This 12-week LLM Online course is the first of its kind: a brain-based approach to staying healthier and younger for longer, by creating new and healthier behaviors.

Please read through this introduction to LLM Online Course and then purchase the course to access the 12 weekly modules.

CE credit for Nurses in the USA

Realizations Inc offers 15 contact hours of CE Credit for Registered Nurses through the CA Board of Registered Nursing after the completion of the 13 modules.

© Arlene R. Taylor, PhD

Getting Started . . .

To really solve our health problems, we will need to change what we are doing. Healthy choices are of primary importance in restoring health that has been lost because of poor lifestyle practices.          
—George E. Guthrie, MD

Science in a Nutshell

The Longevity Lifestyle Matters (LLM) program is the first of its kind: a 12-week brain-based approach to health and wellness. LLM was created in 2014 after months of researching current studies on health and longevity. It was designed to help people learn how to create and maintain a longevity lifestyle to help them stay healthier and younger for longer. Original authors were: 

• Arlene R. Taylor, PhD, brain function specialist and founder of Realizations Inc
• Steve Horton, MPH, Chief Executive Officer for Pacific Healthcare
• Sharlet M Briggs, PhD, President for multiple hospitals

COVID-19 provided an impetus to update the program and create the current digital version: LLM Online. Dr. Taylor created the online program. Several hundred individuals participated in the initial beta testing.

LLM Online is for a total one-time cost of $12 for the 12-week program. Educational audio and video clips are built into the online program. There is nothing to write unless you like to make your own notes. You can go back and review any previous modules as you wish. Because research indicates it takes nearly 12 weeks to build new habits, we recommend that you spend at least one week on each module.

“Why 12 weeks?” you may ask. Research by Phillippa Lally et al, at University College London, found that on average it takes about that long for a new behavior to become automatic. Slow and steady wins.

I am not what has happened to me. I am what I choose to become.
—Carl Jung

LLM Online is designed to share practical and doable strategies that can enable you to take personal responsibility for staying healthier, younger, and more successful for longer. Once these strategies are in place, you simply follow them for the rest of your life!

NOTE: Nurses in the United States can obtain 15 hours of CE credit through the California Board of Nursing, provider number for LLM Online Program. The cost is $15 for this 13th module. Be sure to start the program about four months well in advance of when you need the CE Certificate.

This is the Age of the Brain!

Everything starts in the brain. It has been referred to as the most amazing piece of biological real estate in the known universe. Konrad Kording has pointed out that the human brain produces in 30 seconds as much data as the Hubble Space Telescope has produced in its lifetime. That is just one reason that LLM Online is brain-based.

Not a fad nor a diet nor a deprivation plan nor a flash-in-the-pan solution nor a complicated calorie-counting exercise, LLM Online encourages developing new, replacement behaviors that can be implemented into each person’s daily routines and maintained for life.

For those individuals serious about building these researched strategies into their daily lives, LLM Online does require thought, time, practical application, practice, and consistency. Which is why it works!

LLM Online can help you pursue gradual and permanent lifestyle changes to prevent what is preventable, reduce the risk for what is not preventable, and manage more effectively what was not—or could not be—prevented. The exponential power of science working with both the brain and body can often provide the potential to reverse deficits—at least to some degree—due to either lack of knowledge and/or personal choices and decisions. 

 Seventy (70) percent of how long and how well you live is in your hands.
—Michael A. Roisen, MD & Mehmet C. Oz, MD

Planet Earth:  The Current Reality

• Anxiety is the leading cause of disability worldwide.
• Every 20 seconds a person in the United States is diagnosed with some form of diabetes.
• Cardiovascular diseases represent the leading cause of death worldwide. (COVID-19 deaths may eclipse that during the pandemic.)
• Obesity, now deemed a “global epidemic,” is linked with more than fifty diseases.
  • More than 200 types of cancer and dementias are also high on the list.
  • Estimates foresee this generation as the first to live shorter lives than their parents—largely due to lifestyle choices.

The human brain is estimated to have about a hundred billion nerve cells, two million miles of axons, and a million billion synapses, making it the most complex structure, natural or artificial, on earth.
—Tim Green

What Has Not Worked

Many attempts to deal with health issues by targeting primarily diet and exercise have been less-than-successful long term. Fortunately, current research recommends surprisingly simple approaches to reduce one’s risk for illness, disease, and a shortened lifespan.

It has become clear that dieting does not work long term. Within the space of two or three years, most people regain everything they have lost and more—often as fat. There are also concerns about the impact of dieting on the brain. Faith Hickman Brynie, author of Brain Sense, explains that dieting starves the brain of serotonin. Without enough serotonin to signal satisfaction, dieters tend to overeat. A dead-end street.

