Currently viewing the category: "healthy lifestyle habits"

Simple Math

By On · Add Comment · In healthcare costs, healthy lifestyle habits, retirement

If your good looks, vitality and ability to interact with your loved ones ain’t enough to keep you focusing on your health, then how ’bout this: Newly retired couples may need $240,000 throughout their retirement  for health care costs alone! Got that saved, boomers? No?… then try something different…like caring for your health now!

This post isn’t just for people entering retirement, it’s for young folk, because the time to care for your health is now, today…not when you get sick. Check it: What you do today, determines how you live tomorrow. That’s right, your current lifestyle habits–and let me emphasize habits, because that occasional drink isn’t hurting you, nor is that occasional walk around the block really exercise–believe it or not, are cumulatively affecting your body for better or for worse. Eat an occasional Big Mac? Big deal. Live off take-out, however, and it’s $240K and counting.


According to a study conducted by Fidelity Investments, a Boston-based consulting firm, the estimated $240,000 that a newly retired couple will need to cover health care expenses reflects the typical pattern of projected annual increases. They cite President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul as the reason for the increase.

“As long as health care cost trends exceed personal income growth and economic growth, health care will still be a growing burden for the country as a whole and for individuals,” says Sunit Patel, a senior vice president for benefits consulting at Fidelity, and an actuary who helped calculate the estimate.
So let’s read between the lines. The average American doesn’t think too much about their health until it goes awry. Then they run to the doctor to get “cured.” The average American drinks more soda than water. The average American over 65 does not exercise. The average American eats a high processed food diet; recent reports even have 42% of all Americans obese by 2030 (not that far off, folks). So yeah, $240,000 for health care actually sounds cheap to me.
But let’s look at things this way: Cut the processed foods and start eating whole, natural foods. Exercise 3-5 times per week, even if that just means walking around the block after dinner (it’s something…). Get regualr bodywork to decrease the need for “arthritis meds.” Rest and recuperate regularly. Try something outside of lifetime antidepressants. Listen to your body and change what isn’t working so you don’t have to be on lifestyle drugs. In other words…DON’T BE AVERAGE…and guess what? < $240,000. (Cheers!)
Simple math, folks…oh yeah, with a little health and wellness wisdom to boot. So it’s up to you: Pick up some healthy lifestyle behaviors and practice them regularly…or start saving.

Proof in the Pudding

By On · Add Comment · In chronic disease, health insurance, healthy lifestyle habits, prevention

Well, looks like I’ve been right all along. The best health insurance policy is the one you provide for yourself. I’ve known it, and now you do too. Here’s the proof:

According to a large study conducted at the German Institute of Human Nutrition, living a healthy lifestyle can significantly reduce the incidence of chronic disease. Adopting four habits–not smoking, exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, and maintaining a healthy weight–reduced the probability of developing cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. While practicing all four behaviors provided the greatest benefit, adopting them one by one had significant protective effects too.

The study followed more than 23,000 middle-aged Germans for eight years. The participants were aged 35-65 years old. They found that the people who practiced all four habits had a 1/2% per year per person risk of developing chronic disease. Think about it–4% chance of developing chronic disease during the eight years of the study; extrapolate that to 20 years and the risk is only ten percent! For those people that did none of the habits, however, the risk went to 3% per person per year. That’s a full 24% during the study period and a whopping 60% in twenty years. Does anybody else see the enormity of this?

Here are some more facts:

  • A BMI lower than 30 was a particularly strong protective factor against development of diabetes
  • Physical activity protected more strongly against diabetes and heart attack than against cancer
  • Following good dietary principles provided a similar degree of protection against diabetes, stroke, and cancer
  • The largest reduction in risk was associated with having a BMI lower than 30, followed by never smoking, at least 3.5 hours of physical activity and then adhering to good dietary principles

None of this is a surprise to me or my regular readers. It’s the major premise of my book, The Six Keys to Optimal Health, and it’s what I focus on most here in this blog. Despite the focus on health insurance as a means toward better health, the reality is that nothing in the current health care model is going to improve health as a whole. This recent study provides the proof. Now the difficult part will be to convince lawmakers, and more importantly, people that focusing on personal health habits is the only true path to health reform.

The Only Real Anti-Aging

By On · Add Comment · In aging, breast cancer, Dr. Dean Ornish, enzyme, exercise, healthy lifestyle habits, Preventive Medicine Research Institute, prostate cancer, Six Keys to Optimal Health, telomerase, telomeres

Listen up, peeps. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Adopting healthy lifestyle habits is the only true way to slow down the effects of aging. Creams don’t work. Make-up doesn’t work. Lipo doesn’t work. None of these will make you look and feel younger–not with any lasting effect that is. But practicing healthy habits–like the The Six Keys To Optimal Health–most certainly will. And we’ve got the research to prove it.

