The famous French actor Gerard Depardieu had a problem. He stuttered. He had always stuttered since he was a child. But even though he could hardly speak a sentence, he loved the theater more than anything else. He wanted to be an actor, but how could he? While he could fantasize performing Moliére for the Comédie Française, in real life he couldn’t speak a complete sentence without stuttering. Monsieur Depardieu believed in alternative medicine and herbs for his health, but doctors had told him there was nothing they could do for his problem.

Depardieu heard of a French physician who had something called “The Music Cure.” Why not try it?, he thought. So he went to the physician, who was quite a unique medical man.

“In three months your stutter will be gone,” the doctor told him. “You will be speaking perfectly and you will have a beautiful speaking voice. You can play Moliére if you wish.”

It was hard to believe such a statement and Monsieur Depardieu wondered what herbal medicine the doctor would ask him to take. What medicine could do this for him?

The good doctor wrote down his prescription, tore it from his pad and handed it to him. With a wry smile he said, “Mozart, three times a day and at bed time.”

He could have thought the doctor was crazy but alternative medicine had worked for other people so maybe “The Music Cure” would work for him. Depardieu was required to listen only to Mozart for a total of three hours a day and not miss a day. He did not need to sing along or conduct from his arm chair. All he had to do was listen, quietly and alone.

It worked. Today if you see Gerard Depardieu on the stage or in movies, he speaks clearly and with a beautiful melodious speech pattern. He recently appeared in Cyrano, as well as other classics. “I owe it all to Mozart,” he says.

Classical musical conductors and composers live to be quite old. Both Toscanini and Stravinsky lived to be well over 90-years-old at a time when the life expectancy was barely 60. It is believed that their longevity is based on the thymus gland, a gland that is activated by the hearing of music. It sounds fantastic but it is probably as good as anyone else’s theory.

The thymus gland is located in the thorax near the base of the neck. What the thymus does is a bit of a mystery, but it is one of the internal organs that ages with our body (as does the heart). In order to keep the thymus youthful, people have done many things, from conducting symphonies from their living room chair to eating sweetbreads (animal thymus) with every meal (a doubtful remedy against old age).

Though not everyone needs the kind of cure that Monsieur Depardieu has attributed to Mozart, music can be a healing influence in your life. Stimulation of the thymus gland is one reason, but you may get other benefits from sitting quietly and listening to classical music. If you wish, conduct from your chair. Go on. It can’t hurt.

Jacob lived for 147 years; Methuselah lived 900 years; then they both died. A horse lives for 40 years, a black bird for 18 years, a mouse for 6 years, a turtle for 100 years, many insects for only a few weeks or even a few days. Objects too, have a life span; that is, they wear out. A fence usually lasts for four years; a dog, three fences; a horse, three dogs; a human, three horses. It is relative to the species and the object, and as Bernard Shaw put it so well in his play “Doctor’s Dilemma,”—Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.”

Humans invented time, or at least a method of measuring time. In so doing we’ve intruded into our lives a measure of ourselves that is hard to escape. It is this very measure that literally speeds up the aging process. Everything to do with your life, from the time you are born, is gauged by the clock, by the days, months and years. Forty isn’t just a number it’s a measure of time. “Oh, I’ve just turned 40” is a statement that usually leads to a more careful look in the mirror.

“She’s 45 and she doesn’t look a day over 30,” someone may say (a kind remark to anyone). And of course, “She’s your daughter? You look like sisters!”

You have to bear in mind that longevity is based on time. What length of time is “old” to one person may not be “old” to another. But there is a measure we can’t escape—beauty. How you look is how old people believe you are, and thus we have this morbid quest for a “youthful look.” Beautiful and youthful looking men and women are the most adored and the ones most used in the workplace. If you look old—you are old. If you’re bald you automatically look older. If your hair is gray, you automatically look old. If your posture is stooped, you automatically look older. Of course wrinkles, bags under the eyes, loose skin with liver spots around the neck and hands all mean you’re old. All these things are gauged by the clock—the passage of time.

It’s simple. If you’re beautiful, you’re not old. “Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm,” said Oscar Wilde in a lecture he gave in New York (January 9, 1892). “Philosophy falls away like sand, and creeds follow one another like withered leaves of autumn, but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons and a possession for all eternity.”

On the other hand an old proverb says it differently:

Beauty is only skin deep;
Ugly goes clean to the bone.
Beauty dies and fades away,
But ugly holds its own.

Beautiful people are still seen as youthful whereas plain people and, horrid to admit, people who look old, are not seen as beautiful. Not only is beauty equated with youth, it is also equated with happiness; but again Bernard Shaw had an opinion about it. He said that in order to be happy you had to be so busy that you didn’t have time to wonder whether you were happy or not. Shaw lived to be 96 and died in bed, but he was active to the very end of his life. His last words were, “Now I die.” He was a teetotaler; he didn’t drink tea or coffee, and he was a vegetarian. Is that the secret? Shaw did say that eating vegetables didn’t make you a better person but only made you better at whatever you did. “If you’re a writer,” he said, “you’re a better writer and if you’re a criminal, you’re a better criminal.”

