Older Bolder Life

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Critical Health Imperatives After 40

On Becoming More Resilient: Five Cornerstones

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During these most unusual days I’ve made it a goal over the past few weeks to spend at least part of my time interacting with family, friends, and coaching clients challenging them to think about how they can become more resilient.

Merriam-Webster’s defines resilient as tending to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change, as well as capable of withstanding shock without permanent deformation or rupture.

Interpreted in light of this spring’s current events, the concept of being resilient implies much, much more than simply surviving life’s challenges (despite the media’s incessant droning on about survival). The world and her collected humanity have seen many a pandemic before, and will so again; the resiliency of the human race is damned impressive, and the historical record of such seems much under-appreciated these days.

So how might one become more resilient?

Becoming More Resilient: You Are What You Eat

The phrase “you are what you eat” is oft attributed to Anthelme Brillat-Savarin who wrote, in Physiologie du Gout, ou Meditations de Gastronomie Transcendante, 1826: “Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es.” (Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are).

Whether or not that attribution is correct, there’s no doubt at this point in time that the food we partake is the single most critical determinant of our long-term health and wellness.

My own story is a perfect example of this, and if you’ve not yet made the choice to eat to pursue optimal health, now’s the perfect time to jump in. The challenge of course if finding the right food plan for your unique physiology and circumstances; following some common-sense principles will lead you, more quickly than you might imagine, to a plan that works. (Need some help sorting out options? I can help).

Becoming More Resilient: Lean Body Mass Wins the Day

The fact that lean body mass correlates directly with a human’s ability to survive disease and disaster has been long established; modern medicine, along with popular society, seem to have forgotten this simple axiom, with devastating results.

Need a refresher on lean body mass? Read more here.

As data pours in related to COVID-19, obesity appears to be the single most significant co-morbidity reported, particularly in younger age bands. It doesn’t matter where you are today, get started now.

Becoming More Resilient: Functional Fitness Matters More than Ever

Maintaining functional fitness throughout life doesn’t require mind-boggling commitments of time, effort, or resources, yet might yield the most impressive returns over time of any investment of time, effort, or resources you can make, ever. By simply walking (perhaps with an occasional sprint throw in for fun and good measure) and completing thoughtfully specific body weight exercises, impressive fitness levels can be gained (and maintained).

And as an added bonus, recent data (take this report from UVA within the past week) shows impressive exercise-induced benefits in battling viral invaders and recovering from their impacts.

Volumes have been written about the beneficial impacts that exercise has on human physiology (and mind/spirit); now more than ever you need to lace up those walking shoes and get to it.

Becoming More Resilient: Connections Count

It’s damned revealing that during a time in history when humanity is ostensibly more connected than ever by technology, in reality time spent wandering through the morass of social media clearly makes us less happy, less productive, and we’re reporting a sense of loneliness at near epidemic levels.

Genuine and authentic connections with other humans count. We all need a trusted circle of friends and family; I get it that not everyone wants to play, but you need to find those that do, and work hand in hand to develop authentic relationships you can lean on when the waters of life grow rough (they inevitably do at some point).

By the way, my wife and I have found that the deepest and best relationships we’ve shared with friends over time have grown organically out of shared experiences pursuing worthy activities helping others.

Becoming More Resilient: Purpose, Problem Solving, and Pivots

A fascinating principle was taught to me by a mentor years ago, and it was ironically related to purpose. His argument was that the most successful people in world history, with few exceptions, were those who chartered their life course around helping others solve or fix some problem faced in every day life.

One of his key points was that life on this globe always has (and always will) present for most of us challenges that at times seem overwhelming; it’s inescapable and at times a harsh reality, yet with every challenge comes an opportunity to adapt, change, improve, grow, and perhaps even help others along the way. Having a strong purpose in life can make problem solving good (or great) solutions even more accessible.

Finally, rarely does life proceed according to our best crafted plans. The ability to problem solve and pivot to something adjacent or new is an impressive skill that takes some cultivating and practice. And while your crystal ball predicting your future is a bit cloudy today, with changes coming in society over the next few months there will likely be multiple opportunities to pivot to something new (and maybe even better) coming soon.

