Anti-Aging with Suzanne Somers
Life-Altering Secrets, Cutting Edge Technology
Reprinted from Breakthrough by Suzanne Somers. Copyright © September 2008. Published by Crown, a division of Random House, Inc.
IN THE OLD DAYS, a doctor would be able to have lengthy office sessions with a patient when he or she came in for a checkup or to complain of pain or illness.
The doctor could spend time with the patient and really listen to what he or she was saying. They could work together to make a determination on how to proceed.
A prescription pad was reserved for extreme illness, with doctors trying to find other ways to make a patient feel better. Rest, proper nutrition, and fluids were frequently the best remedy.
That doesn’t happen much anymore. Doctors have only a few minutes to spend with each patient, and it is easier and faster to write a prescription for something that will alleviate the complaints.
Next patient, please!
Suzanne Somers
Interview by Karen Asp
Getting older can be a buzz kill. But it doesn't have to be, not if Suzanne Somers has anything to say about it. The actress, spokesperson and best-selling author is out with a new book, Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness. In it, she delivers powerful messages about how to age more healthfully and gracefully. Somers chatted with AOL Health here.
You, forever young, are nearly 62. How do you feel?
I feel the best I've ever felt physically and mentally. I have a great understanding of how my body works and what it needs to maintain peak health and performance. My mind has wisdom and perspective that come naturally with age and experience so I don't fret over the silly little things that used to get to me. And I've eliminated all toxic relationships in my life.
Explain the eight steps to wellness.
The eight steps include: Get bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT), avoid chemicals and detoxify your body, take nutrition seriously, create a healthy GI tract, avoid pharmaceuticals unless absolutely necessary, supplement your diet, exercise regularly, and get proper sleep. They're all connected in breakthrough medicine, healing and eliminating illness rather than masking symptoms with drugs. The eight steps make use of proven remedies and preventive care that most doctors aren't talking about with patients.
What is breakthrough medicine?
Breakthrough medicine can be defined as M.D.s practicing the art of medicine rather than relying totally on pharmaceutical drugs to heal and cure. Today's leading doctors use as many alternative protocols as possible and only go to allopathic (got a problem, here's a prescription) medicine as a last resort. They practice health care versus disease care. Their patients go to them to stay healthy, rather than waiting until something is wrong.
What are the main benefits you've experienced from hormone treatment?
Because my hormone levels with bioidentical hormone therapy are again what they were in my prime, that extra weight I could never get rid of disappeared, my energy is back, I sleep uninterrupted eight to nine hours daily, my memory is now intact (I no longer forget who I'm phoning or why I went into a room, for instance), and my libido came roaring back with a vengeance.
Taking hormones for anti-aging purposes isn't only unproven, it's also controversial.
All bioidentical hormones are FDA approved, and the studies are in the back of my book, proving that fake hormones will harm or even kill you. Natural bioidentical hormones have not even one recorded case of injury or death. Big pharma...manufactures fake hormones by extracting urine from a pregnant mare and changing the molecular structure so that it can patent the product. Bioidenticals are natural, non-patentable and inexpensive. They're identical to those made by the human body. As we age, our hormone levels drop. Without replacement, diseases like cancer, stroke, heart disease, and autoimmune diseases kick in.
Do you believe bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is safe for everyone?
That is beyond my scope, but I have never heard of anyone who could not benefit from BHRT.
What are your top strategies to keep your "interior young?"
Eat the highest quality food you can afford, preferably organic. Install a double osmosis filter in your home to eliminate chemicals like chlorine and fluoride from your water. Avoid eating man-made foods or anything in packages.
You encourage people to generally avoid pharmaceuticals, but how can they determine when it's necessary?
I recommend finding a qualified doctor who specializes in BHRT, consult with him or her, and make personal decisions that work for you. I never tell anyone not to take his or her meds.
What are your best diet tips?
Eat organic foods. Avoid bad oils like canola, corn, peanut and vegetable oil, and cook only with omega-3 oils like olive oil and coconut oil. Use flax oil in your smoothies. And stay away from diet soda. One diet soda can kill the neurons in your brain within six to eight hours. These chemicals, called excitotoxins, literally excite neurons to death. Multiple diet sodas or their regular consumption can cause brain damage and cancer.
