Healthy Tips After 50 Podcast

Brain Booster Interview Very interesting interview with Susan Gibson, founder of Vivolor Therapeutics. Listen to our conversation about what things can negatively affect your brain and what you can do to improve not just your brain but your overall health. We speak at length about Susan's F.A.S.T. model of describing the individual items that each of us should be watching out for as we get older a...

Plant Milk vs Cow's Milk? Which is healthier for you? It all depends on what you're looking for. If you have cow milk allergies or soy allergies then the answer is pretty obvious - whichever milk you don't have an allergy to. The only thing you should look at in the plant based milks is the sugar content to make sure that it doesn't have a high total sugar content. This can happen when the manufac...

Interview with Ronald Hunt Ron is truly a Renaissance man - Reiki Teacher Master, NLP Certified, Life Coach, Modern Minister and Life Cycle Celebrant. He has a passion for helping people to expand their minds through mindfulness and the development of a growth mindset - changing the lives of people of all ages. In addition to all of this he is a Life Cycle Celebrant who helps couples to create the...

Should You Care About the New Nutrition Label? This is the first update since 2006 of the Nutrition Label on food products. You may have already seen companies using this new label. Most of the information is the same but there are some important changes. Added Sugars are broken out from the Total Sugars, they took out Vitamin A & Vitamin C Daily Values and replaced them with Vitamin D and Potassi...

What is Intuitive Eating? Meet Lynnea Courtney in today's podcast interview. She is an Intuitive Eating Coach and teaches Mindful Intuitive Eating to her clients - she tells us what Intuitive Eating means. Lynnea spent 15 years in the corporate world so many of us know - commuting over 1.5 hours each way to her office. After developing health problems she realized that being mindful and intuitive...

Curious About Gray Hair? Hair turns gray when the melanocyte cells stop being able to produce pigment called melanin. Interestingly the hair doesn't actually turn gray - it's white because it has no pigment. It just looks gray next to the hairs with color. Men get more gray hair than women and Caucasians get more than people of Asian and African descent. Stress probably could make you go gray fast...

Good Posture for Strong Muscles Posture-related muscle weakness and rigidity can develop as you get older. Poor posture can affect your balance, strength, and flexibility and lead to chronic pain. There are many exercises that can help to improve your posture. Not surprisingly yoga is good for improving your posture, it seems to be good for everything! Tai Chi is also good for you. You want to str...

Managing Stress - Is It Possible? Manage your stress to maintain longer term memory and brain capacity. Learn about how fast stress can injure your brain (it doesn't take very long) and what to do to avoid the negative consequences. Some stress is good for you - it's like exercising your brain and your vascular system. After a short stress period your brain and body should go back to normal. A few...

Short Days Got You Down? SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is a type of depression that is caused by the shorter days of late fall and early winter. The symptoms are similar to those of typical depression - feelings of hopelessness, fatigue, loss of interest in activities they usually enjoy, difficulty concentrating, etc. The difference is that SAD only happens seasonally not all year round. Docto...

How to Cleanup Your Clutter How has clutter impacted your life? It's a very controversial subject, especially with people at both ends of the spectrum - hoarders & obsessive cleaners. I am not a hoarder but do tend to be on that side of the middle point.  The article I quote from in the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, included an interesting Q&A with Michael Tompkins, Ph. D. at UC Berkeley about clut...

Closing Out 2019 3 new items of interest to bring 2019 to an end. Green Tea Extract (GTE) as a supplement has been used by a lot of postmenopausal women to try and lower their breast cancer risk. A NIH-funded study found that instead of reducing cancer risk GTE actually raised the risk when compared to a group taking a placebo whose risk went down. A separate study had previously found that high-d...

Meditation for Calming Fearful Memories Volunteers trained in Mindfulness Meditation were able to break their "anxiety habit" caused by fearful memories. In this study the researchers used "safety memories" to help the participants in conjunction with the mindfulness meditation to do this. They also learned through mindfulness how to stop judging their own thoughts. Overall the meditation group di...

