ReBootYourLifeToday

Times They Are A’Changing – We Need to Change With Them

First the frivolous stuff:

• While I was waiting in the dentist office I picked up a copy of People Magazine.  Holy Cow! who are these people?  Yes, I recognized Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan, but what about all the rest of them. And what’s up with the people who are famous for being famous – no talent, no accomplishments just good at getting attention.
•  I was in the drug store checkout line and the guy in front of me had shaved his head and replaced the hair with tattoos of bright colored snakes covering his forehead, head and back of his neck.
•  My 7 years old grandson can run the computer a lot better than most adults I know.  Is he just a really smart kid?  He’s smart, but the point is that most of his friends can do just as well.  If a 7 year old can do it, so can we.
•  My daughter hadn’t lost her AmerExp card, but a replica was being used all over the country to charge over $15,000 in 6 hours.  How could that happen?  Apparently when you put your card into the pump to pay for gas someone can put some little copying devise in the slot and can make a copy of your card in an hour, then they sell the cards all over the country. 

 Here’s the serious stuff from the July 26, 2010 issue of Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/

In 2000 there were 12 billion emails sent every day – 2010 there were 247 billion emails sent every single day!

 In 2000 there were 200,000 text messages sent daily – 2010 4.5 billion people were texting every day.

 The number of blogs are up from  282,242 in 2000 to 1,052,803 today.

 In 2000 there were only 4 reality shows – today 320 – now that’s a growth industry!

 Daily newspapers are down from 1480 dailies in 2000 to 1,302 today and more are closing every day

 Daily snail mail count in 2000 was 207.8 million pieces of mail– today down to 175.67 million

 So what does all this add up to?  As the guy with the tattooed head would say, “It’s the 21^st Century, Dude” 

 A lot of the changes are due to advances in technology.  Those changes are stunning and we need to learn how to use them, at least some of them.  Do you know how to use Twitter?  How about You Tube?  Are you on FaceBook?  You lived just fine without all this stuff for decades so why bother now?  Because if we don’t keep up, we run the risk of becoming obsolete, irrelevant and left behind.  There are classes to learn how to use all the latest gadgets and widgets.  If you have someone who can teach you that’s great, if not take a class.

Are you active in politics?  Do you keep up with all the amazing new trends in the country?  Do you vote?  I can hear you saying, “Politics are a dirty business and I don’t want to upset myself.”  True enough, but if we don’t keep up with what’s going on, we lose touch with our time and place.  Again we become irrelevant and left behind.

Are in touch with how the latest generation feels about everything from gay marriage to car buying?  According to research just released by Honda Motors, young people don’t see cars as status symbols or a sexy projections of themselves.  They see cars as polluters used to get them from point A to point B. They see cars as a necessary evil, not something to covet. How’s that for a change in outlook. 

So who cares what these kids think?  We should care a lot because it’s those kids that will pay for our social security benefits, Medicare benefits and many other things that will affect our lives in the future.

Not only should we care what young people think, we need to accept their views and come to terms with how they will change their world because it’s our world too.

Free Ways to Defeat Your Fuzzy, Forgetful Brain

 Are you taking any supplements to keep your brain sharp?  That’s good, but  new research has an even easier, cheaper and more effective way to keep our brains in top form:  exercise. 

 Harvard Psychiatrist John J. Ratey, MD has written a book called, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.  In his book Dr. Ratey says  “There are new ways to defend ourselves against neurologic decline.  For example, exercise increases levels of a substance called Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) which has been called Miracle-Gro for the brain because it helps nerve cells transmit information better.  In fact, low levels of BDNF are associated with memory loss and depression.  So increasing BDNF through exercise, functions as a means of natural memory support and an antidepressant in a more permanent way than drugs, or even the surge of endorphins, which exercise also causes. ” (Endorphins are the brain’s feel-good chemical which keeps us in an even and upbeat emotional state.)

 “Every day I have patients who come to ask me for supplements to prevent or treat memory loss, depression or “brain fog”.  There are good supplements, but there is one prescription that is more proven, consistently helpful and accessible than any pill, prescription or over the counter supplement.  It’s called exercise.”  This according to Myles Spar, MD, Medical Director of the Akasha Center for Integrative Medicine.  http://www.akashacenter.com/

 Not only does exercise increase BDNF, it also impacts the density of brain gray matter.  Gray matter makes up the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that allows us to process information.  Research shows that the more dense the gray matter in the brain, the higher functioning the brain is.  So keeping the brain’s gray matter in abundance is essential to keeping your marbles all the days of your life.

 Bottom line: Exercise is like a great, free insurance policy to prevent brain decline.  Of course you’ve heard of all the other terrific health benefits of exercise on your overall health and ability to keep yourself in shape to enjoy all the days of your life.

