What is Boomeritis?
Boomeritis
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Midlife Body Flow
BLOGGER: RENEE FISHER
Twice a week, I take a Pilates Reformer class at my gym. The “Reformer” is a big, lightly padded board on wheels, with levers, pulleys, weights, and other components, all employed without the benefit of a user’s manual. It was either invented by Mr Pilates, the same person who invented people like Madonna, who is one of his disciples. Or, it might have been invented by some unnamed person who wanted to “reform” what Mr Pilates invented, since regular Pilates consists of human beings working out on the floor, whereas this gives a person thousands of dollars worth of apparatus to insert between the floor and one’s body. In addition, we are sometimes given a large, hollow, padded box to place either “long ways” or “short ways” on the board. Since, as well all know now, I am still not clear which way is “long ways” or “short ways.” I watch what other people are doing, and copy them. Other equipment includes the “magic ring,” the “jump board” and “the pole.” I choose to take Reformer classes instead of regular Pilates, because when I tell people I do “Reformer Pilates” they have no idea what I am talking about and so are completely impressed. They assume it is some advanced form of Pilates, known only to Victoria Beckham and other anointed individuals. The exact opposite is true. Reformer means no working on the floor, which is much easier. And, because space is limited due to the size of the machines, it also means much smaller classes, affording either individual attention or, on really good days, some kibitzing among participants that can waste some time. The downside to Reformer is that it costs money in addition to my monthly gym membership. Regular Pilates is included in the membership fee. But I have never given even a thought to regular Pilates, so I keep paying. There is a lovely, older woman in my Reformer class. She is in her eighties and brings her portable oxygen equipment with her. I am not making this up. I like having her in class, because she needs extra time to arrange her oxygen whenever we switch position, and this corresponds exactly with the extra time I need to figure out what the instructor is talking about, since I am usually initially facing the exact opposite way that everyone else is. One day last week, the sweet older woman suggested to me that I take a class called “Body Flow,” which is, like regular Pilates, included in gym membership. She takes Body Flow once a week and Reformer once a week. It works perfectly for her. She said Body Flow allows people to work at their own level. This sold me. First off, I like the phrase “Body Flow.” And it has the added advantage of being something else that others are unfamiliar with when I tell them what I do at the gym. I took the Body Flow class a couple days later. There were about twenty women in the room, whose combined weight equaled one large meal. Our equipment consisted of a mat the thickness of a good quality paper towel. I should add that the sweet older woman wasn’t there. As I came into the gym, I had noticed her in the Reformer room, a bad sign. Aside from two grey-haired women who each looked like when they are not at the gym they are hiking the Appalachian Trail, I was old enough to be everyone else’s mother. The instructor started with the following words: “We have a really, really tough workout planned today! Get ready! We will twist our bodies around in all kinds of ways that human bodies are not meant to twist! This will be brutal!” I scanned the room, Apparently, these words were greeted as positive, since everyone around me looked like hyenas just presented with a fresh zebra kill. The instructor proceeded by throwing out names of positions in rapid-fire manner. Most of them involved animals. To me, everything sounded like “The Down Dirty Dog,” except for the one called either “Ape” or “Gorilla,” which involved bending over from a standing position and placing the entire palms of one’s hands under one’s feet. After awhile, I really wasn’t paying much attention. I sort of slumped down on my mat and wondered why an eighty-something year old woman with portable oxygen equipment would do this to me. Isn’t there some kind of rule that when people get to be a certain age they can’t screw around with your life?
Renee Fisher is a Realtor and writer who lives in the Washington, DC area. She is the co-author of two award-winning books about life after 50 www.invisiblenomore.com and is the DC Boomer Humor columnist for examiner.com DC-Boomer-Humor-Examiner.
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Time for a Snack
BLOGGER: RENEE FISHER
The inspiration for this column comes to you compliments of my friend Tracy. Tracy is beautiful, svelte, and has a killer sense of humor. It’s tough not to hate her sometimes. But, I’ll get past that and move on. Tracy is a die-hard Gym Rat. She has a trainer, who is a die-hard I’m-Here-For-You-And-To-Save-The-Planet-From-The-Ravages-Of-Junk Food-And-Anything-Else-Worth-Eating Trainer. She, the Trainer, sends her clients helpful emails that will allow them to give up food entirely so they can fit into cute size 00 workout apparel. I go to the gym daily, but I don’t presently have a trainer, and so I’m not receiving trainer emails. I was curious to see what Tracy’s trainer sent her.
The one she sent me this morning was headed: “Fast Facts From Fitness Matters—Poolside Primer.” There’s some really great alliteration going here. I would have made it perfect by saying: “Fast Facts From Fitness Forum…”(or some other F word that I can’t print here). That way there would be five F words and two P words. Cool, huh.
