Sir Christopher Ball - The Responsible Individual

Leslie Kenny35min

Sir Christopher Ball

00:01

As you heard, my name is Christopher ball and the subject of what I want to talk to you about for exactly half an hour, and you can time me by watching my visual aid, is "the responsible individual." My youngest son called Richard used to say, when I made one of those parental speeches to all the children, we have six, well, I got to the end of it, and he would say, "So what, Daddy?" I'm the "so what? person" in this conference. So what do we, the patients, the non specialists, have to take away and have to do as a result of hearing all this wisdom from the excellent speakers we've had? By the way, you're such a wonderful audience. Thank you so much for staying to listen to me. If you leave now, I'll have to chase you out of the door. So the etiology, the causation of disease, is interesting and important. Our illnesses are caused by three major classes of threat, infection, like measles; our genetic inheritance (no, I haven't got a good example of that); and our own choices in life--our lifestyle and our mindset. Medical science focused largely on the first of these, infection in the 19th century. The second of them, genetics in the 20th century, and is beginning to recognize the importance of the third one, the choices we make in the 21st century. Now the five major killers of the elderly, namely heart disease, cancer, dementia, disabling falls (somebody help me down the steps in a minute), and diabesity, lovely American word, the fatal combination of obesity and type two diabetes. These five conditions are not caused by infection. You can't catch them like measles. They may, to an extent, run in families, our genetic inheritance might predispose some of us to develop heart problems, cancer, dementia, or lose our balance and fall, or just eat too much and accelerate the processes of decay. But as some doctors like to say, our genes may load the gun, but it's our lifestyle that fires the bullets. I love that quotation. Our lifestyle fires the bullets. Lifestyle and mindset are critically important, especially for the elderly like me and these two, are substantially shaped by our habitual behavior. We do what we've always done, the groups of family and friends we associate with, we do what other people do, and our typical animal attraction to the next pleasant experience--another glass of wine, perhaps, or piece of chocolate. Or for some people, fix, so choose with care your habits, your associates and your trivial pleasures, because they can kill you if you don't choose carefully.

Sir Christopher Ball

04:02

Now, cancer is particularly interesting. There is little evidence that in the past, it was the scourge it is today, until as late as the 17th century, when that word cancer was transferred from referring to one of the signs of the Zodiac, which these days we call the crab, to refer to the cancerous growths which are so common today. Treatments of cancer, even now, little more than attempts to alleviate the symptoms, surgery, for example, or radiation, rather than deal with the underlying cause or causes. For cancer is a metabolic disease, if perhaps to a degree genetic, in which the cells in our body start to go haywire. That's not a medical technical term, by the way. As yet, there is no pill available to rectify that. It is also important to distinguish between symptoms and causes of disease. If I cut my finger, the symptoms are the blood and the pain and the cause is the knife and the careless cook. Medical science seeks to identify and eliminate causes. Be more careful next time Christopher and alleviate symptoms a piece of sticking plaster for the bleeding finger. What is interesting about most of the serious ailments of the elderly is that doctors treat the symptoms and seem to ignore the causes, for example, of heart attacks, cancer, dementia, falls, and the one I call diabesity, although it's pretty clear where they lie. They lie in our lifestyles because we like smoking or drinking or just plain old gluttony. Our mindsets--stress, anxiety and depression, which are epidemics sweeping the Western world at the moment--and our environment, the air we breathe, our homes and our workplaces. The problems of old age seem to be our indifference to a toxic culture, a toxic environment, a poor quality of lifestyle, and a miserable mindset. So I invite you to attend to your C, E, L, M. The evidence of the so called Blue Zones in the world, where healthy longevity is widely shared by people who live a simple and contented life and respect traditional family values is indicative the example of the American Seventh Day Adventists who do the same in an otherwise dangerously toxic culture is particularly suggestive. We should all consider adopting what I like to call the SMELD (S-M-E-L-D) lifestyle. Avoid stress, nurture a positive mindset, take regular exercise, foster your loving relationships, and eat a vegan diet. The standard American diet is abbreviated S-A-D, and it is indeed sad. So remember SMELD as part of the take away message of this conference. Patients ask me, which is very flattering of them, what should I avoid and what should I embrace? And those are good questions. This is my list of don'ts and do's: Avoid, stress, complaint, smoking, alcohol, obesity, strong sunlight and less protected, meat, asbestos, shop-bought processed foods. Embrace acceptance, balance, and cherishing--the ABC of a positive mindset; and eat a plant-based veganish diet (none of us is perfect); exercise, walk a mile a day; and enjoy natural things--the sky, the water, the trees. Live a regular life--mealtimes, bedtime routine; learn a new skill--crochet or a foreign foreign language; complete a challenging crossword or a jigsaw or both each day; practice slow, deep, nasal breathing three times a day--and we've been tutored in that today wonderfully. Ring your family and friends; care for others; be grateful; accept the universe. But above all, avoid the news.

