Frank Georgalis – Writer

Longevity: The Secret of Living Longer. Part I

Longevity and the Brain

By
Frank Elias Georgalis

PART I

BEFORE                        AFTER

It can happen to you if you are looking for longevity

For the life of me I don’t see why people are looking for longevity

One of the most complicated subjects to write about is the subject of longevity. Writing about longevity, one will fall into Theological trap. The only hope for one to get out is to find a theoretical door or a window open. Everything I will mention, to do or not to do, and will be followed, will not guarantee anyone’s stay on earth up to 100 years, but it will lengthen the span of life.
There are many people around the globe, who live according to the scientific findings and proofs, and are as fanatic as the avid Bible readers, who live their lives according to gospels. Most of the people are eager to be different from the rest.
Speaking with the science believers, looking for some information to complete my article, I realize that they don’t accept the existence of God, because it has not been proved mathematically and scientifically. Some of my readers may ask me what the belief in God has to do with longevity.
First let be known that I am not a preacher and I don’t intent of preaching to anyone, in whom to trust and what to believe. I am a novelist and not a reporter, but I do report like most novelists do, what I have learned researching my subject, but I tend to spice it. You as a reader must have patience, after all patience, as you will see later on, is another key to longevity. Researching the subject of longevity, which is miles and miles long and many miles high and wide, I learned that the human brain has been analyzed several years ago and several times since then, and was found that is made up of several different compartments devoted to several things. One of the compartments is exclusively devoted to hunger; one to thirst; one to a belief in higher power, which I will call Fate. Any fair minded man or a woman, analyzing the contents of my research, will realize that we didn’t create God or religion, as many think and say, the need to believe was inserted when we were created. The question before the house is why? Why is there a compartment of hunger? Or thirst? To have the desire to eat and drink so we won’t die. Analyzing the higher power or fate, one will realize that, as Jesus said, A man cannot live with bread alone. It does not matter at this point whether you believe in Jesus or not, but what really matters is the message. Any man from New Jersey or any state or place on earth, could have said that and it would make much sense to me. What it really means and it makes sense to me is that the brain must be fed like the body. The bell from hunger and thirst compartment rings for us to eat and drink, and the bell from the fate compartment rings for us to feed the brain. Bear in mind that the stomach must be fed to distribute the nucleus of the food into the rest of the body, the head must be fed with food of thoughts for the brain to work on. The brain doesn’t control us we control the brain. How? The brain reacts and pushes out what we put in. The tail doesn’t wag the dog, the dog wags the tail. It is a mandatory craving for the brain to want and to believe in a higher power and will not accept any substitute but that; like the craving for food by the compartment of hunger will not accept clothes in place of food. There are no people on earth who do not crave and demand food, like there are no people on earth who don’t believe in something bigger than they are. Man is the only creature on earth that possesses that feature of the brain, if we didn’t have that, we would have been like the rest of the animal kingdom and we would be living in aphasia guided by instincts only. It is a known fact that at the beginning man didn’t know what was good food or what was harm full; he learned by trial and error. At the infancy of our existence we didn’t know what was good information or bad, we learned by suffering the consequences. Eventually we learned some of the difference between good and evil from social and theological teachers. We learned by letting good information in our heads we begin to live in peace with ourselves. Another thing we learned was to help each other and try to live in harmony with one another. It has been scientifically certified that people who help other people live longer. Science has accepted that theory, but scientists are keeping silent as to why. They may believe if they make a comment about it, the word of God may appear.
The big part of longevity is depending on healthy body and healthy mind. Mind and body work together and they are both fed by us, and they are both under our control to great extend.
Earth and living on earth is not really comfortable and pleasing for most of us. Then a question comes to my mind is; “Why are we trying hard to stay here? That, to most thinking men and women is a mystery. But to me is not a mystery at all. According to the Ancient Greek mythology, which to me is a religion, when Pandora opened her box all the bad things of the world flew out, but one. One stayed at the edge and that was the only good of them all; it was hope. It was hope, designed by Zeus, the god of the gods, to make the mortals think that things will improve,  which made people to stay here on earth. Everybody has that hope, thinking that things may improve in the future.

The ancient Greek Philosopher Aristophanes

The Ancient Greeks were occupied with the phenomenon of life and death. Ancient Philosopher, Aristophanes, said “Blessed are the unborn.”

The Greeks accepted that life was full of trials a tribulations, that is why they preached that life is not only to live it, but to celebrate life to the fullest extend