She follows with “Are you ready to put on a bathing suit?” This is not the way to get my attention, since I have been trying to prepare myself for putting on a bathing suit since 1993. I’m still not ready, and I don’t like to be pushed.
Here is the trainer’s suggestion for weight loss: “In order to lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you expend on any given day.” This is a brilliant suggestion, but flawed: I don’t know how many calories I have expended during the day until the day is over, when it is too late to do anything about it. For example, last week, I had a mini-crisis with my real estate business involving someone not returning a phone call as a deadline rapidly approached. My response, an understandable response I might add, was to eat all of the chocolate we keep at the office for such emergencies. It was not until the day was over that I realized (too late, of course) that I had not run to New Jersey and back during the day, which would have used up most of the calories I had consumed.
The Trainer provides a handy chart, showing a gradual decline from “Very Hungry” (starving/desperate) all the way to “Much Too Full” (stuffed). She advises that people should live somewhere in the middle, in the “desirable range” of “Moderately Hungry” to “Mildly Full.” I have never, to my knowledge, visited this interesting, and desired, middle range. When I get hungry, I go immediately to “Red Alert You Will Perish If You Do Not Eat Immediately Very Hungry.” And, since our culture has conveniently provided me with food on virtually every street corner, I can leap to “Why On Earth Did I Eat That Stupid Thing I Am Much Too Full” in the time it takes me to park my car, run into a Seven-11, get back into my car and start plowing into whatever I purchased.
Following this on the email is the extremely helpful statement: “The really important question to ask yourself before you eat anything is ‘Am I really hungry?’ Tune in to the physical sensations you’re experiencing. Rate your hunger on the Hunger/Fullness Scale. If you aren’t really hungry, what else may be going on? You may be eating in response to emotions or stress.” I have done this many times. But, by the time I have completed this extremely valuable analysis of my entire life as it impacts on my need for food at that particular moment in time, the bag of chocolate covered pretzels or pint of coffee Haagen-Dazs or large package of those yummy little chocolate covered donettes are a mere memory.
The trainer asks, “Ever notice that when you’re really stressed, you tend to crave comfort foods that are high in fat or sugar?” Yes, I have actually noticed that, usually at that same aforementioned point in time when I am staring into the empty ice cream carton or candy wrapper or cookie box.
The trainer then informs us that Serotonin, Cortisol, and Neuropeptide Y are the three hormones that play a role in why we eat. They are sort of the “Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” of the diet and hormone world. I won’t say anything more about these, since they don’t come in a chocolate-covered edible version and so are really boring to talk about.
Come to think of it, I’m bored thinking about any of this. Time for a snack.
Renee Fisher is a Realtor and writer who lives in the Washington, DC area. She is the co-author of two award-winning books about life after 50 www.invisiblenomore.com and is the DC Boomer Humor columnist for examiner.com DC-Boomer-Humor-Examiner.
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The Effects of Stress
BLOGGER: JULIE WEBSTER
STRESS AS A NATURAL OCCURRENCE
Our bodies are designed to handle variations from diet, exercise, stress and weight. It regularly produces assorted hormones for a period of time to take care of these situations. All this is a normal cycle for the body.
STRESS & HORMONES
The challenge is when that stressor continues for a prolonged period of time. This causes the body to overproduce hormones, thus stressing the entire system, breaking down cells, tissues, and organs.
When our body undergoes a stress, the adrenal glands produce adrenaline aka epinephrine. This hormone stimulates the heart muscle, alters the rate of blood flow, and raises basal metabolic rate. This is known as the fight or flight syndrome. Epinephrine also prompts the secretion of glucagon by the pancreas, causing the release of nutrients from storage. The steroid hormone cortisol is also produced. It enhances protein degradation, which raises amino acid levels in the blood so that they become available for conversion of glucose. The two other hormones induced by stress, aldosterone and antidiuretic hormone both help to maintain blood volume.[1]
Epinephrine does not stick around very long in the body however, when stress is prolonged, cortisol does. This hormone will affect the body in many detrimental ways. [2]Excess cortisol will:
Is cortisol related to abdominal obesity?
“Yes. There is a link between high cortisol levels and storage of body fat, particularly “visceral” abdominal body fat (also known as intra-abdominal fat). Visceral fat is stored deeper in the abdominal cavity and around the internal organs, whereas “regular” fat is stored below the skin (known as subcutaneous fat). Visceral fat is particularly unhealthy because it is a risk factor for heart disease and diabetes.”[4]
The challenge with cortisol and weight is this. First, when you are stressed you produce more cortisol which will lead to weight gain. When you are overweight the adrenal glands produce more cortisol so it is a viscous cycle.
