THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
An undeniably powerful totem in our culture is youth and physical vitality. Think of the old men and women who got a new lease on life in the movie Cocoon.
So many people chase after whatever they think will prolong their youth, while the real fountain of youth already exists within them. It's known as human growth hormone (HGH).
HGH stimulates tissue growth, increases muscle tone and lean mass, enhances flexibility, thickens muscles, stimulates the growth of bones and organs, and helps maintain healthy tissues.
From the time you're born to approximately the age of thirty, HGH is naturally released into the bloodstream about an hour and a half after you go to sleep and also once before you wake up in the morning.
High levels of HGH naturally drop over time. By age sixty, about 30 percent of men produce little or none of the substance. It is conjectured that women continue to secrete growth hormone into their old age, and that's one of the reasons they live longer.
We also receive human growth hormone bursts after heavy exercise and/or after a serious injury because HGH is a healing substance.
HGH is now being synthesized in laboratories and administered to children who have dwarfism to stimulate their growth.
But how can you enhance your own natural abilities to release HGH into your system? The one way to trigger it instantly and continuously is through explosive exercise. This means performing repetitions of an activity which you can maintain for thirty-five to forty-five seconds only, such as heavy weight lifting.
Laboratory tests in Miami, Florida, have produced exciting results. People in their sixties who've gone at least ten to fifteen years without any muscle tone are learning to lift weights and create muscle mass equivalent to that of twenty-one-year-olds, with energy levels to match.
What does all of this mean? It means that you can be as strong in your seventies and eighties as you were in your twenties and thirties!
Not only can you continue to build your endurance factor with aerobic exercise but you can continue to boost your power with short, explosive bursts of anaerobic exercise.
Just remember the other factor in the equation: give your body the nutrients it needs. Make sure you aren't poisoning your body with excess sugar, fats, salt, or meat.
In the twenty-first century, estimates are that 24 percent of the American population is expected to be over the age of sixty-five.
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