Which of Your Forebears Are You?

Great-granddad

Emigrated to the U.S. from northern Italy in his forties.

Held on to the diet and lifestyle he had grown up with.

Never saw a doctor in his life.

Walked briskly, even in old age, with no apparent pain or limitations.

Enjoyed strategy type card games with peers and grandchildren-- and never seemed to lose.

Zero signs of mental fogginess or short-term memory loss.

Five years after his wife died, he announced to his family he was done with a great life, stopped eating and was dead one week later. At 95.

I score him 95/0 (0 years assisted living/nursing home)

Granddad

Emigrated to the U.S. at 17.

Enjoyed a mix of cooking from the “old country” and modern, packaged American conveniences and all that comes with them: low nutrient density and higher toxicant content.

He outlived two wives but after developing a fair number of the modern chronic diseases, spent the last ten years of his life in a nursing home.

He also lived to the ripe, old age of novantacinque.

His score: 95/10

Dad

Born in the USA.

Enthusiastically left the Italy’s passé traditions and lifestyle behind.

Relished in the Standard American Diet.

Availed himself of all the latest of modern chemistry to maintain the family home and yard.

Bought into DuPont’s “Better Living Through Chemistry” idea and took a prescription drug for anything that ailed him.

By 65 he suffered significant osteoarthritis, osteoporosis (which lead to a hip replacement), heart disease, and short-term memory loss.

With “a list of health problems as long as the list of drugs his doctors dutifully prescribed him,” at age 83 he developed dementia, was checked into a nursing home, and at 88, debilitated and suffering from multiple serious chronic conditions, he died.

We score him 88/5D

Anyone spot a pattern here?

Further reading: Dr. Joseph Pizzorno and his wife Lara have many more detailed resources here.

Mike Barr, a long ago Poz Senior Contributing Editor and founding member of and scribe for the Treatment Action Group (TAG), is a functional medicine practitioner, acupuncturist and herbalist in NYC. Reach out to him here.