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Like every physician, Dr. Norman Gay loves to see his patients
get healthy, but changing lives one by one has never been enough
for him. As the Bahamas’ longest-serving minister of health
(from 1984 to 1990), this anti-aging pioneer remains involved
in efforts to improve public health not only for his own country,
but for the world. And in his spare time, Dr. Gay is a champion
bodybuilder, still competitive at the age of 62.
Currently medical director of the Bahamas Health Institute
and still active in his country’s public health affairs,
Dr. Gay has long promoted a holistic approach to health, despite
encountering many roadblocks along the way. He currently participates
in a pilot project aimed at helping to establish a national
nutrition and fitness education program for the Bahamas.
Of the relationship between traditional and complementary
medicine, Dr. Gay notes, “Over 90% of our health care
budgets are spent on disease processes, with less than 10% devoted
to the other side of the equation, where people have their health
and want to keep it.” He believes the staggering escalation
in world health care costs cannot continue. “Any system
is doomed to fail,” he says, “unless we spend time
helping people take responsibility for and assist with their
own health in order to hold on to what they have. Why should
we give people new hearts instead of helping them to keep the
ones they have?”
Dr. Gay credits his mother, a Seventh-Day Adventist, with
setting him on the path to “healthy living, a healthy
body, and a healthy mind,” including his early dedication
to physical fitness. That dedication continues to this day.
The 1982 Bahamas and Southern States “Masters” champion
in his weight class, Dr. Gay is preparing for yet another bodybuilding
competition. He is past president of the Caribbean Bodybuilding
Federation, the Bahamas Olympic Committee, and the Bahamas Confederation
of Amateur Sports, and was recently appointed chairman of the
Bahamas Boxing Commission.
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A Holistic Approach
As a physician, Dr. Gay emphasizes nutrition, supplements, exercise, healthy
lifestyle practices, and positive thinking. “The mind has enormous power,” he
says, “and we have the capacity to control much of it. Today, people
are recognizing this all over the world and it’s even beginning to reach
some medical schools and hospitals. The state of mind of the individual very
often determines whether he or she lives or dies.”
Several years ago, Dr. Gay was deeply impressed when he came
across an article featuring CAT-scan pictures of the brain illustrating
the physical effects of positive and negative thoughts. “It
was fascinating to see that different brain areas had increased
or decreased activity, depending on the type of thoughts that
were in the person’s mind,” he explains. The beneficial
effects of positive thinking were evident through the chemicals
it created and their subsequent cellular activity.
His emphasis on the positive is evident even in his choice
of words. For example, Dr. Gay notes, “we say ‘anti-aging,’ but
maybe that’s not such a good word. Maybe it should be ‘the
prevention of premature aging and the extension of health span,’” two
primary goals that characterize his medical philosophy.
Dr. Gay became a member of the International Academy of Preventive
Medicine in the 1970s and a member of the Life Extension Foundation
in the 1980s. “I’ve been a follower since Durk and
Sandy’s book,” he says. “It was a real eye-opener
in showing how to provide the body with substances that would
help it carry out its activities so it doesn’t age as
quickly.”
Obstacles to Living Longer
Exactly what does Dr. Gay see as the major problems affecting our ability to
live longer and healthier lives?
The first is poor nutrition. Dr. Gay recalls a US government
report on soil depletion dating all the way back to 1936, when
farmers were forced to produce high crop volumes just to survive,
and the soil was never allowed to recuperate. In recognition
of the problem, he says, “animals were supplemented, but
human beings weren’t.” He believes that today, as
in 1936, it is impossible to get the nutrients we need solely
from our food, and that everyone needs to take supplements.
But it is more than depleted soil and a lack of nutrients
in our food that necessitate supplements, according to Dr. Gay. “We
have elevated stress almost all the time, which increases the
metabolic rate and makes us nutritionally challenged. It’s
no wonder we’re seeing such levels of chronic disease,
because the basis of it has to be that the body doesn’t
have what it needs to work with.”
As an example, Dr. Gay cites the growing incidence of type
II diabetes, which he links to the increasing incidence of obesity
around the world. He believes this is one area that public health
policy should deal with more strongly. “Obesity and type
II diabetes will continue to escalate,” he predicts, as
a result of stress factors and a lack of optimal nutrition,
proper sleep, adequate fluids, and exercise.
Moreover, our bodies are in a continual state of change and
flux, putting constant demands on our systems. “The rate
at which your body is able to keep up with repair and change
determines the age at which you get old and die,” notes
Dr. Gay. Fortunately, he and other anti-aging physicians can
now provide the information, care, and tools needed to help
restore and maintain their patients’ good health for many
years to come.
Prescription for Health
Exactly how does Dr. Gay care for himself and his patients? For starters, “I
always endeavor to get sufficient sleep,” he says, pointing to what he
calls an epidemic of sleep deprivation. Dr. Gay says that sleep requirements
differ for different people and that you can judge the amount you need by the
way you feel when you wake up in the morning. Are you rested? Do you have
the energy you need to get you through the day? If not, it is
essential to find a way to get the sleep your body needs.
Next, Dr. Gay takes vitamin supplements, including the Life
Extension Mix, which he calls the best preparation of its kind,
and the Life Extension Booster, both of which he strongly recommends
to his patients. He especially likes the inclusion of all eight
forms of vitamin E, noting that most people are only familiar
with the four tocopherols and are not aware of the importance
of the four tocotrienols, which “have
an impact in protecting fat-soluble areas, like the brain, that
control the rest of us.” He also stresses the importance
of vitamins C and E, the body’s antioxidants in the water-soluble
and fat-soluble areas, and fish oil with its omega-3 fatty acids.
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“I take omega-3s in larger quantities than the average
person,” Dr. Gay says, “because I’m building
muscle and looking at being an elite athlete.” For muscle
repair, Dr. Gay consumes one gram of protein per pound of body
weight daily. His carb-ohydrates for energy are mainly derived
from vegetables and fruits, and his fats from omega-3 fatty
acids. He also takes phytonutrients for disease prevention,
including prostate-protective Life Extension supplements.
When seeing new patients, Dr. Gay begins with a lengthy first
meeting, in which the patients learn about his medical philosophy
and their responsibility for their own bodies and health care. “They
walk out of my office in a daze,” says Dr. Gay with a
laugh. “They find out it’s not going to be like
renting a car, where it’s good enough to be able to drive
around but not important enough to find out how it works.”
Dr. Gay prescribes a balanced diet of healthy foods; sufficient
fluids for proper hydration; adequate sleep; an exercise program
including 30 minutes of aerobics daily; and, of course, a positive
attitude. While he uses laboratory tests, including blood work,
to evaluate his patients’ health, he usually relies most
on the overall program just outlined. Why?
“Because once people are doing the things they need
to do, they are taking care of most of their symptoms,” he
says. “The symptoms are the result of their bodies telling
them something it doesn’t like. You get those things right
and most of the symptoms disappear.”
As for remaining positive, Dr. Gay notes, “You could
walk out of my office and somebody drives in front of you and
you go into a rage. You could spend your time thinking about
how stupid that person is, or you could think about how good
it is that you didn’t get hit. Now you decide which one
you want to do.” |