A Busy Healthful Life

By Christopher Hosford

"I have no typical days," says Amber Needham, an energetic 32-year-old whose approach to healthy living and everyday vitality offers a lesson worth looking at.

About the only thing that is typical of each day for Amber Needham is that it's full...very full. And that makes her approach to good living even more important.

Needham is a busy lady. Married with six children, she begins working on her computer hours before the rest of the household is up. This gives her, she says, time to reflect on the day's goals and appointments.

She evinces an abiding spirituality along with her commitment to good health, rating her Christian beliefs as the glue that holds together the many components of her life. This gives her "a passion toward health, healing and having the freedom to choose a healthy lifestyle," she says. And, since Needham also is a member advisor and computer consultant with the Life Extension Foundation at its Fort Lauderdale Fla., headquarters, "my work gives me a lot of satisfaction knowing that I am contributing toward other people's health as well."

After getting up each morning she takes a few bifido caps with a glass of water, to aid the digestive tract and immunity.

"Water is one of the most basic things needed by the body, but it often is the most misunderstood," she says. "Most people think if they drink milk, tea, sodas, soy juice, and other beverages that contain water, it means they are getting water, which in part true. But it is not the same as drinking straight, purified, distilled or ozonated water. Water helps the body to detox, purifiy and move higher concentrates into lower density."

By the time the children and husband Steve are getting up, Needham is making herself a health shake consisting of some frozen and fresh fruits, along with a protein powder and powdered vitamins, Udo's oil, Life Extension Herbal Mix, folic acid, and vitamin B12. "Normally all the children also get a cupful, " she notes.

By now, Needham has received several phone calls regarding the many projects she's working on, as well as from Foundation members whom she's worked with for years. "There may also be several doctors who need some information to clarify something for a patient with a severe condition. Then there may be phone calls on new products on the market or the latest regarding urgent legislation."

A Well-Rounded Supplement Regimen

After dropping off completed work at the Foundation and dealing with information for other advisors, Needham is off again...usually, depending on her schedule, to the gym. Normally, she takes quite a few supplements before working out, the main ones being 5 to 7 grams of Creatine Monohydrate for enhanced muscular performance: two Octacosanl for endurance, two androstene for muscle building, a few grams of OKG to increase strength, and four to six anabolic containing the amino acids leucine, isoleucine, lysine and valine for rebuilding muscle torn down during exercise. Among her secondary supplements are acetyl-L-carnitine and Vitamin-C to protect against free radical damage.

"I also normally carry water and carbo-fuel," she adds.

Needham's nutritional protocols also include things she avoids, such as animal flesh, hydrogenated fats, refined carbohydrates, sugars as well as artificial sweeteners and refined white flour. Hydrogenated fats (including cotton seed, soy bean, corn, and palm kernel oils), she says , block the body's ability to burn fat, while blocking other necessary bodily processes. "I believe they are terribly damaging, and there is now plenty of information to support that."

Needham's regimen of nutrition, health, spirituality and exercise, all combined with a busy home and business life, is a daunting one. But it's well worth it, she says."

"People often ask me why I got into health. It was simple. While attending church, I realized I couldn't serve my fellow man-in other words, 'love my neighbor as myself" if I felt lousy. I also started to realize that often women with children feel guilty because they are too tired to do the things they should be doing." Needham doesn't have time to be tired, and her approach to living makes it possible.

While Needham says her faith is an abiding strength, she also believes that people are most responsible for the good and ills that befall them. That, too, has been a potent lesson in her choosing a healthy lifestyle, she says.

"God does not 'hand' people disease. People choose poor lifestyles and food, whether in ignorance or not. Indirectly, if we choose to ignore making the right choices, things will and can go wrong. Other than accidents, our personal choices will affect us in the long run."

Profiles takes a look at real people who exemplify the Life Extension way of life: a commitment to great health and nutrition, and abiding respect for body and mind. Are you candidate for a future Profiles? Contact the Editors at Life Extension Magazine, by phone: 954-766-8433, or send e-mail.