Ban the DNC

Let's ban the DNC for hate speech.

Now, Alex Jones is a "conspiracist".  For most people, a nut job. Quite, quite mad.He thinks he is a "thinker" and the rest of his are "sheeple".  We disagree.    Of course, he is not a "thinker" and we are (mostly) mindless minions.

Jones is accused of "hate speech" for his views on Islam, transgender people and others, which in America is good business.  Unfortunately for him he doesn't have the right affiliations.

Putting aside the issues of presentation, audiences, and backers, how different are Jones' views on Islam from those of Sam Harris or Bill Maher -- or many others?    In the same way, how different are his views on transgender people from the Christian Right?   How different are John Bolton and Rachel Maddow?  

It is hard to draw the line - about what is "hate speech" if we want to protect diversity of opinion.  It seems too often that  "hate' is OK depending on who does the hating -- and media trends.

Let's face it.  Americans love to hate.  They also simply adore conspiracy theories. ?The two things go together because fear of things go bump in the night or hide or the bed -- fear of the dark, if you like, generates hate.

If Alex Jones is a conspiracist and a hater - what can we say of the US Congress-- the Democrats in particular?  What is Russiagate but a massive conspiracy theory -- with no basis in fact?  And a lot of basis in hate for Russians in general and Putin in particular.  

The DNC is much more dangerous than Jones could ever be -- because they have real power -- and are pushing America towards war with people already dead or dying because of their jingoistic atavism.   Jones, at least, hasn't killed anyone.  Congress, however, has the blood of children on its hands. Most conspiracists are pretty harmless but Congress is prone to murder.

So who deserves to be banned on Facebook?

Ageing Young. The Book

 Ageing Young

You Are Never Too Old

  You Are Never Too Old is the title of a book-in-making.  I will publish the chapters here and invite comments and suggestions.

Dedications:

This book is dedicated to the memory of Charles Eugster who started body building at age 85. It is also dedicated to Mark Pritchett, musician and financial advocate who, with his friend John Marks of Malta gave me hope when I most needed it.  And, of course, it is dedicated to Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull.

--JM

All You Need Is Love

Was John Lennon right?  That all you need is love?

The fact is that loneliness is a bigger health risk than either smoking or obesity.   We are social animals.

“You’re never too old to rock and roll if you’re too young to die”sings Ian Andersen.  But you don’t want to dance alone.

For Whom The Bell Tulls

Jethro Tull is Andersen’s rock group. 

Andersen is Scottish but the group is  named after an English agricultural innovator and farmer, born in 1674.   They hark back to the land, to nature and a lot of their songs are about loneliness.     

Andersen is 70.

Aqualung, for example, is about an old homeless man. 

      Sun streaking cold, an old man wandering lonely
      Taking time, the only way he knows

Leg hurting bad as he bends to pick a dog end
He goes down to a bog and warms his feet
Feeling alone, the army's up the road
Salvation a la mode and a cup of tea
Aqualung, my friend, don't you start away uneasy
You poor old sod, you see it's only me

The album “You’re Never Too Old to Rock and Roll” was based on an idea for rock musical.  An ageing and retired rock star named Ray Lomas wins money on a decadent quiz show but finds that society has changed so much that, with no one like him anymore he has no way of enjoying his money the way he did in the 1950s. 
Yes -- loneliness and lack of love again.

Lomas decides to commit suicide via a motorcycle crash but fails and lands himself in hospital in a coma for an undetermined amount of time.

When he awakes he discovers society has changed and his style of dress and music are now popular again.  In addition, the advanced medicine he is treated with after disfiguring his face, and damaging his body, in the crash makes him look 20 years younger.  He has become and overnight sensation with youth who are now trying to dress, and act, just like him.  

So – don’t give up hope! 

When Humanity Was Young, the Old Mattered

Ray Lomax things come full circle.  Sort of….

It is only a circle in two dimensions.  Three dimensionally it is a vortex.  

So, yes, things come round but they are not quite the same.  To understand this phenomenon we have to look at evolution.

Imagine a xenobiologist from an alien universe visits Earth.

He would look at the various theories of human evolution and then at humanity and shake both his heads.  “Intelligent Design?”   “Survival of the fittest?”  He would laugh again. From an objective point of view, human social systems and technologies are out of sync with our basic biology which evolved thousands of years ago to adapt to specific conditions.   Like the Dodo we are just waiting for something to come and kill us. 

Evolution is driven by availability of resources, and of course by competition and threat.  So the Dodo had lots to eat – little competition and few threats – until human beings arrived.

In other words, the end of evolution is not godhead, whatever Arthur C Clarke thinks.  Evolution can as easily result in regress as in "progress".   Use it or lose it. 

Modern human beings – Homo Sapiens – at first coexisted with other human species – the Neanderthals, Homo Erectus and Denisovans – who then disappeared.   Some people assume interbreeding was the reason.  Others suggest we killed them off.  Still others say   that these ‘other’ species could not compete as Homo Sapiens populations increased.  Another explanation is that the other species were nomadic and if you couldn’t walk fast enough to keep up, you were left behind.  The Neanderthals didn’t look after the aged.

That is, of course, also true of human nomads.  

 Homo sapiens was at first nomadic.   

But then,  thirty thousand years ago – something happened.

The proportion of older people among modern humans suddenly boomed.   Mortality was still high for the young – but old people increased five-fold largely because they were looked after and valued, as a source of wisdom and experience.  It was the elderly who held tribes together – and gave them stability and strength – social smarts with which   other proto-human species could not compete.

 Our ancestors, however, had found that in the wetlands around estuaries, food was plentiful and they learned to grow crops as well.  They had still not developed agricultural society – they still did not have a sense of property or individual ownership.  They lived in collectivist societies of a few hundred people each where hoarding was abhorred and there was little, if any, sense of hierarchy.  They were healthier, bigger and stronger and made better tools.

 Older people were relied upon for guidance and wisdom.  They were the best tool makers.  They were the best counselors.  They were the story tellers, the healers, the spiritual and cultural  guides.  When they prospered, their societies prospered.

Then, of course, came agriculture, notions of property, new technologies and writing – and with these things – inequality.
Suddenly, people were shorter, weaker, less healthy and aged quickly.

Empires rose and fell, usually with an average lifespan of just 300 years.  Feudalism appeared and disappeared, thanks to new technologies, cities, and new diseases.   Finally came the Industrial Age and Age of Nation States . Today, ironically we are in some respects reverting to our Neolithic beginnings.  Not exactly “full circle” as I have said .  It’s a vortex.   

The Invention of Youth

To understand this more clearly, we need to look at the age from which we are emerging.

 Industrialism and nationalism needed young people.     Young people had energy – although they had be trained to conform and take their places in the large, newly invented hierarchical “nation states” since they were inevitably at the bottom. They were grist for Blake’s “dark and satanic mills”.  They worked, they got old and they died. 

In the early 19th Century,  we invented the idea of the “child” whereas previously we had had infants and young people.   The “child” concept romanticized and infantilized young people until the age of puberty at which point they clearly became “adults” who could procreate and fight wards   That became a problem in the mid twentieth century with new technologies.  It became more important to keep you adults off the job market and educate them in higher level technologies.  So we invented “teenagers”.
 
 Industrialism and nationalism depended on taxonomic logic – that is classification and categorization.  Today we see it very clearly in the way we divide schools into grades and assign social class according to your higher education and also in the way we distinguish between children, teenagers, adults and finally the Old.
 
In the 19th   Century,   the Old tended to die young -- but those who survived were usually looked after at home.  In the mid and late 20th Century,  , people past retirement age were often shuttled off into “homes” where they expected to die.  Of course, if you were wealthy or privileged – you became a politician! 

Today technology has evolved, even if human beings haven’t.  Robots do the work.  3 D printing technologies mean smaller factories.  We don’t need young people much – except for war – if you don’t have resources for hi-tech warfare. So the social model that went with industrialization is changing 

In the OECD countries, families are smaller, fewer children are being born – and fewer are needed since technology is increasingly automated and the number of workers needed decrease  every year.      Education?  It is quickly obsolete -- so degrees and certificates are designators of social level only, except  in medicine, science and technology, which demand lifetime self-education.  

For the average college graduate, his or her diploma is just another way of   defining social class and privilege.     Or was – since clearly such accreditations were clearly limited.

“Youth” and the institutions that support it are increasingly obsolete.   We are always going to have young people-- but they will never again receive the priority they have had this last one hundred years –especially now that mankind’s greatest problem is to reduce population levels --not increase them.   If populations drop by half, we still have too many people.  Populations need to drop 75%! 

What we need are active older people.  The Young Old,  Mark Pritchett calls them.

The Greatest Generation was the last generation to really believe in “retirement”.  For the Boomers, who vowed to never trust anyone over 30 , it is “you’re never too old to rock and roll”.   Which is good  in a quickly changing world, characterized by information overload, with all values temporary, and advanced machine intelligences on the horizon, we need the experience, the wisdom, the memories and the love and humanity of those older than us. 

It is perhaps fortunate that a lot of older people simply cannot afford to retire – or don’t want to.    

So we need these people “to be  fit”.  

This is because “mass societies” are breaking down with greater emphasis on communities – or, if you like, tribes.  And just as in the beginning, it is old people who help keep it together.

The Fitness Spectrum

Remember the “four freedoms”.  There are four fitnesses, too. 

                  Physical fitness
                               Mental fitness
                               Social fitness
                               Spiritual fitness

You can’t really have one kind of fitness without the others.
But “spiritual”?  Some people automatically recoil when they see that word.

 But “spiritual” not the same as “religious”.     An atheist can be “spiritual” and a religious person may not be.  “Spirituality” as I define it reflects the unique structure of the human brain which has special areas that allow us to transcend our own individuality and perceive the universe holistically. 

Freud called it an “oceanic feeling”.   Buddhists see it as satori. Artists call it “inspiration”.  “Spiritual” includes -- but is not limited to religion, art, dance, song and creativity in general.  Consider: we are the only animals with these things, except maybe whales, who sing.  And no matter how “spiritual” is characterized all people have it to some degree. And it is located in the brain. A quasi cognitive function.
 

For the ancients it was essential to survival because it was the essence of creativity – and also because enhanced the sense of community that we all need – getting back to that “love thing”.  

Today, ironically, you might have to a rock concert and you will feel it.  
 
You’re never too old to rock and roll. But you need someone to rock with.  And the feeling has to be visceral -- not digital.

So, naturally, “spiritual fitness” ties in with “social fitness and also mental fitness.  And these three help make physical fitness possible, too. 

More about his later. 


The Dunbar Limit and the Vortex

 Societies are evolving fast as they “gray”, with greater attention to fitness issues and breakthroughs in geriatrics.  That’s the good news.    The bad news is that social institutions haven’t evolved far or fast enough—we are still out of sync with our basic natures as the intelligent animals we evolved to be thousands of years ago.  That means, you can’t leave everything up to the government if you want to live a longer, healthier life – you are going to have be smarter – and consider who and what you are – which is still a Paleolithic hunter and gatherer.  That means community. 

Our ancestors lived in small groups, often just 25 people -- rarely more than the Dunbar limit considered the maximum size for any cohesive community  --a maximum  400 people  Most human beings still live in communities no larger than 400!  But your "core" relationships are just 5.

According to Dunbar, social media has only reinforced his conclusions. He explained that a recent analysis of one million Facebook pages showed that the layers of friendship (most intimate, best, good, just friends) are the same size as they are “in real life” (about 5, 15, 50, and 150). What seems to happen, Dunbar said, is that Facebook introduces “a few extra people” to the outermost layer of casual acquaintances (people you know but wouldn’t send a holiday card), which can extend out to 500 individuals. Facebook confuses things by calling all of these relationships friends. But while Facebook probably slows a relationship’s “rate of decay” when you no longer meet in person, he suspects social media won’t stop a more intimate friend (say, in the 15 or 50 category) from moving into a further-out ring if there’s no longer any face-to-face contact

We were tribal once.  We still are. The vortex turns and rises.  At the center is love.  Yes, “all ya need is love”.
    
As King Cole reckoned that ‘you will never grow old, not while there’ love in your heart.   

The Zimmers is a rock group of 40 pensioners. Combined age:  3000 years. 

 

Studies consistently suggest that older people are "happier" than say people in late middle age or their 20s.  But "happiness" statistics are remarkably unreliable -- even more than political polls-- largely because "happiness" means so many different things to different people.So, "happier" doesn't necessarily mean "happy".

Now comparing an old person with a middle aged person is difficult because they usually have different issues.  The key issue for older people is community.  Studies show that elderly people who live in the community fare much better than those in "homes".

Activity and social engagement are the highest determinants of successful aging.   Isolation on the other hand kills.

Clint Eastwood says that one reason he never "retired" was that his father did in his 60s -- and died. Eastwood did some of his best work after 70!  

Yes, older people might be happier. But then the questionnaires go to the living, not the dead -- the ones who didn't survive transition to a different way of life -- for whom that transition was traumatic.

Chapter II 

Social Fitness  

Loneliness Kills

My  grandmother had spent years looking after the kids.  She had her own apartment  with lots of memorabilia but she lived half the time at my parents place which had lots of room.    The kids, of course, all eventually left home, leaving lots of bedrooms,   

My mother was fine with Grandma when she was useful -- babysitting -- but when it was clear that the old lady was having troubles living alone since, without kids around, there was no reason for her to stay over -- she decided to move Grandma into a home.     

So my Mom and her brother sold off the apartment.   I think my Uncle had always thought that Grandma would just move in with my mother.  That didn't happen.    My mother took all of my Grandma's furniture which she has always coveted.  Why my Grandma allowed this I don't know -- but she trusted her kids and I think she thought that the "home" she was moved to was just temporary.    

