there is no finish line...enjoy the ride...

Alzheimer's - don't let it steal your life

Last week my uncle died and his funeral was held on Monday.  He lived in Edinburgh Scotland, so I wasn’t that close to him as I’ve lived in Canada all my life and we’ve only met a few times.  Even still, it was a sad day when I received this news.  I was further saddened when I heard my Aunt wasn’t able to attend his funeral because she suffers from Alzheimer’s and it would have been too confusing for her.  Alzheimer’s seems to run in my family, as two other Aunts of mine, who have both since passed away, also had this disease. 

When it’s all said and done, life is nothing more than a collection of experiences and memories.  All your worldly possessions don’t add up to much when you can’t recall the life you lived.  This horrible disease robs people of their most precious asset...their mind.  For me, the most frightening consequence of aging is the possible loss of my mental faculties. Utter the phrase “Alzheimer’s disease” – especially to someone like me who’s seen three family members touched by it – and people’s expressions tend to get a bit strained.

Although Alzheimer’s can affect younger people, it’s the most common cause of memory loss among the elderly. With the first baby boomers reaching age 65 in 2012, healthcare experts are predicting that many citizens will spend their final years either suffering from Alzheimer’s or caring for loved ones who have it. 

Alzheimer’s is currently the only condition among the top ten causes of death that cannot be prevented, cured or even delayed. While death rates for other major diseases like stroke, heart disease, HIV, and several cancers – have declined in recent years or at least remaining constant, those with Alzheimer’s continue to climb at an alarming rate. Despite this grim trend, in 2011 the National Institutes of Health spent about one-tenth as much for Alzheimer’s research as it did on cancer, heart disease and HIV/AIDS. 

Given the lack of focus and funding for this mental health illness, it’s going to be a while before any meaningful treatment for Alzheimer’s is forthcoming.  Like I’ve said many times before, what you do today has a profound impact on your health in the distant future, and this doesn’t only apply to your physical health, but also your mental health.  So you might want to take care of your brain today to avoid being a statistic in the future.  I suggest the following:

1. Avoid unhealthy brain habits: Stop smoking, avoid recreational drugs and limit alcohol consumption to a maximum of one (women) or two (men) drinks daily. Smoking damages the blood vessels that feed your brain, and substance abuse including social alcohol consumption destroys neurons that simply cannot be replaced.
2. Eat a healthy diet: When planning your meals, rely heavily on vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains and nuts. These foods contain vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other compounds that are essential for neurotransmitter synthesis, healthy nerves and robust circulation. Limit red meats, which can be artery-clogging and increase oily, cold water fish, which is excellent for normal brain function.
3. Exercise your body: 60 minutes of exercise daily not only protects your heart, strengthens your muscles and builds strong bones; it also helps delay the onset of dementia like no other medication. You don’t have to take up triathlons either, simple walking will do.  Walking improves balance, aerobic conditioning and cerebral blood flow.
4. Exercise your brain: A 2009 study in the journal Neurology demonstrated that people who read, write, learn a new language, do crossword puzzles, play board games or cards, play musical instruments or regularly participate in group discussions are less likely to develop dementia. The study’s authors reported that every mentally stimulating activity you undertake will delay the onset of dementia. Besides wanting to retire to the South of France where the ability to speak French is necessary, learning this language to exercise my brain is the second reason I picked up the Rosetta Stone program.  Who knows if I’ll be able to speak French fluently, maybe not, but it sure is fun learning and like physical exercise helping my heart, I know learning French is helping my brain.
5. Address your medical issues: If you have high triglycerides, high blood pressure, high lipid levels, or diabetes, or if you’re packing on more body fat than you should, see your doctor or medical provider to get these problems addressed immediately. Uncontrolled hypertension or chronically elevated blood glucose or lipid levels wreak havoc on your brain and contribute to memory loss. Studies show that people who are obese during their youth and middle age are 40% to 80% more likely to develop dementia than their healthy-weight counterparts.

More of us are living longer these days, and there’s no reason to believe you won’t be one of them. Making smart lifestyle choices right now just might keep you sharp-witted well into your twilight years.  Don’t let poor lifestyle habits today rob you of the only thing of true value in your future....your lifelong memories. 

