Health advice by Dr. Vural - he is a Doctor, listen to him

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Kadri's Health recommendations (seriously, your actual doctor should be the last word on these, not me!)

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• My belief is that many ills we have are as a result of inflammation around the body.  Lower the inflammation and better chance you have in many diseases.  Note that the parents you choose are another key factor.  If your parents both had heart disease in their forties or cancer etc, you may have a lower threshold for these.

• Good, deep sleep is a must, sleeping not lying in bed counts, at least 6-8 hrs is good if deep sleep.  During sleep the body repairs itself.  Lowers inflammation.  Try to go to bed before 10PM.

• Exercise everyday.  Intense is not a must - may be preferred but just enough to perspire is good.  I do 2-3 miles of treadmill with 2% incline, 10-15 mins per mile.  I also walk (or try to) at least a mile outside daily.  Just walking outside is also great .

• Lose weight, as much as you can.  1-2 notches below the border of normal and overweight Body Mass Index (BMI) is good.  Intermittent fasting works.  It is hard initially but you get used to it after a while.  Overnight fasting for at least 16 hrs is great.  Even 12-13 hours is good if done consecutively for a while.  If you do 16 hr fasting say 3-4 days a week, it will do.  The key is results - you need to lose weight, period, and keep it off.

• Be social, interact with a lot of friends, do volunteer work, serve causes

• Continue to work, without stress, need to think and exercise the brain at any age, learn new things all the time.  Read a lot, have hobbies.

• Control your blood pressure (with medication if needed) - ideal is 110/70, good is 120/80. reality is 130/85 I will take it.  With age it increases and it is in your genes again.  get a blood pressure machine for home and measure during the day, it varies wildly sometimes at different times.

Probably, if you sleep well, control your blood pressure, exercise daily, are thin, a social person and generally stress-free, you are mostly there; except for the genes.

• Take a baby aspirin tablet everyday, provided you do not have stomach bleeding.  It will lower the inflammation.  Less chance of heart disease and even some cancers. My grandmother took an aspirin every night so that she would not get a headache and she never had any heart disease or cancer.

• Take a low level statin - it acts as anti-inflammatory although the primary task is to lower the cholesterol.  Note that muscle pain may occur for a while or all the time.  Not sure if you need statin if the total cholesterol level is less than 200, but in the new age, other detailed sub-components are looked at not only the total cholesterol, LDL, HDL or trig.  You need to track the level of the "drivers" of the lipids.

• Drink green tea everyday.  I drink green tea from the mountains of China (fresh) with brown rice.  My NASA Goddard friend Laddawan Miko got me on to this.

• Broccoli, avocados, diverse plant based foods is good.  need to eat as much unprocessed, low salt food as possible.  I have reduced my meat intake significantly, mostly <8% fat ground beef, with the fat drained after cooking.

• Turmeric, Curry are good.

• "Greek" yogurt is good

• Wild salmon, I love and eat a lot.  It is great all around.  Canned is fine.

• Beans are a great source of protein.  Anything canned, I wash off the salt.

• Reduce pasta intake as much as possible, do not need to zero it but reduce.

• Zero sugars.

• Probiotic pills, if they work for you are fine.

• Daily vitamins - not sure, eat a lot of plants.  Maybe Vitamin D.

• Whole grain or whole wheat bread with lots of fiber.  Trader Joe's has a bread with 24% of daily needed in each slice.