Marvel Comics loves a trio of superheroes: There is Captain America, Thor and Iron Man as the Avengers Prime and the original Defenders -- Namor, Hulk and Doctor Strange.
Your health loves a trio of superheroes, too. The combination of vitamin D3, omega-3s and strength-building exercise is powerful enough to slash your risk of developing invasive cancer over age 70 by 60%.
A new multi-national, randomized, controlled trial published in Frontiers of Aging looked at the impact of taking 2,000 IU a day of vitamin D3, taking 1 gram of omega-3s and doing a simple at-home strength-building exercise routine at least three times weekly.
Among the more than 2,000 participants who were tracked from 2012 to 2017, only four people who followed all three of the recommended interventions developed cancer, while 12 who followed none of them were diagnosed with cancer. The benefits of doing any one of the treatments or combining two of them were measurable, but not nearly as powerful as the trio together.
Your trio:
1. The study used stand-to-sit exercises, one-leg balance exercises, elastic resistance bands and going up steps. Exercise helps fight cancer by improving immune strength.
2. Ask your doc for a blood test to check your vitamin D levels. Then take the prescribed amount of D3 to build your immune and bone strength (2,000 IU in the study).
3. You can get omega-3 fatty acids from salmon, anchovies, herring and sea trout, and supplements made from algae or fish oil (1,000 milligrams in the study). These heart-loving fats may actually promote cancer cell death.
More proof that the “What to Eat When” approach works
Two of the oldest known Sumerian written works “Kesh Temple Hymn” and the “Instructions of Shuruppak” date to around 2,500 B.C. I haven’t been writing about how to roll back your RealAge through smart nutrition for that long, but sometimes it feels like it! Nonetheless, I’m always glad to see backup for my life’s work with new, high-quality research by scientists interested in long and healthy living. The latest is a review from USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, published in Cell. It looked at hundreds of studies on nutrition, diseases and longevity in laboratory animals and humans. They included high-fat and low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets, vegetarian and vegan diets, the Mediterranean diet and calorie-restricted diets.
The researchers discovered that the best diet for an extended healthspan and lifespan includes moderate to high carbohydrate intake from non-refined sources, low but sufficient protein mostly from plant-based sources (lots of legumes), and enough plant-based fats to provide about 30% of energy needs. Ideally, your day’s meals happen in an 11-12 hour window, and every three to four months, you go through a five-day cycle of a fasting or quasi-fasting diet. That helps reduce insulin resistance, blood pressure and other risk factors for chronic diseases. Sound familiar?
One caution: Once you’re over 65, to avoid frailty, you should increase your protein consumption and make sure to eat a lot of complex, unrefined carbs. For help: Check out “What to Eat When” and the “What to Eat When Cookbook” to launch your live-better-younger-and-longer campaign.