In order to get maximum results aerobic exercise is best for brain functioning.  Aerobic exercise is called aerobic because your body calls for more oxygen and your heart rate goes up.  So any exercise that accomplishes these two things is aerobic.  You don’t have to go running on the street or get on a treadmill.  You don’t have to do anything that is bone jarring either, in fact the less impact on our joints, the better.  Here’s the Mayo Clinic’s heart rate calculator:  

Subtract your age from 220. This is a rough calculation of your maximum heart rate.  Determine the lower end of your target heart rate by multiplying your maximum heart rate by 0.7.Determine the upper end of your target heart rate by multiplying your maximum heart rate by 0.85.

Check out the Mayo Clinic site for tons of good information: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise-intensity/SM00113/NSECTIONGROUP=2

 Ok, are you all excited to start a new exercise program?  I know we have a lot of excuses:  No time.  Too much trouble.   Hate the smell of the gym.  I’ve heard all of those.  Well, I’m a lousy athlete, would much rather sit and read a book than exercise.  But I also don’t want to lose my brain function and I want to be healthy, so I came up with a program that works for me.  Maybe all or parts of what I’ve done will work for you: 

 I live in a 2 story house so to get some aerobic exercise I walk the stairs 10 times 3 times a week.  That really gets my heart rate going!

 I walk 10,000 steps with 1 pound weights on my ankles 5 days a week .  (I got the weights and pedometer at the sporting goods store - pedometer $15.00, weights $10 ea.)  Walking 10,000 steps translates into 5 miles a day.  It sounds like a lot and it is, but that counts every step I take from the time I get up till I go to bed. Just ordinary walking on flat ground is excellent exercise, but it does not get my heart rate up high enough to qualify as aerobic exercise, so I walk up hills in the neighborhood for 30 minutes a day as part of my 10,000 steps.

 I will admit that walking takes some effort.  Here are a few tricks. 

•  I park as far away from where I’m going as possible and walk the rest of the way.
•  When I’m in a store I get what I came for and then I walk the perimeter of the store, if I have time, I walk it twice. 
•  In the morning I go out and walk in the neighborhood for 15 minutes to give myself a good start. 
•  Since I talk on the phone a lot for my business, I walk in the house or in my back yard while talking.

Once you get the drill down it’s easy – no gym fees, no special clothes (except good walking shoes), no need for any organized groups.  And the results give a lot of bang for your time: I’ve lost 20 pounds, given my brain a good work out, strengthened my heart and toned my lower body.

 Even if it were a lot of trouble I’d do it anyway because the alternatives are so unattractive.

Let's Talk Turkey About Weight Gain and Weight Loss

Here’s some facts: 

Americans spend over $45 billion a year on weight loss products.

According to the CDC 34% of US adults are obese.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htmg

Again according to the CDC, 90% of the weight the average person loses is gained back within 2 years.

Clearly overweight is a big deal in terms of good health and self esteem.  Why is it so hard to lose weight and keep it off?  Yes, we move less and eat more as time goes by, so weight gain must be about diet and exercise, right?  Well if you listen to the commercials it’s a no-brainer:  Calories in vs. calories out – period end of story.  That’s what every ad for some magic weight loss pill or system tells us.  But the truth is far too complex for TV commercials.  Of course, food intake and exercise are important variables in this equation.  But weight is a complicated physiological process.  Consider the following analogy:

If you asked someone, “Where does the water come from?” and they answered, “You turn on the faucet and out comes the water.”  That would be a completely true statement.  But it’s only the very tip of a long, involved story.  The water comes from snow and rain which is stored in dams and piped to treatment plants and then piped to your faucet.  Like the water, gaining weight is a long and involved story.  It is in fact, a medical puzzle.

There are many factors in weight gain that you’ll never see in a Weight Watchers ad.  For example, did you know:

25% of the calories we eat go to fuel our brain?  The brain is the largest fuel consuming organ in the body.  So if you go on a 1,000 calories a day diet, you’re leaving only 750 calories a day to fuel the rest of your internal organs and to provide enough calories to keep you moving all day.

A completely different slant on weight gain is reported in the November 12, 2009 issue of the online version of Time Magazine. http://www.time.com/time/health

In that issue Alice Park reports interesting new research in her story, Another Cause of Obesity:  The Bacteria in Your Gut?  Researchers have found that certain bacteria in the gut can cause a person to gain weight while someone else with different gut bacteria will not gain weight on the same diet/exercise routine.  Ms. Park talks about the November 12, 2009 study published in Science Translational Medicine which suggests, “That the particular type of balance of bugs you harbor in your gut may help push your body toward either obesity or leanness and that these microbe populations might even be manipulated to potentially change your weight.”

