Antiaging Wellness Blog

It’s been over a week since my last blog, as I have been busy developing a free-to-subscribe 90 day Antiaging and Wellness program for my readers.  As someone who has been into fitness and health all my life, I was fascinated to pull together the subtle changes in techniques that have occurred over the past 10 to 15 years. Many of us in mid-life years are still relying on the old routines: sit-ups to get those abs toned up, losing weight through calorie counting, walking for hours to burn that fat. Yet all three of these strategies are out of date – mainly because they just don’t work, or don’t work anywhere near as well as the new techniques.

We are all so busy these days, not just working, but the scope of opportunities we have to travel and learn new skills is exhaustive. So we are striving for efficiency in our lives to get more out of each day.  This is an underlying theme that I have woven into the 90 day program. I mean, why do full sit-ups when just doing the first 30%, as a “crunch” means I can do 2 or 3 in the same time it took to do one sit up.  Why go walking for an hour, when just 20 minutes of High Intensity Interval Training [sounds scary, but it’s actually quite tame] will give me 4 or 5 times the benefit in a third of the time.  Why stress over calories, when all it does is make me want to eat more.  And what is “toning” anyway? All these answers are in the program, so even if you been working out for years – this is a great opportunity to compare notes, and add on a few Antiaging items.

I have been trialling the program myself for the past 6 weeks and I have been amazed how quickly my upper body strength is developing, and how energised I feel – and that’s from someone who has always been fit and felt good!  I can’t wait to get it finished so I can share it with you all. If you want to get started as soon as possible, register for our free newsletter, and we will notify you as soon as the program is launched.

The program will give you step-by-step action plans of how to rid your life of damaging toxins, and still keep a few of those yummy treats in your life. It will take you through the wellness fitness stage; then support you through the next step – Antiaging. We will be your personal in-house coach to help you tailor the program for your particular goals. That’s the key. There is no point copying what your best friend does, if they are a different body type. You need to understand YOUR body type and tap into your own personal goal program.

The Program launch is only about two weeks away. In the meantime, start reading the Antiaging-Wellness site so you can understand the difference between general wellness and antiaging fitness – Don’t worry, we will be taking you through all the relevant points in the program. 

So Get Ready, Get Reading!

Nicola

www.antiaging-wellness.com

A recent Australian study is claiming that men will live longer if they did a bit more housework. The study carried out at Victoria University claims that men possess an inability to use their excess free time doing meaningful activities, and according to the researchers, this leads to an earlier death.

Now I can just hear then men coming up with logical justifications as to why they should not adopt this new antiaging treatment.  It would most likely follow the lines of logic claimed by my ex husband, in his bid to avoid taking up running as a regular form of exercise. The claims that it would add 5 years to his life were shot down by his math proving that he would indeed spend more time than 5 years, doing something he didn’t care to do. And to him, that was a bad investment.  And in some ways he was correct. But he used the assumption that he would live to the average life expectancy that he used in his calculations. A fatal flaw when your wife mastered in mathematics at school.

It comes down to whether you choose to be here for a good time or a long time. I have always followed the philosophy of the choice given to Alexander the Great.  He was asked at the age of 19, following his father’s death as to whether he was willing to take over the command of the army and lead them to battle.  The counsel he sought from the sage proffered the question: Do you want a short and victorious life, or long and laborious life?.

Me – I’m greedy, I’m going for both.  That’s why I am so passionate about antiaging methodologies and living as healthy a lifestyle as I can.  I take risks and refuse to use my life just doing the same day, over and over.  Every day has a goal for me, a challenge, a personal growth. Even if some days have a little more personal growth than I would care for!

Researchers asked the 168 Melbourne men in the study to record their activities in a diary over two days, describing how meaningful the activity was and how they felt. They found that those men who spent their time on passive leisure activities are more likely to be bored, lonely and contributing to unhealthy lifestyle behaviours. Given the fanaticism most Australian men have for armchair sports, I guess there is the potential for a lot of unhappy, flabby Australian men. 

