Health Care Reform Or Insurance Reform?

The debate rages on about Health Care Reform. I guess the part that constantly disturbs me the most, is that this debate has nothing at all to do with health care. It is entirely about Insurance Reform and how to get more people being forced to buy more insurance from an already multi-trillion dollar a year industry!

Health Care itself is not even about health care. It is about disease treatment. There is not a single program the government offers, or the insurance companies offer that is in any way concerned with keeping you healthy. They are delighted that the American population is getting fatter and sicker by the day, and paying more and more each year to get medical services, which they need more and more each year. The spiral grows and the insurance companies are laughing all the way to the bank!
Having gone to both veterinary college, and human medical college, I can tell you the one outstanding difference, was the price. Let me give you a few examples: Pet hospitalization overnight: about $20, human $2,000. Pet hysterectomy: about $250, human $25,000 Pet insurance per year: about $100, human $10,000. The list goes on and on with the notable feature being that all human medical costs are 100 times as much, for exactly the same thing!

If you made the price on human medical services the same as they are at a veterinary hospital, the human medical industry and the veterinary medical industry would be exactly the same size: twenty billion dollars a year in revenues. Medicare fraud alone is currently three times as large as the entire veterinary industry, which frankly delivers the most amazing services at the best prices on the planet.

Fifty years ago, a person might carry what was then called "Major Medical Insurance," which was for use if you got really sick and ended up in the hospital. Some people had it, but not very many. Also, fifty years ago, hospitals were mostly owned by Churches and Cities. Now they are all owned by Corporations. Which means they are now only concerned with profits. Your health is a far distant third or fourth concern to these corporations. See if they'll help you for free when you're really sick and can't afford it. The church owned hospitals use to.

The only real answer to this debate is that the government should offer free health care by opening up it's already free locations like the VA hospitals and medicare. If you don't want to buy health insurance, head down to the VA for care. Just like public schools are free, so should some version of medical care be.

It's a fool's game, and the insurance companies are trying to balloon a two trillion dollar a year industry into a ten trillion dollar a year industry. Don't think so? Wait and see what happens.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikelerbooks.com/

www.twitter.com/lifeextensionrx

http://www.thefelinespecialtypractice.blogspot.com/

God's Speech To Adam

"We have made thee neither of heaven nor of earth,
Neither mortal nor immortal,
So that with freedom of choice and with honor,
As though the maker and molder of thyself,
Thou shalt have the power out of thy soul's judgment,
To be reborn into the higher forms, which are divine."
-----God's speech to Adam from Pico Della Mirandola's
Oration On The Dignity of Man-----

I just love this quotation as it speaks so powerfully on your
power to choose and create your own destiny!
Dr. Doug Ikeler www.lifeextensionbooks.net
www.thefelinespecialtypractice.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/lifeextensionrx

Life Extension Page 159

are on a mission you rally your greatest resources and your greatest capabilities. You set the highest standards and lead the way. You exalt and engage every one around you. Your purpose is clear and your goals are exactly defined. This is when you are really living.

With my five Cat Hospitals, we were definitely on a mission. We were more than in business. We were out to prove something and elevate the standards of care for all cats that came into our lives. We weren't shy about it either. We let the world know we were the best and we were ready to show you. Just bring in your kitty and see.

At the level of mission, you really contribute too. We saved thousands of cats from "convenience killing" and found them new homes in our adoption centers versus just putting them to sleep for the convenience of their owners who were moving and couldn't keep their cat. We saved thousands of cat's lives by delivering a higher standard of medical care and through diagnostics to solve problems medically and behaviorally versus just watching the problem and hoping it would solve itself. We really contributed to the betterment of our patients. From fulfilling our mission, we all gained the wealth of an emotional pot of gold that we get to keep for the rest of our lives.

What could you do in your life to live at the level of mission? Do you have a mission? What mission could you take on? What exalted purpose would you like to actualize? Search your heart. We all have something of greatness to contribute. Maybe you have an invention you would like to bring to market. I have known many people with a great idea or invention that they never actualize because five thousand dollars stood in their way. Five thousand dollars is nothing. If you have to, get a part time job at night to save up an extra

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikelerbooks.com/

http://www.thefelinespecialtypractice.blogspot.com/

www.twitter.com/lifeextensionrx

Slow Your Biological Clock

I realize I am the only one selling this message, but the key to longevity is to Slow Your Biological Clock. That is achieved by Slowing Your Metabolism. Even the experts don't get it when the evidence is right in front of their faces.

I heard a fitness lady on television the other day telling viewers to never skip a meal, because that will slow your metabolism. Surprisingly, that's what you want. Weight is ultimately the issue, because if you are overweight, your metabolism runs faster. Your body sees the need to burn off those excess calories and does so by making you hotter and using futile heat cycles to get rid of all that excess energy.

The studies show that even your basal metabolism can be slowed by as much as sixty percent. Using a calculator and doing the same math that you used in high school to calculate which car would get to Chicago fastest, which person do you think would get older faster if they had the faster metabolism? You go it!...Tubby.

Fasting is a method of life extension. Some people in the life extension CR community only eat every other day. Early animal studies too accomplished a fifty percent reduction in food intake by only feeding the animals every other day. I have skipped some meals along the way, but fasting is not my favorite method of caloric restriction. Eating right and counting the calories is.

So the exciting take-home message is you can live decades longer than you ever imagined and the method is here and available today. It's all in my book and it's easy to do.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikelerbooks.com/

http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

www.twitter.com/lifeextensionrx

The Arcuate Fasciculus, Thomas Parr Oldest Man To Live Past 150, and The Emotional Funneling Cure

A little known, but incredibly important structure in the human brain, is the arcuate fasciculus. This is the arching band of neural tract fibers that connects, and integrates, the other areas of the brain. This bundle of nerve fibers allows us to speak about our thoughts, think about what we see, and know how to put it all together. Without it, we would be a lot dumber.