Life-Altering Secrets (cont.)
Our prescription-mad medical culture actually contributes to our feeling unwell. We never really get better; we just mask our symptoms. We don’t follow a commonsense approach to medicine, because taking a pill is easier.
But we are not feeling better, and we are frustrated with the downward spiral of our health.
Recognizing that many of us feel we have hit the wall with conventional medicine, antiaging is the likely outcropping to move medicine forward. At present its numbers are small but growing steadily.
Breakthrough medicine treats people and patients like individuals who have their own special needs. It brilliantly brings together the personal one-on-one commitment we got from the medical community decades ago coupled with the cutting-edge technology of today.
Technology, so far, has been a double-edged sword for us. We are an aging society because we now have access to technology so sophisticated that the normal life span has been extended. In other words, technology today will not allow us to die.
This is great news except for the sad fact that the health of most people has deteriorated to the point that quality of life no longer exists. As a result, many people are passing their last years suffering with various forms and stages of disability, uncomfortably waiting it out until the final curtain; that is, if their brain is still firing well enough to realize that they are alive.
Antiaging medicine and the forward-thinking Western doctors who have embraced it are able to use technology to help us not only prolong our lives but also have good quality of life. They have rejected the idea of the inevitability of disability and debilitating disease and have decided to band together and take matters into their own hands using natural methods as well as cutting-edge science.
The goal of antiaging medicine is to increase the life span as well as improve overall health. It emphasizes early detection of illness, preventive strategies, and lifestyle changes. This requires improving the diet, reducing stress, detoxifying the body, boosting the immune system, healing the GI tract, correcting hormonal imbalances, improving cardiovascular function, and rebuilding brainpower.
Change is never easy; as with all passages, most of us enter it kicking and screaming. We are comfortable with our pharmaceutical drugs. We are used to taking a pill for every ailment. We are used to side effects; for instance, a woman takes an antibiotic for a yeast infection, which then requires another antibiotic for the new strain of infection that has compromised the gut flora, so she takes yet another medication to rectify this new problem, and so on.
In its way, antiaging medicine has put the brakes on this crazy hamster wheel and said, “Slow down, it’s not working; let’s find another way.” Let’s reintroduce common sense and the “art of medicine.” Let’s take advantage of intravenous treatments, chelation, detoxification, nanotechnology.
In other words, let’s first try to improve health without chemical interference. Let’s reserve pharmaceuticals for their original intention, which would be extreme medical intervention as in acute illness, infection, mental illness, and pain; then pharmaceuticals are the miracles they are meant to be . . . the last card in the practitioner’s back pocket.
The new breakthrough doctors have pooled together their great mind-power to use nature’s tools to find creative ways to stay healthy without risking debilitating side effects.
What makes us age? What makes us sick? Aging brings about loss of function, loss of organ reserve. A number of factors contribute to the deterioration of the body—nutritional deficiencies are at the top of the list.
We patients still have not connected the dots relative to good diet, that the food we eat is responsible for building us up or taking us down. It is truly that simple.
Imbalances of hormones accelerate aging; toxins and poor-quality food accelerate the aging process at a cellular level. Yet through this new approach to medicine we are able to reverse and correct these imbalances before having to resort to pharmaceuticals. These stressors combine to produce changes in the cell’s membranes; simple measures such as changing from omega-6 oils (safflower, sunflower, corn, soybean, cottonseed, perilla, walnut, and others) to omega-3 oils (flax, fish oil supplementation, and others) can drastically improve the elasticity of each cell membrane to allow for hydration and oxygen to flow in and out freely. Cells that are hydrated and oxygenated work optimally and reverse the aging process to create a smooth-functioning, healthy body.
As human beings we are "cells reproducing." In order to live long and healthy, this process must continue. On the other hand, cell dysfunction eventually culminates in disease as the body deteriorates. A simple step, like changing the oils you consume, can positively impact the health of your cells; there is no drug that can do that.
Antiaging takes free radicals seriously, knowing that free radicals damage cells, which causes the body’s organs and systems to lose function capacity. Excess acid in the system increases free radicals, and 80 percent of chronically ill adults in the U.S. have too much acid in their tissues, which makes them prone to chronic degenerative diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and arthritis. Free radicals are a major contributor to all cancers, and a major factor in loss of collagen resulting in tissues that are old and withered. Free radicals damage the cell membrane, which interferes with the ability of each cell to send and receive messages from other cells and to absorb the necessary nutrients while eliminating waste products.
