Can we get any sillier than this?

 

 

“Hostess Brands, known for fare like Twinkies and Ding Dongs, is making a successful foray into more upscale treats. The company posted surprisingly strong earnings on Thursday, along with an upbeat forecast, sending shares on their biggest rally ever. The snack maker credited the rollout of the Hostess Bakery Petites line, which has no artificial flavors or high-fructose corn syrup, for boosting the growth. The latest results helped solidify a turnaround for an iconic American business” Daniel Acker, Bloomberg, 3/1/18.

“Chicago – With more than 86 million Americans living with prediabetes and nearly 90 percent of them unaware of it, the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are set to make a major announcement this week about their new joint effort aimed at preventing type 2 diabetes.  Type 2 diabetes is one of our nation’s leading causes of suffering and death—with one out of three people at risk of developing the disease in their lifetime.”  Press Release, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3/11/2015

The Bloomberg article was headlined:  “Twinkie Maker’s Push Into More Upscale Snacks Helps Fuel Rally.”

The CDC press release was headlined “AMA, CDC to Announce Urgent National Initiative to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes.”

Isn’t America great?

I could hardly contain my excitement when I read the Bloomberg headline  – a rejoicing about the evolving resurrection of one of America’s iconic “sugar factories” from a 2012 bankruptcy.  What could be better than the re-emergence of a company that does a nice job of undermining our collective health, move upscale with that process and line the pockets of a small handful of private equity firms?

It’s just so thrilling – and American – isn’t it?

I love the part about “Hostess Bakery Petites line, which has no artificial flavors or high-fructose corn syrup. “  OK, we’re safe folks.  No threat – got those ugly monsters out of this new treat.

This is food-industry marketing at its best.  Make a big deal about eliminating the top-of-mind evil demon, HFCS, knowing that consumers won’t bother to read the label to find out that the top three ingredients in the product are still sugar.

Let’s take a look at what IS there instead of what isn’t there.  Here are the actual ingredients in this new company-saving sugar treat.  This is extracted from the Walmart advertising for this new treat.  (I tried to count the actual number of ingredients but got lost.  Maybe you can come up with a count.)

 

Hostess New Bakery Petites Double Chocolate Cake Delights. A Decadent small batch treats made with the finest ingredients with real chocolate, no artificial colors or flavors. Each mouth-watering mini cake is baked with care so you can savor each delicious bite Hostess Bakery Petites Double Chocolate Cake Delights, 7.9 oz

 Ingredients: CONFECTIONERY COATING (SUGAR, PALM KERNEL OIL AND PALM OIL, COCOA POWDER, WHEY POWDER, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL FLAVORS), WATER, SUGAR, BLEACHED ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR [WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, FERROUS SULFATE (IRON), THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID], CORN SYRUP, COCOA, SHORTENING (PALM OIL, MONO & DIGLYCERIDES, POLYSORBATE 60), SPRINKLES (SUGAR, CORN STARCH AND CARNAUBA WAX), PALM OIL, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS: GLYCERIN, SOY LECITHIN, SOYBEAN OIL, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI) WHEY, BAKING SODA, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, MONOGLYCERIDES, POLYSORBATE 60, SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE, PRESERVATIVES (PHOSPHORIC ACID, SODIUM PROPIONATE), SALT, DEXTROSE, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, SORBIC ACID AND POTASSIUM SORBATE (TO RETAIN FRESHNESS), XANTHAN GUM, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, SODIUM STEARATE, CELLULOSE GUM, NATURAL FLAVOR, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM SULFATE, WHEAT GLUTEN, AMMONIUM SULFATE, ASCORBIC ACID, CHOCOLATE LIQUOR.  From Walmart product listing

 

As I chuckled over the thick irony of these two announcements, my thoughts went to Michael Pollan’s wonderful book “Food Rules, An Eater’s Manual”.  Pollan’s compilation of 83 rules for proper eating is a masterfully written and illustrated two-hour read worth its weight in good health.

I thought it appropriate to invoke a handful of his rules here in hopes that someone would forward this to the execs at Hostess Brands and add to what already has to be a difficulty in sleeping.

Food Rules to the rescue

Food rule #2:  Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.

Food rule #3:  Avoid food products containing ingredients that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry.

Food rule #6: Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients.

Food rule #7: Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.

Food rule #14:  Eat only foods that will eventually rot. (NOTE:  It’s important to point out that the rumor that Twinkies have a shelf-life of 50-100 years has been exposed as untrue.  Their shelf life, however, has been recently extended from its original 26 days to 45 days.  There, now don’t you feel better about its nutritional quality?)

Food rule #19: Eat only foods that have been cooked by humans. (as opposed to corporations)

Food rule #20:  Don’t ingest foods made in places where everyone is required to wear a surgical cap.

Food rule #21: If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t (NOTE: Hostess estimates that it uses 8 million pounds of sugar, seven million pounds of refined flour and one million eggs to produce 500 million Twinkies each year.)

Food companies like Hostess Brands are in a tough position.  Stockholders, debtors and 18,500 employees to keep whole, while turning out products that are on the wrong end of the social consciousness scale and contributing to an emerging global health crisis.

But that’s not likely to change.  That’s why it’s incumbent on us to be knowledgeable and take control of our own health, know how our biology works and pay attention to what we are eating.

Pollan’s book is a good starting point

A Serious Cellular Conversation

Hello.  Allow me to introduce myself.  I’m a human cell.  You won’t recognize me because you’ve never seen me before. I’m normally about 1/10th the diameter of a human hair.

I’ve blown myself up a couple of million times to be able to spend some time with you because, frankly, we need to talk.

I was floating along in your bloodstream a couple of weeks ago hauling my usual load of nutrients and oxygen for delivery – sort of a microscopic Fed Ex guy in a bright red truck – and I was chatting it up with a couple of my fellow red blood cells about how work seemed to be getting harder and harder.

Turns out, they were all feeling the same thing – tired, stressed, working overtime. So we pulled together some of our co-workers over in liver, pancreas, stomach, lungs – sort of a roundtable if you will – to see what they were feeling.  And it was unanimous. Everyone was feeling stressed out.

The consensus was that there is very little understanding and appreciation for what we do and that makes our work a lot harder.

So they elected me to come talk to you. We thought a little basic education might help us affect some changes that would allow us to do our job better.

Let me start by pointing out that there are about 38 ½ trillion of us in your body– that’s trillion with a “T”.  In miles, that’s equivalent to 414,000 trips to the sun.

We really haven’t changed in the last 3 ½ billion years – essentially most of us have a cell membrane, a nucleus,  cytoplasm, ribosomes, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi vesicles, mitochondria plus some other stuff.  But that’s not what I’m here to talk about – you can Google all that.

Just know that whoever or whatever thought you up and put you all together did an amazing job of organizing something out of total chaos to make you into the most magnificent machine ever devised – an incredible 24×7 immune system that’s working it’s butt off to try to keep you healthy.