The bottom line is science is just now realizing how complex weight gain and loss is. Scientists are now starting to explore the weight puzzle by starting with our brain.  Down deep in our reptilian brain, located in the medial temporal lobes, we’ve stored two important survival mechanisms.  First, is the critical need to survive famine, so the ability to have a good supply of fat storing cells was a key element to our survival when food was scarce. 

The second trait can be seen to this day in your cat and many other animals.  Have you noticed that when your cat is threatened he’ll make his fur stand on end?  He’s trying to look bigger to his enemy.  When we feel threatened, we too at times subconsciously feel the need to appear larger, more formidable possibly to a bullying male boss or to an abusing husband.  The importance of looking bigger to a predator is as old as time.  When you combine these two age old, hard wired traits, you have the perfect, no fail weight gain recipe alive in your brain. 

 But there’s more, as the TV pitchmen say.  Another piece of the weight gain puzzle is our genetic make-up.   For example, for the most part Asians are slender all their lives.  Is that because their diets are so perfect or they exercise more than others?  Asians have a good, healthy traditional diet.  But what about the millions of Asian-Americans who eat more or less an American diet along with the rest of us?  Why do they stay thin and the rest of us don’t?  Do Asians have skinny genes?  Do Asians have better bacteria in their gut?  Geneticists are looking into these factors for the first time.

Here’s another aspect of weight gain to consider. A woman who has been sexually abused as a child or adult unconsciously gains weight to assure she won’t attract men. According to the study conducted by Jennie Noll, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology at the Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center and the Dept of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, “Women with documented histories of sexual abuse were more than twice as likely to be obese as their non-abused peers.” These women feel that overweight will give them a measure of, at least perceived, safety they would not have if they were slender and attractive. 

It is estimated by the Department of Justice that 25% of women have been sexually abused at some point in their lives, so there are millions of women in this category.

So much for calories in and calories out!  Stay tuned for more on weight in future posts.

Having Sex Makes for a Healthy Body

Sex is everywhere and is used to sell every conceivable thing.  So it’s easy to lose sight of how personal it is and most important:

 Sex has many great health benefits: 

 Sex lowers blood pressure  According to research published in Biological Psychology frequent intercourse was associated with lower blood pressure in stressful situations such as speaking in public. 

 Sex Boosts Immunity According to scientists at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa, good sexual health may mean better overall physical health.  Having sex once or twice a week has been linked with higher levels of an antibody called immunoglobulin A or IgA which protects against all types of infection. 

 Sex Burns Calories and it’s a lot more fun than a treadmill! 

 Sex Improves Cardiovascular Health  In a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, scientists followed 914 people for 20 years and found that having sex twice or more a week reduced the risk of a fatal heart attack by 50%!  Compared to those who had sex less than once a month.

 Sex Strengthens Pelvic Floor Muscles Sex performs the same benefits as doing Kegels exercises and it builds the capacity for more pleasurable organisms.  It also helps strengthen the bladder to avoid bladder surgery.

 Sex Reduces Pain A sexual orgasm releases the hormone oxytocin and endorphins (the brain’s pain and anxiety reliever) so that pain declines.  The pain from arthritis, headache, and most other pain is reduced according to a study published in the Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine. 

 Sex Reduces Prostate Cancer Risk A study published in the Journal of American Medical Association found that frequent ejaculations, were linked to lower prostate cancer risk in older men.  The rates of prostate cancer were lowered starting with 4 to 7 ejaculations per month.  The more ejaculations up to 21 per month gave the highest protection.  So that sex is good for your partner too. 

 Sex Makes you Sleep Better – Sex releases oxytocin which promotes deep REM (deep) sleep.  And of course, getting good sleep has been linked with all kinds of good things like maintaining a healthy weight and lowering blood pressure. 

 With all these health aspects we can be assured that having a sex life is a life giving and a pleasure we can enjoy all of our lives.

Let’s Talk About Sex After Menopause

The need for affection and close physical contact is universal.  It starts in infancy and continues throughout life. (Babies in orphanages that are not held and cuddled die.)  The need for sexual contact is also universal and extends throughout life.  However, sex for women, especially after menopause, is inordinately complex.  Only recently has women’s sexuality started to be studied.  Sexuality for men has been studied extensively and drug research has led to the development of the magic little Viagra pill.   Viagra works by sending more blood flow to the penis. Researchers have tried the same approach for women to no avail.  That’s because sex is radically different for women than it is for men. 

