The health of Americans is on a bad trajectory, it is declining. Things such as: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and like health epidemics are growing at a feverish pace.
Healthcare — both preventive and reactive — is becoming harder to obtain. And, unfortunately, the industry focuses more on reactive approaches to disease and pushing pharmaceuticals than preventative approaches to treating diseases.
It’s important to know think proactively about all of the things you spend money on. Some things are critical to living such as food, a roof over your head, and clothes to wear.
However, as a whole, many people tend to spend money on some things that are unnecessary like a new luxury vehicle or a glamorous vacation, and then think that they don’t have enough money to invest in our health.
The biggest and most obvious reason that you should invest in your health is that you only get one body, mind and life! If you fail to take care of your body and mind, sooner or later you will suffer the consequences and they will fail you at a great cost at a later date and time. Thus, you must regularly invest in your health. The several types of investments to make regularly are:
Sleep – 7-8 hrs/night
Food – 50-70% good fats, 20-30% healthy proteins and less than 20% carbohydrates from organic, non-gmo, non-processed and non-added sugar sources
Hydration – Half your body weight in ounces per day, no more than 3 quarts
Exercise – 30 minutes per day of some type of exercise/movement
Stress – Daily stress-reducing and relaxation techniques
Gratitude– Being grateful for your daily blessings and the joy in your life
Spiritual/Mindfulness – Spending time nurturing your faith daily
If you’re not, then you’re spending time regularly neglecting your health.
You’re either getting quality sleep or you’re not.
You’re either eating foods that will nourish and fuel your body or you’re not.
You’re either properly hydrating on a regular basis, or not.
You’re either exercising in some way daily, or you’re not.
You’re either working to reduce stress on a daily basis or you’re not.
You’re either focusing on all of the good in your life and working towards your goals, or not.
You should do something daily to invest back in your health. If not, some day you’re going to wish you had made different choices along the way.
Optimal health is not something you can buy; however, it might just be the most valuable investment you can ever make.
Today be thankful and think of how rich you really are. Your family and friends are priceless, your time is gold, and your health is wealth.
February is American Heart Month, an opportunity to raise awareness to the fact that heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the U.S.
American Heart Month is observed to raise awareness on the importance of a healthy heart and to encourage healthy habits that help reduce the risk of heart disease. It is an ideal time to remind Americans to focus on their heart health and encourage them to get their families, friends and communities involved.
Heart disease affects all ages, genders, and ethnicities.
Despite the significant progress researchers have made in understanding of heart disease risk factors. (such as high blood pressure, bad cholesterol, smoking, being overweight or obese, and type 2 diabetes), heart disease affects all ages, genders, and ethnicities. Moreover, heart disease continues to exact a heartbreaking toll — a burden disproportionately carried by Black and Brown Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives, and people who live in rural communities.
Every year, 1 in 4 deaths in the U.S. is attributable to heart disease, and the vast majority of those deaths can be prevented. By taking preventive measures, you can lower your risk of developing heart disease and also improve your overall health and well-being.
Heart Disease, Stroke and other Cardiovascular Diseases
The human heart is responsible for pumping blood throughout our body, supplying oxygen and nutrients and removing toxins and waste. Weighing between 8 and 12 ounces, the heart is a mighty organ divided into four chambers that work together to pump blood in and out. The heart gets oxygenated blood from the lungs and pumps it throughout the rest of the body.
Heart disease occurs when the arteries leading to the heart become clogged. Although heart disease has been around for thousands of years, health experts do know that many aspects of modern life exacerbate risk factors and make people more prone to heart disease and heart failure. Heart disease can affect everyone, but taking stock of your prior health risks, activities and diet can help you reduce your risk.
Even in a pandemic, Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States, and mortality rates are on the rise among younger demographic within the population. For example:
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), listed as the underlying cause of death, accounted for 874,613 deaths in the United States in calendar year 2019.
CVD claim more lives each year in the United States than all forms of cancer and Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease (CLRD) combined.
In 2015 to 2018 in the United States, 58.8% of non-Hispanic (NH) Black females and 60.1% of NH Black males had some form of CVD. This race category had the highest prevalence of CVD.
CVD accounted for approximately 19.05 million global deaths in 2020
Heart disease can often be prevented when you make healthy choices and manage your health conditions. The warning signs for heart disease have been known to appear when people are as young as 18. Red flags such as high blood pressure should be taken seriously and healthy habits should be adopted.