Sir Christopher Ball

09:20

Seek to balance your mind, your body, and your life. Review your life's choices and your lifestyle. Simplify as you grow older and then simplify again. This is the basic curriculum for healthy longevity and a life free from cancer, dementia and disabling falls three of the most serious threats in old age, along with diabetes and of course, heart attacks and strokes. This regime will delay the onset and retard the development of the ailments of longevity and possibly even restore good health to elderly. Sick people to working with me, why not adopt it our sleep, as we've heard, is particularly important for good health, seven to nine hours each night, plus some short naps during the day, if you like, live into the future, not out of the past. Never say I used to be. Instead, set yourself new goals and tell other people about them. I'm going to be, I'm going to do, review your habits and practice giving up the bad ones, like finding fault in other people, moaning, drinking, driving, and develops a new healthy habits like eating slowly and attentively or smiling at strangers. I try to follow this regime, and it seems to be working for me and for others who I know as my doctor who has been talking to you today, my doctor who called Paul, he likes to say when I ask him if his medication for my heart disease is doing me any good. Well, you're still alive, aren't you. I like that. That's the ultimate test. Age 89 89 I enjoy good health, and I'm free from cancer, dementia and diabesity so far, which is all we old people can say. I've had a few falls, but none recently, and none did any serious damage, but I did need an urgent triple heart bypass a decade or so ago. So I admit it, nobody's perfect, and that was my wake up call, and perhaps this conference will be yours. I also take a range of supplements and seek to ensure that my body and blood are detoxified by encouraging autophagy, which we've just been hearing about, cellular waste disposal, which is helped I understand by intermittent fasting. I would encourage you to consult your own GP before taking supplements on a regular basis, all practicing fasting, if possible, arranged to have regular blood tests to establish which supplements are most needful for you. I do that. Don't trust the adverts, and certainly don't trust the internet. Nonetheless, I recommend eating an early supper, not later than 6pm I'll try to finish in time for you to do that with no evening snacks, to allow about 14 hours without food overnight, which facilitates the process of autophagy. I also sometimes take my limps together at night if I wake with a dry mouth to ensure nasal breathing, and I have a cold shower, as cold as I can make it first thing every morning to wake me up and encourage blood circulation, try it. It's horrible at first, but you do get used to it. As an example of what I hope and think is a sensible and responsible regime for healthy longevity. At present, I take regular daily supplements of calcium, flaxseed, iron, magnesium, Omega oil, primidine to promote ortepage, of course, sea kelp, vitamin B 12 and ensure my veganish diet provides me with plenty of selenium in Brazil nuts, in case you didn't know, and turmeric as the toxins, I try to avoid the nine most serious toxins in our environment and culture today, namely pesticides and herbicides. Check your garden shed, and don't forget to wash all shot bought vegetables and fruit, mold, toxins, heavy metals, processed sugars, they say that white sugar is white poison. Plastics, beware of bottled water. Stress, trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, all that crowd, avoid them or learn how to resolve them. Fillers, additives and preservatives. Avoid shot. Bought processed foods, parasites, often picked up from our household pets, radiation from IT devices. I've read that, I can't confirm the truth of this, that those who carry mobile phones, which probably means most of the people in the room, but not me, are three times more likely to develop cancer symptoms. To find out whether that's true, and consider your position, review the products found in your bathroom, so shampoo sanitizes, deodorant scent, makeup, and if in doubt, avoid them or seek expert guidance on a process of decent toxification and then adopt it. Mike, microbe program for the next few years, includes the adoption of a walking stick for the home and garden and walking poles for further afield. I plan to do this on my 90th birthday next year, and I also hope to learn more about the cutting edge research on multipurpose blood tests like the Grail test, which is available in America but not yet here, and stem cell and ultrasound treatment for Parkinson's disease dementia and brain tumors to avoid perilous recourse to surgery. Remember, smelled a lifestyle of a lifestyle of avoidance of stress, nurturing a positive mindset. Choose to be happy, regular exercise, fostering loving relationships with your family and friends and with the universe, and a vegan ish diet. Now the E and D of smells are pretty obvious. Most of us have a broad understanding of the imperatives of exercise. Walk a mile a day, climb stairs, stretch, lift, stand up from a sitting position and so on. Develop your own routines and the principles of a vegan ish, so called Mediterranean diet, plant based diet, without meat or dairy products, and avoiding all shot bought processed foods. They're the easy ones, easy to define, bit of a discipline to take them on if you've been eating meat and dairy all your life, in the time left following the broad survey that I've given you of a lifestyle and mindset designed to promote healthy longevity, least until my 100th birthday. Though I plan to live rather longer than that, in case you're wondering, if I do, I shall laugh at you. If I don't, you may laugh at me because I work here. I want now to focus on the S, M and L of smells, the avoidance of stress, developing a positive mindset and fostering loving relationships. Our emotional health is critical to healthy longevity, and you might start if you feel you need to attend to your own by watching my favorite TV program, which is called marvelous starring Toby Jones. It's available on the iPlayer from which I borrowed the instruction to choose to be happy, not the start of my last paragraph, happiness is a choice distinct from joy, which is a delightful surprise, a radiant sunset, a snowfall, a sudden view. And don't confuse either happiness or joy with mere pleasure, which is usually trivial and always short lived for a glass of wine or piece of chocolate, forgotten or indeed regretted the next day. Happiness is a chosen mindset, a way of being like loving kindness that looks on Tempest and is never shaken. It needs nurturing and fostering. Don't just wait and hope you will soon feel happy. Choose it as a default state of mind. I am using instruct myself by creating an alphabetical list of reasons to be happy, animals, babies, colors, daylight, eyes, family, gardens, hobbies, ideas, jigsaws, kisses, learning music, numbers, oceans, plants, quietness, reading, skies, trees, the universe, verse, water,