All animals have an arcuate fasciculus, but the human brain has the largest and most invasive form of it. It may actually be the key to our intelligence. Monkeys have a less elaborate version of this neural tract, and dogs and cats have an even less developed form of it too. I guess I bring up the topic today because I continue to wonder why so few people can succeed at dieting. Is it related to their intelligence?

It might be, but I truly believe everyone is capable of dieting successfully and living at ideal weight. The real problem is emotional funneling: The misinterpretation of other emotions as hunger. This is a common problem in our society as all emotions are taught to be suppressed, even from childhood, and we suffer tremendously as a result.

In my book, I teach you how to stop evaluating your emotions incorrectly, and how to express them better and manage them better too. It's a shame we aren't taught the fact early in life that all people wrestle with their emotions, and that they should be expressed in a healthy manner. Who can express anything today, with political correctness and a lawyer waiting to sue you around every corner.

Get my book to learn more and I stand amazed at how many people come to this web site to learn more about Thomas Parr, the first man to live over 150!

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

http://www.thefelinespecialtypractice.blogspot.com/

The Aging Revolution And Ideal Weight

The Aging Revolution is moving us forward at four years of additional life expectancy per decade. This trend is expected to continue until the average lifespan becomes 100 in the year 2050. This is amazing progress considering life expectancy was 45 a hundred years ago, but it is consistent with the four years per decade progress.

It is equally amazing that it wasn't until 1920 that The American Medical Association declared that it felt physicians were generally now doing more good than harm. Before that, it was more harm than good. I still remember, as a child, that people dreadfully feared going to the hospital, because most people that went to the hospital died. Luckily now, we go to the hospital brimming with optimism, and know we are going to get sophisticated, high-tech, medical diagnostics and treatments. We have made a lot of progress in just fifty years.

The one thing you must have though, to be healthy and live long, is a number. That number is your ideal weight. I have seen the best in fitness and health, and those people had an ideal weight number as sacred as their social security number. To live long and avoid the diseases of overweight and aging, you must know your ideal weight number and stick close to it your whole life.

I met a physician one time who was still practicing at 103 years old. She was spry and bright and still contributing medical service on a steady schedule. She had a thumb rule that she only ever ate "vegetables and bit of protein." That was her slogan. It worked really well.

I have also met champions of fitness. They have slogans too, but it was their ideal weight number that was most important to them. They also knew how to calculate it in a second.

It's just this simple: Forget BMI, though that is a good number to know too, and don't get hung up on insurance charts, as they are made by insurance companies to promote their own interests. The way to calculate your ideal weight is this: Take your height, give a hundred pounds for your first five feet and five pounds per inch thereafter. That's all there is to it. If you are five feet, ten inches tall, your ideal weight is 150 pounds. Six feet tall, 160. I am six feet, one and three quarter inches tall, and my ideal weight is 168. I like that number, I look the best at 168, and I stay close to it.

So this is a thumb-rule for success in fitness and in longevity. Remember, you are working to slow your metabolism. High energy foods speed your metabolism. Just give a kid candy and watch him run wildly around. I have even seen fun science project books that show how you can use Oreo cookie filling, the white stuff, to make toy rocket propellant with, because there is so much sugar, fat, and energy in it. I have also read the formula that a single king-sized snickers bar, at 541 calories, has enough energy in it to bring a gallon and a half of water from freezing to boiling! That is a lot of energy, and you use to have two for a snack?

I am also pleased that this website is read around the world. My tracking device shows that "the sun never sets" on my work and I am pleased to share it with everyone. Thank yous go out to the nice people who have sent me great book reviews recently too! Live happy and take time to enjoy life each day.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikelerbooks.com/

http://www.thefelinespecialtypractice.blogspot.com/

Patrick Swayze And Pancreatic Cancer

Patrick Swayze just died of pancreatic cancer. My mother died of it too, years ago. The thing the two of them had in common was they smoked. They both also loved animals. Patrick loved horses, my mother loved cats.

Pancreatic cancer doesn't just happen to good people. You have to work at getting it. If a person smokes cigarettes heavily for years, they are going to get lung cancer or pancreatic cancer. Smoking not only sends tars and ash into the lungs, but also down into the digestive system.

The pancreas is very sensitive to toxins and can become inflamed by gastric reflux, bacterial infection, and the chronic irritation of cigarette smoke and it's carcinogens. It has never ceased to amaze me how a grown person can smoke cigarettes! With all the knowledge now about how it causes cancer and how bad smoking is for you, you would think a light would go on somewhere and the person would stop. Surprisingly, they don't.

My mother was a heavy smoker, and reportedly, Patrick Swayze was too. Three packs of cigarettes a day are going to do harm. If not sooner, then later. My mother even had been in to have small growths removed from her tongue years before she got pancreatic cancer, and that still apparently didn't impress her. Patrick had warning signs as well.

The only up side to my mother dying of pancreatic cancer was that she never heard the diagnosis. She had premonitory signs that lead her doctors to wonder if she may have had a bad vertebral disc, since she had had back problems for years, but it wasn't until I told her to set an appointment to have more aggressive tests done, like an MRI and complete blood panel, that my mother finally got the diagnosis for her spinal discomfort.

Tragically, she slipped into a coma the weekend before her tests were to be done and she never awoke to hear the diagnosis or face her imminent death. I guess that part was not tragic, but salvithic for her to not have to know she was going to die soon. Three weeks after her diagnosis, she passed away.

In our mechanical society we often think of ourselves as somehow repairable, fixable, or strong like a piece of steel. The exact opposite is true. We are made of one hundred trillion tiny cells that are delicate like jelly and can be easily destroyed. Smoking and drinking are horrendous habits. Alcohol denatures your proteins and is a carcinogen too. Denatured proteins do not function well. Neither do cells that are coated in tars and carcinogens. If you smoke or drink, my recommendation is that you stop immediately. There are many methods and groups available to help you. Make the choice and do it today.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

No More Heart Attacks

Heart attacks are the number one killer in America. They can also come with a scary first symptom: sudden death. Many a death is described with the terms, "I don't know what happened, He just dropped dead!"