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

Good information, Wrong interpretation

A good friend of mine once said that people can only hear the information that supports their own belief systems.  We see this all the time.  It’s why there’s polarizing opinions when it comes to topics like politics, or the existence of a God.  Regardless of the information, people will only hear what justifies the continuation of their own beliefs, even when the actual facts beg to differ.

I thought about this as I read the results of a recent study published by the British medical journal, “Heart”. This study was recently featured in articles within the Wall Street Journal and the Globe and Mail.  The study suggests that people that run too fast, for too far, for too many decades, may find themselves running to their early and ultimate “finish line”.   

My 87 year old father running in Greece

In the shadow of a national health crisis, where overweight and obese people represent the majority of the population, and citizens with chronic illnesses such as Diabetes, CODP, Cardiac Disease and various forms of Cancer are reaching epidemic proportions, I’m concerned that a health illiterate public will interpret the results of this study as an excuse NOT to exercise.  They will read the headline in the paper that says, “One Running Shoe in the Grave”.  As a result, this will fuel the belief system of many that if daily exercise isn’t good for runners, so why bother exercising at all. 

In actual fact, the study involved 52,600 subjects that were followed for three (3) decades, but what was glossed over was the fact that the runners in this group had an overall 19% lower death rate than the non-runners, and within the running group only the runners that ran longer than 40kms/week and faster than 13km/hour lost their mortality advantage. 

We’ve seen the impact of this kind of reporting from the past.  A study from a few decades ago suggested drinking a glass of red wine a day is good for your heart health.  Now we have a culture of social alcoholics who justify two to three drinks a day because it’s good for their heart health, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth.  Let's be clear, alcohol should not be part of a person's health habbits.

We live in a world where people have limited attention spans and are bombarded with catchy buy lines and punchy sound bites; the headline of this running report should have read, “Long term study suggests that life-long runners enjoy a lower death rate than non-runners”.  Just like the headline of the wine report should have said, “Study finds that consuming more than one drink a day for women and two for men, leads to negative health consequences”. 

We now have a population that takes little to no interest in their personal health until they’re told by their doctor that they have a serious, possibly life threatening chronic disease and that's the moment they decide it's time to practice positive health practices.  And the sad part is many of these situations are entirely preventable. 

How are we supposed to motivate our children to be active and make healthy life choices when they watch their parents make poor choices?  Media that report the findings of studies like this recent running study have a responsibility to be mindful of the role they play in the health of the public.  Our hospitals and long term care facilities are full of people that got there because they were inactive and made poor lifelong health choices. 

This study contains valuable information for a very small number of aging runners that push the performance envelope in their training and racing.  These runners should consider the consequences of these findings and adjust their running programs accordingly. 

Finally, I’d like to report that my father who is pictured above turns 88 next year and has been walk/joggng 8kms to 10kms every day, (or about 56+km a week) for years and only stopped racing marathons when he turned 79.  While he stills enjoys excellent health, most of his friends and family that lived a sedentary life, are either ill, immobile, or dead.  I guess he and the many seniors like him are the exceptions to this study.

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

Painful Lessons!

For those of you under the age of 18, read no further because this probably doesn't concern you yet, but it will eventually. 

I think it’s safe to say that the rest of us "older" types would love to hang onto our youth for as long as possible.  Look at me, I have this crazy goal of breaking world cycling records for the "over 100" age catagory set by Frenchman, Robert Marchand.  While the young want to be older, the older will do just about anything to remain young.  Just observe how much money people spend to maintain their youthful appearance, or simply remember how you felt the last time the bar tender asked you for ID to confirm you were of legal drinking age.  I can tell you, this hasn't happened to me in decades, but while riding a bike with my smooth shaved legs, behind cool-lookin glasses, under a helmet, it's always a boost to my ego to see the reaction of a cyclist that can't keep up when he realizes that I'm a couple decades older than him.

As a result of our quest to remain young, or at least act younger than the numbers on the calendar indicate, we attempt some pretty crazy activities that should only be considered in our more agile and flexible youth. 

This week, Dr Les describes how he found himself pushing the age and ego envelop by attempting to relive his youth while being towed behind a boat at high speed with very predictable consequences.  He's offered some learned lessons from this experience that we should all consider so we don’t suffer his fate (well maybe everyone, except me).  But because he knows there’s people out there like me that will completely ignore his sound advice, he’s provided an excellent summary of how to recover from unnecessary injuries so we can get back to our active lifestyles, and enjoy some of that lost youth we once took for granted. 

