It was with a sense of considerable shock as I put pen to paper a few weeks ago that I realised that I’ve been writing this column every fortnight for two years now. I wasn’t sure at first quite why I was so shocked by that, but figure it must have something to do with the passage of time and what I’ve been doing with it. At my age, time is traveling pretty fast anyway and in Bali it just seems to flit by as one day merges into another, at constant war with any concept of time, measured by results that is. But that way lies the funny farm......
In that first piece two years ago I asked “How Long do you Want to Live?”. The point being, that if you looked after yourself you could live an extra ten to fifteen years of active life and retain your mobility and your marbles. Of course to do that required you to do certain things, namely a certain degree of life style modification, some basic nutritional supplementation and some reason to want to stay alive in the first place. Without the last why bother? Although it’s never as simple as that. It’s funny how often you’ll find that the person who’s just dragging themselves through life has the constitution of an ox. It’s as if the Great Computer in the Sky in it’s infinite compassion has worked out that they need the extra time to find themselves. Even those of us who have horribly abused our bodies in our youth and beyond, with God knows what beastly substances can still live to a ripe old age and keep our wits if we only give our bodies half a chance.
Which brings me to where I came in two years ago, with the Rolling Stones and I paraphrase my introductory paragraph here:
“ I read that Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Woods and wife Jo has just set up a private health club in London with a 100% organic menu, including the booze. “Organic vodka gives you much less of a hangover”, says Jo helpfully. Ron, fresh out of a London rehab clinic adds encouragingly “a lot of our friends aren’t with us any more. Most of the partygoers are dead”.
On the Road Again.....
As if on cue the Stones have just kicked off their latest worldwide tour Licks in the US and look all set to make another zillion dollars apiece. Nobody does it quite like these guys. They’ve been going 40 years, haven’t really recorded anything new in 20 years and newly elevated Sir Mick, as he now is, turns 60 in less than a year’s time . And yet they are the most successful rock act in history. They’ve generated over $1.5 billion in gross revenues and their last tour Voodoo Lounge in 1994 made over $120 million. Not bad going for a bunch of old geezers from Sarf London. Whatever you make of the music, then or now, you’ve really got to hand it to these guys......
In honour of his new ennoblement perhaps, and in recognition of all that lovely loot about to roll in Mick & Keef even made the front cover of Fortune magazine, who ran an unintentionally hilarious brown-nosing puff piece on our boys. I especially enjoyed the photo of the Fortune staff writer Andy Server with Sir Mick. There he was, Mick sitting on the edge of his sofa looking like nothing so much as a prim maiden aunt fighting off the lascivious designs of young Server, in the guise of some oily great-nephew on the make (see pic. below). Larf, I dam’ near died.
To think I grew up on these guys in such haunts as Eel Pie Island and the Marquis Club. Takes you back it does. They and people like him all owe a huge debt to Alexis Korner who, through the 50’s and 60’s, turned so many Brit kids onto black American bluesmen eking out a living in the US until English boys with long hair gave white America back it’s own music. All a lot of fun until Altamont, which I guess marked the end of the party and the advent of the banal 70’s.
Have fun & live to 100?
Thing is, looking at all four of these guys today, not only are they laughing all the way to the bank, but obviously they’re having fun and are going to keep doing it till they drop. I’ve not been been to a Stones concert since the one in the Park after Brian Jones died, I think. So that dates me. And, I’ve no idea what kind of sound they put out these days but it’s obviously a high energy show they’re putting on and you gotta be fit to do that. Now Mick looks like he takes pretty good care of himself and even the others (yes, even Keef!), while looking well-used I grant you, don’t exactly look at death’s door (see pic. below).
So where’s all this leading? Well, just this.
It seems to me that given you weren’t a self-imploding nutter when young and survive into middle age more or less intact you can have your cake and eat it. A lousy life style lived with conviction is going to shorten your life for sure. But once past the young man stage and all that self-destructive, invincible stuff, with a little wisdom you can phase yourself and do almost anything, provided you give your bod rehab time and a bit of remedial work.
Nor could you really say the Stones were a fat and flabby foursome, now could you? How good are you doin’ pal? In fact for guys around the 60’s mark they don’t actually look that bad, do they? I’d say that they’re probably a lot fitter than most and I’d even go so far as to say that they take pretty good care of themselves nowadays. Hey! Look at Ronnie and his organic vodka. After all it makes sense at their age, it’d be quite difficult to replace any one of them in the line up convincingly and what would that do to the bottom line of the Stones Inc?
Which more or less was my point two years ago when I said there were essentially three things that would go most of the way to give you a long, active life, but also one where you could enjoy yourself more or less up until the time you kick the bucket.
First off you’ve got to want to be around. That’s non-negotiable. Then you’ve got to keep moving, be active, mind and body. You’ve heard it before and it’s oooh sooo true..... “use it , or lose it!”.
And finally you got to supplement. You think you get all you need in your food after what you do to yourself? Well, Good Luck. Do you really think Sir Mick don’t dye his hair and shove a bundle of pills down his throat? C’mon! And I don’t mean uppers either.
The thing is this you see, and it’s very simple, as we age our cells die off more quickly than they replace themselves. That’s what steals our youth, our good looks, that’s what makes us sick and eventually kills us. There’s nothing you can do about any of that. That is our lot. BUT, you can slow the process down! And that is where it’s at.
Don’t do it! But if you do......
For those of you who smoke.... Stop it immediately! If you can’t or won’t then get yourself the best formula of all the anti-oxidants you can find and if you’ve done your homework well you can substantially reduce the damage you are doing to yourself. And it is severe, so don’t kid yourself.
Same goes for overdoing the grog. If you are of a certain age and reckon you can hold your liquor you are actually a lot worse worse off than those poor saps who go red in the face and behave like a right burke when pissed. Why? Because you’re killing off your liver slowly but surely, and you’ve only got one. And it doesn’t show, not until it’s too late usually. A powerful slew of antioxidants can protect you against rampant alcohol-induced cell death and certain herb extracts can actually help regenerate liver tissue and function. You can even cheat the hangover, if you know the trick. Same for drugs in trumps, but you’ll need to research more. Whatever your poison, take all of the above plus a whole heap of brain food or your brains are going to turn to mush long before you get to what could reasonably be called a ripe old age.
But don’t kid yourself ........
Now I have nothing but the utmost admiration for those people who live truly healthy lives and do whatever it takes. It is actually wrong to think that such people are denying themselves. They’re not, that’s just what you’d like to think. Again, don’t kid yourself. They’re doing what they love and if you’ve ever felt how it feels to be really really healthy you’ll know exactly what I mean. But that’s not most of us and there’s no point in beating yourself up about it. Just do your best.
So before getting into trouble with the Savonarola brigade, let me hasten to say I’m not encouraging people to smoke, drink too much, or do drugs, but if you must - at least you should know there’s something you can do about it to mitigate its ravages, and I make no apologies for letting you know that. So there. Better though, that you don’t plus any other of the bad habits that make us ill and age us sooner than we need. But in an imperfect world it’s good to know that you can have fun without beating yourself up about it, isn’t it? Me? I do my homework, I don’t buy rubbish, I know what works and like Sir Mick, I schlock quite a few tabs down me gullet. It’s amazing what you can do and it’s legal too, although they’re working on that........
So even if Sir Mick, Keef et al are making awful fools of themselves (and what person under 35 thinks they do not?). Poncing around the stage like that? Just remember they’re having fun and making pots of lolly. Think of it as therapy. Good on yer, boys. Keep right on doing it, I say. See you at 80.
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