You can take steps to protect your heart. Additionally, you can work with your doctor to make a plan and your doctor can help by:
Checking your blood pressure and cholesterol numbers — and teaching you how to check your numbers at home
Sharing advice for healthy eating and physical activity
Supporting you in other heart-healthy changes, like quitting smoking
Connecting you with specialists to treat heart problems and other conditions
Prescribing medicines if you need them
If you haven’t been keeping up with regular doctor visits, you’re not alone. Many people have postponed doctor visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. But now’s the time to get back on track! Don’t wait — schedule an appointment today.
Heart Healthy Steps
Engaging in regular physical activity, maintaining a healthy diet and weight, managing stress, avoiding smoking and vaping, and getting quality sleep each night can all reduce the risk of heart disease and help people live longer, healthier lives.
While it is essential to see a health care professional if you have symptoms or risk factors related to heart disease, research shows that taking a little time each day to promote a healthy lifestyle can help improve your long-term heart health.
Subsequently, you can prevent heart disease and stroke by taking small, healthy steps like moving your body and eating healthy.
Simple Ways to Get Active – Physical activity is key to a healthy heart. And when you’re active, it’s easier to keep doing all the things you love — like traveling, seeing friends, and walking around the neighborhood.
Tips for Healthy Eating – Small changes in your eating habits make a big difference in your heart health — and there’s no one right way to eat healthy! You can find healthy eating habits that work for you.
Heart-Health Role Model – Kids love to imitate their parents — so show your family how you’re taking steps to protect your heart.
Continuing the fight against cardiovascular disease is crucial to improving the Americans health. During American Heart Month, we must recommit ourselves to ensuring a healthier future for all Americans.
How to observe American Heart Month:
Take up a heart-healthy habit — Staying active, eating healthy, and watching our weight are all important parts of maintaining a healthy cardiovascular system. Pick a new heart-healthy habit like jogging or substituting sodas with water and try to stick to it for a whole month.
Educate yourself — Learn about the risk factors for heart disease, the ways you can prevent them, and the lifestyle choices that can help you stay healthy.
Get your cholesterol tested — If you’re worried you might be at risk for heart disease, ask your doctor to perform a simple cholesterol test to let you know if you’re at risk and should make adjustments to your diet.
At age 65, you’re eligible to enroll in Medicare and reap some benefits from a program you’ve contributed during your pre-retirement years. But, getting the most out of Medicare can be daunting.
It’s important to understand your options and the rules that apply. For instance, missing your enrollment date may mean penalties or even higher premiums for the rest of your life. At the same time, you don’t want to pay for additional coverage you don’t need, especially if you’re still working.
If you are receiving Social Security, you are automatically enrolled in Medicare Parts A and B (known as Original Medicare) at 65. You’ll receive a Medicare card two or three months before your birthday, and coverage starts on the first day of your birthday month.
Part A covers hospitalization and usually comes with no premiums, assuming you or your spouse paid into Medicare while working.
Part B, which covers medical services, does require premiums, but you have the option of withdrawing if you wish.
If you aren’t yet receiving Social Security, you will need to apply for Medicare during one of the designated annual enrollment periods. Your initial enrollment period lasts for seven months, beginning three months before the month in which you turn 65. To help avoid a potential gap in coverage, consider enrolling during the three months prior to your 65th birthday.
If you’re still working and covered at age 65, you should consider enrolling in Part A anyway, as it is generally premium-free and may cover some expenses not included in your employer’s health plan.
Premiums for Part B may be higher because of your income, so it may be wise to delay enrollment in Part B until after you retire as long as you work for a company with 20 or more employees.
If your company has fewer than 20 employees, consider enrolling in Part B as well because Medicare is considered your primary insurance. You can enroll without penalty at any time during the eight months after you stop working or your employee health coverage ends.
If you miss that window, you may be subject to penalties that, in the case of Part B, could last as long as you remain covered. (For insights on what you can consider doing if you lose your health-care benefits before you turn 65.
Additional coverage includes Part C, known as Medicare Advantage. It includes plans administered by private companies such as health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations. They offer the benefits of Parts A and B, and often include such additional benefits as vision, hearing and dental coverage.
Costs for Part C plans vary according to the insurer. Some plans may require referrals or restrict you to doctors in a network, and you must already have Parts A and B in order to enroll. Another consideration: Some plans may limit their coverage to a certain geographic area, so if you anticipate traveling a great deal or relocating, Medicare Advantage might not be for you.