Enjoy the Ride…..Rob  

 

Painful Lessons!

By Dr Les Davidson

Learning is a lifelong process. It is often deliberate, but can also occur by chance. There are three basic ways that we learn:

1. Direct instruction: A passive process where the “sage is on the stage” used in schools and universities (teaching) and at church (preaching).
2. Inquiry based: An active process where we ask questions and learn through the answers, often recognized as the Socratic Method.
3. Experience based: This is learning by trial and error. It is an active process of making mistakes and often failing. It is usually the most difficult and painful way to learn.

Other than seven years of post-secondary education, most of my learning is experience based: making mistakes and experiencing failure. Interestingly, this is thought to be one of the best methods for learning and retention. So why then do I seem to need repeated lessons?

My most recent lesson began on the last warm, sunny afternoon of the season with a poorly executed jump on the wakeboard. I should have known better than to tempt fate. After wakeboarding the day before, I said to my wife Kerry, “That was an awesome last ride of the season- I feel sixteen!” I have a long history, whether when skiing, playing rugby, mountain biking or wakeboarding, of feeling invincible then pushing my limits. I justify the pain by telling myself (and everyone around me) about how great I feel and how well I performed.

I wasn’t planning on riding the wakeboard again that late-summer day. I was a bit fatigued and satisfied with my efforts from the day before. But the joy I get from skimming over the waves along with some friendly competition with my 16-year-old son trumped any sound judgment. I landed a bit forward and as I caught myself, I felt my left hamstring give a sharp tug. I needed help removing the board and getting into the boat! I had torn a portion of my lateral hamstring. The next couple of weeks doing chiropractic adjustments on my clients were tough!

Enough with the self-flagellation! I would like to share the lessons I learned from being on the opposite side of the treatment table.

Life Lessons:

1. Listen to your inner voice. I knew I shouldn’t have attempted the big wake as I wasn't riding well but I ignored that voice inside my head!
2. Live with humility. I admit to being a show-off.
3. Live with gratitude. Be thankful to be blessed with good health and be pain free. It can change in an instant. I’m sure many of you can relate. Unfortunately, we don’t get a rewind button in life.

Lessons of Healing:

Intellectually, most of us understand the principles of healing, but following through on the principles can be a challenge. Here is what I tell my patients.

1. Your body does the healing. Drugs, surgery, acupuncture, massage, chiropractic adjustments or therapeutic modalities still rely on your body’s inner wisdom for healing. Most of us would like to download this to our health care provider.
2. It takes time to heal. We are busy and injuries are inconvenient but healing takes time. Give yourself time to rest and recover.
3. Healing is an adaptive response of your body. For example: a chiropractic adjustment corrects joint dysfunction and stimulates the nervous system. After an adjustment, we want to feel instantly better but the healing occurs from the adaptation to the adjustment and not at the exact moment of adjustment (although there might be immediate relief).
4. Healing is a holistic process. Being injured will drain your energy, challenge your emotions and leave you feeling disconnected. The more supportive and nurturing your environment, the more resources your body can marshal for healing. Even though injury may involve a specific tissue or region, having a high level of overall health and a supportive group of family and friends will promote faster healing.

Strategies:

As a health care professional, I recognize that there are many things that patients can do to promote recovery from an injury. In other words: What you do for yourself between visits does matter!

