A Balanced Lifestyle May Be the Answer to Good Health and Longevity
Posted on August 24th, 2009 by admin
Just the other day I found an article on sciencedaily.com how caffeine improved memory loss in aged mice raised to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The article began with the tease that “Coffee drinkers may have another reason to pour that extra cup.” It went on to discuss a sequence of studies published online July 6 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease that showed that caffeine notably decreased abnormal levels of the protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, both in the brains and in the blood of mice that had developed symptoms of the disease.
However, before you decide to add an extra cuppa to your daily routine, let me, Dr. Jamie Phillips warn you that also on the website, under “Related Stories,” were a couple of articles reporting on studies that showed the negative effects of caffeine, “Morning Jolt of Caffeine May Mask Serious Sleep Problems,” and “Coffee Consumption Linked To Increased Risk Of Heart Attack For Persons With Certain Gene Variation.”
Almost any angle of thought, it seems to me, particularly when it has to do with age-related health issues, can be corroborated, or at least given credence, by other related studies. The “yin-yang” of caffeine benefits-deficits certainly aren’t, by any means, the only ones. But, it did get me to thinking about the reasonableness that there will not ever be any “one thing” that will absolutely help we, humans, to live longer, healthier lives. We are dynamic, biological beings. We aren’t bred in a cage! We are free to make choices in life. And, let’s face it, though Alzheimer’s disease apparently is on the rise, obviously none of us has been “bred to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease,” so caffeine isn’t entirely the “one thing” that will reverse or prevent it.
Our body is a splendid, involved system that is designed to function homeostasis, i.e, balance. It makes sense, then, that good health is cultivated by a healthy, balanced approach to living, instead of our being blindly convinced by the latest health study and “doing” or “overdoing” one specific thing fooling ourselves into believing that it will reverse all of the other immoderate and unhealthy things we have done to our bodies.
As a Santa Barbara chiropractor, it is my belief that every single day we have an opportunity to make decisions that will assist us to live longer, healthier lives, healthy choices for our body and mind. We know what actually “feels” right and what doesn’t when it comes to what is good for us. So, the if you reach for that extra cup of coffee or that second glass of red wine, I hope that you’ll keep this in mind. There is no “one thing” that will do “everything” for your good health.
Dr. Jamie Phillips
601 E. Arrellaga St. #201
Santa Barbara, CA, 93103
http://www.santabarbarachiropractic.org