Unfortunately, you can’t imagine how tough that is these days.

We need some help!

I can’t stick around very long.  So, I’ll cut to the chase.

We feel we are being abused!  I’m here to ask you, on behalf of my 38 ½ trillion friends, to give us a break!

We’ve proven our ability to work effectively together to enable people to live a long and healthy life.  For instance, we recently helped a lady in Paris live to 122 ½ years – a new benchmark for longevity.  She was active right up to the end.

But, here in America, you choose to live only an average of 80 years  – 42 years short of that benchmark, only 65% of the full-life potential that we’ve already established. And there’s still this tendency to “live short and die long.”

What’s up with that?

Here’s my point.  We’ll perform for you if you will perform for us.  There is no magic here.  If you would like us to help you feel better, have more energy, rid you of invading toxins and viruses, corral our crazy cancer cousins, keep your brain and arteries unclogged, we can do it but we’ve got to have your help.

 

Just think for a moment.  You come home from a long, stressful day at work, throw down 3-4 pops, inhale a big meatloaf dinner and then do three hours of Lazy-boy and Netflix – well, we know we’re in for a very long night.

Honestly, there are days when it just gets to be too much and a lot of us just say screw it and check out early, leaving fewer of us to do the job.  Or, sometimes, because we are so tired and pissed off, we’ll just go rogue and morph into a cancer cell.

What’s the real score?

Hey, I’m just a single cell – don’t take my word for it.  Look at the scoreboard. After 100 years of hockey-stick growth of your lifespan, it’s now going backward; diabetes is out of control; heart disease still is the leading killer; 65% of American men are overweight, 25% are obese. Your own American Medical Association recently has announced that 50% of you reading this are either diabetic or pre-diabetic and 70% of you don’t know it.

What can I say?

Hey, I’ve got to get back to my glucose deliveries.  Let me leave you with a simple plan that’s a plea from all 38 ½ trillion of us.

  • Bring us oxygen. That means you need to get off all my buddies in the back of your pants, get some exercise and get your heart rate up frequently.  We need that from you more than anything.
  • We need good non-fatty nutrients, so that means stop eating crap!  Get on the veggies, fruit and whole grains. Please don’t believe this gibberish from McDonalds saying they are becoming nutrition conscious.
  • Stop with all the sugar – the sodas, fruit juices, pastries? It’s killing us – and killing you. Sugar damages every one of us. Just stop!  Start reading the labels.  Know what’s natural sugar and what isn’t.  And just know that your food industry is playing tricks on you.  They have over 50 different words for refined sugar.
  • We need you to stop pumping stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline into the system because it’s hard for us to keep them from nicking your arteries and causing plaque buildup. So chill out and stop taking life and yourself so seriously.

That’s all I’ve got time for.  I really have to go. I think some of my customers are feeling a little shaky.

I hope you’ll take me, and this simple plan, seriously.

Look, we’ve been doing our thing successfully for 3 ½ billion years – you’ve been doing your western lifestyle thing for less than 100 years and it’s obviously not working.  So as I say goodbye, I’ll just rest my case on that.

Gotta run.  Good talking with you. Thanks for listening.

See ya back in your bloodstream!

Retirement worse than smoking?  Maybe.

 

 

This should make you stop and cogitate a bit:  the health risk of prolonged isolation is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

That’s according to the AARP Foundation.  I didn’t know AARP was doing that kind of deep biological, bio-scientific research.  But who’s going to doubt the mighty AARP?  Warren Buffett proved it long ago – selling insurance can support lots of things.

The article caught my eye because I’m a bit of a hermit, by nature and vocation, and a former smoker.

But the connection doesn’t resonate with me.

Smoking was stupid

And quitting was tough.  But it was the best thing I ever did when I quit on 6/6/79.  It was a launching pad for a whole new level of self-esteem and self-respect.

Isolation is built into what I do as a home-based recruiter, coach, and writer and it fits me as an introvert.  I empower myself through my reading, writing, and thinking and through occasional deep, stimulating conversations with a selective tribe of friends.

I don’t do crowds well – and small talk drives me crazy and reminds me, every time, of my shrinking calendar.  I’m inspired by what I do and draw a great deal of energy from my activities despite doing them largely in physical isolation.

I’m just not psychologically isolated.  I believe that’s where the difference lies.

Loneliness sucks!

I do understand what they are saying because I’ve seen the ill effects of psychological isolation.

If you click on over to the AARP article, you’ll find a list of “Risk Factors for Isolation” and – Voila! – there’s retirement smack in the middle, in the same sentence with becoming a caregiver and losing a spouse.

Robert Waldinger, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the world’s longest studies of adult life, said in this popular TED Talk, “The people in our 75-year study who were the happiest in retirement were the people who had actively worked to replace workmates with new playmates.”

Now, wait a minute.  You mean the golden ring, the coveted prize at the end of our labors, that late-life nirvana, that sole reason we’ve been busting our butts for 40 years doing something we marginally enjoyed or felt good about – it’s all really just a hoax?  You mean it’s gonna make me age faster and die sooner?

Mostly.  But it’s a big “it depends.”

We’re learning that pre-retirees are best served when they devote as much attention and energy to the non-financial components of retirement as they do to the financial components.   Research indicates that upwards of 70% of retirees enter into their retirement with little or no attention to the psychological, emotional and physical dark side of retirement.

Increased isolation is but one of those potential pitfalls but perhaps the most destructive.

There is a hidden epidemic that takes place in the shadow of retirement.   Some of the emerging statistics are alarming, all of which can be attributed, in part, to increased isolation;

  • The National Institutes of Health reports that of the 35 million Americans 65 or older, nearly 2 million suffer from full-blown depression. Another 5 million suffer from less severe forms of the illness.
  • Conditions such as heart attack, stroke, hip fracture, or macular degeneration, as well as procedures such as bypass surgery, are known to be associated with the development of depression.
  • Men older than age 65 take their own life at more than double the overall rate and are four times more likely to kill themselves than women in the same age group. Perhaps surprisingly, men age 75 and older have the highest annual suicide rate of any group – about 39 deaths per 100,000. In contrast, the rate for women peaks between ages 45 and 64 at nearly 10 deaths per 100,000. The suicide rate among men 45-64 increased by nearly 50%, between the years 1999 and 2014.

The numbers of older people affected by loneliness and isolation are striking.

According to the new AARP Foundation website Connect2Affect:

  • 17 percent of American adults 65 and older are isolated
  • Research shows a 26 percent increased risk of death due to the subjective feelings of loneliness
  • 6 million adults 65 and older have a disability that prevents them from leaving their homes without help
  • 51 percent of people 75 and older live alone

 

All this is part of the reason that I have decided to devote more of my life and coaching practice to retirement coaching.

The reach for traditional, off-the-cliff, labor-to-leisure concept of retirement still seems to prevail. That despite the fact we are at a place we’ve never been before with extended longevity facing unprecedented changes in the economic, financial and self-care landscape.  Retirement that isn’t carefully planned carries with it significant life-shortening health risks.