Be prepared to pivot for the win.

Critical Health Imperatives After 40: Understand Where Your Treasures Reside

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A change in my personal schedule this morning, and the current paper asset “crisis” (according to some this morning) unfolding before us today as the stock and bond markets react negatively to COVID-19 virus news (and other fundamental issues inherent in the markets), prompted a quick change in today’s post…

I’m all for planning for the future; sagacious pundits, philosophers, spiritual leaders, and politicos of various stripes have encouraged to varying degrees that we all live today with at least a modicum of thought for our futures. The advice you’ll receive about preparing for the future will vary extraordinarily pending who you might query, who you friends are, how and where you were raised, and so on and so forth.

For decades those of us living in first world countries around the world have been told that the very best way to “secure our futures” is to invest wisely, typically directed toward paper assets, held in various retirement plan vehicles and invested in markets around the globe.

I’d argue, as have many before me, that perhaps your most critical investment you can ever make throughout your life, the investment yielding the greatest dividends and payout over time, will be to invest in your personal health and wellness. I personally find it ironic as hell (pardon the emphasis) that with the exception of perhaps buying grass-fed proteins and well-sourced seafoods, these investments in health and wellness don’t have to cost a dime, at least in terms of money exchanged, though you’ll expend some thought, time, and effort to invest well.

The cost of a perfect exercise – simply lacing up your shoes and walking every day, is basically nil, as is the cultivation of a lifestyle that incorporates frequent, intentional movement, lifting heavy stuff around the house or in “play”, climbing stairs or even sprinting now and again, and getting a restful night’s sleep every night.

Even the highbrow academic elites (Yale and Oxford in this case) are beginning to quantify how much happier people are with the results of exercise and fitness versus obsessing over their bank accounts and accumulated riches. By all means, save for your future and that of your family, invest your material riches wisely and well, but invest in yourself and those you love first and foremost.

Git ‘er done.

Critical Health Imperatives Over 40: Beware the Anger and Rage Trap (Part 1)

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Today I’m pivoting from my planned post to chat quickly about an experience that actually happened yesterday, prompting a short flurry of “refresh my memory” research and a quick yet intensive interaction with an acquaintance.

This acquaintance (let’s call him CS) happens to have two offspring away in college; said offspring happen to be home visiting for a long weekend, and during this visit CS was shocked to find his previously fairly happy kids now imbued with what he termed a “deep and abiding sense of anger and rage”. Without chasing the rabbit too far down that rabbit hole, it appears said offspring were angry about any and everything imaginable, and hell bent on making sure any and everyone within earshot knew it and joined in the rage-fest.

CS and his wife were quite taken aback, and were also quick to opine that the expression of rage and anger is part of the ‘coming of age’ experience on campus these days, part of ‘woke’ culture among youth, and in fact quite possible a very reasonable response ‘to the way things are these days’.

Is the World a More Angry and Rage-Filled Place Today?

CS at one point opined, probably in defense of his vexed progeny, that the world is a hard place today, and there’s much more to be angry about than ever before.

Reflexly I personally countered that I’m not quite sure that’s true; anger is classically thought to be seeded or driven by disappointment, frustration, rejection, fear, and judgment among other things – all challenges that have poked and prodded humans for centuries.

IMHO many of us live in a cultural milieu where being perpetually angry or enraged is deemed to be a virtuous state, particularly if one is able to cite a particularly egregious reason that someone or something has pissed us off – see, it’s really not my fault I’m angry – it’s yours (theirs).

My immediate suggestion to CS was that he nudge his progeny away from the rage and anger movement simply based on what we know about the impacts these emotions have upon human physiology.

A Quick Reminder of the Physiology of Rage and Anger

Most neurophysiologists agree that with the first spark of anger-inciting stimulus, the amygdala activates initially, which then drives the hypothalamus to to respond, most notably by releasing CRH (corticotropin-releasing hormone).

CRH signals the pituitary gland to release adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which among other things drives the adrenal glands to pour out what most refer to as the stress hormones – cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline.

