In episode 60, I have a fascinating conversation with Victoria Hahn, MS, RDN, about prolonged fasting with the Fasting Mimicking Diet ^®

Victoria is the Nutrition Science Liaison for L-Nutra, the leaders in the field of nutrition related to longevity and health-span.

L-Nutra develops nutri-technologies that mimic the effects of fasting, to enhance the body’s natural ability to rejuvenate itself and promote longevity.

Victoria is a Registered Dietitian and Nutrition Science Liaison with a Master of Science in Nutrition, Health-span, and Longevity from the University of Southern California.

She also functions as an inpatient clinical dietitian and has a background in nutrition research covering a wide range of topics including nutritional sufficiency in specific populations and the ketogenic diet. She has a passion for research and evidence-based practice.

Fasting has become a popular lifestyle-hack that has been proven to provide some impressive physical changes that have a direct impact on extending health span as well as a lot of promise when it comes to the future treatment of many of the diseases that we associate with aging.

Valter Longo PhD

I’ve been fascinated with the concept of prolonged fasting ever since I first heard doctor Valter Longo PhD interviewed on Rhonda Patricks foundmyfitness podcast way back in august of 2018.

If you’ve never heard of Dr. Longo, trust me, you will. He is one of, if not the, foremost researchers on anti-aging in the world.

He has focused many years of research on prolonged fasting. Dr. Longo’s research, along with many other’s, has shown that prolonged fasting instigates rejuvenating changes that can affect every cell in your body.

Dr. Longo developed the Fasting Mimicking Diet ^® as a means to make the many benefits of prolonged fasting accessible to most everybody.

IN THIS IN-DEPTH PODCAST, VICTORIA HAHN MS, RDN ANSWERS THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FASTING MIMICKING DIET ^® :

• What is prolonged fasting and how is it different than time-restricted eating?
• Who is Valter Longo, PhD and how has he been involved with prolonged fasting research?
• Why did he develop the Fasting Mimicking Diet^®?
• Is prolonged fasting with the Fasting Mimicking Diet^® safe for everybody?
• What is in the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet^®?
• What happens to your body when you fast with the Fasting Mimicking Diet^®?
• Does my body go into ketogenesis on the Fasting Mimicking Diet^®?
• Are there any potential problems with trying to create your own Fasting Mimicking Diet^®?
• How does one prepare for a fast using the Fasting Mimicking Diet^®?
• Can I exercise while on the Fasting Mimicking Diet^®?
• Can I resume eating normally when the fast is over^®?
• Can I continue to take my usual supplements during the Fasting Mimicking Diet^®?
• What should I do if I am still hungry during the fast?
• What kind of support does L-Nutra provide for people fasting with the Fasting Mimicking Diet^®?
• Do you have any tips to help improve the Fasting Mimicking Diet^® fasting experience?
• Where can people find out more about prolonged fasting with the Fasting Mimicking Diet^®?
• Do you have any final words you’d like to share for people who are considering doing a 5-day fast with the Fasting Mimicking Diet^®?

Hello and welcome to health bites!

HEALTH BITES is a short podcast meant to provide you with some basic understanding of the often-times complex concepts that are central to the many biological processes responsible for extending our health span.

Today, I want to share with you the awe and mystery of autophagy.

Autophagy plays a leading role in many of the life-hacks that have a major impact on your health-span.

We touched a bit on it back when I talked about zombie cells.

Mechanism of cellular authophagy, illustration for Nobel Prize Award in Medicine 2016. 3D illustration showing fusion of lysosome with autophagosome containing microbes and molecules

Autophagy literally means self-eating and that is exactly what happens to cells when they are in the state of autophagy. They literally consume all the junk protein by-products from everyday metabolism along with other pieces of cellular components that accumulate within the cells. Your body then breaks it down and re-uses the basic components for other cellular processes.

This process is related to apoptosis, where cells commit suicide and die. In the great scheme of things autophagy is a cells 1^st line of defense when it is damaged and becoming non-functional. If autophagy fails to get the cell back to functionality, then they throw in the towel and commit hari-cari, through the process of apoptosis. That’s a good thing because it triggers your body to produce new cells to replace them.

There are several types of autophagy. The differences are in the type of cell that the autophagy occurs and what triggers it within those cells. For those of us interested in health-span we are more interested in two forms of autophagy.

One is mitophagy. This occurs when your mitochondria, the little engines of our cells, go through the process of autophagy. This results in our mitochondria becoming more efficient, much like a tune-up for your car. It enables our metabolism to run more efficiently without causing oxidative stress on our bodies. Mitophagy also causes our body to create new mitochondria so it’s like throwing a new engine into that car of yours. That’s a good thing. If mitophagy is diminished by age or other processes than it could lead to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s’ disease and kidney disease.

The other prominent anti-aging autophagy is called Xenophagy. This is how the cells of your immune system remembers threats from foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses.

Autophagy is a vital function for maintaining our health. So how do we help our bodies to increase our level of autophagy?

Autophagy is typically triggered when our bodies are in stress. This can often come from external stresses such as changes in our environment such as the heat stress produced by sitting in a hot sauna or from exercise.

Exercise has been shown to effectively trigger autophagy in the brain, and with the liver, pancreas, adipose tissues and muscles. This is one of the reasons why exercise is so effective at increasing health-span as well as helping to protect us against chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and neuro-degenerative diseases.  

Fasting also triggers autophagy in our entire body. Particularly with prolonged fasting of 3 days or more.  Dr. Valter Longo, out of USC, has found that prolonged fasting with the fasting mimicking diet, will substantially increase autophagy throughout your entire body.

The beauty of the fasting mimicking diet is that it provides the health and anti-aging benefits of a traditional 5 -day water fast while it prevents the extreme hunger cravings, along with other potential health risks.  

Incorporating exercise and periodic prolonged fasting into your lifestyle can have very powerful anti-aging affects on your life.

Come join me on my very first prolonged fast!

I also want to extend an invitation to join The Essential Boomer Members Community!

What if I told you that there has been a scientific breakthrough for a new medication that has been proven to protect you from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, colds and the flu?

And… that this medication has a powerful healing effect on every system and cell in your body…

And, this amazing medication can also enhance your learning ability, memory, and creativity, all, while making you happier, looking younger, thinner, and even improves your sex life?

Plus, this new medication has no negative side effects and is completely free.

Would this be of interest to you?

If so, then I have some very good news for you. This miracle cure-all does exist and is yours for the taking.

It’s called quality sleep.

In episode 59 I’m going to be sharing with you what I believe to be the most important and timely podcast that I have ever produced over the last 5 years or so.

Good, quality sleep is so much more than a luxury for us boomers. It is an absolute, vital necessity to our very lives.

This podcast is a major update to episode #36 on sleep that I did years ago, prior to all of the latest research that has emerged.

My eyes were opened to the importance of sleep from listening to the audio book, Why We Sleep, written by Matthew Walker PhD. Dr. Walker is a sleep researcher out of UC Berkeley. He’s been doing sleep research for over 20 years so he knows what he’s talking about. I highly recommend that you read his book. It should be required reading for everybody in high school and beyond.

I also encourage you to listen to interviews of Dr. Walker by Rhonda Patrick PhD on her FoundMyFitness podcast and with Joe Rogan on his podcast. They are both excellent and will provide you with much more valuable information than I can talk about here.

I urge you to listen to all of this podcast. I know it’s a bit long but it’s very important and relevant to you, no matter what stage of life you’re in.

You may already think you know all there is to know about sleep but trust me, most likely you don’t.

And please share this with your younger friends and family. I wish that I had known this way back when I could have had a head start on preserving this precious gift that is free for the taking.

If nothing else, I encourage you to download my free 20-page companion PDF – 20 Solid Tips to Enable Baby Boomers to Get a Great Night Sleep Every Night.

It’s packed with the latest science-based tips that can go a long way to help you get those full 8 hours of quality sleep that we, as boomers, need as much as we need oxygen. 
This PDF also contains some great resources to help you to get those zzzz’s that you need.

Get your FREE Companion PDF!

In this 2nd edition of Health Bites, Jim Jensen talks about how our cells can become zombies and what to do about it if they do.

In this premier Health Bites podcast, Jim Jensen, founder of The Essential Boomer, talks about Hormesis and why it is such an important concept to the process of extending your healthy years while avoiding those terrible chronic conditions typically associated with aging. Boomers! Check it out!

The simple life hack that can change your life.

In episode 55 I talk about a simple life-hack that is relatively new to me, but I’ve felt its positive effects in just the few short months since I incorporated it into my weekly routine.

The hack I’m talking about is the regular use of the dry sauna. Maybe you’ve been hearing a bit about its beneficial effects in the news or on social media.

Rhonda has also done research on aging at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in Southern California. Her website, Found My Fitness, is my go-to reference for solid, up-to-date, science-based, information on extending one’s health span.

Rhonda's videos and podcasts provide a rare peek into the cutting-edge science of aging and how to avoid the chronic conditions that are associated with it. I love her podcasts and videos. I do find them very technical and so I often need to listen to them several times to really get a handle on the meat of their concepts.

In this 20 yearlong study, they controlled for such factors as age, obesity, smoking, alcohol, cholesterol, prescription medication, and type 2 diabetes as well as socio-economic status and physical activity so it accurately isolated the effects of the sauna use.

And the findings are dramatic. The study found that death by cardio-vascular disease decreased by 27% for men who used the sauna 2 – 3 times per week as compared to men who used it only once per week. And for men who used the sauna for 4-7 times per week, death by cardio-vascular disease decreased by 50% compared to the once-a weekers.

They also found that all-cause mortality, which is death by any disease or toxic exposure, other than by accident, decreased by 24% for the men who used the sauna 2-3 times and 40% for the men who used it 4 -7 times as compared to the once-a-week sauna user.

I would have loved to have them compare these results to the men who never use the sauna. I can’t imagine how much higher the numbers would have been with that comparison.

Long-term sauna us has also, not surprisingly, been shown to reduce the occurrence of strokes by 12% in the men who used the sauna 2-3 times per week and by a whopping 62% in the men who used the sauna 4-7 times per week, again, compared to the once-a-week group.

If you’re thinking that regular sauna use replicates the benefits of cardio-vascular exercise you’d be spot on... It does.

In fact, a 20 minute or more session in the sauna can drive your heartrate up to 150 beats per minute, which is what you’d expect from doing a fast run. Have you ever checked your heart-rate after a sprint? It will be in the same range.

Sauna use has been shown to increase cardio-vascular endurance by increasing blood flow to skeletal muscles and increasing their efficiency. It also has been shown to increase blood flow to the heart thus reducing cardio-vascular strain thus allowing for longer physical activity as compared to a non-heat acclimated person.

Long term sauna use also enables increased blood flow to the skin resulting in a lowering of the body temperature at which you start to sweat, thus enabling you to maintain a lower body temperature.

In one study, male runners who did a 30-minute sauna 2 times per week were able to increase their running to exhaustion by 32% compared to the non-heat acclimated group.

