|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
As I was scanning the journals last week, I came upon one of those "gold mine" articles--a paper that summarizes a lot of the important findings in my area of research. The article was called "Successful Aging," written by John W. Rowe and Robert L. Kahn, the same scientists who ten years ago wrote the landmark article on usual and successful aging in Science (1987, 237:143-149). I was very excited to read this newest article by them, not only for my own benefit, but because this knowledge is important for all of us.
So what is meant by the concept of "successful aging"? And what are the practical implications of this in terms of modern and traditional health practices?
Successful aging is defined by Rowe and Kahn in the August 1997 issue of The Gerontologist as "including three main components: (1) low probability of disease and disease-related disability, (2) high cognitive (mental) and physical functional capacity, and (3) active engagement with life." According to modern science, these are the characteristics of our healthiest and longest-lived elders. What modern research also points out is that everyone can age successfully by living a healthy lifestyle. And as indicated by Rowe and Kahn in this article, improved lifestyle practices can have an especially profound impact in the elderly. With that in mind, I would like to outline the most import recommendations for optimizing health according to two types of health promotion practices: modern and traditional.
Modern Health Recommendations
Statistically speaking, a lot of aging individuals in industrialized nations will have problems with their heart and blood vessels or with cancer. To reduce the risk of heart or vascular disease, the American Heart Association (AHA) has these recommendations: control high blood pressure; eat a nutritious, well-balanced diet of a variety of foods, low in fat and high in whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables; keep your weight down; don't use tobacco; participate in moderately intense exercise for at least 30 minutes a day; and have regular medical checkups and follow your doctor's advice.
The American Cancer Society (ACS) offers similar guidelines, as well as to cut down on smoked, salt-cured, and nitrite-cured foods; cut down (or eliminate) alcohol consumption; don't get too much sun (wear protective clothes and sunblock of number 15 or above); and limit exposure to environmental toxins such as harmful chemicals and asbestos.
Traditional Health Promotion
Now, I would like to propose that "there is nothing new under the sun" and that the recommendations listed above (and more to be discovered) have already been exhaustively expounded in the oldest and most complete treatise of health known to man, Ayurveda.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the popular and effective Transcendental Meditation (TM) program, has brought together the foremost doctors and scientists of both Ayurveda and modern medical science to systematize and make accessible and understandable to everyone this "art of living and science of Being." This systematic knowledge of perfect health, which we now call Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health, includes all the knowledge and techniques for living life to its fullest--for achieving successful aging.
Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health
In Maharishi's latest book on health, Maharishi forum of natural law and national law for doctors (1996, Age of Enlightenment Publications: Canada), he introduces his Vedic Approach to Health as a "prevention-oriented, comprehensive, Natural Law-based, all-enriching system of perfect health." Maharishi continues:
The centuries-old, medicine-predominant approach to health has failed to eliminate sickness and suffering; this is because medicine alone is too superficial to influence all the innumerable values that constitute the structure of life and its evolution. Only a HOLISTIC approach that takes into consideration everything that life is made of and everything that influences individual life, including the cosmic counterparts of the physiology--sun, moon, and planets, etc.--can be successful in handling health.
As every aspect of life is the expression of Natural Law, the approach to health must be based on the knowledge of the origin and evolution of Natural Law--guiding principles of intelligence upholding the balanced functioning of the human physiology.
This total knowledge of the immortal, eternal WHOLENESS of Natural Law is available in Rk Veda, the 36 aspects of the Vedic Literature, and their divisions and subdivisions. This age-old knowledge of Natural Law has remained scattered. Now I have organized it in the form of a perfect science--the Science of Perfect Health--my Vedic Approach to Health--which is competent to maintain the perfect, integrated, balanced health of every individual, and society as a whole.
Research of Successful Aging Using Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health
Seeing a doctor who is trained in Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health is like going to a one-stop shop for health, so to speak. This is because all of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and cancer which modern science is now discovering have been understood and effectively dealt with by Ayurveda for thousands of years. And modern science is documenting the efficacy of the many therapeutic modalities of Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health for promoting health and preventing disease. The TM program and herbal food supplements (like Maharishi Amrit Kalash, or MAK) are the most researched of the modalities. For over 28 years, more than 500 research studies on the modalities of Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health have documented improvements in all areas of life. (See the article by Hari Sharma and Skip Alexander in Complementary Medicine International Volume 3 [1], 21-28; and Volume 3 [2], 17-28.)
