Healthy aging. Often you don’t dwell on aging. That will happen naturally, if all goes well. Many people often say they are getting old. I then say, Happy! But, then healthy, so you can enjoy life wonderfully and not stiff, in pain and unhappy.
Right?
Having to spend much of the rest of your life dragging for it, often crouched behind a walker with dementia and Alzheimer’s lurking. Of course, we don’t want that!
And the bizarre thing is…… you usually don’t have to! As long as you know how!
And I always say “what do you want to be called”?
Elderly? That sounds old and worn, or healthy older?
Healthy aging, in other words.
It seems like it’s hype. But in my opinion, isn’t this a normal course of action? Fortunately, for the most part, we can influence this ourselves.
Actually, it is very simple. Live healthy all your life, then there is less risk of (premature) deterioration, or degeneration.
That sounds logical right? But do most people have enough knowledge for this?
In this blog, I talk about healthy aging and how we fail ourselves in various ways.
Excessive medication use
Nowadays, today’s society tries to fix problems with drugs. Drug use among the elderly has increased frighteningly and proper nutrition is still little talked about.
About nutritional supplementation even usually not at all. And all the while you are shocked by the large nutritional deficiencies in the elderly, often additionally caused by many medications.
This large amount of medication in turn robs essential nutrients from the body, resulting in problems getting bigger and even more medication being prescribed, thus causing even more problems.
I always say:
“Our body is not short of drugs, but an excess of toxins (including chemical medications) and short of important nutrients.”
It is important that people regain enough knowledge to stay healthy and fit themselves.
The doctor of the future will no longer give drugs, but will interest his patients in the care of the human body, in nutrition, and in the cause and prevention of disease.
-Thomas Edison 1847 – 1931
High Medication and nutrient deficiencies in the elderly (vitamins and minerals)
In the elderly, you see a lot of major shortages. Consider Vitamin D3 and vitamin B12 deficiency, for example.
Back in 2013, I wrote the following in my book “Core Healthy – Lifestyle as Medicine for Western Diseases.”
A large proportion of the elderly frequently take five or more different types of medications that can adversely affect food intake and nutritional status. This is according to the report of the: RIVM Nutrition in relation to diseases and medication use in the elderly.
You can view this report on the RIVM website. A direct link to the report can also be found in the literature reference (mentioned in my book).
The report is part of a multi-year project investigating whether quality of life and health can be improved by eating healthy food daily. What do you think? As a result, people would potentially use less medication.
Does that really need to be researched, or is that a waste of all the money? Anyway. It’s a useful study, I guess.
The question is what has it accomplished since then? In practice, in my opinion, not so much yet.
Medications and side effects for the elderly.
Medications that the elderly take frequently, including blood pressure reducers and antacids, often have side effects such as dry mouth or nausea.
Many elderly people do not get enough calories or enough nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and fiber. There is evidence that the elderly are deficient in vitamin B2, vitamin B12, vitamin D, calcium, iron and zinc. That image is also true.
These nutritional deficiencies can cause a range of symptoms. Supplementation can often prevent or reduce medication. A recent study shows that:
- Only 18% of people over 65 have an adequate vitamin D status
- Over 70% have a good vitamin B12 status.
These issues affect the elderly who live independently and those who reside in institutions.
Ill or healthy aging?
Getting older and growing old is not a bad thing. That’s part of life. But more and more older people are complaining about their health.
How many people do you know over the age of 60 who are not on medication?
And are they getting better and better?
Rollators and especially mobility scooters make the musculoskeletal system even lazier, sending us into a downward spiral.
Keep moving!
Not moving makes us sick. A mobility scooter even when it is not needed.
For example, I heard from an elderly lady in her 80s, who is a client of mine, that her family wanted her in the mobility scooter because it was convenient. At least then she was getting somewhere…
She suffered from arthritis and osteoarthritis that made it difficult for her to walk. She also has type 2 diabetes. Together we made sure that the inflammation was inhibited, this reduced the pain, allowing her to walk better.
A mobility scooter had ultimately resulted in an early death. After all, she has type 2 diabetes and inflammation. The basis for further deterioration, so not moving would be disastrous.