1. Rest: Complete rest may be necessary in the initial hours or days after an injury.
2. Reduce inflammation and manage the pain: Initially you may need pharmaceuticals. During the first four days after the wakeboarding incident, I used 6 doses of Naproxen, an over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication. I also recommend that you introduce more natural methods such as icing the injured area, using the naturopathic lotion Traumeel, and supplementing with Omega3 oils and Vitamin C.
3. Compression or support: The use of tensor bandages, casts, kinesio-tape or prefabbed supports can aid the injured tissue. For me, wearing a neoprene compression short and using a tensor bandage helped.
4. Pro-inflammatories: Decrease or eliminate your consumption of pro-inflammatory foods such as alcohol and sugar.
5. Choose a consistent and comprehensive treatment plan: It is important to have a thorough examination and diagnosis. Communication between your health care providers is important. I informally discussed my injury with a friend who specializes in sports medicine and then increased my chiropractic adjustment frequency. Acupuncture, massage and interferential current also helped my soft tissue injury.
6. Active rest: Active rest is the initial return to activity when you move the body to promote circulation. Circulation brings nutrients to the injured tissue, reduces the swelling and removes the waste associated with repair. This can be accomplished with aided walking - using a cane or crutch or walking in the pool, as I chose to do.
7. Replace your activity: When I treat a patient who finds their preferred activity painful, they usually do one of two things - persist with the preferred activity or do nothing. Movement is such an important component of healing that you have to find an alternate way to be active until you can return to pain-free participation. I started with pool running, then added swimming and now am back to riding my indoor bike.

And finally,

I learned that my questions, challenges and fears about injuries are just the same as the people that I treat in my clinic each week. Dealing with symptoms similar to what many of my patients experience has increased my empathy for them. In the final analysis, however, it is evident that I have more patients than I have patience!

Adding life to your years.... Dr. Les

Lance Armstrong: Fall from Grace

As an avid endurance athlete for most of my life, I’ve followed Lance Armstrong’s rise, and most recently his fall from super stardom after the United States Anti Doping Agency (USADA) presented their evidence that undeniably proves that Lance Armstrong was a cheat and a liar for the majority of his athletic career. His story of returning to the highest level of cycling competition after his bout with cancer has always been suspicious to me.  I’ve had many spirited discussions with people that believe in this miracle and were critical of my position that he has always been a drug doping cheat .  That being said, I too wanted to believe in his “Cinderella” story, but the facts simply didn’t add up.

It wasn’t until almost all of the other top pro riders that Lance competed head to head against starting testing positive for Performance Enhancing Drugs (PED) and blood doping that I realized Lance’s story was no Cinderella miracle, but simply a case of a good athlete and an even better cheat. 

For those of you that want to understand how the biggest fraud in sport history got away with it for so many years, read this article by Velo News that summarizes the 200 page report released by the USADA last week.

I’m an advocate for health and wellness, and it is my hope that I make personal lifestyle choices that will maximize the quality of my life and the lives of others.  Lance Armstrong has been hiding behind a similar life purpose through his LiveStrong charity and his personal battle with Testicular cancer.  Unfortunately he was deceiving his fans, and the general public that were captured by this amazing story of determination and willpower, but worst of all; he deceived the cancer community.  Because of Lance’s involvement with the LiveStrong cancer charity (Note: as of Oct 17 Lance stepped down as Chairman), he’s not just disappointed his cycling fans, but he’s knocked the wind out of the sails of the kid that’s fighting Leukemia, or the single mother that’s been diagnosed with breast cancer, or the dad that has to deal with Testicular cancer, all who looked up to him as a source of hope and inspiration.  

The “Reasoned Decision” released by the USADA, which I read in its entirety, describes the actions and behaviour of a despicable man, whose own self interests trumped all his decisions and would aggressively attack anyone that got in his way, including his closest friends, teammates, and individuals that remotely questioned his ethics or suspicion of drug use. 

It’s been clear for some time to most competitive cyclists that Lance has been cheating for years.  I didn’t need to see a positive blood test for banned substances to know that a cyclist at his level could be better than his competitors that were receiving a 10% to 15% performance boost from their drug programs.  I often found myself having spirited debates with people that wanted to believe that Lance’s fairy tale performance was legitimate, just because he never tested positive.  Let’s remember, Marion Jones was never busted for drug use and she ultimately confessed and went to jail.  I would argue that I don’t need to see it snow throughout the evening to know that it snowed during the night if the ground was covered with snow in the morning. 

Because the Lance Armstrong story crosses from the relatively small cycling community into main stream media, many people believed his entourage of lawyers, public relations, and team officials that would protect him by spinning stories that provided the believer an avenue to continue believing the fairy tale. 

Everyone seems to have an opinion about Lance Armstrong, but I’m troubled with the reaction so many people have regarding this story, especially in light of the facts.  I’m troubled that so many people still look to this man as an idol that’s simply being unjustly punished.  I’m hoping this reaction is the result of ignorance, because I’m disturbed how these idol worshipers are compromising their own values and ethics by justifying his guilt by saying, everyone else was cheating, so it’s ok.  It’s NOT OK!

