Recommendations by an 84-year-old Lankan ‘youth’ on daily wellbeing practices

Gradually change your food habits to what humans were designed to eat (before the discovery of fire about five million years ago); raw green leaves, fruits, nuts – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara 

Last week we carried an article by Ranjit Seneviratne titled ‘Post-COVID-19 lockdown introspection for every Sri Lankan’ focusing on many aspects connected with wellbeing and the concept of true independence, as individuals and as a nation. 

This week this writer who is 84 years young, sent us an interesting email response he wrote to a friend who had sent him a litany of advice given by American doctors to Americans above 60 years of age, which includes not to climb stairs without holding onto the railing and many other advice. Once you read that list (by the American doctors), one can really feel old, even at age 60.

Ranjit Seneviratne, a crusader of organic farming who influenced the organic farming movement in Sri Lanka, at 84, climbs trees in his forest garden and does complex exercises that could certainly shock those foreign doctors who came up with that list for ‘old people’.

Seneviratne who eats his home grown fruits and herbs and vegetables, and is an authority on the immune system based on over 30 years of reading up on medical research (and practiced what he read), had sent his friend his own list of well-used methods for wellbeing for ‘older people’.

We now reproduce this communication. However one cautionary note. Even a 25-year-old may not be able to adopt at once some of the exercises and fasting that this incredibly healthy and fit Sri Lankan suggests. So we advise you to proceed gradually…

Dear XXXX

That is good advice for Americans who are loaded with chemical ridden and highly processed foods, are overweight and as a result have low immunity and resistance to disease. Proof? Highest number of deaths due to COVID?

My simple common sense advice (which is confirmed by independent cutting edge research) is as follows:

1. Before getting out of bed do some stretches and bends to maximum extent including twists of the body

2. Getting out of bed as per their advice – OK. *(“Do not get up fast from bed. Wait a few minutes before getting up from bed”)

3. Brush teeth with charcoal or charcoal toothpaste (never anything with poisons Fluoride, Triclosan and SLS (Sodium Lauryl Sulphate). 

4. Drink at least four glasses of warm water with a little Himalayan salt after taking a teaspoon of lemon-in-honey while doing exercises for neck, eyes, and backbone (those affected by bent head angle due to constant computer use, watching cell phone, car driving, etc.

5. Do more complete body exercises for keeping fit for strength and flexibility including squats, sit-ups, etc. Vary with short bursts of sprints and squat-to-ceiling reach jumps at least once a week.

6. Cool down with slow backward walks followed by one-leg stands with eyes closed to tone and strengthen balancing muscles.

7. Between 10 and 12 noon do gardening without a shirt for Vitamin D3 by sun-bathing, mess around with soil and with plants, eating leaves straight off the tree to ‘naturally vaccinate’ yourself with the latest bacteria, viruses, fungi (they have new generations every 40 minutes or so).

8. Gradually change your food habits to what humans were designed to eat (before the discovery of fire about five million years ago); raw green leaves, fruits, nuts..

Note: If you follow this you would gradually lose the need for maybe breakfast and dinner and become a ‘one-meal-a-day’ person simply because you will not be hungry. This is now called ‘Intermittent Fasting’.

9. Do a 24-hour water-only fast or a dry fast (no food and water) to get rid of toxins from food, air and water.

10. Sleep for a minimum of eight hours to allow the body to do ‘Autophagy’ where the body repairs damaged cells and cleans out the body of toxins, damaged body cell material, etc. (Hence, the need for the morning toilet). You would normally have a second move about four to six hours after the meal because (like a baby after the feed) you need to get rid of waste that is moved to the lower intestines, ready for elimination. 

11. Keep yourself as fit as possible and keep doing what you always did, but with caution – climbing stairs (close to the railing), climb trees (but not too high), running, sprinting, etc. because these small ‘stresses’ are what keep your heart and other muscles in good ‘tone’, your body young and fit and the new way with food suggested above, to actually ‘de-age’; ref: Heart Specialist Dr. Steven Gundry – https://youtu.be/qW8YCvrCjrU.

Best regards,

Ranjit Seneviratne

(Following is the article by the same writer which was carried last week in this page: http://www.ft.lk/harmony_page/Post-COVID-19-lockdown-introspection-for-every-Sri-Lankan/10523-702248.)