Thursday, July 9, 2015

Staying Healthy for our 50th and Beyond - From Classmate USMA 1970 Terry Keene

Hi Brothers – I am starting what I hope is an email chain that will spread far and wide through our classmates. This is about your health. And I am living proof!

I talked to several of you at the 45th reunion and I told Toby at the chapel that I wanted to jump up and give my testimonial in front of the whole “surviving class” that there is a road to health and you can take it. I talked briefly to Greg Knight and Dick Williams about this at the parade so you can ask them if you still don’t believe. We just didn’t have time to walk through the whole story. I told them I would send this out to the class and that’s what I’m doing.

Now before I go further let me say that I’m not selling, promoting, or offering anything except a blueprint for a new lifestyle that will take you down a new road – hopefully the road to our 50th and 60th and then whomever is left. We lost 22 classmates between the 40th and 45th and that number will soar if we don’t do something radical. The good news is that what I am giving you isn’t even that hard, but it does take some commitment.

I have a “health list” of family, friends and acquaintances that have heard me talk about my new lifestyle. They have asked to be on the email list where I send along things that I’ve read or researched about our health, our food, our environment, and our current lifestyles that will definitely impact our lives as we age. It turns out that we don’t have to put up with this getting old stuff. Again I’m living proof.

I have included two things that can get you started. The first, at the bottom of this email, is an excerpt from and email that I received yesterday from one of my critical sources of information on cancer called "The Truth About Cancer”. If you don’t think your current lifestyle is killing you then you need to read these article and decide for yourself.

The second is a short blog that I wrote at the request of many of the folks on my “health list”. After hearing my story, and seeing the results with their own eyes, they have asked me to write down what I did, what I am doing, what I eat, how I exercise, and why I haven’t been sick a day since I started this 18 months ago. And I’ve lost 15 pounds in the process, although that was never a goal. I didn’t think I was 15 pounds over weight. My body knew differently.

You have two choices: you can ignore this, delete it, and hope that everything I’ve discovered in my 18 months of hard research is not true; or you can read this, think about it, do your own research, and change your life. You owe it to your families, and to you classmates, to do something about this. I’m just trying to get you started.

If you would like to be added to my health list let me know and I’ll send along updates and ideas as I find them.

My goal with this email is to see as many of you as possible at the 50th. If I don’t get hit by a bus, I’ll be there for sure. Dodging busses is not in this lifestyle thing, although healthier old folks can move faster.

To your health – I love you all!
Terry Keene
“If it were easy, everyone would do it”

1st: From The Truth About Cancer:
We’re in the editing room now ….working on the latest footage from the global quest. Let me tell you, what I’ve discovered from these international doctors, scientists, and experts is awe-inspiring. I cannot wait to share it with you.
You probably hear a lot of conflicting information about cancer. There seems to be so many opinions about what causes it, who is at highest risk, and how you can beat it.
Which ones are facts and which are myths? Discover some of the truths behind common misconceptions about cancer that may surprise you.
In the meantime, I wanted to give you the inside scoop on 5 common myths about cancer. Enjoy - Ty Bollinger

2nd: Finally and most importantly, My Recent Blog Article -

I Am Living Proof!
A note from Terry Keene

Eat your way to a healthier, happier life – & drop pounds per week

Hi everyone! I’ve been sending out health tips pretty regularly for the last year or so to a list of my friends and family. In most cases, the folks on the list joined because we had a face-to-face conversation about my discoveries and personal efforts to be healthier, and to fight the aging process that is hitting us all so quickly. Yuck!! Many of you have asked me to write down what I am doing and how I did it. Well, here is my recipe to a happier, healthier, and hopefully longer life.

Recently, I attended my 45th class reunion at West Point and saw hundreds of my classmates, many of whom I hadn’t see since June 1970. I was shocked and a bit surprised that many of my classmates were not doing as well as they should be. In fact, someone told me that we have lost 66 classmates since graduation and 22 since our 40th reunion. And then last week, I received notice that another of our dear friends and brothers just passed. It’s time to take control of our own health. If not, lots of my classmates won’t be there for the 50th, much less the 60th, like the class of 1960 that was on the parade ground with us that day, unless we change our habits. I’m here to help.

