Dr. Pamela W. Smith offers her longevity tips

The keys to unlocking a longer, healthier life lie surprisingly close at hand too, says an expertwho runs longevity clinics.

By Robert N. Jenkins, LifeTimes Editor
Published February 26, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT Dr. Pamela W. Smith is board-certified in anti-aging medicine and runs 30 clinics. [Handout]

"If you are now 50, figure on living to be 100," Dr. Pamela W. Smith breezily told her audience as she offered three tips to slow the effects of aging. But then she quickly asked her listeners how much water was the "ideal" amount to drink.

Why that shift? The doctor, who has 30 longevity clinics, explained that, "By the time you are age 85, you've lost about half of your kidneys' function, and water detoxifies the body."

So drinking water was the first of the anti-aging steps.

But how much water was Smith's question, and her answer brought chuckles, even a few gasps, from the 110 investors invited to Raymond James' corporate headquarters in mid Pinellas late last month to hear Smith's talk.

The formula as related by Smith: Take your body weight in pounds, halve that number, then substitute ounces for pounds. That is the amount of water you should drink each day.

But not just any water, she cautioned: The ubiquitous plastic water bottles contain minute amounts of estrogen that could pass into your bloodstream.

That would not be a good thing, said Smith, as she segued into her second tip. This was a discussion of the hormones estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, and what they do to the body.

Steam-distilled water is the purest and thus best to drink, said the doctor, who also holds a master's degree in public health. But if distilling is too much trouble, use a commercial filter on your water faucet.

And no, she added: Coffee, tea and sodas do not count toward your water total, because they contain acids that draw important nutrients from the body.

From the ER to . . .

How did Smith come to be holding forth on longevity? Especially when she spent her first 20 years of practice as an emergency room physician at the Detroit Medical Center?

"I was in my early 40s, when I realized I couldn't sleep. There didn't seem to be anything different in my work or home life. So I consulted 11 doctors about it, had a bunch of tests. But none of the doctors had an answer.

"The last one I saw was a psychiatrist, and he told me, 'There's nothing wrong with you. Take a sleeping pill.'

"Then, by chance, I attended an anti-aging conference. I heard about the loss of progesterone affecting sleep habits.

"I had had my tubes tied a birth-control method in which a woman's fallopian tubes are blocked or tied off. So when I went home, I tested myself for progesterone. I had none."

That led her to study the effects of hormones. In time, she became board-certified in anti-aging medicine. Now she is both a member of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Physicians and is a board examiner of doctors seeking to become certified in the specialty.

She says only 87 physicians in America have taken the two-year fellowship in this specialty. Most of her time is spent as owner and director of the Center For Healthy Living and Longevity, her chain of clinics.

About those hormones

"Be hormonally sound," Smith told her local audience. And she moved quickly to the positive effects of the most important sex-related hormones:

ESTROGEN: In women, the three forms of estrogen have perhaps 400 functions. The most important are that it "equates with retaining your memory, it helps with bone growth, lowers blood sugar and protects against osteoporosis and heart disease." It also can enhance sleep, emotional well-being and libido.

When taken as a supplement, "Estrogen should always be put on the skin . . . taken orally, it can cause gallstones and lower growth hormones." These hormones keep you young.

"As men grow older, they create more estrogen," she added. "Not all older women are deficient in estrogen, but you must be tested specifically for it."

PROGESTERONE: "It builds bone and combats mood swings in women, but we don't know what it does in men . . . It decreases the risk of breast cancer and is used in Europe for this," but not yet in America.

It regulates fluid balance and blood sugar levels, and relieves menopausal symptoms.

TESTOSTERONE: It lowers cholesterol levels, increases energy and libido. "It is needed by women for a sense of well-being and to improve bone density."

DHEA: Helps make other hormones - but not if you are feeling stressed. It protects against heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, cancer, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

"Your body is a hormonal symphony," Smith said, but it "can be interfered with by stress . . . This is a 24/7/365 world, and that means stress. Stress causes your cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure to go up, and it interferes with your immune system."

One last tip

The doctor's third anti-aging tip was simple: Avoid aspartame.

Although used in food products for more than a quarter-century, this artificial sweetener has its critics. An FDA official reported in the 1990s that about 75 percent of the complaints to the agency about nonprescription drugs named aspartame.

The doctor listed 17 side effects, from dizziness to inflammation of the pancreas.

But Smith's message, beyond warnings and tips, was upbeat.

"Sixty is the new middle age," she said. "I have a patient who runs his company at the age of 102, and one who is 90 and flies his own plane.

". . . You are never to old to start getting healthy: Only 20 percent of chronic disease is inherited."

A new, old name

My column last month noted that I could trace my family back only one generation, and that my family name had been changed from a Russian one when my father's parents anglicized it upon arriving in America in November 1910.

St. Petersburg resident Bill Israel read the column, realized he had known my late father, and did my genealogical research for me. And so in an e-mail from him, complete with a photocopy of the ship's manifest, I learned the Russian names of my grandparents and of my father:

The infant Faukel Chenkin arrived on the SS Koln from Bremen, Germany.

I got chills when I read that; I don't think my father knew his given name.

So, my thanks to Bill Israel, who is a director of a worldwide nonprofit coalition of Jewish genealogical sites.

He says that with the fall of the Soviet Union, research is much easier. Anyone interested can contact the Jewish Genealogical Society of Tampa Bay; the Web site is www.rootsweb.com/~fljgstb, or call (727) 343-1652 or (813) 966-3124.

Robert N. Jenkins can be reached at bjenkins@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8496.

[Last modified February 25, 2008, 11:37:17]