A few years ago while in New York on a lecture tour, I attended a stage performance of a celebrated matinee idol— an actor whose masculine charms have had the ladies sighing and yearning for more years than said idol would publicly admit.

In this particular play, he was portraying the role of an intrepid young explorer. As the curtain went up, he was seated on a log in front of a campfire. The stage lighting cast a flattering glow on his smooth young face, and he ran his hand carelessly over what I suspected was a meticulously marcelled toupee.

"He certainly holds his age well," was my first thought, "even discounting all the make-up tricks."

But just then, at an offstage cue, this apparently well-pre­served actor was supposed to leap up from the log and rush to greet an oncoming actor. Yet the best our young-looking matinee idol could manage was a creaky elevation of his stiff body to an upright position. Instantly all illusion of youth was shattered. No toupee or make-up could hide the age in this actor's bones and muscles!

No firmly established law of nature decrees that a man or woman must go creaking and shuffling through the remainder of his or her days after passing a certain age. Barring serious injury (and even then correct diet can help speed a normal recovery), there's no reason why you should not walk with as firm a step, or arise from a chair with as much grace at seventy as you did at thirty. But you cannot abuse—and by this I mean starve—your bones and muscles, and still expect them to provide you with a firm foundation for continuing to look and feel young.

It has always been more or less "accepted" among doctors and their patients that the bones in the human body become brittle and more fragile with age. This is false. Laboratory research has proved conclusively that bones become harder and stronger with age, provided a planned diet has been followed.

What are the food elements essential to healthy bones?

Most commonly recognized nutrients are calcium and phosphorus, since we know that our bones are composed mainly of these two minerals. Because you, as an average per­son, will lose from your body nearly an ounce of these pre­cious minerals every day, constant replacement through the diet is vitally necessary to continued good health and strong bones.

Powdered skim milk, and the various kinds of cheese, par­ticularly cottage cheese, are reliable sources of food calcium, as is sunflower seed meal. Lean meat and eggs are other good sources of calcium as well as protein. Phosphorus, the other "bone mineral," is likewise found in milk, cheese, eggs and lean meat, fish and poultry.

But all the calcium-rich foods and the balanced mineral concentrate you take are not going to do your bones—or the other calcium-craving organs in your body—much good if that calcium cannot reach the bloodstream to be distributed where needed. Two chemical processes in your body may interfere with proper use of food calcium.

As mentioned in earlier chapters, the digestive acids in a normal stomach are composed mainly of hydrochloric acid. It takes the action of strong hydrochloric acid to dissolve cal­cium from foods that reach the stomach so this mineral may be assimilated through the intestinal walls into the blood­stream. This is also true of other important food minerals such as phosphorus, magnesium and iron. But if the stomach acids are too weak to dissolve the mineral and keep it in solution until it can pass through the intestinal walls into the blood, then the calcium (other minerals, too) moves on through the body, undigested, and are excreted in the feces.

Therefore, even though your diet may contain plenty of calcium, none of it will reach your bones (or your heart, muscles, glands and nerves) unless your stomach acids are strong enough to dissolve the mineral and keep it in solution.

There are two ways in which to increase the concentrated acidity of your digestive juices: First, by having your stomach acids tested by a reliable physician, who may then prescribe so many drops o£ dilute hydrochloric acid to be taken in water with every meal; and second, by adding liberal quan­tities o£ vitamin B-complex to your diet, since this group of B-vitamins greatly influences the flow and acidity of your stomach juices.

Another little-known chemical process that may keep you starved for calcium, despite your conscientious efforts to pro­vide ample quantities of this mineral in your diet, is the use of cocoa and chocolate. Both these foods interfere with the body's absorption of calcium and phosphorus to such a degree that it's an absolute waste of the valuable minerals in eggs or milk to prepare them with either chocolate or cocoa. For that reason, you'll find no chocolate desserts or beverages included in Part II.