My Lifestyle Change


Over the past 18 months I’ve shifted my lifestyle, mostly eating habits and supplements, with the express goals of being healthier, never getting cancer, and becoming as active as I can until it’s my turn to go. My goal is simple: on my last day, I want to be “vertical and coherent”. I just lost my mother to dementia, even though she was physically healthy and ambulatory. I don’t want that to happen to me or to anyone I love. A significant part of this new lifestyle is what I eat and drink. It is absolutely true: “You are what you eat!” And the most amazing part of this effort is that I eat as much as I want, whenever I want, and I’ve lost 15 pounds over that same period. Losing weight wasn’t one of my goals. I didn’t think that I was overweight to start with. Does any of us?

My Fountain-of-Youth


It started with my fascination about anti-aging. There has to be a way to slow down or even stop the aging process. I know there are many doctors, researchers and scientists looking for the fountain of youth for an exploding baby-boomer population. We represent a huge spending potential and that would certainly draw money out of our pockets, and even our retirement accounts. But we’re not alone. Everyone would love to slow that old man time down.

I began studying the aging process and reading about studies being done to slow it down. I signed up for many health newsletters around the web focused on anti- aging and healthier lifestyles. The information that intrigued me the most came from Dr. Al Sears in Palm Beach, FL, about the discovery of a group of chromosomes at the end of our DNA strands called telomeres. You can do your own research on this, but to net it out, a group of scientists discovered that each time a cell divides the number of telomeres reduces until, at some point, the DNA begins to unravel and deteriorate to dysfunctional cells and we die. This is kind of a time clock on our mortality. They also discovered that an enzyme is present that stops the shortening of telomeres in reproductive cells so that we aren’t born dead. They call it telomerase. The current goal of aging research is to find a way to maintain telomerase production to keep the telomere shortening process from happening, and thus stop or dramatically slow the aging process.

I started my journey by taking an experimental supplement called TA-65 that would cause telomerase to be produced and slow my aging process. I took that for one year back in 2010. It was very expensive with no guarantees except pretty much anecdotal evidence. I had my telomeres measured at the start of the process.

After that year, Dr. Sears had come up with his own formula that was not nearly as expensive. He had been testing it for over a year to see if it was effective and his claims were that his formula worked as well at the original formulation of TA-65. I switched to his formulation call Essence and later upgraded to Ultra Essence and now Telo Essence, and I’ve taken that for another 18 months. I had my blood work done once again in February of this hear and the comparisons were astounding. The median length of my telomeres has lengthened by 25% in that time. Dr. Sears seems to be well ahead of most of the anti-aging doctors and has many other supplements that I take for strengthening my immune system. I’ll get to that shortly. The evidence is in the results of my blood tests. Based on gathered data for comparison, my physical age is 67, just like most of my classmates, but my average biological age is around 44 – and dropping.

Cancer Could Spoil it All

Although that’s all pretty exciting to me, I kept thinking about how devastating it would be to get my biological age down to 21 again and get inoperable cancer. That would be a bummer. So my next mission was to learn all I could about cancer. My greater goal is to not get cancer so that I can enjoy my newfound youth. What I found has been astounding!

About 18 months ago, in early 2014, I ran across a letter from a gentleman named Ty Bollinger. Ty lost his parents to cancer, and then aunts, uncles, friends, and it made him mad. There had to be something he could do to help people not get cancer, or at least help them survive cancer if they were unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with cancer. He went on a quest to find the “Truth About Cancer” and what he found was mind-boggling. We are not being told the truth about what cancer is, how we get it, or how to cure it. His discoveries are well documented in his video interviews with cancer researchers, doctors, especially oncologists, as well as naturalists and homeopaths, and most importantly what he calls “survivors/thrivers”. Cancer patients that have been cured and are thriving as a result of alternative treatments to the most dreaded disease of our time. According to what he discovered, today 1 out of every 3 women will get cancer, particularly breast cancer, and one out of every 2 men will get cancer, particularly prostrate cancer, in their lifetime. That is just unacceptable.

Ty discovered two things that tell the whole story: 1) cancer is a disease of the immune system and 2) the destruction of the immune system is primarily a result of what we eat and the toxins in our environment. The saddest fact that he uncovered is that the standard treatments for cancer today, surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, are actually as toxic to the immune system as they are to cancer. We are doomed by the cure to get the disease again and again. It’s a spiral of death.

