Category Archives: Vigor

Post #61 – How much sleep do we need for optimal health?

16 Sunday Sep 2018

Posted by in Living to 120, Mental Health, Optimal Health, Optimal Sleep, Uncategorized, Vigor, Vitality, wellness

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In Post #59, I talked about the lifestyle choices that are important to maximizing health and lifespan:
1. Benchmarking Health
2. Nutrition
3. Exercise
4. Maintaining Musco-skelatal Integrity
5. Maintaining Mind-body Connection
6. Enhancing and Maintaining Brain
7. Stress Management
8. Adequate Sleep
9. Social Engagement
10. Purposeful Living
11. Making full-use of all modalities of medical care
12. Make use of Genetics Science

These were of course not in any particular order. For example, Adequate Sleep would rate much higher in priority, probably towards the top. After all, most of us cannot even function if deprived of sleep over even a few days.

I recently read the book, Why We Sleep by Mathew Walker, Ph.D. He is a professor at University of California Berkeley and has dedicated his career to research in sleep. This is a pretty definitive book on sleep and covers the topic from almost all angles.

Why we sleep cover

I have been generally aware that 7 to 9 hours of sleep is considered a must for optimal health. And, since I learned that I do make the effort to catch that much sleep and when I don’t I would make effort to catch up on that sleep during the weekends.

However, reading this book has been seriously eye opener for me. As a result, I am taking sleep as a lifestyle choice for living for optimal health now much more seriously than I used to.

Sleep Myths – Busted

Here are some myths about sleep that the research cited in the book has busted for me.

1. I can live quite well with 6 to 6.5 hours of sleep. Dr. Mathews is very definitive on research that the range of sleep for optimal health for healthy adults is between 7 to 9 hours. Of course, children have different needs for sleep and so do sick people to allow their body to recover.

He also makes distinction between “opportunity to sleep”, e.g., how long I kept my head on the pillow, and actual sleep. So, if I was “in bed” for 7 hours, it took me half an hour to fall sleep, I got up twice to go to the bathroom and each time it took me half hour to fall back to sleep, then I slept for 5.5 hour. There is some research that more than 9 hour sleep is not optimal, but that research is still controversial.

One test for adequate sleep is that if during the day you close your eyes and see yourself falling asleep, then you are not getting enough sleep.

2. Early morning sleep is more important that the late-night sleep. There are two broad categories of sleep: Rapid Eye Movement or REM happens when we are in deep dream state. In early sleep cycles, which generally happen before and shortly after mid night, most of the sleep is not REM or NREM. In early morning hours, sleep is mostly REM. Each REM and NREM have their very distinct function for brain and our physiology and we need both. The following figure from scielo.br illustrates how amount of REM sleep increases as the sleep progresses and NREM shown here as Stages 1 through 4 decreases.

Sleep Cycle 2

In NREM sleep, for example, our brain takes information stored in short-term memory and shuffles it over to the long-term memory regions of the brain. In REM sleep then our brain builds interconnection with pre-existing long-term elements. If we miss NREM sleep, short-term memory buffers get over-written. If we miss REM sleep, we don’t get a chance to develop ways to access and use the information on the long term.

3. If I don’t sleep enough during the week day, I can always catch up during the weekend. From the REM and NREM sleep discussion above, you can probably quickly extrapolate that if we short change sleep, certain functions are not optimal on a daily basis. Information once lost, probably is lost forever – unless of course you relearn it.

Sleep is driven by two cycles: Circadian clock and a hormone Adenosine, see the picture below (from hackyourgut.com). Circadian clock drives our urge to awake while adenosine drives our urge to sleep.  Adenosine only goes up after we wake up until we clear it again during sleep. More adenosine in our body the more is our urge to fall asleep.  Our body’s energy level changes with change in circadian rhythm. When energy is increasing, we have the urge to wake up.

Two-process-model-sleep-circadian-homestatic-sleep-drive

When we skip sleep, it feels that we have energy to keep going based on our circadian clock. But we may still have the urge to sleep because adenosine is still high. So, when we sleep extra during the weekend, we are clearing up any residual adenosine which clears the urge to sleep. So, we feel like we have caught up on sleep. But remember, we did not really catch up on the mental benefits of sleep for memory capture and reorganization. And, that is the missed opportunity, when we try to catch up on sleep during the weekends.

4. Alcohol and sleeping pills can make you sleep better. Alcohol makes you sleepy, so clearly it must make you sleep better. Right. Wrong. Both alcohol and sleeping pills have similar effect on the brain. They are sedatives and make you drowsy by shutting down you neo-cortex, i.e., thinking brain, activities. When monitored, your brain does not have the same physiology as if you were sleeping in either REM or NREM sleep. Hence, you find that people who take sleeping pills or night caps as sleep aids, are often groggy, lacking motor skills, lethargic, and forgetful during the next day.

5. If I am short of sleep, I will know so I can correct it. And, that is the same thing someone who is drunk would say, ”I am not drunk. I don’t feel drunk.” We just discussed above the effect of alcohol on the thinking brain, which is also the decision-making brain. Lack of sleep has exactly the same effect as being drunk. And, that is one of the reason, lack of sleep leads to car accidents.

In fact, did you know, lack of sleep causes more accidents than drunk driving. If you have slept only 4 hours or less the previous 24 hours, your chance of car crash increase by a factor of 10.

And, if you are short of sleep, it is the micro sleeps that make driving fatal. if you are sleep deprived, brain just shuts down for a second or two. And, a second or two while going at 60 miles an hour is sufficient to cause serious crashes.

6. Coffee, slapping myself, or loud music can keep me going: Turns out that research shows none of these are effective at preventing micro sleeps. The only thing that is found effective is, you pull over, stop and take a nap.

7. Caffeine is not a problem, if don’t ingest caffeinated drinks at dinner time. Half-life of caffeine is 8 hours. So, it can take up to 16 hours to purge effect of just a cup of coffee from the body. So, any caffeinated drink after lunch can probably disrupt the sleep and should be avoided to obtain highest quality of sleep.

8. Melatonin will help me sleep better. Actually this is yes and no depends upon the nuance. Melatonin does not improve the quality of sleep. It does, however, tell your brain and body when it is time to go to sleep and to start to get ready. Generally, it is released as the darkness sets in.

In our modern worlds, where darkness hardly sets in or if our body clock is messed up due to jetlag from travel, it may be helpful to have melatonin supplement to tell the body that it is time for bed. Dimming lights and shutting down screens (TV, smart phones iPads, laptops) as the bed time appraoches is an excellent way of getting your body to start producing its own melatonin.

