0
Beginning
Posted by
Lotus
,
17 February 2009
·
875 views
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's there are few."
The purpose of this post is to start. The purpose of this blog is to write down and possibly organize my thoughts on life extension. I hope this will help me to organize my resources and time to start contributing more and giving back to the life extension community, something that has become more and more urgent to me.
I started reading posts here on imminst about two years ago. Originally, I was looking for supplements that could possibly help me improve my health. My health was in a pretty bad shape in many ways. One of the first steps was to identify the problem. I concluded that considering what I had read recently about the regenerative capabilities of the body, it seemed to me that my problem was related to my immune system not being in good shape. So I set out to find ways to improve my immune system, to get it into top shape so that it could fight off bacteria, viruses, fungi and other pathogens, hopefully even cancer. I knew I would want to start working out eventually, but I did not have the strength for it. I started researching supplements that help the immune system.
There were tons of information on supplements out there, but the problem was credibility. I had very little knowledge at this point, and I felt that I could easily be conned into buying all kinds of crap that would do nothing for me except make my wallet thinner. And I could not afford to play around and waste money as my funds were limited. So, I had to sort out the marketing talk from the stuff with real science behind it. Following that line of reasoning, I always ended up on Imminst. I was impressed by the knowledge people had, and how they provided links and references to clinical studies. I did not understand all the terminology back then, and I still don't, however, it did make sense to me that if I was to gamble on finding supplements that would help, I should gamble on the ones that had positive studies behind them.
During the next two years I would get together a supplement regimen consisting of Olive Leaf Extract, Grape Seed Extract, q10, Green Tea, Broccoli, Vitamin D and vitamin C. I did also get enough energy to start working out in a gym, loosing weight and gaining physical strength. I have also tweaked my diet based on things I've read here, and importantly, I've been able to help my close ones get healthier. I know, I'm starting to sound like some commercial myself, but it's all true. It did take a lot of determination and work on my part, but my point is this place helped me alot.
Now, more recently, the ideas about life extension that I've come in contact with here, that seemed a bit outlandish and weird to me in the beginning, has turned quite a few things around in my head. This is kind of weird - I remember in the beginning telling myself not to become some life extension weirdo that eats 100+ supplements a day, and to remain grounded. Part of this I managed to do - I still don't consume more than 6-7 supplements a day, even though I have purchased things like Benfotiamine and other things that I keep in case I find someone who might need it. However, the things that I've read about here, it has slowly seeped in to my head the possibilities that are out there. And also, that there are other people like me, that are willing to take unconventional routes to find things that work. This blowed my mind. It has made me re-evaluate and rethink a lot of things. I might have had the feeling that I had a part of me that was scientifically curious, that loved problem solving and creativity, that loved the unconventional, that loved reading sci-fi literature when I was a kid and dreamt of becoming an astronaut. But I buried that part of me because I thought there were too few of us, and the possibilities were limited by our lack of ways to communicate. I also felt there was a bit too much arrogance in the scientific fields. There were many reasons, some of them might have been stupid. What I want to say is, I feel that there is a great amount of open-mindedness, creativity and flexibility here and that things are changing. I feel that there is a good mix of people that have a scientific degree and people that don't, and that all are welcome since we have the same cause. This is good.
Lately I've had a lot of thoughts and feeling concerning longevity floating around in my head, I thought I'd write more about them in future posts.
The purpose of this post is to start. The purpose of this blog is to write down and possibly organize my thoughts on life extension. I hope this will help me to organize my resources and time to start contributing more and giving back to the life extension community, something that has become more and more urgent to me.
I started reading posts here on imminst about two years ago. Originally, I was looking for supplements that could possibly help me improve my health. My health was in a pretty bad shape in many ways. One of the first steps was to identify the problem. I concluded that considering what I had read recently about the regenerative capabilities of the body, it seemed to me that my problem was related to my immune system not being in good shape. So I set out to find ways to improve my immune system, to get it into top shape so that it could fight off bacteria, viruses, fungi and other pathogens, hopefully even cancer. I knew I would want to start working out eventually, but I did not have the strength for it. I started researching supplements that help the immune system.
There were tons of information on supplements out there, but the problem was credibility. I had very little knowledge at this point, and I felt that I could easily be conned into buying all kinds of crap that would do nothing for me except make my wallet thinner. And I could not afford to play around and waste money as my funds were limited. So, I had to sort out the marketing talk from the stuff with real science behind it. Following that line of reasoning, I always ended up on Imminst. I was impressed by the knowledge people had, and how they provided links and references to clinical studies. I did not understand all the terminology back then, and I still don't, however, it did make sense to me that if I was to gamble on finding supplements that would help, I should gamble on the ones that had positive studies behind them.
During the next two years I would get together a supplement regimen consisting of Olive Leaf Extract, Grape Seed Extract, q10, Green Tea, Broccoli, Vitamin D and vitamin C. I did also get enough energy to start working out in a gym, loosing weight and gaining physical strength. I have also tweaked my diet based on things I've read here, and importantly, I've been able to help my close ones get healthier. I know, I'm starting to sound like some commercial myself, but it's all true. It did take a lot of determination and work on my part, but my point is this place helped me alot.
Now, more recently, the ideas about life extension that I've come in contact with here, that seemed a bit outlandish and weird to me in the beginning, has turned quite a few things around in my head. This is kind of weird - I remember in the beginning telling myself not to become some life extension weirdo that eats 100+ supplements a day, and to remain grounded. Part of this I managed to do - I still don't consume more than 6-7 supplements a day, even though I have purchased things like Benfotiamine and other things that I keep in case I find someone who might need it. However, the things that I've read about here, it has slowly seeped in to my head the possibilities that are out there. And also, that there are other people like me, that are willing to take unconventional routes to find things that work. This blowed my mind. It has made me re-evaluate and rethink a lot of things. I might have had the feeling that I had a part of me that was scientifically curious, that loved problem solving and creativity, that loved the unconventional, that loved reading sci-fi literature when I was a kid and dreamt of becoming an astronaut. But I buried that part of me because I thought there were too few of us, and the possibilities were limited by our lack of ways to communicate. I also felt there was a bit too much arrogance in the scientific fields. There were many reasons, some of them might have been stupid. What I want to say is, I feel that there is a great amount of open-mindedness, creativity and flexibility here and that things are changing. I feel that there is a good mix of people that have a scientific degree and people that don't, and that all are welcome since we have the same cause. This is good.
Lately I've had a lot of thoughts and feeling concerning longevity floating around in my head, I thought I'd write more about them in future posts.
