Live to 100, or Die Trying

© 2014 Richard Reyes. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/07/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-9051-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-9052-5 (e)

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CONTENTS

Foreword:

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Live to 100, or Die Trying

Chapter 2: An Introduction to the principles of successful ageing

Chapter 3: How it is Designed, Maintained and Protected

Chapter 4: How things have changed

Chapter 5: Metabolic Syndrome & Cancer – the consequences of the Evolutionary gap

Chapter 6: Dual-Path Theory – the consequences of freedom of choice

Chapter 7: How do we close the Evolutionary gap?

Chapter 8: The Structure and Models

Chapter 9: An explanation of the evolution of the longevity and successful ageing marketplace

Chapter 10: Levels of Evidence

Chapter 11: Longevity Programmes - the Master Plans for Successful Ageing

Chapter 12: Bringing it All together

Chapter 13: Your own Longevity Programme – The Action Plan

Chapter 14: The Future and Final Thoughts

Image References:

Dedication:

To my beautiful wife, my amazing children, my wonderful parents and my loyal friends.

Foreword:

It is an extraordinary fact that we monitor most things in life to deal with potential problems. Yet when it comes to our health we wait for a problem to occur before addressing it. So it is great to have someone putting us straight on that.

We only have one life, so let’s make sure it is one that we live in a way that, on the one hand puts life in our years and on the other, could add years to our lives.

Richard is an outstanding surgeon and amongst other things, a former national level athlete, talented trumpet player and father who brings us a richness of life experience and professional expertise, giving us a very clear picture on how best to manage our personal health and well-being.

There are very few writers who can so effectively bring theory and practice together on such a complex and vital topic. The visionary Longevity Programme concept is truly ground-breaking and if you do something with what you read here, it will literally be life-changing.

But the key with this book is to do something more than just read it. You must translate it into effective action.

This may not necessarily be the best book you’ll read in your life, but it is certainly the best book you’ll read for your life.

He has written it for you. Please make sure it makes a difference.

Professor Frank W. Dick OBE

President of the European Athletics Coaches Association

Director of Coaching Great Britain Athletics1979 to 1994

Juventud, divino tesoro,

¡Te vas para no volver!

Cuando quiero llorar, no lloro

y a veces lloro sin querer

Ruben Dario

Translation:

Youth, divine treasure,

You have gone, never to return!

When I want to cry, I do not cry

And sometimes I cry without wanting to

Part 1: the problem

Chapter 1: An Introduction to Live to 100, or Die Trying

"One dance, one look, one kiss…that’s all we get Albert.

Just one shot to make the difference …"

Alex ‘Hitch’ Hitchins

We all want to feel good on a day-to-day basis and to live a life free from fear of a nasty medical surprise such as cancer or a heart attack. We all want to maximize the number of healthy years we can enjoy. Life is for living and living successfully is to lead a life full of energy and vitality. Life is not a dress rehearsal. We get only one life, one body and one chance to get it right.

It is the ultimate personal tragedy to have one’s life cut short by a life-shortening illness, especially when that illness might have been prevented. How would you feel if you received the news that you did not have long to live? How would your wife or husband or children take it?

In order to get the most out of one’s life, to fulfil one’s potential, to do, see and achieve great things, to be there for those you love and for those who love you; one has to stay alive. But a long life lived in pain and misery is no life at all. So we all search and strive for a better and healthier way of living.

The definition of successful ageing is the maintenance of physical, mental and social well-being for as long as possible. Therefore, it is not about the number of years you can live, but the number of healthy years you can enjoy.

And when I ask what is the most important word in this definition…most people say physical, less say mental and fewest say social. But the truth is, whilst all these words are important, that the most important word of all in the definition of successful ageing, is ‘maintenance’.

It is the most important word, because maintenance is something that you can control. The better the maintenance, by definition, the more successfully one ages.

So how does one do that? How does one become expert enough in the maintenance of all the areas that are important in producing successful ageing?

There are oceans of data and information out there. It is far too confusing. How does one find the right information, let alone understand what it means and understand how to apply this information to one’s benefit? How does one avoid misleading information, that is just designed to advertise and sell products, which almost invariably, have no benefit? How does one avoid doing things that are actually harmful, should one be taken in by incorrect information?

Live to 100 is a practical book and the relatively short time spent reading this will permanently change the way in which you understand Longevity and your ability to take control of your future. The book is based on the systems of the Reyes Longevity Programme, the successful ageing programme I created many years ago.