Hmmm…

This sure sounds a lot like the effects of cardio-vascular exercise to me.

But how about resistance exercise? Can long-term sauna use replicate the benefits of weight training?

Yup…

In fact, long-term sauna use has been shown to increase muscle hypertrophy, which means you are actually building muscle by sitting on your butt in a hot sauna.

But how?

Well, your muscles are constantly going through a process, kind of like your bones, where they tear down existing muscle tissue while simultaneously adding on new muscle tissue. Your body does this to maintain a balance to preserve your muscle mass.

When you do resistance exercise you are mechanically damaging your muscle tissue causing them to repair the damaged tissue while adding on more new muscle. Thus increasing your overall muscle mass.

Well, when you are exposed to heat, it causes your body to slow up on the process that tears down your muscles, while increasing the processes that causes you to grow more muscles. So, it’s like doing resistance training merely by sitting in a sauna. And this affect has been shown to last up to 48 hours after the sauna use.

This can be very beneficial for providing therapy to damaged muscles. Normally, when you damage a muscle, you have to isolate and rest the muscle to prevent more damage and inflammation, and to allow the muscle to heal. This will usually cause muscle atrophy along with the subsequent loss of muscle mass and strength.

So, with regular exposure to the heat of a sauna, you can actually prevent the loss of muscle mass while still protecting it from further damage.

I live very close to the YMCA, which has a killer sauna, so I decided to give it a try. I started going to the sauna at the Y 3 to 4 times per week and I haven’t slowed down since.

It was during this time that I started to see a real turn-around with my healing and level of pain. Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t claim that the sauna was solely responsible for my accelerated improvement because it was at the time where my injury should have been showing signs of improvement. But I only started to feel better after I started my sauna routine. And it healed very quickly after that.

Now intuitively, to me, it makes sense that the sauna can be beneficial to your health because of it’s similarity to cardio-vascular exercise and the hypertrophy benefits are just icing on the cake but it turns out that all that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the health benefits derived from a sauna.

We now know that long-term, regular sauna use can also help protect your body against neurogenic diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease.

One of the main drivers of these benefits is something called heat-shock proteins. Just like they sound, heat-shock proteins are activated by your genes as a response to exercise AND to extremes in temperature, both cold and hot.

Heat-shock proteins are very beneficial to your health because they work to maintain and repair the 3-dimensional shapes of your cells, which can lose their shape due to environmental stress as well as normal cell metabolism. When a cell loses it proper 3-dimensional shape, it can affect the functionality of the cell often-times leading to an increase in the accumulation of protein aggregates in the cells thus leading to an increase in inflammation.

Think of protein aggregates as bits of garbage in your cells which trigger your immune system to attack them, thus leading to an increase in inflammation, which can be the cause of some pretty nasty conditions such as cardiac disease, atherosclerosis, cardiomyopathy as well as the before mentioned neuro-degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Heat shock proteins are very important to help maintain the structural integrity, and thus the functionality of your cells.

But sometimes your cells can become so damaged that they lose all normal functionality becoming more like zombie cells in that they aren’t quite dead, yet they still produce the garbage-like protein aggregates that accumulate in your cells. These kinds of cells are called senescent cells.

As we age, we tend to accumulate more and more of these senescent cells producing more and more protein aggregates thus causing more inflammation which increases the likelihood of contracting many of the conditions associated with inflammation caused by protein aggregates.
The accumulation of senescent cells are now considered a major contributor to the entire process of aging.

The senescent cells can mutate into cancer cells. So needless to say, if you could get rid of your senescent cells and the resulting protein garbage in your cells that it would be a very good thing.
But how?

FOX03, the longevity gene to the rescue!

Research now shows that long term exposure to heat stress, as in a dry sauna, causes your body to activate the expression of an amazing gene, that they now call the longevity gene – FOX03.

FOX03 is frigging amazing. In fact, people who have a genetic disposition to create more FOX03 have a 2.7 limes increase in their chances to live to be 100.

FOX03 is the master regulator of many genes. It has been shown to make your cells more resistant to many of the stressors that come with age. It acts like a dietary anti-oxidant except way more potent.

FOX03 increases the expression of genes responsible for autophagy, which is the process of cleaning out all that garbage in your cells that is produced by those zombie senescent cells thus helping to reduce inflammation. FOXO3 also enables your body to produce proteins that will cause those senescent cells to kill themselves through a process called apoptosis. This prevents them from producing any more protein garbage as well as preventing them from mutating into a cancer cell.

And speaking of cancer. FOX03 also produces proteins that cause cancer cells to die.
And, as if that isn’t enough, FOX03 also increases the expression of genes responsible for improving your immune function, which normally declines with age.

As if these aren’t enough benefits to make you want to commit to incorporating sauna into your lifestyle… there’s more!

It turns out that regular sauna use is very good for your brain.

Studies show that regular heat exposure in a sauna causes increased neurogenesis, which is the growth of nerve tissue in your brain. This is caused by the expression of the brain derived neurotrophic factor BDNF which plays an important role in neuronal survival and growth.
Heat stress is also responsible for the increased production of the stress hormone norepinephrine, which promotes myelin growth and makes your brain function faster as well as repairing nerve cell damage to the brain.

This is all very good news for anyone with any kind of neurogenic disorder such as MS, Parkinson’s, traumatic brain injury and Huntington’s disease.

And as a capper, the sauna can also help with depression. The afore mentioned neurotrophic factor BDNF has been shown to be a valuable factor in reducing depression.

Your body produces the protein dynorphin, which is responsible for the sensation of dysphoria, or discomfort that you feel when exposed to intense exercise OR spicy foods OR extreme temperatures, like those found in a sauna.

Dynorphins make you feel bad, but they trigger your body to respond by creating endorphins, your body’s natural opiate, which makes you feel good… really good. In fact, as a response to the presence of dynorphins, your body increases your level of endorphins and it can last for up to 48 hours beyond the initial exposure. And… the body’s uptick in dynorphins causes you to become more sensitive to any discomfort which causes your body to produce more endorphins as a response.

Now, that can’t be bad can it?

Just think…All of these amazing benefits are triggered by simply sitting on your rear in a hot sauna for several times each week. Now that’s a lifestyle hack I can live with.

So, the questions now are how hot does the sauna need to be and how long do I need to sit in it to get all those great health benefits?

Good question…

According to Dr. Laukkanen study, you will need to sit in a sauna for at least 20 minutes at a temperature of at least 174 degrees Fahrenheit to derive all the health benefits mentioned earlier.
Now I know what you’re thinking. 174 degrees! That is way too hot for a normal human to endure. Why I can barely stand to sit in a 105 degree hot-tub. 174 degrees will kill me!

Au contraire mon frere. ..

If you’ve never been in a dry sauna before then 174 degrees sounds flaming hot but in reality, it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds. It’s dry air as compared to hot water in a hot tub. The sauna at our YMCA is a steady 184 degrees and to me it’s perfect.

It did take me a bit of time to work up to 20 minutes, but I am baby when it comes to discomfort. I will often do the sauna after a 10-mile bike ride so I’m already heated up. When I do that it takes a lot less time to get a sweat going as compared to walking in it without exercising first.

I think the hardest part of doing a sauna is the residual sweating for ½ hour or more after leaving the sauna, even if I take a tepid shower. It can be a bit embarrassing. The only way to really avoid that is to take a really cold shower after the sauna to drive your temperature down. Now I’m a baby when it comes to cold showers, so I usually put up with the post sauna sweating and just avoid venturing to places inhabited by a lot of people for an hour or so.

A question that comes up a lot is whether you can get the same benefits from an infra-red sauna as you can from a dry sauna. As far as the study, it was shown that you need to get at least 174 degrees Fahrenheit to derive the most benefits and an infra-red sauna doesn’t get anywhere near that temperature. So, I suspect that you wouldn’t get as robust a response from an infra-red sauna.

People also ask a lot whether a hot tub can also provide the same health benefits and again, there are no studies to verify that claim one way or the other though I do suspect, from personal experience, that sitting in a 110 hot tub or spa for 20 minutes or more will certainly get that heartrate and sweating response up there so I’m more inclined to think that a really hot, hot tub may have similar benefits. So if I didn’t have access to a sauna, then I’d certainly consider trying to find a friend or facility with a hot tub.

I tend to think that the important factor is to heat up your body to the point where you are sweating profusely and experiencing moderate discomfort. But again, the science right now is with the dry sauna.

There are also some common-sense safety guidelines that you should follow when using a dry sauna:

1 – NEVER sauna alone. If you pass out, you could die. Enough said.

2 – NEVER use a sauna when drunk, high, or pregnant or if you have ANY medical condition that can be exacerbated by heat stress. Check with your doctor prior to incorporating regular sauna sessions into your lifestyle.

3 – If at any time you feel sick, dizzy or faint… get out immediately.

4 – 25 – 30 minutes is way enough time to derive maximum benefit for most people. Don’t get crazy.

5 – drink 2 – 4 glasses of cool water after each sauna session.

So, I hope by now that you are seriously thinking about adding the sauna to your weekly lifestyle routine IF you don’t have any pre-existing physical conditions that may prevent you from exposing yourself to that kind of heat stress.

If in doubt, I would first run it by your doctor to make sure that it’s safe for you.

Resources

CLICK HERE to go to FOUND MY FITNESS, Rhonda Patrick PhD's amazing website.

CLICK HERE to go to Rhonda Patrick PhD's interview with Dr. Jari Laukkanen, M.D., Ph.D.

CLICK HERE to go to ALL of the resources for sauna use on FOUND MY FITNESS.

CLICK HERE to help support The Essential Boomer

CLICK HERE to join The Essential Boomer Members Community Private Facebook group. It's FREE!

And…I would be remiss not to give a big thanks to my favorite blues guitar player of all time, Mr. Dave Hydie for generously providing such a great intro and outro for each of my podcasts. I love you Dave, you da man.

 One of the subjects that I have recently been fascinated by, to the point of obsession, is the concept of health extension, or how to increase our health span. Health span is the time in our lives where we are functional and relatively free of the many serious chronic diseases that are usually associated with aging. I’m now 66 and statistically entering the limits of my health span, so it is of vital interest to me and for you too, if you are a baby boomer or beyond.

There has been an enormous amount of exciting research, both animal and human, in this area, particularly over the last decade or so. Yet most baby boomers aren’t familiar with the research and it’s ramifications.  That’s why I’m so excited about sharing this valuable information with you.

I am particularly interested in hacks that we can do to our lifestyles that are relatively painless and provide a whole lot of bang for buck, so to speak. Today, I’m going to share with you one of the best hacks that I have found that I have personally adopted with some impressive results.

This fairly painless hack has the potential of dramatically changing the way you feel as well as adding many years of additional healthy living to your life. And, if you are already struggling with a chronic condition, it could go a long way to minimize, or even eliminate your present symptoms. Do I have your attention yet?

