3 At Home Tests Tell You How Long You Will Live

Most people have a desire to live life to the fullest with a combination of quantity and quality.

This short article presents the findings of five researchers who identified three simple tests you can do at home to measure your possible lifespan.

The medical paper published in the British Medical Journal in 2014 revealed a 13 year study where they took 1,355 men and 1,411 women in 1999 when they were 53 years old and then checked to see who was alive and well 13 years later in 2012.

The following are the three tests that were evaluated:

1. Standing on one leg with your eyes closed for 10 seconds or longer
2. Having a strong grip
3. Being able to stand up and sit back down in a chair many times in a minute.

According to the researchers of this paper, these tests clearly represented tell-tale signs of longevity.

Perform well in all three tests at age 53 or so and you should be healthy and vibrant 13 years later, when you are 66.

Researchers from University College London estimate that a 53 year old who can complete these tests successfully is up to 5 times more likely to be alive and well at 66 than someone who couldn’t complete the tests or who did them poorly.

There were far higher death rates among those who failed to complete the tasks.

Officially the tests are called:

The Chair Test (Standing up and sitting down in a chair 39 times in a minute for a man, and 36 times for a woman)

The balance test (standing on one leg for 10 seconds or longer with eyes closed)

The grip test (ability to apply a pressure of up to 54.5 kg or 120 pounds)

Reference:

Cooper R1, Strand BH, Hardy R, Patel KV, Kuh D.Physical capability in mid-life and survival over 13 years of follow-up: British birth cohort study. BMJ. 2014 Apr 29;348:g2219

Ronald Grisanti D.C., D.A.B.C.O., D.A.C.B.N., MS

Compliments from Functional Medicine University

Not happy with how well you did on the three tests?

Or, generally unhappy with the state of your health?

We Tell Adolescent Girls What’s Going to Happen

So, why don’t we tell 40-year-old women what’s going to happen?

Why is it still taboo to talk about?

Remember puberty? Your reliable young body suddenly got a mind of its own. Crazy things started happening, both physically and mentally. Can you recall the helpless, out-of-control feelings that you had at that time?

Your parents probably gave you a “heads-up” in advance, so you knew (kind of) what to expect. Your friends sooner or later, were going through the same experience. It was scary and awkward, but there was the promise of becoming an adult to look forward to, and you coped with the changes.

Perimenopause is a different experience.

First, no one has likely given you that needed heads-up. Honestly, it would be difficult to do because everyone experiences perimenopause at different ages and in different ways.

Your cycle may suddenly become irregular, your sleep terrible, and your moods frightening. Then everything can go back to normal. Did that really happen?

There are the common symptoms of perimenopause… and then there are YOUR perimenopause symptoms. Everyone experiences this life process somewhat differently.

Health Care System Failure

Most of us look to our doctors for answers to personal health questions. The problem is, you may not see your gynecologist but every three to five years for a Pap screening, during which time you may move well into perimenopause. The other problem is that many perimenopausal symptoms are nonspecific, and your doctor won’t try to treat them anyway.

If you tell your doctor, “My energy is completely unpredictable. I wake up exhausted but then feel OK later in the day. Sometimes. Other days I’m fine. I yelled at my kids for no reason, then broke down in tears.” This is unlikely to elicit a prescription, and if it did, you might not want to take it.

Conventional medicine is usually ineffective at helping you with perimenopause. Leaving you… where?

The Cause

In your late 30’s, your ovaries will begin to rid themselves of their eggs by releasing more and more eggs each month. As you progress into your 40’s, there are fewer follicles available for ovulation.

Perimenopause begins when you have some cycles with no ovulation.

Estrogen and progesterone are your two main sex hormones, and these balance each other. Progesterone is released with ovulation, so fewer ovulations reduces progesterone and causes “estrogen-dominance” in your body. This is the cause of hot flashes, mood swings, vaginal dryness, irregular cycles, poor concentration, and many more perimenopausal symptoms.

As perimenopause continues, there is a gradual decrease in both estrogen and progesterone. The problem is that none of this is predictable or linear. Your hormones rise and fall erratically, creating physical and emotional havoc.

The Way Out

Treating individual perimenopause symptoms is a game of whack-a-mole: you never win.

