As I plan my travel for 2020, I’d like your feedback on which cities I should visit. I’m thinking North America, but if you’re convinced I should go elsewhere, let me know. Here’s a link to a very short survey—only six questions.
What are you prepared to do today? I hope you’re in the mood for a few questions.
In last month’s Memos, I talked about many different aspects of exercise including flexibility, strengthening, and the various types of fitness and stamina. There’s one more thing you need to know. But first, a story.
Paula has been having an issue with her ankle and foot. She got it checked out with her podiatrist, and it’s a problem with the tendons in her foot including the Achilles tendon. Yesterday we went to see our favorite physical therapist; he did a thorough examination of her foot, ankle, knee, and hips. He recommended some stretching and strengthening exercises as well as some non-impact aerobic exercise. He then said something important: everything may seem worse before it gets better.
I’m going to tell you the same thing as you attempt to work on your body to help you really live instead of merely being alive: you may feel worse before the work you invest begins to pay off and you start to feel better. That’s one reason I ask you to see your doctor before you begin, who’s familiar with your orthopedic issues as well as any conditions that can be impacted by exercise. That’s why you always check first.
If you can get professional help to help you get started, that’s even better—someone to help you choose the right exercises to fit your particular body and limitations. Get a referral to a good physical therapist or find a certified personal trainer with experience helping people who are less fit; you definitely don’t need one of the no-pain-no-gain goons. It doesn’t need to be a long-term relationship, just advice to help you get a good, safe start. And you can probably work out a routine to do at home if joining a gym isn’t your style, but a short-term membership may be helpful in determining which exercises and types of equipment are best for you. For example, don’t buy an exercise bike without trying different types.
For a while, you’ll probably feel worse, especially if it’s been years since you’ve worked on some of these muscles and joints. You may want to refer to the pain scale on drchet.com. Take it slow and let discomfort be your guide. If you overdo it and you’re in pain, back off, ice or heat and rest, and then get going again with a little more caution. After all, you want to live all your days. The work you put in will generate some satisfaction before you may feel the benefits. Better to take longer to get there than stop altogether. The good news is that once you get over that hump, and it may take many months, you’ll feel better than ever.
What are you prepared to do today?
It’s time to hit the road again. It’s been too long since I’ve done my own seminars, so I’m planning 2020 Health and Nutrition seminars. My goal is to go to a dozen or so cities throughout the U.S. and Canada next year.
It’s not that I love to travel—it’s that I love to teach. It’s great doing large events with thousands of people, but I like teaching smaller groups because I can cover more material.
Where am I going? That’s up to you. I want to plan as far in advance as I can. For sure I’ll do one in Grand Rapids and another in the Charleston, SC, area where our kids live. After that, I have some ideas but I want you to help me decide.
So here’s the deal: if you think your city would be a good location, let me know; include your best guess about how many people you think might attend.
I’ll soon be sending out a survey with questions about locations, dates, days of the week, and times of day. One thing is certain: I’ll need some help in each area to select a reasonably priced and easy-to-access venue. The seminars are open to everyone. If you’re interested in your personal health, you will benefit. If you’re interested in benefitting your business, it will help you as well.
Look for that survey from me and respond as soon as you can. Call, text, or email me. I’m going on the road again, and you can help decide whether it’s in a city near you.
What are you prepared to do today?
There are dozens of topics that I could still cover about making sure you live your life every day you’re alive: supplements you could take, a healthy microbiome, protecting your vision, and on and on. But if you don’t get to the part where you eat less, eat better, and move more, the rest doesn’t really mean much. On top of that, there are no definitive answers yet on some of the things we worry about. So I’m going to finish with two things I think are important based on what I’ve read about living every day.
You need to have purpose in your life, regardless of age. You should be able to articulate why you get up every morning. If you can state that, it will make it a whole lot easier to do the things you know you have to do to live that purpose. You have to take care of yourself to uphold that purpose.
Life is to be enjoyed. Yes, we live in stressful times and our lives may be a mess, but we have to be able to laugh and enjoy life. That’s why I had Paula put a picture of Riley, our little fire chief, in this Memo; I’d wager you smiled when you saw it. You can get a lot more release of healthy hormones from smiling and laughter than you can from worry and frowning. Even if it’s just for a few minutes, find the joy in life and take the time to relish it.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this month-long look at living your best life. The important thing is to find those areas that you don’t do as well and work on making better habits. That’s the key to living every day you’re alive. Live every day to the best you can in your current circumstances with the goal of making each day just little bit better than yesterday.
