Healthy Aging: Body, Mind & Spirit

World’s first prescription drug developed from raw marijuana

A British pharmaceutical company is working its way toward FDA approval for the world’s first prescription drug developed from raw marijuana instead of synthetic equivalents, a medical milestone that could presage a new era for the plant and the nation’s uneasy relationship with it.   The company is in advanced clinical trials to get its product approved in the United States as a treatment for severe cancer pain, and hopes to seek clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to put it on pharmacy shelves by the end of next year.

Learn more over at my local paper!

This is your body on insomnia

What happens to your brain? Studies show that sleep is necessary to rejuvenate your connections between brain cells.  With insomnia you will have increased problems with memory, executive functioning and attention span.

What happens to your muscles? Our bodies produce growth hormone during sleep.  Insomnia keeps you from building and maintaining healthy muscle tissue.

What happens to your immune system? Sleep deprivation lessens white blood cell activity, which increases your risk for illness.   A strong immune system promotes deep sleep.

What happens to your blood sugar levels? Insomnia interferes with your body’s ability to metabolize glucose, leading to early signs of diabetes.   One study showed that sleeping only six hours per night can increase your risk of developing diabetes four to five times.

What happens to your mood? Sleeplessness not only makes you irritable, it also increases your chances of developing clinical depression by five times and panic disorder by twenty times.

Why sitting is hazardous to your health!

Here’s another easy, no-sweat way to markedly improve your health in the new year — stop sitting so much.   You’ll live longer!

Learn more here, and then GET UP and MOVE!!!

Bone density testing rules change

Bone loss and osteoporosis develop so slowly in most women, that many can safely wait as long as 15 years before having a second bone density test, researchers report in a new study.

Learn more over at the New York Times.

How soon is sex safe after a heart attack?

This can be a difficult question to ask your doctor, but you should ask.

Learn more here.

Sex after 50?

Surprising findings about midlife sex...

Healthy midlife weight loss

I’m inching ever closer to my target weight now.  Forty-five ugly pounds gone for good, and ten more to go!   This morning when I glanced at myself in my full-length mirror, my immediate response was, “Oh, so that’s what I’m supposed to look like.”

Isn’t it funny how easily we get used to seeing a fat person when we look in the mirror?  The weight can come on so gradually over the decades, and then suddenly by age 45 or 50 we can hardly imagine ourselves any other way.   Getting back to only overweight on the BMI instead of obese may seem absolutely out of reach.

What I have learned so far:

Weight loss is a journey which begins by believing that you MUST change your life NOW, and then admitting you need some serious instruction and support.   Especially in your first few months when you are struggling to believe it is even possible for you to get back to a healthy weight, one-on-one support is so essential.   Otherwise, who are you going to cry to when you feel so many mixed emotions about the changes you are going through?

Weight loss is all about getting rid of the rules you learned as a child and the norms you see around you EVERYWHERE. You need to first trash as much as you can of your previous assumptions about what you should be eating, what you need to feel satisfied, and what your new normal will be.  I’ll bet I now consume about one third of the total calories I used to consider “normal.”

Starving yourself is your shortest path to obesity! When you wait until you are super hungry before eating, you will find it almost impossible to fill yourself up.   Just like waiting to take a pain reliever until you cannot stand the pain, it will take that much longer to stave off your hunger.   I now eat 4-5 what I call large snacks each day and I NEVER allow myself to feel true hunger.

A fair amount of “hunger” is in your mind, not your belly. Sitting around thinking about what would taste good right now is not the same as HUNGER.   Weight loss may require you to find lots of new interests and ways of distracting yourself from focusing on food full-time.

Believe me, it is possible for you to find a much healthier way to live. However, it will require determination and may require counseling as well.  Who knows, it may even lead to a midlife crisis!

So, what’s the matter with that?   It beats the heck out of dying prematurely of a heart attack, cancer, diabetes or any number of other obesity-related illnesses.

Besides, this just feels so great!

Is finding love a part of healthy aging?

It is an unusual human being who has not experienced feelings of abandonment or betrayal in their lifetime.  When these misfortunes occur we normally look for the life lesson in them, and too often believe the lesson is that love never works.  Sometimes we decide we are fundamentally unlovable.

If this is true for you, you need to read my new book: How To Believe In Love Again. Don’t miss this excerpt from the chapter: “Why I wrote this book”:

“It is essential that each of us revisit our abandonment or betrayal stories, and especially the lessons we think we have learned from them.   How has your perception of that story changed over the years?   How about the deep and abiding shame you may feel from previous breakups?  Has your self-concept changed since then?  Do you need a reality check?  Does that old rejection hold far more power than it should in your present world?

Recent brain research shows that we remember most clearly those things we experienced while we were in the midst of strong emotions.   Difficult life experiences may stick with us for decades, often holding more power than they deserve, especially when they have caused severe psychic trauma.

It is only through a careful reassessment of these experiences and then a little patient, careful “soul surgery” that we may regain our original belief in the power of love to improve our lives and our right to receive it.

This book is designed to help you become a private detective in service to your own self-awareness and self-development.   If you wish to gather a deeper understanding of why you fear love so much, and then search out those experiences in your past that have kept you stuck in your old ways of perceiving love, this book can help.    Together we will explore those negative love experiences from your past where you lost your trust of others—those bad times that now sabotage your present faith that you might ever find love again.

Don’t miss my new website: HOW TO BELIEVE IN LOVE AGAIN!

Questions about routine aspirin therapy

Healthy people who take aspirin to prevent a heart attack or stroke could be doing more harm than good, warn researchers.

An analysis of more than 100,000 patients, published in Archives of Internal Medicine, concluded the risk of internal bleeding was too high.

The UK-led study said only people with a history of heart problems or stroke should take the tablets, and any decision should be made with your doctor.

Learn more.

New connections found between heart attack risk and bereavement

The newly bereaved are at greatly increased risk of heart attack after the death of a close loved one, US researchers say.

Heart attack risk is 21 times higher within the first day and six times higher than normal within the first week, a study in the Circulation journal of nearly 2,000 people shows.   Symptoms to watch for include chest pain and shortness of breath.  Experts say intense grief puts extra strain on the heart.

The psychological stress associated with loss can raise heart rate, blood pressure and blood clotting, which, in turn, can increase the chance of a heart attack.  A person’s sleep and appetite are also likely to be disrupted.  Compound this with self-neglect – such as not bothering to take regular medication – and the result can be grave.

The researchers say it is important for family and friends to be aware of these risks and to keep an eye out during such difficult times.

Learn more here.