In a world where humans categorise certain actions of others as unacceptable behaviour; in the case of Lance Armstrong, he’s not only a cheat, but his actions embody behaviour that’s generally reserved for the worst kind of career criminal.  Here is a partial list of some of his actions that have been exposed during the USADA’s investigation, which have been corroborated by over 20 testimonies from some of Lance’s former teammates and close acquaintances under oath:

• Drug Dealer: Lance would often source and supply known performance enhancing drugs to his teammates
• Conspirator: Lance, along with the team’s director, doctor, trainer and others developed elaborate schemes to evade detection of his illegal activities.
• Liar: Lance has looked directly into eyes of the public for approximately two decades and enthusiastically denied ever cheating.
• Cheat: It’s now clear that Lance orchestrated the most sophisticated cheating program in the history of sport
• Perjurer: On multiple occasions Lance has perjured himself by testifying that he and no one associated with his cycling team had ever taken performance enhancing drugs
• Bully: Lance threatened many riders on his team that if they did not get on the “program”, they would not be part of the team.  Can you imagine if your manager at work gave you that kind of ultimatum, what would your reaction be?

Each of us lives by a set of values, ethics and morals that defines who we are and becomes our personal “brand”.  And this brand isn’t defined by what we say, but how we act and are perceived by others.  Your friends, family, work colleagues and community will determine what your real brand is through your actions, not words. In the case of Lance Armstrong, we have a complete misalignment of what he says he is, compared to what we now know he is.  While Lance was giving the appearance of helping people with cancer, he was exerting the kind of pressure associated with a back street thug on his cycling teammates to take the very drugs that some experts believe may have caused of his own cancer, or lose they would their jobs.   

So when I see people that I thought to have a solid brand, consisting of high values and ethics that continue to defend his actions; it brings into question their own brand.  How can they say they’re against bullying, drug pushing, cheating, and lying, while at the same time their actions support a guy that encompasses all these despicable qualities?  You can’t suck and blow at the same time.

Lance is a multi-millionaire resulting from a sports career based on cheating and lies and I’m sure he sleeps well at night by convincing himself that he was justified in his actions.  His only disappointment would be that he got caught.  We know now that he is driven by power and self importance and his apparent lack of concern for others, even those with cancer has been self serving to hide the real brand of lies and deceit.  One could even argue that Lance exhibits narcissistic behaviour.

 

The Lance Armstrong story is right up there with other notable liars, cheats and fraudsters, like Bernie Madoff, Tiger Woods, Ben Johnson, Jerry Sandusky, all of whom deceived the public and their community by not living the brand they projected.  

But as much as this is a dissappointing story, it's also a story of progress, because I'm optimistic that it has moved the sport of cycling and sport in general, one step closer to the desired state of fair play. Through the USADA’s investigation and the detail they exposed how these cheaters were able to evade detection for so long, has now made it more difficult to cheat at the individual athlete level, as well as the team level.  This investigation brings us closer to a day, where the winner is in fact a true champion that is deserving of his or her accomplishments, knowing it was achieved through hard work, dedication, commitment to excellence and fair play.

I look forward to that day. 

Enjoy the Ride.....Rob

 

 

Travel to the "Bizarro World" using your healthy "Auto-Pilot"

When it comes to health, diet and exercise I think I live in the “Bizarro World”, where everything is opposite to the normal world.  It’s a world where exercise is done every day for more than one hour, and taking an unscheduled day off is considered cruel and unusual punishment.  The reason my Bizarro World is so normal for me is because my priority and attention to my health, fitness and wellness is set on “Auto-Pilot” for more than 3 decades.  Unfortunately, the majority of North American’s have their Auto-Pilots pointing in the wrong direction.  And it’s such a mystery why so many people are surprised when they receive bad news about their health. 

In addition to exercising every day, my Bizarro World’s auto pilot also directs me to shop for food in the outside aisles of the grocery store where the real food is sold, while in the “Normal World”, people shop the inner aisles where they find unhealthy processed foods, snacks and soft drinks.  My auto pilot also prevents me from ever eating at fast food joints like McDonalds, Burger King or Wendy’s, while in the Normal World, their auto pilot directs them to frequent these unhealthy fast food joints on a regular basis, with giving little consideration for the future health outcomes.  And we wonder why our healthcare costs are so out of control.