Today, I will be sharing with you the awe and mystery of Time Restricted Eating. Sorry, I couldn’t help but throw in that reference to the Outer Limits, a very cool and creepy TV show from my youth.

Time Restricted Eating

Sounds ominous doesn’t it. It isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds. It doesn’t require any major changes to your diet or cutting out your favorite epicurean delights. Though, improving the quality of your diet will certainly increase its effectiveness on your overall health.

Time Restricted Eating simply means that you will be eating all your meals within a 9 – 12 hour window during the day. So, say you get up and have your first cup of coffee at 8:00 AM. You will then plan on having your very last bite of anything by at least 8:00 PM, or earlier if possible.

Research shows that the smaller the window, the more profound the effect of the Time Restricted Eating. I personally shoot for 10 hours.

That’s it! Really. You don’t have to make any changes to your present diet to experience significant improvements with your health. And you can even cheat on weekends without going off the tracks. It really is pretty dang painless. I’ve been doing it for a bit over 2 months now and the benefits for me have been very apparent. I’ve even lost 9 pounds, though this was not the reason that I adapted this lifestyle.

And prior to adopting this eating schedule, I typically would have a late snack at around 11:00 so I wouldn’t feel hungry when sleeping. In fact that was my main concern when adopting this lifestyle hack. 

In reality, it has been very easy and I haven’t experienced any issues with being hungry.

Ok Jim, so what are the so-called benefits to Time Restricted Eating anyway?

Well, the list of benefits include:

• Decreased body fat

• Increased lean muscle mass

• Improved blood lipid profiles

• Reduction in inflammation

• Improved metabolic efficiency

• Improved sleep

• Reduced risk for cancer, heart disease, stroke and metabolic syndromes such as arthritis, MS and Parkinson’s Disease.

• Significant improvement in gut-related conditions such as IBS and Crohn’s Disease.

• Better recovery from surgeries.

• Increased lifespan

• Increased health span

• Dramatic improvements in mood

Sounds too good to be true, right? But it is true, and it’s based on solid-research, most notably, from Dr. Satchin Panda, out of the prestigious Salk Institute of Biological Sciences in Southern California. He has been researching and performing studies on animals and then humans. This is based on good science.

So how can this relatively painless hack have such a dramatic effect on your health?

It’s the difference between night and day. Really!

It turns out that every cell in our body is programmed to operate within the circadian clock. That means that they evolved to function within the confines and as a direct result of daylight and night.

Even the bacteria within our gut is programmed to operate by the circadian clock. We all know that the gut, and the billions of bacteria that live in it, are hugely responsible for our overall health and metabolism.

The bacteria that are active in the morning are a completely different group than the ones that are active in the evening.  This dramatically affects the workings of our metabolism.

It is known that in the morning, our insulin sensitivity is much higher than in the evening. So, WHEN you eat has a dramatic impact upon your metabolism and thus your entire body. If you compared the morning and evening, insulin responses, from the exact same meal, you would see a dramatic decrease in your ability to process carbohydrates in the evening, as compared to the morning.

So, our own circadian rhythm has a dramatic impact on our bodies. The other factor, or trigger, that affects our metabolism and health is food itself. The consumption of all non-water food starts our clocks in the morning. It sets our metabolism from that moment. It signals your body that it’s morning and you have started your day. That triggers your metabolism to start the many processes that evolve and change throughout the day.

And, as I mentioned earlier, this is when your body is most insulin sensitive and thus able to more efficiently metabolize carbohydrates, as well as fats and protein.

Through Dr. Panda’s research, they have found that the many health benefits I mentioned above were attained by eating within the 12 hour window, with 10 hours or less, being the point where the most robust results were found.

When you take your last meal of the day is when you start your evening fast.

This is when your body goes through its daily repair process. Most of this happens during sleep. It has been shown that a 12-14 hour fast enables your body, through the processes of autophagy and apoptosis, to rid your cells, much like a vacuum cleaner, of unwanted junk.

Autophagy is the body’s process of eliminating the junk in our cells that accumulate as a result of normal metabolic processes as well as useless protein aggregates that are produced by senescence cells spitting out useless protein.

Senescence cells are cells that have stopped functioning as they were supposed to and thus now only produce protein that attracts our bodies immune cells thus increasing inflammation. We produce more senescence cells as we age.

Apoptosis is the body’s ability to induce senescent cells to commit suicide. This is a good thing. It prevents them from producing any more junk protein which causes inflammation and it prevents them from becoming cancer cells.

So, by these processes, the 12 – 14  hour fasting period maintained in this diet, helps to rid our bodies of inflammation and cancer producing cells. Time Restricted Eating has been shown to  reduce the risks of many types of cancer as well as reducing tumor growth in existing cancers.

And the reduction in inflammation is very dramatic too. 

Eating within the 10-12 hour window has also been show to be very effective at reducing the lipids in the liver and the rest of the body. This is due to a dramatic increase in metabolic efficiency.

In fact, Time Restricted Eating has been shown to substantially increase mitochondrial volume. Mitochondria are your body’s little burners for producing energy. Among many other benefits, this helps to increase your cardio-vascular endurance.

It has also been shown to reduce body fat while increasing lean muscle mass. This helps to protect people from obesity, heart disease, stroke and liver disease. As I said earlier, I lost 9 lbs without even knowing it.

After eating, for most people, it takes about 10 to 12 hours of fasting to deplete the body of liver glycogen, which are the byproducts of metabolizing carbohydrates. After that the body then releases fatty acids to the liver where it starts to make ketone bodies which are then used for energy.

Ketone bodies can cross the blood-brain barrier and provide energy for the brain. They have also been associated with improving heart disease risk factors, improving insulin sensitivity, improving all major symptoms of metabolic syndrome. Studies also suggest that they may have benefits for people with Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, Parkinson’s and acne.

Time Restricted Eating also has been shown to improve the quality of your sleep, which is very important for good health. There is a significant decrease and even elimination in the reports of acid reflux from people incorporating Time Restricted Eating into their lifestyle.

Time Restricted Eating really works by coordinating the 3 pillars of good health; sleeping, physical activity, and eating, to all work together with their own circadian rhythms. That’s the way that we have evolved. When all three of these systems are running smoothly than we can reap the benefits of good health.

So how do you do Time Restricted Eating?

Simple, just eat ALL your meals and food within a 10-12 hour window starting from your first cup of coffee in the morning. Yep, even coffee starts your timing. Tea or flavored water even starts the clock.

And after your last meal resist the urge to eat or drink ANYTHING except for water. Eating anything would reset your metabolic clock thus reducing the benefits of this lifestyle. Even a cup of tea before bed will break the fast.

Eating during the fasting period can also cause your own circadian clock to reset, thus confusing your metabolism. This could cause your body to be ready to go into the fasting period when you are just ready to chow down on breakfast.

Remember too, that you can cheat up to 2 days each week without losing the benefits of the other 5 days so there’s always a break available if circumstances demand it. But you should know that most people who do Time Restricted Eating for several months report that they get a food-over, like a hangover, on the days that they do cheat.

Now I have some great resources to help you out with the process as well as providing in-depth information on Time Restricted Eating.

First, you can learn a whole lot more about Time Restricted Eating from Dr. Panda himself by going to his website, MyCircadianClock.org.

From here you can learn a whole lot more about Time Restricted Eating and you can even become part of an ongoing study to research the effects of Time Restricted Eating on humans. It’s a great resource.

Second, you can watch 2 fascinating interviews of Dr. Panda by Rhonda Patrick PhD on her great website foundmyfitness.com. It is my absolute favorite podcast.

Third, you can easily time and record your Time Restricted Eating on a great free app called ZERO, created by Kevin Rose.

It makes tracking your fasting and eating very easy. It’s available for both IOS and droids.

So, the bottom line is that Time Restricted Eating can significantly improve your health, and if you are presently eating a typical American diet of meat and potatoes combined with a lot of sugar and processed food, then eliminating the sugar and processed food from your diet, while increasing your consumption of fresh vegetables and leafy greens will create changes within your body that will blow you away.

Seriously. You will feel decades younger and will most likely add decades of good health to your life. What a great gift for you to give to your family and yourself. It really is a no-brainer.

I’ve been doing it and LOVE the way I feel. Give it a try. It’s way easier than you think and the results are life-changing.

I would also be remiss not to let you know that all the information in this podcast is for information purposes only. You should never try any kind of changes to your diet or lifestyle without first consulting with your physician. Fasting can have negative effects and can even be dangerous for some people. Play it safe!

CLICK HERE to go to Dr. Satchin Panda's MyCircadianClock.org.

CLICK HERE to go to Rhonda Patrick PhD's first interview, "Satchin Panda, Ph.D. on Time-Restricted Feeding and Its Effects on Obesity, Muscle Mass & Heart Health." with Dr. Panda posted in July of 2016.

CLICK HERE to go to to Rhonda Patrick PhD's second interview, "Dr. Satchin Panda on Practical Implementation of Time-Restricted Eating & Shift Work Strategies" with Dr. Panda posted on October, 2017.

This is a special relaunch of The Essential Boomer Podcast so I want to share with you a great topic that can be of immense benefit to you,  and everybody else who listens. Therefore, I have chosen to share with you the awe and wonder of….

Sulforaphane... 

Okay, now don’t get all bleary-eyed on me now. I promise that if you listen to, or read, this whole podcast that you will be consuming sulforaphane within a week. So hang in here with me. It will be worth it.

Now, What if I were to tell you that there is a natural food supplement available that has been researched extensively in animal AND human studies that is shown to be one of, if not the, most powerful NATURALLY OCCURRING anti-inflammatory AND anti-oxidizing substances known to exist?

And... what if I told you that this substance has been shown to significantly lessen your chances of getting cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, liver disease, kidney disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury and depression among many others?

And…what if I told you that this same substance has been shown to successfully treat many of these serious conditions if you already are struggling with them?

And… what if I told you that this supplement can significantly affect both your quality of life and your lifespan?

And…what if I told you that this supplement is readily available in your supermarket or that you can easily and quickly grow your own with a minimal investment of just a few pennies a week?

I bet I have your attention now.

Well, all that is true. That supplement is called sulforaphane and the best source for this amazing compound is from cruciferous vegetables.

Yup, Cruciferous veggies.

These include:
Arugula
Bok Choy
Broccoli
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Collard Greens
Kale
Kohlrabi
Maca
Mizuna
Mustard Greens
Radish
Rutabaga
Turnip
Watercress
Wasabe,

YES wasabi!

   And ... broccoli sprouts

We’ll talk a lot more about broccoli sprouts in a bit.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. "Yea, yea. I know that a diet with veggies are healthy and good for you and all that blah blah blah. I thought that this was going to be about something truly powerful."

Au contraire mon frere… I’m talking about a lot more than just a healthy diet with veggies. I’m talking about a very powerful substance for the prevention and treatment of the diseases that are game-enders for people like you and me. 

Stay with me here…

First, Let’s take a broad look at some of the studies involving cruciferous veggies.