Now she moves regularly again so her blood glucose sober is better and her pains are gone through exercise, nutrition and orthomolecular and phytotherapy treatment. Her weight has also dropped.
Would she have accomplished this with a mobility scooter?
Your gut plays a big role in healthy aging
What people often don’t often think about is the role of the gut in good health.
“A healthy gut is good health.”
In most cases, the gut plays a major role in the development of many disease states. Examples include MS, rheumatism, Arthritis, ALS, Crohn’s Disease, Colitis Ulcerosa, skin problems (such as Psoriasis, Eczema), Joint complaints.
It is not for nothing that we say “most chronic complaints originate from your gut.”
Medications, such as antacids, metformin, many types of heart medications, cholesterol inhibitors, antibiotics and so on, are destructive to the gut and often cause problems that reduce overall health.
Disturbed stomach and intestines, for example, cause nutrients to be absorbed poorly(er), ultimately causing you bigger problems. Therefore, if there is malabsorption (poor absorption by the intestines), then deficiencies occur.
Many people often say “You are what you eat” … I always say “You are what you take in.” Often people use supplements in addition to many medications, but then when you measure in the blood what is absorbed is virtually nothing.
So it is important to watch what is happening “underwater” and what is being recorded.
Just one little substance can cause things to crash
Yes, but one substance you are deficient in cannot cause so many problems, can it? Hear often. Yes anyway, I then explain. Think of it this way…
Look at a large complex timepiece where you take out the smallest cog. It then suddenly stands still.
Now, our body works more complexly and will try to stay alive and compensate in other ways, but at some point the clockwork (i.e., your body) falters and gets more and more jammed.
You get (many) symptoms, until you replenish the deficiencies and then you often see great improvements depending on how long things have been going on and whether there has been (much) damage.
So the sooner you are there, the better.
Major contributors to complaints.
Known substances that can cause major problems with deficiencies include: Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, Magnesium and important fatty acids such as Omega 3.
Complaints that can be caused by vitamin B12 deficiency include tingling in hands and feet (neurological complaints), depression, fatigue, anemia, balance disorders, memory loss, breathlessness.
Magnesium deficiency often causes symptoms such as muscle cramps, fatigue, palpitations, high blood pressure, dizziness and disturbances in glucose metabolism.
Take charge of your own health and grow old healthy!
Care homes are being increasingly cut back, so I now assist many healthy seniors to live independently for as long as possible.
Many elderly people enter nursing homes because they often already have so many ailments that they can no longer live independently. Unfortunately, however, the living conditions in such an environment are not exactly motivating.
Food is often inadequate and increasingly nutritional deficiencies occur. In particular, vitamin D, B12 and many other nutrients.
Exercise and personal attention is less and less, while in nursing homes in particular there should be extra attention to nutrition and nutritional supplementation tailored to the individual. Preferably at a much earlier stage, the stage you determine!
Healthy aging with your loved ones.
If you are aware of your health in time, you may be able to continue to enjoy yourself in your own familiar surroundings, with the people you love and want to be around for a long time.
This also keeps you young and fit.
After all, no one is made happy by being shunted out and underfunded to get proper care.
So remain the director of your own health for as long as possible, because it is precisely after retirement that you could be enjoying life to the fullest!
Therefore, maintain your body properly so that you can enjoy it as long as possible.
Many complaints arise later in life. I guess it comes with the territory?
Arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatism, Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, heart problems and vascular problems, and, of course, diabetes.
Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
Another thing you don’t want is to lose track of what is going on around you, or to lose track of who your children are. Or where you live. And that you can no longer live independently.
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia. It is certainly not a disease of old age, although we often want to believe it is. It is a brain disease with psychiatric symptoms as parts of the brain stop functioning and die.
There also seem to be direct relationships with diabetes and medication use, as well as chronic nutritional deficiencies.
While I was working on my aforementioned book, a nursing home was built in our area for people with dementia. It was never our aspiration, at the beginning of our lives, to end up demented, was it?
Most cases might have been preventable through lifestyle changes. Brains that die are not healthy brains, but why does that process take place?
Could this be due to the poor nutritional status of aging people?
Essential nutrients ensure a healthy brain.
