Review The Secret to Healthy Long Life Decrease in Oxidative and Mental Stress My motto is Health is not all. But nothing can be done without health. Health is the most important requisite for all human beings. The worst thing against health is oxidative stress and mental stress occurring in our body. Hence decreasing both stresses is essential for our health and longevity. To decrease oxidative stress in our body we must eat food with high antioxidative activity. Such activity in more than 450 common Japanese foods was determined by using electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometry. In this experiment the antioxidative activity was measured by DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radical extinguishing rate. Very high activity was found in green tea, coffee, and steamed garlic (black garlic). Recently we found extremely high activity in specially prepared organic green tea powder. The activity is 130 times higher than that of steamed garlic whose value was the highest until then. To decrease mental stress is also very important for our health and longevity. To evaluate mental stress, brain wave activity has been found to be the best way. I defined relaxation degree which is the ratio of average voltage of wave and wave. To decrease the mental stress this relaxation degree should be elevated as high as possible in the five senses, i.e. the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. The best method for each sense is different between people. For healthy long life the author recommends the following: drink green tea (powdered tea is the best), eat garlic, vegetables (preferably dark colored), seaweed, yogurt, etc. Do not eat too much food because excessive calorie intake shortens your life span. Eat until 70 % of your stomach is full. Have your body checked by a doctor once or twice a year, and if disease is found, treat it as soon as possible, especially in the case of cancer. If you follow all of these guidelines you can obtain a healthy long life. 76
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