And, Part D offers prescription drug coverage for both brand-name and generic prescription drugs. You must be enrolled in Medicare to enroll in a Part D plan, which you purchase from a private insurer. Although premiums, deductibles and copays vary by plan, federal law limits your annual out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs. Before enrolling in Part D, check whether you’re already covered for prescription drugs under a Part C Medicare Advantage plan. You may not need it. And if you decide later on that you need additional coverage or want to change your existing plan, you can do so during designated enrollment periods.
There are services that are not covered by Medicare. Original Medicare (Parts A and B) won’t cover copays, coinsurance or deductibles, nor will it cover medical care when you travel outside the United States. Some services, such as long-term care, acupuncture and cosmetic surgery, also aren’t covered. Some of these services are likely to be covered if you enroll in a Part C plan. Long-term care, however, is not among them.
As an alternative to Part C, you may supplement Original Medicare with Medicare Supplement Insurance, also known as Medigap. Plans providing such coverage follow strict federal and state standards, and costs vary by policy and insurer.
To buy a Medigap policy, you must be enrolled in both Parts A and B. To guarantee availability, you must sign up within six months of enrolling in Part B.
If you have TRICARE (health care program for active-duty and retired service members and their families), you generally must enroll in Part A and Part B when you’re first eligible to keep your TRICARE coverage. However, if you’re an active-duty service member or an active-duty family member, you don’t have to enroll in Part B to keep your TRICARE coverage.
Most people with TRICARE entitled to Part A must have Part B to keep TRICARE drug benefits. If you have TRICARE, you don’t need to join a Medicare drug plan. However, if you do, your Medicare drug plan pays first, and TRICARE pays second.
If you join a Medicare Advantage Plan with drug coverage, your Medicare Advantage Plan and TRICARE may coordinate their benefits if your Medicare Advantage Plan network pharmacy is also a TRICARE network pharmacy. Otherwise, you can file your own claim to get paid back for your out-of-pocket costs. For more information, visit tricare.mil, or call the TRICARE Pharmacy Program at 1-877-363-1303.
To learn more, the official Medicare site, medicare.gov, offers detailed information on signing up; the specifics of Parts A, B, C and D; costs associated with Medicare; penalties for missing enrollment; and other important issues. Go to the site’s “Find Health & Drugs Plans” section to sort through and compare the plans available in your region.
Movement is Medicine: ‘We can use our bodies as a tool to affect the way we think and feel, like a hotline to the mind.” Caroline Williams, researcher and author of ‘Move: How the New Science of Body Movement Can Set Your Mind Free’
“Movement affects your brain; but your brain also affects movement.”
Regular physical activity is an important part of a healthy mind, body and lifestyle. Not only is exercise good for your muscles and bones, but it is also an important part of keeping your brain healthy too. Exercise doesn’t only mean working out or playing sports, it just means moving your body and being active. A few other examples of exercise are: dancing, walking, biking, swimming, or throwing a Frisbee.
What happens in the body and brain during exercise: As your heart rate increases during exercise, blood flow to the brain increases. As blood flow increases, your brain is exposed to more oxygen and nutrients. Exercise also induces the release of beneficial proteins in the brain. These nourishing proteins keep brain cells (also known as neurons) healthy, and promote the growth of new neurons. Neurons are the working building blocks of the brain. As a result, individual neuron health is important to overall brain health.
Studies have shown that the connection between your brain and your body is a “two-way street” and that means physical movement can effectively change your brain for the better, explains Srini Pillay, M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Your brain plays a major role in your physical and emotional well-being, and it directly affects your ability to exercise. Your brain was designed for survival and avoiding danger (fight, flight or freeze). Regular aerobic exercise can reduce anxiety by making your brain’s “fight, flight or freeze” system less reactive.
One way to trick your brain is doing a Gatorade swish, which misleads your brain into thinking your body is getting a jolt of energy from a sugary beverage, even if it isn’t. The act triggers the brain, which naturally wants to preserve energy for survival, into releasing dopamine to help jump start exercise based on the false promise is sugar, Dr. Jennifer Heisz, explains in Move Your Body; Heal Your Mind.
Movement can improve your cognitive functions and mental health. Regular physical activity and movement benefit more than just the body. They actually augment brain function. Movement supplies brain cells with oxygen, promotes the production of new brain cells, and aids in creating new synapses.
Regular exercise such as aerobic, resistance, flexibility, and balance exercises can reduce depressive symptoms. Exercise can be as effective as medication and psychotherapies.
Regular exercise may boost mood by increasing a brain protein called BDNF that helps nerve fibers grow.