It’s About the Food We Eat – We Are What We Eat

So what is it that we eat that is causing cancer? What are the critical toxins in the air, land and water? And what can we do to prevent cancer, or cure cancer if we get it? Go to TheTruthAboutCencer.com to find the answers. My discussion here isn’t about preventing or curing cancer, it’s about creating a healthy life-style to add to the quality of your life, and to the lives of those you love. I am doing just that. The by- product of this commitment to my life could well be that I don’t get cancer. And if I do by chance get cancer, I want to cure it without cutting, burning or poisoning my body. Time will tell.

Here’s what I did and how it has worked. I am a living example that if you are willing to change your lifestyle, especially what you eat and drink, you can dramatically improve your quality of life. And you can be a great example to your family and friends, and inspire them to share the health.

Quite simply, I stopped eating sugar, as much as is possible, and I stopped eating processed simple carbohydrates. That means anything made with flour (even whole grain flower), rice, and white potatoes. And anything that comes in a box ready to eat (processed foods) like cereal, snacks, or ready-to-eat meals. The deadliest sugar that you can consume is high fructose corn syrup. Manufacturers put HFCS in everything to make it taste better. We are addicted to sugar. Type II diabetes is primarily a result of eating more sugar, and simple carbs that are converted to sugar (glucose), than your pancreas can process with its own insulin, according to all the doctors that Ty interviewed. So stop! The glucose gets stored as fat because your cells can’t use it for fuel fast enough. It’s another death spiral.

Another factor is acidity in your body. Your blood should be around 7.35-7.45 pH (remember that from chemistry?). That’s alkaline. It turns out that cancer thrives on sugar (it metabolizes using fermentation – sugar!) and an acidic environment. Guess what is one of the most acidic drinks you can put in your body? Soft drinks; any soft drinks. It’s the carbonization that creates the acidity. According to one of the doctors that Ty interviewed, it takes 32 8-ounce glasses of water to neutralize one soft drink! Now that’s scary! And of course almost all soft drinks contain outrageous amounts of either sugar or a sugar substitute. Neither of which are good for us. The only things in your body that loves that kind of drink are the cancer cells that are continuously floating around just waiting for a good sugar hit. Don’t do it for them. Make them work at it and make them battle a tough immune system.

In addition, you need to detox your body of all the toxins that we take in every day from pollution, drinking water additives like chlorine and fluoride, some seafood, and from the “silver” amalgams in our teeth that contain mercury. You need to get a good dentist to carefully replace those with new white non-toxic amalgams by the way. There are a lot of articles on the web about detoxing our liver, kidneys, blood, and other parts, but I found an easy one that helps almost everything. First thing in the morning, squeeze the juice from half of an organic lemon into filtered room temperature drinking water and drink it 10 to 30 minutes before you put anything else on your stomach. Lemons are acidic outside the body but turn alkaline inside your body. Lemon juice helps alkalize your blood and has shown to help detox the liver as well. You can read all about it and you will surely read more about it once the world discovers how good it is for us. You have probably already read something about it, but didn’t notice because you hadn’t heard how good it is for you. Do it! Make it a ritual for your whole family. It’s fun watching everyone’s face waking up to sour lemons!

Another great detoxing techniques is strawberries, or raspberries or any fruit that has seeds on the outside. I use strawberries. The seeds are connected to the core of the berry with a fiber that doesn’t dissolve even in nitric acid. That little fiber passes through your stomach and into your gut and attracts heavy metals like mercury, lead and other nasty stuff that we’ve ingested through our environment, and carries them out with the waste. And strawberries are really good in a fruit smoothie. Go get yourself a NutriBullet and whip up a great fruit smoothie every morning. Use organic fruit, cold-pressed fruit juice, like sour cherry juice for some zing, and add carrot juice for sweetness. It turns out that one of the most effective alternative cures for cancer is tons of carrot juice. It has to do with that orange color. Watch the videos on Ty’s site.

