Growing Younger With The Years. Part 3

Weight control also contributes to healthy old age. 

The case of our manufacturer Mr. J. brings up and emphasizes also the necessity for ideal weight in older people, as well as in the younger ones. Particularly if you are past 50 or 60 years of age and are overweight, you can feel healthier and better by reducing your weight to normal. Suppose that you weigh 170 lbs. and should weigh 150 lbs., so that you are 20 lbs. overweight. If you are the average active person, you take at least a thousand steps each day. This means you "drag" around daily with you 20 lbs. x 1000 (steps) or 20,000 lbs. This is about 10 tons. Your heart then must pump all the harder to carry this extra 10 tons around with you (on your back, so to speak) every day! No wonder your heart tends to wear out sooner and shortens your life.

Can youth be restored in the prematurely aged? Perhaps the greatest challenge to experimental science has been the question, "Can youth be restored in the prematurely aged?" In both animals and humans whose premature aging is contributed to by vitamin and nutritional deficiencies, nutritional science has been able to answer "yes" in many cases. There is an old saying used by both the medical profession and the public, "You are as old as your arteries." This concept led us to investigate whether it would be possible to produce "old age" in the arteries, heart, and brain of experimental animals, and to attempt the crucial challenge of whether these arteries could be restored to normal health and youth again afterwards. Accordingly, in 1945, my associates and I fed a high-fat diet and cholesterol to a series of 43 experimental animals. Within 30 to 90 days we were certain that the majority of the animals had already developed from moderate to severe atherosclerosis in the vital arteries around the heart as well as in other parts of the body.

Then, over a 6-month period, we fed daily large quantities of concentrated extracts from Vitamin-B complex to the animals in one group and no vitamins at all to the other group. These special vitamin extract feedings were based on the recent, original discoveries of the value of these nutritional substances (called "lipotropic" or fat-preventing) made by Doctor Charles Best and his associates at the University of Toronto. Dr. Best was the co-discoverer, with Dr. Frederick Banting of Canada, of insulin. We soon noticed great changes in the untreated animals, who had rapidly developed significant atherosclerosis. This contrasted sharply with another group of "controls" that had not been fed the high-fat, high-chholesterol diet, and who were free of atherosclerosis. At the end of a year, the atherosclerotic animals were sluggish, inactive, and disinterested in what went on around them. They showed a drying up and sparseness of hair; poor tooth and nail growth; "rheumy" eyes, and poor appetites. In short, they presented the picture of "old age," even though, chronologically, they were still young animals. But after six months of intensive feeding of very large quantities of Vitamin-B complex constituents to the atherosclerotic group of animals, the changes that took place in them were startling. After examination of the artery tissues in the animals, we found (to quote from our scientific reports published in the medical journals) that "there was re-absorption of atherosclerosis in the majority of those animals whose atherosclerosis had been produced by the fat and cholesterol feedings." In other words, the aged arteries, filled and damaged with the fatty plaques or deposits that were destroying the blood vessels, had become normal and healthy again!

The changes that took place in the appearance and behaviour of the treated animals were also a pleasure to behold. They were frisky again, full of play and mischief, alert to every sound and movement about them, and in great spirits. Their appearance was also remarkable. Hair growth, color, and texture had become youthful and luxuriant, their eyes sparkling, and their appetites voracious. Similar results were also found in the absorption of atherosclerosis in experimental animals at Columbia University by Doctor Albert Steiner and his associates. Other investigators, as well, demonstrated similar results in the experimental production and reversibility of "old age." These nutritional lessons have been very quickly learned by the farmer. He saw to it promptly that large daily supplies of vitamins and nutritional supplements were fed to his livestock and his poultry. They have become healthier, and yield more milk, butter, and eggs, and tastier beef, ham and pork. In addition, they resist illness far better, reproduce their young more efficiently, grow faster, and are far superior in every possible respect.

I recall a memorable case that brought this lesson home to me in an unforgettable way. Over 20 years ago, I was attending a group of ward patients at a university hospital in Philadelphia. One of my charges, Roy W., was a pathetic case - a young student who suffered from a chronic infection of the bone that he had had since childhood. It was imperative that, to cure the condition, he undergo surgery by our brilliant and gifted professor of orthopedic surgery, Doctor John Royal Moore. Unfortunately, this young man's nutritional state - his emaciated condition from his chronic and life-threatening infection - was so bad, that he was judged to be in no condition to undergo the badly needed surgery. Even his liver and other organs had become damaged by the chronic infection. But the most appalling damage was his visible aging. This 19-year old looked like a very old man and talked and felt like one. His hair was graying, his eyes dulled, his skin was wrinkled and his voice feeble. No types of nutritious diet, routine vitamin pill daily intake, or medicines were of any avail in overcoming his weakness. It seemed impossible to improve his health to the necessary pre-operative level. In desperation, in the attempt to counter the boy's obvious nutritional deficiencies and his premature aging, I decided upon a nutritional approach - we would feed him massive amounts of nutritional supplements. In addition to Herculean doses of all known vitamins, I persuaded his broken-hearted mother to go to the city abattoirs and get the freshest liver available. The liver was then pressed by her own [hands and squeezed to get the fresh juice. Huge amounts of this were combined with large daily doses of flavored Brewer's yeast and whole wheat germ in addition to the large amounts of vitamins mentioned above. An amazing transformation took place in this young boy within two months. He became strong, bright, alert, and looked his age again. His whole appearance became altered. His skin, eyes, and - strangely enough - his graying hair, were rapidly becoming normal in color again. The endless, back-breaking hours that his mother had spent daily preparing and taking his life-sustaining nutritional aids to his bedside at the hospital had been rewarded. Roy made a splendid recovery after his operation.