Back 2011 there was a study published in the American Journal of Clinical nutrition that showed that the people in the top 20% eating the most vegetables had a 16% reduction in their chances of dying from all non-accident causes. That covers a lot of physical causes of death. Still, no big epiphany, right? 16% meh...

BUT, if we look at the top 20% of Americans that were consumers of cruciferous vegetables then this number goes to 22%. Not bad eh?

That’s just the very tip of the iceberg. 

Cruciferous veggies and cancer

Men who ate three or more servings per week of cruciferous vegetables show a 41% decrease in their risk of prostate cancer.

In another study, men who ate 2 or more ½ cup servings of broccoli each week saw a 51% reduction of bladder cancer, compared to the low broccoli intake group.

It even benefits smokers. People who smoked cigarettes and consumed 4.5 servings of raw cruciferous vegetables PER MONTH had a 55% reduction in lung cancer risk compared to the ones who consumed less than 2.5 servings per month.

There are also studies that show that women who consume 1 – 2 servings per day of cruciferous veggies have a 40% reduction in the risk of breast cancer compared to those who consume 1 serving or less per week.

In another study, people with bladder cancer, who consumed at least an average of 3.9 servings of raw broccoli per month, saw a 57% reduction in bladder cancer mortality and a 43% reduction in overall mortality rate, compared to those that had one serving per month.

Obviously, there is something very interesting and powerful going on with cruciferous veggies. But what?

I’m going to get a bit geeky for a bit here so stick with me.

All cruciferous veggies contain substances called glucosinolates.

One of these glucosinolates is called glucoraphanin.

When the glucoraphanin in the veggie is lightly cooked, chewed or crushed it changes, with the help of an enzyme, to become what is called an isothiocyanate.

Sulforaphane is one of the isothiocyanates, that has received a lot of scientific scrutiny because of its amazing potency.

In technical terms, sulforaphane is one of the most potent activators of the NRF2 genetic pathway which regulates over 200 different genes, many of which are anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory. So, they are responsible for de-activating many harmful compounds within your body.

To you and me, this means that it affects a lot very important processes that directly affect our immune systems and how we age.

Broccoli sprouts contain the highest concentrations of glucoraphanin, which becomes sulforaphane.

It has 100 times more of this precursor than broccoli.

Now if you’re eyes are crossed that will be pretty much be it for the hyper-geeky talk

It’s important to say here that a lot of the studies with sulforaphane has been done on animals so we have to be careful not to use them as absolute proof that they’ll work for people. But, there is a fast-growing list of studies on humans with sulforaphane that show great promise for replicating the impressive results found in the animal studies.

The bottom line is the sulforaphane, found in cruciferous veggies, can significantly reduce your risk of cancer, along with many other diseases. One way that it does this is by preventing and repairing damage to your DNA.

One of the amazing properties of sulforaphane is that it is able to selectively target and kill cancer cells, while having very little effect on the non-cancerous cells.

Sulforaphane and cancer

Sulforaphane kills colorectal cancer cells, breast cancer cells, cervical cancer cells, oral squamous cell carcinoma cells, liver cancer cells, leukemia cells and prostate cancer cells.
There are several studies looking at the effect of sulforaphane in men with prostate cancer.

In one study, men given sulforaphane decreased their PSA doubling rate by 86% compared to the placebo group. 86%!

Guys, are you hearing that?

Sulforaphane has been shown to be very effect a deactivating and removing carcinogens from the body, such as benzene, which is associated with air pollution, automobile exhaust and cigarette smoke.

Studies have also shown how sulforaphane has demonstrated the remarkable ability to prevent the growth of tumors as well as slowing the growth of existing tumors in animal and people. Hell, sulforaphane has been shown to actually remove cancer cells from the body.

Multiple studies show that three to five servings of sulforaphane per week, in the form of cruciferous veggies, is able to reduce your risk of cancer by 30 to 40%. Wow. I’ll talk more about portions and servings in a bit.

The bottom line is that sulforaphane can significantly decrease your chances of getting cancer and if you do have cancer it can significantly and positively affect the progression of the cancer.

How about the effects of sulforaphane on heart disease?

Many studies have show that the consumption of sulforaphane can significantly lower many of the common risk factors for cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke.
Sulforaphane has been shown to lower the LDL cholesterol and increase the HDL cholesterol in humans.

It has also been shown to decrease blood pressure in rats with hypertension.

It also has been shown to protect the heart against oxidative stress and reduced the heart damage after heart attacks in rats.

One of the driving factors for heart disease, as well as many other diseases is inflammation.

Inflammation

Inflammation, and the bio-markers it produces, is the single most important predictor of successful aging and cognition.

Sulforaphane has been shown in multiple studies to have a significant effect on inflammation in humans. Through this mechanism sulforaphane has been shown to protect against hardening of the arteries along with inhibiting blood clot formation in rats.

Effects on brain behavior

Inflammation has also been shown to adversely affect the brain. Sulforaphane has been shown to cross the blood/brain barrier and therefore has a direct affect on the metabolic processes within the brain. There are studies using sulforaphane in young men with autism that show that sulforaphane improved autistic behavior checklist scores and improved social interaction, abnormal behavior and verbal communication.

Another study showed that sulforaphane was able to improve cognitive impairment in small group of medicated patients with schizophrenia.

Can sulforaphane help me if I get the flu?

It appears so. In human studies sulforaphane increased the human antiviral response as well as reducing the amount of virus with the body. It was also shown to help prevent HIV infection.

How about protection from bacteria? Does sulforaphane have antibiotic properties?

Yup. In one study, sulforaphane was able to inhibit 23 out of 28 tested bacterial and fungal species. Sulforaphane has been shown to increase the antimicrobial processes in humans.

How about Depression?

There is a lot of evidence that nutrition places a large role in depression. Again, inflammation has been shown to play a causal role in depression. Sulforaphane was able to illicit the anti-inflammation properties of the brain and in conjunction, the symptoms of depression, found in mice. It was shown to be more effective then Prozac.

Yes, these were mice and we need to wait for human studies to claim the same result in people. But it is very promising seeing that we both use the same metabolic process in inflammation and the resulting depression.

What about the effect of sulforaphane on neuro-degenerative diseases?

Brain inflammation and high oxidative stress are very prominent in neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington’s Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease so the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties of Sulforaphane appear to have a positive effect on these diseases.

Sulforaphane has also been shown to increase dopamine levels, reduce tremors and tremors in mice genetically altered to replicate the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

It has also been shown to increase spatial working memory and working memory in mice injected with chemicals that cause them to experience the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. And It has been shown to clear aggregates in mice induced to have the symptoms of Huntington’s disease.

Traumatic Brain Injury has a strong association with inflammation of the brain and studies have shown sulforaphane increases the brains ability to heal itself while also reducing inflammation.

Sulforaphane has also been shown to protect against seizures in rats.

In studies with rats, sulforaphane was shown to significantly inhibit both the development and severity of MS-like disease symptoms thus decreasing the disease progression and demyelination in the spinal cord.

Can sulforaphane provide any benefits for people with osteoporosis?

It is looking very promising. Sulforaphane has been shown to increase bone production and volume by about 20% in mice. It appears to do this by increasing the functionality of the osteoclasts, the cells that produce more bone while reducing the activity of the osteoblasts, the cells that dissolve your bone cells.

Can sulforaphane protect my liver?

 Yes! In a human study with men that had fatty livers, sulforaphane improved liver function over the control group. It has been shown to protect the liver from a several liver diseases caused by alcohol, drugs, toxic chemicals and high-caloric diets.

How about my kidneys?

Yes again. Sulforaphane has been shown, in studies with animals prevent inflammation and kidney damage from cisplatin, a drug used in chemotherapy.

Would you like some natural protection from the damaging rays of the sun?

Sulforaphane again. Yep. It has been shown to provide protection against both UVA and UVB sunburn and skin damage.

It can even protect your skin against blistering.

Sulforaphane sounds too good to be true. Next you’re gonna tell me that it can help with my baldness… Well…

Sulforaphane may also be able to help you to increase your hair growth. Androgenic alopecia is the most common kind of hair loss. There’s a study that shows, in mice, a fairly strong response to sulforaphane for re-growing lab-induced hair loss.

What about negative effects? What would happen if I consumed too much sulforaphane?

Well, there was some concern about creating iodine deficiency leading to goiter, but that only seems to be a possible for people with a very limited intake of iodine intake to start with. In a randomized, double-blind studies on humans consuming approximately the amount of sulforaphane that was used in many other animal and human studies it was shown that there were zero people who experienced negative effects on their thyroid or any liver toxicity.

So it certainly seems like the potential benefits of sulforaphane far outweigh any potential harm.

Growing your own broccoli sprouts!

Okay, so by now you are probably ready to get your hands on some broccoli sprouts tout suite. Luckily, broccoli sprout seeds are easily available and growing the sprouts in a wide-mouth quart mason jar is a very efficient, safe, and easy way to keep a constant supply of them on hand.

You can pick up wide-mouth, quart, mason jars from a variety of sources very cheaply. I would make sure to have 4 – 6 of these on hand to ensure that you always have a fresh supply of your beloved broccoli sprouts available.

You should also pick up a wide-mouth screen lid for your mason jars to enable you to easily rinse and drain the broccoli sprouts during your sprouting. These can be had for abut $3-$4 apiece on Amazon. You can jury-rig your own screens with different screening materials but I like the stainless steel ones because they are easy to clean and won’t absorb any bacteria or water, like some netting material might.

You can also pick up a 2 ½ lb back of seeds from Amazon and other sources for around $40 or so. This amount is enough to keep you up to your neck in broccoli sprouts for months.

So, once you get all your materials together it’s time to actually grow those little puppies.

I suggest processing one jar per day to make it so you will have a crop of sprouts available every day. There are a lot of videos on YouTube showing you how to grow broccoli sprouts. There are some minor variations but the method that I use is as follows:

1 – Add 2 tablespoons of the broccoli sprout seeds to an empty mason jar

2 – Add fresh water to about ½ to ¾ high in the jar

3 - Attach the screened lid on the top and then place it in a cupboard or cool, dark place to set overnight.

4 – You will then set up a routine where you rinse the seeds and baby sprouts twice a day with 2 rinses of fresh water. I always let the water fill to overflowing through the screen and then swirl it around a bit and then let the water completely drain out. This prevents the growth of bacteria and mold.

5 – Then I store the inverted jars at about a 45 degree angle in a kitchen strainer that I have that fits over ½ of my sink in the kitchen. Some people use a small bowel and others get a fancy dancy stand to hold it at the 45 degree angle. This will allow for adequate light and drainage for the sprouts. You will end up with 4 – 6 inverted jars with sprouts of varying degrees of growth. It’s pretty cool.

6 – Keep up the above routine until around day six or seven when you have a jar packed with green broccoli sprouts. They are then ready to consume or freeze.

Me, I freeze mine for several reasons. First, it allows me to safely store the sprouts for future use without worrying about them going bad.