Another critical nutrient for out bodies is animal protein and fat. Yes, a lot of animal fat. It turns out all the information about cholesterol and animal fat causing heart disease is false. We evolved from caveman days to eat primarily unprocessed fresh meat and vegetables. Our systems haven’t changed since then. Stay away from processed meats (like bologna, hot dogs), meat from animals raised in pens and fed grains, steroids and antibiotics. You are what you eat. That means you are what those animals eat, or are injected with. You should each have a “fistful” of fresh, grass range fed meat, poultry or wild caught fish every day. When I say a fistful, I mean about 4-6 ounces. That’s enough. Big guys might do 8 ounces, but that’s more than most of us need. And eggs are a great source of protein. Again eggs from free- range chickens fed off the land, not out of the trough.

And butterfat from milk, butter, cottage cheese, aged cheese, and other dairy products that are made from cows/goats that are grass fed as well. Look for milk that says no rBST. If it doesn’t say that, don’t buy it! And buy organic whole milk. Your kids need the fat from milk for brain development. Use butter not margarine! Avoid hydrogenated fat and trans fats at all costs; and anything made with those fats like canola oil, soy oil, anything but natural oils and fat. Extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil are the kinds of oils that you want to cook with and consume on your salads.

The By-Product is a Healthy Body

Understand, all this is just so you know what I’ve been discovering and how I changed my lifestyle to gain ground on health and leave cancer behind. And the best part is what it has done for me, and those around me that have tried it. I am living proof that this works. It all started with this new eating lifestyle, and that’s what it is. It’s not a diet! I eat all I want. I’m never hungry. I just changed what I eat.

When I started I weighed around 185 pounds. For those of you that knew me at West Point I weighed 172 pounds there at my fighting weight. I played 150 football, so I weighed 154 pounds every Thursday, but played the Saturday games at 170. That was pretty dumb, but I have to admit that during the season when I drained almost all the water from my body once a week (that’s what it took for me to get to 154 lbs on Thursday). I never got a cold, sniffles, sneezes, sore throat, or flu during football season; not once! Now mind you that I didn’t take on this lifestyle change to lose weight. I didn’t think I was really overweight, although I always thought it would be cool to see something in the 170s on the scale. I did it for my health. Once I stopped eating the wrong stuff and started eating the right stuff, I lost about a pound a week for the first couple of months. I’ve leveled out at 170 pounds. Apparently that’s where my body is most comfortable. I haven’t changed what I eat for a year now and I’ve hovered around 170 pounds ever since I hit there. I have more energy than I’ve had in the 40 years since I stopped jumping out of airplanes. My mind is sharper. My smile is brighter. But the most amazing thing to me is I haven’t had a cold, sniffles, sneezes, sore throat or flu; not once since I started!!

How Did I Do It?

I’ve been asked many times exactly what I eat every day to make this happen. After all, stopping by Wendy’s for a burger and fries or Kentucky Fried Chicken are out of the question. So how do I do it?

Pre-breakfast:

  • Juice of 1⁄2 organic lemon (or a whole lemon if it’s small) in room temperature filtered water at least 10 minutes before anything else.

    Breakfast:

  • Two organic free range eggs – any style – cooked in bacon grease is great!
  • Two strips of bacon, crisp preferably (or range fed steak, pork, chicken if you like)
  • A fruit smoothie with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, mango, papaya, a spoon of chia seeds (great fiber and omega-3), cold-pressed cherry/pomegranate juice, finished with carrot juice – I don’t use bananas because they get way too thick
  • Other fruit like cantaloupe, watermelon, or others
  • Organic Greek Yogurt – no sugar – mixed with organic chopped up fruit

    Lunch:

  • Snack throughout the afternoon starting at lunchtime
  • Organic nuts (great fat), almonds, cashews, Brazil nuts (great nutrients), walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds (amygdalin inside kills cancer cells), sunflower seeds, pine nuts, pistachios, but not many peanuts
  • A banana a day, now or earlier at breakfast but lunch is a good time because they’re like a desert
  • An apple a day – organic
  • Carrots and celery make a great snack in the afternoon – and you could do radishes, cold broccoli, among others
  • At least one cup of hot organic green tea, maybe two instead of coffee during the day
  • Might be a good time to have an Organic Greek yogurt instead of for breakfast

    Dinner:


  • Around 6 ounces of meat or fish protein – range grass fed or wild caught
  • Great range of vegetables steamed or grilled preferably – asparagus, broccoli, may others that are high in nutrients, cooked with garlic which is great for you Many times I’ll add organic mushrooms to the vegetables, or grill mushrooms to put on the meat, or separately – mushroom have tremendous medicinal powers across the board
  • Organic lettuce salad with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar
  • Nuts, dried fruit, seeds as a salad topping
  • Occasionally for desert a small piece of dark chocolate – 85% cocoa is really good for you
  • Glass of wine – red better but white is also good for you – just not too much.
  • Alcohol has a tendency to cause inflammation – that’s where it all begins.

    There are a lot of things you can substitute in this list but this is how I have eaten for about 18 months. I am never hungry, I enjoy the flavors and add garlic to everything (now that’s really good for you) and seasoning salts, preferably real sea salt based seasoning. You could do grass fed beef hamburgers, but the bread is the killer. Do like BurgerFi does and substitute iceberg lettuce on both sides of the hamburger for your “buns”. The key is to make the meals from fresh meat/vegetables/fruit that you prepare. If it comes in a box or bag with other stuff, then the food manufacturer has added things to keep it fresh, make it taste and look better. Nature does that better than anyone.

    I could go on and on. This is a subject that I am passionate about, but not obsessive.

    I have an occasional cookie, small piece of cake for someone’s birthday, a bread crust if someone puts olive oil and balsamic vinegar in front of me. But only one piece of anything, and very rarely. When I transgress, my body lets me know. It’s not pleasant until I get it all through my system. But to me, that’s a small price to pay for that little bit of pleasure. But just a little bit, I assure you.

    Smoking, Stress & Obesity Are the Killers

    And dare I say that if you are a smoker, nothing else you do will help. Your body is so busy cleaning up after your lungs that nothing else really helps. The three things that devastate your body are smoking, obesity, and stress. Stop smoking, change your eating habits, and learn to meditate. 15 minutes with your eyes closed sitting quietly and thinking of the most wonderful things in life is an important part of your physical health. It does help your mind but remember, every cell in our body is intelligent, connected to every other cell, and highly impacted by electrical and chemical changes in our bodies. They all need the rest.

    And certainly not the least important thing you can do is exercise and rest. Not an hour at the gym pumping iron, just good refreshing exercise. A walk around the block or shopping mall three or four times a week is plenty. Amazingly, one of the most valuable exercises you can do for your whole body is rebounding. A small trampoline that you just gently bounce up and down on for a couple of minutes a day will do wonders for your whole lymphatic fluid system. The movement forces fluid up and down your body, and the G-forces help sturdy you cells and make them more efficient. Look it up – fascinating.

    I spoke about Dr. Sears early in this discussion. He has an interval exercise system that he calls PACE. It takes about 15 minutes, maybe 3 times a week, on any apparatus or even walking and swimming. PACE is the most effective exercise program you can give your body at our age. And if you just can’t do anything else, at least get up every morning and stretch – every muscle and joint in every direction. Hold it for 15 to 30 seconds. Touch those toes, the ceiling, twist around both directions, swing your arms, toe risers, short squats, use your imagination. If you don’t use it, you lose it! And if you don’t play golf, start. Walk as much as possible and swing a club. You can do that until you’re 100 (and maybe sometime in there you could shoot your age) and you can do it with your significant other – together. Golf courses are the most beautifully landscaped parks in the country. Try it!

    Positive Mental Attitude – Just Get Started

    Now keep in mind that my goal is to increase my quality of life, to enjoy seeing my grandkids grow up, to see them graduate from college and have a family, and who knows, maybe to see my great-grandkids graduate from college, grow up and have a family. I only know that I don’t want to lose my mind before my body, nor my body before my mind. On that last day I want to be vertical and coherent. When you feel this good you wake up looking forward to every day. Your mind controls your body. Make a positive change in your life. It starts with your attitude and aspirations. I hope I have added value to your lives. If nothing else, just reading this has exercised your eyeballs. I wish you a better lifestyle, a more fulfilling life, and a loving family.

    If you are a West Point classmate of mine, I hope to see you at the 50th. Let’s get started.

    terry.keene@integrationsystems.com
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