Heart attacks can be completely eliminated or drastically reduced in our lives. We need to think in terms of our coronary arteries and keeping them clear of fat. Fats store everywhere in our bodies and they like to follow the paths of least resistance. An open artery is a great place with little resistance for fat to accumulate in.

The now common triple bypass and quadruple bypass surgeries are something few people truly need to have done. If you are being told you need a cardiac bypass surgery, get a second opinion with a doctor that knows how to help you get on an ultra low fat diet. In a few weeks, your symptoms will disappear and your need for surgery will too.

Leanness is the secret to longevity. That is why I have a BMI calculator on this web site. The leaner you are the better. 20 is an ideal BMI. If you are below that you are either a model or someone who eats right every day.

Heart disease, cancer, stroke. Those are the three big killers of our day and surprisingly, all three are very preventable! Read more about this topic and learn of the technologies and techniques of real life extension in my book.

Dr. Doug Ikeler www.lifeextensionbooks.net

Linus Pauling, Vitamin C, and Prostate Cancer

Mega doses of Vitamin C are no longer a fad health practice since the passing of two time winning Nobel Laureate, Linus Pauling. Dr. Pauling was a chemist and won his Nobel prizes in chemistry and peace. The Nobel in peace probably took a lot less studying to achieve than did the Nobel in chemistry, which anyone premed can tell you is the dividing line between those who go on to Med School, and those who don't.

Pauling lived to the age of ninety three and finally died from prostate cancer. He touted the benefits of vitamin C and took about twenty grams of it daily himself. Again, that is 20 Grams,

not twenty milligrams, which we know today is more than enough. Pauling also proclaimed that all vitamins are beneficial, and took large doses of the rest of them as well.

Pauling's real secret to longevity though was his practice of eating less. He had a slogan that said to live longer, eat half what you are eating today, take Vitamin C, and make love every day! The vitamin C most likely had a negligible improvement on his overall health. The eating half as much is what really kept him living longer, and the making love every day is what kept him so happy!

His prostate cancer is what finally got him. Prostate cancer occurs in most men as they get older. It's percentage of incidence is comparable to a man's age too. Sixty percent of men in their sixties have the presence of prostate cancer cells in their prostates. Eighty percent of men in their eighties have prostate cancer cells. At ninety three, Linus Pauling fell into the percentage of men that are ninety percent likely to have cancer cells in their prostates.

The good news for men is that the presence of these cancer cells does not necessarily mean they are going to die of prostate cancer. The cell changes are limited and do not spread radically. Sometimes they do, but most often they just create a slight hypertrophy of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the number one cancer that kills men. It's death rate is analogous to breast cancer in women.

Remember, you can reduce your incidence of all cancers by 95% by eating a low fat, low calorie diet. That sounds hard, but it is actually easy. Eating right is a skill and all you need to give it is a little practice.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/ http://www.drdougikeler.com/

http://www.thefelinespecialtypractice.blogspot.com/

Celebrating My 100th Post

This is my 100th post on this blog site and I have to say it is an on going delightful experience! I am fascinated by the people who read my blog from around the globe. England, Germany, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Israel, South Africa, and Russia are a few of the places I have tracked visitors from.

My on going goals are to bring everyone the latest and most fun and interesting information on life extension technologies and techniques. I am also committed to being brutally honest about pills and snake oil products that claim life extension properties, but are more than likely bunk. Resveratrol is the latest of these products and I completely doubt it has any effect on making you live longer.

I want to note the passing this year of Dr. Roy Walford of http://www.walford.com/ who died at age 79 of ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease, and did not have a chance to realize his life extension goals of living well over one hundred. He, along with Dr. Clive McCay of Cornell University, produced the quantified data that showed life can be extended in all animal species by fifty to sixty percent through a caloric restriction with optimal nutrition diet. We honor all the contributions made by Dr. Walford.

Even as a college student, when I was living at Wilshire Animal Hospital and working for Dr. Ian Coster, I was practicing the CRON diet, which I started at age twenty. I have slowed my metabolism, and it's effects over the past thirty years have been dramatic. I feel sorry for my contemporaries as they are already seeing the deleterious effects of a lifetime of overeating and drinking alcohol and smoking. All they can do from here is try to slow these processes down.

Here's to the next One Hundred Posts on my blog! During that time I will be downloading more of my first life extension book, in reverse order, so it can be read entirely from this blog, and I will be soon publishing my next book, Life Extension II, to bring further depth and detail to this exciting technology of how to live dramatically longer!

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

http://www.thefelinespecialtypractice.blogspot.com/

How To Prevent Getting Cancer

Cancer literally means "crab." The name was used by the early Greeks because they noticed "legs" growing out of tumors. Cancers spread by growing radially outward and sending shoots of new growth along paths of least resistance through blood vessels and between other tissues.
Benign tumors are abnormal over growths of cells too, but they are usually contained and even often encapsulated in their own fibrous pouch. A benign tumor is easily removed, sometimes by even just sliding your hand around it and ligating off the blood vessels that supply it. Cancers are not easily removed and even with wide margin excision, unseen streams of cancer cells can be trailing off very far from the central mass.
Our immune system fights off cancer cells constantly, and it is estimated we generate about five cancer cells each year. With a properly functioning immune system though, you easily kill off these cells and they live a short life. About ten percent of all cancers spontaneously remit. That means the immune system suddenly fires up to peak performance and kills off all of even the worst cancer cells and tumors. Sometimes tumors even just drop off a person, depending on their location.
With a ten percent spontaneous remission rate, the association of miracles is made. Miracle drugs, miracle foods, miracles from above. I have seen many of these touted miracles, like laetrile when I was younger, and even yucca tree sap, now that I am older, and none of them work. It was just a coincidence that a person was taking that remedy, like shark cartilage, when they were lucky enough to spontaneously remit.
Real cancer prevention comes from caloric restriction with optimal nutrition. The over growth of cells in a body is mostly caused by too much energy in the system. Insulin-like growth hormones are an example. So called "oncogenes" otherwise known as cancer genes are usually just normal growth genes reactivated by the tidal flow of too much caloric energy being pumped into a body's system. Studies in animals and people have shown that even with the "genes" for cancer being present, the animal or person does not get the cancer on a calorie restricted diet. And this result comes with a 95% reduction in all cancers for animals or people who are calorie restricted. Those results are enough to impress me. So I have chosen to live this life style of eating right. It's a lot easier than you think. You just need to know the techniques! They are all in my book. Buy it today, share it with a friend, and prevent getting cancer which is a horrible and preventable disease.
Dr. Doug Ikeler www.ikelerbooks.com

Life Extension Page 160

one hundred dollars per week. In a year you'll have that five thousand dollars.