Sir Christopher Ball

19:15

X, words, youngsters, zest and zeal. I start the day by reviewing my list and end it by adding new items. My aim is to find at least a century of good reasons to be happy, four or more for each letter of the alphabet. The difficult letters like X and Z present a real problem. Any suggestions later on would be welcome, but I recommend that others should make their own list. You make your list. We all need to find our own rationale for happiness. For without happiness, we can't sustain a positive mindset. Without that, we let one of the essential qualities. Of a healthy longevity. So what are the obstacles to our happiness? I've only ever found three our herd, by which I mean friends and family, workmates and acquaintances, whose examples we tend to follow on, critically our habits. People say, I always feel miserable when it rains. Why? Why feel miserable when it rains? It's good for the garden and our unending pursuit of the next high pleasure. Mommy.

Sir Christopher Ball

20:35

Give

Sir Christopher Ball

20:36

me another ice cream. These three H's, I think in Birmingham, it's pronounced HS, which makes sense. These three HS can govern our lives if we let them. Reflection and self training can moderate their power to harm us. Beware of seeking to medic medicalize bad habits by falling calling them by fancy names like OCD or sad. You can look them up if you want to know what they stand for, since diagnosis without effective treatment is completely worthless. What does work is taking responsibility for one's own weaknesses and dealing with them, ration your pleasures and review your peer group, distancing yourself from those whose lifestyle provides you with a poor example, and embracing those you wish to emulate. That's what I do. Quite selective. Is rather difficult with family, but you can do it with friends. And to balance the threat of the three ages, I have so far discovered three sure ways to find real happiness. The first, and by far the most important, is the service of other people. Make someone a cup of tea smile at a stranger, care for your grandchildren and your pets, revere and thank your god the creation of something good. That's the second one. Paint a picture, write a poem. That's what my favorite one. Cook a meal. I now do half the cooking of my own home, and absolutely love it, and my wife tolerates it. And the pursuit of mastery, complete that crossword or a jigsaw puzzle, learn stick weaving. Google it if you want to know what it is, it's my favorite hobby. Try it. These things work for me. But the bottom line is the imperative of taking responsibility for our own feelings, just as most of us take responsibility for our own thoughts and judgments and choices and, of course, our actions those people who can't do that, we call mad and send them for treatment or sadly, we imprison them, though that doesn't help very much. I think, I think sanity a healthy mind can be measured by the degree one is regularly able to take responsibility, not only for your actions and your words, but also for thoughts and feelings. Choose to be happy returning for a moment to the Five Great threats to our healthy longevity and the likeliest causes of our ultimate demise, heart disease, cancer, dementia, accidents and falls and die, obesity, I observe that while three are fairly well understood, manageable by a responsible individual and competently treated by a wonderful national health service when they happen two, two of them, cancer and dementia, are still somewhat mysterious and puzzling, but responsible individuals, as I hope you are and I am like our doctors need reliable information provided by full body MRI scans, comprehensive blood tests and the study of our genetic relationships, for example, on a regular basis throughout our adult lives. To supplement the regime set out in my formulas. Smelled. I note that exercise, which is the E of smell, is thought to be the very best medicine available today to prevent delay or even reverse the development of dementia. I think we should all