And with this mindset, many retirees continue to step into a minefield of unexpected challenges, not the least of which is isolation. It goes hand-in-hand with loss of identity, loss of sense of purpose, declining social engagement and creeping health issues emanating from a sedentary lifestyle and historically poor diet.

 

A new retirement emerging?

The wiser of “retirees” are beginning to redefine retirement to prevent the above.  For many, that means continuing to make some level of that previously disdained four-letter word -WORK – part of their lives.  With it comes a solution to the problems of isolation, purpose, inactive lifestyle.

I wrote about the importance of work in my 12/18/17 blog “Work Yourself to Death? Not a Bad Idea!”

Work with a purpose is a new catchphrase amongst retirees.  Or collecting a “playcheck”, a term coined by Mitch Anthony in his book “The New Retirementality”, – being paid for something you really truly are meant to do, that is fun and fulfills a deep inner purpose.

Work and play can intersect.  And there is no better time for that to happen than in a “re-defined retirement”, bringing forward acquired skills and experience and applying them to something fulfilling, fun and profitable.

Who do you know that has achieved that work-play intersection?  Or maybe it’s you.  Scroll down and leave a comment.  While you are there, sign up for our free e-book “Achieving Your Full-Life Potential: Five Easy Steps to Living Longer, Healthier, and With More Purpose.”

Sirloin, with a side-order of guilt.

I’m 75 and I have cardiovascular disease.

I was a meat-eater for 60+ of those years.

Are they connected?  Well, yeah – not much doubt.

If you are over 60, and beef, pork, chicken, oils of any type have been a part of your diet over the years – even a small portion – chances are pretty high you’ve got some level of CVD as well.

Current science says that mine is in the high-risk category.

Scanned, calculated and verified. A seven-minute, $100 heart scan calculated the numbers and unveiled the frightening truth.   I’ve now known it for a year.

I’m not checking out anytime soon, not that you would really know or lose any sleep over it.  My doc and I agree that, despite the high scan number, I’m not demonstrating any other evidence of a life-threatening condition.

But it’s hard to shake the statistic that for 40% of heart attack deaths, the first symptom is the fatal heart attack.

In a panic-filled consultation with him (with my wife in tow), his diagnosis was pretty simple after reviewing the heart scan report.  The conversation went something like this:

Doc:  You are an active exerciser, right?

Me: Yes.  45 minutes of aerobic exercise six days a week, strenuous weight training three days a week.  I regularly get my sustained heart rate well above the recommended exercise range for my age (220-75 x .65 and .85 = 94-124).

Doc:   Any chest pain or shortness of breath?

Me:  Nope.

Doc:  Then I’m not too concerned.  Yes, we should watch it.  The heart scan only shows total calcification and yours show the two largest and most important arteries as mostly clear.  Without doing an invasive, expensive angiogram, we can’t tell exactly how the plaque is distributed.  But based on your ability to handle strenuous exercise and the clearness of the two main arteries, we can make an educated guess that your plaque is fairly well distributed and not highly clumped. (OK, there is a little literary license in all that but that’s what both my wife and I heard).

Me:  What’s next?  I still want to get off of Lipitor.  (NOTE: I don’t trust the drug and I don’t trust the pharmaceutical industry)

Doc:  Don’t be a d***.  (No he didn’t really say that.  But something like it was in the back of his mind).  Schedule an echo stress test and a nuclear stress test and let’s then decide on a course of action when we get the results.  In the meantime, don’t be a d*** ( assumed) and keep taking your mild dose of Lipitor and add a daily baby aspirin.

Echo stress test – good – no apparent issues.  Nuclear stress test – same.  We threw in a carotid artery scan for good measure and it shows some blockage but not enough to be a threat.

Doc reviews the tests and relays through the patient portal: stay the course – Lipitor, baby aspirin.  Don’t change your exercise regimen.  We’ll keep an eye on it.

Whew!  Live another day.

Something’s missing in all this.Do you see any mention in the patient/doctor dialog about food?

Nada!! Never one question asked about my diet.  No hint that elimination/reduction of animal-based foods might also help.

He already knew that I was an active exerciser.  Had he not, I’m not confident that there would have been a discussion about how much exercise I have in my life.

No discussion about potential stress points in my life – work, relationships, etc.

No hesitation, however, to stay rooted solely in the medication recommendation.

This event has further opened my eyes to the gap between wellness and cure that exists in what we call a healthcare system.

There’s more to the story.

On my next doctor visit – my annual physical – I asked my doc:  “Is my CVD condition reversible?”.  His response was instant and unequivocal.  NO!  Slow it or stop it – there’s a chance.  Reverse it?  Not gonna happen.

I’m just stubborn enough to refuse to accept that answer without at least trying to verify it.

Didn’t take long to determine that there have been lots of verified cases of reversed cardiovascular disease.  Two well-known physicians, Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, are two of the leading physicians who are stepping into the breach, opposing the prevailing bias of their compatriots and proving that it can be reversed.

I guess my doc just hasn’t had time – or the inclination –  to read the books.  I wouldn’t want to infer that there may be an ulterior motive.  As in: you get well, you don’t come back and my revenue drops.  Naw! That couldn’t be – not in our profit-driven disease-care – er, excuse me – health-care system.

You are the CEO

This whole process not only reminded me of the lack of focus on wellness or “health creation” in our medical community, it was a refresher for me to stay the course in being the CEO of my own health and not abdicate it to a really screwed up system.

We can take heart (yes, a pun!) that there is a slowly emerging trend toward a more holistic, wellness-oriented approach to medical care.  Something has to give because we seem to be getting sicker and the cure more expensive without significant improvements.

My appeal to any reader is just that:  take charge of your health.  Make the effort to understand how your body works and how what you do and what you put into it counts.

I still take the position that, ultimately, the biggest killer in our culture is healthcare illiteracy.

Goodbye sirloin.

So meat has disappeared from my plate except for very rare occasions since the CVD diagnosis.  That wasn’t so tough and I’m finding, as Ornish and Esselstyn predict, my craving for dead animal is fading away.

If I fall off my new wagon and attack a sirloin, it probably will still taste great – but not great enough to offset the guilt feelings that come with it.  I’ve just studied, read, and researched too much to know that there is virtually nothing good that comes out of eating an animal-based product.

 

So I’ve made a diet change that I feel has, at a minimum, stopped the progress of my CVD.  Mostly plant-based with no beef or pork, limited chicken, and fish, cranking up the veggies, fruit, legumes.

But I have an appreciation for how tough it is to do in our culture – the time to study and learn what is best, the extra shopping effort to get it, the new discipline and habit replacement required, not to mention different cooking techniques.

But I’m finding it worth it.  I feel better; my heart likes it.

And it feels good to be informed and in charge.

And I don’t have to fight that side order of guilt.

 

What’s Your Second Number?

