Longevity in the UK

I like your attitude Sue, I hope we can have a similar conversation in another 30 years or so. We are the same age and apart from a few sports injuries and food poisoning I've been fit and healthy, the only medication I take is a vitamin pill a day. I consider myself lucky.

I've outlived my own father by a year he died aged 53, didn't smoke, didn't drink, ate well and was never overweight. His father, my Granddad lost a lung in WWII, smoked 60 cigarettes a day, drank like a fish and lived to be 90. Where's the reasoning in that ? I think it's just the luck of the draw.

Life's all about enjoying yourself, and if you have to cut out everything you enjoy that's not good for you, what's the point, I probably do all the wrong things, I smoke, drink, eat all the wrong foods, and always have done, but I'm nearly 69, my children are all happily married and settled, I have Grandchildren and a Great Granddaughter, and if I went tomorrow, could say I've had a fantastic life.

I wouldn't want to live that long, that I become a burden on anyone

Kip Bennett asked, "What is it about honey?"

While many people who ate honey lived a long time ,I don't think honey contributed to their longevity. Honey is made up of 48% fructose and 52% glucose.Sucrose comes in the form of table sugar and manufacturers sugar.It is 50% fructose and 50% glucose. While honey contains minute quantities of additional healthy ingredients, it is essentially nothing more than liquid sucrose.

Clinical studies suggest that fructose consumption is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver, obesity, insulin resistance, increased uric acid, increased LDL cholesterol and apoprotein B, increased small LDL, and an increase in fasting triglycerides. People adhering to the Track Your Plaque heart disease prevention program  don't eat any honey.Sugar raises blood glucose levels and that can lead to growth of coronary plaque and advanced glycation end products (AGEs)which are proteins or lipids that become glycated after exposure to sugars.

There are many diseases which affect longevity statistics. One of them is heart disease. The British Heart Foundation said the most deaths in the UK from coronary heart disease occur in Tameside in Greater Manchester (2009-2011 figures). Ballymoney in Northern Ireland had the second most deaths from heart disease and Glasgow had the third most. The lowest rate in the UK was in Kensington and Chelsea. Heart disease is a multifactorial disease .Genetics, lifestyle and diet play a role.

Some people have heart attacks because they eat too many carbohydrates (sugar, starch, potatoes, bread, wheat products, oatmeal, corn products, cornstarch and fruit juices.) Some people eat a bad diet and don’t get heart disease. Reference: http://blog.trackyourplaque.com/2012/01/low-carb-is-heart-healthy.html

Some people don’t get enough magnesium, iodine, selenium, vitamin C, B vitamins, Vitamin A, vitamin K2 and flavonoids because they don’t eat the foods containing them. In the Rotterdam Study (2004) conducted with a 10-year follow up, those who consumed 45 micrograms of vitamin K2 by eating low fat gouda or edam cheese lived seven years longer than those getting 12 micrograms a day. A small amount of vitamin K2 made a big difference.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S.  estimate that adult male cigarette smokers lose an average of 13.2 years of life and female smokers lose 14 years of life because of smoking. Diseases associated with smoking include heart disease, various cancers, emphysema, chronic airway obstruction, peripheral vascular disease and abdominal aortic aneurysm. Some websites claim that wood smoke contains chemicals which can induce cancer.

For half the year, people in Scotland do not get enough UVB rays from the sun on their skin to make adequate amounts of vitamin D in the body. According to many scientists, vitamin D deficiency caused by lack of sunlight and poor weather which keeps people indoors plays a role in heart disease, some types of cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

I can't explain why life expectancy is lower in some parts of the UK. There are lots of theories. There are lots of factors such as suicides, accidents, poverty, toxic chemicals, air pollution, contagious diseases,depression, sedentary lifestyle, radiation, etc .

