1. Have a yearly check up with your own doctor to detect diseases in their early stages when they are curable.
  2. Nurture your immune system – it is your greatest health asset. The immune system requires plentiful amounts of zinc, selenium, iodine, vitamin D and vitamin C and yet many people are deficient in these protective nutrients; no wonder many types of cancer have increased dramatically over the last decade.
  3. Become a relative of the rabbit family – what I mean, is make sure you eat a variety of raw and cooked vegetables and fruits everyday; this will greatly reduce your risk of infections, cancer and liver disease.
  4. Get some sunshine regularly – this will allow your skin to manufacture its own vitamin D and this vitamin conserves bone density and reduces your risk of cancer.
  5. Get adequate amounts of good quality sleep by retiring before 11pm. This increases your chances of getting more REM sleep, when you have more dreams allowing you to work out subconscious conflicts; thus you will have less stress and anxiety. Adequate sleep is anti-ageing as it strengthens your immune system and allows your endocrine system to restore itself.
  6. Keep your blood pressure in the normal range with a combination of regular exercise, drinking plenty of water, taking a magnesium supplement and if needed, blood pressure reducing medication. High blood pressure causes heart attacks and strokes and these can usually be avoided by controlling high blood pressure.
  7. Have fun and enjoy your life. If you are lucky enough to get to 60 years of age, you realise that life is quite short and you have spent a large part of it working too hard and worrying excessively. Work on your self esteem and tell yourself you are fantastic! I do this daily and I even have a few folks believing it now- but most importantly, it gives you the courage to be yourself!
  8. If you have to have an operation or make a decision to take long term or potentially toxic medication, make sure that you get two or more professional opinions. Nutritional medicine can often work well, either as an alternative to drugs or in conjunction with drugs, thus enabling lower doses of drugs to be used. This is why it’s called complementary medicine.
  9. Take time to improve your mental ability by engaging in mentally challenging sports, hobbies, new courses, cross word puzzles, games etc. The brain is like a muscle – use it or lose it!
  10. Take care of your liver, as it is the organ of longevity. One of my favourite sayings is “Love your liver and live longer”. The liver is the furnace of the body providing energy for the rest of the body. The liver is the filter and cleanser of your blood stream and protects your immune system from overload. The liver is also the major fat burning organ in the body and helps to keep your weight down and your cholesterol levels in the normal range. A healthy liver helps to regulate blood sugar levels and prevent diabetes. Don’t abuse your liver with excess alcohol or sugar, as if you get a fatty liver it will no longer be the organ of longevity.