In the world of naturopathy, Anne was half way through her life. She was 55.
She came to see me, because in the last few years, there had been a major change in her life that she was clearly unhappy with. Previously, men would stare when she walked into a room, now they did not even seem to notice her. It was like she was not there.
Looking at Anne, I could see that she had been a beautiful young woman, but this had been overtaken somewhat by wrinkles, a thickening of her body, a sagging of some body parts, dry skin, thin hair and the hint of a hump on her upper spine.
I asked her what she wanted. She said that she wanted to turn back the clock. She wanted to be beautiful again. She wanted men to notice her.
We worked through a list of goals, about everything she wanted to achieve. It was a long list. Everything was achievable.
We ran a series of tests. She had high levels of free radical damage, high levels of toxicity, a hormonal imbalances, dysfunctional blood sugar, mitochondrial dysfunction, high cortisol, low levels of key nutrients, suboptimum function in key organs and glands and on it went.
When I did my post grad work in anti aging medicine, I was taught that there were 19 theories of ageing. I will quote just a few and see if you can match them to Anne: Free Radical Damage Theory, Mitochondrial Deficiency Theory, Insulin/glucose Dysregulation Theory, Excess Cortisol Theory, Acidification Theory and the Wear and Tear Theory.
The theories, while impressive, meant nothing to Anne, so we went through how they impact on the human body. Free radical damage causes wrinkles. When the mitochondria do not work as they were meant to, essential energy is not there to repair the body. Essential nutrients are needed to make hormones and other body chemicals.
Based on the results of the testing, we designed a program for Anne. It was based on balancing imbalances, correcting deficiencies and getting her organs and systems functioning at optimum levels.
Anne’s program comprised diet, supplements, lifestyle changes and exercise.
“But Clive is it okay if I can leave out the exercise?”
“No it is not. I can show you over 1000 studies showing the positive impact of particular sorts of exercise on anti aging. Would you like to see them?”
“Okay, okay…..a girl has to try”.
To her credit Anne stuck to plan. Her first victory came when her sister came to visit.
“My God Sis, what is happening, you look great”