Many months ago I wrote a Blog Post about the emerging science of “Behavioural Economics” and how making small changes in lifestyle can put you a Healthy Auto Pilot.  This past weekend’s Globe and Mail had a great article on this very topic, which I’ve copied below in its entirety for your convenience. 

Having your auto pilot pointed in the right healthy direction is so important to your long term health.  Research has found that most decisions that have a long term impact are not the result of careful deliberation, but are formed through a dysfunctional Auto Pilot that repeats the same unhealthy practices over and over again for decades.  Since most degenerative diseases are the result of years or decades of repetitive choices, it only makes sense that you adjust your auto pilot’s direction towards the Bizarro World and enjoy the associated long term health benefits.

Enjoy the Ride....Rob

Can we nudge ourselves to better health?

The Globe and Mail - October 5, 2012

Eat less, move more, stop smoking, cut down on booze. Public health campaigns have been drilling these messages into our heads for years. Even so, Canadians are failing to ditch their bad habits.

The reason, according to a growing body of research, is that we spend much of our days on autopilot. Instead of making conscious decisions each time we commute to work or buy lunch, we hop in the car, see a fast-food sign and order fries.

Automatic behaviours make life more efficient, freeing up cognitive energy for important tasks. But according to a new study published in the journal Science, our mindless choices are literally putting our health at risk.

The authors suggest that instead of just providing health information, public health initiatives should target the knee-jerk behaviours that are making us fatter and sicker.

“We now know that much of our behaviour is not driven by deliberation upon the consequences of our actions but rather, is automatic, shaped by our environments, often without awareness,” says Theresa Marteau, lead author of the study and director of the behaviour and health research unit at Cambridge University.

She and her co-authors note that subtle changes in the environment, which require little or no conscious engagement, may nudge people to make healthier choices.

For example, when elevator doors are programmed to close slowly, more people take the stairs. Cafeteria customers are more likely to choose fruits and vegetables when salad bars are easier to reach. And drinkers tend to consume less alcohol when it is served in tall, narrow glasses instead of short, wide-bottomed tumblers.

Since many behaviours that increase the risk of disease offer pleasure, Marteau says, health initiatives should take enjoyment into account. She notes that young children are more willing to consume vegetables when the packaging features cartoon characters, and more likely to eat lentil stew if it is called “teddy bears porridge.”

Much of the global burden of disease may be preventible, she adds. The World Health Organization estimates that rates of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease would be cut by 75 per cent and cancer by 40 per cent if people stopped smoking, reduced alcohol consumption, improved their diets and got more exercise.

Behaviour change is the holy grail of preventive medicine – and the subject of recent bestsellers such as The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business and Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

The latest evidence from neuroscience, psychology and behaviour economics suggests that our actions are guided by two interacting systems: a reflective system, in which we work toward goals, aware of our motivations and actions, and an automatic system, in which we act without reflection, responding to external cues while our thoughts are elsewhere.

Automatic behaviours are often at odds with our conscious goals, Marteau and her co-authors explain. What’s more, they tend to kick in when we’re under stress or faced with a task that requires attention. In one experiment, participants asked to memorize a string of numbers were more likely to choose chocolate cake over fruit salad when forced to make the decision in the middle of the exercise. (That may explain why we grab chips from the vending machine instead of multigrain crackers when we’re working on deadline.)

Although people can consciously change their behaviour, “this requires using our scarce cognitive capacity,” which may then be deflected from the complex situations we face every day, Marteau says.

Howard Leventhal, a professor of psychology at Rutgers University, confirms that external cues may prompt healthier behaviours. But he cautions that when a person leaves the environment designed to encourage healthy choices, the approach stops working. “People don’t internalize it.”

Public health campaigns should engage the reasoning process that individuals use to embed a preventive behaviour into their daily routines, he says. For example, a person with Type 2 diabetes could make a habit of parking farther from store entrances to incorporate short walks. Ideally, he says, the patient’s new automatic behaviour would be reinforced by initiatives to create healthier environments, such as making nutritious foods more readily available.