He became the picture of health, and later married and took a position as librarian at a famous university. His history was truly a triumph of the wonders of nutrition - nutrition as it affects the young as well as the old, The next step in our research was to see whether our experimental results with animals in "restoring" old arteries to their youthful state meant anything as far as humans were concerned. First, my co-workers and I studied for three years the effects of members of the Vitamin-B complex group (such as choline, betaine, and inositol) on the atherosclerosis of 230 patients suffering from coronary artery disease. When we published our encouraging results of treatment in the American Heart Journal for May 1950, we were persuaded to use a comprehensive treatment method in attacking the problem of atherosclerosis.

Growing Younger With The Years. Part 2

Growing Younger With The Years. Part 2

Begin now to feel young and really alive. The point of describing all these extraordinary results in making older as well as younger people feel vital, young, and fresh, filled with the zest and capacity for living, is that it is never too late to feel young and really alive again! No matter what your age is, the right diet and nutrition described in this book may do wonders for you. If you really work at it, it can repay you tenfold. It is not enough just to eat "three square meals" a day and take a vitamin pill. That way you can still age before your time and just "exist" during your lifetime. There is evidence that the aging process may be reversible. Out of the horrors of Hitler's concentration camps there came just recently some amazing news announced at the 1956 International Congress on Arteriosclerosis. A crucial question was asked of the general assembly as to whether there was definite evidence that the low-fat diet could effect actual absorption (or reversal) of the fatty deposits in the arteries. The question was also expanded to ask, "Is the atherosclerosis or aging process reversible?"

Growing Younger With The Years. Part 1

To those Americans among the 20 million who are 60 years and over, some may ask, "Of what value is the low-fat diet to me? If I were 40 years old, a book like this would be my Bible. But it's too late for me to benefit from this book now, so late in my life. I only wish that it had been written and that I had read it 25 years ago." It's never too late. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Extensive medical research recently carried out in this country and abroad has shown how dramatic changes in health and well-being result regularly when an intensive nutritional program is followed. There are, in particular, the recent Swedish reports of amazing improvements in the health of older people resulting from the low-fat nutritional program that I originally recommended. Doctor G. Lindquist and Doctor B. Isaksson at the University of Gothenburg Hospital applied the low-fat diet with nutritional supplements to a series of 19 hospital in-patients who were known to be sufferers from hardening of the arteries of the brain. These patients, whose number is tragically legion, are generally regarded by moist physicians as hopeless and are simply to be kept alive as long as possible. Many doctors still view these pathetic people as the inevitable result of old age, the results of wear-and-tear of the arteries - the hardening of the arteries in the brain. The Swedish physicians only recently published their remarkable findings, carried on over a three-month period in men and women patients whose ages ranged from 50 to 87. The diet adhered exactly to the original low-fat, low-cholesterol diet that I had published and advocated (which they graciously acknowledged) containing only 25 grams of fat a day. Some of the patients received a regular daily supply of multiple vitamins. All cases had been previously studied and carefully examined and observed before the dietary treatment was begun, and their clinical condition was stationary. All patients, with one exception, had suffered from a stroke or cerebral thrombosis as a result of hardening of the brain arteries. The one exception suffered from Parkinsonism, or the shaking of the hands (tremors), so often seen in the elderly. All patients had experienced some disability or paralysis of legs, hands, or arm muscles following their strokes. The symptoms were characteristic: nervousness, mental depression, weakness, listlessness, and despair. The following results are taken practically verbatim from the published scientific reports of their research.

The low-fat diet brought amazing improvements. After the three months of treatment by supplements were completed, not one case worsened. Most of the men and women showed striking and dramatic improvement both mentally and emotionally, even those who were mentally confused prior to treatment. The youngest improved patient was 50 years of age and the eldest was 87 years old. The patients were found to have grown more lucid, and to have improved perception and judgment. As a result, they established better personal relationships with doctors, nurses, and members of their families. To further quote the Swedish investigators, the capacity for concentration and endurance was remarkedly increased. This was demonstrated from the energy with which the patients carried out their physical exercises as part of the physical treatment for paralysis and muscular weakness. What was even further remarkable was the improvement in mood and personality. An additional welcome surprise was the improvement in actual physical power and movements in half of the cases, even after this brief period of treatment. Some of the patients made such extraordinary mental and physical progress that they were sufficiently well to be discharged from the hospital. As so many other careful research physicians had done, psychologic and suggestive factors were assiduously avoided. The patients were reported as pleased with the palatable and varied diet.