Breast Cancer and Hormones New research in the Lancet show a stronger connection between Menopausal Hormone Therapy (MHT) and Breast Cancer. The risks go up starting the first day of going on MHT. Expert recommends a limit of only 1-2 years on MHT and then don't just stop them, gradually lower the dosage Women should try non-hormone strategies first before going on MHT. Vaginal estrogen is not an...

Food & the Brain Listen to the podcast to learn about the info below and a lot more... Willpower may not be the reason that many overweight or obese people can't stop overeating. There are many studies that show a relationship between the brain and what are called "food cues".  Advancement in genetic tests, brain scans, and research into dependencies and drug addiction are showing why some people...

Berries for the Holidays Information about Cranberries, Blueberries, and Vitamin A The Pilgrims used cranberries to prevent scurvy and we use it these days to help with urinary tract infections (UTI's) - both from Vitamin C Cranberries are native to North America (new info to me) Cranberries and Blueberries have phytochemicals which have potential to help with cancer prevention, cardiovascular hea...

10,000 steps started as a marketing tool for a Japanese pedometer Harvard School of Public Health did a 5-year study of women, average age 72, to compare number of steps to mortality rates 4,400 steps per day was found to be associated with a 41% lower risk of dying when compared to 2,500 steps per day 7,500 steps per day was even lower but more than that didn't add any additional benefit The step...

Lynette Sorrentino is a coach and mentor who describes herself as a woman on a hunt doing everything she can to fight the aging process. After several personal battles with her own health she's now on a mission to help other women who may be experiencing some of the same things. I was very excited to sit down and talk with Lynette as we are both very interested in learning how to take control of a...

Live Longer By Walking More Four year study of 16,741 women (average age 72) showed those who walked briskly for 70 minutes per day had a 60-70% lower risk of death at the end of the study. These are a few of the ways that your health is improved by brisk walking: Improved Circulation Heart & lungs work more efficiently Boosts energy Walking with a friend or a group helps your cognitive wellbeing....

Lower Your Cholesterol - In a recent study (July 2019) the Portfolio Diet lowered cholesterol by 27% - This is a flexible diet that gives you 4 "food components" from which you pick low-saturated fat / low-cholesterol foods - This is not a weight-loss diet - it is for lowering cholesterol - If your cholesterol is very high you can combine this with a lower level of statin therapy - The original di...

Three Tips for Good Health First let me apologize for the bad static on the recording. Won't happen again.   12-year study of 26,000 American women. Those who ate a diet very close to the Mediterranean Diet were found to have lower risks for inflammation as well as improvements in blood sugar, blood pressure, weight, and HDL cholesterol. Next study tip is that moderate to vigorous exercise is asso...

Longer Purpose-Driven Life What it is: study authors defined it as having an aim in life and goals. Study shows lower risk of death from specific causes: Cardiovascular disease Blood conditions Overall  Digestive conditions This was an "observational" study so association was not "proven". The study authors cited 3 pathways that life purpose mainly works through. Volunteering is cited as one way t...

Martial Arts Workouts For Your Health Martial Arts are good for building agility, flexibility, and controlling emotions among many other things. Studies have also found that they help with cognitive improvements, reductions in falls, and increases in balance, strength, and endurance.  Tai Chi has been studied the most and has been found to improve memory, sleep, and many types of chronic pain. The...

Pain - a self-fulfilling prophecy Brain-imaging study confirms that our expectations can create our level of pain Learn what the nocebo effect is as compared to the placebo effect Mind-body connection is confirmed again in effects on illness, pain, and recovery Positive expectations do help to speed recovery More podcasts, videos, and blogs at my website - Healthy Tips After 50   

Heart Disease (heart attack and/or angina) related to Cognitive Decline Study found these people were at higher risk for cognitive decline in later years after one of these episodes. People with higher levels of omega-3's from seafood had more likelihood to age healthfully. NSAID's not advised for long-term use to help osteoarthritis pain.  Pain relief effects peak in the 2nd week of use and start...

Take Care of Your Hips Your Hip is an intricately designed weight-bearing joint. And it will wear out or break if you don't take care of it. In today's podcast you will learn the many different causes of hip pain and what each feels like. You'll also hear about multiple ways to help and protect your hips. Some of these you may already know but there are so many that I'm sure at least one will be n...