I had an clogged artery...my mother died from one...and she told me at one time when my grandfather was an young man, he had an light heart attack...so It may be an genetic problem as much as diet and excerise. Though hubby's grandmother named "Florence" died of heart complications also...married James Lawson. My grandfatherto my knowledge was never fat...and he lived into his early 90's. My mother was 48 when she died...but she was an diabetic and she was never very heavy...chubby at times, but never fat...looked an lot like Madonna does these days. My mother's mother was German. She was not "fat" but stocky in her years.None of us were regular smokers, regular drinkers...bu tmother didn't go out and get daily excerise...if I could say there was one trait amoung all of us...it was were busy... and always taking care of others over ourselves. My grandfather I heard, after his three story house in town burnt down they say was living off of one gallon of milk and 2 loaves of bread every week to save money for us kids as an inheritance. After my mother died, and dad took one quarter of my great aunt's inheritance from us...grandfather wrote the checks out to each one of us kids specifically and never involved dad. Ticked him off but he was quick to marry after her death and step-mother did that to us..never gave anything much from dad's passing...state walked in an "took it" for my sister's welfare. From what I Know....Glucose is generally given in I'v's at the hospital with vitamins because you need it for your heart...but it has to be an certain kind..it is called "Ribose" and is in an lot of power drinks for athletes...it can be bought under longtivity supplements also. As to Cholestrole if I stay on my diet I have no problem with it, but they have stuff out for it also...this is where moderate excerise helps...you have to keep you rblood moving. One glass of wine never hurt no one, an whole afternoon daily with the alcohol content will thin your blood danergoously and like hard liquor purify everything out of your body..kind of like sterilze it in short terms. To me over indulgence always left me with an bad case of diaherea...the same as e-coli does also. Cause it setroys you rgood bacteria as well as your bad. Why are people obese...I think

they are pre-detmined by bad food, don' tasorb what they do eat better, and lack of excerise. My cardioligst with "PD"degreespent one whole summer working on why I had my cholesterol down, by trigycerides down...my bad HDL levels down, bu tcoul dnever get the LDL levels up..he had me step taking Niacin to where I simply couldn't do it any more and "zero" didn't change the testing. I asked him then if thought that maybe being an pre-mature baby could of had any difference. But long story short we were not successful in getting it to proper levels. I have pretty well went off all animals fats..and use mostly olive oil these days. Things I don't eat are mashed potatoes, gravies, pastry...though I have an sweet tooth now and then, candy, very much pasta, stop regular soda pop in 1977 with weight watchers. We generally drink skim milk...never over 2 per cent. But I still eat to much. Last year I gave up birthday cakes and BBQ meat. I've had one cake since about this time last year...and an very tiny piece...my daughter in-law the surgical technician keeps me thinking about my diet. My sister is an bad influence most the time. My hubby can be also at times. You must have three tablespoons of fat spread out during the day or end up having Gall stones like I did one year...another surgery I had...I ran into an kind nurse that offered me "fat burning" pills and I thought she knew what she was talking about..not so. I think an lot of this is in your genes also...I was reading about this guy that got himself into the perfect routine..after he got off th eairplane he went out and ran three miles on the roof decking...had great tests...and still fell over dead...so the word might indeed be "moderation".  With my teeth giving me problems and having surgery on them, I also was fighting infection..mostly caused from the Shingles I had also...I still fight that, and work on it all the time. I'm not done with dental work either but have no money. I will be talking to the doctor about building up my immunity. I had one lady doctor in at the Rockwood emergency clinic when I went in for something to get rid of an sore thorat and yellow pus I was coughing up...Nancy was her anem , tell me she wasn' t going to give me anything because I was dying and  wasn't staying on my diet and no one could help me..".piss on" her too..about time SHE died instead...because she wasn't doctoring either.  I discussed her with my health insurance company one afternoon...and told them not to give her an dime of money for she did nothing to help me. They keep pretty good tabs on me most the time..... from doctors that like to line their pockets in Gold if they can..at my health expense in doing so. They have in some cases refused to adhere paying the doctor if he's not following standard practice in something also. Denied issuing me certain drugs that were not priced competitively also. It is not how much you pay, it is how well you are from treatments or drugs thereafter. Plus many of the new roadside stand emergency clinics are not being run but by RN's rather then doctors. Rn's can't issue heart medications...they have to have certain educational medical requirements. Having an doctor "on call" is  not the same as seeing one that has an Medical Doctor. liscense. Primary doctor;s can' tissue them either...unless they have an higher education.I get to go another round on this here pretty soon. Four things....diet, sleep excerise, and medicatations. I think five should be regular lab tests also. The future brings with it replacement tissue culture and organ transplants...last week they came out with an device to make your blood pressure normal.