In short, published controlled research studies document the beneficial effects of TM and MAK on many of the cardiovascular and cancer risk factors mentioned above, many of which are also biomarkers and psychological markers of aging. The TM program improves the biomarkers of aging, such blood pressure, hearing, and body mass, as well as psychological markers of aging such as memory, intelligence, and creativity.
Improvements in chronic health problems, as indicated by health insurance studies, for instance, also indicate the effectiveness of the TM program for successful aging. For example, an individual of age 40 or older who has meditated 20 minutes twice a day for five years will, on average, have 68 percent less need for inpatient services and 78 percent less need for outpatient services, compared to control individuals matched by age, gender, and occupation (Orme-Johnson, 1987, Psychosomatic Medicine, 49:493-507). Or an individual meditating 20 minutes twice a day for three years will, on average, have medical expenses of 30 to 50 percent less compared to matched control subjects (Herron, et al, 1996, American Journal of Health Promotion, 10[3]:208-216).
Further, if you practice some of the other modalities of Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health for four years, a person 45 years or older will, on average, experience 88 percent less patient days than matched controls (Orme-Johnson & Herron, 1997, The American Journal of Managed Care, 3:135-144). This latter study also found that for all ages, hospital admissions were 11.4 times higher for the controls than for the Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health group for cardiovascular disease, 3.3 times higher for cancer, and 6.7 times higher for mental health and substance abuse.
Another finding of interest: meditators seem to live longer. Skip Alexander and colleagues showed this in a study of nursing home residents randomly assigned to participate in several health promotion techniques. After 15 years, the meditating group's survival time was 23.5 percent longer than the other groups, a statistically significantly finding (Alexander, et al, 1996, Circulation, 93[3]).
This research shows that by spending a few minutes a day meditating, successful aging is easily attained. Many of these studies did not subtract out the effects of diet, smoking, degree of obesity, or alcohol consumption--all critical lifestyle risk factors which affect successful aging. What this means is that the practice of the TM program appears to be a more important determinant of health and aging than the presence of other risk factors. Which leads to the question: How much healthier might one be who, in addition to practicing the TM technique, controlled other lifestyle risk factors like diet and exercise?
The Chicago Study of Health Promotion for the Elderly
To answer this question, Robert Schneider and Skip Alexander, at Maharishi University of Management, are heading up a team of scientists (including myself) which is comparing the effects of modern and traditional health promotion practices in the elderly. In Chicago, we have recruited over 170 healthy elderly individuals age 65 or more and have randomly assigned them to participate for one year in either a modern or traditional health program or to a usual-care control group. Our modern health program includes the latest recommendations by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for a low-fat, high-fiber diet and moderate exercise. The traditional program, Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health, includes the Transcendental Meditation program (20 minutes, twice a day), herbal food supplements (Maharishi Amrit Kalash), yoga asanas and daily walk, and specific diet and lifestyle recommendations.
The Proof is in the Pudding
As the research shows, all three criteria for Rowe and Kahn's definition of successful aging are met by individuals who practice the TM technique and other modalities of Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health. In fact, it seems that these traditional methods of health promotion in the elderly are more fundamental and holistic than any one of the modern methods. By practicing the TM technique, you are more likely to "age successfully" than if you don't practice it.
In future articles I will give you more details on successful aging: different definitions and perspectives, and different ways to achieve it. But for now I have to get to work. I am in the middle of analyzing the results of our three-month post-test data from the Chicago aging study. Soon we will be able to tell you how the different health promotion modalities of modern medicine and Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health compare after three months of practice, and again after one year of practice compared to the matched control group. We are assessing the most important aspects of physical, cognitive and well-being functions relevant to aging, many of which Drs. Rowe, Kahn, and colleagues have illuminated for us in their MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging.
It is an exciting and important study which will improve our understanding on how to best achieve successful aging for everyone. I hope Drs. Rowe and Kahn will be pleased.
.
