13: Farmers work help longevity. A University in Chicago have an aging research center that discovered the probability of farmers living longer is 200% of urban people. So if men can work on some gardening in their leisure time. That will help live longer – it’s actually correspondent to what I mentioned in a post a while ago – working more with hands stimulates the acupressure points on the hands and hence makes us healthier

14. Golfer live 5 years longer than non-golfer. The death rate of golfer actually is 40% lower than the people who don’t play golf in the same age group. It’s because it’s an outdoor activity that plays a few hours and usually walk for about 4 miles. It also helps relieve pressure through the social activities.

15. Eat more spinach for muscle. Spinach helps men grow better muscle because of catalyst effects on the synthesis of protein, and definitely that’d make men look stronger and younger.  By the way, spinach helps avoid osteoporosis.

16. Shorter hair looks younger. Men usually start losing their hair during middle-age. In the early stage, short hair makes hair look thicker, while long hair tends to reveal the scalp. (Honestly, I’m starting to have that problem, although I’m not even middle age yet.)

17. Eat slow. There are research saying gorging will increase the opportunity of overweight for about 84%. And that’s definitely one of the most obvious reason to look older.

18. Train quadriceps – stronger quadriceps help to relieve arthritis.

7. Morning Erection – keep it “up” in the morning shows the young energy. The “harder you keep”, the healthier your arteries are. There is a research indicated that having sex for over 3 times a week can reduce ED (Erection disorder) by four times, while having sex for less than one time a week can increase ED probability twice.

8. Fat body makes you 10 years older. In 2007, there’s an important research discovered that for every 5% increase of BMI (Body Mass Index, around 13.5 kg) of men, the level of testosterone decline to a “10 years older” level.

9. Train your brain for 15 years younger. Take some IQ test or solve some puzzles can keep a 45yo man to have a 30yo active brain.

10. A glass of wine (no more than 3 glasses in general) can increase 97% of survival rate up to 85 years old.

11. 7 hours < Sleeping time < 8 hours keep the longest life in average. There was a research that lasted for 22 years with 21268 adults involved indicates that men sleep less than 7 hours will increase early death rate 26% while sleeping more than 8 hours will also increase early death rate for 24%.

12. Vitamin A helps eliminates wrinkles around the eyes. As one grows old, cell metabolism rate slows down and skin starts to lose collagen, and it will be shown directly on the thinnest skin – which will be the eyes area. Vitamin A helps produce more collagen on skin.

(to be cont’d)

1. Shave often. It just look younger. And there’s a skin specialist telling people that shaving stimulate the collagen production on the face and make it look shinier and smooth.

2. Eat less. Eating a little less can reduce the probability of inflammation. We normally can afford eating 30% of our daily value. (honestly, I don’t agree on this myself…but research is a research)

3. Sleep more and better. Lacking of sleep consistently can get old faster because the muscle around the eyes gets trained through the activity of eyeball during sleep. Lacking of this activity would cause those muscle shrink and leave a dark shade.

4. Exercise more. I guess everyone pretty much knows about this. 3 hours workout per week and make us look 10 years younger.

5. Oral hygiene. There is a research with 6693 adults in England indicates that people who have teeth problems or oral problems are obviously less smart than people with healthy teeth. Reason can be teeth problem causes more minor inflammation within the body and hence hurt the brain.

6. Slow heart beats. To keep you young, a strong heart is definitely needed with slow heartbeats and keep the blood slowly but efficiently flow. Human have about 300 millions of heartbeats in average of the whole life. Slow down the heartbeats should mean that we can live longer. Of course, to keep your heartbeats strong but slow, exercises are always needed.

(to be cont’d)

(cont’d from Part 1)

6.  Drink more tea. Drink 3 cups of tea a day then blood pressure can go down 7%. This may be caused by the chemical reaction produced by the tea leaves extracts.

7.  Walk fast. Fast walking can help high blood pressure patients lower their pressure. The key is it has to be several times a week and last for more than 30 minutes. Once the patients adapt this cardio exercise they can increase the pace and distance a little bit.

8. Deep breaths. Qi Gong, Yoga, Tai Chi relieve pressures through deep breaths and meditation, which lower the level of renin and hence lower the blood pressure. Take deep breaths for 5 minutes every morning and evening. The key is to take a deep breath and breathe out slowly along with the stresses.