 But that didn't happen.  She ended up in a tiny room   shared with another old person. It was conveniently -- perhaps intentionally close to where I lived -- but  I was already contracted to work in Japan.  

Now Granny was still active and alive.  I would occasionally take her to student pubs. Oh my, how she lighted up!  I looked after my Grandma before I left as much as I could. But I had to leave Canada.  I complained bitterly to my father, who I thought might listen.  He didn't listen, of course. When  I left and there was no one.  She died shortly after.  She had no one to depend on.  

I didn't hear about her death for three weeks after it happened when I phoned my mother who said, "Oh we didn't tell you because we thought you didn't care. Because you're in Japan and you have deserted your family".  

Sometimes those closest to you are most cruel.  

Now, from this you might assume my Mother was a monster -- and and an exception.  She was in fact an exceptional woman -- charming, intelligent, gifted -- but also emotionally stunted and an insecure narcissist.  However, there are other points of view. Nothing is black and white. 

Her comments to me on the phone were hurtful.  However, I now think that  she didn't want to tell me about my grandma because, I think, she felt terrible guilt that she could not face until her later years, when she died alone and without any real friends.  And she knew I would judge. 

After all, my mother was always trying to beat into her children's heads that only "family" could be trusted.

But ultimately my grandmother had a measure of responsibility too. She had put all her eggs in one basket -- assuming that my Mom would look after her.  She had no one else really.  No close friends and she wasn't close to my Uncle's family that much.

She was still mentally fit when my kids convinced her to move out of her apartment.   If she had refused to move or suggested giving her things to my uncle to look after -- my mother would likely have taken her in.  Old or not -- you need to be a little canny.  Lesson to the still living: don't give away the farm.

That said,  every family is different.  But every family has unique problems. although most people want to think their families are "normal" even when they are not.  When I was growing up, I thought I was the only one with a dysfunctional family.  Years later, I found out I was just one of many. 

My lawyer friends tell me that family members are the worst people to do business with.  Things get complicated fast. 

If you are lucky and can rely on your family -- or if your culture demands that your family look  after you, with respect and love -- as is the case in Russian or Sikh society -- wonderful!

If not, you have to create a new family of people who care for you, friends and lovers.  And be careful with your own family. 

 But the people who mattered were the people you chose instead of the people who were yours by an accident of birth. Real family was heart as much as, if not more than, blood.” ― Martina Boone, Compulsion

My grandma's story is more common than you would think.  People just don't like to talk about out that kind of thing too much.

    
Knowing the Place for the First Time


So where do you start?   A solid base of connection can result from new friendships with old friends.

 For example, Rob and Dave both went to Argyle Secondary school in Vancouver Canada back in the 60s, a new school with students from mixed mixed socioeconomic backgrounds, rich and poor.   

Failure?  Bryan Adams Before and After

The school no longer exists., For a while it was famous for the rock star,  Bryan Adams who was (according to legend) held up as an example of a "bad kid" who would never come to any good. It's said he later tried to donate his piano to the school but the principal (who had been a badass in his day) turned him down.  He gave it to his junior high school instead.

Rob and Dave's fellow students mostly moved away from Vancouver.  Dave stayed on.  Rob went to Vancouver Island which is about four hours away from Vancouver by ferry and car. Peter went to Cuba. I went to Japan. Others moved all over the province and the country.
 
Time went on:  Rob and Dave faced retirement.  They wondered what had happened to everyone. There had been a 20th Reunion.  The  40th  anniversary for their graduation was approaching.

So they planned a reunion -- not just for the first graduating class but the first two or three -- a lot of people.

Somehow they tracked down everyone's email addresses. Rob had been a bank manager and his technical skills and diligence to detail came to the fore.  In the process both Rob and Dave re-established relationships or forged relationships with people they would never have thought of as friends in high school, surprising themselves.

Then came the first reunion. 

 Everyone was the same.  Everyone was also different.   Rob and Dave devised picture name tags using pictures from the High School Year book. The strategy paid off. New bonds were forged.  Old secrets divulged. " I had the biggest crush on you back then -- but you never asked me out".
    
After that came the 50th Anniversary.

Now, not everyone -- but a significant number keep  in touch by email.

Renewed friendships.  Most importantly new friendships.  Rob and Dave cared. They created something. -- that made a lot of people happier.   I am sure that very few of the Argyle people are lonely -- or likely to be abandoned like my Grandmother -- but in 10 or 15 years, who knows?  Maybe, just maybe Dave and Rob have saved a few lives.

Facebook is a cocktail party. Superficial personal PR.  As is LinkedIn.  Nothing substitutes for a hug. 

Email can supplement face to face meeting, if you talk about your feelings and life. One needs to be real to nurture a real relationship.  But it is a give and take process.

Mutual Well-Being

Yes, that's us below.  Well-Being means having friends and maybe sharing a joke.

In prehistoric times,  our ancestors lived in groups of just 30 people or so;  which meant you were never by yourself and there was constant interaction.    We needed each other to survive because what we could expect from our environment was the unexpected. 

It is true that nomadic peoples in difficult environments, abandoned the old or the sick when they couldn't keep up.  Or sometimes just killed them.  But this was seen as mercy killing. Euthanasia. 

Our industrial society abandoned old people who were too considered too old to work -- with the exception of the rich, of course, who never worked anyway.

In the prehistoric period, our ancestors moved to semi sedentary hunting and gathering, which allowed them to look after the old better -- which they did.  There was also an advantage to this because old people were survivors and repositories of wisdom.  In addition, ancestral societies were   highly egalitarian societies where the Golden Rule was followed.

Our modern society, on the other hand, is highly unequal, with worth determined by function and status.   And the Golden Rule is Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.  Not very altruistic.   

One of the most obvious features of modern society therefore is segregation. By this I don't mean black people not allowed to use white toilets -- but discrimination  according to group identity --ethnicity, religion,  gender, sexual preference, social class, job positions -- and especially age.   

Identity rules are  enforced first in kindergartens. Boy, girl, of course.  But young, old.  Age!  From there on segregation is by age.  Everybody in grades.  IQ tests are relative to age, ignoring the fact that mental development varies from person to person.  This establishes a mindset, which we think is somehow natural. 

"Identity" politics"?  Self segregation, of course.  As I said, we think it's natural ,Women separate from men.  Blacks separate from Whites.  Gays separate from Straights.  Young separate from Old.  You have been brainwashed -- to fit a pigeon hole with no room to spread your wings. 

As soon as you discriminate by perceived difference -- you segregate.  No one is equal.  All are different. And this provides a rationale for social and economic inequality and other abuses.    I look much younger than my age -- about 15 years younger at least.  When I tell someone my true age -- there is a huge difference -- so I usually don't. 

We accept a ageist utilitarianism than would make our most savage, nomadic ancestors blanche.  People in their societies had roles of course -- but not so minutely defined.     In some American Indian societies, a man but didn't want to be man, a warrior?  Fine. He could be a woman. Which was not a demotion because women called the shots on a most important matter.  Age in terms of  number of years didn't matter -- but rasher experience and fitness. 

Hierarchies

Maslow's "hierarchy of needs" is famous.  And usually represented by a pyramid -- which Maslow in fact never used, probably because it implies -- for some people -- a "stage of life" progression, meaning you start off as infant with physiological needs and as you get older you must deal with other "higher level" needs.  This pyramid would further imply that "self actualization"  -- at the top takes age and experience to realize.

There are problems with this.  The "pyramid" reflects our industrial and consumerist culture -- which emphasizes the needs of the individual.  But, in much the world, culture emphasizes collective needs -- which are the default in evolutionary terms.

In tribal groups, "self actualization" could be seen as arrogance.  The best hunter in a group is also the most criticized.  "Umm.. Yarek, that deer you killed is big but kinda old" .  "Sorry guys I'll do better next time".  

So the "hierarchy of needs" is ethnocentric.  We also have to consider consumerism which adds artificial needs. 

A further problem is that basic needs are co-extensive all ages.  Yes, children have self esteem needs, along with all the rest.  And the notion of "developmental stages" is really a cultural thing. 

This is a mistake that tribal groups rarely make, since children are regarded as just neophyte adults who can't make babies. 

Think about it -- didn't you actually experience all these "stages" before the age of 12? 

The mechanistic logic of all large scale  hierarchical societies, which depend on tools is that they regard people as tools too --with everything -- everyone --  sorted by an assumed hierarchy of function.   Nope, you're not a person -- you're a thing!   That means your "needs" are also determined by "things". 

Or course,  the  owners of the tools in our multi-layered individualistic society are in a special category.   

To a degree this puts the "Boomers" in a unique position in today's rentier society because many of those ex-hippies are "owners" and not willing to just roll over and die.  We will talk about this later.

Going back to those studies about "happiness" and older people. No study can be informative unless it addresses the actual needs of older people -- dumping the "pyramid" trope. 
   
Ageism for Dummies

 Ageism is as bad as any of the "isms".

 


Keep in mind that ageism is about all ages.  As I have said, each age group is segregated and suffers accordingly.  If you are old, you have something in common with those who are young since the young have no immediate usefulness either -- other than the potential to do something in the labor force later.   

Age segregation also means that throughout life you continue to be in a "grade" as you were in school -- that is,  supposed to have friends of the same age, interests and social position or family. You  can only do the things 'appropriate"  for your age group.  

First you are too young for this or that.  At the end, you are too old.  
 
 Let's say you are 65.

Your high school friends have probably moved away from the the old 'hood.  And you have little in common with many of them now.  Your kids too often move away.  The friends who stayed around or friends you made in your 30s and 40s have started dying off in your twenties.  Now who do you talk to?

Your kids see you as Dad and Mom.  Old!

But these roles are pretty much irrelevant --except maybe for Mom who can babysit as my Grandma did.

They start planning to put you in a retirement home with a lot of other people of the same age and sell off the old family home, which is now worth a lot of money.   Your future?  Solitary.  Their future.  New car.  Trip to Europe or wherever. 

In my mother's case, she rationalized that since she was now working -- albeit part time she didn't have time to look after her mother -- not that Granny really needed much. My Mom also wanted to travel to Europe and so on.  On the other hand -- she had space -- and my Granny's pension and savings would have bought a lot of extra help.  

This is a pretty common argument: "We just can't look after Granny that well".  On the other hand, this line of reasoning doesn't wash at all in many cultures, including (as mentioned) Russia. 

Middle class Boomers, as I have said are "owners".  They are also what Mark Pritchett calls the Young Old.  At 70 you are what 60 used to be fifty years ago.

The Boomers' children are often rentier, middle aged and unhappy with their lot.  Which leads to the some children suing to take their parents estate even when they have twenty years of life yet.   

Even if this doesn't happen, there may be a kind of isolation and alienation.  Not with everyone, of course, but with many more than you think.

So my Granny's case is not that unusual.   

Getting old sometimes means being confined to a kind of subtle, social solitary. Rob and Dave reacted against that. 

"Solitary" , we are told,  is a form of torture banned under international law. 


 The good news is that most people respond to the trauma of transition positively as Dave and Rob did, creating new social networks and living in the moment. 

Rage, rage against the dying of the light....  Be one of  the happy survivors. 

Fighting Ageism

 .

In Rock 'n roll there is never really a "solo" act.  There is the spotlight, yes -- but you always need an audience, a venue -- and the  and the songs come from somewhere.    For the most part, rock 'n roll is about the band -- about synergy.  And old rockers just keep on rocking. 

In tribal society,  all ages and both sexes ate together, played together and looked after each other.  

So what can you do?  Become a joiner.  Volunteer.  Find people who share your interests -- and don't care about age. Integrate -- don't withdraw.  

Leopold Kuchwalek is a hundred years old and he teaches swimming to kids in Berlin. 

A New York Times article,  Relationships; Making Friends Late In Life by Sharon Johnson, quotes gerontologist,Dr Karen A Roberto:

''Not everyone over 65 wants to spend his or her time with other senior citizens,'' said Dr. Roberto. ''That is why some people who move to retirement villages are miserable and move back to their hometowns or other places where they can have interaction with people of all ages.''

The article goes on to illustrate this point.

Robert O'Sullivan, a 68-year-old retired bookkeeper who lives in the Bronx, considers his 14-year-old next-door neighbor one of his best friends because he and the boy go fishing during the summer and to basketball games in the winter.

''One reason why the friendship has flourished is that both the kid and I have lots of free time,'' said Mr. O'Sullivan. ''My son and other middle-aged men in the neighborhood enjoy these activities, too, but they are too busy with their work to join me.''

Mrs. Katz is an older woman in the Bronx:

Flexibility is the key to developing and keeping new friends, according to Mrs. Katz of the Bronx.

''You have to be tolerant and learn to overlook things such as a new friend not returning your telephone call right away because the pool of potential friends is smaller than it is for a younger person, and you don't want to rule out good people unnecessarily,'' she said. ''Because we have fewer years available for developing friendships, older people have to take the initiative and extend a welcoming hand right away instead of waiting for the other person to do so.''

In making younger friends, you also have to learn about their world -- which is necessarily different from yours.  Not better-- different.  This learning process involves more "smart thinking". 

Below: Selin Sun, 18, and Molly Kutapan, in her 70s, who have become friends through intergenerational work at Haverstock School in Camden

By and large, a rule of thumb is that it is not the age of your friends that counts but the ability to share.   As you will see later making friends with people your own age is fine -- as long as you have similar interests and problems to transcend the inevitable differences.  

Below: Paul Crowson and Nicola Jackson in a cooking class  

With younger friends, difference is assumed from the beginning. And if you have such friends, it is a reciprocal learning process -- with reciprocal care.  You will find that the segregative and alienative aspects of modern society make everyone lonely. 