Second, it allows me to easily get ahead of my almost daily consumption of the sprouts.

So, now you have a quart jar jam-packed with wonderful looking sprouts ready for action. What now?

How many sprouts should you consume for an effective dose to get all the benefits?

According to Dr. Rhonda Patrick, there is a wide range with the amount of sulforaphane that is used in the various studies. Using the quart mason jar method, each jar filled with raw broccoli sprouts yields about 120 milligrams of sulforaphane. This is within the single dose range that show beneficial effects in most of the studies. It’s important to know that this is based on the raw sprouts.

Now, if you consume the sprouts raw, then you must either chew them or crush them to enable the process of converting the sprouts to sulforaphane.

You can significantly increase the bio-availability, and thus the total amount of sulforaphane by gently boiling or steaming the raw sprouts for no more than 10 minutes at 158 degrees F. Any longer or hotter and you will significantly decrease the sulforaphane. This heating can increase the bio-availability of sulforaphane by up to 2-3 times the amount found in the raw sprouts. You can then just drink it like a tea, etc.

But, and this is a big but, There is another great option for you - Freezing the broccoli sprouts!

If you freeze the broccoli sprouts and then create a smoothie where you add them while they are still frozen, and then drink them right away, then you will increase the bio-availability of the sulforaphane by 2 – 3 times.

That in-turn greatly increases how many doses you can get from a single one-quart mason jar meaning that a single quart jar full of sprouts can easily make 2 – 3 single doses.

This is great news because the broccoli sprouts have a flavor that is not enjoyed by most people. I’m kind of weird. I like it. But then again, I’ve always been a goat when it comes to veggies.

To me they taste like radishes, so having a smoothie made only of coconut water and frozen broccoli sprouts tastes just like a radish-flavored drink. So I like it but Laura, my way better half has to actually brush her teeth right after consuming it because of the repugnant flavor so you may want to experiment with different combinations of fruits or veggies in your smoothie to make it more palatable.

Here is a big-time tip for making sure that your frozen sprouts don’t get ice-burned and stay fresh-like. I use a FOODSAVER vacuum Sealer to store all my sprouts. They sell for about $175 on amazon.  It makes it very convenient and easy to store individual doses in your freezer.

I divide all the sprouts from one mason jar into two portions and then seal them with the Foodsaver and toss them in the freezer. Each portion is enough for 2 to 3 people.

So. Are you now ready to grow your own sprouts?  Go for it. You will be amazed at how good you feel. Your body will thank you. And do you really want to pack some power to your diet? Just add some cruciferous veggies like broccoli, cauliflower and Brussel sprouts to your weekly diet. Talk about health insurance that is also delicious. Wow.

IMPORTANT! This podcast is meant to be for general information purposes only. It should not be construed to be medical advice. It is highly recommended that you only make changes to your diet or lifestyle while under the supervision of a medical professional.

CLICK HERE to watch Rhonda Patrick PhD's video on Sulforaphane and Its Effects on Cancer, Mortality, Aging, Brain and Behavior, Heart Disease & More.

Episode 51 marks the one-year anniversary of the essential boomer podcast and in honor of the of this I’m bringing back the guest who started it all for me back in episode one, Paul Zavagno.  

Paul is an educator, a retired school principal, a great humanitarian and a certified facilitator of the work of Byron Katie and he is my life-long friend. So in this episode we do a deep-dive into Paul’s actual coaching practice.

In the interview Paul answers the following questions:

• Can you tell us the story of how you were attracted to this particular practice of life coaching?
• Will you tell us the story of how Byron Katy came to create this method of life coaching?
• It seems that this work, like a lot of great teachings is built upon a very simple basic structure. Do you think that that contributes to its effectiveness?
• Was Byron Katie influenced by Buddhism in creating The Work?
• What does a typical coaching session look like?
• Are there any benefits of this type of coaching for people who are suffering from chronic physical issues?
• Does this type of work would lend itself well for people facing the ends of their lives such as in hospice?
• Do you have any final words of advice that you’d like to share with your fellow boomers?

Paul Zavagno's Contact Info:

CLICK HERE to go to Paul's coaching website 

CLICK HERE to email Paul

Follow Paul on Twitter

CLICK HERE for more information on the work of Byron Katie.

Paul is a board member of the Infinity foundation

Paul is also very active with the organization, Habitat for Humanity.

In episode #50, I’m very pleased to present part II of my conversation with Mel Friedman, Doctor of Osteopathy. In this episode Mel, as he likes to be called, shares his spiritual beliefs and how he applies these beliefs to his recipe for a healthy lifestyle. If you haven’t heard Part I of this interview with Mel, then I strongly encourage you to listen to episode 49 before listening to this one. In part I, Mel talks extensively about medicine, healing and his practice of osteopathy.

In Part II Mel answers the following questions:
• What do you think happens to our spirits when we die?
• What is your recipe for a healthy lifestyle?
• Do you have any final advice for us boomers who may benefit from osteopathy, yet are reticent to come to you?
• Where is the best place for people to go for more information AND how can somebody get in touch with you if they are interested in your treatments?

CLICK HERE to contact Mel Friedman D.O.

CLICK HERE for information on the American Osteopathic Association.

CLICK HERE for information on the American Academy of Osteopathy, which is the branch of Osteopathy that utilizes hands-on therapy. 

CLICK HERE for information on the Osteopathic Cranial Academy, of which Mel was a past president, and the branch of Osteopathy of which he identifies himself the most. 

In episode 49, You will hear Part I of this 2 Part series in which I have a fascinating in-depth conversation with Mel Friedman D.O.. In it, Mel, as he likes to be called, gives us an intimate look into his heart, mind and the path he took from being a disillusioned family practice doctor to becoming a true healer. Mel talks in detail about osteopathy, life and death. I have never met a anybody like Mel. 

In Part I of this 2-part series, Mel talks about his life crises as a traditional doctor and the events that led him to osteopathy.

Mel shares with us the different approaches to medicine that osteopathic doctors share compared to traditional doctors and the misconceptions that many people, INCLUDING osteopaths, have in regards to osteopathy. He also shares how his techniques and methods for healing, which were once the mainstay of osteopathy, yet now are only practiced by 1% of all osteopaths. Mel  walks us through a typical session and shares his thought process as he is working with his patients.

This conversation with Mel certainly changed the way I look at health, medicine and healing. I think that you will love this interview. So sit back, relax and open your mind and your heart. You are in for a very special treat. Enjoy.

CLICK HERE to contact Mel Friedman D.O.

CLICK HERE for information on the American Osteopathic Association.

CLICK HERE for information on the American Academy of Osteopathy, which is the branch of Osteopathy that utilizes hands-on therapy. 

CLICK HERE for information on the Osteopathic Cranial Academy, of which Mel was a past president, and the branch of Osteopathy of which he identifies himself the most. 

In episode 48, I have Chris Roddell as my guest on the essential boomer. Chris is the author of Use All the Crayons! The Colorful Guide to Simple Human Happiness, the only self-improvement book graced with a cover endorsement by the legendary golfer & pitchman Arnold Palmer.

Chris is a fellow boomer who will do just about anything for a good story. His latest work is “The Last Baby Boomer: The Story of the Ultimate Ghoul Pool,” a story with a very intriguing premise, especially for us boomers. Or as he puts it, “It’s a coming of old, old age story. Because everyone has to die. But only one of us gets to die last.”

Chris talks about the following:

• Chris talks about The Last Baby Boomer: The Story of the Ultimate Ghoul Pool, and how you came up with the idea for it.
• Chris talks about his days with The Inquirer and shares stories about some of the lengths that he went through to get a good story.
• Chris talks about his blog Eight Days to Amish.
• Chris talks about how his spirituality has influenced his writings.
• Chris also talks about his childhood and the type of kid he was.
• Chris shares some of his bucket list.
• Chris talks about how he would like to be remembered.
• Chris share his advice for baby boomers who are aspiring writers.

CLICK HERE to go to Chris’s website - Eight Days to Amish

CLICK HERE to purchase The Last Baby Boomer: The Story of the Ultimate Ghoul Poolk

CLICK HERE to purchase Use All the Crayons! The Colorful Guide to Simple Human Happiness

CLICK HERE to contact Chris Rodell

I really appreciate your interest and support. Subscribing and leaving a review for my podcast is by far the best way to get it seen by more people. CLICK HERE to subscribe and/or to leave a review to THE ESSENTIAL BOOMER podcast on iTunes.

Thank you so much!

Jim Jensen

In episode 47 of The Essential Boomer, Jim Jensen talks about how to avoid being a victim of telephone scams.

While on vacation in Hawaii I hear the phone ringing in the condominium that we were renting. Naturally I pick up the phone.

“Hello (In thick Indian accent), I am calling from Microsoft Tech support and I’m calling about your computer.”

I instantly recognize that the call is a scam so I decide to have some fun…

“What about my computer?” 

“I’m calling to inform you that we have detected a very dangerous virus on your computer’s hard-drive.”

“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m sorry but I’m not very computer literate.”

“Yes, I understand. I will explain it to you. This is Microsoft Tech support and we have detected a virus in the boot sector of your computer. If you do not remove this virus immediately it will spread to your entire hard-drive and then corrupt your data and then crash your computer.”

“Oh no. This is terrible. I have all my personal and financial information on that computer. Can you help me?”

“Yes, I can help you right now. Is your computer on?”

“No, I’ll need to start it up. It may take a moment for It is very slow to start up because it is very old.”

“That’s okay, please boot up your computer.”

“You mean turn it on right?”

“Yes sir, I mean for you to turn on your computer.”

“Okay…but it’s located in the other room and as I said, it’s rather slow to start up so it may take a while.”

“That’s okay, go start up your computer right now and let me know when it’s ready.”

“Okay, hold on, I’ll be right back…”

I then put the speaker phone on and sit back to silently wait…After about a minute I hear him say…

“Hello, can you hear me?”

“Hello…?”

“Sir, can you hear me?”

“Sir…hello sir…are you there”

“hello?”

“sir can you hear me? Sir? Hello?”

“Hello? are you there sir? Hello?”

“Hello sir? Can you hear me? Sir?”

“Hello?...please pick up the phone sir…”

so I sense that he is getting very impatient so I finally pick the phone up….

“Yes, I’m still going to start up my computer.”

“Sir, why is it taking so long?”

“Because it’s in another room that isn’t close to the phone.”

“I understand sir. Tell me, How far is that room from the phone?”

“Oh, I’d say probably around 2,500 miles. You see, I’m on vacation and not at my house.”

“……….click…………..dial tone.”

This conversation actually happened earlier this week when we were away on vacation. Coincidently, I also received a call about a month ago at home. So If I’m getting this many calls from these scammers, I can only imagine how many of you are also receiving telephone calls from scammers.

First of all, I don’t want to in any way profile the people of India as scammers. That is simply not true. But it is also true that many of the telephone scams originate in India. It just goes to show you that there are a few bad eggs in every country. 