No mention of calcium and phosphorus for the bones is complete without including vitamin D, the ''sunshine vita­min." We know that vitamin D, in some mysterious way, controls the retention, absorption and distribution of these minerals in the bones. That is one reason why the serious lack of vitamin D in children will cause rickets, a disease characterized by bowed leg bones, knocked knees, malformed skulls and deformed pelvic bones. And, in adults, a serious lack of vitamin D will hasten the appearance of "brittle" bones.

If you live in a climate where it's possible to be outdoors in the sunshine throughout most of the year, then you need not worry about getting enough vitamin D, since this element is created by the direct action of sunshine on certain oils in your skin. But if you reside, as most people do, in climates where heavy clothing and indoor living are necessary during six months or so of the year, then your diet should be sup­plemented during those indoor months by a good vitamin concentrate containing a correctly controlled amount of vitamin D. I want to stress again that vitamin D is the one and only vitamin you can take too much of in an isolated concentrate. So please don't rush off to the drugstore for a bottle of pure vitamin D concentrate. The only safe way to obtain supplemental amounts of vitamin D is by taking a scientifically compounded multiple-vitamin tablet—-or by eating a handful of hulled sunflower seeds every day.

Another vitamin that's importantly concerned with keep­ing your bones young and healthy is ascorbic acid—vita­min C.

An elastic substance called collagen holds together the protein cells which form the cartilage-like base of your bones, This cementing material depends upon ascorbic acid for its tenacity and elasticity. When ascorbic acid is even partially lacking in your diet, collagen breaks down, allowing the bone minerals to be freed and excreted in the body wastes. When this sad condition takes place, it leaves the bones porous, somewhat spongy and lacking the firm strength of young, healthy bones. Moreover, when there's not enough vitamin C in your diet, your body finds it impossible to store usable calcium and phosphorus in the ends of the long bones, and thus these valuable bone-strengthening minerals are lost from your body.

We know that dramatic changes take place in the bones as soon as generous quantities of vitamin C are added to the diet. New bone foundation (matrix) forms within 24 hours, and the minerals calcium and phosphorus are quickly changed into new bony structure. This applies to older per­sons as well as to children and young adults.

Although you may think that your bones remain a con­stant, unchanged factor in your body structure, this is not true. Your bones continually change, all depending upon the quantity of vitamin C you eat from day to day. During the winter when fresh fruits and vegetables are not abun­dantly eaten, too little vitamin C is provided your bones, that is, unless you make a special effort to use plenty of citrus fruits, and to supplement the diet with concentrated vitamin C. This is essential, because without sufficient vitamin C, your bones will soften, so that a fall or a twist which would not result in an injury during the summer or late fall, may produce a serious fracture during a long winter when the body's intake of vitamin C has fallen to an abnormally low level.

From this you can appreciate why you should make a con­scious effort to keep your diet adequately supplied with vita­min C at all times. Freshly grown and picked vegetables, fruits and melons will supply you with all the vitamin C you need during their season. But if you must depend on market vegetables and fruits, or upon the cooked fruits served in restaurants, then be sure to double the ordinary quantity of citrus fruits (eaten whole) ordinarily used, and to obtain supplemental amounts of ascorbic acid through the use of a reliable vitamin concentrate.

Even a partial lack of this important vitamin in the diets of older persons will result in slow, imperfect healing of bone injuries. At any age, diet plays a major part in the knitting of fractured bones. These are the foods which should be abundantly supplied to anyone convalescing from a bone injury of any kind: whole citrus fruits, fresh fruits, berries, melons, green vegetables, pure blossom honey—and, of course, meats, fish, poultry, cheese, milk, eggs and seed cereals for their bone-restoring calcium and phosphorus.

Nor are the vitamins and minerals the only nutrients con­cerned with keeping your bones young and healing them quickly and properly, if injured. Protein, too, is involved in the bone drama. Large amounts of body protein are released from the least important muscles whenever a bone fracture occurs so the healing process may take place. Therefore, to replace as completely as possible the protein robbed from other parts of the body for mending injured bones, the amount of high-protein foods in the diet should be nearly trebled.