As always, flexibility is the key.  Old people have an edge -- they've been through all this stuff before-- and they are freed by age.


If your partner is 15 years or more younger -- you will likely live an extra 7 years. 

Community

Industrial civilization progressed by atomizing social life and destroying community bonds.   Remember the so-called Dunbar number –  the maximum number of people with whom you can maintain relationships?  It is just 200, which approximates the maximum size of a Paleolithic tribe and is the average size of communities worldwide.    In practice, the first 20 relationships are your tribal “clan”, which includes your partner or partners and children and parents and siblings and close friends.. The rest are the same tribe but other “clans”.   Children belong to everyone, once they have been weaned.  

This number tells us that we can only have communities of a certain size.  So the US of A is not a community -- it is many.   And what matters to healthy ageing -- or more correctly -- life -- is having a community where everyone knows everyone and cares for everyone.

In his recent bestseller, Outliers: The Story of Success,¹ Malcolm Gladwell shares the fascinating story of the people of Roseto, Pa, a town entirely made up of citizens who came from the village of Roseto Valfortore in Italy. Intrigued by the extremely low incidence of disease in Roseto, including no coronary artery disease in anyone younger than 55, medical researchers in the 1960s dedicated themselves to studying this phenomenon. The results shocked them. Rosetans did not follow a healthy diet and obesity was prevalent; they did not exercise; smokers were everywhere. Their relatives living elsewhere had a high incidence of disease, ruling out a genetic explanation. Nearby towns with the same climate and environmental influences had an incidence of heart disease 3 times that of their Rosetan neighbours.
With no answers offered by the medical research team, social scientists were consulted. They described a unique sharing of experiences that defined the town’s social structure. They discovered a feeling of trust and security among Rosetans because the people of the town always had someone they knew and who knew them to turn to for support. They concluded that the extraordinary health of this unique population could only be explained in terms of “extended family” and “community

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2718612/

The Rosetans live longer – but they don’t exercise. They’re overweight and they smoke and drink – otherwise they would live even longer, healthier lives still. The Rosetans grew up in a certain culture. The fundamentals of health – diet and exercise and drug use (tobacco, alcohol) are suboptimal for them – but social circumstances are super-optimal. . 

Yes, but I don’t live in an Italian village, you say.  But it isn't just the Italians.  You find communities like this everywhere.  And if you can't make one -- you need to make one.   

As John Lennon says, “I get by with a little help from my friends”.

Chapter 3 

Mental fitness

Blindspots

How do we reinvent ourselves at 65 or 70 or older?  How do you create a new family  of friends and supporters--a new band for rock and roll?

In the chapter on Social Fitness, I began with the story of my Granny, who was abandoned by my mother.  On the surface, this looks pretty black and white.  Bad Mom. Good Granny.

But my grandmother was still mentally fit when all this happened. She was a bright woman, with lots of charm and intelligence and humor.     

Ultimately she was the one responsible. 

If you are an investor, you don't put all your eggs in one basket. But my Granny did exactly that -- depending on one person -- and denying the fact that that person, my Mother, harbored a lot of ill feeling towards her.  Perhaps she thought her years of babysitting would be repaid.  But in families, such things are often taken for granted.  

Family relationships are complicated because underneath the roles of mom, dad, grandmother, grandfather, son, daughter, husband, wife -- there are contradictory human needs, that most people don't admit.  You don't get to choose your family -- they just given to you -- along with a lot of values, beliefs and assumptions. My Granny chose to ignore that.  She had a blind spot.

Family relationships are complicated because underneath the roles of mom, dad, grandmother, grandfather, son, daughter, husband, wife -- there are contradictory human needs, that most people don't admit.  You don't get to choose your family -- they just given to you -- along with a lot of values, beliefs and assumptions.

But as you get older, you can re-create "family" with family surrogates: a tribe. And you reassess your values, beliefs and assumptions.

Keep in mind that the nuclear family is not "natural" -- it is an invention of the industrial age -- deliberately,  just two generations -- parents and kids -- a tiny unit, separate from all others  -- unlike the kind of "families" we had in our prehistoric past which were integrated into the community --  grandparents, parents and kids -- altogether, with Mom and Dad not having the final say about anything.That mutually supportive  "community" has been replaced by huge, soulless, bureaucratic organizations and institutions.    

For ancient nomadic peoples, there was no way for all to survive if a few could not keep up.  Weak or defective infants were abandoned.  And the Old were allowed to go off and sleep in the snow when they felt "it was their time".     

We, however, are not challenged by survival -- by convenience  -- so our elderly go to sleep in the pseudo snowbanks of institutions.

So stay alive.  Think.  Stephen Hawkings  is 75 and can't move or talk but he can still think.  He is still contributing to our understanding of the Universe.  

You have to beware of "blindspots" -- things you don't want to see.  

When you learn to drive, you are constantly reminded to check your rearview mirror and your blindspots.  Good advice for life 

My Granny died because she could not see beyond her blindspots. Like the smoker who keeps on smoking "a little" because he is doesn't want to acknowledge the harm it will do him. 

We all have blindspots.  Either as a result of denial-or just sheer laziness.  It is human nature.  As social animals, we have to learn to deceive ourselves to get a long with others.  Our society also encourages that so that everyone marches in step to the same drummer.  There is also the assumption that others will look out for us.  But since everyone thinks the same way -- no one looks out.

Now that society no longer needs you, however, you are free. And you can learn what your society didn't want tell you.

So what is the secret to global awareness -- which is what Mental Fitness really amounts to

.The Secret:  Play

  

My Heart Leaps Up 

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
(William Wordsworth)

Children learn through play. Adults do, too.  But our society says we are not supposed to.  So hang out with kids and pretend to supervise..

Adults play too .  Play will help you not just see outside the box-- but live outside it, No, it doesn't stop when you reach 60.  If anything,  it can get a lot better.  Never, ever -- "Act your age". Human beings evolved for life long play. This is your nature.  

If you are retired -- unleash your inner artist.  Creativity is play.  TIf the Neanderthals did it - you can too. Art, including visual arts, music, dance and sculpture.  And also  philosophy,   politics, and -- of course -- religion -- all play.  

Play bonds us to others, keeps our minds alive when we are older and even serves our spiritual life.

Which is why you are never too old to rock ‘n roll. Keeping in mind that rock 'n rollers play together, but with different instruments, taking a melody and often riffing it. 

 Play Long, Live Long

Did you ever wonder why novelists and poets tend to die young but satirists and comic writers, musicians and painters live longer?   

Novelists and poets are self-absorbed, trapped by conflicts and trauma, always seeking to resolve those issues through writing.  This the result of isolation.  For them, writing is not play -- it is deadly serious -- with the emphasis on "deadly". 

Hemingway killed himself.  Fitzgerald drank himself to death as did Wolfe. They all died isolaged.     

Picasso by contrast was famously promiscuous and promiscuously social  He did not marry until he as 79 and is said to have had hundreds of lovers. He was never alone. He also did not take his work that seriously. 

Artists do their best work when they were part of artistic groups and working with others -- or when they have an active social life.  We are social animals.  Eusocial animals, like bees or ants.  What we create, we do with a lot of help from others. .


Think again of the Zimmers. 


Think also of the 100 year old swimming instructor who teaches kids to swim in Berlin.  What he does is mental as well as physical and social -- play.

Similarly, what Stephen Hawkings does,  locked in his body but warping to other dimensions in his mind is play with the cosmos and constantly painfully communicating to others. 
 .

Born in a Box:  Blindspots

As children, you  learn to see things as your parents, friends, and older siblings tell you they are -- not as they really are. The goal is to fit you into a box  designed for a huge, mechanistic, institutional society -- not for you. And it is never a precise fit. Never really comfortable.

As I have said before, and will repeat -- when you get older, your consumerist society dumps you from that box. Old stuff -- throw it out.  It smells bad. Everything is tagged with an expiry date even though as the inspirational  Charles Eugster worte "Age is just as Number".

This sudden obsolescence -- this abandonment by society -- might be traumatic for some.   Values and beliefs that seemed to work before --  are now irrelevant -- therefore they are irrelevant.  You were once "useful". Now they give you a pension you can't live on (unless you are a politician). 

That leaves two choices: denial --or double down  and die.   Otherwise: rock 'n roll  and live
  
Choice #1 accounts for the "conservatism" that many attribute to the old.  Live in the past.

Rock 'n Roll is more future oriented.   It contributes to the "progressivism" that we see in many of today's leading minds  At the time of this writing, Noam Chomsky is 88.  Ralph Nader is 83.  Slavoj Zizek is a kid are 68.  Mick Jaggers of the Mind. 

Of course, Donald Trump is 71.  He's a conservative, sort of.  But he is also just playing.  Many do not like his particular game because Presidents are supposed to be sober, serious, father-figures - not fat guys with orange hair who leer at pretty girls.

So check your blindspots.  Look in the rearview mirror And. check the gauges on your brain... 

Use it or lose it.

If you don't use your mind -- you lose it.

Some people  don't play. Or, worse,  end up playing solitaire, which is boring disconnected from the Hive.  Real play needs other people.  Or brains evolved as social organs, not for solipsistic abstraction.  

Fortunately, with the shift to Information Societies, you have a lot more resources, both in terms of human dialog and information itself. And it is ever so much easier to find people to communicate with. .

Of course, you have to learn to use digital media properly -- as it progresses.

And with so much information you have to question everything, read and study. You have to be wary of using digital media to confirm your own biases and beliefs and denials.

That's where play comes in.  Because play assumes a challenge, an opponent -- opposition -- and so you have to learn new tricks. You can't win if you stick to the same old strategies.  

The Things Your Teachers Never Taught You


Educational systems are inherently dualistic.  You are an individual , with your own seat and desk, and you must compete with every other. You win, they lose. Someone else wins, you lose.  Yet, you must conform to the "Norm".  The desks are in straight lines, or nicely arranged in symmetric semi-circles. EQ means learning to cooperate with others for group goals although there is always a hidden agenda -- a group must have a Leader.  This is the Either /Or school of thought or maybe Either And Or.

This trope extends to definitions of "mind" and "thought".

If you went to college, especially an MBA school or  School of Education,  you probably learned there were two kinds of thinking....

 Ours is a binary culture. 

 But ...human thought  is not subjective or objective -- it is both at the same time --  holistic -- it  functions on the quantum level -- not some combination of 1's and 0's but 1, 0 and a infinite number of  intermediate points  Not three dimensions but an infinite number of dimensions..   


In reality nobody ever thinks completely "critically" or completely "creatively".  Our brains just don't work like machines, with On/Off switches for different cognitive modes.

If you look at the diagram above, what matters is in the middle.  The two circles are not really discrete geometric figures but extensions of each other.  Critical thinking and creative thinking are co-extensive

Rock and rollers get together and riff.  They do not usually write scores.  They work as a group, developing melodies, trying them out, arguing --with no distinction between "critical" and "creative".  

Thinking is like music.  And you need others to do it. You need a band.. 

The Einstein Example

 Einstein was a genius. Another Old Guy. Like Edison,he actually had a rather modest IQ, as geniuses go-- maybe 160.   Einstein was imaginative and he played the violin..  He liked pretty girls.  He hated arithmetic.  For him, every day was a bad hair day.

At 28, Einstein was a patent clerk, a stultifying job he hated and that required most of the functions listed above as "critical thinking".  Analysis. Convergent, linear logic, Judgment. Rule-based logic, etc. etc.  

Einstein was bored and he daydreamed endlessly about time and space -- and pretty girls.  There were a lot of questions. But he came up with solution or solutions to all these things, including the girls. How?  Here is one account.

Einstein later illustrated this point with another thought experiment. Imagine that you once again have an observer standing on a railway embankment as a train goes roaring by. But this time, each end of the train is struck by a bolt of lightning just as the train’s midpoint is passing. Because the lightning strikes are the same distance from the observer, their light reaches his eye at the same instant. So he correctly says that they happened simultaneously.

Meanwhile, another observer on the train is sitting at its exact midpoint. From her perspective, the light from the two strikes also has to travel equal distances, and she will likewise measure the speed of light to be the same in either direction. But because the train is moving, the light coming from the lightning in the rear has to travel farther to catch up, so it reaches her a few instants later than the light coming from the front. Since the light pulses arrived at different times, she can only conclude the strikes were not simultaneous—that the one in front actually happened first.In short, Einstein realized, simultaneity is what’s relative. Once you accept that, all the strange effects we now associate with relativity are a matter of simple algebra.Other people say that Einstein was simply sitting on a tram on the way to work and looked outside noticing that world was moving, not the train -- and that pretty girl was receding into nothingness.   Relativity.  Einstein's genius was intuitive.  Intuition is both critical and creative 

  Open-ness to the possible and intuition -- as well as simple reason --  gave him an original thought.  He was thinking intuitively outside the box --   holistically.  

But he did not do this in isolation. 

Without his friends,   Heinrich Zangger and Michele Angelo Besso, not to mention his two wives, we might have never gotten the theory of relativity.  

 
Age and Mind

Oh, you say: "I am not that smart"  and  "the brain ages" and “I forget things”.  Einstein wasn't that smart either.  His brain aged, too. And he was the archetype of absent-minded genius.

The brain is  remarkably plastic and as one function declines, another may come to the fore as compensation. Remember (pun) your brain is a like a house.  As time goes on, junk accumulates.  Do you "forget" things --or just misplace them with all that old stuff? In any case, you periodically clean out the attic, dumping stuff that you -- and everybody else -- once thought relevant.

As you get older, your attic can be pretty clean.  You concentrate on what you can actually see. 

The philosopher Merleau Ponty wrote:

• "I see therefore I think therefore I am" 

Seeing means immediate perception, intuition, and getting the gist of things fast.   