Mindfulness during exercises and workout.
“A 12 minute walk alters metabolites in our blood, molecules that affect the beating of our heart, the breath in our lungs, the neurons in our brain.” explains Annabel Streets, “52,ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time.
Physical activity is ignored by experts who are too focused on addressing mental health issues from the neck up. “It’s low hanging fruit,” she says, “brain chemist, thought, behaviors might take years to address on the couch.” Dr. Ellen Vora, a New York psychiatrist.
“The brain is always working against you to not expend energy, but we can override it,” says Dr. Heisz.
Exercise can be turned into a powerful meditation practice states Anita Sweeney, author of “Make Every Move a Meditation: Mindful Movement for Mental Health, Well-Being, and Insight”. Exercise can be turned into a powerful meditative practice by focusing the mind on a single thought, object or sensation during exercise can help bring clarity and peace of mind. For example, focusing on your left foot hitting the pavement can help you focus.
Exercise is essential for those seeking better emotional well-being and better mental health. Both physical exercise and meditative movement are activities that you can do to improve the way you feel.
Studies have found that people who exercise daily are at greatly reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Rudolph Tanzi, Kennedy professor of neurology and cofounder of the McCance Center for Brain Health at MGH, states, “It’s hard to imagine anything better for brain health than daily exercise, and our findings shed new light on the mechanism involved: protecting against neuroinflammation, perhaps the biggest killer of brain neurons as we age.”
The ‘worst food ingredient for your immune system’— sugar. Most Americans consume between 19 and 25 teaspoons of added sugars daily.
Metabolic disorders, like obesity and diabetes, have surged in the U.S. over the past several decades. Experts believe that sugar consumption is the major cause of obesity and chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes.
According to many immunologist, having diabetes means your body is in a chronic low-grade inflammatory state, which stresses the body’s innate immune system and makes it slower to jump on pathogens, like COVID19, when they enter the body. Chronic inflammation is an unhealthy and abnormal immune reaction in the body and added sugars are a key diet component known to exacerbate this type of inflammation.
When it comes to your immune system, it important that you understand that what you eat does matter a lot. And no ingredient is more detrimental to your immune system and physical health than added sugar.
From marinara sauce to peanut butter, added sugar can be found in even the most unexpected products. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), added sugars include sugars that are added during the processing of foods (such as sucrose or dextrose), foods packaged as sweeteners (such as table sugar), sugars from syrups and honey, and sugars from concentrated fruit or vegetable juices. They do not include naturally occurring sugars that are found in milk, fruits, and vegetables. The Daily Value for added sugars is 50 grams per day based on a 2,000 calorie daily diet. For most Americans, the main sources of added sugars are sugar-sweetened beverages, baked goods, desserts, and sweets.
The American Heart Association (AHA) states individuals should limit their sugar intake to six to nine teaspoons each day, which is roughly the same amount of sugar in a single can of sugary soda: eight teaspoons.
Sugar is not just bad for your teeth. Too much sugar can contribute to chronic diseases, can affect the pH levels within the body, and can impact heart health and brain health. Basically, sugar can affect the health of both your mind and body.
In the US, added sugars account for up to 17% of the total calorie intake of adults and up to 14% for children, according to AHA. The 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that you limit your added sugars consumption to 10% of total calories, making the current average consumption by Americans significantly higher than recommended.
Eliminating excess added sugar from your diet can not only help end this cycle of increasing metabolic disorders, but it can reverse it completely. Dialing back your sugar consumption is one of the most effective ways to improve your immune system and your overall health.
Preventative care, especially when it comes to an insidious disease like diabetes, it is recommended that the first step you take in your nutrition journey is to ask your health care provider to perform a fasting hemogoblin A1c test, even if your fasting blood glucose is normal.
Hemogoblin A1c tests measure average blood sugar over the previous three months, so even if your blood sugar is normal the day you see your doctor, the test can catch underlying issues.
According to Dr. Heather Moday, a board-certified allergist, immunologist and functional medicine physician, once you have an idea of where you stand on the blood sugar spectrum, you can take the steps below for better health:
Cut back on added sugars. – This means eliminating candy, soda, cake and those seasonal flavored lattes from your diet. These foods and drinks don’t provide any nutritional value, and they contain massive amounts of sugar.
Read the labels. – It is essential to check the amount of added sugar in every item in your pantry. The average American takes in about 17 teaspoons (71 grams) of added sugar a day, but the American Heart Association recommends no more than six teaspoons (25 grams) of added sugar a day for women, and nine teaspoons (36 grams) for men.