Let’s try a little project.  Take note of these two numbers:  27,720 and 13,373.

The first number is the number of days, as of this writing (2/17/2018), that I have been alive.  That’s 39,916,800+ minutes, 2,395,000,000+ seconds.  Rather sobering numbers, wouldn’t you agree?  If you think they are sobering, you should see them from this side!

The second number is the number of days I have left.  You see, I have decided to live to 112.5.  So today, six weeks short of 76, I’ve got 32.5% of my life left – also a sobering number.

Since we’re throwing around numbers, here is another one:  97.7%.  That’s the percentage of people reading this who think I’m nuts, whacko.

Why would anyone want to live to 112.5?  Or even 100, for that matter.

I can guess your thoughts –  images of walkers and wheelchairs, oxygen tubes and osteoporosis, nursing homes and needles.

I use to tease my two grown children with this.  I’d tell them that it’s payback time and that I intend to reach the 3-D time of my life – dementia, drool and Depends.  They didn’t think it was funny then – and I don’t now.  

So why such a screwy, arbitrary number like 112.5?

Here’s my nutty, whacko logic.

First, the feasibility of living a healthy life to 100 or beyond began to blossom as a real possibility in my mind about ten years ago as I dove headlong into learning about my biology and how it works.  I found tons of research supporting the simple fact that there is no biological reason that our bodies shouldn’t last well beyond 100 years.  (Visit my August 2017 blog on this here.)

The 112.5 is simple – at 75, I decided I still wanted a third of my life ahead of me because there is so much more that I want to accomplish in making my future bigger than my past.  I now understand and believe that age doesn’t define my usefulness and what I want to do isn’t age-related. So I upped my number from 100.

My immediate circle now all accept me as certifiably nuts.

But the why or the how of living to 100 is a subject for another day.  I want to use the idea to share with you how it has helped me rediscover and begin to apply an important principle in my life – one that I hope you will find helpful.

 

What’s your second number?

Have you thought about it?  If you are 40 or under, probably not.  Based on an average lifespan of around 80 today, your second number is most likely still larger than the first.  You’re too busy striving, achieving, slaying corporate dragons, trying to balance all that life is throwing at you to worry about something like this.

But a funny thing happens on this road called life –around age 50 – usually with the arrival of the first piece of AARP junk mail.  The realization that there are more days behind you than in front of you takes on significance.

It’s a time when thoughts of legacy creep in – what am I going to leave that has meaning?  It’s when Peggy Lee now becomes relevant again – “Is This All There Is?”  It’s when we begin to have thoughts like: “If I walked into my own funeral, would I like what the eulogies said about me?  Or, will there even be a eulogy?”

What is your second number?

The truth:  I really don’t know mine – you don’t know yours.  We all know we are but a heartbeat away.

So why bother setting a second number?  For me, it’s just simply a goal I’ve put out there that has motivated me to study and learn about aging, about what it takes to make this body work at its best – and to last.  To put more years in my life so I can put more life in my years.

Underlying all that for me are 5- and 6-year old grandsons that I want to teach how to flyfish, to play golf with and to see graduate from college.  And a marvelously beautiful and creative 8-year old granddaughter that is going to leave a massive footprint that I hope I can witness and participate in.

If you’re a bit whacko like me and have actually set one, guess what?

Your second number and my second number are the same. 

Our second number is – now!  One!  This very moment! Today!

Author Jeff Olson, in his wonderfully powerful book “The Slight Edge”, reminds us that there is no someday, only today.  Our greatness, our destiny lies in our moments of decision – the decisions we make moment to moment.

What I’ve discovered is that a concern with either a first or second number rides on a dangerous wind.

Dredging up the first number may carry with it regrets, remorse, blame, and bitterness.   Carl Sandberg said it best: “It’s a bucket of ashes – to be thrown out.”

Thoughts of a dwindling second number ride that same dangerous wind –  the potential for fear, impatience, even ignoring life’s earlier lessons.

The only thing that determines what our second number will produce is this very moment.

My second number is now.  Your second number is now.  Our second number together is “carpe diem” – to seize the day.  Our second number is the “moment of decision” – what we think and do with our next heartbeat.

We are the ax.  We are the saw. Our moment of decision, our second number, is how we sharpen them.   Let’s have it serve us well.

 

 

How’s Your Corpus Callosum?

 

 

 

I knew it!  There had to be a plausible reason to justify my keeping two guitars within eight feet of my office desk and a legitimate explanation for my inability to resist playing one or the other a couple of times a day.

I now have an excuse for when my wife asks why I’m playing Tommy Emmanuel’s “Mr. Guitar” for the 735th time in the middle of the day instead of being heads down on a revenue-generating activity or writing another 500 words toward one of the many book ideas I have.

I can now shut that down by telling her that I am developing my corpus callosum.  That should stop her in her tracks, don’t ya think?

It sure stopped me when I read it.  I actually read it and heard it in this fascinating, informative four-minute YouTube video embedded in this Next Avenue article.

Turns out that pounding on my 51-year- old Gibson Hummingbird every day is doing more for me than just relieving stress, which is my primary reason for reaching for it in the first place.

It turns out that just listening to music doesn’t do much to enhance brain function but playing a musical instrument – and I quote the video – “increases the volume and activity in the brain’s corpus callosum, the bridge between the two hemispheres, allowing messages to get across the brain faster and through more diverse routes.”

I just knew it all along.

The video gets even better as it goes on to say that this increased corpus callosum activity “may allow musicians to solve problems more effectively and creatively in both academic and social settings.”  It then says further that musicians often have higher levels of executive function including planning, strategizing and attention to detail.  And better memory.

I guess I need to play more each day because I suck at those three “executive functions” and my memory is up there in the sucky category also. I’m sure it’s just a question of hitting the 1000 mark on “Mr. Guitar” in the next few weeks and my executive functions will miraculously appear and my memory be dazzling.

Or maybe not.

 OK, what’s the point?

The point is that we’ve learned a staggering amount about how our brains work over the last couple of decades with the advent of advanced radiology tools such as Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRi) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans.

We can now see what lights up in our brain with certain activities. When they watched the brain of a subject listening to music, they saw fireworks.  But when they observed the brain of someone playing an instrument the “backyard fireworks turned into a jubilee.”

I liked that visual – the thought that my brain was fireworks when I worked at learning a new finger-style song on my Hummingbird or a chord melody to a jazz tune on my jazz guitar.

Our brains, about 2 ½ pounds of fatty acid, are essentially like a muscle, subject to atrophy just as any muscle.  “Use it or lose it” is real and never more applicable than with our brains.

This fatty-acid muscle starts at birth with around 100 billion neurons and should end with about the same amount.  The myth of “automatic senescence” would have us believe that we lose neurons and the brain shrinks as we age.  True, that it will shrink a bit in actual size but untrue that the neuron count shrinks – unless we choose to let it shrink.

It’s all about synapses!