So forgetting stuff has its advantages. 

 

Forget Your Umbrella?

Lessons from ADD

The another thing the Young Old worry about is"attentionality."

"WTF is Gramps talking about" says Young Johnny who is just thinking about his girl friend's tits.  Young Johnny's attention is focused. Gramps is thinking of several things at the same time. Johnny's girlfriend's tits, his first girlfriend's tits, mountains with snowy tops, an chocolate parfait with a cherry on top, and...and...

Gramps is showing  characteristics curiously similar to those shown by people labeled as having “ADD” – namely  Attention Deficit Disorder  -- defined by distractibility, lack of attention, forgetfulness, and occasionally hyperfocus – apparent obsession with one thing.  It has two characteristics -- a high degree of association, often random -- and a high sensitivity to raw perception -- "Low Latent Inhibition".

Most people learn in mid childhood to focus their attention, filtering out random association and organizing perception.   In the latter case, you see what you are supposed to see -- something that stage magicians use to advantage in creating illusions.

ADD or ADHD is  supposed to be a young person's disorder, mostly because this set of presets for focus and filtering are not natural but socially "recieved".  Some people are more docile than others and more suggestible.  The Presets are tied to other presets to do with group interaction, roles and workd.

Older people are freer. So... they easily revert to a more natural state.

ADHD and ADD are  just  catchphrases, a convenient conceptual bucket in which you can throw a lot of things -- that  didn't even exist until drug companies realized that they could diagnose a third of the kids in the country who swing their legs under the school desk and make zillions of dollars selling them stimulant drugs.  

  Children were not designed to sit in rows listening to a teacher drone on about trig'. The teacher says "pay attention".  If you don't -- well, ADHD. Pop a pill. 

 For older people, this "ADD"  is really multi-attentionality  -- a spinoff of  cleaning the attic upstairs of conceptual junk.  You don't have to "toe the line" so much anymore. You get to use imagination. You don't have to "pay attention".  You don't have to pay attention to what Mommy and Daddy think--because they're dead.

So, if you are worried   distractibiliy, forgetfulness, mention -- forget it. Forgetfulness is also not a disability. 

You now have the freedom to live imaginatively.  Inevitably you are out of sync with  some people -- but marching to the same drums as others.  

 
What Evolution has to say

For Hunters and Gathers, particularly nomadic peoples, some form of   multi-attentionality -- was an evolutionary advantage because they had a dynamic relationship with their environment.

If they focused on just one thing, they would ignore the signs and end up as a yummy human burger for a Tiger. 

Multi-attentionalitiy means always checking for blindspots and hungry tigers, as well as (in Einstein's case) pretty girls.   

Before many people retire, they  sit at a desk all day, looking at Excel charts of inventory,  shutting down whole chunks of brain and screening out all extraneous input.  This is situational lobotomy. 

After the company dumps you -- your brain will recover -- gradually.   Some people feel immense freedom, start painting or writing or group sex.  Others, of course,  feel anxiety and pop antidepressants putting the mind on Dolby.  For them, it's a kind of PTSD.  

You cannot fight evolution.  We are born a certain way.  Societies try to modify us.  But evolution will always win.  And we will return to where we began.   

How the Brain Works

Your brain is a dark room.  

You can use a penlight to illuminate objects one by one – or you can flick a light switch which turns on dim lighting so you see things all a once – more or less.  Now, since you can not see anyone thing as clearly as with a penlight – you have to investigate.   And you may use more than just one sense to do that and move around.
Older people free from the routine of work and the necessity of accomodating kids, can   turn on the lights AND use the penlight,  .

Of course, it's distracting. Of course, you forget things.

But  this means creativity.  

Proof?  People in their 60s and beyond create more entrepreneurial startups than people in their 20s-- they just don't need to think with blinders on, in a linear or "vertical" direction as directed by Microsoft software.    

But, as I said, the secret is play.  All play is multi-attentional.  Without a measure of that  " thing, no soccer player would ever make it to the World Cup   

Just keep in mind, that “civilization” is herding cats –   -- at all ages. 

 It never really works.  The unhappiest people are those in their 20s -- cats trying to be dogs.  And middle aged people, cats in cages.

You get to be what you really are.  And cats play at all ages. 


 

 

The Advantages of Gist


Play is Jest. It's fun.  Remember the two Bonobos (Pygmy Chimpanzees) earlier.  If they can do it, you can, too.

Animals don't analyze. But they get things intuitively.  They also have imagination.  They get the gist of things.  Because "gist" is the organizing principal for multiattentionality. 


By and large, older people get the “gist” of things faster than younger people since they have they benefit of experience, which means heuristics.   

They often know what’s going to be said before it’s said.   Younger people need PowerPoint and Spreadsheets.

Of course, this ability --when it awakes -- can be disturbing.  Some of the Young Old react by just turning their Gist function to "Off". Which means they are not Young Old anymore -- just Old.  Time to die.

For those who want to live, substitute "over 60" for "Gister"   The Gist takes you "out of the box", simple as that. 

That was Steve Job's secret -- Gist.  

 You’re never too old to rock ‘n roll.

Suspension of (Dis)Belief

The Young Old have to clear out the attic, they are multi-attentional land they have "gist".   

As a result they often  question beliefs and assumptions that younger generations take for granted.

A good example is Jeremy Corbyn who was pooh-poohed as too old with ideas that harked back 40 years Corbyn was a loser they said.  But right now Corbyn is a winner and his biggest supporters are young or in their 30s.  Why?  Because Corbyn has cleared out his attic -- and his solutions are simple, practical and commonsense -- not at all ideological or doctrinaire.  Gist./

Corbyn questions the assumptions that many took for granted -- including the so-called "moderates" in his own party.  Austerity was one.  The idea that Inequality was somehow good for society. The idea that everything had to be privatized, except for drugs and sex.

Every mega- society needs illogical  belief systems, which  have little foundation in reality. Like Topsy they should grow, sustained by   "Confirmation Bias" .


How Media Change Things

An example of how evolution wins out is Jeremy Corbyn,  an old guy who was first too "old" and now too "new".    

Back in the 60s and 70s, he would have been either ignored -- or, if he gained a following, probably assassinated like  JFK, MLK or Malcom X.  That is because all these people appealed to something basic in us -- something that socialization could not pervert.

 Today, the "new media" takes us back to our evolutionary roots and that makes a difference. 

Writing made possible mass societies.  Printing extended their power to organize and regiment.

 As McLuhan said, "The medium is the message" .  Writing is linear, logical. Printing allows mass dissemination, storage and control of information..

 Digital media, however, are non-linear, include sound and images -- immediate, diverse, uncontrolled and vast.   

In the case of Corbyn, 90% of the "Legacy" media reviled him. The inherently fascism of the printed word was obvious, with obfuscations and contradictions.  One pundit could not outshout hundreds of commentators.  Editors might screen the comments but they popped up in the social media.   

 
Back before the Internet, we just had newspapers and magazines and radio and TV, which were mostly supported by advertising.  We also had things called "books". 

Remember them?  They were made of paper and stored in "libraries" big buildings where you read stuff and even copy it for free and without getting arrested because in those days information was well controlled and sanitized.   


When the US announced that Vietnamese vessels had attacked their assets in the Gulf of Tonkin -- people accepted this as true. And it took a long time for what really happened to come out.  We now know we were conned -- although we don't get that information   from institutional information systems like schools.

If the same thing happened today, however, we would know right away, or at least faster -- everything is somewhere on the Internet!


Governments and big companies don't like information in the wild.   Any large organization with a commercial interest has a stake in trying to manipulated information -- to manipulate you.  That includes ISPs,  Google, Twitter, Facebook and the like, which pretend to tell you what's happening, even when it's not -- like Russiagate. 
   
Point CounterPoint

But, as I have said, one of the characteristics of digital media is its lack of controllability.  Sure, Google skews its search results. But you have other search engines to work with.  And you can just change your search terms to compensate.

Yes, the Chinese have their Great (Fire) Wall. Which is just another challenge for hackers, almost everyone over the age of 12.

 Trying to control the digital media is wack-a- mole. And it inevitably draws attention to Control and the Controllers, making it and them political targets. 

Donald Trump became president largely because he attacked the mainstream media.  He was the first Twitter President -- a strokke of genius.  

Legacy media are a suburb.  Nice straight streets in grids with sign posts, every house with a lawn and a number, no vegetable gardens out front.  The dgital media are a jungle.


 Once we were hunters and gatherers.  The Information Age has returned us to hunting and gathering -- information-- watchful for the tigers hiding.

Don't Get Eaten By the Internet

Truth, Knowledge 
and Belief

But to avoid getting eaten?.  As in all things you need some basic skills.  You stand up out of cubicle and scratch your head....
A jungle or a maze?  It is all about "belief" and "disbelief". This is where it gets difficult. 

For starters, what is a belief?  It is an assumption, a priori, from which other ideas devolve.  God exists. God created the world.  The world is crazy.  God is crazy.....  Or. God exists. God created the world. The world is crazy.  But God's ways are known only to Him and if the world is crazy -- that's on us. 

"Disbelief" is when you decide not to believe something. You do this to enjoy art.  And also to expand science.


 

 
 “Suspension of disbelief” –   makes art fun.  

Play, remember?  Our prehistoric ancestors learned to distinguish the real (truth) and the unreal (belief) through play which provided knowhow (knowledge) .  But play is imagination -- not "real" . So you have to pretend it's real.  Watch kittens mock fight.  They are pretending its "real" preparing for the day when they really have to do it. 

Critics are paid to use "critical thinking", that is just one of their testicles -- which is boring.    Un-fun.  Work. Un-sexy.

These people who usually are bald and have thick glasses and hair in their nostrils, male or female, will quote you  30 or 40 different kinds of biases – but they are always wrong.

 Suspension of Disbelief which works  in art when reading a SuperMan comic --works just as well when hunting and gathering information -- just in a different way.  The comic requires you to accept silly things like SuperMan's being able to fly faster than light.  The Internet has lots of silly ideas.  Accept them -- first.  Then dis-believe.

You must apply both the artistic  principle. Belief. And the scientific principle . Disbelief. The truth is the clearing between these two trees. 

 

 
 Confirmation  bias is bias that confirms what you believe -- or think you know. It covers everything from gravity to the After Life. It makes it hard to believe things contrary to a priori assumptions. So you need suspension of disbelief is essential to freeing up your mind.  Here are some assumptions. 

• When a famous doctors says something … you may not understand what he is saying, but you believe.
• 
  You believe in God – because you grew up believing and your friends and family did.
• 
  You believe a newspaper like the New York Times because it’s a famous newspaper and a lot of intelligent people write articles for it and it's entertaining. 
• 
  You believe liberals (or conservatives) are destroying the country because all your friends are liberals or conservatives or you work in Wall Street or in a Union job.
• 
  You believe socialism if you are poor and your friends are too. You believe in capitalism because you have a trust fund and all your friends do, too.  

 Beliefs are usually heuristics copied from other people so we can conform  to handle specific situations -- and later generalized. Such beliefs allow you handle things automatically, as hunter, warrior, shoplifter, teacher, husband, father or whore.  But the assumptions are not usually.generalizable  

You can't trust authorities -- what they believe. Newton was a great man but Einstein didn't believe him. Hawkings doesn't completely believe Einstein.

Skepticism rules.  

So never, ever trust newspapers and TV networks.  They are not in the business of communicating facts -- they communicate opinions. For them facts are entertainment.

On the internet, you have to search carefully, use more than one search engine -- and always read forums, group discussions and comments.  It is in dialog that truth resides. 


Participatory Wellness

Let's take a look at "authorities" -- doctors, for example. Most people believe their doctors.  But doctors  make mistakes and they kill a lot more people than terrorists.  

  A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine says medical errors should rank as the third leading cause of death in the United States — and highlights how shortcomings in tracking vital statistics may hinder research and keep the problem out of the public eye.  Don't worry about the swarthy guy mumbling in Arabic, worry about your obstetrician. 

The authors, led by Johns Hopkins surgeon Dr. Martin Makary, call for changes in death certificates to better tabulate fatal lapses in care. In an open letter, they urge the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to immediately add medical errors to its annual list reporting the top causes of death.

Based on an analysis of prior research, the Johns Hopkins study estimates that more than 250,000 Americans die each year from medical errors. On the CDC's official list, that would rank just behind heart disease and cancer, which each took about 600,000 lives in 2014, and in front of respiratory disease, which caused about 150,000 deaths.

  Medical mistakes that can lead to death range from surgical complications that go unrecognized to mix-ups with the doses or types of medications patients receive.

But no one knows the exact toll taken by medical errors. In significant part, that's because the coding system used by CDC to record death certificate data doesn't capture things like communication breakdowns, diagnostic errors and poor judgment that cost lives, the study says.

 So, once again you need to learn to use information technologies  .  No, herbal supplements will NOT cure cancer!  And you should avoid fad diets and the like.  If it's a fad it hasn't been tested. 

Suspend disbelief. Suspend belief. Be objective. 

No one knows the exact toll taken by medical errors. In significant part, that's because the coding system used by CDC to record death certificate data doesn't capture things like communication breakdowns, diagnostic errors and poor judgment that cost lives, the study says.

So...you have to keep on questioning and researching.  

The thing is that doctors do know more than you.  And they are mostly good people.  

So work with your doctor(s).  Notice I use the plural --because you should always get second and third opinions in addition to your own research.   You must work with your doctors for participatory wellness -- remembering that medicine is science -- and science requires skepticism. 