Free-radical damage is most pronounced in oxygen-rich organs (eyes, brain, liver, heart, lungs, kidneys, and blood) and has been implicated in the following diseases: kidney disease, diabetes, pancreatitis, liver damage, inflammation of the GI tract, lung disease, eye diseases (macular degeneration, cataracts), nervous system disorders (Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, MS), diseases affecting red blood cells (sickle-cell anemia, pernicious anemia), iron overload, autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, lupus), and most infections (tuberculosis, malaria, AIDS).
Clearly the need to understand the creation of free radicals and then to take the necessary steps to eliminate them is essential for our systems to be healthy. Chemicals and toxins, plus stress and poor diet continually help create more and more free radicals, which is why antiaging medicine understands and focuses on the absolute necessity of neutralizing free radicals by utilizing antioxidants through the food you consume, intravenous treatments, and supplementation.
It’s a new world. If we continue doing things the same old way—eating chemical-laden foods, using chemical toxins in our homes and offices— it will seriously affect the quality and length of our lives, and most likely will be the trigger for one or more of the previously mentioned diseases.
The public is responding. Growing numbers of people are turning to alternative antiaging medicine to address their needs. This new breakthrough medicine recognizes the wisdom and effectiveness of this approach to health, which blends mind, science, and experience.
In 1993, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that over a third of those surveyed chose alternative medicine over traditional conventional medicine because people have grown weary of the medical establishment’s continued emphasis on diagnostic testing and treatment with drugs without focusing on them as the patient.
Here’s the good news: It’s not an either/or scenario. It’s important to recognize that practitioners of alternative medicine are not opposed to conventional medical practices and do not hesitate to resort to them when appropriate, especially when dealing with patients who have life-threatening, acute illnesses.
Antiaging medicine aims to stay a step or two ahead of sickness and disease; it also works at toxic avoidance and detoxification, knowing that toxins create malfunctioning cells and cell death is the gradual end to us as a species. It’s that serious. I am a great admirer of antiaging medicine . . . it appeals to my common sense.
Drugs will never heal; they abate. Restorative treatment as practiced in antiaging medicine approaches the body with true healing in mind.
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KATTRAXZ 11:36:40 AM Oct 12 2008
Another note: According to the latest research in diet and DNA modification, studies have found that a pure, well balanced diet will modify DNA of the genes.In other words, you are what you eat. If you want to live healthy and BE healthy, eat organic, grains, greens, fruits. Consume organic virgin coconut oil which is a medium chain trygliceride oil that literally acts like liquid plumber in your blood system. It clears out calcium and fat deposits that form arteriosclerosis. The bottom line is: You cannot eat garbage foods, fast foods, booze and huge amounts of sugar and not make your body acidic, therefore toxic and sick. As you eat pure your DNA takes those food "codes" and you become healthier. I am living proof and so many of my friends are too. We salute you Suzanne. You are spreading the truth.
KATTRAXZ 11:29:43 AM Oct 12 2008
Suzanne is correct. I am a retired doctor who is 71 and looks 50. I do not drink sodas, coffee, nor do I consume dairy products apart from an occasional dollop of sour cream on a baked potato. I do not eat products with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, aspartame nor any with nitriates, nitrites (lunchmeats and hot dogs). I eat Organically grown foods, very little red meat, organic chickens and fish. Whole grains, virgin coconut oil, fresh greens, and fruits and dark chocolate with xylitol for a sweet treat. For skin and hair care, I use no products with parabens or sulfates in them. I consume vitamins and minerals without Magnesium Stearate in them as filler which destroys T-Cells in the body. I do not believe in the low fat, low carbohydrate diets. Portion control, 5 small meals a day of whole foods keep blood sugar normal. I am very healthy.
