- Don't Smoke.
- Eat a balanced diet and maintain your desirable weight.
- Exercise regularly.
- Have regular health check-ups, see a doctor when you detect a problem, and follow a doctor's advice when taking medications.
- Stay involved with family and friends.
- Allow time for rest and relaxation.
- Get enough sleep.
- Stay active through work, recreation, and community activities.
- Drink alcoholic beverages in moderation, if at all, and don't drive after drinking.
- Use seatbelts.
- Avoid overexposure to the sun and cold.
- Practice good safety habits at home to prevent accidents such as fires and falls.
- Have a positive attitude toward life. Expect to live a long time. Plan ahead for housing, medical and financial security.
Carl Bourhenne's Fitness and Long Life Manual |
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Youthful and Attractive |
Is It Possiblbe?
Mapping the Human Genome, and Genetic Engineering
The purpose of this book is to present you with all of the reliable factors to guide you to live the longest life possible and stay fit, youthful, and attractive.
We don't know the answers now; but, as I mentioned earlier, many researchers are working to find the solutions.
The following is a brief summary of those factors that are most important for a healthy long life, youthful and attractive.
A Summary Of The Major Factors That Most Affect Long Life:
Everyone wants to look vitally youthful and attractive, and feel an inner force of health, strength, and life always. What used to be a general apathy toward "the inevitability of growing old and dying", is now fast becoming a realization of that undesirable reality, and people and scientists all over the world are striving whole-heartedly to discover the biological processes that cause life to continue in a healthy, youthful, and attractive condition.
After seeing some interesting facts in the new studies on molecular genetics and genetic engineering, we may indeed be on a very interesting track.
Too many people, however, sell themselves on the idea that they are "getting old", long before they really are. The condition of extreme old age, and the condition of being severely out of shape, and out of condition, feel exactly the same.
Many people, even into their seventies, eighties, and even over one hundred might feel youthful, healthy, and completely active. In fact, we have heard many people - men and women - in their seventies, eighties, and even over one hundred, say that they feel vital, alive, and fully active. In these cases we found that many were taking better care of themselves than ever before. Many were exercising more (not less); eating more intelligently, and doing many other self-care projects.
Except in the advanced stages of deterioration, feelings of age, weakness, or poor conditioning may be the result either of a specific disease which must be treated, or of poor physical conditioning as a direct result of a poor lifestyle.
Many people who feel "old" would do well, no matter what their age, to realize that the feeling might be the result of a poor lifestyle, and not at all a result of the passage of time.
One of the most wonderful and amazing things in all of life is the way that feeling of "oldness" can be reversed, and become once again a feeling of health, strength, youthfulness, and attractiveness. If anyone has any doubts at all, we'll be glad to help, because aged feelings can often be reversed, and the vigor and sex drive of youth might not be so noticeably diminished.
In fact, the sex drive can often remain pretty constant throughout most of life. It may change in intensity, but that change should be gradual. We know that a good lifestyle can keep us healthy, youthful, attractive, and sexually active.
No autopsy has ever shown that anyone ever died of "old age" - or, living a long time. There is always heart failure, or kidney failure, or stroke, or some other failure or disease as a result of deterioration - which might have been deterred if the person knew how.
Unfortunately, we still do not have all the answers of how to maintain all of our body systems, but we are working hard, as are others in many countries around the world.
There is, though, no such thing as "old age," as we commonly refer to it. Modern science has produced ample research results from various unrelated sources which show quite conclusively that no illness, and no death, and no form of deterioration from health, or youthfulness, or attractiveness, is ever simply a result of the passage of time.
Every form of deterioration, including wrinkled skin, weakness, stiffness, and all other so-called "effects of aging", are really a result of poor conditions in the body's cells. And these conditions may be partly because of a poor lifestyle, and partly because of the things we don't yet know about maintaining our body.
Research results are beginning to suggest that all forms of aging might be stopped genetically. Genetic research may be on the verge of discovery of how to deter aging, and of being able to maintain our bodies longer, healthy, youthful, and attractive.
Consider that the make-up of man is actually based in the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) in the nucleus of our cells. The DNA that is in us, now, is the same basic DNA of centuries ago, and has not only survived, but has perfected itself and multiplied itself continually and endlessly over these many thousands of years.
When Ferdinand and Isabella sent Ponce De Leon on his historic expedition to search for the Fountain of Youth, their refusal to accept the inevitability of loss of youthfulness, aging, and death was right on line. Their only error was the direction in which they sent him. Instead of sending him outward into the world, they should have sent him inward, into the body itself. And that is the way modern envoys have headed in recent years, searching for the real fountain of youth - inward; into the body, and into its cells.
The results of the new sciences - particularly from molecular genetics - have produced, and are continuing to produce three types of information to maintain, repair, and replace health and youthfulness in all of us.