A case in point.   I tore all three ligaments in the shoulder - the ligaments that hold the shoulder bone in place. When I raised my arm the end of the bone would point up like I had an erection in my shoulder.  Not wanting to be arrested for sexual harassment by having an indecent shoulder I consulted my local bone doctor. 

Now, I do a lot of research on the internet as part of my job.

So I checked.  There are operations. Mostly with screws and wires and stuff that sets off metal detectors.  The success rates are low -- about 50%. then I found a doctor at the University of Connecticut who had a new operation using tendons from cadavers -- the whole operation on line.

Success rate?  Over 80%

Now, I have a shoulder that looks just like the other except for the scar, which I can lie about. 

This does not mean you should ignore your doctors and seek out a quack in Mexico if you have cancer. I investigated carefully, Checked and re-checked,, discovering that the doctor's science was really in the mainstream and very solid indeed.

I am not overweight and I don't eat a lot.  In fact, I was eating only about 1500 kcal a day.  

A little research showed that cholesterol sometimes spikes with low cal diets - - for some people while dropping for others.

More research suggested that off again, on again dieting -- as in "intermittent fasting" can generate gall stones.  What are gall stones?  Hardened lumps of cholesterol

So I went to a doctor and an simple sonogram.  Took a few minutes and doctor said, "You have sludge in your gall bladder".  That 'sludge" is like a blocked drain and can turn into stones.  It can also produce, you guessed it -- chills, hypertension, etc. 

This is what you call Participatory Wellbeing. Working with doctors - not against them - and not against commonsense. 
  

Mental Fitness involves dialog, discussion, and participation.  It is a group sport.   

Think of education.  What did you learn from lectures?  Nothing you couldn't get from a book. You learned from discussion, argument and hands-on experiments.


Group Think

"Group think" is bad -- when it is conformist.  And it is good, when it is interactive and discursive. Socrates taught through dialog -- by asking questions and then discussing the answers.  Those who fear others opinions ultimately learn nothing.  Thesis. Antithesis.  Synthesis.

Human beings are animals and different from other animals in just a few aspects.  But those few things are very important and have made us among the dominant species today -- don't get too proud because we share this position with the rat and cockroach, who are likely to outlast us.

 The primary difference between us and our primate cousins is our evolved social nature.  All social animals "bond" with each other.  Some animals bond with individuals of other species.  Dogs, for example.  But don't forget that dogs kill a lot of people every year.  While animal bonding reflects pack or group behaviors,   human bonding is of a different nature -- it is collaborative and empathic,  We have a special sense of empathy  from which our sense of "self" and the "self" of another derives. 

Granted, we also have throwbacks -- psychopaths or sociopaths who have the intelligence to understand emotions and even mimic them -- but no empathy, and consequently no conscience.

No other animal cares the way that  homo sapiens does -- except perhaps for dolphins. 

There are many theories as to why this is so.  One is that we domesticated ourselves as we did dogs and cats -so that in an  important sense we remain children until we die, with children's need for mutual caring and play -- and the ability to excite familial responses in others.   As I said earlier, human beings never lose their desire to play.  Watch those old guys in the park playing chess.

But human intelligence is a social or eusocial.  Our unique abilities for language and abstraction -- the ability to structure perceptions in the form of communicative symbols and "ideas" was an adaptation to collaborate with others.   Isolation will not make you smarter, no matter how much you study -- it will just drive you mad.

 If you want to live smarter talk to people, make friends -- collaborate and cooperate.  As you get older, you may feel weaker, more dependent, less in control -- but in a group you are stronger.

 Some people turn to cults. But surrendering to a single point of view makes you weaker, not stronger.    Join groups where you can get opposite points of view.  If you are an anarchist, look for dialog with conservatives. If you are religious, look for dialog with the non-religious.  Look for interactive communication that "stresses" your mind just as lifting weights stresses your muscle.   

On-line, join forums, post comments, discuss, argue ....learn.

Watch a rock band. They often seem to be playing against each other as much as with each other.  

Is rock 'n roll "primitive".  Of course, but so are we all.  

Chapter III

Physical Fitness

What exactly is the "body"?

Stand naked in front of a full length mirror and it feels so very personal. This is not as others see you. Subjective impression is truth.

Objective impression is deception.  And the body is very much  a social object and by choosing your clothes carefully, your makeup, your hairdo -- you can be a little older or younger than you are.

But ultimately, you can only hide so much. Take care of the body itself.   You don't need to let it rust out like an old car. Treat it like a classic car.  Polish it. Do maintenance.  Be vain.   

 Other primates do not care how they look.  But  why devolve as you get old..  

As,  Charles Eugster who began bodybuilding at 85 says in his book "Age Is Just A Number" vanity is our greatest asset.






Physical fitness yields many benefits -- greater, health, longevity, energy -- but also social acceptance. Eugster, a widower, said he wanted to turn the heads of cute 70 year olds.  And he did.

Rock 'n Rollers all know the act is half the music -- they are performers.  Hence,  the emphasis on appearance.  The costumes, the makeup, the whole act.  Madonna was just a simple Catholic girl made up. 

 Our ancient ancestors didn't wear a lot of clothes, clothing being a technology they did not possess.

 What they wore was for warmth or protection from the elements.  But they wore jewelry.  The used body painting and tattoos.  They didn't jog or lift weights because their life styles were active.  But they performed.  They danced and sang -- even when old .   As I have pointed out, there is a sense in which we remain children all our lives.  As we shall see later, human beings are self-domesticated. 

By now you must be getting tired of my harping about evolultion.  So our ancestors did this or that?  Nobody really knows, right.  And modern hunting and gathering peoples are all different, too.   Add to that the fact that evolution is a process which is continuing to this day.  Northern Europeans evolved to have white skin from their former melanin heavy skin.  Their guts evolved to handle simple carbohydrates like sugar and alcohol.   Eskimos evolved for life in the Arctic.  We have smaller brains than our ancestors. 

While a toy poodle looks a lot different from a Pit Bull -- and even acts differently -- it is still a dog.

There is a lot of disagreement among paleontologists about Early Man but the fossil record cannot be ignored. 

The average height of a European male  2000  years was about 5 feet 9 inches - the same as today.  Some people say we were healthier back then.  What is more likely is that today we succumb to lifestyle diseases or environmental diseases.  For early man, there would be parasitic infections and bacterial infections from accidental wounds. Infant mortality was high -- as was child mortality.  



Today it is cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other diseases related to lifestyle and the environment.  Smoking, alcohol, sugar, bad air, lead in our water kill.  As does social alienation -- loneliness.

At least, our ancestors were never lonely.  And even if they practiced infanticide and euthanasia, they cared for each other better -- if only because they had to.  



Issues

Modern human beings are brought up with complicated ideas about our bodies.  First of all, we are taught  to hide not the whole body but parts of it -- specifically the sexual organs-- yet to suggest sexiness.    

For our ancestors, sex was yes or no.  For us, it is a constant maybe.   Since all men have basically the same equipment and so do all women, if it were constnatly on display, there would be no play,  And, as I keep on saying, play is all.  

We are the Playful Ape.

We are also Industrial Apes. 

Modern man tends to look a the parts of things, not the whole, like a mechanic obsessed with carburetors and fuel pumps. In terms of health we  tend to think of specific organs, the heart or the liver or the kidneys -- and only when disease strikes -- by which time it is often too late to do anything.  Our ancestors treated the body as a whole.They had little  knowledge of its internal mechanisms, other than basic first aid -- so no blindspots as we have today.

No prehistoric man said, "Yeah, so I am a little overweight, maybe 20 pounds but I am cutting down on my smoking".   


Evolution

 
If an alien zoologist visited earth he would look at our skeletal remains and maybe a few embalmed bodies and compare us with our hairier cousins.  The average human is bigger than a chimpanzee-- but not nearly as strong, nor as dangerous.

 Our jaws are weaker  as are our arms and hands.  Our teeth are smaller, with smaller canines.  Our legs are longer for bipedal locomotion which allows us to walk upright comfortably for longer distances. We are clearly adapted for life on the ground rather than in the trees.  And our smaller, more flexible fingers and thumbs allow us to "pick" and "gather" rather than tear.  As well as to fashion tools.

From this an alien zoologist would assume that men are "designed" to eat a wide range of things, probably including insects, grubs, berries, nuts and seeds, as well as meat scavenged from other animal's kills and with the use of tools and collaborative behavior, larger animals.  Of special significance is our ability to kill at a distance.

Today we think in terms of three meals. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Which fit 19 Century work pattersn.

Our ancestors however, did not have bacon and eggs for breakfast.  They foraged constantly, eating constantly a little bit at a time   omnivores -- eating nuts, berries, fruits, bugs, and lots of creepy crawly things.   

The invention of fire helped a lot.   Cooking not only widened the kind of foods we could eat but killed parasites.

The use of slings, throwing sticks, and bows and arrows, made groups of hunters a force to be reckoned with -- as did simple traps.

It was the puny naked ape that wiped out the mega fauna of Old, stampeding mammoths into pits with stakes  or over cliffs.




But agricultural technology narrowed the range of foods we could eat to staples, bread and rice.  From eating 50 or more different kinds of foods, we went to three or four.  The average heights dropped accordingly. Population density increased and, with it, communicable diseases, simple organisms with the ability to mutate and evolve fast into deadly forms.  Syphilis, for example. 


Sex

Male humans have just slightly bigger  penises relative to body size than bonobos and chimpanzees -- and much more so than gorillas.  In addition, male humans like a penis bone which helps maintain a longer erection.  Modern technology has corrected that omission with Viagra.

The flaccid penis of the human male is bigger and more obvious than that of his cousins with a prominent glans at the end, indicating a display function.

Primatologists disagree about what all this means.  But the most likely explanation is that early human beings were less competitive than, say, chimpanzees and also egalitarian, not patriarchal like gorillas and chimpanzees but not matriarchal like bonobos.

Most human populations tend towards monogamy -- that is, pair bonding.  At the same time, human beings are highly promiscuous.   In other words, like bonobos we do not have sex just for reproduction but for pleasure and play, with females calling the shots (as it were).

The boney, corrugated penis of the male chimpanzee is a an instrument of rape and indeed females have low status in their societies.  In the case of bonobos, both males and females are bisexual and play at sex.    

Gorillas are polygnous with a single male and a harem.  Guess what?  A small penis relative to size and small testicles.  No competition. 

So, assume for the moment that human beings pair bond to raise children.  But this bonding has little to do with sex -- which is play.

Self Domestication

Domestication in dogs, cats, foxes and other animals results in juvenile characteristics being maintained throughout childhood.  Most young animals are highly tractable.  But they change as adults.

So dogs and wolves are the same species. But wolves develop longer more powerful jaws and canines, and a highly advanced social structure with male and female alphas, who alone can breed



Dogs by contrast enjoy puppy like characteristics life long. Shorter snouts, less powerful jaws except in breeds bred for fighting.  They are still pack animals but the distinctions between alphas and betas and omegas is not clear cut.   And any dog in a pack can breed.

Human beings have smaller less powerful jaws than other primates and are egalitarian  -- like puppies.  They play life long and they seek comfort just like any young animal from others. 

Pllllllllllllleeease, give me a hug!   

After my father died, my 75 year old mother confided something to me.  Now this is the woman who insisted I should never have sex after marriage and only to have children.   She said, "You know what I miss most?"
"No, what?" I replied
"The sex.  Your dad had these little blue pills and boy were they good".
  .  

Sex is a form of low impact exercise for the elderly.   It promotes good circulation.  And each orgasm generates new brain cells.  When we talk about physical fitness -- this is the first thing.  Which also overlaps with mental and social fitness.  

And how do you find partners?  The same way you always did.  Of course, you can do online dating.  But the basic thing will always be talking to someone and seeing if there is a spark.    And if you can't find a partner, keep sexually fit anyway.  A woman's best friend is her vibrator.  A man's best friend is porn. 

You're never too old to rock n roll. 


Food

We evolved as omnivores. This was our biggest advantage over more specialized species.  A tiger will die on a diet of bread.  Deer don't eat meat.  But human beings eat everything.

This allows populations to adapt quickly when food resources are limited -- allowing human beings to spread all over the globe, adapting to the harshest of environments.

 Eskimos, for example, did not eat vegetables until recently.   Similarly, until recently, native Americans did not drink beer or alcohol or refined carbohydrates of any kind.  In the middle ages, people lived mostly on bread.  When Eskimos and Native Americans switched to European diets they suddenly developed a host of problems they had not had before -- diabetes, heart disease, various cancers, liver and kidney diseases.   

In a natural state, with optimum resources-- we  ate fruits, berries, various tubers, nuts, seeds, and grains, eggs, insects, fish,   animals of all kinds and sizes.   We ate  continually -- -when we were hungry.  We were grazers.   If someone killed a large animal like a deer or antelope -- then it was family dinner time -- "family" consisting of everyone in the tribal group.  But this did not happen all the time.

Today, we have huge choice.  But a lot of our food is processed with refined carbohydrates and fats.   We get too much salt, too little potassium.  While we are adapted to cannabis with canniboid receptors-- we have chosen alcohol as our social drug.

It is just too easy.    Much of America is obese -- and at the same time nutritionally deficient.  The "Great American Diet" is a deathtrap.

So, every now and again we go on diets.  We lose weight -- and gain it back.  And then do it all over again.  Not good for the gall bladder, which is designed for a "grazing" diet including lots of juicy, fatty grubs and insects. 

You don't know what's in your food, do you?

If the idea of eating insects disgusts you, you might be surprised to find out that you already regularly eat them. If you check out the FDA’s Defect Levels Handbook, you can see just how many buggies you could be eating on an everyday basis. Take beer for example—the acceptable limit of insect infestation in hops is 2,500 aphids per 10 grams. Canned fruit juices are allowed up to 1 maggot per 250 ml, curry powder is allowed up to 100 insect fragments (head, body, legs) per 25 grams and chopped dates are allowed up to 10 whole dead insects. The list goes on and on. Is this churning your stomach? It shouldn’t, because you’ve been eating them for years and it hasn’t bothered you.