I know that a lot of you are already hip to these scams and so this may be old news, but judging by how many of these I’ve been receiving there must be a whole lot of people out there still falling for them.

In fact, according to Truecaller, which is a worldwide telephone number look-up service, a little over 1 in 10 American adults lost money in phone scams in 2015. Which is over a 50% increase from 2014, so a lot of people are still falling for them…and these scams have cost 27 million Americans around $7.4 billion dollars.

27 million Americans! That’s a lot of people falling for these telephone scams. Who is falling for these scams? And why? What type of person is most likely to fall prey to a telephone scammer?

In her article, 10 Types of People Who Fall for Scams, Schemes and Cons, for MoneyTalksNews, Marilyn Lewis talks about the factors behind why various people are more likely to fall for scams than others.

In the paper she sites some findings from the AARP report, Caught in the Scammers Net. According to the report, it’s not just one group, like seniors, or women. There are actually many factors involved like the type of scam, such as the Microsoft tech support scam or the currently popular IRS scam.

So the 10 people mentioned in her article are:

1 - White males

White males are more likely to become victims of Investment fraud. This is because many white males are in the market for investments and therefore are more likely to fall for a bogus investment scheme

2 - Older adults

Yes, we boomers and seniors do get targeted more and are therefore victimized a lot. There are many factors that make us both more susceptible and less susceptible. I think that one of the big reasons that we’re so susceptible is that we are simply more likely to answer a ringing phone. There was a time when almost all telephone calls were important and it would be unconscionable to not answer the phone.

Us boomers and seniors weren’t raised with answering machines and caller ID. Try calling up your daughter or grandson and you will most likely end up in their voice mail. It’s almost like they have a phobia about talking on the phone. How many of you now have full length conversations with your kids or grandkids via siri and text messaging? Yea, I thought so.

3 - Younger People

but, just to make you feel better it’s actually younger people, particularly the male millennials that are most likely to be a victim of telephone scams. See, those wisdom of age has its place. Who knew?

4 – People living in Florida

According federal trade commission data, Florida is the number one state for consumer fraud complaints averaging about 1,000 per 100,000 residents. Yea, this makes sense too. We all know that there is a high senior population in Florida so the scammers focus on this state.

5 – the lonely

According to the AARP report 66% of the victims of scams feel lonely and isolated. This is why there is such a high percentage of fraud within dating sites. People are very vulnerable and want to believe that the person at the other end is prince charming and not Ralph the ripoff artist.

6 – The Internet

Marilyn also talks about how many people who are wary and distrustful of telephone calls become complacent and end up getting victimized by scammers on the internet. I mean, you can trust everything on the internet right?

7 -   Extroverted and Agreeable people

People who are open, talkative, optimistic and agreeable are way more likely to become victims than their counterparts who are way, suspicious, pessimistic and introverted.

8 – In debt

Marilyn states that people in debt are more likely to be approached and fall for debt consolidation scams and other types of fraud in the guise o helping them get out of debt. which leads logically to number 9

9 – Desperate people.

People in debt are often very desperate and grasping at straws to find a way out of debt. Scammers also often prey on people who are desperate as a result of natural disasters, illness and as mentioned before, loneliness.

10 – Being Human

Yep, if you fall into the category of a human being, which I’m guessing that you do, than you most likely are vulnerable in one way or another. We all have our beliefs, and blind spots.

So now let’s take a quick look at the top 10 telephone scams to watch out for, according to Susan Ladika in her article,

Top 10 phone scams to watch out for  on creditcards.com.

No 1 is the credit card reductions scam.

This is the most prevalent scam out there according to a 2014 report by Pindrop Security. Almost everybody carries some kind of credit card debt. You get a phone call promising to reduce the rates on your credit cards. All you have to do is pay a and upfront fee and provide the caller with your personal information, most likely including your credit card numbers, social security number, financial accounts and who knows what else. In return you end up losing hundreds to thousands of dollars and become a victim of identity theft.

No. 2. Home security systems

In this one you get a call promising you a free security system. They may provide a list of all the break-in and robberies in your area. This may sound too good to be true. Well, so far it may be true, but beware, after signing on the bottom line you will soon get the enormous bill for the monitoring fees. And those bills will be coming each month for years.

No. 3. Spam text messages

In this scam you get a text message on your smart phone informing that you have won a prize and all you have to do is call a number or go to a website. What they don’t say is that that the call is from identity thieves who want to gain your personal information and possible to surreptitiously place malware on your computer to gain access to your information.

No. 4. Fake Free cruises

Like number 3, in this one you also typically get a text message informing you that you are the winner of a free cruise. All you have to do is pay them a small fee and taxes, for which they want you to use your credit card. Aloha.

No. 5. Bogus Government grants

In this one, an official sounding person calls and tells you that you are the happy winner of a huge government grant, just for being a good guy or gal. Doesn’t sound fishy at all to me. All you have to do is provide your credit card or bank information to pay that small processing fee. For the record.

No. 6. Microsoft tech support

Ah..yes, this is the one that I always seem to get as mentioned at the beginning of this podcast. Somebody, with an Indian accent, I’ve had both men and women call me, pretends that they are from Microsoft tech support or something related and then have you go through some gyrations with your computer to convince you that your computer is infected with a virus that will spread and kill your computer and anything else with a 20 mile radius. Don’t fall for it. I LOVE to string them along and waste their time by playing along and pretending that I’m a total computer illiterate. It’s pretty funny sometimes.

No. 7. Auto insurance ID thieves

This again is a variation on the same theme where the caller tells you that you are eligible for a lower rate of car insurance and then tries to get your personal information. Again, it’s another scam at trying to gain you personal information for identity thievery.

No. 8. Payday loans

The caller is able to obtain your number from your application for a payday loan, which on it’s own, isn’t a good idea, but the caller claims to be a debt collector demanding payment and a late fee. If you don’t pay them they may threaten you with arrest or worse.

No. 9. IRS scam

This is a scam that has reached epidemic proportions. The caller claims to be from the IRS and demands immediate payment on taxes and penalties, usually with a prepaid card, wire transfer or credit card. Sounds fishy huh? It is.

No. 10. Bank scams

Another variation on a theme, but this time the caller claims to be from your bank and informs you that your accounts or credit card has been frozen, locked, caput, and you need to provide account verification to have them released to your custody.

So what you can do to protect yourself? Here are some solid tips.

• I know it’s like fingernails on a blackboard for many boomers and seniors but one great way to avoid phone scams of any kind is to stop automatically answering the phone. If you don’t recognize the number on caller ID then let it go to the answering machine. If you don’t have an answering machine than it’s a great idea to get one. If the call is really important or from somebody that you know than they will leave a message.
• Trust your instincts. If something doesn’t feel right than it probably isn’t.
• If it sounds too good to be true…it ain’t true.
• If somebody claims to be from your bank, credit card company or some other official sounding source then contact your company independently, either by phone or by going to their actual website. Don’t trust any information that people provide to you over the phone.
• If you feel yourself getting emotionally upset than that itself is a sign that someone is trying to scam you. Scammers try to instill fear into their victims. Hang up, take a break and then check on your own to make sure that all is well.
• If you think that you’re talking to a scammer than the best thing is to just hang up.
• and me, I rarely answer the phone unless I recognize the number but on those rare occasions when I do get a scammer I love to play along with them. Making a call from India or another country is expensive and so I love to do my best golly gosh oh gee whiz, slackjaw jim impersonation and just keep them on the line while playing with their heads. I know, it’s childish and not very evolved but I sure do enjoy it.
• a great resource to check on scams is the AARP’s Fraud Watch network. It has a lot of up-to-date valuable information on scams of all types.
• Another good source is the Fraud Watch State map within the AARP website.  It has links to law enforcement alerts and notices about scams in your state. If your hip to the existing scams than you’ll know them when you hear them.
• If you do get a call from a scammer than report it to the AARP Foundation Fraud Watch Helpline at 877 908-3360.
• I’ll provide a link to this and other great sources for information in the shownotes to this episode located at essentialboomer.guide/scams
• Get inoculated: In “The 10 Golden Rules of Scam Prevention” Money Talks News founder Stacy Johnson outlines tip-offs to cons and scams.
• AARP’s Fraud Watch Network is a good source for people of all ages to learn about new scams and find out how to spot them and to stay safe.
• The Fraud Watch state map links to law enforcement alerts and notices about scams in your state.
• Report fraud to the AARP Foundation Fraud Watch Helpline: 877-908-3360.

In episode 45 I have a fascinating conversation with Cory Kidd PhD, who shares his story of creating Mabu, the amazing robotic health care companion who is making friends everywhere.

Cory is the founder and CEO of Catalia Health, a healthcare technology company focused on delivering effective behavioral change. Cory is a serial entrepreneur who has been working in healthcare technology for nearly two decades.He received his M.S. and Ph.D at the MIT Media Lab in human-robot interaction and he received his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at the Georgia institute of technology.

Cory answers the following questions:

• How did you come to create Catalia health and Mabu?
• Why Mabu? How did you come up with that name?
• What can Mabu can do?
• How does Mabu learn and process information?
• What kind of information can she provide a patient?
• Is there any way to communicate with Mabu if you are away from home?
• Does Mabu always take on a female persona and if so, why?
• Does Mabu speak any foreign languages?
• So patients are sharing a lot of personal and confidential information to Mabu. What happens to the information obtained by Mabu? Is it safe?
• How have users responded to living with Mabu?
• What has been your biggest surprise from people interacting with Mabu?
• How much does Mabu costs and how can somebody get one?
• Do you have any active studies going on with Mabu? If so, how can somebody interested sign up?
• What do you see as the future for Mabu and artificial intelligence in medicine and patient care?
• Where can people go to get more information and to contact you?

Resources Mentioned by Dr. Kidd:

Autom - Cory's research project at MIT

Catalia Health - Cory Kidd is the founder and CEO of Catalia Health, which is developing Mabu.

CLICK HERE to see the video of how Mabu works

CLICK HERE to contact Cory Kidd, PhD

 How to Subscribe and leave a review for The Essential Boomer podcast

I really appreciate your interest and support. Subscribing and leaving a review for my podcast is by far the best way to get it seen by more people. CLICK HERE to subscribe and/or to leave a review to THE ESSENTIAL BOOMER podcast on iTunes.

Thank you so much!

Jim Jensen

In episode 45 I have a conversation with registered dietitian, Anne Kolker, who has worked with Kaiser Permanente since 2008. Anne is one very busy lady. She facilitates healthy weight and behavioral change classes, works one on one with teens, children and families with nutritional counseling, presents nutrition seminars to a variety of companies, teaches online classes using Webex and coordinates employee wellness events.

Anne also writes nutrition articles for Nourish Interactive, a web based company that supports parents by providing them with useful information to help them improve their families’ health and educating children about the importance of nutrition and exercise. On top of all that she’s the mother of 3 children.

So obviously, Anne knows a thing or two about diets, weight loss and nutrition.