But of course, to adopt this new antiaging strategy men would have to see housework as a meaningful activity.

Good luck with that one girls!

Nicola

Two articles in the media this week focus on medicinal drugs at opposite ends of the spectrum. One emphasises that care needs to be taken in authenticating cheap drugs available online; the other reinforces that some antiaging measures are potentially only freely available to those who can afford to pay for them.

 Fake gallbladder drug kills nine 
 Tuesday May 23, 2006  BEIJING –

Nine people have died after being injected with a fake toxic drug made by a Chinese company and 14 executives have been detained for questioning.

The victims, all in Guangzhou, died after being injected with fake Armillarisni A, made by the Qiqihar No 2 Pharmaceutical Co Ltd., based in northeastern Heilongjiangprovince, Xinhua news agency quoted hospital sources as saying. Police had taken five of the detained executives to Guangzhou for questioning, the China Daily said. The drug is used to treat gallbladder, liver and gastric disorders. The consumption of fake and inferior quality products has claimed dozens of lives in China in recent years. – REUTERS       
 
AND A VERY WELCOME RELEASE OF AN VACCINE FOR CERVICAL CANCER

Health officials challenge big drug firms  1.00pm Tuesday May 23, 2006
By Jeremy Laurance The dominance of the global pharmaceutical firms in providing medicine to the world’s poor faces its strongest challenge yet at a meeting of World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva this week.

The existing system of drug patenting and pricing is fundamentally flawed and does not meet health needs, according to report released to health experts last month.  

Delegates at this year’s World Health Assembly, which opened yesterday, will vote on proposals that would dramatically increase pressure on the companies, governments and the WHO to reform the system for producing and distributing drugs in the developing world. However, campaigners fear the report is being undermined after it was not given prime position in the assembly’s agenda. The way in which multinational drug companies protect their patents in order to reap profits was highlighted by the pricing of Aids drugs a decade ago at $10,000 ((pounds sterling)5,300) to $15,000 a year, beyond the means of countries such as South Africa where the need was greatest.

An international outcry led to a court challenge which resulted in the price of Aids drugs being slashed to $150 a year. The report, by the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health, saidthe existing system of research and development “has not yet produced the results hoped for, or even expected for, the people of developing countries”.
 Its says drugs are priced too high and there is no incentive to research treatments for the developing world, where the need is great but profits are low. Large sums are committed to finding cures for conditions such as baldness, which is not fatal, rather than for tuberculosis, which is.

The first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer was approved by the US Food and Drug administration last week. Its manufacturer, Merck, priced it at $500 for a course of three shots. That puts it beyond the reach of developing countries, where 80 per cent of cases occur.

Ellen ‘t Hoen, the director of Medecins sans Frontiers’ Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, said tighter regulations imposed by the World Trade Organisation meant countries with an industry in generic drugs were less able to escape patent protection laws than in the past.  “We are in a world today where all new medicines are patentable. That means countries have to deal with one company to try to get lower prices. Countries will probably plead with Merck [over the cancer vaccine] and some will get it cheaper, while some will not.

But this is ‘Big Pharma’ dictating the rules of the game, not governments.”The pharmaceutical industry insists that it needs patent protection to recoup development costs, estimated at £500m per drug.  But the report says governments should devise an alternative system for drug development and patents on essential drugs should be lifted in poorer countries.   
Ms ‘t Hoen said: “The pharmaceutical industry is a £500bn business. It is the most profitable in the world. It needs to earn back its research costs but it does that royally. If it ploughed profits into areas of research … for the developing world that would make sense but it does not. Tuberculosis kills millions and there is no research agenda to deal with that.”

Between 1975 and 2004, only 20 out of more than 1,500 new drugs marketed globally were for tropical diseases and tuberculosis, which account for 12 per cent of the total disease burden.
The World Health Assembly will vote on whether to adopt the report as part of the WHO’s mandate. Ms ‘t Hoen said: “They are unlikely to come up with a blueprint for a global framework but we hope this will be a start.”

- INDEPENDENT 

Nicola