What mission would you want? Let your imagination run wild for a while. What great endeavor would you undertake if you had no limitations? Would you be the first person to set foot on Mars? Would you convince NASA to build a hundred mile wide radio telescope out in space to search for extraterrestrial life and intelligence? Would you convince Congress to fund it? Would you act in a movie that sends you to stardom because you moved our very souls in a drama of the human experience? Would you end world hunger? Would you cure cancer? Just by spreading the word of this book, you can prevent many of your friends and family from getting cancer. It is a medical fact that calorie restriction reduces the incidence of all cancers dramatically!

These are the questions you must ask yourself as you take on this longer life. You're going to have a lot of time on your hands. You'll be entering a new age of fulfillment too. I personally have a hundred years planned. I hope my dietary formula takes me to 125, or even to 150, but I know I will easily make it to 100. At age fifty one today, I'm mapping out all the things I want to do for the next fifty years. I plan on working in human medicine for the next twenty five years. I hope to contribute great advances in life extension as well as produce treatments for some of the neurological diseases like MS (Multiple Sclerosis) and ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease).

This will be my second medical career after the rich and full medical career I have already had in veterinary medicine. You too, can take on whole other careers and fulfill the dreams of your life. If we all lived 120 to 150 years, you could have four to five complete careers. Think of the possibilities!

I met a physician years ago who was still practicing at 102

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikelerbooks.com/

Are Hot Dogs Good For You?

It depends on the type of hot dogs you are talking about! These two in the picture would be good for anyone!

My father told me that when he was a kid and hot dogs entered the food market, they were touted as the ultimate in nutrition! Imagine that, as they fall easily into the class of food we call "junk food" nowadays. They are composed of ground up, usually non-choice pieces of meat, and lots of fat and other fillers. So are they good for you? Let's just say there are better food choices, but if you want a hot dog once in a while, have one. Just add it into your calorie count for the day. That's the way I do it.

The real concern regarding life extension though, is the quantity of how much food you eat. Even if you eat nothing but the highest quality foods, too much of them are still bad for you, and eating too much of them is easily achieved. I saw a woman on a weight loss program that ate a bag of apples for a snack. She thought they were healthy, so "Hey, the more, the merrier, right."

Well, not exactly. The more the worse. A good thumb rule is only ever have one of anything a time. One apple, one sandwich, one drink. That's more than enough.

Real Life Extension is achieved through caloric restriction with optimal nutrition. Optimal nutrition is the easy part, just pick good foods. Caloric restriction is easy too and is the "How To"

subject of my book.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.drdougikeler.com/

Life Extension Page 161

years old. She said the secret is all diet. She said she only ate "vegetables and a bit of protein" at every meal. She was an amazing woman, and she was right on track.

Higher education makes life very interesting. After my years in human medicine, I plan on getting a third doctorate degree in either astronomy or psychology. I'll see how I feel about it when I reach age seventy-five. Studies at the doctorate level are the most fascinating because they take you to the frontiers of knowledge in that area. Some unknowns still amaze me. Do you know that no one really knows how anesthetics work? They work well, but the mechanisms of action have never been elucidated. There are still massive unknowns in how our brains work. Neuroscience is an open field of discoveries waiting to happen. The greatest unknown is the universe itself. What if we could understand how it started? What if we knew how it will end? Don't worry though, the universe is predicted to exist in it's present form for a trillion years. That's nine hundred and eighty-five billion years to go!

We've then talked about healthy, both mentally and physically, now let's talk about wealthy, both mentally and physically. How do we enrich our lives? With a hundred years to go, what else brings us the joys and pleasures we all desire? I think travel is essential to understanding our world and putting our lives in perspective. Where have you travelled to so far? Where would you like to travel to? What would be your dream vacation? Why don't you make a plan to make it happen?

Travel brings reality to the myths you may be harboring in your mind. I thought the French were going to be rude and brutal. They were not. They are polite, helpful, fun, interesting, and very friendly people. My whole preconception of France changed after I traveled there. The Eiffel Tower is real-

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

Also you can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/LifeExtensionRx