If you do take mealtonin supplements, just be warned that melatonin pills available over the counter have great variability in the melatonin content when you compare actual vs. printed on the label. In one test, FDA found -89% to +473% variability. I recently learned that a great source of melatonin is raw pistachio. Just a few kernels of pistachio release enough melatonin that is in most pills. Check out this link from NutritionFacts.Org.

Sleep Hygiene – Best Method to Improve Quality of Sleep

Instead of taking any sleeping pills, Dr. Walker recommends the same sleep protocol that NIH recommend, see NIH published Your Guide to Healthy Sleep,
1. Stick to a sleep schedule.
2. Exercise is great, but not too late in the day.
3. Avoid caffeine and nicotine.
4. Avoid alcoholic drinks before bed.
5. Avoid large meals and beverages late at night.
6. If possible, avoid medicines that delay or disrupt your sleep.
7. Don’t take naps after 3 p.m
8. Relax before bed.
9. Take a hot bath before bed.
10. Have a good sleeping environment.
11. Have the right sunlight exposure.
12. Don’t lie in bed awake.
13. See a doctor if you continue to have trouble sleeping

Summary
Sleep is way at the top of lifestyle choices for optimal health. Statistics show again and again that most of us do not get enough sleep.

Dr. Mathew Walker’s book Why We Sleep is a great book if you want to learn about latest on every aspect of sleep. NIH published Your Guide to Healthy Sleep is also a great resource that summarizes healthful practices.

In this post, I covered several myths on sleep
1. I can live quite well with 6 to 6.5 hours of sleep
2. Early morning sleep is more important that the late-night sleep
3. If I don’t sleep enough during the week day, I can always catch up on the weekend
4. Alcohol and sleeping pills can make you sleep better
5. If I am short of sleep, I will know so I can correct it
6. Coffee, slapping myself, or loud music can keep me going
7. Caffeine is not a problem, if don’t ingest caffeinated drinks at dinner time
8. Melatonin will help me sleep better

If you want to improve the quality of your sleep, check out the 13 step Sleep Hygiene protocols that I summarized above. Dr. Walker and NIH recommend this method of improving your sleep quality and is proven to work better than sleeping pills.

NIH published Your Guide to Healthy Sleep and Dr. Walker’s book have more details on this method of improving sleep quality.

What do you think?

Have you learnt something about sleep, that you can share?

I would love to hear from you and learn from you.

Please click on Comment to leave your comments or question so others can benefit from your input.

Post #55 – Gravity-Based Life Style for Optimal Health

30 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by in Lean Mass, Living to 120, Optimal Exercise, Optimal Health, Uncategorized, Vigor, Vitality, Yoga

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On Father’s Day this year, my wife gave me an Apple Watch as a gift. And, as you can probably guess, I went straight to the fitness apps.

Apple watch allows you to continuously measure heart rate, daily steps walked, and the distance walked.  You can also set it to remind you to stand up, as I often as you tell it to and it keeps track of how many times you actually did stand up. And, it gives you at-a-boys for hitting and moving toward your goals. So, I starting using all these features right away.

But soon after I was wondering: What does the research say about the benefits of daily activities such as standing, walking etc.? Is their science behind this or is it just a gimmick?

Sitting Kills, Moving Heals

My first step was to carefully read the book we had already in the house: Sitting Kills, Moving Heals by Joan Vernikos, Ph.D., former Director of NASA’s Life Sciences Division.  She spent her whole life working at NASA studying the ill effects on astronauts of space travel and living in space in zero gravity. More importantly, she studied how to minimize these ill effects and how to rehabilitate astronauts when they return to earth’s gravity.

Sitting Kills

And, even more importantly, Vernikos and other scientists also made the key connection that sitting on earth is the same as living in zero gravity. Having made that connection, they found that much of the research for space living becomes relevant to those of us who are earth bound.

According to Vernikos, when astronauts spend time in space, here are the kinds of health issues they develop:

  • Blood volume reduced
  • Body weight and mass decreases
  • Increased calcium excretion
  • Increased risk of kidney stones
  • Heart shrinks – cardiac output decreased
  • Heart muscle wall becomes thinner
  • Red blood cells reduced.
  • Stamina/aerobic capacity reduced
  • Lowered growth hormone response to exercise
  • Muscle atrophy; loss of muscle mass
  • Muscle strength reduced; size of fiber decreased
  • Fat moves in to replace muscle mass
  • Muscle sensitivity to insulin reduced
  • Muscle less able to take up sugar
  • Sense of taste and hearing dulled
  • Biological rhythm disturbed
  • Calcium lost from bone
  • Bone mass and density decreased
  • Increased risk of bladder infection
  • Delayed wound healing
  • Testosterone reduced

The list sounds pretty awful, doesn’t it?  After reading this list, you wonder why would anyone want to go live in space.

But these are the same effects that you see as people age on earth.

And, here is the kicker: Space research shows that these conditions induced through Gravity Deprivation Syndrome (GDS) are reversible once you get astronauts re-introduced to gravity.  It often takes almost one day of re-conditioning with gravity for each day spent in space to fully recover.

What about earth-bound people like you and I? We experience GDS is through sedentary life style. Through sitting and bed rest, we experience zero gravity like condition.

GDS starts as early as age 20.   Using bone density loss as a measure of GDS, earth-bound people experience a bone loss at the rate of about 10% per decade. No wonder, by 70’s and 80’s most people have serious osteoporosis conditions with frail bones.

These sedantary lifestyle induced GDS is the reason we are now hearing catch phrases like: Sitting Kills; Sitting is the new Smoking, etc.

How to Overcome Gravity Deprivation Syndrome (GDS)

Through studies and experimentation, researchers have found that to counter the effects of GDS, standing up often is what matters, not how long you remain standing.

Every time you stand up, the body initiates a shift in fluids, volume, hormones and causes muscle contraction to occur, and almost every nerve in the body is stimulated. If you stand up 16 times a day for two minutes, the body would read that as 16 stimuli, whereas if you stood once and remained standing for 32 minutes, it would see that as one stimulus.

Gym Workouts are No Substitute

Another surprising result: Gym workouts of 30 to 60 minute even daily may not be total replacement for activities required to counter GDS. To counter GDS, one needs to exercise stabilizer muscles that include tendons, ligaments, and other connective tissues. Most folks focus on mobilizer muscles that include thighs, biceps, hamstrings, triceps, chest muscles, abs etc.

James Levine an exercise physiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, coined the term Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT). NEAT is defined as the small, brief, yet frequent muscular movements one makes throughout the day, of which changing position is the most effective. Here are some examples of NEAT movements, other than standing up:

  • Bending over to pick up something
  • Squatting
  • Stretching upward to take something off a shelf
  • Getting dressed and undressed
  • Playing a musical instrument
  • Stirring a pot
  • Crossing and uncrossing your legs
  • Waving one’s hands while talking
  • Fidgeting

So, more such activities we do, the more effects of GDS we overcome, even though we do not break a sweat.