Marteau acknowledges that a multi-pronged approach is probably the most effective way to achieve widespread behaviour change. But campaigns designed to nudge the public to adopt better habits can only go so far, she and her colleagues suggest. In an earlier report in the British Medical Journal, they argue that policy makers may need to increase regulation around such issues as junk food advertising and the glut of unhealthy products on the market, to counteract the powerful cues that trigger our unhealthy behaviours.

Smoking is one example, Marteau says. While smoking cessation treatments may be effective, she points out, “they are more successful when there are fewer places where tobacco can be bought.”

Don't "Live a Little"...learn to "Live a Lot"

Most people would be happy just to say they made it to 100 years of age and still be able to walk and remember their name. Not Frenchman, Robert Marchand. No, just making it to 100 is for pussies. This guy is setting world records on his bike. First he set the one hour cycling record in Switzerland by covering over 24 kilometres in one hour, a record that was sanctioned by cycling’s international governing body, the UCI. Now he set a second official record for a person over 100 years of age by covering 100km in a time of 4:17:27. 

I’m writing this blog post from my second home in Arizona, where I have ridden over 1500kms in the past 15 days as I begin my preparation for the next year's Haute Route race from Geneva, Switzerland to Nice France. Every time I come down here from my home in Canada, I’m always shocked at the poor health of so many Americans, by evidence of the number of obese people. Given the alarming condition of the majority North American’s (Canadian’s included), just completing a 100km ride would be a near impossibility for most, but to ride it in Mr. Marchand’s time of a little over 4 hours is only a dream.  And it's such a mystery why we have out of control healthcare costs!

As much as racing in next year’s Haute Route is a lofty goal to be sure, it’s only a small step in a much larger target and Mr. Marchand is making my ultimate goal a whole lot more difficult, because instead of going after one record when I turn 100, I now have to break two. He has set the bar higher because now in addition to breaking the one hour record, I also have to beat his 100km record.

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about Mr. Marchand accomplishments and we were identifying the many things you have to get right in your life to accomplish what he’s doing at his age. First, he has some good genetics at work here, but good genes will only get you so far, so what are the other things, let me list just a few:

• You have to remain active all your life to be able to ride 100km at 100 years of age.
• You have to eat a nutritious diet throughout your life that consists of fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, high quality protein, healthy carbohydrates, while avoiding the foods we know are bad for us.
• Drink a healthy amount of water every day.
• Don’t smoke (that's obvious) and don’t drink an unhealthy amount of alcohol (1 drink a day for women and 2 for men)
• Get enough sleep and rest
• De-stress your life
• Keep your mind active, for without a sharp mind, you'll never be able to manage even the simple things like keeping your balance, or structure a training program to accomplish the kind of physical activities Mr Marchand is capable of.
• And finally, have a passion in your life that keeps you young. Clearly, Mr. Marchand’s passion is cycling and it’s giving him purpose, and probably one of the main reasons he’s still so active.

This represents a partial list of the most important elements necessary for a long and healthy life that many will consider somewhat restrictive or even boring. In fact, I’ve been told on a number of occasions that I should “live a little”, especially when I’m at a party and I refuse to drink the same volume of alcohol as others. My goal isn’t to “live a little”, but to “live a lot”! I’m only 56, so I have another 44 years to train and prepare for my attempt at Mr. Marchand’s records. Racing next year’s Haute Route race is considered the world’s toughest cycling sportive and is what I equate to as, "living a lot".  I certainly don't want age to be the thing that prevents me from being like Mr. Marchand.

The important thing to consider about long term health is that what you do today will affect you 20, 30, or even 40 years from now.  Most people that reach their 60's, 70's and 80's in poor health, generally achieve this state as the result of poor lifestyle choices that manifest into one of the many degenerative diseases. 

The purpose of this post is to share an inspirational story of a 100 year old man that’s “living a lot” and it proves that it’s not by accident that’s he’s capable of these amazing accomplishments. For sure, you can’t do much about your genetics, and some people are just luckier than others. I may be one of those people (I hope); given my father at the age of 87 is still very active and does his daily 10km run/walk. But there are so many more variables that you have total control over if you apply discipline and dedication to make it happen.

