This video discusses how lifestyle choices, like those observed in "Blue Zones" and promoted by Dr. Dean Ornish, can reverse and prevent chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's. The speaker emphasizes that diet, exercise, social connections, stress reduction, and a sense of purpose are key to a long and healthy life. The video also highlights that simple, accessible changes are often underestimated compared to expensive medical interventions, and that our current environment makes unhealthy choices easy.
Key Takeaways
1
The focus of the discussion is on longevity, anti-aging, and reversing disease states like heart disease, cancer, and dementia.
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Blue Zones are communities worldwide where people live healthily to 90 and 100 years old without extensive medical interventions, by simply living differently.
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Dr. Dean Ornish's program, which is based on diet and lifestyle, has been proven to reverse heart disease by dissolving plaque and has also shown to cure early-stage prostate cancer.
4
Dr. Ornish's new evidence indicates that his program can alter the course of Alzheimer's disease by focusing on nutrition, social connections, exercise, stress reduction, and a sense of purpose.
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A 'True Vitality Test' with six questions covers sleep, exercise, vegetable intake, social connections, healthy weight, not smoking, and the desire to live past 90, predicting longevity based on 'yes' answers.
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The same lifestyle changes benefit the heart, brain, and every cell in the body because they address common pathways like oxidative stress, the microbiome, and inflammation.
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Lifestyle interventions, including meditation, movement, a plant-based diet, and community, can improve cognitive function in Alzheimer's patients, sometimes leading to remarkable recovery of lost abilities.
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The biggest obstacles to adopting these healthy changes are people's disbelief that simple diet and lifestyle changes can work, and their reluctance to change.
9
Our modern environment of abundance and ease, with cheap, accessible, high-calorie food and sedentary lifestyles, is at odds with our genetic programming for survival during hardship.
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Mindset plays a crucial role in longevity, with optimists living 15% longer and having a sense of purpose adding eight years to life.
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good morning my healthy friends and
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welcome to another edition of today's
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nutrition we look at what is new in
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research what's hot in the news or any
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topic that can help us lose weight feel
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great or live longer better because
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nothing is as important as your health
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your health is freedom it's Independence
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it's your ticket to enjoying life to the
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fullest so this month my focus is on Le
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longevity anti-aging reversing disease
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States avoiding reversing heart disease
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cancer dementia The Big Three that are
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feared you want to keep your brain sharp
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you want to avoid cancer and heart
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disease maintain your Mobility feel
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energetic and productive live life on
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your own terms and for many years to
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come right you don't want to be
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dependent on anybody so to achieve that
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you need to know and practice what we
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know to be true with evidence-based
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effect Ive steps to live long maintain
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your Independence and live well so I'm
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going to be bringing you this
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information about the notorious blue
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zones if you haven't heard me talk about
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them before let me tell you that they
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are these amazing pockets of small
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communities all around the world where
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people live healthfully to 90 and 100
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years old without doctor visits without
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surgery without all the drugs that our
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seniors are given I want to bring these
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practices to our own Community after all
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we can't move to Greece and Italy and
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Costa Rica and Japan so I say let's
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bring it to our communities now mind you
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I want to visit these places and on my
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list is aari Italy where over 15% of the
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population is over 100 with no cataracts
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and mind you they got a lot of sun there
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they live on the ocean no heart disease
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no broken bones and all of these that we
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consider normal aging problems they are
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not genetically different people they
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are just different in how they live so
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what we call home and the way we live
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greatly influence Health and
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Longevity that Dan Butner that did all
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the study on the blue zones you know
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he's studied longevity and gone all
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around the world what a what a job to
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have you know and see out these blue
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zones and he's uncovered these secrets
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that live to a long and vigorous life
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these so-called Secrets coincide
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perfectly with all of the longevity
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research the holistic research that my
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mentors have done repeatedly one that I
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love to talk about is Dr Dean ornish sat
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next to him at a seminar one time he is
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just the nicest guy he has been saying
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forever that he reversed heart disease
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in people and he wanted Insurance to
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reimburse people going through his
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program rather than un undergoing really
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invasive heart surgery when technology
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finally caught up and we were able to
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look inside the blood vessels and see
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that his program was actually dissolving
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plaque Medicare started to reimburse
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people going through his program it's
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all diet and lifestyle and the initial
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research also found it cured early stage
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process State cancer too I mean You'
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think this ought to be like screamed as
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loud as I mean it's fabulous
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information super exciting and now the
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new evidence shows that it can even
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alter the course of Alzheimer's disease
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along with heart disease along with
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cancer and chronic illnesses all their
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emphasis on nutrition social connections
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exercise stress reduction sense of
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purpose both of these experts ornish and
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Butner both agree that and they offer
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concrete tools that everybody can use
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the motto is eat better move more stress
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less and love more so here's a quiz for
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you to take from Dan butner's book
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called The True Vitality test keep track
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of your yes answers and at the end of
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these seven questions
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I'm going to give you a little
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prediction on your
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longevity number one do you sleep 7
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hours a night okay number two do you
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exercise at least 30 minutes a day and
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it doesn't have to be all at once it
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could be 10 minutes you know a walk here
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a walk there some weight training here
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and there okay number three do you eat
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at least five servings of vegetables
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every day
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okay number four do you have at least
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three friends that number one you can