9. Decrease the workload. Working over 41 hours a week can cause the probability of high blood pressure increase 15%. Relieve the workload for the health. Make a healthy dinner or go to gym after work. These are helpful options.

10. Listen to music for relaxation. There is a research indicating that listening to relaxing music for 30 minutes along with deep breathes, blood pressure can go down for 3.2% after a week, and 4.4% after a month.

1.  Take more foods that contain potassium. Foods such as sweet potato, orange juice, potato, banana, kidney beans, peas, cantaloupe, dried plums and raisins can help lower high blood pressure. Specialists suggest adults should take 2-4 grams potassium.

2. Understand the salt amount in food. Senior people are more allergic to sodium and taking even a little excess amount can cause high blood pressure. Even if it’s normal people, the amount of salt shouldn’t exceed 6 grams a day.

3. Eat dark chocolate. (a good news) Dark chocolate contains flavanols. Taking a few pieces a day can improve the health of heart and blood pressure.

4. Vitamin supplement. I personally don’t prefer taking any dietary supplement that’s not natural. However, coenzyme Q10 can lower blood pressure. Consult your doctor before taking these vitamins.

5. Drink a little wine. A lot of researches already prove that drinking appropriate amount of wine can help lower blood pressure. Of course, drinking excessively is definitely not suggested. In average, a normal healthy person can drink a can of beer or 100ml of red wine per day.

(to be cont’d)

18. Soybean

Soybean is one of the plants that contains more estrogen, which is very important to women’s health.

19. Yogurt

Yogurt helps digestion and effectively prevent defection of intestines, strengthen the immune system. Compared to major milk, yogurt has low fat and high calcium with vitamin B2, these are great for our body as well.

20. Coriander

Coriander contains rich iron, calcium, sodium, zinc, vitamin A and vitamin C etc. It also helps urination, maintain blood sugar level and prevent cancer

21. Chocolate

Chocolate has sedative function. Its taste and texture also stimulate the “happiness nerves” in the brain and makes one happy.   You may not believe it, but chocolate helps slow down the process of caries caused by de-mineralization.

22. Potato

Protects pancreas and stomach. Eating more potatoes can help relieve hot and thirst, and also constipation. Place a slice of potatoes on the bags under the eyes can help clear it.

23. Mushroom

Mushroom is definitely rich in nutrients. It helps our immune system and it’s a good food to lose weight because it has very low calories. It contains a lot of fiber to prevent constipation and lower cholesterol in blood. It contains more vitamin C than most fruits and help the metabolism.

24. Egg

Egg helps improve our memory and skin tone. Egg yolk can help synthesize vitamin H.

25. Walnut

Walnut improves the health of brain. Its nutrition value is 5 times of egg and 9 times of milk. The protein of walnut contains a very important element called lysine, which is very good for the brain.

9. Milk

As a lot of people know, milk contains vitamin D and calcium that keep our bone and teeth strong. One rumor I also heard about milk is that it helps soften our skin too.

10. Spring Water

Spring water is supposed to soften our skin and even whiten our skin. It also helps digestion and detoxification, increase the secretion of bile.

11. Shellfish

Shellfish that contains vitamin B12 produces healthy skin, keeps the luster of our skin and its elasticity.

12. Tomato

Tomato helps avoid formation of cancer, improve appetite and stamina. It also help whiten and brighten the skin.

13. Spinach

Spinach helps prevent anemia, improve stamina and skin, helps digestion, protect eye sights, stabilize emotions. Spinach has folate that is important to pregnant women. With enough folate during pregnancy can reduce the opportunities of leukemia and congenital heart diseases of the baby.

14. Orange

As most people know orange provides a lot of vitamin C and helps avoid formation of cancer, increase the resistance against bacteria. Orange can also clear the elements that harm our body and restrain the growth of tumor cells.

15. Malt

Malt can reduce the opportunities of colon and rectum cancers. Malt itself doesn’t taste much, so we can sprinkle malt on oatmeal or yogurt.

16. Tuna

Tuna contains fatty acid that can lower blood pressure, prevent stroke, control migraine, heal and prevent eczema and relieve dry skin.

