Age-Proof Brain

Alzheimer’s has been labeled as the cruelest disease because it robs the sufferer of their humanity. It also inflicts an emotional toll on family and loved ones.

Americans are facing a pandemic. But not the one you’re thinking of, it is a pandemic of poor health resulting in exploding rates of obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, Alzheimer’s, and other chronic diseases.

A 2018 study found 7 in 8 Americans have at least one health marker that puts them at greater risk of developing chronic diseases. By 2022 that number was adjusted to 13 in 14, meaning just 7% of American adults are metabolically healthy.

The brain is the most important organ in the body. We can transplant hearts, even artificial ones, and livers but if our brain goes we are out of luck. Of the leading causes of death in America, men die more frequently of every one except Alzheimer’s.

Two-Thirds of Alzheimer’s sufferers are women. The chance of woman developing Alzheimer’s in her lifetime is 20%. That’s why I have focused my “Improve and Protect Your Memory at Any Age! Course on women.

My journey to producing this course was an interesting one. It started when I got fired from my banking job during the 2008 financial crisis. Well actually it started before then. Let me go back to the beginning.

My Story

As a young boy I struggled with my weight. I shopped in the “husky” section of the boy’s department. Partly as a result, I have always had an interest in health, fitness, and nutrition. In High School I was able to maintain a stable weight playing soccer, tennis, and wrestling. However, in college, I only played tennis and gained about 20 pounds.

After college I was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in Army Intelligence. Despite an active Army lifestyle, I was still 50 pounds overweight. Toward the end of my 5-year Army stint I made a concerted effort and lost those 50 pounds in four months.

Out of the Army, I became less active and slowly but steadily put weight on through my 30s and 40s. At age 50, I weighed 205 pounds and 4 of the 5 conditions of Metabolic Syndrome. In retrospect, what was scary was I didn’t consider this a huge health problem. Sure, I wanted to lose weight to look better, but I didn’t think I was unhealthy. I walked daily, rode in several 100-mile bike rides, and rarely got sick.

Then something great happened. I got fired. This gave me a chance to evaluate my lifestyle. While I was looking for a new job, I had more free time and decided to “get in shape”. I knew stress was not good for my health. So, I decided not to let being unemployed “stress me out.” Despite my dwindling bank account, I said to myself, the real tragedy of this situation is not that I might go broke but if I went broke and let it affect my health.

This is called reframing. Anthony Robbins states the quality of your life is based on the questions you ask yourself. When hit with a bad situation he counsels, ask yourself what is good about this situation or what could be good about it.

In the next 6 months I lost 60 pounds and normalized my high blood pressure. But a medical checkup showed my cholesterol levels put me at an increased risk for heart attack. Especially concerning since my father had died of a heart attack at 65.

During the next several years I refined my health regimen. Now 65 myself, I have not only have I kept the weight off, but my health markers are excellent. My Mayo Clinic 10-year heart attack risk score went from 36% at 50 to less than 5%.

I did a lot of walking on my weight loss journey with my trust companion, a feisty but blind Jack Russell Terrier and listened to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks during our walks. One of my favorites was Quantum Memory by 8-time World Memory Champion Dominic O'Brien. I loved practicing his techniques for memory improvement and wanted to expand my knowledge of memory improvement.

I began looking for opportunities to teach memory. I started at several night schools and senior programs and finally wound up teaching a memory improvement course at Immaculata University’s Lifelong Learning Institute.

I immediately found out two things, first my students were more interested in brain health than mnemonic techniques and second my classes were comprised of mostly women. Thus, I began an extensive study of brain health and women’s health.

I soon noticed what is good for brain health is also good for your health. That really shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, the brain, as I mentioned earlier is the most important organ in the body and despite being only about 2% of our weight, at roughly 3 pounds, it uses 20% of the body’s energy.

As a result, I decided to start health coaching and help people regain and maintain optimal health and coined the mnemonic DRESSeD for health success, to highlight 6 areas key to health: Diet, Relaxation (stress management), Exercise, Sleep, Stimulation and Detoxification.

D.R.E.S.S.e.D for Health Success

Diet

To paraphrase author Michael Pollan, humans can thrive on a wide range of diets, but the Western Diet based on industrially produced convenience foods does not appear to be one of them. My role is not to proscribe a particular diet but to help my clients find their own personal best diet, based on their individual metabolism and preferences.

Relaxation [Stress management]

While it is helpful to manage stress through meditation, breathwork, exercise and yoga, it is also important to properly frame stress. Stress is necessary and Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., has shown in her book “The Upside of Stress”, it can even be helpful.

Exercise and Movement

The human body was made to move. Movement helps digestion, reduces stress, helps you sleep better and lowers risk of all chronic diseases including Alzheimer’s. As a Certified Personal Trainer, I can develop a fun and time efficient program to improve health and vitality.

Sleep

We are just beginning to realize how important sleep is to overall health. Proper sleep hygiene can reduce stress and give you more energy. Ben Franklin was right, “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man, healthy, wealthy and wise.”

Social and Mental Stimulation

Humans are social animals, but we no longer need to rely on community for survival. Still, staying active mentally and socially is an important part of mental and physical health.

Detoxification

Our bodies are wonderful at detoxifying but there is a limit and excess toxicity mainly from heavy metals and mold poses a severe threat to even the most health conscious.

An Ancestral Approach

I believe the root of our health problems is our mind and body evolved over millions of years to cope with challenges that are far different from the ones posed by our modern lifestyle.

We cannot go back to a world without electricity, nor would we want to, but we can look to the wisdom of our ancestors, to help mitigate some of the harmful effects of 21^st Century living. As the Roman Poet Virgil said circa 50 B.C., “Your Greatest Wealth is Your Health.”