Eat more fiber. – If sugar is bad, then fiber is the good. Fiber not only keeps your digestion regular, it also helps slow the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream, which protects you from sugar spikes. Lack of fiber is another reason why sodas, fruit juices and sugared coffee drinks are so detrimental to your health. They contain a ton of sugar and none of the blood-sugar-protecting fiber that fresh whole plant-based foods have. The best high-fiber foods are black beans and lentils, steel-cut oats, avocados, buckwheat, pears, raspberries, barley and flaxseeds.
Chose nutrients over calories. – Instead of worrying about cutting calories, focus on adding more nutrient-dense foods to your diet, with lots of proteins and healthy fats. You don’t need to go low-carb, just choose the “right” carbs. In fact, eating carbs in the form of vegetables, beans, whole fruits, and nuts and seeds — all mineral- and vitamin-rich foods — is a great way to keep those hunger pangs at bay.
Sugar does occur naturally in all foods that contain carbohydrates, such as fruits and vegetables, grains, and dairy. Consuming whole foods that contain natural sugar is okay, according to Harvard Medical School. Plant foods also have high amounts of fiber, essential minerals, and antioxidants, and dairy foods contain protein and calcium. Since your body digests these foods slowly, the sugar in them offers a steady supply of energy to your cells.
However, problems do occur when you consume too much added sugar — the sugar that food manufacturers add to products to increase flavor or extend shelf life. “Excess sugar’s impact on obesity and diabetes is well documented, but one area that may surprise many men is how their taste for sugar can have a serious impact on their heart health,” says Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Bottomline is that too much added sugar can be one of the greatest threats to cardiovascular disease and metabolic health. And, your consumption of added sugar must be drastically reduced or eliminated from your diet to improve both your cardiovascular and metabolic health.
The goal isn’t to completely eliminate dessert or sweets from your life, but to bring your added sugar intake into a healthier range.
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Reinhold Niebuhr
The author of “Healthy Brain, Happy Life” and “Good Anxiety” explains how to harness the power of anxiety into unexpected gifts.
We are living in the age of anxiety. There are about 40 million Americans— or 18% of the population—suffering from clinical anxiety disorders today.
Anxiety is a situation that often makes you feel as if you are locked into an endless cycle of stress, uncertainty, and worry. But, there are ways to leverage your anxiety to help you solve problems and fortify your wellbeing, explains Dr. Wendy Suzuki, PhD, a neuroscientist and professor of Neural Science and Psychology in the Center for Neural Science at New York University. Thus, instead of seeing anxiety strictly as a problem or curse to dread, you recognize it as the unique gift that it is.
Dr. Suzuki has discovered a paradigm-shifting truth about anxiety: yes, it is uncomfortable, but it is also essential for your survival. In fact, anxiety is a key component of your ability to live optimally. Every emotion you experience has an evolutionary purpose, and anxiety is designed to draw your attention to vulnerability. If you simply approach it as something to avoid, get rid of, or dampen, you actually miss an opportunity to improve your life. Listening to your anxieties from a place of curiosity, and without fear or worry, can actually guide you onto a path that leads to inner peace and joy.
Drawing on her own struggles and based on cutting-edge research, Dr. Suzuki has developed strategies for managing unwarranted anxiety and exercises you can do to build your resiliency and mental strength. The exercises include:
Visualize positive outcomes
At the beginning or at the end of each day, think through all those uncertain situations currently in your life — both big and small. Now take each of those and visualize the most optimistic and amazing outcome to the situation. Not just the “okay” outcome, but the best possible one you could imagine.
This process of visualizing “the most optimistic and amazing outcome” should build the muscle of expecting the positive outcome and might even open up ideas for what more you might do to create that outcome of your dreams.
Turn anxiety into progress
Our brain’s plasticity is what enables us to be resilient during challenging times — to learn how to calm down, reassess situations, reframe our thoughts and make smarter decisions.
Reach out
Asking for help, staying connected to friends and family, and actively nurturing supportive, encouraging relationships not only enables you to keep anxiety at bay, but also shores up the sense that you’re not alone.
The belief and feeling that you are surrounded by people who care about you is crucial during times of enormous stress — when you need to fall back on your own resilience in order to persevere and maintain your well-being.
When we are suffering from loss or other forms of distress, it’s natural to withdraw. Yet you also have the power to push yourself into the loving embrace of those who can help take care of you.