If a book promises you a diet and supplements to make you live longer, it is probably going to be a bestseller. Is there food that if eaten makes you live longer? There is no doubt that an organic, mostly vegetarian diet, in most cases, will increase your life span by simply reducing the amount of toxic chemicals you consume. The amount of chemicals in your hair and skin care products also affects your total health. Since this is my area of expertise, let me expand on this a little. A definite risk exists between long-term usage of permanent hair dyes in dark or red shades; any hair dye that contains a phenylenediamine-based ingredient is risky and should be avoided.

Ingredients such as bronopol,
imidazolidinyl urea, methyl and propyl paraben, propylene glycol, toluenesulfonamide/formaldehyde resin, diethanolamine or triethanolamine and quaternium-15 are known skin irritants and should be avoided. Also avoid synthetic fragrances and synthetic colors, particularly D&C Red 33, FD&C Yellow 5 and FD&C Yellow 6. Look instead for simple, natural products that contain ingredients you recognize, particularly herbs.

Whenever I recommend that people read labels, they always say, “But they look so complicated. How do I know what’s good and what’s bad?” Reading a label is not as difficult as it seems. The ingredients are listed in descending order. This means that ingredients at the top of the list are contained in the product in greater quantity than those farther down the list. If any of the first three ingredients is a synthetic chemical, don’t buy that product because despite what the rest of the label says, that’s a synthetic product. Also watch out if the first ingredient is a “tea” ingredient, i.e., an herbal infusion of some sort, followed by two or three synthetic chemicals. That product is trying to fool you into believing it’s a natural product; the first ingredient is mostly water with a drop or two of some herb: not good enough if you’re looking for a natural product.

A quality, natural cosmetic product will not contain any mineral oil, synthetic colors or fragrances. It will not contain propylene glycol or herbal extracts that use propylene glycol as a carrying agent (very common). Propylene glycol is a petrochemical substitute for vegetable glycerine. Herbal extracts used in natural products should use water, alcohol or vegetable glycerine.

While I’m on the subject of alcohol, let me also say that alcohol, natural grain alcohol, is not the bugaboo that many consumers think it is. Alcohol is a necessary ingredient in some kinds of products, such as hair spray. How do you get the spray out of the bottle without alcohol? You can’t. I’m frequently asked, “But doesn’t the alcohol dry the hair?” No. The alcohol dissolves the styling ingredients. In the case of natural products that includes herbal gums and allows the product to be sprayed from a pump bottle. The alcohol immediately evaporates, leaving the herbal gums behind and your hair style in place. The hair is not somehow rendered “dry” from this process. In skin care, sometimes a little alcohol can be good, as an astringent for oily skin when a little extra disinfection is necessary.

I do have a regimen I recommend for people who want to live a long time and be beautiful. It is generally good, but on the other hand, you must get all the other important added factors such as exercise, proper skin and hair care (which means no chemicals in your body care products). Most important of all, “Be busy doing what you like to do and not to worry whether or not you’re happy, as Shaw said. If you don’t do a little of all (throw in some Mozart as well), then chances are it isn’t going to work.

• 3 tablespoons of “The Missing Link” (Udo Erasmus) mixed with organic applesauce and 1-2 tablespoons flaxseed oil.
• Supplements: 3 grams buffered vitamin C with a significant amount of bioflavonoids;
• Vitamin E; 1,000 IU, mixed tocopherols;
• Grape seed extract, 100 mg phytosomes;
• Alpha lipoic acid - 50 mg.;
• Milk thistle - 200 mg. phytosomes; a couple of multimineral supplements;
• Ginkgo - 200 mg. phytosomes.

Mornings are a good time to exercise and you can also use this time to deep clean your face with a facial mask. Skin aging can be attributed to insufficient cleansing and an accumulation of dead skin cells, both of which can be greatly aided with frequent masking. So don’t let a morning go by without at least a few minutes sweating your muscles and deep-cleaning your face. This time is also good to work on those pesky wrinkles around the eyes. Apply a good quality rose hip seed oil around the eyes and you will see the wrinkles improve. After exercise take a shower, remove the mask, apply a good, all-natural moisturizer (with an SPF 15 if possible) and a light application of “Herbal Mineral Water Spray.”

All these tools for your personal longevity program can be obtained at a health food store. I will guarantee you that even if you don’t live to be as old as Methuselah, you will look and feel great. As far as being happy, “be so busy doing something you like that you don’t have a moment to worry about whether you’re happy or not.”