Dieting Success And The BiModal Mind

Ever wonder why diets come with a 97% failure rate? Here's the answer: You have two halves to your brain! The logic centers, on the left, get it all perfectly. Eat right, exercise, maintain optimal weight. It's all so simple! For the left brain anyway. The right brain doesn't get it and even inverts or reverses the comprehension of the diet plan you are trying to complete. So you are left in a state of self-conflict that gives everyone that uncomfortable feeling when they are trying to diet. That state of anxiety is why most people quit dieting within two weeks of starting. Fascinating, huh?
The right brain, that is your right cerebral cortex, functions on a completely non-verbal level and it is often times called "unconscious" because it is mute, in the traditional language skills sense, at least. The right brain though, actually does speak, but in images, and often times this is the key to dieting success. The right brain also does not understand negatives. So you have to be extremely careful with your internal self-talk. Saying to yourself, "I don't want to be fat," says to your right brain, "I .... want to be fat." Scarey, isn't it?
The right brain also does not understand english, but messages are loosely translated as they go occasionally across your corpus callosum, the thin layer of connecting neural fibers that attach the left cerebral cortex to the right. The messages get misunderstood frequently because the left brain loves negatives, double negatives, and saying the opposite of what you really mean. New compliments in our society include, "that's sick, that's bad, and are you kidding me?" which are all negatives, reversed, and very confusing to your right brain.
So you have to learn dieting in images as well as in english. I have met many an obese person who can tell you exactly how to diet and how to be very successful at it. So why are they still obese? They are in constant conflict with their right brain and struggle and fail with the dieting process. Oprah Winfrey and Kirsty Alley are classic examples. They both can give expert advice on dieting, but are both very overweight. Kirsty has even been up to 228 pounds.
So what is the solution? First always speak to yourself in positive supportive words like, "This plan allows me to eat healthy and feel good," and "I like the steps I've taken to look and feel better, and yesterday I ate just perfectly." Sounds simplistic, but these phrases your right brain can understand clearly. Also, think in images. My favorite is the picture of the funnel. Emotional funneling is why most people overeat. Picture all your feelings of stress, boredom, anxiety, loneliness, and depression being funnelled into one emotion: Hunger! That's the problem. People think they are hungry because they are mislabeling their other emotions into the one they know how to manage; hunger, with food!
So use this new picture in your mind. Think of Arrows that go straight to their answer:
Tired=====>>>>>lay down and rest. Bored=====>>>>>Find something interesting to do. Lonely======>>>>>Call a family member or friend. This new image is already speaking to your right brain. It's already working for you! And when you stop funnelling > your emotions into one, you will become an extraordinary dieting success! Get the rest of the details from my book at: http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/
Dr. Doug Ikeler

Life Extension Page 162

ly high up too. It gave me the creeps as I went higher and higher to the top with the girders narrowing in on me. I had to keep walking around at the top of it because if I stopped I could feel it moving and swaying a little, which at one thousand feet up, is very unnerving.

South Africa is a peaceful country, unlike the way it is depicted in the news media. My preconception was that we would have to dodge bullets as soon as we left the airplane and entered a race riot that would surely encompass the airport. You probably have to look hard to find racial conflict in South Africa. What I saw was two races living happily together, enjoying the beauty of the land and the riches of it's resources. The lions surprised me too. One afternoon, we went to a lion preserve and after we had toured it's open spaces and come back and held the lion cubs, I walked to where the buses were parked. Our bus was beside a large fenced-in field with a group of lions in it. I sat down by the fence to relax and wait for our tour group to return. The lions saw me and got up and strolled over and sat down right beside me and waited with me as the afternoon sun was setting.

We communed on a primitive level, but we understood each other and engaged in a nonverbal communication of greeting, interest, and appreciation for the joy of each other's company. My wife at that time was enchanted by the majesty of those creatures. I told her they are our cousins and we share a common ancestor from millions of years ago. Our relatives, but now of a very different race. They carried with them a nobility that we all should aspire to.

Egypt gave me a sense of all that can be lost. Seven thousand years ago it was the greatest nation on earth. There is far more than the three pyramids in Giza you always see. There

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

Are You Full Of Foam Cells?

Key cells in our immune system are called macrophages. Translated literally to "Big Eaters," these macrophages have lives of their own and go where they want and do what they please. In fact, twenty percent of all our cells are mobile are direct themselves to where they are going and what they are doing. Macrophages though are huge and can gobble up dead cells and debris anywhere in your body. They are key to the healing process and key to clearing up infections. I have seen micro-movies showing macrophages each taking in dozens of bacteria per second.
Macrophages though like fat, and if it is readily available, they will go and fill themselves up on it and then hide in sequestered areas of the body. Once full of fat, these macrophages appear foamy or bubbly inside, thus the name "foam cells." Sometimes even creating hidden areas like the plaques in your blood vessels that are called atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Once they hide in a plaque, they change and they no longer are fighters for the immune system. They now are a problem to the immune system.
So how do you prevent your macrophages from becoming foam cells? Eat a very low fat diet. A diet composed of ten percent fat or less will actually even reverse the accumulation of atheriosclerotic plaques in your arteries. You don't need to have cardiac bypass surgery. You can reverse heart disease with diet alone. Making dietary choices has never been easier than it is today. The fat content of almost all foods is right on the label of the food you buy. So look for foods that are ten percent fat content or less, like the skim milk I buy, which has zero calories from fat. The raspberries I buy are zero percent fat too. It's just that simple. If a food is more than twenty percent fat by total calories, then try to avoid it.
A fatty meal will actually even cloud your blood for many hours with milky white fat. This fat will even stick to the walls of a blood tube and distort your blood results. That's why your doctor has you fast before doing a blood test. Keeping fat globules out of your blood stream is easy and it will keep you from getting heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and all the other most common diseases causing death today.
Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

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are hundreds of pyramids. And temples the size of small cities. Math and science started there. Medicine started there. The riches of the Pharaohs dwarfed by far any riches of today's billionaires. But now, Egypt is a third-world country, barely able to supply water and electricity to it's people. What happened? Was their downfall inevitable? Maybe. History has shown that no great nation dominates the world for more than four hundred years. And strangely, four hundred years is the cycle. It made me wonder if the United States is on the decline side of the curve of our peak in the sixties when we accomplished the impossible and put astronauts on the moon. That was certainly our peak. What have we done since? What will we do in the future?

We should have gone on to Mars and established a moon base and Mars colony. We should have large telescopes on the dark side of the moon where our view of the universe would be incredible. We should have created a compelling future for America, the likes of which would still be inspiring and engaging us today.

Wealthy is the second state of being you want to achieve in life. Wealth is more than money. It's how you feel about yourself. Do you feel rich? Do you have all you want? Do you have all you need? Do you want more? Isn't it amazing how one single object, the dollar bill, can be the center of our lives?