What are you prepared to do today?
The last recommendation for you in living every day you’re alive involves keeping the body working its best through regular maintenance. That means seeing your healthcare professionals on schedule. Here are some examples of what that can mean.
Researchers recently published a paper on the impact of a narrow band of ultraviolet light on the microbiome. If people were deficient in vitamin D, their microbiome was not as healthy as those who had normal vitamin D levels. The UV light did not improve the microbiome of those who had normal vitamin D levels, only those who did not. That’s why you need to get your bloodwork done regularly, including getting your vitamin D levels checked. Whether by sun or supplement, vitamin D is critical to your microbiome and many other aspects of your health.
A couple of years ago my glasses were broken and I needed a new prescription, so I finally had my eyes examined. It had been at least five years since my last exam. Turns out I have glaucoma; by using a couple of drops a day, I haven’t lost any vision. But if I hadn’t had my eyes checked, who knows what could have happened?
One more. It seemed like I kept getting shorter and shorter every time I had a checkup, so I had a bone density test done. Turns out I have osteopenia. Long-time runners like me aren’t supposed to get that, but there it is. I changed my supplements and I’ll get checked again this year.
I’ve often talked about the importance of protecting your dental health. Yes, teeth can be replaced, but it’s really expensive as Paula and I know from experience. While a dental checkup may seem like lot of money, it’s worth it to protect not only your teeth, but many other aspects of your health such as heart and digestive health.
Today’s lesson is get your body checked on a regular basis. We don’t ignore our hearts (for the most part) but the ability to see, to hear, to have strong bones, even to chew food is dependent on taking care of those specialty organs on a regular basis.
What are you prepared to do today?
Reference: Front. Microbiol., 24 October 2019 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.02410.
We’re going to finish this month’s look at living life instead of just being alive by talking about brain health. The brain is the command center of the body, telling it what to do 24/7 without you having to think about it. Be honest: when was the last time you consciously told your heart to beat? It also handles conscious requests from you. Probably the most important part of our brain is our ability to think and recall memories.
In the past 10 to 15 years, a lot has been written about how to keep our brains healthy. For all we think we know, we really don’t know all that much, but there are three things that we need to do. I’ve already talked enough about exercise; what was good for the heart, muscles, joints, and balance is also good for the brain. But another type of exercise involves using the brain, such as reading, doing puzzles, listening to music, and learning new skills. For more on this topic, see How to Have a Healthy Brain.
Second, what we eat can impact brain health, as well as what we shouldn’t eat. This will come as no surprise: your diet should start with vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, and nuts. Whole grains are good as are quality oils such as olive oil and flaxseed oil. What we should avoid are overly processed foods, especially limiting refined carbohydrates and sugars.
Hand in glove with that, the majority of us need to eat less. Eating too much not only exposes us to usually highly processed foods, it contributes to being overweight and type 2 diabetes. Both can contribute to poor brain function over time.
We’ll finish this month’s look at living every day on Thursday.
What are you prepared to do today?
The final component of everything we’ve covered this month to date is balance, the integration of every physical component of health we’ve talked about: muscular strength, endurance, stamina, flexibility, bones, and joint health. If we work on every one of the prior physical components, it enhances our ability to stay upright until we choose not to be.
One of the best illustrations of this I’ve seen was a video of members of an assisted living facility. Their balance was tested, and then they were put on an exercise program. Stretching, strengthening, and flexibility were part of a 12-week program; then the subjects were retested. They all had better balance. The average age of the people in the study was over 90 years old, including a few that were over 100.
Falling is a significant problem that impacts our willingness to move. We lose confidence and we aren’t able to live to our potential. Going down a flight of stairs, reaching for objects, even walking on a carpet are significant impediments to moving. Training the body can help with that no matter how old we are.
You may be thinking, “But what about the brain? That’s involved in balance, too.” Of course it is, but as you train the muscles, you’re also training the brain to respond more quickly. I’m not suggesting people will be ready to walk a tightrope over Niagara Falls, but they’ll have better balance than before.
Speaking of the brain, as we get older, that becomes the primary concern of most people. Next week, we’ll find out how to take care of that.
What are you prepared to do today?