A new study conducted by Dr. Dean Ornish, head of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, showed that certain activities and lifestyle habits raised the amount of an enzyme present in the body that is responsible for controlling the aging process. The enzyme telomerase was 29% higher in men who adopted healthy habits for a period of three months.

The study looked at thirty men who had low level prostate cancer. The healthy habits they adopted were increased intake of fruits and vegetables (diet–optimal health key #1), moderate daily exercise (regular physical fitness–optimal health key #2), and an hour of daily stress management, like meditation (mental health–The Six Keys To Optimal Health). Blood levels of telomerase were measured both before and after the study period, showing significant increase in men practicing the healthy habits. Nice. Now just imagine how the results might change if they throw in some regular bodywork (optimal health key #3), implement and test a rest and recuperation schedule (optimal health key #4), and control for at least one toxic substance (tobacco, statins, pollution–optimal health key #6). That would make for a great follow-up study down the road.

Telomerase fixes and lengthens parts of chromosomes known as telomeres that control longevity and are also important for maintenance of immune-system cells. Interestingly, a number of premature aging syndromes are associated with short telomeres (Werner syndrome, Ataxia telangiectasia, Bloom syndrome, Fanconi anemia, and Nijmegen breakage syndrome). The shortening of telomeres is also thought to be an indicator of disease risk and premature death in some types of cancer including breast, prostate, colon and lung cancer.

The men who adopted healthy habits not only increased their blood levels of telomerase but they also lost weight, lowered their blood pressure, and saw other health improvements as well. Additionally, they also had changes in activity in about 500 genes. The activity of disease-preventing genes went up, while the activity of disease-promoting genes went down, especially those involved in the development of breast and prostate cancer.

All I can say is wow! We all know how important adopting healthy lifestyle habits are, but now we know the genetic and molecular basis. I’ve always felt that knowing why is as important as knowing what. So understanding these processes should make it even more tangible as to why we need to be doing (or not doing) certain things. Without knowing why, health-enhancing practices become exercises in faith, with the occasional physiological confirmation in the average person (who may just stop, precisely because faith and a promise don’t go very far for most people). But now that we have evidence that changes occur on a biomolecular level, there should be no doubt as to what you should do to increase your longevity. If you care about that kind of thing, anyway.

Healthy Habits Not Just For Nuts Anymore

By On · Add Comment · In cancer, exercise, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), healthy lifestyle habits, Journal of Clinical Oncology, self-healing

I finish the first chapter of my book, The Six Keys To Optimal Health, with the following line: Although this book is not intended as a guide for curing any particular disease, people suffering from ill health can still benefit from the practices contained within.

A recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology discloses that the more healthy lifestyle habits cancer patients adopt, the better their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). In 2006, the American Cancer Society recommended that cancer patients get at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-strenuous exercise, or an hour of strenuous physical activity every week; eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily; and quit smoking. According to the study’s results, many cancer patients neglect to follow these recommendations–only 5 percent were meeting all three requirements, while 12.5 percent were meeting none. Those people following one or more of the recommendations not only did better in HRQoL, but had lower mortality and recurrence rates. Very nice!

I find this study particularly interesting because I’m naturally curious about the people who have the least compliance–what makes them neglect adopting healthy lifestyle habits. Of the 9,105 cancer survivors surveyed, only 15-19% were eating at least five servings of fruit and vegetables daily, while only 30-47% were getting the recommended amount of exercise. Not great, especially in light of how crucial both activities are for all people.

I think that if I’d just had what I’d imagine is a pretty frightening “get me in touch with my own mortality” moment, I would probably become Euell Gibbons. But that’s just me.

Maybe cancer survivors who don’t adopt healthy lifestyle habits think it’s too late for them. Or maybe they think health–and ultimately life–is not within their reach; not in their destiny. I can’t imagine it’s carelessness or laziness or self-destructive behavior. Small percentage, maybe; but not in those numbers. I really think it’s a disbelief in one’s own powerful ability to heal. This study, however, gives great evidence of our self-healing, self-regulating capabilities.

So here I say to everybody–cancer survivors and all–you can reach your full potential of health by practicing the six key habits outlined in my book. Research proves everyday how powerful the human body is, and since everybody and everything in your life is connected to your physical being, then you may as well do the things that keep you functioning optimally. Beating cancer is like being given a second chance. Take advantage of it. Give your body what it needs and it’ll repay you multiplied.

Flawed Paradigm or Religious Propoganda?