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have a meaningful conversation
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with number two you could call them on a
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bad day and they care and you like them
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all three right curate your friends
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because you know you are the average of
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the five people you hang with and we're
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talking like everything about those
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people their ethics their weight their
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health
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yeah the average so choose your friends
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wisely okay number four are you at a
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healthy weight a normal BMI not
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overweight not obese normal
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BMI that's what we're going with I mean
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there's better better things to govern
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it by but that's what's in his book
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number five you've not smoked anything
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cigarettes marijuana whatever in The
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Last 5 Years and then number
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six do you have the capacity and desire
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to live past 90 in fact this was the
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biggest
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predictor do you want to live a long
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time yeah okay so there's six questions
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there now if
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you oh no there were seven okay so if
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you said yes to two of them if you're a
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man you can expect to live to be about
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74 and a woman to about
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78 if you said yes to five out of the
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seven gentlemen you're going to live to
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be 81 ladies
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85 if you said yes to all s men look at
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92 and women look at 96 years of
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Vitality okay and see these are things
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that we can work on right okay those
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seven things margin of air about
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15% not bad you know and what you know
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you can measure you can improve so now
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you know what to look at seven things
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okay so back to Dean ornish my first the
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first book I had from him was called the
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Spectrum and now he's on
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to reversing dementia and he's calls it
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un do it so since there is really no
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good treatment no conventional treatment
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for Alzheimer's disease or dementia in
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fact many of the treatments actually
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speed up the decline and so to have a
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natural treatment that works is
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phenomenal
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evidence-based works better than
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medicine and it includes meditation and
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reflection movement and most of ornish's
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work is done with just walking and yoga
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plant-based diet lots of veggies love
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and connection lots of
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community and it's absolutely the same
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program for the heart as it is for the
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brain so what's good for the heart is
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also good for the brain and really every
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cell in your body and so why is it that
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the same Lifestyle Changes help
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everything because the same
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interventions are working on the same
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Pathways same causes you've got the
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oxidative stress you've got your
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microbiome you've got inflammation and
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now another big point that it works on
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even if there's a genetic component yeah
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there's a lot of people going around
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walking around with both genes that
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could be indicative of a
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strong tendency towards Alzheimer's no
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they don't have it you know so genes are
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not they load the gun but they don't
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pull the trigger so eat well stress less
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move more love more make bigger changes
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you make the faster you're going to get
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better and a big thing is that has
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really changed is how
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accessible programs are for people I
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mean I do all mine with zoom anymore
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first time they come in we personalize
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the program and from there on it's Zoom
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from the quietness from the you know the
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convenience of your own home and ornish
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is doing the same thing the
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interventions work as good as if not
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better as in person and in his study on
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Alzheimer's it worked using the same
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measures of cognition that the FDA used
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for drugs and that's great there's
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Improvement there's hope you know if
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anybody gets diagnosed with Alzheimer's
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oh my gosh it's like a death sentence
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right then loss of all hope after years
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years of AOSP with no improvement here's
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what happened to uh one
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gal she started going back doing what
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she couldn't do before the program in
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just a few weeks another one she went
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back to reading that she'd stopped
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because she couldn't recall what she'd
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read went back to cooking went back be
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to doing
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taxes and you know before there was just
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like total confusion
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disorganization all of those skills came
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back like a new lease on life in fact
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the quote was I feel like I am me again
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it's fabulous you know so you got to be
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willing to make the
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changes and then you can get better you
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know and women were twice as likely to
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suffer from Alzheimer's as men so it's
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good to be making these changes now the
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earlier you intervene the better off
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you're going to be I have to say well
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and he was ask what's the big biggest
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obstacle well and he said excuse me he
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said that people think there needs to be
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something really expensive expensive
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tools expensive drugs a simple you know
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really invasive surgery and they can't
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think cannot believe possibly that
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simple as simple as diet and lifestyle
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can work people actually go from fear of
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dying to the Jo Joy of living second
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obstacle is that people don't want to
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change and and that's what I hear so
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much but I
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love it's hard yeah it's hard but not as
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hard as disease and it's choices so I
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have to say what is gained is worth so
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much more than what is given up you know
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our health care System just has it so
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wrong truly a sick care system spending
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trillions like
