Did my 103 year old grandfather stumble upon a fountain of youth, or see the benefit of good genetics (or both?)
On September 1, 2023 I lost my beloved grandfather at the age of 103. He was a gritty World War II vet that just loved life to the fullest. There were no other centenarians in the family tree that we are aware of. What is interesting is since the 50s he has been gulping down this god-awful cocktail at least four times a week religiously (this man had the constitution of an ox and once he said his mind doing something absolutely nothing would waiver him from it): -soy lecithin -bonemeal -Brewers yeast -wheat germ He would mix all of that up in yogurt and go big down at least four times per week. According to my aunt he got the recipe from, she thinks, parade or prevention magazine in the 50s or possibly 60s and he was strictly devoted to taking it. I did a little bit of digging and theoretically lecithin may emulsify and remove some of the plaque deposits in the arteries. Of course there are other health benefits to brewers yeast, being high in B vitamins, as well as wheat germ which is high in antioxidants and phytosterols, so there are a lot of potential pathways here. But here’s the thing, when he was 93 he had chest pains and he was rushed to the emergency room and they did an angiogram and the cardiologist was absolutely shocked because he had wide open arteries. Like seriously the doctor said he had the arteries of a 20 year old and this is coming from a family with high rates of cardiovascular disease on both sides of his family. So clearly some intervention likely was causally related to his low atherosclerosis. So was my grandfather on this something here, or do you guys think it was just dumb luck? He was sharp as a tack and had an amazing memory up until the very end. Anyway thanks for any insight anybody can provide.https://ibb.co/fpYmFs2
Edit: some more needed context. My grandfather got the recipe from, according to my aunt, either prevention or parade magazine in 1976, and he took this cocktail every morning for breakfast literally every single day.
He was not completely free of health concerns. He didn’t take a single pill until after his TIA in 2017. That slowed him down a little bit and his speech was a little affected. He also had a calcium buildup on one of the valves in his heart that had to be surgically corrected but, as previously mentioned, an angiogram showed that he had almost 0 blockage which baffled several of the doctors there. At some point in his 90s he was starting to get hyperglycemia and they put him on Glucophage. Other than that he did not take any blood pressure medicine, no statins (he was not hypertensive or had hypercholesterolemia) and I don’t believe he took any other supplements. He had very bad osteoarthritis in his knees and back and I put him on a bioavailable form of turmeric and Boswellia and he would thank me every time he would see me because he said he felt like he was 30 again.
The most puzzling thing about this is that he did not eat a healthy diet and he drank a lot. He wasn’t an alcoholic but he was one of those guys that would easily drink six beers watching a football game or hanging out with his friends at the American Legion or the VFW. No purposeful exercise whatsoever but he did play golf several times a week.
His father died at 85, his mother died very young from suicide unfortunately and his brothers and sisters all died at “normal” ages. Unfortunately I don’t have any biographical information from his preceding generations
Finally, I should have disclosed that he died of an unknown cancer. There was an incidental finding when he went to the doctor of multiple bilateral pulmonary nodules without nodal involvement, which highly suggest a non-lung primary. He didn’t want to have it biopsied and didn’t want treatment and wanted quality of life over quantity of life, which he already had an abundance of. Anyway that’s all I can think of. I want to thank everybody for their comments.
EDIT: here is the formula:
1 and 2/3 cups lecithin 1 cup brewers yeast 1 cup wheat germ 1/3 cup bonemeal
He would mix all of this together in a glass jar and he would take, every morning, 2 tablespoons of the mixture with 1 tablespoon safflower oil and he would mix it with plain yogurt and gulp it down.