Newton, Einstein, and Antiaging

Everyone knows the story of the man who goes up in a spacecraft and comes back to earth years later. His wife, who was in her prime when he left, is now old and decrepit. The space traveler, however, has only aged a few years. So goes aging in space. As speed of travel increases to the speed of light, aging begins to go very, very slowly. So goes the theory of time and space by Einstein.

As we ourselves get older, we want to defy, like the space traveler, the aging process. And thanks to another scientist who predated Einstein by three hundred years, we know how we can. We all know Newton discovered gravity. But what may not be so obvious (and it was a question Newton himself never thought about) is the way in which gravity contributes to the aging process. We don’t often think about how much energy we exert fighting gravity. Yet, when we feel tired, we are sensitive to the effects of gravity and feel compelled to lie down to ameliorate some of gravity’s inexorable pull. When we walk or run, we’re putting all the gravitational pressure of our entire body on one small spot, creating thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch. Many biologists now feel that gravity plays a significant role in the cell’s loss of ability to replicate itself, thus contributing directly to aging and death. Well-known nutritionist Dr. Bernard Jensen has said that there is not a single disease in which gravity does not play a part.

If we could reverse the force of gravity on our bodies, we would look and feel younger. But we can’t. Gravity is a fact of life that is inescapable, and short of space travel at the speed of light, there is no way that we can escape its effects. What we can do, however, is find ways to allow gravity to work for us instead of against us.

What’s wonderful about the last 20 years is that the health movement has made working with gravity (and thus aging reversal) so accessible. There are several methods, each thoroughly enjoyable, and you will see and feel the effects almost immediately. They are rebounding, skipping, using the slant board, and floating.

Rebounding

Rebounding is unique as an aerobic exercise because it stimulates, strengthens, and cleanses every cell in the body. This is because it uses vertical motion, rather than the horizontal motion that is used in all other forms of exercise. When you bounce up and down, your entire body goes through repetitive vertical acceleration and deceleration, working against gravity. At the bottom of every bounce, your entire body stops for a split second. At this moment, the force of gravity shoves down on every cell in your body. Then your body shoots back upward, again stopping for just a split instant. This is your moment in space; for this instant, you are weightless and gravityless. Because of the repetitive pushing and pulling on all your cells, the tissues and fibers and muscles in your body all grow stronger. Also, flushing out metabolic waste is increased by 300 percent by rebounding. The compression/decompression of cell membranes that occurs in rebounding significantly boosts the diffusion of fluid into and out of the cells, carrying in fresh oxygen and nutrients and flushing out the toxins. Rebounding can also substantially boost the immune system by increasing the activity of lymphocytes within the bloodstream. There is literally no other form of exercise that has this same capacity for total cellular cleansing.

Skipping

Of course, you remember skipping. You may also remember how happy you felt when you skipped. I don’t mean content, or satisfied, or feeling good or nice. I mean happy. The health benefits of skipping are the same as rebounding. Skipping is more aerobic than running, with none of the disadvantages of running. It’s all done on your toes and the front of your feet, and this area has great padding. This cushions all the bones and joints in your legs as well as your back, so you will not get injured the way runners do.

The Slant Board

Yoga discovered the importance of being upside-down five thousand years ago. The slant board is the shortcut version of the yoga postures of head and shoulder stands.

Brain anemia may not be a medically recognized disease entity, but many of us have it. If muscle tone or circulation is not good enough, then the blood can’t travel uphill to the brain sufficiently to feed the brain. Without sufficient blood to the brain, virtually all of our functions will be weakened. The cerebellum, the back part of your brain, is where every physical organ is regenerated. You cannot breathe; you cannot hear, see, or taste; and you cannot think properly or move any part of your body without your back brain getting enough blood flow. This is, as well, the first part of the brain to be adversely affected by gravity.

Many animals instinctively feed their brains the blood that is needed by how they sleep. (They don’t need slant boards.) The animal is always in a prone position during sleep, and its head falls lower than the rest of its body.

Lying on the slant board puts your head at a forty-five degree angle below your feet. It repositions all of the internal organs. Gravity pulls the organs upward, thus creating space between the organs so that the oxygen can reach the organs more easily.

Floating

It was a rave in the 1970s. Most major cities still have at least one float room. Floating is an antigravity experience like none other. You float peacefully in the water that has been saturated with eight hundred pounds of Epsom salts, thus experiencing both buoyancy and weightlessness (like in space—or like the Dead Sea). Because there is little sensory stimulation in the chamber, you enter a state that is like the meditative state—both extraordinarily quiet and intensely conscious. Because the water is heated to the precise degree of skin temperature, there are no nerve transmissions traveling from the skin to the brain. As a result, the relaxation induced is utterly profound. The rejuvenating effect on the body and brain is shown to be equivalent to five hours of sleep. Research shows the physiological effects from floating:

* it creates a drop in blood pressure
* it slows the pulse rate
* it allows the blood to circulate more freely throughout the body
* it increases alpha and theta waves in the brain
* synchronous and symmetrical rhythms are achieved throughout the cortex
* it decreases levels of hormones associated with stress, the fight or flight hormones
* pH levels and electrolytes are balanced
* heavy metals can be released from the body.

If you can’t find a float room, then just fill your bathtub with water and add five pounds of Epsom salts. You won’t float, but you will still derive the considerable benefits that the Epsom salt confers. It is a powerful detoxifier, and skin elasticity is improved.

Doing All of Them

Combining all of these techniques in one’s life gives an unsurpassed boost of rejuvenative energy. Skip in the morning and skip at night (five minutes). Float (or take an Epsom salt bath) once a week. Rebound for ten minutes every day. And snooze (or do leg lifts) on the slant board for twenty minutes every day (preferably between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m.—the time when the sun and moon change their configuration in relation to each other, and when we feel the most tired). Incorporating these health techniques into our lives not only makes us feel better, but we look better, too.

Bibliography

Brooks, Linda. Rebounding to Better Health. Lincoln, NE: KE, 1995.
Carter, Albert E. The New Miracles of Rebound Exercise. Fountain Hills, AZ: A. L. M., 1988.
Hutchison, Michael. The Book of Floating. New York: Quill, 1984.
Jensen, Bernard. Nature Has a Remedy. Escondido, CA: Bernard Jensen, 1979.
Walker, Morton. Jumping for Health: Guide to Rebounding Aerobics. Garden City Park, NY: Avery, 1989.

** This article is one of 101 great articles that were published in 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health. To get complete details on “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health”, visit http://selfgrowth.com/healthbook3.html