ADDITIONAL AFFECTS FROM STRESS
Free radical production
THE NEGATIVE ROLE OF CERTAIN FOODS & DRINKS
Food can play an important role in both exacerbating the problem and relieving the problem.
The following list will cause the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline and cortisol. Over the long term this will eventually exhaust the adrenals:
THE ROLE OF HEALTHY FOODS
The following is a list of vitamins and minerals that will support the body during stressful times and therefore should be included in your daily meals:
WHAT YOUR DIET SHOULD INCLUDE
1. Salmon
2. Eggs
3. Lots of leafy and dark green vegetables
4. Night shade vegetables, if you can handle them
5. Almonds, cashews, filberts and sesame seeds
6. Beans and legumes
7. Citrus fruits and berries
OTHER THINGS TO LOOK AT TO REDUCE THE AFFECTS OF STRESS
EXERCISE
LAUGHTER
MEDITATION
YOGA[9]
BREATHING
The challenge is to not stress yourself out by trying to do all these things at once. Pick one, two, or at most three of the aforementioned benefits and start incorporating them into your life. As these become habit, start adding more.
To your health! Julie
Future articles will include more details about free radicals and paradoxical breathing. Sign up for our monthly newsletter which will keep you up to date when the newest articles come out. (We will never sell your name!)
[1] Understanding Normal and Clinical Nutrition, 7th Edition
[2] Hormone Balance, Scott Isaacs
[3] A reduced sensitivity to insulin in muscle, adipose, and liver cells, Understanding Normal and Clinical Nutrition, 7th Edition
[4] Tom Venuto is a certified personal trainer, natural bodybuilder and author of the #1 best selling diet e-book, “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle
[5] Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford
[6] Per Hormone Balance, by Scott Isaacs
[7] The research is entitled Cortisol and Catecholamine Stress Hormone Decrease Is Associated with the Behavior of Perceptual Anticipation of Mirthful Laughter. It was conducted by Lee Berk with Stanley A. Tan, both of the Oak Crest Health Research Institute, Loma Linda, CA; and Dottie Berk, Loma Linda University Health Care, Loma Linda.
[8] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008193437.htm
[9] Yoga can reduce cortisol levels, a finding which was documented in the October 2004 issue of the journal, Annals of Behavioral Science.
[10] http://www.kundaliniyoga.org/pranayam.html
Julie Webster is a Certified Massage Therapist and Certified Health Counselor. She provides health education online and through seminars. In addition she has written a book titled “Regaining Good Posture” which is available as an ebook, with videos performing each of the stretches, through her website: www.julie-webster.com Julie is also available for presentations on posture and various health topics to corporations. To reach her visit her website or email her at info@julie-webster.com
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Let us look at this in greater depth. The body is designed to work at an optimal level within gravity. Joints, bones and ligaments are stacked in such a way to use the least amount of energy to hold us upright, to be able to stand or sit effortlessly.
Have you ever watched a young child sit? Do you notice they don’t typically lean back in the chair but rather naturally sit quite straight with no effort? What happens as we go through life that we start to rely on that chair back to hold us up? Or that we stand in such a way as to put more pressure on our entire being? These are some of the questions that started to arise as I became professionally involved in health.
To begin, posture plays a large role in how we approach life. If we are hunched over or in pain from poor posture, it shows. We give off signs of lack of self confidence, lack of intelligence, being overly tired, shyness, and more. In addition, if our posture isn’t optimal, the amount of energy it takes to go through daily life increases exponentially. No longer can we rely on the structural body to hold us up but rather our muscles now must be recruited to fight gravity, causing us to expend a great deal of energy. Our entire being is compromised and energy that should be used to enjoy life is used just to hold us up, literally.
So what really happens? To start, we have become a sedentary society. No longer do most of us make our living by working in the fields, walking long distances, carrying packages, and so forth. Instead we spend long periods of time sitting at a desk followed all too often by sitting in front of the computer or television when we get home. Our bodies have become lazy. Some muscles hardly have to work much at all in these situations. Not only do they not have to engage but, allow them to be in a shortened position for a long enough period of time and they will stay shorten indefinitely. Other muscles, at the same time, will be in an elongated position with some working overtime and others just becoming weaker. All this results in our muscles being imbalanced and our joints compromised. Along with these changes, we can experience pain, burning, numbness, weakness, tingling and more. Depending on the situation, nerves can be compressed and lead to syndromes such as Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and Carpal Tunnel. Low back pain, which is all too common, is often a result of poor posture and muscular imbalance. Consequently the typical answer to these complaints, often result in surgery or pain medications. Although this might be necessary under certain circumstances, they should never be the first choice of treatment.