My observations of life, from having worked so long with people and animals, is that all of life comes down to just three things: Eat, survive, and reproduce. You can reduce these three things down to one, survival, if you like, because that word alone covers everything else. You eat to survive and reproduce to survive too. But just as we can reduce all of life to one word and one function, surviving, we can expand all of

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

Resveratrol and The French Paradox

Resveratrol is the new snake oil in the world of life extension. It came out of the studies from France that are known as The French Paradox. So here's the thinking that generated this new highly hyped, but still unproven, elixir of life for living longer no matter what else you do to yourself.
The French people live statistically longer than the populations of most other developed countries. The French are also known for their red wine. Even Jeanne Calment, a French woman who lived to 122 years old, loved the French red wine. She also loved chocolates, but that's another story. So putting two and two together, it must be the red wine that is making the French people live longer, right? Maybe, but I am doubtful the red wine has anything to do with the French people living longer.
They are probably living longer "In Spite Of" drinking red wine, which is my own personal theory. Having travelled to France several times and truly enjoying each of my trips there, I did notice the one thing that most likely is why the French people live longer than most. They Eat Less! French meals are small and you almost feel ripped off after paying fifty dollars for a meal that could fit on a teacup saucer. France though is the only country I have travelled to, among thirty others, that does eat right. Amazing for this to be their national standard.
The French Paradox is also exaggerated by the curiosity that the French like to eat cheese with their red wine. They also like fatty meats and butter on everything. Still the answer here is that they don't eat much of these cheeses, meats, and butter. Their portions are very small. I even clearly recall a three dollar ice cream cone I had that had three scoops of ice cream on the cone that were each the size of a marble. Not very satisfying for the price.
So this resveratrol will most likely fall to the wayside just like Vitamin C did after Linus Pauling was done hyping it. Because that's all it was, just hype. The skins of red grapes are probably not bad for you, but eating too much of them probably will be.
So the French Paradox comes with a lesson learned. Eat less. Eat right. And you will live longer. Eat resveratrol and overeat and drink heavily and you surely won't live longer. It fascinates me still how even great scientists can get so distracted over the prospect of selling some new extract that they ignore the real scientific evidence right in front of their eyes. Life Extension is currently only achieved through Caloric Restriction with Optimal Nutrition. These are known, proven, and even quantified life extending effects. Calorie restriction slows your basal metabolism. That's how you and all the other animal species this has been tested on live longer. It's easy to do and you can learn how in the pages of my book.
Dr. Doug Ikeler www.lifeextensionbooks.net

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life to a million words and millions of functions, like contemplating, traveling, studying, choosing, engaging, analyzing, loving, and striving to name a few.

From eat, survive, and reproduce, we can see how our whole lives revolve around their equivalents of food, money, and sex. Money is so important to us because it truly represents our survival. In our modern world it is hard to survive without any money. With a lot of money, you can more than survive, you can thrive. With more money you can have more food, more shelter in the form of a bigger house, and more sex because money is an attractive feature for anyone, ugly or handsome. The ultimate survival guarantee is a fortune. That's why people play the lotteries. If you won a hundred million dollars, you know you could spend a million dollars a year for a hundred years. You would have all your wants and needs fulfilled. Money is the ultimate tool for survival.

With money being so important in our lives, though, isn't it strange that "the best things in life are free?" When you're with the love of your life, is this something you can purchase? I met the love of my life when I was a poor student completing my pre-veterinary courses at UCLA. I lived in the back apartment at Wilshire Animal Hospital in California. I had very little money to work with so I used my creativity to make a romantic evening. For about a dollar, I would cook a dinner to be eaten by candlelight at my vet hospital apartment and then take my sweetheart to the beach for an evening stroll along the shore. I would point out the stars, constellations, and planets and talk about the wonders of the universe. These were the most romantic evenings we could remember. Other women I've told about these evenings, too, said they wish they could have had such romance in their lives.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikelerbooks.com/

"The First Wealth Is Health," Ralph Waldo Emerson

Having grown up in New Hampshire, I had the benefit of that "Live Free Or Die" New England independent thinking to shape my childhood. I also had the good fortune to be exposed to great books by Ralph Waldo Emerson and his buddy Henry David Thoreau. These men weren't afraid to think differently and express their ideas to the public. Luckily they weren't inhibited by political correctness and the associated law suits that come with today's attempts to express something other than the media-confined, perfectly-phrased, sound-bite niceties that limit us to a very narrow modern existence. Can a person even get angry any longer? What about raising your voice? Nope, those two behaviors will bring you charges for sure.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, like Benjamin Franklin, knew even in their times, that being healthy was far preferable to being ill. Isn't it amazing that more illness exists today than did a hundred years ago? We live longer now, but do we live healthier? Obesity was a rarity in Emerson's day. People worked too hard to get fat. And there was not the leisure activities that fill our days, and our years with 3568 hours of media entertainment. Back then, a good book was as far as the entertainment went on a day to day level. Medical science intervenes to keep us alive today, but a century ago, people were generally healthier.
I enjoyed the family photo albums of my grandparents and relatives that I had from a century ago. You could see in the photos what filled their daily lives. They had picnics and read books and socialized with friends and family. Today we seek solitude. When was the last time you went on a picnic? What was the name of the last book you read? How often do you have parties at your house each year? In our modern lives, most people will answer, "never", "don't recall", and "we don't", to the previous questions.
So, our new definition of personal peace is that of solitude, and not finding peace within ourselves and amongst our community. A new state of loneliness has emerged where the television is more of a companion than your spouse. I have married friends who tell me the biggest problem in their marriage is that they feel lonely all the time. How can you be lonely when you're married? We have gained so much with our modern technologies, yet we have lost a little more of what makes life great.
Some things never change though. The first wealth is still health, and I imagine it always will be.
Dr. Doug Ikeler www.lifeextensionbooks.net

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Our least romantic evenings were when we would go to an expensive restaurant, wait two hours for a table, have a cranky waiter, and spend a hundred dollars for the hassle of being there. In Southern California I rarely enjoyed myself going out to eat. The restaurants were so busy and they didn't care if they were nice to you or not.

