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Volume 4 Issue 4

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If You Want to Age Gracefully Don't Eat This! by Dr. Joseph Mercola, Physician and Author Death is surely inevitable, but I do believe you can live far longer than the average life expectancy tables would predict, which in the U.S. is about 78. Gene cs may play a role, but it is NOT the final determining factor for whether you'll live a long healthy life. Barring an accident, your lifestyle has everything to do with your longevity. It's already been established that diet can override gene c predisposi ons for disease, so don't fall into the trap of believing your health and longevity is somehow inescapably ed to what's pollu ng your gene pool. The Leading Cause of Premature Aging and Death Increased insulin and lep n receptor resistance has clearly become the leading cause of premature aging and death. This results from two primary condi ons: too much sugar and processed foods, combined with insufficient exercise. Interes ngly, controlling these two factors will likely eliminate more than 90 percent of the following medical condi ons: • High blood pressure • Obesity • Diabetes • High cholesterol Of all the molecules capable of inflic ng damage to your body, probably the most damaging are sugar molecules. Fructose in par cular is an extremely potent pro-inflammatory agent that accelerates aging. Today's excessive sugar consump on is mostly an ar fact of the pos ndustrial agricultural revolu on. More than 30 years ago, scien sts learned how to cheaply produce sugar from corn, and now it is loaded into nearly all processed foods and has become the number one source of calories in most developed countries. Fructose is a major contributor to: • Insulin resistance and obesity • Elevated blood pressure • Elevated triglycerides and elevated LDL • Cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancer, arthri s and even gout How Fructose Accelerates Aging Fructose adversely affects your body in a number of ways, but one of the mechanisms that causes significant damage is glyca on, a process by which the sugar bonds with proteins and forms so-called advanced glyca on end products, or AGEs. It's a fi ng acronym because—along with oxida on— it's one of the major molecular mechanisms whereby damage accrues in your body, which leads to disease, aging and eventually death. When sugar glycates, it creates inflamma on, which ac vates your immune system in a defensive maneuver. Macrophages are scavenger cells that are part of your immune defense, and as such they have special receptors for AGEs, aptly called RAGEs (think: raging inflamma on). These RAGEs bind to the AGEs and get rid of them. Unfortunately, this process can leave its fair share of ba le scars. Inside your arteries, for example, the scar ssue created from this process is called plaque. This process underlies the strong connec on between diabetes and heart disease. Page 34| Abby's Magazine - www.AbbysHealthAndNutrition.com

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