So modern man is already eating bug and insects.  We just don't know it.  Or rather don't want to know -- most people don't like to look at their food labels.  Something the GMO people take advantage of.   But if you want to live longer, you have to do a little research.  Remember the chapter on Mental Fitness and Participatory Wellness.

Research will tell you -- more or less -- what you are putting in your mouth -- and whether it is good for you.  Again, you have to suspend disbelief.   Meal crubs, crickets, ants, termites -- all good for you.  You also have to suspend "belief".  Cauliflower is great. Helps beat cancer, etc., etc.  But, as in all things there is a caveat. It is is goitrogenic, which means you  need iodine such as you get in sea weed to balance it.  Sauerkraut is not only nutritious, it contains more intestinal flora than yogurt -- but also a huge amount of salt, meaning you need to balance it with potassium fruits such as bananas or with white beans.

Cooked Squirrel

Wild meats have lots of protein and little fat.  But in the case of deer, there is that little matter mad cow disease, which has spread to deer, largely as a result of the killing of predators such as wolves.

It goes on and on. 

 Diets

Fad diets appear regularly.   Recently we have intermittent fasting and the Paleo Diet.

The problem with any "diet" is that it usually a short term solution not a lifestyle change.  Never diet to lose weight quickly.  Diets only work as "diet" meaning a lifestyle change.

Paleo 

Let's look at the Paleo Diet.  The Paleo diet is pretty good in principle since it eschews processed foods.  However, it assumes that we know what Paleo people ate.  And, in fact, we do.  They ate anything they could get -- depending on the environment --occasionally even each other.  In terms of protein -- they got most of it from insects,   small animals such as squirrels and rodents, and larger animals.    But this meat was all wild meat.  Paleo people used fire to cook, making the indigestible digestible.

Now, the Paleo people tell you not to eat beans because they say we didn't eat beans in the Paleo period.   It is true that beans have to be soaked in water and then cooked or fermented to eat - quite within the capabilities of hunters and gatherers.  You are not supposed to eat potatoes because they were a product of the neolithic period.  Nor tomatoes weren't around in the Paleo period. Grains, rice and dairy are all out.

This assumes that we are today as we were in the Paleo period -- that we have not evolved, which is clearly not the case.  While some people remain "paleo" in the sense of being either lactose intolerant or gluten intolerant, a lot of people can handle these foods.

In addition, the Paleo people allow grass fed beef, chickens, and chicken eggs.  Sorry, the Paleo people didn't have cows or chickens. 

Add to this that almost 90% of beef in the US are grass-fed up to a couple of months before slaughter.   Beef that are entirely grass-fed are not really any more natural" than farmed beef fed cut grass.  Only free range beef allowed to forage a variety of grasses are actually "natural" -- but these are rare.  So, chances are that your grass-fed sirloin is not really "natural" at all and still contains unhealthy antibiotics, steroids, and ...oh... yes, pesticides.

In other words, you cannot go Paleo without living Paleo -- which restricts you to a few places in the jungles of South America.  

That said, the Paleo diet has some good things such as restricting refined foods, sugar, and high fat dairy.  Ordinary bread has excessive amounts of sugar and salt, for example.   

Intermittent Fasting

Fasting is based on the idea that the human body needs to clean itself by allowing the digestive system to do nothing.

Attached to this is the notion that it is not natural for us to eat three meals a day --  and that in the Paleo period, there were times when food was scarce.  Yes, people starved.  There were times of feast. And times of famine.  

But fasting puts a lot of stress on the body.  The liver burns body fat for energy and the by products end up in the gall bladder as a nasty sludge, which can form stones.  You need dietary fats to flush the gall bladder and biliary ducts.  Studies show that you lose weight faster eating 5 or more small meals than one or two, of equivalent total caloric value.  

Yes, you will lose weight.  And feel lighter and maybe have more energy for a few days.    But really, as a grazer, you were not designed for this.  You were designed to eat continually throughout  the day.  No Paleo person every dieted.

Maybe that is the lesson.  Our ancestors never dieted.  Neither should you.    Overeating is not good.  Eating crappy food is not good.  Don't diet. But don't overeat.  And watch what you eat. 

One issue, as you can see from the photo, is that Intermittent Fasting appeals to people who prefer to eat crap like Cheeseburgers and soda -- and then feel the need to punish themselves. 

The Mediterraean Diet

The Mediterranean diet is pretty good.  Yes, there's lots of olive oil.   But also lots of veggies of different kinds.

Think the traditional greek salad.

And you get pasta or bread.

The diet gurus will tell you don't have to count calories -- but there are lots of fat people in Italy too.  DO count the calories, if you are going to use bread or pasta. And try to use whole wheat varieties.

The magic here is olive oil.  The oil is very filling and it reduces appetite.  

No "diet" is perfect.  They all work-- sorta - in moderation. 


Lifestyle Lessons

What do we know about diet in general?

• We are evolved, as adaptive omnivores, to eat about 40 to 50 different kinds of food a week, including insects (an important source of silica and protein)
• We are evolved to eat, as gracers, continually in small amounts throughout the day.
• Some of us are micro-evolved to handle foods like dairy and gluten; some are not.
• We are not evolved to handle sugars or alcohol
• We mostly cooked our food, except for nuts, seeds, fruit, berries and the like.
• Some foods need to be balanced by others like cauliflower and seeweeds
• Most processed foods are calorie dense, nutrient deficient and packed with stuff that's bad for you.

Eating Smart

Our ancestors ate what they could get.  It all depended on the environment.  Those environments no longer exist. They have been replaced by different environments.   However, you are still a forager.  

You can learn something from "Freegans".  Freegans are people who live on unprocessed food thrown out by supermarkets.  It is partly a political philosophy, anarcho-primitivist.    By and large, freegans eat a lot of vegetables, berries and fruits rather than processed foods which have long shelf lives due to preservatives.   
Is it healthy?

Meat, daily, fish, and eggs carry serious risks whether purchased in a store or recovered outside of it. These items require special care in all weather and should be properly handled and cooked thoroughly. Dumpster diving plant-based items that have been discarded by stores is probably safer than a buying animal products from the shelf and bringing them home. However, someone who salvages discarded meat items in cold weather and handles and cooks them appropriately may be no worse off than a meat buyer.

An intelligent "freegan" might be healthier, if they are careful about choosing dumpsters and eschew old pizza and ice cream.   Of course, many freegans are just homeless people or poor people.  Still, the best dumpster food is still vegetarian.  Wash it, soak it, an put in a stew. 

Eating healthy can be expensive.  And it is requires a bit more effort whether you buy the food or steal it or find it.  

Rules:

• Try to eat 40 different foods a week
• Make sure that these food are of different colors, yellow, red, green, black -- and so on.
• Avoid processed foods of all kinds.
• Avoid GMO, if you can.
• Add Whey Protein concentrate to your diet for protein.
• Count your calories and watch your weight.
• Eat nut and seeds, a little at a time as snacks.
• Use spices such as red pepper, ginger and tumeric
• Cook for yourself
• Avoid alcohol, and sugar.
• Use healthy oils such as olive oil

Why 40 different foods?

Simply put:  balance.  You need a balance of nutrients and food types for your digestive system.

Why different colors? 

Vegetables, fruits and berries have different pigments, meaning different kinds of antioxidants and other substances.   Keep in mind that most anti-oxidants are also oxidants -- so you need a range, for optimum nutrition and balance.  Yes, you can buy programs that will offer you analysis of foods.  Unless you are a nutritionist, they are pretty much useless.  Just getting all the different colors gives you appropriate balanced. 

Avoid processed foods

Not all processed food are bad.  Just don't eat them all the time.  Save it for special reward sessions.The main thing is again the lack of balance.  Low nutrition, high calories -- and also convenience.  The convenience is seductive.  The longer the shelf life -- the less healthy. And, of course, there is all that salt and sugar and fat that we crave.

Avoid GMOs

There are lots of reasons to avoid GMOs-- both political and environmental.  The real reason is that not enough is known about their effects.  GMO's should really be in the same category as processed food.  They are artificial.  And nobody really knows what effects they have.  Eating GMOs is roughly as dangerous as freeganism.

Whey Protein Concentrate

Whey protein offers the most balanced range of amino acids and in its cheaper, less refined from -- concentrate -- a range of immunoglobulins which are good for the immune system.  Plain, unflavored whey protein can be added to granola or pancakes or  other foods to boost protein content.  Add raw chocolate, with a dash of Stevia sweetener (more on artificial sweeteners later), or berries -- and blend for a delicious shake.  The good thing about concentrate is that you can buy it in bulk -- say 25 pounds at a time. 

Counting Calories

The purpose of counting calories is not dieting -- just avoiding overeating.

Most people lie to themselves.  So, if I think I am eating 2000 kcal a day -- I am actually eating 2500 kcal,  If I think I am burning 800 kcal from exercise, it's probably more like 300.

There are lots of smartphone apps.  Get a simple one that allows you input your calories. And use it as an external or objective monitor. But remember it is the kind of food you eat as much as its caloric value. 

Snacking

The use of the calorie counter also allows snacking, essentially small meals throughout the day.  Nuts, for example. Especially walnuts as we will see from the next section

Oils and fats

Oils and fat have gotten a bad rep from food faddists.  It's true that oils have 9 kcal per gram compared to 4 for carbohydrates.  But you need oil to deliver fat soluble vitamins like Vitamin K and D and E.  And also to flush your gall bladder.  "Healthy oils" include monounsaturated oils like Olive oil or the oils found in avocados  Polyunsaturated fats are found in nuts and vegetable products -- so, yes, walnuts are good for you.  They are associated with higher levels of "good" cholesterol and a whole range of benefits. 

One tablespoon of olive oil is 119 calories.  One slice of white bread is anywhere from 80 kcal to 130 kcal, depending on who you believe.  But the bread is nutritionally "empty".   Go with the olive oil to stir fry things like okura and tomatoes  -- a low heat since it burns easily.    A  handful of walnuts is 190 kcal.    But, again, walnuts are nutritionally dense. So while the calorie count looks high you are getting benefits. Olive oil, as mentioned, tends to satiate appetite quickly, which is a plus. 

Most people fail to calculate the calories in nuts and oils when cooking -- which means under calculating calories  by a considerable amount.

An easy way to get around this is to just add in 300 kcal for "miscellaneous" to your daily caloric expenditures.  This keeps you honest. If you start gaining weight -- make that 500 kcal. 

As a rule of thumb, I would avoid gluten and dairy, with the exception of yogurt.  You may not show obvious signs of intolerance -- but you don't really need them and they are nutritionally incomplete. 

At the end of the day, eat what you want -- but keep the calories low.  As you get older, your metabolism slows -- so you really need less. 

In this process, remember that some meals are social events.  Preparing food for others and sharing food does not mean binging -- but it brings people together.  

Our ancestors ate all the time -- they grazed -- but they collected and shared the really good stuff.   

What do you need?

Protein 

As you get older you need more protein.  But that doesn't mean eating a lot of steak -- with all the extra fat and chemicals.  Protein is a mix of amino acids.  The best protein -- meaning the most balanced - is egg white protein.  Then comes whey protein.  After that -- insect proteins.

You need about one gram of protein per kilogram of body weight -- so if you weigh 70 kilograms you need 70 grams of protein.   One scoop of whey protein concentrate is about 30 grams of protein.    
You can add fiber to this, such as psyllium fiber or bran to slow down absorption.


Carbs

You need carbs, of course.  But bread, pasta and other glutens are a problem for some people.  Microevolution has adapted Europeans to eating glutenous foods as well as digesting lactose.   But how complete that tolerance is is a moot point -- especially   as you age.  Try to get your carbs from brown rice or vegetables.   The problem with refined carbohydrates is that they act to spike glucose levels.  Every person over 60 should regard themselves as partially diabetic since insulin resistance changes as we get older.  Eating just one or two slices of bread  increases your appetite -- even if it's whole wheat.  

Fermented Foods

In nature, we ate a lot of food over the "expiry date" as it were.  Meaning that the food was full of microbes, fermenting naturally.  
Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage and contains more microbes than yogurt.  It is also -- unfortunately -- high in salt. So, if you eat it, you need to raise your potassium levels with foods like bananas, white beans, spinach and the like. 

One of the best fermented foods is natto which contains an enzyme, nattokinase which is anti-inflammatory, and heart friendly -- and often sold as a supplement.   Combined with brown rice, you also get complete protein.  The beans have half the amino acids you need, the rice has the rest.  

Fiber

In nature, we got a huge amount of fiber.   Today, we need to add fiber to food.

"Superfoods"

"Superfoods" are just nutritionally dense foods.  So blueberries are superfoods because they contain lots of good antioxidants.  Ditto:  cranberries and other berries.  Raw cacao -- aka "chocolate" -- has minimal fat and lots of antixoidants, too.   "Superfoods" are bascially the opposite of processed, packaged foods.   Squirrel meat is probably a superfood.   In other words, the term "superfood" is just a marketing gimmick.  There is crap food and there is real food.  And mostly we eat crap food. 

Exercise the Easy Way

Lazy and Crazy

 Creative people – the kind who learned to use fire and invented the wheel have two characteristics.

One:  Laziness.    Also known as doing things in the easiest, fastest, most convenient, most efficient manner. Don’t work “hard” – work “smart”.  And get your priorities right.  

Two.    "Craziness", w.   It means doing things that don’t appear logical, but are often intuitively correct.    Reason and logic all depend on certain assumptions -- which in one era are "normal" and in another "crazy".      