Bottom Line

 Extrapolating extensive research conducted for space travels, shows that Gravity Deprivation Syndrome (GDS) has serious consequences to our health.  These symptoms of detrimental health due to GDS are often associated with aging, but actually are due to decreased activity as people grow old. Achieving and maintaining optimal health requires strategies to maximize activities to counter the effects of GDS.

The following is a list of some very effective actions to counter GDS:

  • Stand up sit Down
  • Stand tall
  • Stretch at your desk
  • Walk tall
  • Take the stairs instead of elevator
  • Practice balancing when you put on and take off your pants, shoes and socks
  • Use a broom
  • Play on swings; use rocking chairs
  • Dance
  • Play catch; throw Frisbee
  • Do yoga

Remember that exercise is not for gym any more.  So, as often as possible, inconvenience yourself by:

  • Parking far away from the destination,
  • Taking stairs instead of elevators,
  • Stepping up on escalators,
  • Walking instead of taking people movers,
  • Getting up frequently to reach for things, and
  • Carrying your brief case instead of rolling.

All these action help in keeping your stabilizer muscles in top shape for optimal health.

What are your thoughts on this subject?

Would love to hear from you and learn from you.

Please click on Comment to leave your comments or question so others can benefit from your input.

Post #53 – How to Optimize Your Immune System? –  Part III  – with Exercise

30 Monday May 2016

Posted by in Aging, Living to 120, Optimal Exercise, Optimal Health, Puposely Living, Vigor, Vitality, wellness, Yoga

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In Post #51, I discussed some basic terminology of the immune systems, how immune system works, and what kinds of issues happen when it does not work.

Things that are in our control to enhance our immunity and also so the immune system does not go haywire are the ones that you have heard about gazillions of time by now and are probably tired of hearing about: Nutrition, Exercise and Lifestyle.

In Post #52, we discussed how to boost your immune system with nutrition.   In this post, let’s focus on how and what type of Exercise can boost the immune system.

Impact of exercise on Immune systems

Quite a bit of research is available on how exercise impacts the immune system, although most of it is about impact of exercise on colds and flu. Based on the available research, here are some theories why exercise helps improve the immunity:

  • Physical activity may help flush bacteria out of the lungs and airways. This may reduce your chance of getting a cold, flu, or other airborne illness.
  • Exercise causes changes in antibodies and white blood cells (the body’s immune system cells that fight disease). These antibodies or white blood cells circulate more rapidly, so they could detect illnesses earlier than they might have before.
  • The brief rise in body temperature during and right after exercise may prevent bacteria from growing. This temperature rise may help the body fight infection more effectively. (This is similar to what happens when you have a fever.)
  • Exercise slows down the release of stress-related hormones. Some stress increases the chance of illness. Lower stress hormones may protect against illness.

Getting a little deeper into the subject, here are some findings from some specific studies:

  1. Exercise can provoke moderate acute elevations in IL-6 exerting anti-inflammatory effects
  2. Exercise increases numbers of Neutrophils, T and B lymphocytes, and NK cells – all key components of the immune system
  3. Exercise improves antigen specific T cell function for better protection from infectious agents and greater immunosurveillance
  4. Exercise enhances a variety of macrophage biology and capacities
  5. Exercise improves gut microbiota,  i.e., the bacteria collection in the gut

But how much exercise should you do?

We have all heard that exercise is good for you.  And, as this blog post is emphasizing, among other things, exercise also enhances the immune system. But how much exercise?

In this study, the researchers examined three groups of people: elite athletes, recreational athletes, and sedentary controls. Their results were kind of interesting:

  • The elite athletes had the most upper respiratory issues (66% got sick).
  • The couch potatoes were next (45% got sick).
  • The recreational athletes were the healthiest (22% got sick).

All kinds of other research has found the same thing, so exercise scientists tend to use a J-shaped curve to model the immune effects of exercise. It looks like this:

immunity vs exercise

So one thing is clear, moderate exercise is significantly better for you than no exercise at all. If you are sedentary, it does not seem to take much to get the benefits of improved immune system. For example, daily walking for one hour at a 60 to 65% maximum heart rate (computed as 220-your age) gets you near the optimal range in the above chart.

From the chart, it is clear that there is a point where the benefit of training stops and the negative effect of over-training on the immune system sets in. This literature review article, goes into much more specifics on the kind of exercise that produces the immune-suppressant, i.e., harmful, response:

  • Relatively long workouts (1.5 hours or more), especially without refueling during the workout.
  • A reasonably high intensity, but not excessively difficult (since you have to be able to keep it up for a while).
  • An inadequate recovery period between workouts.

Basically, the kind of grueling training elite athletes often go through preparing for a competition, such as running a marathon.

This article puts it slightly differently:

“No activity is worse than some, while too much may be worse than none at all. The ideal lies somewhere in between – though not necessarily in the middle, but rather smack dab in the “just enough” section. Can “just enough” be quantified? Perhaps it could be quantified using a battery of round-the-clock tests and measurements of anabolic and catabolic hormones, various serum concentrations, lactate build-up, cortisol, testosterone ratios, etc., but that would be expensive, unwieldy, and completely individualized. … If you want to avoid over-training, there are some grand, overarching principles to follow, but you’ll also want to pay attention to certain personal, entirely subjective cues.

That’s what my trainer and yoga teachers call “listening to your body”. There are days, when I am feeling physically ragged since I may not have slept well, or I may be catching a virus, or am feeling physically exhausted or whatever.   In such situations, I need to carefully “listen to my body” and either take it easier than usual or just totally skip the session.

Bottom Line

To optimize immune systems, exercise plays a critical role. It only takes a moderate amount of exercise to get the optimal benefit of exercise for improving immune system. For example any of these activities or some combination of these done daily would optimize the immune systems:

  1. walking for 1 hour at a pace of 60-65% of maximum heart rate of approximately 220 minus your age,
  2. An hour long yoga routine,
  3. A strength training session with body weight or light weights could do the trick

On the other hand, extended periods of over-training can compromise and may lead to sub-optimal immune system. It is more difficult to define over-training with objective measures and may depend upon many individual factors.  It is best to listen to your body and develop a subjective feel for what level of exercise may be “just right” for you for optimal immune system.

 

What are your thoughts on this subject?

Would love to hear from you and learn from you.

Please click on Comment to leave your comments or question so others can benefit from your input.

 

Post #43 – What is the role of Testosterone Replacement Therapy for Optimal Health?