heed the advice a wonderful book called out live the Science and Art of longevity by Doctor Peter Attia. I think we should heed it and remember that word heed our health is founded upon our emotional balance, regular exercise. Nice and careful diet, we should take heed of that advice by the experts. This year, I've been musing on the issue of motivation. How may we create the commitment to maintain strengthen our practice of the regime, summarized in My Word smelled, I suggest you might choose to live long enough to reach your own centenary and receive the birthday card from the King. What an excitement. And imagine what you will accomplish in your 100th and first year of life. Is always good practice to have a goal beyond the goal. I wish to retain good health in both mind and bodies, so that I can still play bridge and solve crossword puzzles, walk a mile a day and climb the stairs, for example. And that means, of course, that I must keep practicing these skills that I value and seek to maintain into my 11th decade. Never cease from your personal training regime to ensure that both mind and body remain capable of realizing your dreams and attaining your goals. Those with a positive mindset focus on training for their future lives and not on regretting their lost past. When I was a child, my mother read me fairy stories and nursery rhymes that I could still remember. I recall that after numerous amazing adventures, the prince and princess always lived happily ever after in health, wealth and happiness. Do you remember those wonderful phrases, which I claim are the prerequisites and components of our emotional health, and I hope for several more years of HWH health, wealth and happiness, and I've been discussing how best to secure and safeguard these benefits with my friend who's called John, and he tells me that the First Health is to be found in the 7s sustenance, the Mediterranean or veganish diet. He describes himself as a Noah, no animal husbandry, regular sleep, avoidance of all stimulants, exercise. You'll have to search through that spelling of that word five years stress now distinguish good stress, which you choose as a challenge, like doing a crossword puzzle, say or a jigsaw puzzle that's good for you, from bad stress, which You feel is imposed on you by your employer, say, or your partner. Avoid the latter. Or simplest solution, just choose it, sex, enjoy it so low or Pardo. Or, in my case, in memory, I was a joke. Simplicity. Seek to simplify your life repeatedly on the second of these, h, w, H, words, wealth is the easiest, my friend claims. But choose your parents carefully what good advice that is, get a good education and training, work hard and smart and gladly, never borrow without security. Don't Well, hardly ever read the ads. Don't go shopping without a list and then stick to it, say or give away, or better, both the first 10% of annual income pay your taxes cheerfully by what you need, not what you want. Throughout his life, he's been puzzled by those who are either frustrated by or addicted to the pursuit of wealth, but he does recognize that he's someone privileged by nature and nurture, but not by inherited wealth, which often seems to be the Trojan force in people's lives. Gifts of money and free offers can be dangerous for us. Gambling, of course, is addictive and a sure road to ruin. Never start to rely on the hope for inherited wealth, but do secure a good pension. The third fascinates him, happiness. The first step towards true happiness, we've agreed in discussion, is to distinguish between pleasure and happiness, and I've already done that for you. He's found happiness in five places during his life, serving others again, creativity. He's a writer, scholar and cook and a good deal more, beside achievement in several different spheres, the pursuit of mastery, where journey, the journey counts for more. On the attainment of what turns out to be an ever receding goal, but it's fun chasing it all the same. And performance, choral singing, public speaking like this, teaching and training.

