Ken Walker, aka W. Gifford-Jones was in North Bay recently to promote his new book "90+ How I Got There". His medical column is published by over 50 Canadian newspapers and several in the United States. He has also published eight books. Photo by Jeff Turl.
Want to live to over 90 years old? Take advice from Dr. W. Gifford-Jones who will tell you how to do it in his new book "90+ How I Got There."
Gifford-Jones (real name Ken Walker) is well known for medical columns in newspapers that he has written for many years, and continues to write.
"One day I was sitting in my office writing a column and I thought 'You know I'm 90+ now, maybe there's a book there,' so I started to think about it and that's the reason I wrote it."
He did suffer a heart attack 17 years ago, "and it was a bad one."
Gifford-Jones says he was advised to go on cholesterol lowering drugs, but a meeting with Linus Pauling, (1901-1994), the only person ever to win two unshared Nobel prizes, convinced him that vitamin C was the key to long life.
"We don't make any at all. We lost that genetic ability eons ago. It was a bad genetic mistake."
Pauling said vitamin C was needed for the manufacture of collagen, the glue that holds cells together. Pauling's theory was that a lack of vitamin C was causing microscopic cracks in the coronary arteries and that's where a blood clot would occur.
The book, "90+ How I Got There" also contains advice about an increasing problem in today's society...the pressure on caregivers, as children increasingly assume responsibility of the health of their parents.
"It takes a hell of a toll on their lives," Gifford-Jones explains.
"In fact if you don't watch out the caregiver starts getting into trouble too. We're in a whole new era of society where getting older is becoming a problem not only for the people getting older but for society as a whole."
He advises caregivers not to hold their emotions in.
"Shout out loud that 'I'm tired and I need help."
His top three pieces of advice for living longer.
- watch your lifestyle and avoid obesity
- take vitamin C and lysine to help develop and maintain bones, teeth and gums and avoid hardening of the arteries
- the best medicine, if taken in moderation, is alcohol. There are many studies that show those that drink moderately live longer than those that are teetotalers, because alcohol increases the good cholesterol and also makes the little platelets in the blood that stick together to form the blot clot, slippery and less likely to form a blood clot and cause a fatal heart attack.
Oh yes, and about the sex?
"I've often told my patients that sex is only five percent of a marriage, but it's the first five percent, and if you have a happy bedroom, you'll have a happy marriage so it's a good rule of thumb."
"And I thought, 'I've got to put a little sex in the book'."