07 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by in Aging, Lean Mass, Optimal Health, Percent Body Fat, Supplements, Vigor, Vitality

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“Are you tired? Have you lost your edge, you sense of vitality, your ‘mojo’? Does sex feel like work, or maybe it does not work out any more? Is your mood blah? Have you put on a gut even though you don’t seem to be eating any more than your ever did? May be it is your age. Or maybe just maybe, you have a medical condition called low testosterone, or, as I prefer to call it low T.”

So starts the book Testosterone for Life, by Abraham Morgentaler, M.D., Associate Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School.

Testosterone for Life

In my previous blogs, I mentioned how early last year, for the first time in my life, I did a comprehensive blood tests. I got these tests done through Life Extension Foundation. These test included all basic hormones.

Only two items showed up not within the “Reference Ranges”: A1c and Free Testosterone. With respect to the LabCorp’s reference rages, my Hemoglobin A1c value of 5.8 was too high (reference range 4.8 to 5.6), even though my fasting Glucose was 91, well within the reference range.

On the other hand, my Free Testosterone value of 5.5 was too low (Reference Range 7.2 to 24.0), while Total Testosterone, DHEA-Sulfate and Estradiol where all within the reference rage.

Now I was quite familiar with A1c, even though I expected it to be normal since my fasting glucose has always been stable around 90 during all my wellness tests.

But Testosterone I did not know anything about. So, I hit the books. The above referenced book by Dr. Morgentaler was one of the first authoritative books I read on the subject. Male Hormone Restoration is another good source. There are also many papers on this subject on NIH Pubmed, for example: The benefits and risks of testosterone replacement therapy: a review.

One of the guidance that Dr. Morgentaler and others practitioners offer is that not all low Testosterone (or Low-T) cases need to be treated. Physicians must examine low-T blood test measurements and correlate with the clinical symptoms. List of symptoms looks the same as at the top of this post for this condition called Hypogonadism:

  • Are you tired?
  • Have you lost your edge, you sense of vitality, your ‘mojo’?
  • Do you have no or low libido (desire for sex)?
  • Do you have erectile dysfunction?
  • Is your mood blah?
  • Have you put on a gut even though you don’t seem to be eating any more than your ever did?
  • Do you have difficulty building muscle mass, bone mass or gaining strength even with workouts and right nutrition?

So per recommendation of practitioners, if some combination of above symptoms exists along with low-T, boosting testosterone may be in order.

I could answer yes to several of the questions above. I had also noticed that fat loss and muscle gain had also plateaued in spite of my continued regime of workouts and nutrition. In fact, in the book, The Life Plan, Jeffry S. Life, M.D., describes how at one point in life low-T became an impediment to maintaining his body composition.

The life plan

I immediately researched and added some supplements to my regime: Miraforte from Life Extension and Male Rejuvenator from Xtend-life. Over the following six months I noticed my Free Testosterone improve as much as 70%. However, my A1c even to increase.

Concerned with trend of my A1c, about six months ago, I started working with Benjamin Gonzalez, M.D. who specializes in functional medicine and hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

After reviewing my tests, conditions and efforts, Dr. Gonzalez started prescribing Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT).  In fact, he like many researchers, believes that optimal testosterone levels should be on the high end of the range, close to what men in their 20s will have. This can be a source of slowing down or reversing many age related issues.

The only known downside of TRT is that it is that the supplementation is not recommended if you have enlarged prostates – although that risk is still not proven in the research. 

The treatment involved once a day regime of DHEA supplements as pills and bio-identical testosterone applied as topical cream on wrists. It took about six weeks, before the impact of TRT became apparent. I started noticing that:

  • My daily energy level and “mojo” is up
  • Sexual performance is much better
  • Libido is much improved
  • My fat loss and muscle gain has resumed.

Just last week, I did a set of follow up tests and review with Dr. G. – about six months since starting TRT and coincidental with my 61st birthday. Free Testosterone, DHEA-Sulfate and Estradiol levels are now actually higher than the high end of respective reference ranges.   As a result, Dr. G. has advised, backing down somewhat the daily amount of testosterone.

Fortunately, my wife has also chosen to undergo HRT at the same time I did to balance and optimize her own hormones.  She is also experiencing very positive results.  So, we are well matched in energy and libido.  How lucky for me!

Having gone further up, my hemoglobin A1c is back down to 5.8, but I don’t have enough data points to see if the improvement in A1c is correlated to testosterone levels. So, getting my A1c down is still an active chase for me.

In the past couple of months, I have been talking to my friends and family, especially those over 50 to get their Testosterone levels checked and pursue treatments the levels are low and they have symptoms of hypogonadism.

To bring this issue to light, many researcher have been popularizing the term Andropause, which is like menopause for women.  However, for most men, the decline of testosterone is very gradual starting in their 30s and is not a sudden event as for most women.

So, how about you? Have you had any experience with hormone replacement?

What was your experience?

I would love to hear, so I can and others learn from your knowledge and experience.

Post #30 – How much and what type of exercise do you need for optimal health?

15 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by in Bikram Yoga, Living to 120, Optimal Exercise, Vigor, Vitality, wellness, Yoga

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We have all heard exercise is important for good health.

But how much exercise and what kind of exercise, do we need for optimal health? As soon as you ask that question, the answer is not that clear anymore.

Here are some of the answers you might get if you ask around that question:

“Any exercise is better than none”

“At least three days a week, thirty minutes each day”

“More is not necessarily better”

“Start slow and then keep increasing the intensity and time”

“Three days of aerobics and three days strength training”

Most of these answers seem either arbitrary or quite useless, if you are in pursuit of  optimal health. Most of the people you ask either don’t know the answer or assume that you may not be able to handle the real answer or might get discouraged if you knew the real answer.

Just like the way I posed on question on nutrition, let me restate the question, “If there were no excuses, what should be the optimal amount and type of exercises for optimal health?”

No excuses: I am too fat, I am too slow, I don’t have enough time, I am not in shape, my — hurts, I don’t feel well enough, I am too young, I am too old… None of such excuses allowed.

There are so many options available for exercising:

  1. Aerobic Exercises – Walking, Jogging, Running, Cycling, Swimming, Hiking, Rowing, Stair Stepping, jumping rope, and so on.
  2. Cardio Exercises – Generally same as aerobic, done a little more intensely.
  3. Resistance or Strength Training – Working with free weights, body-weight exercises, working with nautilus machines, working with Kettlebells
  4. Cross-fit – Aerobic, cardio, strength training are all combined in the same sessions
  5. Balancing Exercises – Using BOSU balance trainer, medicine ball or simply using body alone
  6. Yoga/Pilates – there are many different types of yoga ranging from simple and easy postures to intense yoga practices like Vinyasa, Iyengar or Bikram yoga
  7. Stretching Exercises – to build and retain flexibility
  8. Musco-skeletal alignment Exercises – For example Egoscue eCises
  9. Breathing Exercise or Pranayama – help cleanse the body and build aerobic capacity.
  10. Endurance Training – Running longer distances for building endurance
  11. Interval Training – alternating between high and low intensity to increase capacity
  12. Rebounding – jumping on trampoline
  13. Exercise to improve reaction times – those involve catching
  14. Myofascial exercises – Rolling using foam rollers for myofascial alignment

Lots of choices. So, how do we sort through all this stuff?

