I am sorry for your loss. I am sure that you love your mother as much as I love mine. Her memories and her presence will always be with you. Still it can be difficult when they are not physically present.
My prayers are for you and yours.
Beyond that, a thought about aging, how long we continue, and how we fare through those later years.
From the time of our birth to our last day, we age. Some of this is good and some can be hard on us.
My understanding of biochemistry gives me a little bit of insight into a part of this aging process.
When we are born, and through out our early years, the body produces significant amounts of certain enzymes and hormones. Two of these that are significant are SOD ( superoxidase dismutase ), which is a powerful antioxidant, and melatonin which is generally recognized as a sleep hormone.
What many do not realize about melatonin is that it is also an immunity booster and a sex hormone regulator. At a certain point, the amount of melatonin that is produced drops, and this brings on puberty. Melatinin also increases the dream state of sleep which is why young children often have nightmares and strong dreams.
Melatonin continues to decrease as we age and at ages over 40 years, it is good to supplement. Yes, too much can cause really vivid dreams.
Taking melatonin will help you live longer and stay healthier by boosting immunity, improving the quality of sleep, and helping you to maintain balance.
Another important hormone is DHEA ( dihydro epiandosterone ) which is generally considered to be a sex hormone but it is really the base hormone for the generation of almost every hormone used by the body, including growth, bone growth, and dental growth and repair ( yes all of these use hormones for regulation ).
The reduction of DHEA in the body shows initially as a reduction of sexual drive but it is far more important than that as the lower the DHEA levels, the faster the body ages, especially muscle deterioration and low DHEA can even appear as fatigue.
To stay healthy longer, study up on how much of these supplements you need to be taking. Do not rely on a doctor for this as your doctor has been wrongly taught that normal or average is right( My opinion ). What you really want is OPTIMUM, the best that you can get.
You want to champion your life and your health so that it can be the best.
With that in mind, I will also say that ( again in my opinion ) doctors have it wrong when it comes to vitamins, minerals, and other supplements.
The RDA is a farce! It is the minimum that you can get by with to avoid falling to obvious severe deficiencies. This does not mean that you will not suffer from the slow damage that comes with having insufficient amounts to the body's building blocks. You want OPTIMUM amounts of the CORRECT TRUE vitamin.
For example, if you read the labels from vitamins off of the store shelf, you will find that for B-12 they provide cyanocobalamin which is the least effective form. The true form that your body can best put to use is methylcobalamin.
Some vitamins may include vitamin K ( actually only K-1 ) which is important for clotting but many leave it out. The important thing is that K-2 is almost never included and it is very important to avoid calcification of the arteries and helps bone growth. It is used by the body to transport calcium from the blood to the bones.
One place that the health experts really miss the boat is that you really need significant amounts of vitamin C throughout the day because vitamin C is used to generate the connective tissues that hold our bodies together and help prevent us from sagging as we age. A dose every 2 hours to 4 hours works best.
Avoid drugs that modify your metabolism. Especially things like statin drugs as they increase aging by interfering with natural body processes.
There is a lot more to consider. Become your own health care manager as if you study hard, you will do a better job than your doctor could ever even dream of. After all, who knows you better and can pay better attention to you than you.
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