17. Strawberry

Strawberry is not only juicy and delicious, it helps improve the quality of the skin, relieve diarrhea, heal disorders of liver and urethral diseases. Strawberry can even strengthen our gums, improve our oral health and moisturize our throat.

(to be cont’d)

1. Carp

The meat of carp has a great variety of high quality proteins, those proteins help strength the elastic fiber of the skin. It especially helps reduce early wrinkles caused by stress and lack of sleep.

2. Broccoli

Broccoli itself contains rich antioxidant vitamin C and carotene. These kinds of vegetables with crosswise flowers are proven to be the best anti-aging and anti-cancer food by researchers.

3. Melon

Melon contains rich antioxidant vitamin C that moisturizes the collagen and elastic fiber of our skin. Always eat melon can help delay the formation of wrinkles and keep the skin smooth

4. Onion

Onion cleanses the blood, lowers cholesterol and helps anti-aging.

5. Tofu

Other than fish and shrimp, tofu is also a great sources for high quality protein. At the same time, these products of beans have a chemical called Isoflavones, which reduce the activity of estrogen. Always eat beans products can also reduce the opportunities of breast cancer.

6. Cabbage

Same as broccoli, it is also a vegetable with crosswise flowers with rich vitamin C and nice fiber.

7. Apple

I guess everyone would believe apple has a lot of vitamin C, fiber and sugar. It keeps the luster of skin. Its fiber helps the digestion as well.

8. Carrot

Carrot has rich vitamin A that helps keep the luster of hair and keeps skin fine and smooth.

(cont’d from part 2)

After lamb and beef in part 1 and some hardcore food in part 2, it’s time for some veggies. There are certainly foods that can keep our body warm for vegetarians other than meats.

6. Chestnut

Chestnut contains high sugar and lipase which are good for cold resistance. Take 15 chestnuts, peel off the shell and cook porridge with rice can help generate more heat for weaker people with “cold” and “empty” kidneys or who feel weak with the back and legs.

7. Leek

Leek contains a lot of nutrients like vitamin A, B, C and calcium, potassium and iron. It tastes bittersweet but helps supplement a weak body. Chop the leeks and cook porridge with rice can generate warmth and even helps menstruation disorders. Good for people who always feel cold with sore knees and back.

8. Spice food

Garlic, ginger, green onion, carrot, walnut, jujube and some “irritating” food such as pepper and coffee can help with cold resistances as well.

(cont’d from part 1)

Ok, last time we talk about lamb, lamb milk and beef can keep us warm because the nature of these food. There are more nasty food from Chinese point of view that can keep us warm during winter. However, in western culture, these are definitely either prohibited or hard to imagine. If you can’t bear with this list, jump to part 3 and we’ll talk about something for vegetarian.

3. Dog meat

Yeah I know that sounds crazy. But there are certain kinds dogs in China that are fed as pig or cow or chicken – they are supposed to be food. I don’t dare to try myself, but I heard it’s the best meat among all in terms of taste. Of course, western culture treats dogs as pet so it’s probably a gross thing to imagine. From medical point of view, dog meat can stabilize the functions of organs, produce heat especially for weak people who have back pain and cold feet. However, it’s easy to get thirsty afterwards and supposed to relieve the thirst by drinking rice soup. People with mucus and a lot of “heat” inside shouldn’t take it. (Actually, I don’t expect anyone reading this blog would even wanna try dog meat.)

4. Rabbit meat

Another meat that sounds gross to certain people. However, rabbit meat is pretty normal even in western culture. I had tried it myself but I didn’t like it as much as other. It’s opposite to dog meat, more like a “cold” meat that helps with flow of the “Qi” (Chi), dilute the blood and cleanse the poisonous elements. It is a high protein and low fat meat with the least cholesterol among all meat. Best for people with high blood pressure and heart attack, and also great for middle age and seniors.

5. Skin of shrimps

Ok, this doesn’t sound as “brutal” as the above two – when I think about it, all meats are the same unless you’re a vegetarian. Anyway, skin of shrimps usually can be eaten as dried shrimps. They’re very normal in Chinese cuisine and used pretty frequently. They help the function of kidneys and heal the coldness caused by weak kidneys.

(to be cont’d)