It is a good question, Is n’ it?

In the process of writing this blog, I thought, as usual, I would find some additional information and also sort out information I have in my head to-date and share that knowledge.

Well, I got stuck right here while writing this blog.

So I took a break and finished reading the book, I recently bought: “Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights? Fitness Myths, Training Truths and Other Surprising Discoveries from the Science of Exercise”, by Alex Hutchison, Ph.D.

Picture 2

The book offers answers to numerous frequently asked questions regarding exercise citing the latest in scientific research in the field of Sports Medicine. And, of course, that includes, the very poignant question on the book cover.

If you want to get to the punchline from the book, here is an excerpt from the last chapter where Hutchison offers the following as a summary:

“..Knowing is half the battle. The other half is the real challenge – putting the knowledge into practice. To that end, I hope you’ll take the following three messages from this book:

  1. Do Something rather than nothing: …if there’s one overriding theme in the research presented here, it’s that any exercise, in almost any amount, brings significant and immediate health benefits. Start doing it, and worry about getting it right later.
  2. Figure out your goals and monitor your progress: …Think carefully about what you hope to achieve in six months, a year, five years – bearing in mind the aphorism that most people overestimate what they can achieve in the short term and underestimate what they can achieve over the long term. Choose a program that will move you toward those goals and monitor your progress.. If you don’t start to see progress after 6 to 12 months, consider whether your program is appropriate for you goals.
  3. Try something new. Whenever researchers line up two or more exercise techniques against each other, the conclusion is almost never “A is better than B” or “A and B are the same”. Instead, it’s, “A has these strengths and weaknesses, while B has these strengths and weaknesses” Moreover, all programs suffer from diminishing returns after a few years… Trying something new every now and then will force your body to adapt in new ways, keep you mentally fresh.”

Well, this is not quite the answer I was searching for. But it seems to be the reality out there.

It is also a good working strategy. And, is pretty close to the one I have personally been following.

What do you think?

What are your thoughts on this topic?

I would love to hear from you.

 

Post #18 – How to measure wellness or vitality?

21 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by in Optimal Health, Uncategorized, Vigor, Vitality, wellness

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“So, how are you feeling?” my trainer always asks me before we start any work out session.

“How are you?” We ask each other all the time.

Checking-in at Vistage, a CEO group that I belong to, we always rate our health and personal state from scale of 1 to 10 and then describe to the group what is happening in our lives for us to rate it that way

“So, how does one define health or wellness” is a question that frequently comes up when I get into such conversation with people.

Is it lack of aches or pains, becoming free of medicines, being not flagged for any biomarkers in the results of our blood work by being within the range, not huffing and puffing while going up the stairs at the office or home? Or, is it being in some higher state of vitality?

Some people are satisfied with answers like, “Okay”, “Pretty Good”, “Great”, or “Stressed”.

But that is not very satisfying, if you are like me and believe in the old adage, “You get what you measure”.

My personal goal is to physically and emotionally live in a state of 9 or 10 at least 90% of the time, 10 being the most desirable state.

So, is there a quick and easy way to quantify such subjective measures?

I will talk about two different methods.

The first is an observational evaluation based on a 9-Point Clinical Frailty Scale developed by the Canadian Study of Health and Aging. This scale, shown below, is actually used in geriatric evaluations and research in Canada. (In this scale 1 is most healthy and 9 is least healthy). I find the descriptions of various levels quite telling and fairly precise.

Clinical Frailty Scale

The second one is my favorite. I came across this method many years ago, when I was evaluating the impact of some super green algae based supplement. Along with the supplement, the company sent me a journal to daily record my physical and emotional state. And, then to see for myself, if the supplement did any good.

Here I have changed some of the labels slightly and recalibrated the scale to go from 10 to 1.

Health Scale

So, for me personally, if I want to check in with myself and see where I am, this is the scale I like to use.

If I am not at 9 or above, then I can quickly analyze the root cause, the solutions and then take action to get back to 9 or above.

This is also very useful to assess the impact of any lifestyle changes, exercise, yoga, dietary changes, supplements, etc., to track physical and emotional health over a certain period.

What about you, do you think it is a useful exercise to measure or calibrate where you are physically and emotionally and track it?

How do you measure where you are physically and emotionally?

I would love to hear from you.

Post #15 – Is taking multivitamin and supplements helpful, harmless or harmful?

08 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Aging, Optimal Health, Vigor, Vitality

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So, my son Dan visited us over the last weekend. He is 22, generally eats well, is in great health and has no health issues whatsoever. As he watched me taking my multivitamins and a handful of supplements he asked, “What is all this stuff you are taking Dad? Should I be taking any of this stuff for optimal health?”

So, here is what I told Dan.

Through all my reading and learning, I have come across all three points of view on multivitamins:

  1. Unless you have deficiency in some vitamin or mineral, you don’t really need to take daily vitamins and mineral supplements. If you do, they just get secreted out of the body in urine. So, by taking multivitamin as supplements, all you get is expensive urine.
  2. You have to be careful very careful with the supplements. They can actually cause harm to your body. For example, have you not heard about the study about taking too much antioxidants is harmful?
  3. To get all vitamins and minerals, you really need to eat all the various foods during the week. Besides, many of our fruits and vegetables are depleted of nutrition due to the present day methods of farming. Moreover, there are many studies that demonstrate effectiveness of the many supplements in Optimal Daily Allowance, which can be significantly more than the minimum Required Daily Allowance (RDA). So, not only one should take multivitamins every day, but make sure to take based on optimal daily allowance.

I have come to subscribe to number 3, i.e., for optimal health we must take daily optimal quantity of multivitamins and minerals.

While there is no shortage of material out there discussing this topic, I would briefly share here some information and sources that have influenced my thinking.

Kimberly and I attended a presentation by Chris D’Adamo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Director of Research at Center of Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, in Baltimore, MD. I found his presentation, D’ADAMO – Supplementing Your Dietary Supplement IQ – 2013 to be very objective and informative. He discussed each vitamin and mineral, their impact on health, the required and optimal intake and sources from which we get those. And, culturally, do we get sufficient quantity or not. Bottom line: Consider taking the following: Multivitamin, Vitamin D, Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Probiotics. Add other supplements for specific issues as needed.

