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/

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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

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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/