Be lazy and crazy.  Work smart and you are a genius.    

Lazy and crazy  is not what Mom wanted for you.  It is not what your teachers wanted for you.  Most definitely  not what your Boss wants for you.  

So don't fight convention.  Ignore it.    

Once upon a time ago, when I was working in a job, earning bundles of money for less than half the work of anybody else – but actually contributing twice as much – a manager approached me and said, “You know what’s wrong with you – you just want to earn as much as you can for as little work as possible”.   

It didn't matter to him that company was benefiting from my efficiency. He saw "LAZY" in neon letters.

 I left that organization, which went rapidly downhill and no longer exists. 

 As you get older, it gets easier to see easier ways of doing things and to dispense with normality.  But you have to be careful not to rub this "magic" in people's faces. 



A Personal Example

 I used to live in a very expensive four floor apartment in Tokyo.  It had parking which I did not use because…well…it’s Tokyo—the world’s worst driving city.  It also had an elevator—which I always used.    

In any case, I decided to move and save some money.  I found fourth floor apartment on the top of a building on the top floor with privacy, quiet, pretty good light and ventilation and small enough so that everything was within reach – yet big enough for my needs.  I’m lazy, right.  I just wanted to be able to reach out and grab what I needed. I could also keep cats, which is hard to do in Tokyo where I live since most landlords prohibit them although they cause much less trouble than children or dogs. I’m social.  And cats are good friends. Just no elevator.  So now I had to climb at least four flights once or twice a day.  Oh, and it was a quarter the price. 

Ok, so I had to climb four flights a day.   

The apartment was also farther from the subway station.

I had used a bicycle before.  But if I wanted to use the subway I would just walk there since the city government would take away bicycles left near the station.

Now, I eschewed subways altogether, and started using the bicycle.  

I discovered I could go anywhere in downtown Tokyo, in about 30, at the most 40 minutes.  Rain?  If you wear a rain suit – it’s actually drier than walking to the subway with an umbrella.  I discovered I could wear a Bluetooth headset and do a lot of my phoning on the bicycle, which I could not do on the subway.  Again, I’m lazy.  

Suddenly, my fitness level rose. I lost weight.  I felt good. I had added exercise without trying, making it part of my lifestyle.   Health is all about creating beneficial exigencies, which are integrated with your life – not ancillary to it.  

 Now, a lot of people go to a health club and bicycle there.  The bicycling machine doesn’t go anywhere – and it is boring. You can’t phone because health clubs won’t allow that.  There you are stuck between a fat balding guy and fat lady with warts and they smell bad and pant a lot – and, no, they don’t want to talk.  At least, outside you have the option of stopping and striking up a conversation with someone who looks interesting.

In a fitness club you can listen to music – but it’s still a drag.  And, of course, you are paying for this -- and it takes time out of your schedule.  Cycling outside is getting from A to B -- adding time to your schedule.

In Tokyo, most people think I am odd – crazy. Bicycling everywhere.  They also think it is odd that I dress simply (have to –it’s a bicycle, remember) and look and act young.  Most people think I am 15 to 20 years younger than I am.   

My friends who know my age often say, "Why don't you act your age?".   Because I am too young to die -- always.l 

OK, so you don’t live in an apartment. You live in the suburbs 15 miles from your office.  And you need a house for the wife and kids.

But… 15 miles is about 45 minutes to an hour  by bicycle. If you travel by car, you will actually save time during rush hour which is when everybody else is going to work and coming home.    Need to wear a shirt and tie? – put them in the carrier and change in the washroom when you arrive.  You are going to be wonderfully fit.   Very often you will find that that if you don’t drive to work – you save a lot of money – and you can actually live closer to work.  

An added bonus is stress relief.

Some wonk has calculated that each mile you live from work steals $795 per year from you in commuting costs. $795 per year will pay the interest on $15,900 of house borrowed at a 5% interest rate.

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-commuting/

Too old to ride a bike.  Think about it again....That guy below is 102 years old and just set a world record.

OK – you insist on living far, far away from the city in some suburb.  In that case, make sure you have a big, big lot where you can grow vegetables.  Get lots of dogs to walk.  And do a lot of chores.   there are lots of ways to expend energy.  

If it snows, well, shoveling snow is great exercise. And just walking to the store takes more energy when the sidewalks are slippery.   A lot of older people break their hips on slippery sidewalks. 

To be healthy you need a lifestyle that matches your needs and forces you to act and look younger.   

You need a lifestyle that prevents you from compartmentalizing health as just one part of your life.  Sorry – without health – you are dead.  You don’t have a life at all.

Fitness Clubs

I am a big fan of health clubs that offer things like Tai Chi, kick boxing and yoga – as well as body building – oh – and massage chairs and saunas.   

But most people, again, don’t get the best out of their clubs.   

Too much “cardio” is unnecessary and probably harmful.  

Of course, anything you do at a fitness club you can probably do at home or outside -- more cheaply even if you invest a machine or two and some weights.

The real advantage of fitness clubs is social.  A chance to make friends.  When you join a club, make a point of talking to everybody.  Invite people out for coffee or dinner.  Compare notes on exercise. Join a few classes in things like stretching or yoga or tai chi'.  A fitness club is an opportunity for community. 

Jogging, Walking, Cycling

Our ancestors never jogged.  After running on uneven ground was dangerous.  The chances of stepping on something really bad -- something poisoness went up.  The rule was watch where you walk.

Cardio really is something you should get naturally in your daily life.  If you are one of those people who think that stair climbers, jogging machines or exercise bicycles will help you lose weight or live longer – you are just ill-informed.  Jogging machines are certainly easier on the ankles, knees, hips and lower back than running on pavement – but you only burn calories while you are exercising and anything over 55 minutes is burning muscle not fat.  Resistance training will burn fat by raising metabolism for 24 to 48 hours afterwards.  

As I have said, we  are not evolved to jog.  We were designed to walk.  

So, walking really is the best exercise.  Each time your foot hits the pavement you shock the bone and strengthen it. And if you walk briskly you are exercising your whole leg, which has some of the body's largest muscles.  In addition, you exercise heart and lungs and lower abdomen. 

Cycling is very good, too.  But our ancestors didn't have bicycles.  This is a good example, however,  of how we can use technology to our advantage to achieve evolutionary goals. 

As said, human beings were designed to be lazy -- with occasional   short bursts of energy.

Simply put: the bicycle is one of the most efficient machines ever devised and a superb form of transport. If you are in a hurry – late – as I always am – you bicycle fast in two to three minute bursts trying to match the lights.  The heart races ahead to, say, 130, then falls, then rises.  You are using not only the large muscles of the legs – but standing on your pedals, the arms, using your back and shoulders.  All very good.   Fast...slow....fast...slow...

 So,  cycling is great for the heart, and can be high impact or low impact depending on your energy level/  However,  studies show that avid cyclists -- the kind you see in spandex on racing bikes with drop down handles -- suffer from osteoporosis.   In addition, a lot depends on the kind of bicycle you use.  Those  trendy racing bikes with drop down handles are the worst choice.  More in the section on the perfect bicycle. 

Let's go back to walking.   Each time you step, there is impact on the legs -- and the bones.  This impact stimulates bone health and thickness -- especially when walking on concrete.  Punching a punching bag does the same for your arms.

 The Perfect Bicycle

Bicycles are cool.  And racing style bikes look coolest.  You have to wear spandex, of course, and get one of those cool helmets.  The trouble is that these bicycles are designed for racing and long distance riding on a very smooth, well-tended roads in good weather.

In the city and the suburbs, they are just not practical.

For starters, the tires are very thin to reduce rolling resistance and make it easier to pedal.  The drop down handles allow you to lean forward and down reducing wind resistance which rises rapidly as speed increases.  The suspension lacks shocks to save weight and often uses simple braking systems, rather than disks.  The bike is light and just very, very efficient.

Compared to a mountain bike, it takes about twice as long to get your heart rate up to 120 beats a minute.

You balance with your legs on a seat that puts pressure on your vitals "down there", allowing you to main that a seated position even when climbing hills.

Now compare that to a hybrid mountain bike.  It is much heavier, has tires much wider for grip and shocks in front, which are heavy.  It has disk brakes, heavy again. YOu sit more or less upright, so wind resistance is higher.  So you need a lot more effort to get up to speed.

And you just don't look as good wearing spandex.

However the hybrid is the better choice.

First, you get better exercise.  It IS harder to pedal.

You can swap out the seat to use a noseless saddle that takes the pressure off the sensitive parts of your anatomy.  That forces you to balance more with your arms giving your upper body something of a workout.

You will find your self standing a lot on your pedals to get up to speed.

The front shocks and wider tires are safer, in the case of potholes and the like and in wet weather.  Ditto disk brakes.

An all weather bicycle means you need a light weight rain suit that will fit over your regular clothes. 

You may also consider a helmet that does not leak moisture through the vents.  


You may add stirrup clips which allow you to use your upper leg.  They don't require the special shoes that racing bikes require.
Modify the handle bars with multi position end bars that allow you to change your hand position.

Add an handlebar adjuster to modify the height. 

Riding upright in the city means better vision.  

And in the city, a smart rider wears a mask.  Your lungs work extra hard and you tend to inhale a lot of dust, dirt and chemicals.




Mountain bikes come in a variety of wheel sizes, and frame sizes. So you can choose easily depending on your build.  Hybrids have large main gears like racing bikes. Harder to pedal at speed, of course, but great going down hills.

Put a carrier on the back to stow a business jacket or other essentials or carry packages and you can commute to work or shop.  

Resistance training.

10,000 years ago your muscles got a good work out, pulling, pushing, lifting -- all the time.  Nobody went to a gym to work out.  You will notice that some of the longest lived people live in farming village where they have to remain active as long as they live. 

"Resistance Training" aka "Bodybuilding" has a relatively short history.  It developed exponentially after WWII and especially with the advent of steroid drugs.   As a "sport" it was more of a "performance art" -- more about looks than health.  You must keep this in mind because traditional body building exercises still hark back Arnold's hey day --  drug drenched muscle monsters who spent five hours a day in the gym ever day. 

Most people still set up their muscle training in three to five sets of 10 -- then with  one to two  minutes’ rest between sets?   Boring.  And time consuming.  You can spend hours in the gym doing this. And it's not very effective without steroids, anyway.   

If you are younger, say  50 or 60. it would be so much easier if you didn’t rest between sets focusing on fully exhausting one body part at a time with just one or two sets, then moving to another without any pauses – always moving.  You heart beat would stay high – you would get cardio along with the resistance training and you would save time.  You could listen to rock music on an MP3 and you get a rush.  This is called HIT -- High Intensity Training.  And you can do a training session in under an hour, with all the benefits of a traditional session that takes two or three hours. 

Research indicates that resi You then need  a couple of days to recover.  This was a favorite of the greatest bodybuilder of all time.  No, not Arnold – Dorian Yates.
  

You don’t want to look like the guys in the photo above. And you don’t’ want to ruin you heart with steroids.  The point is that more is not always better.

Mike Mentzer, above, the popularizer of HIT traning -- before Dorian Yates --  died in his forties.  Steroids tend to be bad for the heart.

Keep in mind what you need msucles for.  Steroidal muscles are like fake tits -- purely cosmetic and kind of useless.
     
As you get older, however, you do need the muscle to support your bones and prevent breakages, also to reduce stress on the heart and stimulate hormones. 

There are many variations of HIT training.  Using the principles of Mental Fitness, mentioned earlier, you have to research to find one that fits you. 

In general, you warm up with a few light reps; then do a single heavy rep, as much weight as you can move without straining -- in correct form.  In this case, machines are preferable to free weights.  They are safer, and you can reduce weight quickly.

Concentrate on lowering the weight slowly.  Then reduce the weight immediately.With a lower weight you can do several reps.  Once the muscle is fully exhausted you need 3 to five minutes for your heart and body to normalize.  

More on then to an exercise, which indirectly exercises the back.  Biceps, for example.   You do the same thing.  You use the rest periods to walk around.  Maybe do some abdominals lightly or kick -- or just talk to people.

HIT, while economical of time makes  it easy to overtrain.  One way  to prevent this is to break up training sessions with rest intervals. You work a muscle to exhaustion.  Then walk around for 3 to 5  minutes, allowing your heart to normalize.  Then do the next muscle group.

Your body needs rest.  Dorian Yates would often rest a body part 10 days!

Keep Charles Eugster in mind.  He started body building at 85.    Then took up running.   And died of congestive heart failure, a common athlete's disease at 97.  

Day One.

Back.  Strait arm pull downs.  Rowing. Two sets total

Biceps.  Curls. 

 Closed grip pull downs. Two sets total.

Abdominal crunches, stretching.  Sloooow kicking a la Bruce Lee.

Day Two
Chest.  Flies.  Bench press machine.

Shoulders.   Shoulder raises Overhead press. 

Triceps.  Triceps press.  Bench press machine or ovehead press.

Abdominal crunches, stretching .  Slow kicking. 

Day Three.

Legs.  There are various leg machines.  And exercises.  Try and do two exercises right after another, which move the opposite sides of the muscle. 

Studies show that muscles respond to multiple set workouts best if you allow at least five minutes for the muscle to recover.  This is modified circuit training.   And, if you think about it, there are endless variations. 

There are endless variations on HIT. But the basic rule is to perform an exercise the isolates a specific muscle -- say   biceps curls first -- and then an exercise that works the sam muscle in combination with others taking the targeted muscle beyond its limits, such as close grip pulldowns which moves the biceps mostly with the power of the back muscles.  This is called "pre-exhaustion".  Descending sets also work.