 The “slam, bang, thank you ‘mam” saying is not really oversimplifying things for men. Women on the other hand:

• Need to feel they are attractive and their bodies are in good enough shape to show to a man.  (Often not the case for women during and after menopause)

• Need to have the courage to let a man know what pleases them.

• Need to feel safe and trusting of their partner.
• Need to have a partner who has a good working knowledge of women’s anatomy, because most women must have the clitoris stimulated directly either orally, manually or with a vibrator in order to have an orgasm.  Vaginal sex does not bring the vast majority of women to orgasm.

After menopause most women need to use a lubricant to keep the vaginal area well lubricated so that sex is comfortable and pleasurable.  There are many vaginal lubricants sold at the drug store which provide an easy fix to that problem. 

 What’s most important is that all the physical aspects of sex are on a “use it or lose it” basis.  The less sex a woman has, the longer it will take her to come to orgasm and the more she will sublimate her sexual urges into other activities.  Frequently those other activities are counterproductive such as sublimating sexual energy into overeating or even addictive behaviors. The good news is that the great blood flow to the pubic area during sexual arousal and orgasm keeps all the reproductive organs, in addition to the overall pubic areas, healthy and easily aroused. In fact, sex has many positive and health promoting aspects for both women and men. 

 Stay tuned for our next post which lists all the health benefits of sex…

 

 

 

 

Would you spend $29.95 to save your life?

A woman born in 1900 had a life expectancy of 46 years.  The leading cause of death for women of that era was child birth.  Today, women are living much longer than ever in recorded history.  According to the US Labor Department (http://www.bls.gov) a woman at age 55 will live an additional 27.5 years or until she is 82.  The leading cause of death today is heart disease.

 According to the Center for Disease Control, (http://www.cdc.gov/):heart disease accounts for 27% of women’s deaths.  If you add that to the 7.5% of deaths due to strokes you have 34% of all female deaths are caused by heart attacks or strokes.  (A clot blocking a coronary artery is called a heart attack.  A clot blocking or bursting a brain artery is called a stroke.  Both are caused by the same type of blockage.) That’s as compared to 22% of deaths due to cancers of all types.  Breast cancer especially gets a lot of attention, but for comparison 5.6% of women will develop cancer of the breast between their 50th and 70th birthdays, while 34% will develop heart disease.  All women are terrified of breast cancer, but it seems we should be far more focused on heart disease.

The good news is that heart disease including stroke are preventable. 

 Here are the risk factors:

• elevated blood pressure  
• elevated cholesterol levels
• smoking
• significant overweight
• lack of exercise 
• heavy alcohol consumption  
• family history. 

 All of the above are under our control or can be easily treated and controlled except family history. 

 So what to do?  Get a blood pressure monitor. ($29.95 at Target online) or any pharmacy. High blood pressure is the most common risk factor.  But it’s easy to diagnose and control.  If your blood pressure is on the high side, or if you have hypertension in your family, and plenty of us do, then a home blood pressure monitor is a no brainer.  They are both easy to use and accurate.

 It takes only 2 minutes to take your blood pressure and it can literally save your life.  Take a reading every week or so, if the reading is consistently over 140/90 go to your doctor and have him evaluate whether you need blood pressure lowering medication.

 Cholesterol levels can also be taken at home.  Cholesterol testing kits are available online and most pharmacies.  They range in price from $25 to $185.  Interpreting cholesterol readings is complex, so you might want to get the testing done at your doctor’s office.  If your cholesterol levels are too high there are excellent drugs called statins and many herbal preparations to lower cholesterol.   

 Smoking - Of course if you smoke you know quitting is of extreme importance.  The American Lung Association’s motto is, “If you can’t breathe, nothing else counts.”  That motto could be modified for all us to say:  If you’ve lost your health, nothing else counts.  Is losing your health because of smoking worth the price?  It’s your decision.

 Overweight and out of shape - It’s no secret that living a sedentary life and carrying more than an extra 20 pounds is a serious health hazard.  It not only puts you at risk for heart disease but also lines you up for diabetes, joint problems, and back trouble.  Losing weight is not easy and it’s not fun.  But it has a huge pay off.  That pay off includes looking a lot better which is always a big plus.

Alcohol -If you drink more than an occasional glass of wine, you’re putting yourself at risk for more than heart disease.  According to Judith Reichman, MD who practices and teaches at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and UCLA Medical School, “Life expectancy is cut short by an average of 15 years for women who drink heavily (more than 2 drinks a day).  In addition 2 to 5 drinks a day increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer by a whopping 41% versus non-drinking women.  Yes, you read that right, you have 41% increase in your risk of  breast cancer if you drink more than 2 drinks every day.

Take care of yourself.  If you don’t who will?