Protandim

Young children routinely wake up at 6:00 A.M., pop out of bed, and are ready for their day. But as an adult, we are can be groggy or sluggish. However, most of us have discovered the benefits of coffee and caffeine. Caffeine is a mild stimulant that many people worry increases how fast you age. There is evidence suggesting that caffeine makes us older quicker, but there is also evidence showing it will keep us younger longer.

Caffeine has been shown to increase our ability to focus on monotonous tasks. It also can help us stay awake when we are reading or working. Also, it can help us exercise harder and longer. Caffeine provides us with a little boost of energy to help get through the day. Drinking it in moderation has shown little negative side effects, and may even keep us younger and smarter because it is a workout and study aid.

However, some research has come out that drinking caffeine in excess has some very negative side effects. First, many people say that coffee and caffeine are addictive, and trying to cut back or quit will give you withdrawals. It can leave us shaky and jittery. Also, some people say that caffeine induces chronic stress, which is a huge factor in terms of aging. Some say it also decreases mineral absorption, and when we get older we need those minerals to survive and fight the effects of aging. The key to drinking coffee is to simply drink it in moderation.

Doing the crossword puzzle everyday will do more than keep you entertained for an hour or so. According to some recent studies, crossword puzzles help you stay young longer by creating new brain cells and “exercising” your mind. It is easy for those of us who are older to let our minds rest, but that will only allow the effects of aging to creep in that much quicker. Retirement from work is great, but don’t ever let your mind retire.

But crosswords are not the only brain game that will keep you young. Any brainteaser does essentially the same thing. All you really want to do is stimulate your brain. Just as you workout, you need to keep challenging yourself. If you have never done a Sudoku game, start on a easier level, and slowly work your way up. Personally, I know I couldn’t have started with the New York Times Crossword puzzle; I had to work my way up.

Brainteasers, especially crossword puzzles, lower the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease by almost 50%! So the question is why aren’t people doing crosswords everyday if they have such great results? The answer remains to be seen, but it seems that most people either do not know they can decrease those risks, or have mentally checked out and don’t really care anymore once they are done with work and retired. If you can get in a habit of doing the crossword when you are younger, it will benefit you greatly down the road.

Money can’t buy you love, but sometimes it can’t buy you beauty either. Many celebrities just can’t come to terms with the fact that they will, like the rest of us, become old and wrinkly at some point. There comes a point when any more plastic surgery will just make you look fake and almost not human. I am not sure it is worth it to have your face’s skin stretched, cut, and stapled to remove a few crows feet while also making it look as if you are constantly stuck in a wind tunnel.

Michael Jackson is the prime example of plastic surgery taken one step (or in this case, ten or eleven steps) too far. His skin was lightened and his face was lifted and stretched to the point where if you poked it with a pin it may pop. It is sad he used to be a normal looking person, but like other celebrities, he just didn’t want to grow old.

Another celebrity who was looking to shape up and stay young is Tara Reid. Tara Reid appeared in movies such as American Pie and National Lampoon’s Van Wilder. She felt she was beginning to “sag” and decided to have liposuction on her stomach and breast augmentation. Both of these surgeries went terribly wrong, and photos appeared all over the tabloids and magazines showing Reid’s new, yet awful stomach. Sadly, it looked like her stomach had been transplanted for a fifty year old’s.

Celebrities have all the money and the ability to get the best information about the best doctors, but they still have plastic surgery that makes them look ridiculous. For those people who are considering plastic surgery as opposed to other, less extreme, forms of anti-aging, remember that you may come out looking worse than you did before, and people will notice. Even celebrities have to age at some point, the sooner they accept that, the less likely they will turn out like Michael Jackson.