It’s also clear that everything begins in the brain. If you start there and get your brain on board, smart strategies that become part of your lifestyle can (hopefully) continue indefinitely.

Aristotle has been quoted as saying that “excellence is not an act, but a habit.” Pursuing excellence, the wise choice of many alternatives is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution. Turning learning into experiential knowledge and practically applying consistently it can also result in improved health.

The best time to create and implement a longevity lifestyle for yourself is around age 18—or earlier. The next best time is right now.

As the old saying goes, those who are too busy to take care of their health are like mechanics too busy to take care of their tools. Your brain and body are your tools. Have you been too busy to take care of them? If so, start today! 

When I look at the human brain I'm still in awe of it. Every single time you lift off the bone and open the durra and there it is–the human brain, the thing that gives a person a personality, that distinguishes each one of us, that there could be more than 6 billion of us here on this planet with brains that look the same, but each one being distinctly different because of what is going on in that thing.
 I'll never get over my awe of that.
—Benjamin Carson. MD

What Does Work

“If you keep on doing what you are doing, you will keep on getting what you are getting.”  With these words, Dr. Guthrie begins the Foreword for the Longevity Lifestyle Matters textbook. Following are a few of his comments.

“Science has made quite clear the relationship between lifestyle choices and many of the diseases of the so-called ‘developed’ cultures. While many of us are aware of these relationships, the actual application of what we know into our behavior and habits often lags. We would prefer a quick and ‘easy’ fix. We expect science to solve our chronic health problems with a procedure or a pill when much of the cause lies within our own lifestyle choices.

“For your health to improve, something needs to change. Let the Longevity Lifestyle Matters program guide you on this portion of your journey to optimum health. A long journey begins with the first step. There is no ‘magic’ to restore health. There is no safe ‘crash diet.' There are no ‘magical’ quick fixes. You will be the one most responsible for changing your lifestyle.”           

George E. Guthrie, MD, MPH, CDE, CNS, FAAFP, FACLM
Assistant Director, Florida Hospital Family Medicine Residency
President, American College of Lifestyle Medicine, 2017

You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
—Zig Ziglar

How do you get started?

Good question!

The short answer is that because everything begins in the brain, the place to start is in your brain—with your mindset. In other words, if you think you can or you think you can’t, either way, you are right. Start by thinking you can—because you can choose to take steps to create and maintain a Longevity Lifestyle, one that helps you stay healthier and younger for longer.

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) put it this way, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. And, the secret of getting started is breaking a complex, overwhelming task into small manageable tasks. Then, begin with the first one.”

The long answer is that LLM Online is designed to help you not only get started but to keep on keeping on as long as you live.

Fourteen key components have been identified for helping you stay healthier and younger for longer. Each component links back to the brain in some way because everything begins in the brain. They are presented in 12 Modules: one each week for 12 weeks. Divided into bite-sized bits, the information is easier to remember and apply daily.

“Sitting Disease,” a term describing a lack of movement and physical activity, has deadly consequences over time. As such, each Module includes reminders to “Get Up and Move.” Why?  To increase blood circulation to your brain. 

Simply standing up from a sitting position increases your brain’s level of alertness. Walk around the room as you listen to the audiobook segments. Walk in place as you view the videos.  Drinking plenty of water keeps your brain energized.

Heed the reminders to Stand, Move, and Drink Water. Learn and Do: it matters!

The big secret in life is that there is no big secret.
Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.
—Oprah Winfrey

12 Modules of the Longevity Lifestyle Matters Program

• • Mindset & Self-talk
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • Physical & Mental exercise
  • Sleep
  • Water
  • Safety
  • Sunlight
  • Nutrition
  • Laughter
  • Support network
  • Stressors
  • Life Satisfaction

Other resources include:

• • The Daily Goals Forms
  • Weekly Comparison forms
  • BMI chart
  • 15-minute educational videos presented by Dr. Taylor
  • Short “Birds & Brains” videos with cameos by Dr. Taylor
  • Audiobook excerpts performed by Dr. Taylor
    
    

Audiobook Excerpt

Listen to “The Fact Is . . . Nature Plus Nurture Equals—You” - an excerpt from Just the Facts, performed by Dr. Taylor:

The introductory cost for the online version of the Longevity Lifestyle Matters program is $12 US—payable through PayPal.

Upon payment, the first module is released. Subsequent modules will then be available and you can go back and review any of the modules at any time.

Arlene R. Taylor, PhD is the principal author of the Longevity Lifestyle Matters program, with contributions by Steve Horton, MPH, and Sharlet M. Briggs, Ph.D.

Taylor is the author of LLM Online and the presenter for the LLM Educational videos.