Of course there are many books out there on Longevity already, but in my view, they all fail to give the audience what they really need. They are all ‘information’ books. Some books are too narrow whilst others are too detailed and difficult to read and understand. Many are confusing, others confused and many are just complete nonsense, but none are practical enough to allow the reader to become an expert in controlling their own longevity.

This is why I felt the writing of ‘Live to 100’ was so important.

If the body is a car, then ‘Live to 100 or die trying’ is the equivalent to a Haynes Manual. Remember, the better the maintenance the more successfully one ages.

Hopefully, Live to 100 will empower you to take control over areas that you might previously have considered too complex or inaccessible.

However, I can guarantee several things: I’m not going to blind you with science or drown you in oceans of studies, data and statistics. I hate when people do that to me and I’m not going to do that to you.

I’m not going to put lots of references at the end of each chapter to make what I’m saying appear more important or more convincing. I never read references anyway so why should I expect you to?

I am simply going to rely on clear explanation and logic. If I do this successfully, complex explanations of science and references become unnecessary.

I have structured Live to 100 in a very specific way.

We will begin by looking together at the principles of successful ageing and following this, at the way that evolution has shaped our bodies and behaviour for survival. This is how we are designed and how we maintain and protect our bodies.

We will then examine how both we, and our environments, have changed. These are the changes that have led to something I call the evolutionary gap, which is the shortfall between the demands of our environment and our ability to survive in it.

We will then look at the metabolic syndrome and cancer, as they are two extremely important and life-threatening consequences of these changes.

After that, I will introduce you to my Dual-Path Theory and explain how and why this is an expression of our newfound freedom of choice as a species.

We will look at how we are going to close the evolutionary gap, beginning with certain structures and models that we must use in our strategy for successful ageing.

Then, after a brief review of the healthcare and anti-ageing marketplaces, we will examine Longevity Programmes – these are the master strategic plans for successful ageing.

You will discover how these complex programmes are designed and when you do so, you will gain a full insight into all the key areas of successful ageing, including the anti-ageing therapies.

Finally, armed with this knowledge and structural understanding, I will then give you a step-by-step action plan so that you can design your very own Longevity Programme.

So what will you accomplish by reading this book?

Well, by the time you have finished reading this book, I hope you will understand all the important challenges and pitfalls that lie in front of any individual who wants to age successfully and you will have discovered, mastered and acquired the principles, theories, strategies, methods, systems and tools that you will need for this most important of all challenges; the struggle to stay healthy and alive, for as long as possible.

As an example, I am going to give you a very powerful tool that you can use to protect yourself against the enemies and challenges that you will meet along the way. It is a tool to help you assess information, so that you can see how important, credible and reliable the information being presented to you is. You will need the ‘Levels of Evidence’ tool because successful ageing is an area that is pervaded by myths, non-scientific theories, the untrained and unqualified and individuals who simply have no idea what they are talking about.

Finally, by the end of this book, you will be able to create your own, effective, Longevity Programme and your Longevity Programme will allow you to reliably produce success in the maintenance of your physical, mental and social well-being for as long as possible. The result of this will be that you will not lose the ageing battle with tragic consequences and that you age successfully.

Semper Aestas – Always summer

But thy eternal summer shall not fade…

William Shakespeare

I love my life because it’s mine and because I am me. Because my life is mine and because I only have the one life, it is quite simply the most important and precious thing that I have.

I work on the assumption that most of us, if not all of us, feel exactly the same way about our lives. It’s that sense of uniqueness and significance that your own life has for you. Only you are you and that is what makes you so special.

I wouldn’t swop my life for anybody else’s and I certainly wouldn’t waste my time or my money trying to do so. But I certainly would swap my life now for my own life at a younger age…wouldn’t you?

Can you remember what it was like to be young and brimming with health? I can.

1978, particularly, was a wonderful and special year for me. I remember it vividly as that was the year that I was sixteen.

I took my ‘O’ levels that year and from as early as March or April it had started to get hot. The school had announced ‘Shirt Sleeve Order’ earlier than usual that year and long hair (with a central parting), high-heeled shoes, clogs and flares were in!

In fact, one of the most important things in life for any young man of my age, was to make sure that the flares on your dark-grey school trousers were wide enough to fit over the ends of your shoes. That and, of course, being noticed by the girls in the sixth form.

My father was a teacher and one of the perks of his job was that I got to attend the school that he taught at. St. George’s College Weybridge is still a beautiful school, situated in acres of manicured playing fields, which surround the old buildings.