The joy of seeing your child born has to be the very best thing in life! Does making a baby cost anything? Does hearing her first laugh cost you a dime? Does hugging and holding your child cost money? Our lives are so full of the most wonderful things. You can live richly and happily with very little money at all.

So why do we pursue riches so vehemently? Why do people even kill for money? I think it comes back to our basic survival instinct of "kill or be killed." People think they will not survive without that money. In actuality they will, and they would be far better off just getting a job and learning higher skills to make more money in time.

I think the most important thing to do with your money is enjoy it. You should take a portion of each paycheck, decide on a figure, say five or ten percent, and do with that money whatever you want. Buy some new clothes, put it in a savings account for a trip you want to take, get an ice cream cone. The key being you should consciously spend your money on what you want. You earned it, and this reminds you that working is not just to pay your lousy bills, but to make your life great.

I have always thought how you make your money is important, too. If you make a lot of money but you hate your job, then your life is not better. There are empty jobs. Making money on the stock market or by turning over (flipping) houses is a way to earn a living, but is it rewarding? Do you

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikelerbooks.com/

Thomas Parr Oldest Man To Live Past 150

I am writing a second article about Thomas Parr because there is exceptional interest about him on the internet. For my own search results, Thomas Parr is number one for this blogspot. It goes to show people are interested in his life and in the possibility of living to 150 years of age.
Thomas Parr, otherwise known as "Old Parr" in England, is buried in Westminster Abbey and his tombstone claims he lived to 152 years old. Born the son of a farmer in Winnington, Shropshire, England, Thomas Parr lived a quiet life that allegedly began in 1483. He died in 1635 and was given the honorable place of burial in Westminster Abbey Church by King Charles the First. Back then, people were actually buried inside the churches to guarantee their ascension to heaven and eliminate the possibility of their being sent to hell. He was said to have married late in life and even had children after he was one hundred years old. Controversy surrounds The Thomas Parr 152 year life span, but he was interred by the King of England, and even back then, they had reliable records.
Modern science confirms we are built to live 150 years. The only known and proven method for getting there is by Caloric Restriction with Optimal Nutrition. It was said that Thomas Parr was a vegetarian and lived a simple farming life until he moved to the city late in life and was debilitated by the "change of air" that the city life brought him. The next oldest person is Jeanne Calment of France who, with accurate records, lived to 122. She loved red wine, chocolates, and bicycling. She was also independently wealthy after the passing of her rich husband.
Old Parr's autopsy focused heavily on his genitals with remarks that they appeared to be in good working condition and showed no signs of deterioration due to his advanced age. Whether or not Thomas Parr actually lived 152 years will never be proven or dis-proven. We can only acknowledge that he is recorded to have lived that long in one of England's most prestigious burial places. Autopsy results were of a cursory nature in the sixteen hundreds too, as medical science was still doing more harm than good. It wasn't until 1920 that the AMA, The American Medical Association, itself stated that it felt medical doctors had reached a point in there practice of medicine where they were as a whole doing more good than harm.
We have had less than a century to use this medical knowledge to improve our lives. But improve them we can, and we can go on to break Thomas Parr's record of longevity. There are people alive today, born in the twentieth century who will live well into the twenty second century. Learn more about this technology and technique in my book on Life Extension at
Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

Recommended Daily Allowances. Do you need them every day?

One of the great servants of the food industries' productive process is The Recommended Daily Allowances of certain vitamins and minerals. Do you really need your RDA of vitamin C or Calcium or Vitamin D? What happens if you don't get them? Well nothing actually, because you don't need your RDAs of every vitamin every day. The Recommended Daily Allowances of vitamins and minerals is based on deficiency syndromes that only occur after very prolonged deficiency of a vitamin. The one most people are familiar with is scurvy and it occurs if you go over a month and a half with no vitamin C at all.

All the RDAs are based on the concept that if you are getting your RDAs every day, then you can go forty five days without that vitamin or mineral and not get the disease. You won't get the disease either if you're getting a little of the vitamin along the way too. Just like the British Navy discovered when they started adding a little lime juice to their sailors diet on long voyages.

So without this pressure to eat everything you can every day to get your RDAs in, you may discover that dieting is a lot more easy. You are awash in nutrients. I wouldn't worry about ever getting a deficiency disease. Especially if you eat a variety of foods. The last recent case of scurvy was reported on a woman in England who ate nothing but peanut butter sandwiches and milk. She ate what is called a mono-diet and did eventually get scurvy. Few people eat the exact same things every day, so again deficiencies would be hard to produce.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

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come away a better person because you bought a house lost in foreclosure by some unfortunate family and resell it for a twenty-two thousand dollar profit? What if you had instead helped the people to keep their house and refinance it into a better loan so they wouldn't have lost it in foreclosure?

When I chose to become a veterinarian, at age ten, I couldn't think of a better way to earn a living and do so much good on a day-to-day basis. I still feel that way, but I have chosen to change professions and work in human health care because I see a world full of agony. Misery seems to be the norm for the average person in our world. Happiness should be the norm. With all I know about human and animal medicine and behavior, I could no longer sit back and watch people suffer because, in turn, they are the ones who make animals suffer.

People are eating more. A lot more than they used to. This translates into a lot more animal suffering as the meat industry slaughters more animals for people to eat. The average person should be eating half what they are eating today. They would be far healthier if they did. Overeating is the scourge of our modern world. Is this the future we've always wanted?

The take home message on money then is how much do you want to earn and how do you want to make it? The wealth you want is determined by your mind and your will. Riches are a mixed bag of good and bad. I have also seen that when the good goes up, the bad goes up as well. I enjoyed life fully and travelled around the world when I was just a poor college student. I have also enjoyed life fully and traveled around the world as a rich five-hospital-owner veterinarian. You could then ask, "When was life better?" I would say when I was a poor student.