The information that we need to keep ourselves healthy, youthful, and attractive might be thought of as three major types, at this time:
1. Information regarding our lifestyle2. Medical Care
3. Information on new research results, including genetic engineering.
1 . Information regarding our lifestyle: This type of information refers to those living habits which seriously affect our health, our appearance, our long life, and our youthfulness. Our first responsibility to ourselves, or course; and the basic tools we have for providing health, attractiveness, and youthfulness for ourselves, is a good lifestyle that includes a proper diet, sleep, exercise, and the other major subjects - all of which are included in this book.
2 . Medical Care is essential to health, attractiveness, youthfulness, and long life; and having regular check-ups is crucial.
3 . Genetic Engineering: At the age of about 12, some of our programmed growth patterns have been completed, and certain parts of our system begin to change and to deteriorate. By the age of about 25 we are fully developed. Up to that time the programming in our cells formulate our growth, and stimulate the life force needed to achieve that growth. So by the age of 25 all of our systems have a tendency to deteriorate.
The science of Genetic Engineering is delving into the reasons for that changing and deterioration, and is indeed making some inroads. Perhaps the most exciting discovery in this area is the fact that all of our cells actually have the ability to become any kind of cell, such as heart cell, lung cell, eye cell, skin cell, and so on. Each cell simply turns "off" all genes other than those it uses to become the kind of cell needed.
One goal of genetic engineering is to learn how to turn on those genes as needed ("gene switching"), to replace or repair various body parts. When this is known, we might even be able to re-grow a new arm, or heart, or eye, of lung, and so on. Also, when this is known, we should be able to turn on those genes which have been turned off in error, as we grew older. This is thought to be one of the major bases of aging: the erroneous or accidental turning off of genes in our DNA, causing a break- down of the repair and reproducing processes in the cells. So, turning these genes back on might truly cause aging reversal, and might even lead to permanent youthfulness, when combined with other new health processes.
Another application of genetic engineering, and one which is also ethically debated is "limited cloning". Cloning is the taking of the nucleus of a cell from one organism (frogs have been cloned successfully), and placing it into the egg taken from a female of the same species. When the new organism matures, it is an exact duplicate in every way of the organism from which the nucleus was taken. The new organism is called a clone.
No human cloning has yet been achieved (contrary to some reports, all attempts have proven unsuccessful because the human egg is so fragile); but if it were, the clone would be identical, in every respect to the donor of the nucleus, even to the fingerprints. Thus, the ideal transplant donor would be a person's own clone. The moral implications, of course, are enormous. Limited cloning, though, might be the cloning of only a heart; or a lung; or a kidney; or an eye; etc. As a transplant, there would be no rejection factor, and the replacement would be safe, and permanent.
The ability to turn "on", genes that have been turned "off" ("gene switching"), though, shows the greatest promise of being our real "Fountain of Youth". We already know what turns some genes on and off. But we don't yet know what turns some of our genes off; or how to turn them back on again. When we do solve this, and some other mysteries - and we, or others after us will, we will indeed be able to continue our lives much longer healthy, attractive, and youthful.
To argue about an over-crowded world, limited living space, food, supplies, or other questions that do need to be answered - but are surmountable - is equivalent to the first form of life in the first small water pond saying, "We mustn’t multiply, or evolve into other forms of life, or increase the length of our lives because there isn't enough food or space in this pond".
That first small form grew and expanded throughout the entire ocean, then expanded onto the land. And we have the entire universe to learn how to live in.
A gentleman I was speaking with some years ago during our conversation about increasing our life span said to me, "But what about world population?". My response to him was, "Are you saying that if you should contract a terminal illness you’d say, ‘Don’t cure me, I’m concerned about world population?'". He looked shocked and said, "No! Of course not!"
The point is that THE INFORMATION IN THIS BOOK REFERS TO ME AND YOU, TOO. I found that out the hard way.
In order to learn to work with our genes, we must first learn where they all are on the strands of our DNA. Making a map of all of our genes is called, "Mapping The Human Genome"
The National Institutes Of Health and The World Health Organization estimated that it would cost about three billion dollars to complete the map of the human genes (Mapping the Human Genome). Scientists around the world are working on this mapping, but unless more money and facilities are injected, it will not be completed soon enough for us to benefit.
We know that we are all limited to a lifespan of no more then 120 years, because of our genes. Once the mapping of the human genome is completed, genetic engineering might extend our youthful health, and our lifespan by...who knows how much. Perhaps indefinitely. And, of course, diseases and handicaps of all kinds may slide into history, just as penicillin and other advancements have "miraculously" put so many infirmities into our history.
We may be able to cure and prevent every illness known to man, and even re-grow lost body parts. And since our genes control our lifespan, who knows how much we may extend the length of our lives?
If you are interested in contributing to the mapping of the human genome, please contact me, and I will assist.
Carl Bourhenne, MA