You will notice that I am not giving prescriptions here.  It is important for you to do your own research and create routines that "feel" right for you.   There is no "right" or "wrong" here.   One way or another you will build muscle, feel better and get rid of stress.

As Jethro Tull says you are never too old to rock and roll. 

Supplements

Do they work?  Good question.  Again, you have to research. 

The good news:  with the internet there are a lot of sources of information. The bad news: the information is usually contradictory.   In writing this book, I had to look again at my own supplement consumption.  After all, it is one thing to pop pills – it is quite another to get other people doing the same thing.

 The idea of "supplements" is that we eat crap food -- or have lousy genetics --  so we compensate with "nutritional insurance"

Not drinking or smoking and keeping your stress levels down.  Having good friends and continuing to work or at least doing something you enjoy is a lot better than any number of supplements.

One thing for sure – just popping a multi-vitamin pill won’t do anything – and depending on what’s in it may be harmful.

Keep in mind that there sometimes taking too much of one thing depletes reserves of another.  Beta carotene, for example, is just one over 500 carotenoids and supplementing it may just disrupt balance.  Taking too much Alpha E will deplete levels of other E vitamins, many of which are absolutely essential.  Too much zine depletes copper – and vice versa.  Supplementing with arginine depletes lysine and may encourage herpes outbreaks.  

And then some things are synergistic.  You need vitamin K to absorb Vitamin D.  And to absorb both you need healthy fats.

Tumeric is great. Fights cancer and is good for the liver -- but absorbs poorly -- without black pepper or maybe grapefruit juice.

So you need to supplement intelligently. Do your homework!   That was the whole point of the chapter on mental fitness.  If you supplement, make it a hobby and research and enjoy the research.    

Ray Kurzweil is 68.

 

He looks a lot older than I do.  He is also a lot smarter than I am --on computer subjects anyway -- and much, much richer.   But he is also diabetic.   A lot of other people would be dead by how.  He takes 250 supplements a day.  And claims to have slowed the ageing process.   Then again he sells this stuff.    And he makes money from the lectures. 

Kurzweil has a point, however.  Supplements might help somewhat – but --according to him -- you need to take a lot . In the end,  one thing balances another.  Antioxidants are big these days -- but   every antioxidant tends to generate pro-oxidants. Kurzweil has been criticized by taking too much of things he probably doesn't need -- like iron and calcium and the drug lipitor which results in unnaturally low cholesterol levels.

In nature, we had a diverse diet.  We didn’t eat just one kind of berry or one kind of nut – but many different kinds – which gave us a huge range of oxidants and dietary fats.  Our problem today is a daily menu lacking variety.

 Some people will eat huge amounts of blue berries.  But raspberries have other nutrients that are good for you. And blackberries, too. And strawberries. And...and... you get the idea.
Our ancestors ate what they could find. 

Have you ever wondered why we have color vision? Duh…to distinguish poisoness berries from the good ones,  silly.

Go natural!

Keep in mind that most people over a hundred don't take supplemenets -- they mostly just have good genetics. 

If you  juice, drink the fiber too. Removing the fiber gives you pure fructose – which is not good for the pancreas.  

Steve Jobs famously died from pancreatic cancer.  He was an advocate of fruit juice diets – presumably without the fiber - and diets of this kind --pure fructose --  have been linked to pancreatic dysfunction.  Even really smart guys make mistakes -- maybe because they are so smart at one thing they think they know everything.  

Bodybuilding forums are great sources of information – but also faddism.  So you have to read carefully.  Bodybuilders stress their bodies – so they eat to cope with this. And they research -- a lot.  Right now they tout carnosine supplements like pure carnosine and beta alanine.   Do they work?  Read the literature for yourself.  

 Herbs 'n Stuff

The Chinese have been self-medicating with herbs for thousands of years.   But some herbs are dangerous, so once again you have to study.   Keep in mind that, in China,  these things are considered medicines to be taken when you are sick – not necessarily to sustain health.

 The Liver

Silymarin (Milk Thistle Extract)
Artichoke leaves
Kudzu
Ginger
Tumeric
Chanca Piedra
Phosphatyl Choline

Members of the thistle family such as Milk Thistle and Artichoke are  good for liver function and detoxification, as is Kudzu.   Check out the NCBI studies.   Ginger and tumeric have similar properties, although tumeric is poorly absorbed and usually needs two other supplements to absorb -- bioperine (black pepper extract) or quercetin, a bioflavonoid found in various juices.   All have anti cancer benefits and combat inflammation.   

Chanca Piedra helps dissolve stones.  And phosphatidyl choline helps improve cell motility, brain function and liver function. Some regard it as a nootropic.  

However, there is a catch to all supplements.  They may be good for the functioning of certain organs but they don't necessarily cure anything.  It's like aspirin.  A couple of aspirin a day reduces your chance of colon cancer by more than 20 percent -- and pancreatic cancer by more than 40 %.  But if you have colon cancer or pancreatic cancer, no amount of aspirin will cure it.  

Schizandra and other adaptogens, Ginseng, Rhodiola and Ashwagandha

  

These supplements promote physiological homeostasis and resistance to stress.  Some of them like Schizandra, which is reportedly good for the liver have other functions.   But they do not work like tranquilizers.  If you are under stress, you can't just pop one and feel better.  Like many herbal supplements, the benefits are subtle and depend on long term use.  Rats live longer on rhodiola -- but that is with massive doses -- and rats and people are a little different. 

Berries 

Cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, goji berries, hawthorne berries and the like.  There is a huge list.  

All berries contain antioxidants.  The color of the berry indicates the kind of antioxidant. Cranberries, of course, are famous for their usefulness in preventing urinary infections.  Hawthorne berries (and flowers) are good for the heart.

Black cherry contains significant amounts of melatonin, an immune boosting pro-hormone prohibited in some countries -- as a hormone.  But black cherry is allowed in all those countries despite containing as much as a pill.    

But again, berries are not a cure -- just  modest preventatives.     Add them to yogurt or to protein shakes but don't expect miracles. 

Mushroom, mushrooms, mushrooms...

Cordyceps, Chaga, Shitake, Maitake,  Shimeji, etc.

Yes, mushrooms are good for you and are associated with anticancer effects.  Cordyceps falls in to a special category since it seems to have some effect on adrenal function.    Here's what NCBI says about mushrooms in general. 

 Medicinal mushrooms represent a growing segment of today’s pharmaceutical industry owing to the plethora of useful bioactive compounds. While they have a long history of use across diverse cultures, they are backed up by reasonable scientific investigation now. The mycologists around the world, firmly believe that a greater knowledge of mushroom can ameliorate many forms of cancers at various stages. Exploration of unique species with medicinal properties from the untapped wilderness is warranted. Conservation and cloning of therapeutic mushrooms is needed for sustainable development 

Most mushrooms are  full of all sorts of good stuff.    Mix up your mushrooms. since each variety has different chemistry.  Just make sure they are cooked well enough!  Raw mushrooms are not good for you.   

You will see Chaga is touted as good for almost everything probably because it is rarer and more expensive.  

http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/chaga-mushroom-the-immune-boosting-superfood/

Teas and Coffee

Tea has lots of polyphenols.  So does coffee.  Drinking three or more cups of coffee may be helpful in preventing diabetes

Gingko Biloba

Said to improve mental functioning.  

Herbs for the Prostate

Flower Pollen Extract,  Saw Palmetto, Pygeum extract, Beta Sistoerol, Stinging Nettle
http://www.lovelycitizen.com/story/1977813.html

 All these substances seem to have some effects on the prostate which grows in size as men get older.

BPH is hard to treat.  And conventional medicines are mostly ineffective. 

 https://www.parsemusfoundation.org/projects/new-treatment-for-enlarged-prostate/

Again, you have to take them before your prostate grows too large, too slow the growth down.  They are not cures.  

Gh 

Sulphur Foods

These are foods like garlic and onion.  Smelly yes but good for you.  Except if you are allergic to them.  You can also get sulphur in the form of various supplements such as MSM and chrondoitin sulfate.   

Drugs

Our primate cousins self-medicate.  Yes, chimps get high.

In Japan, marijuana is illegal – although cannabis oil is not.despite Fortunately most of the plant's many medicinal uses seem to be in CBD, not the THC compound that makes you high.    Still, a joint is much better alternative than a bottle of wine. 

By and large, the medical profession in the US and other countries over medicates with psychotropic drugs such as sedatives, antidepressants, and stimulants (such as Adderall for ADHD).

Many hunting and gathering cultures use hallucinogenic mushrooms in their religious and social rituals.  They do not use such higher level drugs for entertainment, as is the case in “civilization” or for individual escape – but for a higher degree of social integration and overall mental health. 

 Nowadays, some scientists are finding that hallucinogens such as mushrooms, and purely synthetic ones like LSD and MMDA are amazing useful in handling all kinds of psychological problems where the experience is controlled and structured – which is exactly what Indian cultures have always done.   

In western cultures, we use alcohol mostly and nicotine to control stress.  Alcohol is a sugar and therefore not very good for you, especially at the level where it feels good – that is, sorry to say, always drunkenness – which means acetyl aldehydes are being generated which are harmful to the liver – and carcinogenic.  

By contrast, marijuana is much better and actually anti-carcinogenic in some cases.

Turn on your TV. Everyone is drinking.  Every emotional moment is accompanied by beer, wine or whisky.  Message: you can’t relax without it.  You can’t bond without it.  

 

Physical Fitness Summary

You need good nutrition, You need to monitor yourself, to make sure that you are not taking in too many empty calories.  You need exercise.  And, if you have the money, you might consider supplements especially Vitamin D, Vitamin K (to help the D absorb) for the bones and CoEnzyme Q 10 with an antioxidant for the bones.

Most of all you need friends.  A support group, if you like.  Make this physical fitness a hobby, play. To do it right, you need the skills of mental fitness outlined early -- and you need feedback from other people.  Somebody always knows someone you don't.     

Chapter IV

 

Spiritual Fitness.

 

"Spiritual" means different things to different people.

We can talking about rock 'n roll.  Is rock 'n roll "spiritual".  Of course it is if think spiritual is about losing yourself in celebration of the joy of life.  Go to a Jethro Tull concert and see all those people standing and clapping unison, singing with him.  Listen to Ian Anderson's words -- which are about the dignity of human life.  Even Aqualung.  

"Spiritual" can also be play.  Children lose themselves in play.  And it is little wonder that of all age groups it is children who have spiritual visions all the time where they dissociate and feel the one-ness of the universe. Psychologists call these 'dissociative episodes"  but they are spiritual all the same.

Children's minds are still plastic and their "selves", too.So they report oceanic experiences.   Creative minds have the same capacity with a surprising number reporting "visions

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Spiritual is not the same as religious.  Religions are institutions, like governments or police departments.  There are religious people who believe in God and go to church regularly but are not spiritual.  And there are spiritual people who are atheists.

How can this be?

Zen Buddhists, for example, do not believe in God.  Nor in heaven.  The point of their belief system is to become nothing -- specifically to escape the Self..  Buddha was a man -- not a god.

Of course, there are those who want to worship Buddha as a god.  We like Father figures and Mother Figures -- and even Brother figures.  In Christianity you get the whole family - -God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, Plus, if you are Catholic, the Mother of God, Mary.

The fact is that the human brain is hardwired for spirituality.  

Religion channels our natural spirituality with tropes that emphasize our relationships first of all with the institution and its culture and then with others.   

At the center of all, however, is our concept of "Self", itself an abstraction, a function of our unique brain.  But a useful abstraction since it is understood in the context of others.  You need a Self for day to day life -- just not all the time.

Our ancestors, whether they had a creation myth of not, believed the world was alive with spirits with whom they could communicate.  These spirits were as real as members of their  own tribe and shared human traits, despite their powers.

No other animal but man has this spiritual sense.  Because, of course, no other animal has the capacity for abstract thought, from which to construct a self and a notion of "other".  And not other animal can conceive death -- only immediate threat to life. 

Our spiritual sense comes in giving up the self and becoming part of the whole, as all animals are. In this way, the self and all others are just parts of existence or being.

  Their minds are still plastic and their "selves", too.So they report oceanic experiences.   Creative minds have the same capacity with a surprising number reporting "visions".

Timothy Leary used LSD for this purpose, to become One with Being, the flip side beiing that one can become Nothing with Non-Being. Heaven and Hell.

More recently, researchers working halluciongens like MMMDA and psylocibin have used the drugs to confer spiritual experineces on people facing death as a result of cancer with remarkable result, where there is careful pre-therapy and after-therapy.

For most of us, "spirituality" comes through love.  Our self, as we have said, is social.  Loneliness is death.  Togetherness if immortality.   To be spiritually fit you need to love and be loved.  You need contact with others.

This is why it is so important to engage with others as you get older.  It is also why people are less happy in Institutional Settings than at home.   Institutional Settings provide artificial relationships with nurses and doctors whose "professionalism" -- and workload often interfere  with  empathy and interaction.

The Japanese are working on robots to provide the elderly with conversational partners.  Surely, that is an indictment of their human  caregivers.
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Granted there is "Disengagement Theory" which suggests that the elderly are happier disengaged from the world, narrowing their interests and relationships, as their physical powers fade.  The logic of  this is clear.  But, by the same token, then we should "disengage" all physically challenged people.  Why put ramps on buses for wheelchairs?  Why try to integrate kids with Down Syndrome?  What to do with Stephen Hawking?   

Disengagement Theory is convenient for people who rather that older people just die when they retire.

Spiritual Fitness is a community thing.    Nothing could be more spiritual than the Zimmers.

Ultimately, spirituality is not taking yourself too seriously.  The Buddha famously smiles.  Is he laughing at the world -- or at himself?   Probably both.