Anti-Aging Strategies

For many, the most common reaction to weight gain is to go on a crash diet or start some weird eating program. These we might try to do instead of owning up to the fact that we are getting older and just need to learn to eat more judiciously.

When most people decide to diet, they approach it all wrong by trying to attack the problem episodically rather than as a long-term endeavor. That is to say, they figure that they'll diet this week so that maybe they can go back to their old, bad habits next weeksort of like gathering a line of credit in dietary virtue.

Of course, it doesn't work. It may take a few pounds off temporarily, but the weight comes right back once the diet ends. What's needed is a sane, doable switch to reasonable eating habits that can last the rest of your lifetime. Ideally, these habits should include an intelligent mixture of the appropriate food groups with appropriate physical activity.

Such a two-pronged attack is the best course. If we stay active in the first place, most of our dietary problems will take care of themselves. Combined with a sensible diet, good honest activity can go a long way toward keeping us at our perfect weight.

Many people wanting to lose weight seek a magic bullet in the form of an herb or prescription drug. From the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, we learn that authors Michael Murray, N.D., and Joseph Pizzorna, N.D., refer to Ma huang (ephedra sinica), cola nut (cola nitida), and green tea (Camellia sinensis) as "isolated plant stimulants which promote fat breakdown. Although many stimulants like these are routinely abused in our current society, the use of plants as stimulants has a long history of use by the majority of cultures worldwide."

It is interesting to note that these three substances can be found easily at your local drugstore. Ephedra contains ephedrine and related alkaloids. The two others, Cola nitida and Camellia sinensis, are chock-full of caffeine, theophylline, and other methyl xanthines known to speed up your motor, as it were. Using any of these, the authors insist, can assist any man significantly overweight in his personal quest for thinness. Certainly, researchers have isolated and quantified the efficacy of these specific ingredients. It may be another matter, however, to "extrapolate" such data to a crude herb or extract.

Ephedrine alone, especially with one of the methyl xanthines like caffeine or theophylline in experimental animal studies, jacks up the metabolic rate of your adipose (fat) tissue. Human studies corroborate that it is the combination of these herbs that will increase the metabolic rate in anyone who is obese.