Essential nutrients keep our brains functioning properly. Think vitamin B12, fish oil, and fat-soluble antioxidants such as alpha lipoic acid and gluthathione all play important roles in protecting tissues and nerves as well as our brains.
Fat-soluble antioxidants can cross the blood-brain barrier to provide protective effects there as well. Water-soluble antioxidants such as vitamin C, for example, cannot.
Well again, for example, in a certain bound form, ascorbyl palmitate. This is a fatty acid ester of ascorbic acid and palmitic acid often used in neuropathic conditions. This one is fat soluble, though.
Supplementation for a healthy brain.
Our brains consist largely of fats, which should be supplemented especially from (oily) fish and fish oil. The so-called omega-3 fatty acids. Important to
Getting enough of this daily. Especially with illness.
Now if we know that B12, fish oil and other important nutrients play a major role in the process of brain metabolism, why don’t we supplement the elderly with these nutrients?
Regularly, it is said that there is no treatment. It is irreversible. True. Deceased tissue cannot be brought back. But perhaps we can stabilize the process, and that would be worthwhile, right?
Often alternative treatments available.
Alzheimer’s, that is, brain breakdown is caused by high oxidative stress. So inhibiting this load can also inhibit the process.
In America, therapy is given with intravenous glutathione by infusion. In the Netherlands, this is also possible.
I tell you this because often even more is possible and known from studies than is known in the mainstream world, which is based on medication. It is therefore more than unfortunate that these possibilities are not being explored further.
Alternatively ‘ these treatments are possible, but you can play the biggest role yourself by working on your health preventively as much as possible.
After all, prevention is always better than cure!
Supplementation in healthy aging
It is always advisable to be well informed and not experiment on your own.
‘Doesn’t help, doesn’t hurt’ certainly doesn’t apply!
Thus, orthomolecular nutritional supplementation may interact with any medication. Many times this is for the better, but it is important to scrutinize this carefully and know what can or cannot be done.
Thus, it is important to have a good overview of any medication and health status so that a personal nutrition and supplementation plan can be created based on that.
With a good and thorough plan and most importantly, your commitment, it is often possible to get off medication in whole or in part, depending on what is going on, the condition and your commitment and faithfulness in following the plan.
Thorough Laboratory Research: measuring = knowing!
It is important to always know what is happening in the intestines and in the blood and what deficiencies there are. We do this with specialized laboratory testing that goes much further than at the doctor’s office or hospital.
We measure nutritional deficiencies and can therefore administer very specifically what is really needed, so that you don’t get a surplus and know exactly where the deficiencies are and just as important: What the status of the intestines is, so that everything is absorbed properly and you don’t put anything in there that simply won’t be absorbed.
Personalized treatment plan at BodySwitch
Practice shows that with everyone, there is often a mix of factors at play. Therefore, the plan will be tailored to your unique situation and focused on addressing the factors causing the symptoms or illness.
With proper nutrition and specialized nutritional supplements, infections are addressed, nutritional deficiencies replenished and inflammation calmed. With this we support the body’s recovery in the best possible way.
You will be guided in this process with a lot of attention to coaching and knowledge transfer, which will enable you to maintain the achieved results even after the course itself.
Our premise is that good treatment has no side effects.
Many patients who come to us use (heavy) medication. In many of our patients, medication is often no longer needed, and you see an increase in quality of life!
About BodySwitch Heemskerk, Frank Jonkers
From my practice BodySwitch Heemskerk I, Frank Jonkers, like to help you to feel better in your body and head and to grow old in a healthy way. I know myself what it is.
At one time I weighed 135 pounds and had incipient diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which is a common complication of this.
Now I am core healthy – which, by the way, is also the title of my book explaining what it takes to live healthier.
Also, based on your problem and desire, I can tailor a step-by-step plan and give advice on what will benefit you and your body.
That roadmap consists of the nutrition that works best for you and targeted nutritional supplementation to get the body’s processes back on track.
In this way, you can slowly feel more energetic and fit again, health problems can gradually diminish, and medication can often be reduced or stopped by mutual agreement and in a responsible manner.
See you in my practice? I wish you very good health!
Want to know more? Then feel free to call Frank Jonkers and see what we can do for you 0251 – 234 000
Or contact.
See you in my practice?
Frank Jonkers
