folly, and justifiably so. But in today's world, rejuvenation is more than a mere dream as scientific advancements in biochemistry are providing profound insights into the workings of the human body, testable theories on aging, and keys to slowing down the aging process. We now know that aging begins long before the first signs of wrinkles, gray hair, and loss of body tone appear. By the time we reach our late twenties and early thirties, organ systems are already beginning to shrink. As the years progress, we start to produce smaller and smaller amounts of hormones, and everything from memory and vision to sexual potency starts to diminish.

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Anti Aging Part 5: Treating Menopause Naturally

By Gary Null Ph.D. While current medical practice views menopause as if it were an age-related disease, in actuality, it is a natural and inevitable transition from one stage of life to another. While some women experience uncomfortable symptoms reflecting the body's changing hormonal balance, others experience few or none. In fact, in some societies, where aging is more readily accepted and lifestyles are more natural, menopausal symptoms are generally non-existent.

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Corporate Agribusiness Helps Scuttle Climate Justice

Published on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 by The Capital Times (Madison, Wisc.) by John E. Peck As the old saying goes, with crisis comes opportunity, and that certainly was the mentality of the corporate lobbyists that descended in droves on the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. In fact, the largest nongovernmental organization there was the International Emissions Trading Association, a front group representing 170 companies and hosting 66 events. Sadly, many government officials and even some nonprofit groups have fallen for this sleight of hand, mistaking an old-style protection racket for newfound corporate responsibility.

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Yummy! Ammonia-Treated Pink Slime Now in Most U.S. Ground Beef

By Jennifer Poole, Daily Kos Posted on January 1, 2010, Printed on January 3, 2010 http://www.alternet.org/story/144904/ You're not going to believe what you've been eating the last few years (thanks, Bush! thanks meat industry lobbyists!) when you eat a McDonald's burger (or the hamburger patties in kids' school lunches) or buy conventional ground meat at your supermarket: According to today's New York Times, The "majority of hamburger" now sold in the U.S. now contains fatty slaughterhouse trimmings "the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil," "typically including most of the material from the outer surfaces of the carcass" that contains "larger microbiological populations."

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Overcoming the Copenhagen Failure

Published on Friday, January 8, 2010 by The Capital Times (Wisconsin) by Joseph E. Stiglitz Pretty speeches can take you only so far. A month after the Copenhagen climate conference, it is clear that the world’s leaders were unable to translate rhetoric about global warming into action. It was, of course, nice that world leaders could agree that it would be bad to risk the devastation that could be wrought by an increase in global temperatures of more than two degrees Celsius. At least they paid some attention to the mounting scientific evidence. And certain principles set out in the 1992 Rio Framework Convention, including “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities,” were affirmed. So, too, was the developed countries’ agreement to “provide adequate, predictable and sustainable financial resources, technology, and capacity-building” to developing countries.

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Naomi Klein: How Corporate Branding Took Over the White House

By Naomi Klein, Fourth Estate Posted on January 18, 2010, Printed on January 18, 2010 http://www.alternet.org/story/145218/ In May 2009, Absolut Vodka launched a limited edition line called "Absolut No Label". The company's global public relations manager, Kristina Hagbard, explained that "For the first time we dare to face the world completely naked. We launch a bottle with no label and no logo, to manifest the idea that no matter what's on the outside, it's the inside that really matters." A few months later, Starbucks opened its first unbranded coffee shop in Seattle, called 15th Avenue E Coffee and Tea. This "stealth Starbucks" (as the anomalous outlet immediately became known) was decorated with "one-of-a-kind" fixtures and customers were invited to bring in their own music for the stereo system as well as their own pet social causes - all to help develop what the company called "a community personality." Customers had to look hard to find the small print on the menus: "inspired by Starbucks". Tim Pfeiffer, a Starbucks senior vice-president, explained that unlike the ordinary Starbucks outlet that used to occupy the same piece of retail space, "This one is definitely a little neighborhood coffee shop." After spending two decades blasting its logo on to 16,000 stores worldwide, Starbucks was now trying to escape its own brand.

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