I help people with anti-ageing natural medicine as a clinical naturopath, medical nutritionist, herbalist, hypnotherapist and mental health professional.
When I say antiaging, I’m talking about slowing the aging process down and maintaining health. I don’t only help people clinically, but I practice that myself.
Most people age long before their time. Sure, there are some genetic elements, but twin studies, looking at identical twins, show us how even they can age differently. (1)
It’s not a magic pill but the way you live on a day-to-day, week-to week and year-by-year basis.
I’ve spent a lot of my time researching longevity and studying people who live beyond 100 years of age with health and quality of life.
Tracie O’Keefe still dancing at 69 years of age
Age-related health assessment
In many modern societies we have a raft of clinical tests that can determine how your body is aging. I order these in my clinic as I think it’s important to take a scientific approach.
I often see people who only ever seek help from health professionals when something has gone drastically wrong. Sometimes it’s too late to fix those problems which were preventable.
My approach is let’s monitor what we can to look for early warning signs that we need to address and prevent problems. The earlier we catch a problem the easier it is to make change and help you recover and stop the problem in its tracks.
I asked you hundreds of questions, order blood test, genetic profiles and tissues analysis. There is your chronological age and your biological age. (2) Paying attention to how you treat your body and mind slows down the aging process.
Stress kills and ages you
Sustained stress does not only kills you but also ages you fast. You’re kept in the emergency alert state that puts a tremendous strain on your body systems. (3)
It interferes with your immune system, digestion and your body’s abilities to renew and replace broken or old cells. So, cell turnover is down, and you end up with too many sick and unwanted cells.
Health requires you to have a constant and healthy cell turnover during your lifetime, particularly as you age. I can be automatic when you are young but as you age the process needs far more support.
Stress’s damage to your immune system causing systemic inflammation creating a toxic feedback loop where stress equals cell stagnation and then cell stagnation equals stress.
Eat your way to 100 years of age
Food for anti-aging
Most people eat bad food. I’m not kidding because I mean foods you should never eat like:
Processed food
Old food containing mycotoxins
Fast food
Foods that are not right for your body
Genetically altered food
Contaminated food
Foods that are contaminated with pesticides and weed killers
The Netflix documentary You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment, clearly showed the difference that diet made to biological aging and performance. (4)
I never eat food on airplanes and take my own food with me. Does this sound strange ‘no’ because as a dietitian I know the food I eat helps me recover from jet lag faster.
As human beings our diets developed over millions of years to nourish the kind of body we have today. Nature did that so, staying as close to wholefood natural eating benefits us.
Studies of the world’s blue zone, where people regularly live to over 100 years of age, teaches us what works best for our bodies. It also tells us what food prevents and fights diseases.
Exercise for long Gevity
As a child I trained in ballet and a dancer who also did acrobatics. I worked as a professional dancer as an adult. I worked out my whole life. (5)
This means my body at around seventy years of age I’m strong enough to avoid and recover from everyday injuries. I don’t have a car but get on my bicycle to get about.
As human beings we are meant to constantly move every day. Even if we have injuries, we should pay attention to exercising the rest of our bodies.
Research shows that people who exercise live longer and have a better quality of life. Don’t make excuses that you are too busy or don’t have the time because that’s not true for anyone. It’s your day and your choice.
104-year-old Fauja Singh running the Mumbai marathon
Good mental health
People with poor mental health generally have a lower life expectancy. (6) The stress of not being able to cope well in the world puts an enormous strain on your body.
In the East many disciplines teach good mental health through meditation, prayer, yoga or Tia chi etc. In the West it’s assumed the good mental health comes automatically with doing anything.
The lack of taking care of your mental health and getting disturbed is then automatically seen as mental illness. Of course, there are some extreme mental disturbances that are biological, but most are not.
Automatically giving medication for a lack of self-care, instead of teaching self-care damages and person. Ther is no fast fix to good mental health, it’s what you do for yourself in your daily life.
Hypnotherapy for anti-aging
What I’ve learned for over 70 years is that discipline and routine are the best friends of longevity. That needs to include daily self-care without exception. (7)
Even when I’m away or on holiday I go to a gym and dance studio. I take my sports things with me in my suitcase, eat the same healthy diet wherever I am, and do my self-hypnosis every day.
Hypnotherapy can help you set up those self-care routines in your mind and motivate you. It changes your mind at a deep unconscious level to give you a new way of looking at your life.
Sure, I will prescribe diet, exercise supplements and herbs and I will also help focus your mind to put self-care above everything else in your life, which keeps you active longer.
Make an appointment with Dr Tracie O’Keefe for anti-aging natural medicine. Call 0403 398808 now. In clinic visits or via the internet from anywhere in the world.
References
(1) Ageing, genes, environment and epigenetics: What twin studies tell us now, and in the future. (2012). Ageing, 41(5), 581–586. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afs097
(2) Li, Z., Zhang, W., Duan, Y., Niu, Y., Chen, Y., Liu, X., Dong, Z., Zheng, Y., Chen, X., Feng, Z., Wang, Y., Zhao, D., Sun, X., Cai, G., Jiang, H., & Chen, X. (2023). Progress in biological age research. Frontiers in Genetics, 14, 10130645. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10130645/
(3) Yaribeygi, H., Panahi, Y., Sahraei, H., Johnston, T. P., & Sahebkar, A. (2017). The impact of stress on body function: A review. EXCLI Journal, 16, 1057–1072. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28900385/
(4) You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment. (2024). [Netflix documentary]. https://www.netflix.com/au/title/81133260
(5) Garatachea, N., Pareja-Galeano, H., Sanchis-Gomar, F., Santos-Lozano, A., Fiuza-Luces, C., Morán, M., Emanuele, E., Joyner, M. J., & Lucia, A. (2015). Exercise attenuates the major hallmarks of aging. Aging Cell, 14(6), 929–939. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4340807/
(7) Chan, J. K. N., Correll, C. U., Wong, C. S. M., Chu, R. S. T., Fung, V. S. C., Wong, G. H. S., Lei, J. H. C., & Chang, W. C. (2024). Life expectancy and years of potential life lost in people with mental disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Psychiatry, 11(1), 53–66. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10641487/
(8) O’Conor, R., Benavente, J. Y., Kwasny, M. J., Eldeirawi, K., Hasnain-Wynia, R., Federman, A. D., Hebert-Beirne, J., & Wolf, M. S. (2019). Daily routine: Associations with health status and urgent health care utilization among older adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 67(12), 2512–2520. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6857682/