By On · Add Comment · In bodywork, diet, errors, exercise, health, health paradigm, healthy lifestyle habits, high blood pressure, mandatory, medical mistakes, proactive, religion, revolution, sleep, truth

I get most of my health news off the news wires like Reuters or Associated Press. For anyone not familiar with these news outlets, they provide stories for use by newspapers, radio and television programs and other media outlets. It comes over as a “just-the-facts” piece that other writers can use to create a story, which essentially leaves the writer to choose how the story is told without losing its essential meaning and information.

So, as you can probably tell, I have a blast getting these facts-only stories and sending them back out with what I consider a more realistic twist. I know that nobody reading this believes for a second that the information we get over traditional outlets is the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It’s not about being a born skeptic as much as it’s about having way too many experiences of being told one thing but seeing another that makes us question what we are told.

Take for example the latest news being reported in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, which says that people who take a proactive approach to their health may, in fact, be better informed, but by no means are they necessarily more healthy. Now, when I see opening words of this sort, along with the headline, “Involved” patients not always healthier, I get an immediate chuckle. I chuckle because I know that either, one: they are providing faulty information; or two: they are defining terms a little differently than I would. I know this because I read the health news every day. I know that studies pour out every week showing that a proactive approach of incorporating healthy lifestyle habits is, without a doubt, the number one beneficial thing people can do to ensure better health and a longer life. But, then, stories like this one come out and, well…they make me chuckle.

So, according to this study, 189 people with high blood pressure were observed: Those people who wanted a greater say in their health care tended to have higher blood pressure and cholesterol than the people who let their doctors have most of the control. Oy vey. And the conclusion of the research team was that, “merely being involved in health care decisions does not necessarily make patients healthier.”

Well no ship, Sherlock.

Here are the flaws with these conclusions: First, being proactive goes way beyond “being informed.” Could you imagine if we extrapolated that idea–that is, considering simply being informed the same as being proactive–to voting (I’m informed but I don’t vote), to our work life (I went to college but I prefer not to work), or to our finances (I know I should save, pay my taxes, and my bills…but I don’t). We can all appreciate that proactivity is taking action–in the realm of health it’s exercise, adopting a healthy diet, regular bodywork, getting enough sleep, and so on, and so forth.

The second flaw of this study is that they used high blood pressure–hardly a measure of health, and more accurately a measure of potential disease–as the health parameter. People who have high blood pressure are already on the verge of illness. Please. Aren’t they already doing something wrong or neglecting to do some things right? And these are the folks we should use as our reference point that “simply being informed doesn’t lead people to be healthier”? How amusing. I really could go on for hours about the absurdity of this notion.

Studies like this are an unfortunate relic of the old health paradigm that I am so proactively trying to get you to abandon. That paradigm says, health is a chance occurrence and is fleeting. In other words, illness is inevitable (I’ve got no argument there) and only through medical intervention can you hope to stand a chance of survival (this, however, is false). Obviously, that message is not presented so blatantly, but you’ll find it if you simply read between the lines.

And this is exactly how powerful institutions attempt to control you. Just ask any major religion outside of the Church of Medical Science and they’ll tell you: It all starts with brainwashing. You need us. We’ve saved hundreds of millions of lives, and we save millions more every year; we’re here to save you. This has been propagandized for years; nothing new there. But the next step is to tell you that you can’t make it without said religion. Don’t meddle when it comes to your health; we know what we’re doing; we know your health and your body better than you do, and we’re here to save you. That’s where we are now. The third step is mandating conformity. Mandatory treatments, mandatory inoculations, mandatory obedience. We’re just starting to get a glimpse of this practice now. Hang on, we should be seeing much more of this in the future.

Then the break occurs; the unfoldment of upheaval. It has happened in every major revolt in history, including the American Revolution. And now, we are in the midst of a health paradigm revolution. Damn, I feel like Thomas Paine!

Here’s the bottom line: people who take a proactive approach to their health and well-being stand an exceptionally high chance of having better health, period. Proactivity means, “acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty.” Acting. Not just being informed. Big difference.

Although this study comes to one very true conclusion, that “studies have found that patients generally tend to do better when they agree with their doctors on how to manage their health problems.” This, however, is not the same thing as people taking a proactive approach to their health. For sure, it helps when doctor and patient are on the same page; however, I highly doubt that anyone sets out to deliberately challenge one’s doctor when one’s health is on the line. But in an era of medical mistakes, profiteering, and just plain incompetency, where 98,000 people a year die as a result of medical errors (not accidents, not natural acts, but mistakes)…then yeah, people will question. And that, in my opinion, is highly proactive.

Copyright © 2013 Dr. Nick Campos - All Rights Reserved.