The very cautious publication reporting the above results appeared in the world medical literature, and confirmed my own original research as well as the findings of others. What was of considerable interest was the fact that the blood fats and cholesterol had decreased rapidly in amount during the short three-month period. One of my patients, whom I shan't forget, was an 83-year old lady, who was wheeled into my office in a wheelchair not so long ago by her 60-year old daughter. Mrs. A. was too feeble to walk, almost blind, partly deaf, and too weak to feed herself. The thin flame of life was kept burning in her by the devoted spinster daughter. Her selfless dedication to her mother, her feeding her and tending to her every want was touching, even biblical in character. Somewhere the daughter had heard that farmers were feeding their animals with *superchargers* of vitamins and other nutritional products to make them healthier, more vigorous, and so produce finer specimens and higher profits. She reasoned that possibly such treatment might help humans, even her mother, who was rapidly becoming like a vegetable. Two months of our treatment followed. Large amounts of natural and synthetic vitamins, plus nutritional supplements such as lecithin, soya oil and liver extract were given in addition to the low-fat, high-protein diet. Under our very eyes, a nutritional miracle then took place. Mrs. A. walked in to see me, under her own power. She was able to see, even though not as clearly as at one time. Because her hearing had returned, we were able to carry on a conversation. And I found - marvel to behold! - that she still had a sense of humor. She was able to poke fun at herself and spoke of my "robbing the grave." Or take the case of Miss R., a 65-year-old maiden lady who had a stroke or cerebral thrombosis, the result of atherosclerosis. Her vision was failing and she was partly paralyzed, desperate, and depressed. Except for one friend, she was all alone in the world. After several months of using the low-fat nutritional program described in Chapter 5, Miss R. recovered much of her muscular powers, her partial paralysis gradually disappeared, and she became a radiant picture of cheerfulness and optimism. Her vision had greatly improved, and when last seen in my office she asked me brightly, "Doctor, could I go swimming?" I replied, "Indeed yes, but - no diving!" During the past decade, many reports of repeated research in old folks' homes or centers for the elderly have shown in these people the failure of many vital organs (like the liver) to keep up with the older persons' physical and mental needs. Poor functioning of the kidneys, liver, heart, and other glands was noted. When tests were made of the vitamin levels in these elderly people, they were shown to be deficient. However, research constantly shows us that humans vary widely in their nutritional needs. The nutritionist for the Canadian Government, Dr. Lionel B. Pert, speaks succintly of "the illusion of vitamin requirements." He finds, as do most other scientists, that there are no known exact requirements of vitamins and nutrients for humans.

You need more than a "normal" or "average" diet. It is emphatically not enough to eat merely the listed standards of nutrients. They vary widely in their ability to be absorbed, depending on the individual's vitamin, mineral, nutritional requirements and his biologic pattern. Chapter 5 on lecithin and nutritional supplements is therefore of greatest practical value for the older person as well as the younger one. One perfect example gathered from many is the very recent and ingenious study carried out by Doctor Tom Spies, one of America's great nutritionists. He studied over 893 men and women who were suffering from weakness, nervousness, poor mental concentration, ease of fatiguability following any physical or mental exertion, and depressive feelings. Many had to stop work, as they were unable to hold a job. Some women found it impossible to care for their families and homes. In brief, these men and women were "old before aging" and most of them looked it. Most of these people complained of symptoms from various digestive, nervous, or mental ailments. Previous physicians had proven that none of these symptoms were due to actual physical disease, but were merely disturbances in the normal function of the body. These people were sent to Doctor Spies' medical center and research facilities in Birmingham, Alabama, by physicians who had been unable to help these puzzling and difficult problem cases. These individuals showed no physical or laboratory signs as explanations for their physical or mental breakdowns; they were on the regular, average American diet and had seemingly normal food habits. The research team headed by Doctor Spies tackled the clinical puzzle of these 893 "mystery" cases as a nutritional challenge. The nutritional supplements and vitamin supplies used were mainly those described in Chapter 5. They included lecithin, vitamin supplements, and nutritional aids such as liver extracts and brewer's yeast. These were administered in an intensive way to all cases, together with a high protein diet. Astounding changes promptly took place in these people.

Within a few months it was difficult to recognize many of them. Gone was the weakness, malaise, the lethargy, the nervousness, depressions, the exhaustions, and myriad accompanying symptoms characteristic of chronic poor nutrition. Cheerfulness, optimism, a sense of well-being, physical and mental vigor, a remarkable increase in physical and mental stamina was evident in the great majority of cases. Within a few months almost all of them were able to return rejuvenated to work, home, and normal, healthful activities. A number of the younger ones entered the armed forces. Hundreds of them began to look younger and fresher. The skin developed lustre and a healthy texture where before it had been dry and wrinkled. A sparkle came back to the eyes, physical movements became vigorous and youthful. Some of the patients lost the mental symptoms and depressions that had caused a suspicion of actual mental disease. These really dramatic lessons and "cures" are additional demonstrations of the greatly increased nutritional requirements of both younger and older people, who are victims of our current food and cooking habits.