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Is there a secret for eternal youth?
Oprah, among other celebrities, seem to know the secret for eternal youth
By: Mary Gostelow
Oprah Winfrey, 54, may go up-down in weight but the television superstar sure seems to have perfected the secret of eternal youth, says Angela Cobban.
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According to O, The Oprah Magazine (January 2009 issue), Oprah Winfrey's weight oscillates between 160 and 200 pounds.
There is no weight problem, however, when it comes to billionaire David Murdock, 85, who has said he will live to be 125 years old. He has founded the $1.5 billion North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, NC USA: this is home to research on ageing and longevity.
On Tuesday, March 24th, 2009, David Murdock appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show. He was riding horseback, doing a hundred or so push-ups and making his regular, several-times-a-day cold vegetable and fruit smoothies. He also took Oprah to his local Costco cut-price supermarket to show her how he fills his mega-size trolley with crates of raw produce, including Dole bananas - which he happens to own. He also owns Castle & Cooke, Lana'i, and several hotels.
David Murdock is a character. One of his three past wives is Malibu CA-based interior designer Tracy Murdock, who was formerly married to style guru Bijan (Bijan Pakzad) - she was known at that time as 'The Bijan Girl'. About the time of the 2006 opening of one of his hotels, Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village California, he imported a full-size red Chinese pagoda for its gardens. He also brought over the Chinese specialists to construct it, without nails.
Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village, next to the spacious headquarters of Dole Food Co Inc, is in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains in the Conejo Valley, 35 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. The estate is framed by the Simi Hills and Santa Monica Mountains. Facilities include 18 holes of Jack Nicklaus-designed golf, Zuma Canyon orchids set strategically highlighting the building, 270 bedrooms and suites, and a 28-room spa, the largest in the Four Seasons network, all lemon yellow and thick carpets and a river running through the resting lounges that has a Chinese red bridge over it. The signature treatment is an 80-minute Holistic Journey, flavored with your choice of aroma, say juniper for revitalisation. Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village California also includes the California WellBeing Institute. Wow, this is a full medical facility, though no surgery, other than botox, is actually done here. It is all about prevention, and ideally for healthy people. You are shown into a personal suite, which comes with its own consultation rooms leading off, with all necessary basic testing equipment. A day's assessment, which comes with a complimentary massage, can bring you into contact with such experts as Dr Ron Moy, UCLA's champion dermatologist who now has his base here. You will find the latest pale blue and white GEC equipment, and the Bod Pod, a glass-front egg-shaped thing (you climb in, sit down and in under five minutes there is a print-out showing your resting metabolic rate and total energy expenditure).
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The resort also hosts a 37,200 sq ft production theater for shooting movies, and a wellness 'show kitchen' for demonstrations and hands-on cooking classes. You can sign on, for instance, for a two-hour Eat Well for Anti-Ageing course, led by a registered dietician. You learn how to maximize green leafy vegetables, fish, beans, nuts, berries and fruits that add nutritional benefits and improved health. Menus rotate with the seasons but they might include some of the following: Carrot Ginger Soup, Farmer’s Market Salad, Steamed Salmon with Scallions and Ginger, Garlic Roasted Chicken Medallions with Apple and Fig Compote, Roasted Broccoli with Asiago, Barley Pilaf, Dark Chocolate Pineapple with Pistachio.
Where else can you go to feeling younger, better? Well, you might head to India, to Ananda in the Himalayas (read more here). You might choose Thailand, say Chiva-Som International Health Resort in Hua Hin (well, if it is good enough for such regular stayers as China's Oprah, Yue-Sai Kan, and the top Australian based fashion and lingerie designer, Collette Dinnigan, it is more than good enough for us!). At this quiet seven-acre resort, next to the Gulf of Thailand, you have a wide choice of opportunities. Some come merely for a de-stress retreat, five, seven, ten, 14 or 21 nights. The seven night, for instance, includes two meditation sessions, two flotation therapies, and one each Maya massage, sacred crystal healing and one reiki, plus one massage a day. The resort has 58 bedrooms and suites - but the spa has 70 treatment rooms, busy day and evening long. This is not all about pampering, it is more about wellness.
Of course food comes strongly to the forefront at Chiva-Som International Health Resort. Executive Chef Paisarn Cheewinsiriwat has been a long-time consultant to British Airways, in its First Class cabins, and he has written such popular books as The Chiva-Som Natural Way to Healthy Eating and Living, and also Chiva-Som's Thai Spa Cuisine, both published by Editions Didier Millet. In the resort's spacious indoor (air-conditioned) and adjacent open-air Emerald Room, all dishes are carefully annotated, with calorie and fat contents clearly listed on printed menus and on labels by buffet dishes. You dine really well, and you feel good. You also bless Khun Krip Rojanastien, son of the founder of Chiva-Som, who is continuing its highly commendable dedication to wellness, and agelessness - which is ultimately what anti-ageing is all about.
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