Fort Worth Chiropractor: A Balanced Lifestyle Is The Key to Good Health and Longevity
July 14th, 2009 | by admin |Recently I saw an article on sciencedaily.com detailing a study performed on aged mice bred to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and the boost that caffeine gave to improving memory loss. The article lead with the tease that “Coffee drinkers may have another reason to pour that extra cup.” It continued by reporting on back-to-back studies published online July 6 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease that showed that caffeine significantly decreased abnormal levels of the protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease, both in the brains and in the blood of mice that had developed symptoms of the disease.
But, before you decide to add an extra cup of coffee to your morning ritual, let me warn you that also on the website, under “Related Stories,” were a couple of articles about studies that showed the negative effects of caffeine, “Morning Jolt of Caffeine May Mask Serious Sleep Problems,” and “Coffee Consumption Linked To Increased Risk Of Heart Attack For Persons With Certain Gene Variation.”
Nearly every angle of thought, I’ve noticed, particularly when it has to do with age-related health issues, can be corroborated, or at least given credence, by a number of specific studies. The “good/bad” studies related to caffeine certainly aren’t, of course, the only ones. Nonetheless, it did get me to pondering about the reasonableness that there will never be simply “one thing” that will absolutely help we, humans, to live longer, healthier lives. We are dynamic, biological creatures. We are free to engage in life. We’re not confined to a cage! And, furthermore, though Alzheimer’s disease may be on the rise, obviously we, cage-free humans, have not been “singled out to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease,” therefore caffeine isn’t going to be the “one thing” that will reverse or prevent it.
Our body is an exquisite, involved system that is based on homeostasis (balance). It makes sense, then, that good health has more to do with a healthy, balanced attitude towards living, rather than our being briefly convinced by the latest health study and “doing” or “overdoing” one particular thing in the hope that it will reverse all of the other over-indulgent and unwholesome things we have done to our bodies.
As a chiropractor, I believe that every moment of the day we have an opportunity to make healthy choices for our body, to decide what will assist us to live longer, healthier lives. We know what truly “feels” life enriching and what doesn’t when it comes to what is good for our body. So, I just wanted to pass along a little something for you to keep in mind the next time you consider having that extra cup of coffee or second glass of red wine. Neither one of those things is the “one thing” that will do “everything” for your age-related health issues.