Did you know that worldwide there are 1600 people who have reached the age of 110 years old? What’s the secret, and is there one, and if so, what can we do to make it a reality?
Many people have wanted to break the one-hundred-year barrier. According to an online report, the 2010 census shows there were 23,760 Brazilians who officially reached over 100 years of age, and since then there has been a gradual increase. However, who wants to live to a hundred suffering or compelled to stay in bed, or on a ventilator or other contraption?
Life support machines called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines support blood circulation by bypassing a blockage. ECMO machines pull blood out of a patient's body, reoxygenate it, and then return the blood back to the body. Imagine having to spend your last days, weeks, or months stuck in bed doomed to finish the rest of your life in misery!
The Imperial Chinese Government officially awarded a certificate for reaching one-hundred and fifty years in 1827 and then two-hundred years in 1877 to herbalist Li Ching-Yuen who was also a martial artist and tactical advisor, known for his supposed extreme longevity. He lived to the ripe age of 256 before passing away in 1933. He ate oak mushrooms, goji berries, gotu kola, and rice wine for a period during his life!
Personally, I think diet rich foods are key to longevity as they are naturally nutrient-rich including fruits and vegetables. Lean meats, fish, dairy, legumes, nuts, and seeds also are high in nutrients. Certain fruits and vegetable have less carbohydrate content, so selecting the right combination is also a decisive factor, especially if you eat too much. Either drop the amount consumed or change the food source.
Therefore, what we eat, when we eat, and how we eat all contribute to our strength. Li Ching-Yuen claimed that inner peace and calmness, with the proper combination of breathing, is the secret of old age. To put in another way, whoever finds the right formula could theoretically live forever. Now wouldn’t that be an interesting concept!
Take care!
Carl Boniface
Vocabulary builder:
Contraption (n) = machine, device, apparatus, mechanism, gadget, piece of equipment
Doomed (adj) = fated, destined, condemned, hopeless, disaster-prone, ill-fated, lost, unlucky