Practice positive self-tweeting
Lin-Manual Miranda sends out tweets at the beginning and end of each day. The tweets are essentially upbeat little messages that are funny, singsongy and generally delightful.
If you watch him, you’ll see an inherently resilient, mentally strong and optimistic person.
For you to be that resilient, productive and creative, it’s essential to come up with positive reminders. You don’t necessarily need to share them. The idea is to boost yourself up at the beginning and at the end of the day.
This can be difficult for those who automatically beat themselves up. Instead, think about what your biggest supporter in life — a spouse, partner, sibling, friend, mentor or parent — would tell you, and then tweet, remind or say it to yourself.
Although popular science continues to suggests that persistent, low-level anxiety is detrimental to your health, performance, and wellbeing, but if you could learn how to harness the brain activation underlying your anxiety and make it work for you, you could turn anxiety into superpower, says Dr. Suzuki.
Her research and her own experience demonstrate that this paradigm shift from bad to good anxiety can accelerate focus and productivity, boosts performance, lead to happiness, create compassion, and foster more creativity.
Twenty-five positive quotes and reminders to build resilience:
You’re awesome, Bro.
You can do all things through Christ which strengthens you!
Believe in yourself; have faith in your abilities!
Everyday, in every way, you’re getting better and better, dude!
“Great minds discuss ideas.” Eleanor Roosevelt
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” Robert Collier
“Be patient with yourself.” Stephen Covey
“People will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou
“Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the world belongs to you.” Lao Tzu
“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” Andrew Carnegie
“Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” Denis Waitley
“Happiness never decreases by being shared.” Buddha
“The secret of health for both mind and body…is to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” Buddha
“Happiness…is appreciating what you have.”
“We make a life by what we give.” Winston Churchill
“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty.” Charles Dickens
“He is a wise man who rejoices for the things which he has.” Epictetus
“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more.” Oprah Winfrey
“Open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift–today.” Steve Maraboli
“This is the day the Lord has made, rejoice and be glad in it.”
“Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.” Brené Brown
“Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.” T. Harv Eker
“Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” Christopher Robin
“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal.” Thomas Jefferson
“Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.” Theodore Roosevelt
“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs–even though checkered by failure–than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt
“The key to a happy life . . . is a healthy brain.” Wendy Suzuki
Exercise is the most transformative thing that you can do for your brain, says neuroscientist Dr. Wendy Suzuki, professor of Neural Science and Psychology at New York University.
Dr. Suzuki discovered through research and self examination that there is a biological connection between exercise, mindfulness, and action. With exercise, she believes that your body feels more alive and your brain actually performs better. And, Dr. Suzuki states that “you can make yourself smarter. Exercising is one of the most transformative things you can do to improve cognitive abilities, such as learning, thinking, memory, focus and reasoning — all of which can help you become smarter and live longer.”
Dr. Wendy Suzuki, explains the best way to exercise in order to improve brain function pic.twitter.com/MG6pPLU7UM
The way exercise boosts your brain health includes:
It decreases feelings of anxiety – Studies have shown that every time your move your body, a number of beneficial neurotransmitters, including dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin and acetylcholine, gets released into your brain. These substances can decrease feelings of anxiety and depression. And, It only takes between 10 and 30 minutes of daily physical activity to instantly lift your mood.
It improves your focus and concentration – A single workout can help improve your ability to shift and focus attention. This is an immediate benefit that can last for at least two hours after 30 minutes of exercise. Activities that increase your heart rate, such as brisk walking, running, swimming, cycling, playing tennis or jumping rope are recommended.
It promotes the growth of new brain cells – One of the most significant benefits of exercise, scientists have found, is that it promotes neurogenesis, or the birth of new brain cells. This is essential to improving cognitive function. Exercise also can improve the health and function of the synapses between neurons in this region, allowing brain cells to better communicate.
It protects your brain from aging and neurodegenerative diseases – Imagine your brain as a muscle: the more workout you put into it, the stronger and bigger it gets. Longitudinal studies in humans suggest that regular exercise can increase the size of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, both of which are susceptible to neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s. So while exercising won’t completely prevent or cure normal cognitive decline in aging, doing it consistently can help reduce or delay the onset of it.
So, get up and start your brain transformation journey.
Dr. Suzuki encourages people to get active and go to the gym since the science clearly demonstrates how working out boosts your mood and memory — and protects your brain against neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
To get the brain-changing benefits of exercise, you should do at least three to four 30-minute workout sessions a week, explains Dr. Suzuki. You’ll also get the most benefits out of aerobic exercise, which increases the heart rate and pumps more oxygen into the brain.