Here’s a contrast for you to chew on.  Brain studies with these new technologies determined that there was no difference in synaptic connecting activity in the brains of people staring at a brick wall and those who were watching television.

Put that in your “Game of Thrones” or “Will and Grace” pipe and smoke it.

If we start with the fundamental understanding that it’s not about the neurons and that its about the synaptic connections that the neurons are there to facilitate we can put a more meaningful brain health strategy in place.

If a neuron doesn’t have anything to do, it’s gonna retire (there’s that word again) into atrophy and die off.  However, if it’s got something to do – as in remembering how to play C-minor 7th chord with a flatted 5th in third position on the guitar at the appropriate time in a challenging new tune – do you think it might wake up and show its intended usefulness?

But I’ve got my crossword puzzles and sudoku – –   

Good – to a point.  We’ve learned that puzzles, sudoku, and their ilk are brain healthy until they become neutral.  Like any activity that you repeat over and over again, you get good at it and then it isn’t a stretch.  So your brain doesn’t increase it’s synaptic activity much if that is as far as you go in stimulating your brain.   Sure, you can migrate from your local newspaper crossword to the New York Times crossword, but the same thing will happen – over time it too will become rote.

In all my fascination with the brain and the reading and study I’ve done, it seems there are three activities that continually come up as “brain stretchers” that most likely create “firework jubilees”:

  1. Playing a musical instrument, especially piano or guitar (OK, I’m biased)
  2. Learning a foreign language.
  3. Dancing.  You get a multiple-dip here because you not only have to think hard, coordinate several parts of your body, listen to music but you also get a nice dose of exercise.

Tommy Emmanuel is helping me live longer

I took about a 30-year sabbatical from guitar playing as I did the expected cultural/corporate thing to keep up with the Joneses, only occasionally picking up my Gibson for a few minutes during any given week.  But my wife had been encouraging me to get back at it and surprised me with a nice jazz guitar for my 60th birthday.

My journey with the guitar had started with R&R, migrated to a serious study of jazz guitar in the 60’s (anybody remember Howard Roberts?) and then went dormant.   My new jazz guitar got me seriously back into my passion for learning and playing jazz chord melodies.

Then it happened.  Somebody sent me a YouTube of an Australian finger-style guitarist named Tommy Emmanuel playing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”  and my guitar life shifted.  Upon hearing that rendition and seeing Tommy’s technique I decided I need to learn fingerstyle guitar and that has consumed my guitar playing journey for the last 10+ years.

With Tommy as an unattainable benchmark, I’ve learned that music, and the guitar, in particular, has no top end threshold – you can never master it.  Even Tommy, arguably the best and most recognized finger-style guitar artist on the planet, acknowledges this.  His motto is to “get better every day” and he’s been getting better now for over 50 years.

Pushing myself with Tommy as the mentor/teacher, I believe I keep more neurons alive and continue to add synaptic connections to keep my brain healthier.

Were you to listen to me play guitar, assuming you’ve never had more than a five-minute encounter with the instrument, you would say that I’m a pretty good guitar player.  Relative to the masses, probably so.  But bounced up against a master like Tommy and many others, I’m comfortable settling into the “advancing beginner” category knowing I can only scratch the surface of the potential but have an opportunity to use the instrument to move the needle a little bit each time I pick it up.

I really think my brain appreciates that.  And will reward me in the long run.

What do you do to build your “corpus callosum?”  Scroll down and leave a comment about what activities you enjoy to stimulate your brain and your thinking.

Also, if you haven’t subscribed to our weekly newsletter, go to www.makeagingwork.com and sign up.  We’ll send you a free ebook on living longer, healthier and more productively.

Yippee!  Soon, a pill to replace your treadmill! 

 

 

 

Folks, did you know that squooshy thing at your midriff we cover up with oversized blouses and untucked shirts is just plain, simple old white fat.  Well, you probably did, but for you Oakland Raiders fans (hey, I’m in Denver!!), it’s scientifically called white adipose tissue (WAT) and it stores surplus energy.

Over the last several decades, we have gotten really good at storing LOTS of surplus energy.  CDC says 65% of us Americans are overweight, almost 25% of us are seriously obese.  And it appears we’ve exported this characteristic.  A Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation study published in the Lancet has revealed that 40% of the global population is overweight or obese. Yuck!  Bad stat.  Good stat for the Raiders interior offensive line, however.

I just learned that there is a different colored fat – brown.  Aren’t we all glad our squishy middles don’t show up brown?  This brown fat is called BAT,  brown adipose tissue (brilliant!). It burns energy and generates heat.

White adipose makes up most of our fat, especially as we age.  And that’s not a good thing.  Especially when it accumulates, creeps over your beltline, alters your wardrobe and makes shoe tying an aerobic experience.

Oh, did I mention that it’s also killing us slowly? More on that further down.  Keep reading.

Science to the rescue

Well, fret not.  Science once again seems to be on the trail of a quick-fix.  A no-sweat, no-effort, keep-your-Lazyboy solution.  It’s only proven out on little white furry creatures so far, but it’s looking like they may be able to develop yet another receptor blocker.  This one magically increases the conversion of WAT to BAT.

There you go – stored energy to burned energy.  Sounds simple enough. The payoff: reduction in obesity and improved sensitivity to insulin.

You can read about this research here.

You can also read about WAT vs BAT here.

Craig’s List and eBay are gonna get hammered!

I can see it now.  This magic potion hits the market and you will be able to negotiate incredible prices for used treadmills, upright bikes, ellipticals, Bowflexes, etc. on Craig’s List and eBay.  Most of these, fortunately, will have lots of life left because most of them will not have been used much in the first place.

Many basements will be creating much needed new storage space.

When this pill is announced, I’m selling my Lifetime Fitness stock and moving the money over to Lazyboy, Burger King, and Netflix.

Can we get real here?

Have I plastered enough sarcasm into this diatribe yet?

I guess I should be grateful that we have the money and the brains to be working on all these marvelous remedies for self-inflicted maladies.

But, if we honestly peer deeper into this accumulated adipose, we have to admit that most of the accumulation is due to a crappy lifestyle.  Don’t we know all that we need to know to prevent WAT accumulation without a pill – or a scalpel?   Haven’t we known it practically forever?

Well yeah!!  It’s called exercise – and sensible nutrition.

Let’s pass some legislation

No, I didn’t really mean that.  To turn to Comedy Central on the Potomac for anything promoting healthy, non-pharma lifestyle would be like expecting Kim Jong-un to start a nationwide bible-study initiative.

We can’t legislate a mindset.  And mindsets and beliefs guide our lives.  Tony Robbins has transformed millions of lives by emphasizing the importance of evaluating and questioning our beliefs.

Is it a stretch to say that a 50” male midriff or a 40” female midriff is a product of a belief or mindset?  Perhaps.  It may be a belief that “it comes with my genetics or my body-type or it’s what happens as we get older.”  But we’ve known for a long time that none of those are the real truth.  We do know that the condition is correctable in nearly every case.