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$4.4 trillion dollar on the wrong target
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cleaning up the mess after it's happened
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rather than avoiding it treatments
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Pharmaceuticals oh man they're really
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good business PL a really good business
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model if you want to make a lot of money
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but it's not a good for a health care
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plan more drugs are prescribed every
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year when someone's in the system you
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add one you got two you got 10 it's it's
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something else look at the populations
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that have avoided all these chronic
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diseases and we are overrun with them we
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know the cluster of factors that we need
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to put into place so we don't spend
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money on all these diseases I mean just
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look at the Obesity epidemic 40% preco
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was obese 75% of the US population
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overweight and now we just throw drugs
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at it in Japan obesity went from
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3.5% to
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4% oh my gosh they took National Action
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they removed all vending machines pop
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candy cookies all that kind of stuff
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they removed all of it from schools and
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they started doing homecooked whole food
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meals at the schools they took action
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what do we do we think of a new drug and
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and of course an expensive drug with a
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little bit of a shortage so everybody
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really wants it and we think that's
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going to stop the
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problem you have to be on it forever and
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they even want to put children on it and
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it's how we live today and it's not what
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we're genetically adapted for you know
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we've really adapted well to famine for
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adversity for struggle to survive you
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know we are genetically programmed to
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like fattening foods and to take a rest
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and be lazy whenever we can because oh
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99.8% of our history we lived in a time
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that we survived hardship and F and
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famine so those fattening foods were
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useful for our survival and resting
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because you never know when you're were
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going to have to run from something that
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was chasing you but now we live an
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environment of abundance and ease food
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is cheap and easy a drive up window with
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2,000 calories at the other side a
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grocery store packed with all sorts of
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high calorie delicious foods a kitchen
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heck a refrigerator that's convenient to
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the couch cars Easy Life blue zones
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genetically no different from us they
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aren't better than us they don't have
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better health care plans you know their
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environment demands they walk in aeri
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they live on a mountain side they're
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going up and down that all day long real
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food is the only option just what they
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grow there what they get from the sea
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clean food and they don't have TVs and
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phone
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screens and they're expected to show up
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for church and Village festivals so they
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got lots of community they live a good
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10 20 years more good years more without
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going to lots of doctor appointments you
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know the biggest buildings in their
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community not the hospitals and not
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doctor's offices I mean they just
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live okay so another thing in the way we
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live and the way we eat another one is
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mindset the way we think you know all
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these things are things that I have
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talked about in my book get out of
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hormone hell six Heavenly steps to lose
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weight feel great and live longer better
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mindset it's the way you think did you
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know optimists live 15% longer hm they
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don't give up they dig in they know they
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can solve things they know they can
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change things concentration camp
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survivors weren't the strongest or the
16:06
healthiest they had purpose meaning and
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optimism they were the ones that felt
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they needed to Bear
16:15
witness and they have and then also
16:17
sense of purpose what we're good at and
16:20
we have an outlet for they live eight
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years longer volunteerism even like
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reading to kids you know first graders
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second graders they're always looking
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for
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volunteers so anyway lots lots of things
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we can do to protect ourselves to build
16:39
ourselves stronger and it starts the
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younger you start the better eating an
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anti-inflammatory diet Nite and avoiding
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all those sugars and starches that are
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very inflammatory high fiber fruits
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vegetables healthy Omega-3s like the
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Mediterranean diet then other like
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resveratol amino acids omega-3 fats
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circumin love it Rosemary you know if
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memory is an issue I love neuro Q focus
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on blood sugar issues you know if your
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blood sugar is high your A1C is high you
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increase your risk of all sorts of
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things cancer heart disease gallbladder
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disease liver disease pancreas you name
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it and there is a term type 3 diabetes
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that is a risk factor for Alzheimer's
17:28
practicing meditation
17:30
maintaining social connections
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monitoring your steps lifting heavy
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things 10,000 steps a day is is kind of
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The Sweet Spot that's associated with
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longevity and weight training builds
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muscle that is a huge predictor of
17:46
Independence and Longevity thanks for
17:49
listening to another edition of today's
17:51
nutrition I hope it helped you or
17:54
someone you love you can listen again to
17:56
other shows on my website de.com
17:59
on YouTube or really any place you
18:01
listen to podcast if you would like to
18:03
work with me it's my greatest pleasure
18:05
to work with people to help them reverse
18:08
their health conditions their weight
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problems whatever some of the quotes
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from my last group included my brain is
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like 20 years younger mental Clarity
18:17
like years ago or I didn't know how bad
18:21
I felt till I changed or energy oh my my
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husband says I am happy and I'm like an
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Energizer bunny you know it may be
18:31
called weight loss for life but my
18:33
underlying goal is to help all of my
18:35
clients live to be 100 know they're
18:38
there and glad they're there have a
18:41
fantastic day
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Dr. Ornish, The Blue Zones, and Alzheimer's Disease
Deb Ford DCN RDN
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Jul 30, 2024
18:43
You want to keep your brain sharp… avoid cancer and heart diseases… maintain your mobility… feel energetic and productive… and live life on your terms now and for many years to come, right? To achieve that, you need know and practice what we know to be true with evidence-based, effective steps to live long, maintain your independence, and live well.