Sustain your healthspan: nutrition and cancer

Abstract

Having studied human aging since 1980, my career began with the discovery of the optimal oral dosage of vitamin C, 500 mg twice a day. Despite the many reasons to believe this will extend healthspan, all clinical trials provide vitamin C only once a day, preventing demonstration of the real benefit.
Much research recently has revealed basic causes of human aging, and methods are known to slow these processes. While exercise is widely recognized as fundamental to healthy aging, nutrition also plays key roles. The causes of aging are discussed in this paper.
However, there is wide agreement on the basic diet required for a long healthspan, the Mediterranean diet, and the disease-fostering common eating in the United States, the Western diet. While almost all of the data come from epidemiological studies, the underlying mechanisms are clear. Nutrients that reduce inflammation, nourish the brain and muscles, and slow protein misfolding reduce cancer and other age-associated disease risk, leading to the long healthspans found in Europe. Diets deficient in crucial amino acids, full of inflammatory molecules, and fostering diabetes, heart disease, and cancer lead to the shortened lifespans found in the United States.
The pharmaceutical, medical, and commercial industries in the US profit tremendously while humans suffer. Tragically, the US has abandoned its role as a scientific leader. Fortunately, China and Europe are assuming that role.