When we stop to consider what prevents us from moving as much and as freely as we would like, the main culprit would probably be our joints: knees for most, with hips a close second. Shoulders are up there, along with our feet and hands. One of my problem areas is my thumbs in the metacarpal joints of both hands.
Everything we’ve talked about so far leads us to our joints. The muscles attach to bones via tendons across joints, and that allows for movement. There are ligaments that hold bones in place, several types of cartilage that provide cushioning, even specialized fluid within joints. It’s the interaction of all those factors combined with the damage we’ve experienced and our genetics that results in the pain we may experience that inhibits motion. What do we do about it?
Without question, the most important is stretching and strengthening. I’ve written about that already, but it warrants a reminder. Maintaining the range of motion of each joint improves our mobility and ability to use our limbs properly. Our physical therapist has a saying, “Motion is lotion,” which is a way of saying the more you move, the easier it is to move. We should all move as much as we can without overdoing it. Here’s an example: Paula and I had to give up dance lessons because she has arthritis in her feet, and dancing was just too much stress on all the little joints in the foot. For all of us, the challenge is finding that happy medium between moving enough to keep everything going and moving so much it adds to the damage.
In terms of nutrients, all parts of the joints are connective tissue; the basic nutrient for every one is glucosamine. Our bodies are supposed to make as much as we need but often don’t. Any type of glucosamine can be beneficial. Chondroitin and hyaluronic acid are forms of glycosaminoglycans. In addition, vitamin C is also important for all connective tissue. There are many nutrients that may impact the inflammation in joints such as tart cherry juice and turmeric. But it begins with a good foundation, and that’s glucosamine.
Everything to date leads us to the final part of this series of living every day. I’ll cover that on Saturday.
What are you prepared to do today?
In trying to live every day we’re alive, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the ability to move, but it’s not just about muscle. Those muscles connect to bones for the most part, and the bones must be healthy as well. One of the basic tenets of healthy bones is Wolfe’s law, which can be summarized as “function determines structure.” In everyday terms, to have healthy bones you must stress them regularly. Exercise is critical to that effort. But it’s not as simple as that.
Hormones and nutrients are also critical to bone health. Our ability to make hormones and absorb and utilize nutrients diminishes as we get older. Hormone replacement therapy has been controversial, and that’s a discussion a woman should have with her physician. In terms of nutrients, the ones critical to healthy bones are calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, and vitamin K2.
Before increasing any nutrients via supplements, have a bone-density test as well as a vitamin D test. If either test has low results, then taking a combination of the nutrients mentioned earlier would help the bones when combined with exercise. Any exercise that’s weight bearing is beneficial such as walking, but not swimming, with added benefits for weight training.
Maybe the best we can do is to stop the loss of bone mass, but that will help you live better for longer. We’ll move from bones to joints on Thursday.
What are you prepared to do today?
Today is the final post about the physical factors of living and not just being alive, and it’s about your posture, the way you carry yourself. Posture reflects the interplay of your skeletal, muscular, and nervous system: the way you stand, the way you move, and the way you sit. Those all rely on the interaction of the three systems. The key is that we have to train those systems to consciously respond to the way we want to stand or sit until they become automatic.
I was overweight as a kid. One of the things I did was hold my stomach in so I didn’t appear to be so fat. It stuck. I don’t know what it’s like to relax my abs because it seems unnatural to do so. Here’s a secret: you can look five to ten pounds lighter just by holding your abs in and your shoulders back. You also can be taller by training your core to keep your stomach in and training your shoulders to hold your head erect.
There’s a lot going against us. Sofas are soft to sink into, and we do. Even our car seats can make it harder to hold our shoulders back. We are always looking at our cell phones, so we see teens developing the cell-phone hump, which looks a lot like the dowager hump. And even if we stand or sit straight, it may all fall apart when we work or exercise. Do you bend at the waist to pick up a package? Do you run hunched over? Especially when you lift weights, it’s important to get the posture correct so you’re training the correct muscles in the correct movement; that’s why it’s good to have a trainer or physical therapist to help you get started. And by the way, that’s the real reason for the walls of mirrors at the gym.
How do you stand tall? Sit tall? Practice. Once you get the correct posture, you have to keep practicing it until it becomes automatic. We have to fight our nature to slouch standing or sitting. You just have to keep practicing until it becomes automatic. It can impact just about every organ in your body, including your bones. That’s where we’ll pick this up next week.
What are you prepared to do today?