Pretty much the same conclusion is described in “Blood Sugar Solution”, by Dr. Mark Hyman, “The Life Plan: How Any Man Can Achieve Lasting Health, Great Sex, and a Stronger, Leaner Body”, by Jeffry S. Life M.D. Ph.D., and in The Joe Dillon Difference, by Joe Dillon.

The next question is which brand. Should I just go to Safeway, Giant, Cosco and pick the cheapest multivitamin? Is there difference between any of these brands?

Before you pick a brand, I advised Dan, you need to do some research, since there are no guidelines or standards or compliance audits for supplements.

Multivitaminguide compares and ranks multivitamin brands. ConsumerLabs also tests supplements and assigns Approved or Not Approved designations. These websites claim they have tested brands for composition, bioavailability, safety and potency.

From the Multivitaminguide check out the top five. Some of them have extensive information on what is in the capsules and why. For example, two of the top five brand websites, Xtend-life and LifeExtension, describe in detail not only the different ingredients, but also cite research studies from where they derive the reasons for including a particular ingredient as well as the quantity of the ingredient.

National Institute of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements is also a great place to get educated on this subject.

You will also notice that in addition to the basic 26 vitamins and mineral, some multivitamins on the list (including the ones from Xtend-life and LifeExtension) have other ingredients, e.g., green tea extract, Lycopene (from tomatoes, alfalfa extract etc. So, that becomes another consideration in selecting a multivitamin. Do you want to add these other ingredient, “everyone” is talking about being important for wellness, curcumin, ginger, turmeric, resveratrol (from Red wine) and so many others.

Given all this information, what would I recommend? Just like Dr. D’Admo recommends: a good multivitamin, omega-3’s, vitamin D and probiotics as a baseline. Then add specific supplements that you may need due to specific health condition.

These days, I am taking the following:

  1. Xtend-life Men’s Total Balance Premium. Comes in 7 capsule a day
  2. Xtend-life Omega 3 / QH Ultra. 4 capsules a day.
  3. Nature’s Bounty 1200 mg Flaxseed Oil Softgels. 2 capsules a day
  4. Vitamin D3 2000 mg. One capsule a day
  5. Raw Probiotics – Ultimate Care. One capsule a day. Just today ordered for the first time.
  6. Nature’s Plus – Extended Release 600mg Red Yeast Rice. 2 capsules a day for managing my cholesterol.
  7. Now Foods Calcium Citrate Plus Caps 600mg, 2 a day for bone health.
  8. Cosamin ASU Active People Capsule. 2 a day for joint health
  9. Male Rejuvinator. 3 capsules a day for Prostate Health
  10. Life Extension Super MiraForte with Standardized Lignans. 4 capsules a days. Added recently to restore Testosterone level – indicated as low by blood work. Too early to say if it works.
  11. Miracle Phytoceramides. One capsule a day. Another experiment for healthy moist skin and wrinkle prevention.

So, based on my experience, I advised Dan to read up some of the related literature and start with the following:

  1. Xtend-life Multi-Xtra. $18.95 + 4.49 shipping from Amazon or Xtend-life.com. 2 capsule a day.
  2. Xtend-life Omega 3 / DHA Fish Oil. $17.95 + 4.49 shipping from Amazon or Xtend-life.com. 2 capsules a day.
  3. Nature’s Bounty 1200 mg Flaxseed Oil Softgels. $8.95 from Amazon. 1 capsules a day
  4. Nature’s Bounty Vitamin D3 2000 mg $11.52 from Amazon for 240 capsules. One capsule a day

You should take it for three months and see how you feel. Then may be stop taking it for a week or two and see how you feel. Based on that comparison you should be able to see for yourself if it is worthwhile for you to keep taking these.

Dan told me that this was a good topic for my future blog posts. So, here it is Dan and feel free to share it with others.

What is your experience with multivitamins and supplements?

Do you have your favorite brands or supplements that have had major impact on your physical and mental health?

Post #14 – Want to know how to quickly revitalize yourself?

01 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Reversing Chronic Diseases, Vigor, Vitality

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We have all heard – sitting all day is one of the worst things we can do. Yet, that is exactly what most of us do, and do a lot of it, whether at the office or at home, or traveling. Sitting for long periods, we lose vitality, our muscles weaken, our joints lose flexibility and range of motion, lymph fluid stays stagnant, posture gets deformed, blood circulation is diminished, our eyes, neck and shoulders feel strained, and host of other issues can start creeping up.

So, I started thinking of developing a quick routine that could revitalize my body, can be done in the office, home or anywhere, e.g., in an airplane or at a rest stop on the highway. Based on what I have learned from the various coaches and masters over the years and have been practicing in parts and pieces, I put together a simple, yet complete routine. I started asking everyone at our office at A&T Systems to do it in the afternoon everyday. We have had a very positive feedback on this program.

This is how we do it at our office.

Three minutes before the stretch time, on our paging system, receptionist invites everyone to join the stretch. Those who are able to, get together in a conference room at 3:15pm and then someone from the group leads the stretch. Initially, for a few weeks, I led the stretch. Then, I wrote the routine down and now with the detailed instructions provided, anyone can lead it.

I would suggest that you try it for few days and if you have a positive experience, figure out how to add it your lifestyle to increase vigor and vitality.

I would love to hear what you think of it.

What was your experience with it?

Did you experience a shift in your energy level?

Did you find yourself better physically and emotionally?

Do you have a favorite routine to vitalize and invigorate yourself?

So, here are the instructions.

HINT: It is helpful to print the following instruction in an enlarged font, so it is easier to read as you are doing or leading the routine.

15 Minute Routine to Revitalize

Set up music (140-150 beats per minute) – For example, Pandora Radio Station KernKraft 400.