Essentially, exercise can improve your brain functions today and protect your brain from neurodegenerative diseases as you age.
It’s essential to look ahead with optimism and a positive outlook as you age.
With advance aging, you should adopt an optimistic and positive mind-set and focus on new discoveries and experiences. It’s more important than ever as you age to follow a healthy lifestyle, remain positive and passionate about life, stay connected with family and friends, and look forward to better days ahead.
You must consistently attempt to find things that continue to be meaningful and engaging. These meaningful activities can include traveling around the world, spiritual pursuits, hobbies such as reading or painting, lifelong learning, or spending more time with loved ones. Experts suggest planning for purposeful activities before transitioning to retirement, and to embrace this change and follow where their passions lie.
Try to keep the mind active by challenging yourself to learn something new every week or month, or try something you’ve always wanted to.
Embrace thoughts such as, “As I age, I’ll keep learning,” says Vonetta Dotson, an associate professor of psychology and gerontology at Georgia State University. Feeding yourself a rich diet of positive messages can in itself brighten your outlook.
“Anytime we do something and try new things, it helps to reinforce this feeling of positivity,” Dotson said. “And keep those social connections. When you socialize, your focus is diverted. When you’re by yourself, you may ruminate” about your current and future physical and mental deterioration.”
Better yet, learning something new enables your brain to form new pathways. This helps you stave off gloomy thoughts about the aging process.
“By engaging in rewarding and meaningful activities and staying mentally active, we can retrain our brains,” said Kevin Manning, a neuropsychologist and associate professor of psychiatry at UConn Health. “These activities can enhance our self-efficacy, lessen fears of decline and sharpen our cognitive functioning.”
Ideally, passion drives you to take action. Why sign up for a course on current events or foreign affairs if you find the state of the world dispiriting and you dread consuming the news?
To channel your activity in a more uplifting direction, set short-term goals. If you’re learning a musical instrument, aim to perform a simple piece in one month.
When you embrace a purpose that gives you something to do that’s meaningful,” it focuses your efforts and displaces fears of aging. It’s one of several keys to healthy aging.
The key to healthy aging is a physically, socially, mentally and spiritually active lifestyle and mindset.
“Making a plan to eat healthy can keep you healthy and active for longer.” National Institute on Health
“Aging—not cancer or heart disease—is the world’s leading cause of death and suffering. In spite of this, we accept the aging process as inevitable”, writes Dr. Andrew Steel, longevity expert and author of “Ageless: The new science of getting older without getting old“.
Dr. Steel suggest a list of proven life-extenders, such as don’t smoke, exercise, get vaccinated, take care of your teeth.
Strauss Zelnick, author of Becoming Ageless, and who successfully rejuvenated his metabolic health believes that, “You can eat to be younger.” He implores his readers to focus on what He calls “Forever Fuel.” He suggests that you do not have to forego eating your favorite foods; you’re just getting the best versions of them.
Unlimited Foods—Lean Protein, Salads, and Vegetables—eat as much as you want. I love bison, light tuna, chicken, eggs, grass-fed beef.
Limited Foods—Some fruits and dried fruits, nuts, and cheese—in moderation.
Highly restricted foods—no processed foods, fried foods, or added sugars. Processed foods account for 70% of the calories that Americans take in. They don’t just make you fat; they age you.
While humans wither and become frail after a mere seven or so decades, capturing the trait known as ‘negligible senescence ‘ has become the holy grail of aging research. A 2015 study, published by the Mayo Clinic, found that using a combination of existing drugs reversed a number of signs of aging, including improving heart function”, according to the Guardian.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Chief Medical Correspondent for CNN, adds that, “During medical school we were taught that aging is a natural process and that people can simply die of old age. The thinking was that age wasn’t just a turning of the clock but an accumulation of mutations, cancer, arthritis, heart disease and dementia. Have you ever wondered, however, if it was possible to address those diseases not just individually, but collectively, by addressing the underlying process of aging itself.”
The role of carbs and added sugars
When you have sugar molecules in your system, they bombard the body’s cells like a meteor shower—glomming onto fats and proteins in a process known as glycation. This forms advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which cause protein fibers to become stiff and malformed. The connective-tissue damage and chronic inflammation resulting from sustained high blood sugar can lead to debilitating conditions, such as cataracts, Alzheimer’s, vascular tightening, and diseases of the pancreas and liver.
