Health in retirement 2.

So I hope you now aim to strengthen your legs and arms, flex your back and maintain your balance. What now? Well, you could help your skin retain some of its youthful vitality. To do this you may need to discard habits of a lifetime. A lifetime of washing with aggressive soaps and shampoos that are designed to remove the natural skin secretions. Pharmacies are agents of contradiction – they sell soaps and other concoctions designed to remove dirt along with the substances produced by the skin, then offer various other expensive products which claim to replace the lost secretions! My question is, why remove skin secretions, which have evolved to protect the skin from drying out, preventing infection and healing damage, then replace them with expensive emollients? All you need to do to keep clean and socially acceptable is shower with warm water. This removes any dirt along with any odour.

Now to move inside. There is little point in me giving advice on the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and, perhaps, other toxic substances; you have heard it all before and made up your minds a long time ago. But there is one internal matter which I have mentioned previously (probably too many times!) but which is important and could save your life. The need to look after your colon. Why? Because too many people suffer and many die from diseases of the colon. The critical lesson here is that this organ contains a multitude of different species of bacteria; that these bacteria have evolved, during the aeons while we have evolved, to feast on the remnants of our foods which are not digested in the small intestine. We are not individual animals separate from the rest of Nature, but we are in partnership with a plethora of bacteria which live within us. And, because it is a mutual partnership, we need to look after our partners and ensure they are well fed. In turn they supply us with a variety of substances which not only keep the colon healthy but which are absorbed into the blood and are important in human health. The role of the colon bacteria in maintaining our health has yet to be fully investigated. This is a big topic and I have written in blogs before about the nutritional needs of the colon bacteria and elsewhere (Cultivate your Colon. Henry Collins, Self-published 2011). Suffice to say: To keep your colon healthy, feed your bacteria well! Next time some notes on mental health.