SunnyOne934 06:16:26 PM Oct 07 2008
Continued to Jcbrod1...Jordan Rubin. Suzanne is well educated in her field because she has read extensively and spoken in depth with excellent doctors whom she quotes frequently in her books. Not having gone to college is not a handicap for some people because they have extraordinary ability to be self taught. As a result, she knows vastly more about some highly important aspects of health than do the great majority of medical doctors who are only experts at pushing pills. Suzanne accepts herself for who she is as do we all. We are well aware that inevitable aging produces changes in our bodies that cannot be entirely prevented or reversed, however, we want to look as well as feel our best (whatever that may be) at every stage in life. When we can easily do that and do it inexpensively by natural means, why settle for anything less? Best wishes.
SunnyOne934 05:33:06 PM Oct 07 2008
Jcbrod1...Her writing may be incomprehensible nonsense to those who are unfamiliar with the terminology used in health books, but not to those of us who have read at least a little in the field. Were you to educate yourself in these matters, you would find her writing highly illuminating and thus quite valuable. Her publicity photos are touched up a little as are all such pictures. However, she looks good in person although not as good as would be the case had she gone under the knife. Those of us who are into anti-aging stay with it because it feels good to enjoy the level of health we experienced as young people. There is no reason to be sick or feeble if one eats superfoods, takes the correct supplements in the proper amounts and proper combination, maintains a happy outlook on life and exercises smart for functional strength--all of which take much learning on a continuing basis to do well. I hope you change your mind and read something by Suzanne or Nicholas Perricone or Jor
Jcbrod1 03:05:16 PM Oct 07 2008
it was like a rambling manifesto. unreadable babble. that pic is totally redone..she looks like someone who has had alot of surgery and cannot accept getting older.she even had lipo while she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer..how un natural is that? She needs therapy to accept herself for who she is and not try to look like someone she's not and never will be again. the book is nonsense..she has no degree or even went to college..a child knows eating healthy makes you look and feel better..duh
tattertale7 04:16:50 AM Oct 07 2008
Living healthy will keep you young? Yeah my Grandma already told me that she lived to be 92 and looked great. But Grandma never took hormones and she was very healthy, beautiful and active. I think this taking hormones is just as bad as getting those prescriptions from a doctor.
SunnyOne934 04:01:19 AM Oct 07 2008
Continued...If you saw my face, you would see almost no signs of aging, my hair is largely intact and I have had no plastic surgery. Some of that is superobgobfloptious genes, but most is just highly informed health maintenance like that practiced by Suzanne Sommers. She is one of my greatest heath heroines. She really understands what she writes about and I believe she writes every word because she is an intelligent and talented lady. Her major interest is hormonal health and that has got to be of central importance although most doctors know little about it. Just an important concluding tip along that line--after reading an excellent book recently on the wonderful help chromium picolinate can have for our hormonal health, strength development and weight control, I have begun taking mega doses much to my physical benefit in many ways.
SunnyOne934 03:40:54 AM Oct 07 2008
I was into anti-aging long before I read any of Suzanne's books. There are many great books available on that subject now and I always recommend to my friends at the gym that they read as many of them as they have time for and never stop. I also subscribe to free health newsletters like mercola.com for the latest information on what is happening in the field of alternative medicine. It is supremely stupid to live at less than maximum health when one does not have to suffer from illness and die as most people do these days long before their time (at least 100). I like Suzanne's books, plus those of Nicolas Perricone, Jordan Rubin and Dianna Swartzbine to name but a few. My health library is quite large. At age 73, I still function much as I did at 35 or so, still sprint like a rabbit on pep pills, still feel like a teenager, still work out with heavy weights for functional strength and could make love like a much younger man were I married. If you saw my face, you would see almos
XpatDanelover 02:57:02 AM Oct 07 2008
For the part about how to not get sick, one thing I did(and I know most of you will never even consider this) was give up all dairy products.I did this 4 years ago and have not had even the tiniest bit of a cold or any kind of virus since. I use to always be sick a few times a year,and now,not once in over 4 years! My doctor also said I have the perfect calcium count and I am incredibly healthy.Probably also helps that I am a full vegan and eat tons of vegetables which is MUCH easier on your body than the toxic meats,dairy and other animals products and by products.
DeniseyWeesy 02:55:45 AM Oct 07 2008
Keep in mind that Suzanne also had breast cancer- which she treated with radiation and an alternative therapy as well as surgery. Yet, she's still pushing hormones.