Still another substance that helps control the youthfulness and sturdiness of your bones is sex hormones. Maintenance of a healthy skeletal frame for your growing-younger body also depends on how adequate a supply of sex hormones your glands can secrete.

Dr. W. O. Thompson of Chicago reported to the American College of Physicians that supplemental doses of testosterone (the male sex hormone) had aided greatly in healing broken bones in elderly men. Dr. Thompson also reported that a marked improvement had been noted in elderly women with broken bones after they had been given estrogen, the female sex hormone.

Testosterone in concentrated form has been successfully used by many persons of advancing years to preserve the strength and agility of their bone and muscle structure. (The only concentrated testosterone product I can recommend for the average person is that extracted from the root of the sarsaparilla herb. I know that this form of testosterone, ob­tained from a natural botanical source, is both safe and economical to use. The male sex hormone obtained from the glands of cattle must be taken only under the closest medical supervision, and is an extremely expensive treatment.) Lab­oratory experiments have shown that testosterone helps rebuild muscle and bone substance in both sexes. And when this skeletal and muscular balance is maintained throughout the later years, there is less likelihood of developing arthritis. or the physical weakness and disablement resulting from stiffened joints and flabby muscles.

Flabby muscles, whether in the chin or in the legs, are age markers that can destroy all appearance o£ youthfulness. I£ the muscles of our aging matinee idol, for example, had retained tone, they would have pulled him erect as quickly and as gracefully as the muscles of a twenty-year-old.

Muscle tissues consist almost entirely of protein.

If your body is nourished with a diet built principally around high-protein foods, your muscles have a chance to remain youthfully efficient. If not, then you may expect your muscles to lack tone—to become soft and flabby. A body whose muscular system has begun to break down is the body with rounded shoulders, protruding abdomen, drooping head, flabby skin and uncertain gait—all of which detract heavily from your charm and youthful appearance.

Calcium also affects the health and efficiency of your muscles. Irritable muscle tissue is the direct result of too little calcium in the bloodstream; and muscle cramps, a common affliction in later years, may be caused by a serious lack of this important mineral.

Magnesium, another essential body mineral, is important for proper relaxation of your muscle tissues. This means that magnesium is necessary for all healthy muscular activity. Because of its direct influence on the muscles, liberal amounts of magnesium—either obtained from foods, or in a balanced mineral concentrate—can help prevent the loose, sagging muscles that cause a wrinkled face and neck.

Your old friends the B-vitamins, and pyridoxine in par­ticular, pop up again, this time in connection with your muscles. Dr. Sipes of the University of Cincinnati College o£ Medicine was treating a number of patients for pellagra (the disease brought on by a severe lack of vitamin B-com-plex, particularly niacin). Because these patients showed further signs of thiamin and riboflavin deficiencies, they were also treated with these B-vitamins. Yet they still continued to complain o£ muscular weakness and difficulty in walking —along with nervousness, insomnia, irritability and abdom­inal pains. Then Dr. Sipes decided to add pyridoxine to the treatment. Within twenty-four hours, all signs of muscular weakness and pain had completely disappeared, along with the other unpleasant symptoms. One patient who had been unable to walk more than a few steps prior to being given the pyridoxine treatment walked two miles on the same day this vitamin was added to his diet.

Pyridoxine has also been used in treating various types of muscular rigidity, leg stiffness, paralysis and hand tremors. The result has been a marked relief in these unpleasant ailments which all too frequently afflict the past-forty group.

From all these facts you can easily comprehend that the same planned diet which will keep your eyes, hair and skin attractively healthy will also help maintain the strength and youthfulness of your bones and muscles. But don't expect to enjoy strong bones or firm muscles on a diet of tea and toast, or rice and gravy. Foods that will give you high proteins, minerals and vitamins are the conditioners that your bones and muscles cry out for continually at any age.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here...