From a dietary standpoint, forswearing white sugar, high-fructose corn syrup—which studies have shown increases the rate of glycation by 10 times, compared with glucose—and simple carbs is a no-brainer. “Even though all carbs get converted into sugar, when you eat the good ones, like brown rice and whole-grain bread, you get less glucose, and you get it more slowly,” Karcher says.
Carbohydrates (Carbs) — like fiber, starches, and sugars — are important for your health. They are your body’s main source of energy and are a basic nutrient your body turns into glucose, or blood sugar, to make energy for your body to work. But eating too many carbs can cause your body to store the excess as fat.
The fruit, vegetables, dairy, and grain food groups all contain carbohydrates. Sweeteners like sugar, honey, and syrup and foods with added sugars like candy, soft drinks, and cookies also contain carbohydrates.
You should try to get most of your carbohydrates from fruits, vegetables, dairy, and whole grains rather than added sugars or refined grains.
Nutrients like protein, carbohydrates, and fats can help you stay healthy as you age.
Many foods with carbohydrates also supply fiber. Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that your body cannot digest. It is found in many foods that come from plants, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, and whole grains. Eating food with fiber can help prevent stomach or intestinal problems, such as constipation. It might also help lower cholesterol and blood sugar.
A very low-carb diet, like keto, triggers your body into nutritional ketosis. This stored energy is released in the form of chemicals called ketones. Your liver starts to make ketones — a fuel that kicks in when your body uses up glucose and glycogen, and doesn’t have enough sugar to run on. It does this by breaking down the energy reserves stored in fat.
These chemicals, ketones, help cells—especially brain cells—keep working at full capacity. Some researchers think that because ketones are a more efficient energy source than glucose, they may protect against aging-related decline in the central nervous system that might cause dementia and other disorders.
Ketones also may inhibit the development of cancer because malignant cells cannot effectively obtain energy from ketones. In addition, studies show that ketones may help protect against inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. Ketones also reduce the level of insulin in the blood, which could protect against type 2 diabetes.
But too many ketones in the blood can have harmful health effects.
While there’s insufficient evidence to recommend any type of calorie-restriction or fasting diet. A lot more needs to be learned about their effectiveness and safety, especially in older adults. In the meanwhile, there’s plenty of evidence for other actions you can take to stay healthy as you age:
Eat a balanced diet with nutritious food in moderate amounts. Avoid or limit consuming refined sugars and carbs, and processed foods.
Engage in regular physical exercise (150 minutes per week).
Drink alcohol in moderation or not at all.
Don’t smoke or take illegal drugs.
Maintain an active social lifestyle and build close relationships.
Get a good night’s sleep.
Finally, older adults may have different vitamin and mineral needs than younger adults. Find recommended amounts and information on calcium, sodium, vitamin D, and more.
“People are living longer, staying healthier longer and accomplishing things late in life that once seemed possible only at younger ages.” –David Brooks, The New York Times
The American Heart Association recommends no more than six teaspoons of added sugar a day. The sugar found in whole foods like fruits and veggies, says Kimber Stanhope, PhD, a nutritional biologist at the University of California, Davis. “These naturally occurring sugars come packaged with good-for-you vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other nutrients.” Eliminating or reducing your intake of added sugar and carbs can result in you gaining some significant healthy aging benefits, according to the American Heart Association.
“Exercise is the most important activity we can do to keep our brains healthy, it’s important to simply move, whether that be casual walking or a workout.” Sanjay Gumpta
It important to understand that you can proactively take steps to avoid, delay, and mitigate dementia and mental decline as you age. Just thirty minutes daily of moderate physical activity, such as walking around the block, can make a significant difference in improving your brain health.
In the process of neurogenesis, creating brain cells does not stop when you age and get older. Neuroscientific research shows that the brain can make new brain cells, and forge new neural connections, at any age.
Additionally, adequate sleep also has a major effect on brain health. Recent research has shown that your brain remains very active while you sleep, because it can make full use of the energy that is diverted elsewhere when you are awake.
When you sleep, the brain turns information into knowledge, consolidates your memories, and cleans itself. This is why everyone needs at least eight hours of sleep, states Gumpta and you shouldn’t convince yourself that you don’t.
“There is a rinse cycle that happens in your brain when you sleep,” says Gumpta. “You are basically clearing out metabolic waste. That happens when you are awake, but the process is close to 60 per cent more efficient when you are asleep.
Key takeaway is that staying physically active, proper diet. adequate sleep and social interaction are all key to longer life.