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

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When my ex-wife and I use to travel the world together, it was almost not worth going. We would have to do a mountain of work to get everything ready for us to be gone two weeks. Then, when we got back from our vacation, everyone and everything would be busting loose, and we would end up having to hire and fire more people and undo the two weeks of disaster that occurred while we were gone. Our home phone would typically have about nineteen emergency call-me-as-soon-as-you-walk-in-the-door panic calls that would completely neutralize any relaxation that might have occurred on the trip.

When I was a college student I had no debts or mortgages to worry about either. After a trip overseas, I would have time to reminisce on the experience and how it broadened my horizons and changed my perspective on the world. With my vet hospitals, I would return to a pile of bills to be paid, and the stress of getting caught up again. So, wealth comes with a price. It was a price I chose to pay, but I do look back on it differently now. If you want to be wealthy, I say go for it. If you chose to live modestly, that is an equally wise choice. My advice to everyone about money is: "Earn more than you need and spend less than you earn." This is a formula you can never go wrong with.

As I write these last few pages for you, I feel the sadness of a departure. We have had a wondrous voyage together. We have shared a great secret and yet an amazing fact of life. You are built to last 150 years. This is a fact. How you spend those years is up to you. If you eat twice as much, you will age twice as fast, and only live to sixty or seventy. If you drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes, you will shorten your life even further. My mother only lived to sixty years old. She showed me pre-

Dr. Doug Ikeler www.lifeextensionbooks.net

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cisely what happens to you if you smoke cigarettes constantly and overeat every day. If she hadn't smoked at all and had eaten only 1200 calories per day, my mother would be alive and well today. She would be able to enjoy seeing my triplets and my older daughter, Ariel. She could enjoy staying in the castle I live in, as my father recently has. So much was lost in her life by two bad habits. It saddens me still.

So the third thing you want to be in life is wise. Again, healthy, wealthy, and wise. As I said before, I have never met anyone yet I consider to be wise. I am still waiting. Perhaps wisdom has gone away. Who has time to be wise when we are bombarded every year with 3,568 hours of media stimulation? How many people do you know who ponder their lives and philosophize about being? Who do you know who reads and studies great works of literature and takes time to think about and know the universe?

A real change for the worse has been cell phone technology. Now people never have a thought of their own. It never ceased to amaze me how many people would stand talking on their cell phones right in the middle of my office visits with them, while I was evaluating their cat. I always regarded a person yelling into their cell phone during a doctor's visit as nothing short of rude and inconsiderate. No one ever has to think again, too, as cell phones can show you movies, connect you to the internet, and let people call you wherever you are! It is a continuous mode stimulus-response device. Perfect for the unconscious automatons.

My hope is that people of intelligence on this earth will turn off the technology for five minutes and put forth their better efforts. That they see past the inane chatter of the moment and search for higher thoughts. Our patterns of

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

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thought have no ceiling. We can evolve higher and higher thoughts onto infinity. Look how far along we have come in just two thousand years! Man's greatest thoughts for transportation in the year 50 BC was a horse-drawn carriage. Compare those thoughts to the ideas of men who envisioned supersonic aircraft and rocket ships that took us into outer space. It seems we're lacking a long range plan, too. What is the destiny of America? What is the destiny of mankind? Our future is our thought. Will we cling to the misinformation of the past or embrace the thinking of a future that will embolden us all?

I want to say goodbye for now with a metaphor that we shared will all our clients who lost their pets. Life has many sad moments. For me, saying goodbye is always sad. As I said before though, to live well you must grieve well. Let your feelings out. Remember, this whole book is about your feelings. You are not hungry. You are just confusing your feelings of sadness, loneliness, and discomfort with hunger. Don't stuff your feelings down with food. Let your feelings out and appreciate what they are telling you. I look forward to one day meeting you personally, so that we can be together again....

"Just this side of Heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all our special friends, so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water, and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

July 20, 2009 Celebrating 40th Anniversary of Man Landing On The Moon

When I was a boy in the sixties, the future was bright and technology had all the answers. How far have we come in these past forty years since Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon? Living longer is now a very real option through medical advancements and dietary techniques. Get on board for living dramatically longer with my book on Life Extension!

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.com/

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maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing, they miss someone very special to them whom they had to leave behind.
They run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks away into the distance. The bright eyes are intent, the eager body quivers. Suddenly, one breaks from the group, flying over the green grass, faster and faster. You have been spotted and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face, your hands caress the beloved head, and you look once more into those trusting eyes, so long gone from your life, but never once absent from your heart.
Then you cross The Rainbow Bridge together...."
Dr. Doug Ikeler www.lifeextensionbooks.net

The Emotional Funneling Cure

Dieting is so unsuccessful in most people because of a little known phenomenon called Emotional Funneling. This is the misperception in a person that makes them think they are hungry, when actually they are stressed, bored, anxious, tired, annoyed, lonely, or any of a myriad of other emotions. They funnel all their emotions into one: Hunger. The reality though is that most people never, or rarely, ever experience hunger. We eat so often and so much, that true hunger is essentially unknown in American society. Real hunger can be primarily detected by your stomach growling. Even then, you may not be actually hungry. It may be just your stomach reacting to it's daily cycle response of expecting food at a certain time of day.
The cure for emotional funneling is to remove the funnel and see straight lines to the end state you are trying to consciously or unconsciously achieve. If you are tired, lay down and relax. If you are bored, find something interesting to do. If you are lonely, call a friend or family member. The key is to feel your feelings and identify your real emotion and state, versus just letting your discomfort be funneled once again into the thought that you are hungry, because you're not!
Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.lifeextensionbooks.net/

Life Extension Concepts Catching On!

I am pleased to see that the general concensus about Life Extension Technologies is catching on! I even saw recent media information about Slowing Your Metabolism to live longer. That is the very thesis of my book! So share this information with your friends, because we live in a new era. This is the twenty first century! We can chose how long we want to live. Lives over a hundred years are now the new norm.
Dr. Doug Ikeler www.lifeextensionbooks.net