interesting topic!

at this moment science tells us little about prolonging life by diet or dietary supplements. Furthermore, it is naive to believe that you can erase 40 or 50 years of bodily abuse by simply now changing to something different be it diet or dietary supplements.

The only thing that really works and we all can do at home is EXERCISE in any form (daily at least 25-30 minutes of aerobic exercise with a constant heart rate more than 60% of your resting heart rate) and once an for all change your diet to include olive oil, low fat milk/light cheeses, slow carbohydrates, a lot of fibers and vegetables (including certain nuts) along with white meats (fish, pork, chicken). If you can get the ingredients needed for a Mediterranean diet (and that is very easy in Thailand) that is even better! If you eat in moderation then supplements of vitamins and minerals are TOTALLY unnecessary. Pure Asian diet as we see it in Thailand, China and India is a failure, Japanese diet yes if you mean raw fish and vegetables-soya. To understand the effects of diet from an epidemiological point look at the life expectation of certain populations--Japanese, European Mediterranean, Scandinavians (although in the latter we have the positive effect of excellent health care). Alcohol in moderation--red wine only also contributes with positive effects. Look for no miracles in diet, effects need LONG time to see as long as it took us to destroy ourselves with MacDonald's and Burger Kings. Eliminate smoking and you also add a lot of years in your life expectancy as well as in your looks and potency.

Hormonal supplements have a place in the armamentarium under specific circumstances. Testosterone for men ONLY with established deficiency (prostate cancer risk otherwise), similarly to estrogen/progesterone in women (breast cancer risk). DHEAs no definite answer as yet. Melatonin-crap. The only hormone that actually WORKS is hGH in its correct form, meaning no substances that increase its secretion (such do exist but in the laboratory, not in the internet!). Moreover, hGH increases with exercise and with a specific form of exercise the so called NEMES vibration system (increase in hGH by 490%). Treatment with hGH is feasible in Thailand (MEDISCI +662 941 2975-6, http://www.almedex.com at Vibhavadi hospital, http://www.vibhavadi.com, info@vibhavadi.com, 0-2941-2800) but has to be supervised by an endocrinologist as diabetes, gall bladder stones and in very long use excess tumors are seen. Drug holidays are advised as well, cost is around 30,000 baht a month.

The absolute best thing to do is PREPARE for what is to come, that is heart diseases, cancers, diabetes, spinal cord accidents! That can be done by keeping your own stem cells, so called ADULT stem cells that we all have in our body. Keep them (simple procedure--a machine filters your stem cells in your blood, no hospital stay or, anesthesia) freeze them and when and if time comes to treat your heart attack or diabetes or stroke, take them out and use them at many hospitals in Bangkok. THAI StemLife (02-613 1515-8, info@thaistemlife.com or visit www.stemlife.com for english, www.thaistemlife.co.th for thai) in Bangkok specializes in keeping, freezing and directing you to treat certain diseases with adult stem cells. As previously noted in the same thread prices are not prohibitive in the 5,000 US $ for most treatments, or to keep you stem cells. Certainly more is to come in stem cells! Observe we are not talking about embryonic stem cells but about ADULT stem cells, similarly to the umbilical cord stem cells of a newborn baby but most of us even if we are reborn in Thailand we have foregone that possibility!

I should add that the latest in statins is that they increase the number of circulating stem cells in our bodies so one reason for their excellent effect is via stem cells!