I posit that the 50”/40” condition is more a product of naivete or the biggest killer on our planet – healthcare illiteracy –  mixed in with laziness, instant gratification, comfort-seeking.

 

Become a student of metabolic syndrome

I’m not qualified to dispense medical advice, nor is it my intent.  But what I want to share is information on what we know that is harming us.  WAT and bulging waistlines is a biggie (sorry, pun intended).  We’ve known that for a long time.

Waistline size from adipose white fat collection is killing us slowly and is one of the key components of metabolic syndrome which Mayo Clinic describes as follows:

“ – a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels — that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

Having just one of these conditions doesn’t mean you have metabolic syndrome. However, any of these conditions increase your risk of serious disease. Having more than one of these might increase your risk even more.”

Enough rant!  Solution, please.

The medical literature is pretty clear on waistline size and the need for WAT reduction:

  • Men: ideal waist size:  under 36 inches.  Above 40” is high risk.  Note: the measurement is at the navel. It’s not your pant size.  Pant size will typically run 2-4 inches less than your actual waist size.
  • Women: ideal waist size: under 32 inches.  Above 35”is high risk. Same measurement method applies.

Getting there?  Please, don’t wait for the aforementioned pill.   Three steps will kickstart the WAT to BAT conversion:

  1. Give up your Lazyboy to your golden retriever. Take the batteries out of the remote.
  2. Dust off the bike/elliptical/treadmill or renew your gym membership and find 30 minutes a day for at least five days a week to get your heart rate into your exercise range (220 minus your age times .85 and .65). If you’ve been glued to your now relinquished Lazyboy for a long time, work your way up to that to avoid injury.
  3. Fat begets fat so ditch the meat. OK, that’s tough in our culture but you can wean your way off.  Think this way.  If your source of protein walked or flew at some point before you ate it, some of it’s going to your belt line.  If it stood on one leg most of its life (OK – let me help you Oakland Raider fans here – plants), it’s not converting to adipose.

That’s pretty simple, don’t you think? Certainly, not very original on my part.  This mantra has been out since like forever.  But big pharma, big food, and the meat industry prefer you forget or ignore it.

At your peril!

Personally, I can’t stand to have an untucked t-shirt touch my adipose.  That’s my signal that my waistline has started to creep back up and it’s time to ditch the snack foods and get the heart rate a little higher a little longer.

At age 75 and at 5’ 11”, I’m holding steady at a 36″ waistline.  Easy?  Nope!  Fact is, WAT accumulates faster and is harder to get rid of as we age.  Put that together with gravity and you have a significant challenge to hit the healthy numbers. For me, it takes a commitment to 45 minutes of aerobic exercise six days a week supplemented with three days of aggressive strength training a week to maintain.  I marry that regimen to a “flexitarian” diet of mostly plants in which “meat is a treat” that we experience maybe once or twice a month. I confess that the one thing I won’t give up, but should, is my one early-evening micro-brew before dinner.

We know all we need to know

I’ll wrap with a repeat of a quote by Dr. David Katz, a physician at the Yale School of Medicine, and founder of an organization called the Academy of Lifestyle Medicine.  I heard him say the following in a presentation to a large group of his peers:

“We already know all that we need to know to reduce, by 80%, the five major killers in our country.  We don’t need any more fancy drugs or equipment or more Nobel Prizes.  We know all we need to know today.”

Maybe I should send that quote to the research team working on the brown-fat pill.

Nah!  Let them have their fun.

What’s your solution for converting white to brown?  Scroll down and leave your thoughts on this issue.  What are your thoughts on the state of our healthcare literacy in this country?

Oh, and by the way, if you haven’t subscribed to our weekly newsletter, go to www.makeagingwork.com and sign up.  We’ll shoot you a free ebook on living longer, healthier and more productively.

On How To Become an “Audacious Ager”

I have a new favorite term for what I’m striving to be – an “audacious ager”.

Aging is a pretty hot topic because so many of us are experiencing the unstoppable nature of it.  It seems we’re on a constant search for things to describe our denial of the eventuality.  Things like “purposeful aging”, “successful aging”, “graceful aging”. Creativity abounds amongst us later-lifers in our attempt to put monikers on what we are experiencing.

Margaret Manning at Sixtyandme.com polled 43,000 women and asked them to give her one adverb that described how they were aging. You can see 40 of them in this article.

No grace in aging

Pretty creative and surprising list.  Note that no one chose “graceful.” No surprise.  There’s not much that’s graceful about it.

Number 40 – “outrageously” – came closest to my new favorite.

My new favorite came from a rather unusual source – the National Business Group on Health’s (NBGH) Business Health Agenda (BHA) conference.  NBGHBHA for short – really?  This conference apparently focused on employer-sponsored health care plans and the challenges and changes companies are facing in terms of plan design, health data, demographics and much more.

One of the topics presented had to do with the boomer’s role in the future.  It emphasized that employers are facing a major paradigm shift for which they are unprepared. An employer poll revealed that, of five predictions for the future, “audacious aging” was the paradigm shift that employers were least prepared to deal with.

Here’s a graph showing the results.

 

It’s a revealing reflection of the fact that retirement, as we’ve known it, is going away.

It takes guts to age naturally

There are two reasons that “audacious aging” resonated with me.  First, I’m a contrarian by nature and being audacious in a number of areas of my life is becoming more common and more comfortable as I’ve outgrown my need to compare and seek the approval of others. It just takes too much frigging mental energy to do either. NOTE:  You’ll get there if you aren’t already.

Secondly, I’m learning that to age normally and naturally, we have to be audaciously aggressive against a lot of forces that are pulling us up short of our full life potential.

So maybe you’d like to join me and the growing ranks of audacious agers.  If interested, here are some fundamental steps to becoming one:

  1. You shun traditional retirement. You give the finger to a culture that insinuates that you have a “use by” stamp on the back of your neck.  You tell anybody who will listen that you “ain’t done yet” and to “stop asking me when I’m going to retire.”  Remind them that you know the universe will take your parts back someday but that, right now, they are still working just fine, thank you, especially your ability to think and create and contribute.
  2. You adopt an attitude with gratitude and altitude. You’ve sworn to not become a geezer/hag, that grumpy, immobile, smelly old fart/bag that you swore you would never become. You refuse to relinquish your still-supple mental bandwidth to the things that aren’t right in the world and in our lives.  You turn off Constant Negative News network (CNN), cancel the local paper and forget the local news.  You journal five things every day that you are grateful for.  You acknowledge that “better has no finish line” and you get better at something every day.  You block your brain’s innate tendency to time travel to your past (regrets) and to the future (fear) and commit to making your future bigger than your past.  You deeply reflect, rediscover, resurrect, and redeploy your essential self in a way that moves humanity forward positively. You put together a 25-year plan regardless of your age.  And you find the time – now – to write your 100th-birthday speech.
  3. Be one of the 3% in your age group that is at 24-hour Fitness (or equivalent) 6 days a week. And, no, none of this one-mph on a treadmill with zero incline for 15 minutes. Nope, you throw around some free weights at least three days a week with the tattooed, tank-topped and tiny-testicled 30-somethings as they tune up their mirror muscles (sorry ladies, couldn’t resist that statement).  And you add 45 minutes of serious interval cardio work six days a week. You accept that those 30-something mirror muscles (male or female) aren’t in your future and that isn’t what it’s all about.  It’s about being able to walk, talk, think, and be a hero and a source of cognitive and meaningful wisdom for your great-grandkids.
  4. Help eradicate fast-food.  OK, that’s not going to happen but you can do your part to help slow the damage it does.  Do the math on this: (1) 2015 was the first year that Americans spent more eating-out than they did cooking at home.(2) CDC has estimated that 40% of the U.S. population is overweight.  Hmmmm!  Any correlation?  Calorie-levels of restaurant food is 20-30% higher than food prepared at home – and portions are ridiculous.  Bring it home and be a “flexitarian” – plant-and fruit-heavy diet with occasional “meat as a treat.”
  5. Piss off your Primary Care Physician. Well, not really.  You need him/her along the way.  But you realize she/he is encumbered by a mindset focused on cure, not prevention, and under a corporate or government-driven mandate to spend less time with you than ever. You go into your annual or semi-annual visit (hopefully, no more than that) with the knowledge that 95% of physicians have had zero training in geriatrics and that they are anything but nutritionists. You reach an agreement on the front-end that you will rescind your co-pay if he/she once says “what do you expect at your age?”  You go into your meeting equipped with questions that will put them on notice that this is not your average bear when it comes to understanding how the body works.   Questions like: “why didn’t my blood test include a BUN (blood urea nitrogen), creatinine and homocysteine test?”  (See P.12 of my free e-book for more on knowing your biomarkers).  Trust me there’s a good chance that your doc is not going to be fully accepting of you taking full charge of your health and won’t appreciate being challenged (check out this article).  But it’s not too late for them to adapt. Look, healthcare is going the wrong direction for us audacious agers and the docs know it.  Self-efficacy/self-care is one of our new mantras and we are committed to enlisting our docs as partners in that mantra rather than abdicating our health to them.
  6. Change your circle and hang with the youngers. Jim Rohn, renowned American entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker is often credited with saying that we rise to the level of the five people we spend the most time with.   When you take a look at the roles that mentors have played in the lives of highly successful people, it’s a hard point to argue.  As an audacious ager, you make sure the five closest to you are moving on and taking it to their lives rather than life taking it to them.  No downers, doubters, or whiners. You’re on the lookout for someone who will push you, challenge you, encourage you and accept that you are committed to coloring outside the lines.  You work to develop a “tribe” that includes people 20, 30, 40 years younger than you and draw on their energy and creativity and listen to their ideas and reciprocate by helping them with your wisdom.

Be prepared for the ridicule

Let’s face it, the reality is that most people won’t buy into this concept and you are setting yourself up for some not-so-subtle jabs, especially from your inner circle (ref #5 above). They are likely locked into belief systems that say that sedentary retirement is an entitled gift, senescence is automatic, and that aging is more about fate and genetics than choices. But as an audacious ager, you know it’s bull****.  You become the model of what is possible and, as Gandhi taught, “be the change you want to see in other people.”  Some will want what you’ve got.  That’s the biggest payoff of being an audacious ager – effecting change through example.

Maybe you are already an audacious ager.  I’d love to hear your story.  Leave a comment below or email me at gary@makeagingwork.com and set up a time to talk.  I’m on the lookout for audacious agers with big stories to feature on my podcast platform which I will be introducing in early 2018.

While you are at it, click on this link, scroll down and take advantage of my new free ebook, “Achieve Your Full-Life Potential:  Five Easy Steps to Living Longer, Healthier, and With More Purpose”.

It’s Time to Get Real About Our Lifestyle – It’s Killing Us!!

“Americans are retiring later, dying sooner and sicker in-between”

That’s the headline to an article published in the Standard-Examiner on October 23, 2017.  My thanks to fellow re-invention coach, blogger and author John Tarnoff of Boomer Reinvention for posting it on LinkedIn.

According to the Society of Actuaries (who could argue with such an exciting group?), the meteoric rise in U.S. average life expectancy may have begun to recede.  According to their research, age-adjusted mortality rate – a measure of the number of deaths per year – rose 1.2 percent from 2014 to 2015. That’s the first year-over-year increase since 2005, and only the second rise greater than 1 percent since 1980.

Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised.  After all, over 100,000+ years, we increased from an average life expectancy of 18 (Neanderthal) to 30 (Roman centurion) to 47 (your great-great grandma) to 80 today.  Graphically, that looks like this – in just 100 years, life expectancy increased more than in all of human history.

 

Graph source: Ken Dychtwald, Agewave.com

Don’t all good things have an endpoint?

While the article is a bit dismaying it’s far from revelatory.  I’m inclined to invoke the overworked cliché “the chickens are coming home to roost”.

We’ve gotten really good at adopting lifestyles that are killing us slowly – and early.

Following our phenomenal success in stamping out myriad infectious diseases, throttling infant mortality, cleaning up our air and water, improving food and water quality and distribution and improving education, we now succeed in finding ways to kill ourselves early in the face of all that we know about how to do the opposite.

Bio-scientific and biomedical research of the last 30 years have provided us with more than we need to know to continue to extend our average life expectancy and move toward our full biological potential of 120+ years.

Discoveries of how our bodies and brains function, down to the cellular level, leave us with little excuse for not extending our lives – or to at least keep them healthier as we age.   But we seem to persist in ignoring the surprisingly simple recommendations that emerge from the research.

A receding life expectancy is hand-in-hand with a number of errant lifestyle signals that are emerging.  To wit:

  1. Eighty percent of American adults do not meet the government’s national physical activity recommendations for aerobic activity and muscle strengthening. Around 45 percent of adults are not sufficiently active to achieve health benefits. (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation).
  2. More than two-thirds (68.8 percent) of adults are considered to be overweight or obese. More than one-third (35.7 percent) of adults are considered to be obese. More than 1 in 20 (3 percent) have extreme obesity. Almost 3 in 4 men (74 percent) are considered to be overweight or obese.
  3. The American Diabetes Association reports that the number of people who have diabetes increased by 382 percent from 1988 to 2014.
  4. The CDC recently reported that as many as one-third of the U.S. population may be pre-diabetic and not know it.
  5. The weight of the average American increased by 15 pounds over the last 20 years – but we didn’t get any taller.

So what is a lazy, overweight, stressed-out, fast-food addict to do?

Nothing complicated, really.  Actually, pretty simple.  Not to be confused with easy. Difficult because it requires change and we don’t like change, especially the older we get.

How complicated is this health strategy?