I used to literally bounce out of bed in the mornings, savouring the feeling of freedom that I got from going to school without the restraints of the striped silver and maroon school tie and the constrictive dark green tweed school jacket.

I remember how cool and refreshing the mornings were that summer, with beads of dew, sparkling in the grass in the early morning sunlight.

I also remember how blue the morning skies were, always promising that it would be a beautiful cloudless sunny day and how that promise was always kept.

It’s a funny feeling that I used to get in my chest when I was young. It was more a feeling of expansion than pressure, almost like hyperventilating…a heady combination of adolescent hormones and the slight buzz of adrenaline in an exhilarating and addictive cocktail.

As soon as the summer term had finished, I was off on holiday. From the age of fourteen, I had been travelling on my own to Gibraltar (where I was born and where my family is from) to stay with my grand-parents and to spend the whole summer, nearly nine weeks, on the beach with my gang of about fourteen childhood friends.

I spent the summers getting brown, swimming and having fun.

For lunch we would take sandwiches to the beach or get some from the little shop there, accompanied by a litre bottle of either Coca-Cola or Fanta. This was years before diet drinks were invented and the sugar rush was so great, that it would often send us off to sleep in the afternoon.

The nights were warm and having a single sheet over you was sufficient. I would lie awake in bed with the skin of my shoulders and back pleasurably tight and painful after the sunbathing of the day and I would dream of diving into a big swimming pool of ice-cold Coca-Cola or Fanta. And as I swam along, I would drink in as much as I could or wanted to. But it never occurred to me that I might have been addicted to these drinks.

The summers were full of fun, laughter, life and anticipation and every experience that I had, seemed to be so satisfying, vivid and complete. We were innocent and young.

But towards the end of summer, the beaches began to empty and the days became noticeably cooler. It was, for me, a poignant, sad and increasingly empty time.

You see during the summer, you truly believe that your friendships will last forever…that they are never going to end. But as your friends (and if you have been lucky a special girl) begin to drift away, it’s the end of romance, camaraderie and love.

If you cried at the death of Violetta in La Traviata, you will understand. It’s pretty much the same feeling.

Those cooling, end-of-the-summer days, also heralded the beginning of the inexorable slide into the cold and rainy browns of autumn and the icy-cold greys and blacks of winter in England. A return to school, I hated it. Too long away from the heat of the next Mediterranean summer to believe that it could be ever hot again and with only the joy of Christmas, too far away on the horizon, to lift one’s spirits.

Summer did, of course, come round again. But sadly, too few a number of times before I suddenly found myself no longer an adolescent and try as I might, it became very hard to feel that same buzz of excitement that I had felt during those early teen years. The feelings that I used to have, had dimmed. Had I become accustomed to my hormone and adrenaline cocktail?

Many years later, after some 23 years of medical training, firstly qualifying as a doctor and then as a surgeon and then working like a slave in the National Health Service, I had become a very different person. No longer did I bounce out of bed in the mornings and I certainly did not, in any way, feel young and healthy, as I had done before.

The feelings I had enjoyed when I was sixteen, had very definitely gone…never to return?

But I still cannot help but to be taken back to those summers at school, when I smell freshly cut grass or hear certain songs on the radio, once more to look across those shimmering verdant fields to the cricket pavilion, with the whole of my life before me.

I was very lucky when I was growing up. The summers were long and I was really enjoying life. It was a lovely time.

But how about you? Can you remember a period in your life where the sun was shining on your health, spirit and well-being. What special memories do you have of your youth? How healthy did you feel? How much energy did you have? Can you remember your first kiss and how your heart pounded? Can you remember competing at sports and winning?

I certainly remember these things and how wonderful they made me feel and so many years ago, I decided to do something about it. I wanted to get those feelings back. That is when I created my business: the Longevity Programme.

I had been creating high performance programmes for elite power-athletes for quite a number of years when I started helping a very wealthy businessman with his health. He asked me if I could design a programme for him, much like the ones I was designing for the athletes. It surprised me, however, that this particular gentleman had no formal arrangement or provision in place for his health maintenance, as I had expected him to. He was no different to the average man in this regard, in spite of his wealth.

So I created a complete health maintenance programme around him and at the same time, I created one for myself. The Longevity Programme evolved from there. (I called the top level in my Programme Semper Aestas, Latin for always summer, simply to evoke the spirit and feelings of those glorious