Let’s start with looking at the head and neck. Under normal circumstances, the head should sit right on top of the shoulders, with the correct position being the ear vertically in alignment with the shoulder joint. Unfortunately all too often the head starts to jut forward. Some of the common reasons for this are from slouching, trying to read something that is too small (so you lean forward to read it), lack of lumbar support while sitting or from improper positioning of a computer screen. Our head typically weighs between 12 – 15 pounds; a lot of weight when you think about it and yet if sitting as it should, effortless for the muscles. Take it out of that ideal position however and multiple problems can arise. Dr. Rene Cailliet says that for every inch the head is forward of its’ ideal position adds 30 pounds of pressure onto the posterior neck muscles! In addition, this position can result in:
Let us move on to the shoulders. Typically the upper back has a slight convex curve. When in this position, the vertebrae are stacked properly and the ligaments on either side of the vertebrae maintain this position. As we start to slouch forward, the shoulders tend to round inward. The muscles in the upper back are in an overstretched position and are now having to work hard to keep you from falling over forward. The muscles in the front of the chest are becoming shorter with the potential to compress the nerves that innervate the arms. One of the most common results is known as Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. In addition, the following complaints can arise:
Next is one of the most common areas of complaint – the lower back. A great deal of work has been missed in our country from low back pain and much of it can be avoided. To begin, we will look at the role sitting plays. When sitting for a long period of time, the muscles in the front of the hips, known as the hip flexors, are in a very short position. They are used a great deal during walking so they do not tend to get weak, as the upper back muscles, but they do become very short. This results in changing the normal position of the pelvis and creating what is known as an anterior pelvic tilt. A small degree of anterior pelvic positioning is normal for women whereas men’s pelvis should stay neutral. The issues arise when this position is exaggerated. The pressure tends to be moved posterior to the discs, putting a great deal of pressure on the facet joints. Remember as mentioned earlier, facet joints are loaded with pain receptors.
In addition to sitting, the pelvis can end up in an anterior position due to being overweight, especially when we carry our fat in our bellies. Belly fat puts a great deal of added weight in front of the body. The only way to compensate for this added weight is to shift the positioning of the pelvis into that exaggerated anterior pelvic position, once again causing an increase in low back pain.
Along with general pain complaints from the low back, the following issues can arise:
So what do we do about all this? It would be great if we could move away from sitting for extended periods of time but this is unlikely. Rather we need to work within the parameters of our society. The following is a list of ideas that can have a positive impact on our posture thus decreasing or eliminating the negative results of poor posture:
Movement or regular exercise: By getting the blood to flow throughout the entire body, the muscles are receiving fresh nutrients and eliminating waste products. These waste products in and of themselves can cause pain. Also by moving, we are taking the muscles through a greater range of motion which can be a start to add length and strength to the muscles.
Stretching: Working to lengthen the shortened muscles before strengthening the elongated weaker muscles will aid in realignment of the skeletal system. It is important that specific stretches are given in order to lengthen the appropriate muscles.
Strengthening: Once the shortened muscles are working towards being longer, it is then time to add in exercises to strengthen those muscles on the elongated side of the joint. This is important to allow the body to regain a healthy posture where the joints and ligaments are able to do their job thus decreasing the amount of energy it takes to remain upright in gravity.
Ergonomics: Assessing the position of the person to the height of the desk, the relationship to the chair, the positioning of the computer and so forth is a key. Only focusing on ergonomics will not change the posture by itself but rather help to maintain the healthier posture with the aforementioned suggestions.
Diet: Although not directly involved in posture, it does play a large role in the health of the muscles. Eliminating fast food, sugar, refined foods, soda, excess caffeine and more will enable the muscles to receive the nutrients need for maintaining health. A healthy diet will also decrease constriction of blood flow thus allowing the entire body to process waste products at a healthier rate.
These are just some suggestions to creating a healthier posture. Remember posture is much more than just looking good. By having a body that is fully supported by the appropriate joints and ligaments, we will have more time and energy to enjoy all aspects of life and to live it to its’ fullest. Isn’t it time to take a good look at your body?
Julie Webster is a Certified Massage Therapist and Certified Health Counselor. She provides health education online and through seminars. In addition she has written a book titled “Regaining Good Posture” which is available as an ebook, with videos performing each of the stretches, through her website: www.julie-webster.com Julie is also available for presentations on posture and various health topics to corporations. To reach her visit her website or email her at info@julie-webster.com
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