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  • Dec8

    Dr. Oz’ 4 Secret Reasons Women are Exhausted

    Posted in: Aging and Costs of Aging, Drug Food Safety, Obesity and Weight Loss, Wellness and Health

    Our ABC station (KEYT, and former CNN editor Shirin Rafaee) asked me about Dr Oz’ 4 Secret Reasons Women Are Exhausted (previously, we spoke about belly fat)(footage to come). Here they are:

    1. Carb Coma: a catchy way to sum up the sharp drop in blood sugar and shunting of blood to your stomach (not to your brain!) when you have a breakfast of pastry, or just high sugar fruit.  To gain energy, Oz reminds us to eat oatmeal and one fruitStress Free Quiz, not two, and to eat a hardboiled egg before leaving the house, and add vegetables to keep feeling full.

    This is good advice, generally. Too many of us just have cereal or nothing for breakfast, and skip the protein. I’d add nuts and avocado, and make the oats steel-cut. I like my patients to aim for 30% of their daily calories at breakfast, and 60% by 2 pm.

    2. Hormone Hell: Oz tests for high levels of cortisol and low levels of testosterone, which is suppressed by too high cortisol. Cortisol keeps spiking during the day in stressed and exhausted people, instead of its normal pattern; women need (and make) testosterone too.

    In men, I think that testosterone actually is the weight loss hormone (even more than leptin), and knowing that, women can make a huge difference for men who need to lose weight.

    In women, it depends on age:  women over 65 who have insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome often have high (not low) testosterone levels. In other women, testosterone gradually declines. One (unaccepted) theory is that their adrenal glands can’t keep up with chronic fight-or-flight arousal of chronic stress, and don’t produce enough of the hormones needed, including testosterone.

    To help, Oz suggests getting 8 hours of sleep and 18 minutes of exercise daily, a balanced diet, and taking supplements, including Tongkat Ali (a Malaysian herb, now a protected species from overharvesting, made into a tea which improves sexual performance in male rats and mice), also available as a powder and an extract.  Claims about Tongkat Ali are sensational: I could find no studies of effectiveness in women, and only one in men (for infertility).

    3. OTC Pain Meds can cause sleepiness.  Yes, they can–between 3 and 9% of people taking naproxen, for example, report just that. Oz suggests taking them just once weekly, and trying peppermint oil compresses instead.  I think less reliance on medication is a good thing.

    4. Don’t sleep with your pets.  I think this is good advice: Oz notes that if a pet is restless at bedtime, they might need more exercise during the day, and might be keeping you up at night. Oz suggests giving a pet her own bed, and making the transition if you’ve slept (or tossed and turned) that way for years.

     

  • Feb2

    Wellness in Business Comes of Age

    Posted in: Aging and Costs of Aging, Environmental Health, Wellness and Health

    To build a culture of health, develop policy, engage stakeholders, focus on healthy lifestyle changes, recognize success and measure impact is a long, worthwhile, profitable journey. So, it’s best tackled in bite sized portions.

    There are several great places to look.

    • The National Business Group on Health makes a business case for prevention and provides resources to members.
    • HERO has assembled a large, retrospective multi-employer health promotion research database.
    • PeopleMetrics has broadened corporate wellness (a poor sister, underfunded idea) to Employee Engagement, a robust notion of passion, retention, effort and advocacy.
    • The 3rd Corporate Health, Wellness & Benefits Summit just concluded.
    • The American Psychological Association (APA) celebrates psychological health in the workplace with annual awards and honorees. And #cohealth has a terrific monthly tweetchat.

    Among the 2010 APA honorees are Leaders Bank, which has amazingly kept people on course with a “comprehensive Adapting to Change and Effective Stress Management program, motivated from the ground up and endorsed by senior management.”

    I’m going to help Lincoln Financial later this month and next with starter-tips, and a unique How Job-Stressed Are You? Now quiz now in beta. It’s bite-sized, tasty and I hope really fun. Try it.

     

  • Jan10

    The Science of Job Stress: Razor’s Edge

    Posted in: Aging and Costs of Aging, Hypertension, Obesity and Weight Loss, Wellness and Health

    No one writes down on my medical practice questionnaires that they eat because they are stressed.

    People say that they eat for a reward, or are lonely or bored, or are happy or angry or frustrated, or because they want to.

    Scientists who study workplace health group say those feelings can mean “chronic stress.”

    But senior management see those feelings as something else: as overtime pay, temporary help, quality lapses, and higher health care, drug and health plan costs.

    Inside companies, health-related lost work time is barely noticed, because it is camouflaged as wanting to eat.

