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"Grow YounGer" NutrieNts i take every Day 6 Page 48 | Abby's Magazine - www.AbbysMag.com preventable reason why some believe folate numbers are slipping is the increased prevalence of obesity, which nega vely affects the way most people metabolize this important vitamin. The ideal way to raise your folate levels is to eat plenty of fresh, raw, organic leafy green vegetables, and beans. Please note that it is the natural folate from food that has been found to be beneficial. This may not be true for the supplement folic acid. 10. VITAMIN B12 Vitamin B12 is fi ngly known as "the energy vitamin," and your body requires it for a number of vital func ons. Among them: energy produc on, blood forma on, DNA synthesis, and myelin forma on. (Myelin is insula on that protects your nerve endings and allows them to communicate with one another.) Unfortunately, research suggests about 25 percent of American adults are deficient in this vitally important nutrient, and nearly half the popula on has subop mal blood levels. Vitamin B12 is found almost exclusively in animal ssues, including foods like beef and beef liver, lamb, snapper, venison, salmon, shrimp, scallops, poultry and eggs. It's not readily available in plants, so if you do not eat meat or animal products you are at risk of deficiency. The few plant foods that are sources of B12 are actually B12 analogs. An analog is a substance that blocks the uptake of true B12, so your body's need for the nutrient actually increases. If you aren't ge ng sufficient B12 in your diet, I recommend you begin supplementa on immediately with this vital nutrient with either an under-the-tongue fine mist spray or vitamin B12 injec ons. Ensuring your body has adequate B12 can vastly improve the quality of your life and prevent debilita ng, even life-threatening diseases, which result from a deficiency of this all-important nutrient. 11. CURCUMIN (TURMERIC) Curcumin — the ac ve ingredient in the spice turmeric—acts both as an immune booster and potent an -inflammatory. But perhaps its greatest value lies in its an -cancer poten al, and it has the most evidence-based literature backing up its an -cancer claims of any other nutrient. It affects over 100 different pathways once it gets into a cell—among them, a key biological pathway needed for development of melanoma and other cancers. The spice actually stops laboratory strains of melanoma from prolifera ng and pushes the cancer cells to commit suicide by shu ng down nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB), a powerful protein known to induce abnormal inflammatory response that leads to an assortment of disorders such as arthri s and cancer. To get the full benefits that curcumin has to offer, you will want to look for a turmeric extract with at least 95 percent curcuminoids that contains only 100 percent cer fied organic ingredients. The formula should be free of fillers, addi ves and excipients (a substance added to the supplement as a processing or stability aid), and the manufacturer should use safe produc on prac ces at all stages: plan ng, cul va on, selec ve harves ng, and then producing and packaging the final product. 12. VITAMIN A According to the featured study in the Journal of Nutri onal Biochemistry, telomere length is posi vely associated with dietary intake of vitamin A in women who do not take mul vitamins. It plays an important role in your immune response, and if you're deficient, you become predisposed to infec ons that can promote telomere shortening. However, vitamin A does not appear to have a dose-dependent effect on telomere length, so you don't need high amounts. Two Addi onal Lifestyle Strategies that Affect Telomere Length While a nutri ous diet accounts for about 80 percent of the benefits derived from a healthy lifestyle, exercise cannot be ignored, and there's evidence sugges ng that exercise protects against telomere shortening as well. Yet another lifestyle strategy that can have a beneficial impact is intermi ent fas ng. Exercise — One recent study on post-menopausal women suffering from chronic stress found that "vigorous physical ac vity appears to protect those experiencing high stress by buffering its rela onship with telomere length (TL)." In fact, among the women who did not exercise, each unit increase in the Perceived Stress Scale was related to a 15-fold increase in the odds of having short telomeres. Those who did exercise regularly showed no correla on between telomere length and perceived stress! Intermi ent Fas ng — Previous research has shown that you can extend your lifespan by reducing your caloric intake, and I've wri en about this technique in the past. The problem is that most people do not understand how to properly cut calories, because in order to remain healthy, you have to cut out the right kind of calories—namely, carbohydrates. Research by Professor Cynthia Kenyon has shown that avoiding carbs will ac vate genes that govern youthfulness and longevity.