"NEVER eat after 7pm"

"Late night meals 'increases the risk of heart attack and stroke'"

Experts think this is because eating releases a rush of stress hormones when the body should be starting to relax.

People who do not see their blood pressure fall at night are known as 'non-dippers' – and have a much higher rate of heart-related death.

Late eaters were nearly three times more likely to be non-dippers, the Turkish researchers found.

Researcher Dr Ebru Özpelit, presenting her results at the speaking at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Rome, said: 'If we eat late at night, the body essentially remains on high alert as during the day, rather than relaxing for sleep.

'Stress hormones are secreted, causing blood pressure not to decrease during sleep, which should normally happen.'

Dr Özpelit, from Dokuz Eylül University in Turkey, tracked 721 on people diagnosed with high blood pressure, with an average age of 53.

She found that those who ate within two hours of going to bed were 2.8 times more likely to retain high blood pressure overnight.

A Short Guide To A Long Life

From the book of the same name written by David B. Agus, M.D., and available through the Amazon portal here on Lem's blog.  I suggest you read this book.

Dr. Agus is one of the world's leading cancer doctors and cancer researchers.  He is a professor of medicine and engineering at USC.  He heads USC's West Side Cancer Center and the Center For Applied Molecular Medicine.

At least twice a week, Dr. Agus has to tell a patient that he has nothing left in his arsenal to combat the patient's cancer.  It's over, and in most cases the end of life is near.  It's a gut-wrenching conversation that Dr. Agus has never gotten used to.

That we are no better at treating cancer today, with a few notable exceptions, than we were fifty years ago is maddening.  More infuriating still is that many of my patients could have prevented their cancer or other life-altering disease had they done a few things differently earlier in life.

I'm pretty certain that most people could delay or totally prevent a vast majority of illnesses we see today - including not only cancer but heart and kidney disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders - if they just adopt a few healthy habits early on and avoid the ones that lead to illness.

The best way to fight disease and other ailments that develop over time is to prevent them.  A staggering seven out of ten deaths among Americans each year are from chronic diseases, with heart disease, cancer and stroke accounting for more than fifty percent of American deaths each year.

Dr. Agus offers sixty-five rules he believes take the confusion out of knowing how to live to be healthy and feel wonderful at any age.  They aren't terribly exciting or difficult, but taken together they embody a recipe for healthful living.

The rules are below the jump.  Don't look if you don't want to. Carry on with your normal activities.