    When you drill down and look at the science, you find that some (acute) stress is helpful in the workplace.  And that learning to manage chronic stress boosts productivity and saves money.

    The place between acute and chronic stress is the razor’s edge. The science of job stress tells us that individualizing help at work is part of a successful program, with evidence-based interventions.

    Medical science now studies what works in stress management: behavioral therapy, exercise, relaxation and nutrition.  A few examples:

    Relaxation: a controlled trial of one 45 minute Swedish massage versus light touch measurably reduced cortisol levels and inflammatory markers (these levels and markers which are high in obese people too).

    Exercise: a randomized controlled trial of yoga postures measurably improved mood, increased GABA levels and decreased anxiety more than calorie-equivalent walking.

    Simple behavioral changes (breathing exercises) and dietary changes (chewing gum) also have scientific theory and data.

    There are many excellent resources online for individuals and companies that want to manage stress well. I’ve just taped an instructional DVD on the subject, and it’s fascinating!

     

  • Nov16

    See How Easily You Can Make Yourself Younger: Small Group Seminars

    Posted in: Aging and Costs of Aging, High Cholesterol, Wellness and Health

    One of the most productive and fun seminars I’ve given took place just two weeks ago, here in Santa Barbara, in a nearby rented living room: house call!

    A group of guys from the Midwest, all members of an executive professional organization, called me a few weeks ahead of their planned biking and wine country expedition. They asked if I would speak with them for a couple of hours on Staying Healthy as You Age.

    Sure, I said. I asked them all to take a RealAge test (disclosure: I wrote two books on healthy aging with RealAge founder and Dr Oz superstar Michael Roizen, and serve on the Scientific Advisory Board).

    And the good news: nearly all had RealAges (the age of their bodies as they’ve chosen to care for them) younger than their birthday ages. And all wanted to do better…especially in weight loss, cholesterol, sleep, stress relief, quality of life.

    Plus, we got to talk about wine, wine-tasting, pairing and making. And I shared two wines I’d made–a Petite Sirah and a Zinfandel–which was also really fun. I gave each a signed copy of The RealAge Diet.

    I’m confident that the next time I see them, several of them (all of them?) will look and feel better and younger than they do now.

    Judith Weinraub of the Washington Post interviewed several of us who have observed that men and women sometimes need different advice.

    And collaboration and partnership, instead of direction. Very satisfying.

     

  • Nov3

    Stress Reduction and Corporate Wellness

    Posted in: Aging and Costs of Aging, Environmental Health, Hypertension, Wellness and Health

    I am getting more calls about managing stress among employees. Thoughts impact physiology in about 1/18th second, so it’s worth preparing for them.

    What many companies, now asking employees to do with more with less, don’t know is that stress can be measured, reduced and managed.  And that their health care costs will go down, and their productivity rates will likely go up.

    Chronic stress interferes with memory, concentration, judgments and decisionmaking.  It is the most common cause of absenteeism and a prime cause of job turnover. It’s probably the most important benefit of corporate wellness.

    And it boosts health costs.  A lot.  But HeartMath has found $1200 per employee per year in correctional officers’ annual cost savings with simple training programs over time.

    Stress is a complex emotional and physiological reaction.  It is a natural feeling, one that involves hundreds of biochemical changes which are fatiguing.

    Stress can be controlled with practiced actions

    • Communicate clearly (does not mean shouting)
    • Diminish the drama (helps reduce biochemical impact)
    • Practice a positive emotion on purpose: appreciation, care, compassion or gratitude (verbalize or write these, every day)

    This looks pretty simple. And it is.

    But like eating healthfully, people know what they should do, but don’t usually have the tools or skills to do it.  That’s why teaching tools are essential.

    For example, rhythmic breathing can be relaxing.  But it doesn’t neutralize stress over the long term  What does is actively adding a positive feeling like those above.

    I’m going to be teaching on-the-job ways to manage stress around the country next year, and I can’t wait. Because effectively managing stress can:
    1. Increase resilience  – ability to prepare for, and recoup from challenge
    2. Improve blood pressure, depression, asthma
    3. Reduce fatigue, burnout, hostility, anxiety, distress and anger.
    4. Increase brain clarity, focus, attention span, accuracy and learning ability
    5. Improve decision‐making, (reduction of decision fatigue)
    6. Improve communication skills
    7. Improve work/life balance

    This means lower health care costs, better presenteeism (defined as the level of performance on the job), less abseenteeism and improved employee satisfaction.

    Learning the tools–in even a single hour, and even better, a single day–may be the ticket to less tired, less worried, less annoyed, less anxious employees.

     
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