There are of course many other hormonal changes happening during this “rage” window, but we know that the big three stress hormones create a cascade of physiological responses – increased heart rate, blood pressure, arterial tension, as well as increased blood glucose and blood fatty acid levels. Thyroid function is suppressed as is T-cell function, gut blood flow and metabolism decrease, and your mouth gets dry.

As you well know chronically elevated cortisol imparts a host of really bad impacts, including a few lesser well known ones too, such as suppressing activity in the prefrontal cortex (one of the areas where judgement ability is housed) and the hippocampus (impacting short term memory and creation of new memories).

Rage and Anger Can Be Useful in Bursts, But Beware the Chronic Trap

While there’s no doubt a role for rage and anger at times in life (for most of us as part of the fight or flight response), attempting to live for days and months at a time perpetually enraged and angry is an absolute disaster from a physiological standpoint, to say nothing of mental health perspectives as well.

Granted, it’s a stressful world today, and while the world has always been a stressful place to trod, falling into the trap of perpetual rage, anger, is physiological catastrophe; anyone selling the concept that rage and anger is the only way to impact the world today is beckoning you to navigate a dark and rocky path, a path that will harm you over time.

One of my personally favorite of Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint Laws is “Avoid Stupid Mistakes” (don’t do stupid things). From a physiological standpoint alone (not to mention the mental health issues, which are potentially even more impactful), choosing to be perpetually enraged and angry falls into the category of doing stupid things. There are far better choices for your life.

More to come.

Question of the Week: The Most Important Health Imperatives After 40 (or even 35)

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This past week I’ve had a fascinating back-and-forth discussion with an acquaintance who’s recently become a coaching client about the most critical health and wellness imperatives for someone over 40.

Admittedly the over 40 is a purely arbitrary line in the sand; he happened to frame the discussion that way as we both happen to be (quite happily I might add) north of 40, though you could just as easily argue that, given the health status of most North Americans these days, the discussion equally applies to those over thirty-five, or perhaps even thirty.

To expand the backstory a bit here, this gentleman sought help initially with “dropping a few pounds that I just can’t lose”. As we dug a bit deeper into his issues, he was carrying at least 80 more pounds that he probably should, but much more critically he was a metabolic mess, with several markers of glucose intolerance and lipid derangement that were frankly alarming.

He was an admitted “carb-junky”, needed an infusion of quickly-metabolized carbs every two hours or so during his waking hours, and recounted the litany of complaints we’ve all experienced at some point: poor sleep, heartburn, fatigue, mental cloudiness, joint soreness, myalgia (muscle pain), lousy endurance, decreased sexual arousal and performance, and at times a sense of aimlessness and even depression.

To his credit, and that of his very supportive physician wife, he finally came to the point that he knew deep in his gut (perhaps even literally) that something (actually a lot of things) needed to change.

Part of our process has of course been defining several key health restoration objectives for him to strive toward, and that in particular is how we arrived at the (now somewhat lengthy) discussion of what indeed are the most important health imperatives after 40.

This has been such a fascinating discussion I’m going to open a series here on the Older Bolder Life laying out some of these critical health imperatives after 40 over the next few weeks. Most of us will find most if not all of the key points applicable in our own lives, though of course their order of importance will vary pending your own unique physiologic and metabolic issues.

Critical Health Imperatives After 40: Taking an Honest Appraisal of Where You Are Now

My key point in sharing this quick story as a matter of introduction is a simple one – to get started on any journey to reclaim or improve your health, at some point you will have to do what my acquaintance / now client did – you’ll have to sit back, roll up your metaphorical sleeves, and take an honest, insightful, and hopefully damned objective measure of where you are now.

For some of us, that’s a pretty tall order. It’s not necessarily the easiest thing to admit we’re not where we’d like to be in life, and sometimes we need the thoughtful input of someone close to us or with compassionate expertise to help us take stock of the issues at hand.

And thinking specifically of the “fat but fit” mantra that seems so pervasive in today’s culture, even among classically trained health care professionals, part of taking an honest appraisal of where you are will likely involve objective measures of your metabolic health, including a thoughtfully targeted lab panel.

Only by understanding where you are today can you put together a plan to get to where you want to be.

More to come.