  • Lose weight. No, no – don’t diet.  Diets don’t work.  If they did, why would we spend $35 billion every year on the latest and greatest?   Get the fat out and the plants in. Start there.
  • Get your heart rate up into your exercise range every day.  Simple formula: 220 minus your age times .65 and .85.  That’s the range you should take your heart for at least 30 minutes a day, preferably six days a week.  Sustained weight loss only comes when you combine diet and exercise.  One without the other won’t get it done.
  • Know your biomarkers. Get with your doc, get a thorough physical and find out – and understand – your key health bio-markers and where they should be and take corrective action if they are out of whack.  What are the biomarkers?  At a minimum, know where you are and where you should be with the following (most of these should come from pre-physical blood panels):
    • Blood pressure
    • HDL, LDL, triglycerides and total cholesterol
    • Glucose (blood sugar)
    • Uric acid
    • Calcium, phosphorous, potassium and sodium
    • Bilirubin, total protein, and albumin (liver function indicators)
    • BUN (blood urea nitrogen) and creatinine – kidney function
    • Waist size (under 40” or men, 35” for women)
    • PSA (men)
    • TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone)
    • Homocysteine (amino acid associated with vascular disease, Alzheimer’s, colon cancer and osteoporosis
    • C-reactive protein – related to inflammation

  • Reduce the stress in your life. The CDC claims that 90% of doctor’s visits are, in some ways, related to problems brought on by stress.  Stress releases harmful chemicals from our endocrine system such as cortisol and adrenaline.  That system evolved to protect us from saber-toothed tigers and warring clans.  Unless you still have those in your life (or equivalents), seriously consider finding ways to stop the release of those harmful, insidious chemicals. What works:
    • Meditation/mindfulness – get alone with your breathing for 15 minutes a day, and periodically throughout the day as stress builds
    • Exercise – surprise, surprise. Hands down the best stress reliever.  A twofer – stress relief and a better circulatory system and physique.
    • Stop comparing – comparison to others or temporal standards creates stress. Keeping up with the Joneses is a life-shortener.  Find out who you really are and be it.   Build your own dreams, not somebody else’s.

We can be better than this!

Our lack of health care literacy, laziness, and capitulation to convenience sustains the $35 billion diet and the $26 billion health and fitness club industries year after year.  Both see a big surge in revenue at the beginning of each year. They know its coming and they know the surge will wane and circle back around again the next year.  They are both business models built on our naivete and inability to discipline ourselves.

There’s another industry – in fact, the largest on the planet – that thrives based on the same human behavior.  That is our health-care –I’m sorry, our disease-care – system.  It’s built on repair, not prevention.  It doesn’t strive to turn off the spigot but rather to mop up the water, often when it’s too late.  Pretty simple solutions – drug it or cut it out.

Would it be too “pollyannish” to propose we help disrupt all three industries by taking charge of our own health?  Yeah, that’s a pretty radical, wasted thought.  But, then again, is it?  I’m trying to do my part.  Hope you join me.

No doubt you have some opinions in this area.  Leave me a comment, let me know your thoughts.

 

Three Reasons You Should Try to Live to 100

I suspect you didn’t get up this morning thinking about how exciting it would be to live to 100.  A thought like that may be way down the list of important things that will drive your day.   In fact, I’m guessing that the very thought created a visual in your mind that was, well –  repulsive?

I’ve tested this idea of living to 100 on nearly all my friends, on all of my immediate and most of my extended family – even built and presented a 20-minute speech around it at my Toastmasters club.

The reaction has been universal –  gag me with a spoon!!!  Gary has slipped a gear – again!

Although largely disowned by family and muzzled at dinner parties, I remain undeterred.  I’ve decided to live to 100, have gone public with it and will continue to beat that drum with anyone who is willing to listen.

This isn’t some hair-brained thought.  If genetics ruled – which they don’t –the average life spans of previous generations in my family would say that I should have been gone some time ago.  But genetics, for the most part, don’t determine our lifespan.  But lifestyle habits do.  So I figured if I know what those lifestyle habits are, and if I get serious about them, then surely I could beat the odds and get to 100 or beyond – even if I started late, which I did.

I’m a proud septuagenarian (for you Pittsburgh Steeler fans, that means I’m in my seventies) and feeling better physically, emotionally and spiritually than any other time of my life.  Turns out those lifestyle habits are pretty simple – not to be confused with easy.  I’m trying to get better at them every day.

I also wrestle with something deep inside that keeps  whispering “you ain’t done yet so get off the average lifespan mantra and do something significant with the time that is left, whatever that may be.”

 

 

Here are my three thoughts on why we should try to live to 100:

 

Reason #1 – We  Can.   As I mentioned in my last blog post, we know the human body can last 122 years, 164 days because Mlle Jeanne Calment of Paris did it – confirmed.   There were 50,454 U.S. centenarians in the year 2000, according to the U.S. Census.  It’s predicted that this number will grow to over 600,000 by mid-century.  Centenarians are the fastest growing age group, percentage-wise, in our country and globally.

So, who’s to say you can’t?  I know, like most, you’ve got a mental list the length of your arm of why YOU can’t or don’t want to.  I get it – it’s where our mind goes on this topic.

Reason #2 – We Must.  Us boomers and pre-boomers need to be thumbing our nose at the youth movement in business and politics.  And at the myths of automatic senescence in later years.  What better way to prove to the world that we never lost what we have to offer from our life experiences, mistakes, victories, disappointments, and triumphs.

An African proverb says:   “When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground,”

We have much to teach about life but we have to stay alive and fight for the venues through which our wisdom and still-present value can be shared.

Reason #3 – We Just Might.   Hey, life doesn’t come with any promises.  Lightning does strike; diseases and accidents happen; genetics come into play on a limited scale.  Frankly, you have less than a 5% chance you will make it to 100.  But if you thought you could, do you think maybe some different decisions would show up in your life?

Do you think there might be an attitude shift?

Do you think you might rethink and reject the myths that you’ve bought into about aging?

Do you think that if you only made it to 92 or 95 or 98 but more fulfilled, impactful and having left a legacy that the 100-year target made sense?

I read today about 88-year old retired Vail, CO orthodontist, Dr. Fred Distelhorst, who recently scaled Kilimanjaro with his granddaughter.  He is the oldest person on record to have climbed the 19,361 free-standing mountain.   His comment?  “It wasn’t such a big deal.  I was surprised it wasn’t harder.”  Dr. Fred also bikes regularly and still skis 100 days a year.  I like his chances of getting to 100 – or more.

 

We’re taught to fear aging

For a while, I was baffled by the near-universal negative reaction I got to the idea of living to 100.  But I understand – it’s a scary thought because of our conditioning.

Here’s a YouTube video that, in one minute, says it better than my pontification.  Watch this and see which situation your thoughts go to – the person on the left or the one on the right.  If you relate to the one on the left, come join the conversation.  We have a good but tough message to convey.

What are your thoughts on the idea of striving to live to 100?  Leave a comment below.