  1. Begin with stretches to flex the body (2 times)

a. Interlock fingers of both hands

b. Stretch up & Groan

c. Stretch to the left;   Stretch to the right

d. Stretch to the back; Stretch to the front

2. March in place to get blood and lymph fluids moving                                     

a. March for 20 seconds in-place

b. Then, while marching

i.  Push arms forward palms open (4 times)

ii.  Push arms to the side (4 times)

iii. Push arms up (4 times)

iv.  Hug yourself (6 times)

v.  Spread arms 45 degree higher than shoulders, Pulse backwards (4 times)

vi.  Spread arms at shoulder height, Pulse backwards (4 times)

vii.  Spread arms 45 degrees lower than shoulder, Pulse backwards (4 times)

c. March lifting knees high

i.  Thighs parallel to the ground (4 times each leg)

ii.  Add twist with opposing elbows (4 times each leg)

d. Jump in place (20 seconds)

i.  Adding arm raises

e. Back to marching in-place to cool down (20 seconds)

f.Shake hands in front, to the side and up

  1. Shake up all the joints

a. Start with Right arm

i.  Flick the fingers (12 time)

ii.  Shake the hand from the wrist (12 times)

iii. Shake the hand and wrist from the elbow (12 times)

iv.  Shake whole arm from the shoulder, nice & loose (6 times)

b. Repeat a. with Left arm

c. Next, start with Right leg

i.  Curl and stretch toes (12 times)

ii.  Left foot up and down from the ankle (6 times)

iii. Left circles from the ankle (6 times)

iv.  Right circles from the ankle (6 times

v.   Shake it all about from the ankle

vi.  Up and down from the knee (6 times)

vii.  Circle left from the knee (6 times)

viii. Circle right from the knee (6 times)

ix.  Swing the entire leg from the hip, nice & loose ( 6 times)

d. Repeat c with Left leg.

  1. Breathing (Stop the music for breathing) – Energizing and Calming Breaths

a. 2 counts IN, 8 counts HOLD, 4 counts OUT

b. Cleansing breath – Slow deep inhale, slow exhale

c. 2 counts IN, 8 counts HOLD, 4 counts OUT

d. Cleansing breath – Slow deep inhale, slow exhale

REMEMBER to take full breaths, fill up belly, then middle chest and then upper chest

e. 3 counts IN, 12 counts HOLD, 6 counts OUT

f. Cleansing breath – Slow deep inhale, slow exhale

g. 3 counts IN, 12 counts HOLD, 6 counts OUT

h. Cleansing breath – Slow deep inhale, slow exhale

REMEMBER to soften your face and put a smile on your face

i.  4 counts IN, 16 counts HOLD, 8 counts OUT

j. Cleansing breath – Slow deep inhale, slow exhale

REMEMBER to breathe in all the goodness around you and breathe out all negativity

k. 4 counts IN, 16 counts HOLD, 8 counts OUT

l. Cleansing breath – Slow deep inhale, slow exhale

m. 5 counts IN, 20 counts HOLD, 10 counts OUT

n. Cleansing breath – Slow deep inhale, slow exhale

  1. Affirmation

o. Last, turn to your neighbor and give them a double high-five

(If you are doing it all by yourself, then point to yourself with two thumbs)

and say, “YOU ARE AWESOME!!”

Post #13 – Ever heard of Functional Medicine?

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Aging, Functional Medicine, Living to 120, Reversing Chronic Diseases, Vigor, Vitality

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In my previous blog posts, I have talked about curing my allergies, fixing migraines, and curing a whole host of other issues without pharmacological medicines. Yes, actually curing these issues and not just managing or controlling the symptoms.

For the longest amount of time, I found it difficult to talk about to these things with my physicians or even lay people. I must admit it all sounded so much like woo doo even to me as I would talk about it. A common refrain from doctors was, “We only practice evidence based medicine.” I did not know what to believe or not believe, except that from my personal experience (evidence of n=1), I could prove that these things work.

All that changed, when last year Kimberly and I attended the Health and Wellness Conference 2013 at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine at the Center of Integrative Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. There we heard talks about yoga, Qi Gong, nutrition, meditation, detoxing, and many other so called “alternative” therapies in the setting of Evidence Based Medicine.

Key note speaker was Mark Hyman, MD. He has a private practice Ultra Wellness Center in Massachusetts. He wrote a book, The Blood Sugar Solution, which received endorsement from President Bill Clinton. He talked about the diagnosis and cure of Diabesity, a term he has coined as combination of diabetes and obesity. And, he talked about diabesity in the context of what he called Functional Medicine.

Since then I have studied up quite a bit on Functional Medicine and I do believe that many of my conversations in my blog posts fit in that framework. More I dig into this topic the more entranced I am getting with this topic. I feel that functional medicine is the key to the kingdom, when it comes to wellness, vitality and living the optimal health span and life span.

Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D. is considered “father” of this field. Mark Hyman calls him his mentor. Among Bland’s other accomplishments, he has founded Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Institute and The Institute for Functional Medicine. Recently, he has written a book, “The Disease Delusion, Conquering the Causes of Chronic Illness for a Healthier, Longer, and Happier Life.”

Institute for functional medicine describes functional medicine as follows:

“Functional medicine addresses the underlying causes of disease, using a systems-oriented approach and engaging both patient and practitioner in a therapeutic partnership. It is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century. By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient-centered approach, functional medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. Functional medicine practitioners spend time with their patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease. In this way, functional medicine supports the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual.”

So, the basic idea of functional medicine is to take a systems approach to disease and wellness rather than either chasing symptoms or taking germ theory approach that generally focuses on single point of correction. In his book, Jeffrey Bland talks of seven different systems for our bodies:

  1. Assimilation and Elimination
  2. Detoxification
  3. Defense
  4. Cellular Communication
  5. Cellular Transport
  6. Energy
  7. Structure

So the objective in functional medicine is to investigate symptoms to pinpoint one or more of these seven systems that are not working properly and then to change diet, exercise and lifestyle to fix the system imbalance and thereby the diseases and the symptoms.

The end result is often pretty low tech, and may seem underwhelming. That is, implement changes in diet, exercise and lifestyle to redirect expression of certain genes to cure a disease.

However, approach to getting there can be fairly high-tech in identifying the true root cause, identifying the systems that are out of balance and gene expressions that may be responsible for the underlying imbalance. And, as you see from the stories, results can be very profound and almost magical.

If you know someone, who is being treated for certain symptoms of chronic diseases by meds. e.g., high blood pressure, obesity, brain fog, constant fatigue, high cholesterol, inflammation, muscle aches, etc..  The meds being used often lead to side effects that need to be treated by other meds, which in turn are causing other side effects etc.. Such a person is the perfect candidates for functional medicine.

Have you heard of functional medicine?

Do you have any experience with functional medicine?

I have been looking for good certified functional medicine practitioners in our area that we could consult and also recommend to our friends and family. We have access to some lists, but no personal experience yet. Do you know of such a practitioner?

I would love to learn if you know someone.

Post #12 – My SECOND Year of Experience with Bikram Yoga

20 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Bikram Yoga, Living to 120, Vigor, Vitality, Yoga

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Here is my SECOND year of experience with Bikram Yoga that I wrote down in February 2014. This makes a nice sequel to my last week’s blog post, where I shared the first year of experience.

Today is Presidents Day 2014, two years after I started the Bikram Yoga. It seems like a good time to reflect on my progress with Bikram Yoga.