Sir Christopher Ball

30:15

Remember the acronym scamp? He likes to tell me that he's a bit of a scamp. And I think this is what Thomas Jefferson had in mind when he defined our human rights as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Surely he didn't mean the pursuit of mere selfish pleasure. We're interested here in real human happiness, there's an interesting difference between our culture's approach to emotional health and the three components of a good life, health, wealth and happiness. Most of us understand and agree that we're responsible for our own wealth. We must learn or earn our own living ensure we have an adequate pension for the years of retirement and for the care that we may require in extreme old age. But health and happiness seem for many people to depend on externals, things we can't control, our genetic inheritance, our childhood experiences, other people in our lives, the National Health Service, or even the poor old government. We have a government that is both poor and old at the moment, health and happiness seem to many people who extend to depend. No, I've done that bit. Perhaps one of the key attributes of healthy longevity is resilience and the belief that we might be able to develop and sustain the attributes we need to take effective responsibility for our own health and happiness alongside our care for our own finances. But my sister tells me, I read this over to her before making this talk for you, you left the most important things out. She said, God and dog are pleased to emotional health and lasting happiness. Get yourself a god and a dog. I perhaps she's right. Pets are undoubtedly important to us. If we love them, they are certainly going to love us. And religious faith is at the least responsible for a remarkable placebo effect. I'll leave you to discuss that amongst yourselves, as you recall, I've entitled this short address the responsible individual. I argue that our health, wealth and happiness are our own responsibility, and that a good life critically depends on and starts from a secure mindset of personal responsibility our family, friends and the wider community, unless we're really unlucky, provide the backup, landmark education. You can Google it offers first class training in, among other things, the development of reliable personal commitment, the Center for emotional health. You can Google that too, provides guidance and courses, both are warmly recommended, but at the beginning and the end of the day, there's no one else to rely on, no one else to blame but ourselves, if we fail to find the motivation and commitment to live a responsible life. Now the good news is that once we have taken that responsibility, we will find the resources we need to secure our lifelong health, wealth and happiness. Indeed, why not choose to die happy and enjoy a good life of healthy longevity rooted in our emotional health? So my take home message is this, in order of importance, it's all about a positive mindset, regular exercise and a veganish diet, and it works for me. Why not make this your strategy? I wish you all a healthy a long and a happy life. Thank you for listening. You listen.

Sir Christopher Ball

34:24

Thank you very much, sir, Christopher, that was wonderful. He was our most popular speaker at last year's summit. And I hope that you gleaned some wisdom, because getting older does not mean getting worse, but wiser. So I hope you've all gleaned some wisdom today at this conference. You have a lot of ideas food for thought. You'll take away some of these, incorporate them into your daily lives. And of course, please remember, don't think about the word O L, D. Please remember o l, p for. Oxford longevity project for the rest of the year, you can follow us on social media, on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook. At Oxford longevity project, we'll continue to bring you more more information from our survey results, as well as interviews with fascinating scientists and thinkers. So thank you so much for your time. Please bring your serve your survey results. Just place them here at the front, and we'll be choosing a winner from those people who submit survey results. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful rest of your day. You

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