Is individual immortality attainable? When can you expect a victory over the main diseases of our time – from cardiovascular diseases and cancer to influenza?
These and a number of other issues are closely related. And in the end, they rest on the question of how to live a long, happy and rich in good and useful life, how to avoid premature aging and violent death?
As soon as a person began to think about his life, as soon as he realized that it was very short, he began to think about how to extend it. Scientists in the distant past expressed thoughts that have now received theoretical justification. Hippocrates believed that a person dies not from chronic ailments, but from a new disease that joined them. Age and chronic ailments, he pointed out, only prepare the soil. A weakened organism is joined by some new, acute disease, and the person with it can no longer cope.
Pathological studies of people living for 100 years or more showed that none of them died of old age. All of them died of diseases. If these diseases could be prevented or cured, then people would live even more.
Of course, aging inevitably is present, and this process occurs not only in old age, but accompanies us during our entire life journey. Scientists have noted many signs of aging that appear even in active age – from 20 to 60 years: a decrease in the total protein content, an increase in cholesterol, replacement of red bone marrow with a yellow bone marrow, a gradual decrease in the spleen, tonsils, lymph nodes, atrophy of the thymus gland, etc. But only after 60 years begin to show signs that gradually turn an adult person into an old man. After 60 years, atrophy occurs, and then the disappearance of functioning cells of the most important organs and their replacement with connective tissue, a decrease in the adaptation (adaptability) of the organism to changes in the external environment; “Safety margin” of mature years begins to be taken.
So, gradually increasing, changes in the body lead to physiological old age, which precedes the natural death. Under normal conditions, these changes last a long time, people do not notice them and remain able to work throughout their life, although its intensity gradually decreases.
The newest data show that old age comes as a result of changes in the whole organism, all its organs, whose activities are regulated by the nervous system. And the longer the normal function of the nervous system persists, the later the aging of the organism occurs. And, conversely, the earlier the nervous system is exhausted, the faster old age comes.
To prevent any disease, to actively combat them, the very condition of a person, his training, training, physical endurance, etc., are very important. It is necessary to be able, from a young age, not to be afraid of difficulties and learn how to overcome them. In the development of many diseases, the person is to blame. If he has not developed immunity, if the body itself does not have the strength and resources to resist, then no medication, no treatment will not help. All medicine is built to awaken the slumbering forces in the body of resistance, to strengthen its struggle with harmful agents. And when the body does not have its own strength to fight, no matter what medicines we use, a person can not get better. And this we have in our practice numerous examples. A person who hopes only for medicine, but does nothing to develop, increase in his body strength to resist, to fight the disease, makes a big mistake, because medicine can not itself cure, it only helps the body. In addition, she treats illnesses, but does not maintain health, which must be protected by the person himself, doing everything necessary to strengthen it. This is called prevention, disease prevention. Medicine has done much and is doing to prevent epidemics, but individual prevention depends on the person himself.
What weakens the body, undermines its strength and contributes to the emergence of diseases? First of all, laziness, the reluctance to make excess movement, the desire to sleep more, lie down, motionless or sedentary lifestyle. Muscles and functioning tissues of a person swim with fat, which, like an inert tissue, is not capable of resistance. The body also lacks purity, non-observance of hygiene rules. In the mud, dust contains a large number of microbes, including those that cause various diseases. These microbes surround a person and always get into his body. But with a small number of such pathogens, a person copes, especially if he has well developed defenses. If the forces are weakened and microbes get very much – the body can not cope, and the person falls ill. And where there is dirt, where there is no hygiene, there are frequent illnesses.
The appearance of the disease contributes to the idle way of life. When a person works hard, he is in a state of stress. His brain, the whole nervous system is mobilized, the resistance forces are also not asleep. Relaxed, lazy man – and all his protective functions also weakened. At this time, unfavorable factors will quickly cause the disease.
Contribute to diseases and all bad habits that poison the body, weaken it, and primarily its protective functions.
To be healthy, one has to take care of oneself. Health is the greatest value. No health – no happiness. Life becomes not only uninteresting, but also often unnecessary. No wonder there is a popular proverb that a healthy beggar is happier than a sick king.
Health rarely comes by itself. For it it is necessary to struggle, it must be extracted, to care for its preservation.
What does it take to be healthy, and how should a person behave in order to maintain health?
Two examples.
Live in one house two friends. Both scientists, they are over seventy. One of them is a physician, agile, lean, alive. Once, slipping on the stairs and rolling on it on his back, he felt a sharp pain in his lower back. Nevertheless he got up and went to bed. The slightest movement of the body caused unbearable pain. He had three transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae broken. Novocain blockades did not help. After lying there for three days, he, despite the most severe pain, got up and with the help of his wife made himself such a bandage that allowed him to walk and sit upright, without bending, with virtually no pain. And since that time he has already started working at his desk. Three months later he took off the bandages and felt no pain.
Another, full, with a solid belly, loves to eat and lie down. Happened to him trouble: got under the car and received a fracture of the humerus. We spent two weeks in the hospital, and then he was discharged home. However, he continued to lie at home. The hand was inactive, he started a congestive pneumonia with a high fever. Doctors began to give antibiotics and engaged in close lungs, leaving the hand without treatment. Another month passed. Pneumonia was cured, the heart began to make itself felt. There were interruptions, swelling on the legs. Have started a course of treatment against heart failure …
Whether he will bring it all out is unknown, but the hand will certainly not be full. And all because of the fullness, because of the stillness. The trauma of the hand was an excuse and justification for lying. Enhanced nutrition increased completeness and immobility, and here the man himself put himself on the brink of disaster. So the wise words of Hippocrates are confirmed in life at every step.
With a negligent attitude toward one’s health, one can quickly expend vital forces, even if the person is in the best social and material conditions. And vice versa. Even with material difficulties, not having much, a reasonable and strong-willed person can save his life and health for a long time. But it is very important that a person cared for longevity from a young age. The proverb “Take care of the honor from the youth” should be supplemented with another: “Take care of your health from the youth”.