In the interview Anne discusses the following topics:

• The biggest misconceptions that people have about nutrition
• The foods that have the most positive affect on our health
• The foods that we should avoid
• The many diet fads over the years and what approach she recommends for weight loss that is safe, healthy, and sustainable
• How our eating behaviors affect our diet and health and what are the best ways to improve them
• the health benefits of alcohol, particularly beer and wine, my favorites
• The safety and effectiveness of the ketone, or ketonic diet
• The veracity of the alkaline diet
• What Anne’s own personal diet looks like
• Nutritional and dietary resources that she recommends

• Advice for maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle

CLICK HERE to email Anne

CLICK HERE to go to the Academy of Dietetics and Nutrition

CLICK HERE  to go to the Mayo Clinic Nutrition & Healthy Eating

CLICK HERE to purchase Date of Slim, James O. Hills latest book

CLICK HERE to go to Kaiser Permanente Healthy Eating

CLICK HERE to go to Anne's Healthy Eating, Active Living, for Kids & Adults

In episode 44, I have a conversation with Dating Coach, Tedx speaker AND the host of last first date radio, Sandy Weiner. You may remember her from episode 24 when she shared with us boomers the low-down on how to find love after 50… or maybe you’ll remember that steamy episode 35 where she told us how to have great sex after 50 and beyond.

In this episode, Sandy shares with us the do’s and don’ts on how to make your valentine’s day special…or at the very least tolerable.

In this episode Sandy answers the following questions:

• Valentine’s day, it seems like we either love it or hate it. Why is it that so many of us have such a hard time with this holiday?

• What are the common mistakes that many of us (mostly guys) make for Valentine’s Day?

• The way we handle Valentine’s Day evolves as our relationships change. Couples just starting out face more unknowns and pressure than those of us who have been together for longer periods. What advice do you have for those just starting out as a dating couple?

• I know it’s very important to keep the fire and romance in our relationships and it’s very easy to become complacent and predictable with our romantic overtures, especially on Valentine’s Day. What advice do you have on how to keep the day special for long term couples?

• Some of us are all alone and have to deal with friends, and the media flooding us with hallmark holiday of love and roses. This can be very depressing. What’s the best way to deal with Valentine’s Day if you’re all alone?

• Do you have any final advice for us boomers on how to make the most of Valentine’s Day and better yet, how to keep that romance going for the other 364 days of the year?

• What is the latest happenings on the Last First Date?

CLICK HERE to contact Sandy Weiner

CLICK HERE to go to the Last first Date website devoted to empowering women over 40 to achieve healthy, lasting, loving relationships.

CLICK HERE to go to The Good Man Project

CLICK HERE to go to the Better after 50 website

CLICK HERE to go to episode 25 HOW TO FIND LOVE AFTER 50 with Sandy Weiner

CLICK HERE to go to episode 25 HOW TO HAVE GREAT SEX AT 50, 60 AND BEYOND with Sandy Weiner

Click Here to join The Essential Boomer Private Facebook Group.

In episode 43, Hope Arnold talks about her unique patient assistance services and how you can significantly increase your odds of having a successful surgery and recovery. Hope is a personal assistant who specializes in helping people who are having surgery. She provides "on the ground support" before and after their procedures. 

So Heads up boomers, this is valuable information for all of us

Hope answers the following questions:

- Tell us the story of how you became a personal assistant for people having surgery?

- Tell us about the patient services that you provide and why they are so important?

- How are you different from a patient advocate?

- Do you find that hospitals and their staffs are supportive of your services?

- Do you provide any type of service for people in emergency room situations?

- How do you charge for your services?

- Are your services covered by any kind of insurance like Medicare?

- Do you have any personal stories that you can share about working with your patients that demonstrate the importance of having a personal assistant for surgery?

- What do you see as the future of patient assistance?

- Do you have any parting advice for us boomers and our families facing surgery?

Click Here to go to Hope Assistance, Hope Arnold's website

Click Here to Contact Hope Arnold

Click Here to Email Jim Jensen

Jim Jensen has an illuminating conversation with Amanda Reiman PhD, MSW, of The Drug Policy Alliance, where she shares the truth about medical marijuana.

Amanda is Manager of Marijuana Law and Policy at the Drug Policy Alliance, which is the nation's leading organization promoting drug policies that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.

Amanda works to develop the Drug Policy Alliance’s marijuana reform work as it relates to litigation, legislative and initiative drafting, campaign strategy, policy advocacy, media relations, fundraising, and public education in the local, state, federal, and international jurisdictions in which the Drug Policy Alliance is active.

Amanda joined the Drug Policy Alliance in 2012 after working as director of research and patient services for the Berkeley Patients Group, a renowned medical marijuana dispensary. She has conducted many studies on medical marijuana dispensaries, patients and the use of marijuana as a treatment for addiction and regularly presents her research at the conferences of the American Public Health Association, American Psychiatric Association, International Cannabinoid Research Society and the Harm Reduction Coalition. When it comes to medicinal marijuana, she knows what she’s talking about.

Amanda discusses the following topics:

• Her work with the Drug Policy Alliance

• How she become interested in medicinal marijuana

• The recent changes in federal policy and how it affects the medical marijuana industry

• Marijuana as a schedule 1 drug

• The social and economic effects of legalizing recreational marijuana in 4 states

• The medicinal components of marijuana

• The urban myth of the two most well-known strains of marijuana – Sativa and Indica

• How marijuana affects the body and the mind

• The dangers of marijuana

• The present state of marijuana research for medicinal purposes

• Her experiences with how the use of medicinal marijuana has helped her and others with chronic conditions

• The different ways that marijuana can be consumed

• The biggest misconceptions that people have about marijuana

• Advice for somebody who may benefit from medicinal marijuana but is having a hard time resolving deep-seated biases

• Where people can go for more information on medicinal marijuana and its potential benefits

Resources Mentioned

Click Here to go to The Drug Policy Alliance

Click Here to go to NORML (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws)

Click Here to go to Americans for Safe Access

Click Here to Email Amanda Reiman PhD MSW

Click Here to Email Jim Jensen

In Episode 41 I share 16 excellent online resources where you can obtain quality trusted information on any health topic that you can think of from Medicare to foot fungus. These are the best, hand-picked resources that I love, use and can stand behind.

CLICK HERE for the PDF Checklist of the best online health & medical resources PLUS a bonus of 17 more great health resources.

Medicare Resources

medicare.gov

The best jumping off site for obtaining the latest on Medicare is medicare.gov, which is the official us government website. It really does provides a wealth of information and tools for finding doctors, providers, hospitals, plans and suppliers. You can access all of your online forms including those for replacing Medicare cards, changes of address and of course applying for a particular program.

callsamm.com

Be sure to check out the Senior Advisors for Medicare and Medicaid website, SAMM for short, which is the brainchild of Diane Daniels, the national authority on Medicare, an author, podcaster, a Medicare consultant and a past guest on the essential boomer. Diane has over 10 years of health care experience and has created a community to provide the latest essential Medicare information.
This is one my favorite resources for keeping up on the latest changes as well as a plethora of tips and valuable information that is very important for keeping you informed and up to date on your Medicare. Be sure to check out the free videos on Medicare. Do you still have questions regarding Medicare? Just shoot her an email to schedule a free consultation?

Click Here for episode 25: Medicare – What You Need to Know Now – A Conversation With Diane Daniels

Click Here for episode 39: The Big Changes to Medicare in 2016 with Diane Daniels

Medicare Q & A Tool

Another great resource is the Medicare Q&A tool located on the American Association of Retired People AARP website. This is a searchable database containing everything that you ever wanted to know about Medicare. You can search using a question or you can peruse questions by categories.
The AARP site also has a very useful Medicare Summary Decoder that holds your hand through the process of figuring out what the hell your Medicare statement is all about. It can even help you to spot errors and even fraud on your Medicare account.

Private Health Insurance

The Henry J. Kaiser family Foundation Website

An excellent source for up-to-date information on Health Insurance is The Henry J. Kaiser Family foundation website. The foundation is dedicated to providing the latest non-biased information on health insurance and global health policy. The website is fascinating and very detailed. Check out the consumer resources where they have an excellent video explaining health insurance… a Marketplace Calculator, Health Insurance quiz and health reform FAQs.

healthinsurance.org

healthinsurance.org contains a great set of tools for figuring out how much health insurance is going to cost you. You can obtain insurance quotes and therefore yes, they do sell insurance…so they have a horse in the race but whether you purchase through them or not, the site is a wealth of information on the present state of insurance.

Health Networking Resources

It can be very comforting and beneficial to communicate with other people who are dealing with the same health issues that you are. There are several excellent websites that provide this service. Some provide good old-fashioned message boards that make it very easy to exchange information online. Some of these also enable you to interact directly with health professionals, share and compare medical tests and to even provide valuable information that can be used in actual studies.

PatientsLikeMe.com

PatientsLikeMe.com is a free website where you can connect with other people from around the world who share your same health concerns. It was originally created in 2004 as a resource for people with ALS, Lou Gherigs disease, and has now expanded to cover patients with over 1200 health conditions. Patientslikeme has its own team of researchers from institutions such as Oxford University and Johns Hopkins University.

You can compare treatments, symptoms and experiences with other people just like you. It’s really very cool and informative. They also use the information on the site for research so you are really providing value to mankind via medical research. You can share as much or little information about yourself as you want to. You can meet people and join in on the conversations of others. This is really an excellent resource. Check it out.

HealthBoards.com

Healthboards.com is another free membership site where you can access hundreds of message boards where people post questions and have discussions surrounding hundreds of specific issues. There is a great section of the site called Drug Talk where you can find a plethora of information and discussions covering a comprehensive list of drugs from a to z. You can search by drug names or by the conditions that they treat. You can even create your own blog on the site to share your own experiences and information. 

DailyStrength.org

Would you like to join “…the largest and most comprehensive network of people sharing their knowledge, experiences and support?” than join dailystrength.org. It’s an excellent resource for making friends, journaling, tracking goals, sharing photos and providing support for other members.

There are over 500 support groups covering many different conditions. In this excellent website you can access hundreds of discussion boards, obtain expert advice and even find treatment reviews. And here too, You have complete control over what kind of personal information you want to share. This is another excellent resource, check it out.

Inspire.com

inspire.com is a valuable health resource for both patients AND care-givers. It covers hundreds of both common and rare conditions and has a very high level of user engagement. Their core principals state that “Inspire was created with the belief that patients and caregivers need a safe and secure place to support and connect with one another. We strive to be ethical and transparent, and we never forget that our community is built upon the trust of our members. We place the utmost value on this trust, and maintaining it is our highest priority.”

This is a free membership site which contains many communities, which are groups that focus on a particular health interest. You can participate in the groups and also one on one with friends that you trust. The interface is easy to navigate and like the others, you have complete control over the information that is shared.

Medical Information Websites

There are several websites that provide reliable, unbiased and trustworthy medical and health information covering just any and every topic that may pique your interest. Let’s take a closer look at a few of my favorites.