I really don’t agree with Aristophanes because anybody who has arrived here on earth, to my knowledge, has no recollection of the past.
I would have agreed with him if he would have said, “Cursed are the born ones.”
It is a well known fact that from the day we were born we were destined to live a life full of trials and tribulations and to top it all we were condemned to die and we were told about our death sentence. We are the only creatures on earth who know that some day we will die. We have adapted ourselves to that thought as the poor have adapted themselves to poverty. Even though, we know that some day we will die, we build and take as if there were a million tomorrows in our future. That was another of life’s mysteries for many as well as for me; but a young woman gave me the answer. She told me that when we die we don’t completely die because we live something of ourselves behind, something similar to our flesh and bones. Our predecessors who are our children, make up the million tomorrows. We are the connection between our ancestors and our predecessors. As we inherit something from our ancestors, we hand something down to our predecessors, which determines a part of our life span.
A number of people think that our creator has designed our length of staying here on earth, in my opinion, that is not correct. One will hear them saying, “It was his or her time to go.”
I often quote phrases from my old writings; it gives color to my new ones. Writing my novel: “The barefoot Evangelist”, which is to be published soon, and basing it on my personal life, I became indignant realizing that most of my friends and relatives had crossed over to the other side and most of them did it suddenly and unexpectedly. They did not cross over on their accord; they were taken away and pushed across by some strong invisible hand. Then I began to ask myself a question; to whom does that hand belong, which took them away, disregarding their feelings and the feelings of the ones they left behind. If that hand is invisible, but we feel its power, it must belong to a spirit. It has to be a merciless, a cruel spirit. If that spirit, I told myself, is God, why am I worshiping him?
Not wanting to be tangled up in Theological webs, I created a character, followed him and wrote his every action and move. At the end of the book, I analyzed the story and came to believe that everything that happened to my character was results from his own actions and beliefs; the Invisible spirit had nothing to do with it. At this point I beg my readers to believe that the length and the conditions living here on earth are depending on certain natural rules and regulations that we must follow.
Many articles have been written about longevity. Some are informative, some are imaginary and some are awkward and amusing, without the slightest intention of being funny.
I was really laughing the other day, reading an article telling us how to live to be a 100 years old. He mentioned 5 steps; laugh off your problems, climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator; get rid of stress by meditation and drink 8 glasses of water daily. He forgot to tell us to keep on breathing, because as long as we breathe we are still alive. Give me a break; telling me that I could live to be a hundred if I would laugh off my problems, climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator, get rid of stress by stretching on the couch in my living room and drink 8 classes of water per day. Didn’t it occur to him that longevity is one of the most complicated subjects in the world because it is dealing with life and death?

Not too long ago, I read another story dealing with longevity. The story was meant to be serious, but I was amused reading it.
A rumor flowed around the world that many citizens; in the little Greek island Ikaria in the middle of Aegean Sea, lived to reach the100th year mark in life. The little island was overrun by tourist, interesting to a way to live longer, journalists eager to write something creditable and scientists looking for another scientific discovery. Most of the natives enjoyed the new wave of faces and the different shapes and sizes of bodies, which had never seen before. Most of the natives, particularly the centenarians, spoke with the visitors. The centenarians pointed out different things that contributed to their longevity. Some mentioned the drinking of two glasses of Ouzo a day, some said the middle day rest, some others laughed telling them that the lack of a lot of money relaxes them, but one of them, squeezing through the crowded courtyard of the café, shaded by a huge sycamore tree, brought a bushel of weeds and dump it on the table. There were wild and garden plants, flowers and green vegetables, such as basil, dill, mint, rosemary, oregano, turnips and beets and he pointed out that they are in their main diet and those weeds are the reason for their longevity. The writer mentioned the number of those foods came to 151.
Some of my readers may ask me if I believe the reason for longevity is in those 151 green weeds. My answer is that I don’t know. I have only read one man’s opinion, the scientists have not ruled on anything yet, but even if they do, I will not be certain, because I always have a bone to pick with the scientists and I many times ask them; Where is the beef?.
But there is one thing that I am almost certain. If those centenarians are examined we will find out that they all are blood related. I believe that they have come from the same family tree: the tree of the long life span. When I hear or read of long livers living in a close proximity from each other, my mind travels to the family tree. Ikaria is a very small island in the middle of the sea. In fact the island is so isolated from other islands, after WWII and the Civil War in Greece, the communist sympathizers were exiled there. I hope I am wrong, because I want to go there and look for the magic weed. Do I mean that I believe that longevity is inherited? No: longevity is not inherited but the flesh and bones that we are born with are similar to those of our ancestors. If we came from a long line of people who live longer than others, it means that we have inherited a good and healthy body which is capable of enduring here on earth longer than others. Even though we have inherited a good and enduring body, if we don’t take care of it, we will not live as long as our long living ancestors. Here preventive medicine is the key word. We all should investigate and find out where we have come from. I don’t mean to check if uncle Ben had been married five times or aunt Ethel had a secret love, I mean to find out what ailed them the most, and if they are dead, how and why they died. Wouldn’t it be beneficial for you to know that Aunt Ethel was diabetic? Or Uncle Ben’s brother was a border line schizophrenic? Or your mother’s mother suffered with kidney problems?
Once we know the ailing in our family tree, we can and we must be looking for preventive measurements to remedy the situation. Get the information of all your closest relatives and visit your doctor and make a presentation to him with the documents on his desk. If your doctor is standing up while your speaking to him, tell him to sit down and listen and listen closely, otherwise I suggest you walk out and find another doctor. I am not only speaking about the physical make up of your ancestors, I am also speaking about the mental, because the brain and the body are working side by side. Wouldn’t you like to know there were family members in your family tree with a suicidal tendencies? Or there were members with neurotic behavior? All these disorders that I have mentioned and plenty more that I haven’t, you mat ask; are they hereditary? Is intelligence hereditary? If intelligence is hereditary, why not abnormalities? Everybody has a loose screw in his or her head, putting it in layman’s terms. I know I have one, which is similar, I have been told, to my grandfather’s who died 50 years before I was born.
You visit your doctor once every so often with a blank body, which to me is a blank piece of paper and he is trying to fill in the blank spots. There are many cases where people have downloaded the information in the computer just like the weather experts do with the weather reports. If the computer can figure out that the rain that is falling in Dog Patch, Arkansas will hit the southern part of Manhattan in 35 hours with wind gusts up to 40 miles an hour, even though there was no wind in Dog Patch, Arkansas; that computer can figure out what’s ailing you and your family, putting in the information. Doctors make mistakes in prognosis and they order the
Doctors make mistakes in prognosis and they order the wrong medication. You want to hear this? 135,000 people die each year in the American hospitals from misdiagnosis and given the wrong medication. Just think, 135,000 accidental deaths in the American hospitals, comparing, to 43,000 deaths from automobile accidents. Remember, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,”

Tune in next week for the continuation and the list of specifics