Many advances have been made in medical science and we are all living longer than ever. But are we living a healthy productive life in our old age? Over the last few years the incidence of chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and stroke have all increased. For the first time ever children as young as 13 have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes a condition caused by overloading the body with sugars and starches that commonly used to affect people in their 40s.
You are what you eat!
How many times do we hear this expression in the media? Along with an increase in chronic diseases has been an obesity epidemic fuelled by eating easy fast-food that allows us the time to live our busy stress-filled lives! Obesity is defined as having exceeded your normal body weight by a third.
If you are obese these are the chances of getting the following diseases
Heart disease increases by 340%
Cancer increases by 80%
Type 2 diabetes increases by 2660% - you are almost certain to get it!
High blood pressure increases by 260%
Degenerative arthritis increases by 400%
This leads to an overall increased chance of dying early by 110%! Worse still we risk our children dying before us.
So what is the real culprit? Oxidative stress
This is the one process that is responsible for chronic degenerative disease and ageing. Oxidation is the process by which our bodies use
fuel to provide us with energy, producing toxic by-products called free radicals. Oxidative stress is the gradual destruction that occurs when we accumulate too many free radicals over time leading to ageing and disease.
As well as producing free radicals as a by-product of energy production there are many other sources such as
Stress
Alcohol
Cigarette smoke
Pollution
Preservatives
Food seasonings
Ultraviolet rays
Medicines
Intense muscle activity
Oxidative stress is occurring constantly when it occurs in joints we get arthritis, in blood vessels we get hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) and stroke, in the chromosomes inside the cells we get cancer and so on. It happens everywhere!
We all know that smoking causes cancer and wrinkles among other things this is all down to oxidative stress.
Some facts about smoking
Each cigarette destroys about 25mg of vitamin C
Smokers need twice as much vitamin C as non smokers to maintain the same blood levels
The same is true for carotenes and alpha tocopherol
Smoking adversely affects preferences for vitamin C rich foods leading to a 60% decrease in fruit intake compared to non smokers.
Since Vitamin C is used to repair and maintain skin and connective tissues its no wonder smokers get wrinkles and lose their teeth through gum disease, no matter how well they clean their teeth!
Women smokers go through the menopause 2-3 years before non smokers because of the effect of tobacco on oestrogen.
You need an awful lot of antioxidants to counter balance this!
To learn about the importance of fruits and vegetables, click here
To learn about the importance of essential fatty acids, click here.