The Mayo Clinic

MayoClinic.org is an excellent resource for obtaining the latest and greatest medical information. It is owned by the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research and is produced by more than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers from the Mayo clinic. Even if you aren’t affiliated in any way with the hospital or school, you will still find this a very valuable resource. This site is very well organized and easy to use. You can drill down as deep as you want to on any particular topic. This site is set up for both the lay person and for medical professionals.

MedLine Plus

MedlinePlus is a website managed by the National Institute of Health. It boasts the world’s largest medical library and is visited often by both consumers and health professionals. There is extensive information on prescription and non-prescription drugs, health information from the media and something that I love, links to thousands of clinical trials. It also has a lot of health & surgery video, tutorials and even games and quizzes. It is updated daily and there are no product or company endorsements and no advertising on the site. It is very easy and intuitive to navigate the site. You’ll definitely want to bookmark this one.

WebMD

webmd.com is great site starting off point for any kind of health related research. It is site whose editorial staff include a medical team of over 100 nationwide doctors and health experts. WebMD provides their users with credible information, supportive communities and in-depth references, which I really like. I especially like the webMD symptom checker where it walks you through the process of diagnosis better than many doctors.

American Association of Retired People - AARP

The AARP website, as mentioned earlier, is also a great source for health and medical information. It has the latest in-depth information on just about every conceivable topic that may be interested to you from Health conditions & treatments, health insurance, healthy living to drugs and supplements. It’s a wonderful resource. You can find an enormous amount of information, even if you’re not a member. If you join than you have access to member discounts on insurance, the award winning AARP magazine and discounts on many products and services.

Medical Research Resources

Are you interested in keeping on top of the latest in medical research? PubMed Central, The New England Journal of Medicine and The Jama Network are the answer to your prayers. 

PubMed Central is a free digital archive of bio-medical and life sciences journal literature.

The New England Journal of Medicine publishes new medical research findings, review articles, and editorial opinion.

 The Jama Network is the most widely circulated peer-reviewed medical journal in the world.

The AARP website, as mentioned earlier, is also a great source for health and medical information. It has the latest in-depth information on just about every conceivable topic that may be interested to you from Health conditions & treatments, health insurance, healthy living to drugs and supplements. It’s a wonderful resource. You can find an enormous amount of information, even if you’re not a member. If you join than you have access to member discounts on insurance, the award winning AARP magazine and discounts on many products and services.

Alternative and Holistic Medical Resources

Are you interested in obtaining some alternative viewpoints and information for your healthcare? In my experience you really have to tread lightly when entering the land of holistic medicine. There is a lot of pseudo-science lurking in the shadows, but there is also some good information to be found.

MedlinePlus has an excellent section on complementary and integrative medicine you should check out. What is integrative medicine? It is healing oriented medicine that includes the whole person, body, mind and spirit, including one’s lifestyle. This site provides a common-sense look at alternative medicines and provides some good guidelines for determining what may work for you.

The National Institute of Health and Human Services also has a website providing a ton of information on alternative and integrative health covering all the topics from A-Z and help with finding a practitioner.

You can also try the aforementioned medical sites such as WebMD and MayoClinic.org, each of which has tons of information covering alternative, holistic and complementary medicine.

Low Income Assistance

BenefitsCheckup

Are you, or someone you love, financially vulnerable and struggling to pay for medicine, insurance or food? If so, than benefitscheckup.org is a government sponsored website that you should definitely check out. Through interactive questions it helps you to identify benefit programs that may fit your particular situation. It is a free service of the National Council on Aging. You may be able to get financial assistance with medications, food, utilities, legal help, health care, housing, in-home services, taxes, transportation and employment training.

NeedyMeds.org

Needymeds.org is a wonderful non-profit organization dedicated to affordable healthcare for all. They maintain the needymeds.org website of free information on programs for people who cannot afford medications and healthcare. All of their information is available for free and without registration. Check out their website, it is packed with vital information and resources all focused on helping consumers obtain quality, low cost healthcare.

In Episode 30, I share the latest information on how to keep your brain sharp well into your senior years. 

It was once thought that gradual and persistent mental and physical decline was the inevitable side effect of growing older. And, we were all taught that exercise could help to slow up the physical decline of our bodies, but our brain was beyond help. It was a lost cause. We now know that this is not the case at all.

In this episode I talk about:

• The usual effects of aging on the brain
• The concept of Neuroplasticity and its implications for maintaining brain health
• The major factors that affect brain health including water, nutrition, vitamins & supplements, sugar, salt, alcohol, coffee, prescription & non-prescription drugs, physical exercise and mental exercise.

The Mental Exercise Riddle

3 men go into a hotel for a room for the night. They go to the front desk where the clerk tells them that it will be $30 for one night. So each of the men paid $10 to the clerk and took their bags up to the room. After the 3 men left, the clerk realized that he forgot to give them a discount, which equaled $5 so he gave the bellboy 5 one dollar bills and told him to go upstairs and divide it among the 3 men in the room.

Well, the bellboy knew that there were only 3 men in the room and he was also not very honest so he stuffed $2 into his pocket and proceeded to go to the room and handed each man a $1 bill, making the total spent by each man, $9 instead of $10. So now 3 men x $9 each for the room equals $27 plus the $2 that the bellboy put in his pocket equals $29. What happened to the other dollar?

I will post the answer to this riddle in the show notes to Podcast #41. 

For Episode 39, I’m very excited to bring back Diane Daniels. You may remember her from episode 25 where she gave us the low-down on the present state of Medicare.

Diane is a renowned authority on Medicare and is the founder of the service, Senior Advisors for Medicare & Medicaid.  She is also the Author of The Medicare Survival Guide and the Host of the weekly podcast – Medicare Nation. Heads up boomers! This is important information that will affect you.

In this interview Diane talks about:

• Why and how to drop your Medicare Advantage Plan. If you are dissatisfied with your Medicare Advantage Plan, from January 1^st to February 14^th 2016 you can drop your Medicare Advantage Plan and go back on your regular Medicare Plan.
• Why the cost of your premium for Medicare Part B may be higher.
• How delaying your Social Security Benefits may cause you to pay higher rates in Medicare Part – B.
• Who really pays for people on Medicare and Medicaid?
• The changes to Medicare Part D, your prescription drug plan, and why it will cost you more.
• The irons that Diane has in the fire for 2016 and beyond.

Click Here to contact Diane Daniels

Click Here to buy The Medicare Survival Guide – 2015 Edition by Diane Daniels

Click Here to go to the Seniors Advisors for Medicare & Medicaid Website

Click Here to go to Senior Advisors for Medicare & Medicaid Facebook Page

Click Here to go to Diane’s Medicare Nation podcast

Click Here to go to the Government Medicare Website

Click Here to join The Essential Boomer Private Facebook Group.

Hello fellow boomers and happy 2016! I want to start of the new year by highlighting some of the big changes that occurred in 2015 to Social Security, Medicare and your IRAs that may have a direct effect on your healthcare and your pocketbook in 2016 and beyond. To do this I’m going to bring back some great guests from past shows to share their insights and expertise.

This week’s podcast, # 38, will feature a talk with Chris Stein & Jim Saulnier about some big changes that took place in 2015 to Social Security as well as Qualified charitable distributions or QCD’s and lastly about myRA’s and how they can be a great starter IRA for your grand kids.

Happy holidays to all of my fellow boomers & honorary boomers. This episode contains a holiday greeting where I share with you what Christmas means to me.

Laura, Romey, Lola (in memory) and I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, Pancha Ganapati, Kwanzaa, and a joyful festivus!, I also wish you all a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2016.

Just a quick heads up too that I will be taking next week off of my podcast, to celebrate the holidays with my family.

Be sure to catch my highlights of 2015 show which will air on January 5th 2016, where I will talk about the big changes that took place in 2015 that will directly affect you, and your pocket book. I have some great guests lined up so don’t miss it. I also have some exciting changes coming to the Essential boomer that you won’t want to miss.

I want to thank my partner in life, Laura, for her undying support and encouragement of my podcasting venture with the many hours I spent in front of my computer and microphone. I’m am so very lucky to have her in my life. I also want to thank all of my past guests for generously taking the time to share their expertise and wisdom with my incredible boomer audience. I also want to give a big thankyou to all of the people, including all of my podcasting buds who have supported, encouraged and mentored me in this amazing venture. I am so much richer with you in my life. And, I also want to give a huge shout out to my good friend Mr. Dave Hydie for allowing me to use his incredible blues music for the essential boomer. He definitely provides the soul of the essential boomer.

And most of all I want to thank you so very much for listening to my podcast, visiting my website and joining the essential boomer. I am so grateful for your continued support and interest. I love you guys.

Happy Holidays!

Jim & Laura & Romey

In episode 36, I talk about sleep, why it’s so good for us, what can make it go south, and 21 Safe and Simple things that you can easily do to give yourself the best chance to have the highest quality sleep possible.

The importance of good sleep

Sleep is very important for people of every age. There is a close relationship between the quality of sleep you get and the quality of your life…and as we age, it becomes even more important because regular, quality sleep is vital for good concentration and memory, which as you know is often not what it used to be for us boomers. Sleep allows our bodies to repair the   cellular damage that occurs during the day.

Regular quality sleep supports our immune systems to help ward off the legions of viruses and disease that are relentlessly assaulting our bodies. Studies also suggest that poor sleep may contribute to increased inflammation, which may increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Studies also show that people who sleep on an average of seven to eight hours a night live longer and better than the people who experience too little or too much sleep.

In one study, from the Obesity Society, it was shown that just one night of poor sleep could be the equivalent of 6 months of consuming a poor, high-fat diet when it comes to insulin impairment, which can lead to heart disease and diabetes. Imagine what a week of sleep deprivation could do to your body.

Okay, so the big takeaway here is that maintaining a healthy lifestyle and improving longevity depends on establishing and maintaining healthy sleep habits. I’m sure that we’re all on board here.

 So now here’s the rub for us boomers. As we age, it often becomes more difficult to get regular quality sleep. There are many factors that can rob us of a healthy night’s sleep. Heck, just worrying about being able to get a good nights sleep can deprive you of your beauty rest. Quality sleep can be very elusive. The good news is that studies show that the number one, numero uno thing that we can do to improve our sleep is to establish healthy sleep hygiene. Download the free PDF to get the entire list which contains detailed instructions for multiple proven techniques to help you sleep better.

Click Here to get the free PDF - 21 Safe & Simple Ways to Improve Your Sleep

Improving your sleep hygiene with some or all of these tips will go a long way to help you to consistently get a good night’s sleep, but some sleeping disorders and problems require more aggressive means, so if you try everything to improve the quality and quantity of your sleep and it still is a struggle than be sure to see your doctor. There are many advances in the methods for helping people with severe sleeping problems. You don’t want to just give up and live with it because it will adversely affect your health and the quality of your life as well as your partner’s.

Click Here to watch the video Jim’s 10 Minute Cardio Workout