Experimenting for Regaining Control of Breath

At the beginning of my second year, I started experimenting and also talked to various teachers about my desire to keep control of my breath and conserve energy to perfect my poses. Most of the teachers discouraged skipping an asana, emphasizing that that asana are designed with certain flow in mind. Best suggestion, I thought, came from Rosa. She advised to do the first sets as easy as I needed to and then give my all in the second sets.

I started this technique with almost skipping the first sets. Then slowly I started to do the firsts sets lightly to build endurance and maintain form. I would then give my all in the second set, reminding myself that I could always skip the first set of the following asana if I needed to regain control of my breath. I felt better and better with this method.

Reintroducing Strength Training

One downside I found for doing Bikram only was that after a year I started to feel that my strength was waning. I did not feel as confident in simple things like lifting my laptop brief case, which is about 30lbs. In April 2013, Kimberly and I restarted working out with our trainer Saleem for one day every week. Initially, I would do three times Bikram and one time Saleem every week. For the last few months, I have settled into twice Bikram and one time Saleem. With Saleem’s workouts, my strength is definitely back. With Birkram twice a week, I am able to maintain the flexibility and balance.

Visit to the Egoscue Clinic – Crooked Body Fixers

Another thing I was quite encouraged by was improvements in my knee pain through Bikram. So, I decided to see if I could really get them to be 100% cured. For that I decided to visit with the local Egoscue Clinic. Kristen Thor, the therapist there, showed me that my knees were misaligned in that they were pronated, i.e., faced outwards. Although, knees were my major concern why I went to her, she also showed me that the reason my right shoulders kept getting stiff whenever I worked out with heavy weights is that my upper body was misaligned in that my right shoulder was rotated forward. That, she said, was also the reason why my right wrist would hurt when I would put weight on it, for example, when I did pushups. She was clearly able to demonstrate these issues.

As she worked through those issues, I also told her about my awkwardness with the Awkward Pose (Utkat Aasna) or even weighted squats. For that she showed me that my upper back lacked flexibility and did not have the proper curvature. This made it difficult for me to balance when I did the Awkward Pose or the squats. For years, Saleem and my sons have been telling me to stick my butt out while squatting, which was hard to do, according to Kristen, if my upper back did not provide me the counter balance when I was sticking my butt out.

Finally, I talked to her about how it felt difficult and my back used to get really tired when I was doing the Standing Head to Knee Pose (Dandyamana Janusheer Aasna). For that, she told me that my hips were not open and flexible enough.

So, over a period of about seven months, I worked with her. I started to feel improvements with my posture in general, my Saleem workouts, and the Bikram poses. Knees got even better. Finally, she gave me routines to do before doing my Saleem and Bikram sessions. Pre-Saleem exercises are to warm up my shoulders before the workout. Pre-Bikram e-cises are to open my hips and upper body before the class.

My knees pain is mostly gone. I can comfortably do weighted lunges, weighted squats, and single leg jump ropes. I have not really felt any significant pain in months. Although, based on memories, I still often hesitate before I do knee straining exercises, as I have been conscious of the knees for years now.

The Joe Dillon Difference

Oh yeah another thing. During our May 2013 Vistage meeting, I met our Vistage speaker Joe Dillon. He was a 69 year old in-your-face kind of guy, who has coached Olympic swimmers and thousands of other people. He got me thinking that it was possible to change my body composition, with the right nutrition. You mean I could dramatically reduce my body fat percent by simply changing what I eat? With the information I got from him and his book and videos, I dramatically changed my eating habits. With Joe Dillon’s protein shakes and Full Strength protein shakes, I added about my body weight equivalent in grams of proteins every day to my intake. I eliminated most raw sugar and flour based products from my meals and started to do a better job for sugar management. I also added to my diet fish oil (Omega-3 Ultra from X-tendlife.com), Flax Seed Oil and a better quality of daily vitamins and supplements (from Premium Daily vitamins from X-tendlife.com).

Since June 2013, when I started the program my weight has decreased only by about four to six pounds, but body fat percent has decreased from 25% to 18%. That means I have added about 7 lbs of muscles and lost about 12 lbs of fat. And, my belly fat is down by 3 inches! I like the trend.

Wow, I Can Touch My Head to My Knee and Hold!

With all these factors and as my endurance built up at Bikram, I started to do the first set more and more deeply. And, I made significant progress on some harder poses. While all of the poses can be done better and at a deeper level, by now, I can reach closer to the final expression of most poses. In the Standing Head to Knee pose, I can now touch head to knee as the final expression for the three counts, though not very gracefully. My knees get a little wobbly. I can almost do Toe Stands with hands in prayer position, but not always for the complete time. My awkward poses are fairly deep and decent, and am able to rise much more slowly in the third part. I can see my complete foot over my head in the Standing Bow. I am able to touch my head against knees in the rabbit pose. My Triangle pose is nice and deep and stable.

And, at times, if the room is not too hot, or my body is feeling up to it, I even attempt the first sets with all I got.

No More Lipitor

Oh yeah. I did two blood works to test my Cholesterol over the last seven months, WITHOUT taking Lipitor. In August, my LDL was 135, so I added Red Rice Yeast to my supplements and in January it was 124. My primary care physician said that with these types of results I can safely stay off Lipitor. Yeah! That is another big goal accomplished. Check.

So, today on Presidents Day, February 17, 2014, on my second anniversary of Bikram Yoga, where to from here:

  1. All the poses can of course be done better. I would like to keep working on improving the poses and my teachers to keep critiquing me for the finer points of my postures. Twice a week seems like good maintenance discipline. At some point, I may want to do another 30-day challenge to see if I can get another step improvement. At this time, I am doing too much other stuff to do any more than twice a week.
  2. I have already raised my goal for body composition – Six Pack at Sixty! For that I would need to get to 12% body fat percent by my birthday. I have another six months until my 60th birthday. I may need to add another couple of days’ worth of workout a week, even just aerobics or walks with weights to create the needed caloric deficit, to get to the body fat target. And, I have to make sure I am providing my body enough protein to build the needed lean mass.   Saleem has also recommended for me to do some Abs and Core workout during the week on my own.
  3. I would like to get an X-ray done of my knees to see if there is any cartilage that is worn out and not yet rebuilt. Then I could more precisely focus on getting that to 100%.
  4. Continue to do Egoscue a couple of times a week in addition to the pre-Saleem and pre-Bikram sessions. Also, work in at least one set of Egoscue Tower e-cises a week for alignment. Getting Tower in has been the hardest part for last couple of months.
  5. Ringing in my ear has not abated. I only feel it when I focus on it. I need a solution for that. Don’t have any solution yet, other than getting a hearing aid, which the Audiologist said, sometimes fixes it.