What is required is a holistic approach to understanding the physiology of the hormone changes taking place, digestion and food reactions, and related organ and gland stress (liver, thyroid, adrenals, etc.).

Correct lab testing is critical, but even more important is for your doctor to know you and follow along with the changes in your body. Seeing your doctor at least monthly, often more frequently, allows her to understand the changes your body is making and the various components of those changes.

An effective doctor functions as a “perimenopause coach.” With this help, you can feel happy, productive, and energetic even as your body continues to change unpredictably.

I hope this helps!

Dr. Melodie Billiot

The Intermittent Fasting Test: Could You Benefit?

• Do you get shaky or irritable if hungry?
• Do you get out of breath climbing stairs?
• Are you fatigued in the afternoons?
• Do you have trouble getting or staying asleep?
• Do you have stiff or painful joints?
• Do you have fluid retention?
• Do your ears ring?

If you have several of these symptoms, intermittent fasting might not be a good thing for you to do. More accurate testing could determine what WOULD work to lose weight. Often this will be a solution to improve your overall health rather than diet and exercise weight loss.

What’s Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting and eating. For example, you might eat only between 8 AM and 6 PM, or you might fast for two full nonconsecutive days a week. There are a lot of variations.

The benefits: The idea is to improve your health by mimicking ancient eating schedules instead of always having food available. Reportedly, you can increase your mental clarity, burn fat and lose weight, feel better overall and improve your health to avoid diseases.

I believe that some people may get substantial benefits from intermittent fasting. I’ve read the research and rationales behind it, and much of it does make sense.

Where I can’t entirely agree is that any diet, food, supplement, or treatment could work for “everyone.” As an example, in my practice, I see mainly severe chronic cases. These people are physically very stressed. They are very toxic and usually have some immune suppression. Intermittent fasting would be about the worst thing that many of these people could do to themselves.

“Testing,” a Weird New Idea?

I can’t think of any single food, supplement, or treatment that would be appropriate for every patient I’ve had in the past year. Well, except for maybe clean water.  Every person is unique in many ways and needs different solutions.

When I make this statement to people, they often ask, “But, how would you be able to tell who would benefit and who would not?” This confusion shows how foreign the concept of TESTING is to most people. If you could accurately test someone to determine what foods, supplements, diets, and treatments would be effective and safe for them—why would anyone make any decisions without testing first?

Medicine’s Failure to Test

When medical doctors treat patients with chronic illness, they test to diagnose but don’t test to determine causes. Not knowing the cause, the doctor must follow a fixed treatment protocol for that diagnosis and often only treat symptoms. The result is often a lessening of the symptoms but no solution to the actual problem. The undiscovered cause of their conditions or diseases may continue to deteriorate their health, and the patient may suffer from chronic health conditions for the rest of their lives.

“One Accurate Measurement is Worth a Thousand Expert Opinions”

—Admiral Grace Hopper

The practice of medicine relies on the doctor’s opinion as the primary method of deciding what is wrong with the patient and what treatment would be effective. This is so true that it’s normal to seek a second opinion to see if you can get more than one doctor to agree on your treatment.

My long experience is that many—maybe most—people are so used to this medical guessing that they’ll shrug and say, “So what’s the problem with opinions?” The problem is that an opinion is really a guess.

Doctors have been practicing this way for so long that we think it’s normal. But what other profession could get away with this approach? Would you need a “second opinion” on the engineering of a bridge or skyscraper or the design of your car? These and almost all other professions rely on accurate measurements and proven methods based on scientific and engineering principles that consistently get results.

Engineers do not guess. Neither do carpenters, chefs, pilots, accountants, or carpet installers.

Professionals are expected to “know their stuff” and get a predictable, effective result. Except for doctors! (Well, and, maybe philosophers, sports bookies, and politicians.)

The Takeaway:

Everyone’s body is different.

Your genetics, damage from illnesses and injuries, the diet you were raised on, your preferences, your environment, available food, your drug history, stress history, personality, and many more variables are all different from other individuals.

So, there is no “universal” diet, food, lifestyle, supplement, drug, or treatment that would get good results for everyone. Far, far from it!

The ability to test any of the above items before recommending them to an individual is not only of critical importance, it is obvious.

Because: the only other option would be to GUESS.