Remember, you don’t stop exercising because you’re old; you get old because you stop exercising.

Enjoy the ride....Rob

 

Are you Sitting Your Way to an Early Grave?

Maintaining optimal health involves many criteria to be dialled in just right to ensure you get the most out of your life.  One must consider the things that can inhibit your body from operating at its full potential, like avoiding smoking, drinking to excess, eating processed foods, etc., while ensuring we’re doing the things that are good for us as part of our daily routines, like exercise, eating a healthy diet, and getting enough sleep to mention a few.  Recent research has drawn our attention to the serious health consequences associated with sitting for hours at a time, which is common today because of the way we work and entertainment ourselves.

I wrote a blog post on this topic earlier this year, and I think it’s worth another look, because so many of us are forced into this situation because of our jobs.  This time however, Dr Les weighs into the topic and explains how sitting on our butts for hours throughout the day and into the evening, has serious health risks we should be aware of.  He has done an excellent job of pointing out the risks while providing simple solutions to remain active, even if you’re stuck for hours behind a computer.

Enjoy the Ride….Rob

 

"He who sits the most, dies the soonest"

By Dr Les Davidson

Seven characteristics differentiate the "living" from the "non- living" — cellular form with heritable genetic information with respiration, metabolism, reproduction, excretion, response to stimuli and movement.  It Is because of the profound relationship of "movement" to life that our chiropractic clinic is named Adjusted for Life.

 Most people tend to think of movement in terms of physical fitness or weight loss but movement is a fundamental ingredient of being alive. It is why our clinic’s mission is—Adding Life to Your Years. The life-sustaining benefits of movement are so critical that I remind patients that while chiropractic care won’t heal them, it will remove barriers to the body healing itself.

But what constitutes movement?

For years, experts have advised us that there is a baseline level of physical activity necessary to maintain health and wellness. Canada's Physical Activity Guideline recommends 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity. This baseline level has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer as well as provide overall health benefits.

However, research now indicates that 150 minutes of aerobic exercise each week can't protect us from the risks associated with being inactive for the other 9,903 minutes. It’s like eating a salad for lunch and then snacking on foods laden with trans fats or smoking during the break or consuming excess alcohol when you get home from work. Common sense suggests that you can’t expect one good habit to override the other health risks.

Your body relies on movement to increase oxygen uptake, circulate blood and lymph fluids, transport food down the digestive tract and lubricate your joints. For this reason sitting needs to be considered as an independent risk factor to your health. It is a risk that is dose dependent. In other words it matters how long you sit at a time, how many days of the week you sit and cumulatively how long you have sat over the years.

Risks of sitting:

1. Metabolic syndrome with increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. An important tool to counter this risk apart from proper diet is movement. The metabolic demands of movement are quantified in units known as metabolic equivalent tasks and range from .9 MET at rest to 20+ for sprinting.  Simply increasing our MET from 1.0 to 3.0 or shifting from a sitting to a standing position changes our metabolism positively. This is why standing at work when you can is important. If you decide to be more vigorous it is important to check in with your family physician before starting any exercise program.
2. Loss of productivity because of fatigue and poor concentration. Your brain receives oxygen and proprioceptive nourishment as well as sensory information regarding balance, position and movements when you are active. In other words, if you want a healthy brain, you have to move your body. "Ninety percent of the stimulation and nutrition to the brain is generated by the movement of the spine," notes Dr. Roger Sperry, Nobel Prize recipient for brain research. Sperry said that movement of the spine acts like a windmill powering up the brain.
3. Musculoskeletal pain from short and tightened muscles. Intra-discal pressure increases by one-third from lying to standing and another one-third by sitting in a slouched sitting posture. If your joints hurt or your posture is poor, consider chiropractic. Chiropractic adjustments improve joint function which will enable you to move better and more frequently—components that are fundamental ingredients to life, health and well-being.

Over the years, I have instructed patients and corporations on correct ergonomics in the work environment. I make recommendations on how to tailor their work station to specific needs in order to lower the risk of injury from cumulative trauma. While this is important, I believe it is more important to consider harm reduction or prevention. In other words it is less important how well you sit, than how long you sit!

The first step is to find ways to limit the total time you sit followed by strategies to break up this total time into as little prolonged sitting as possible. Then consider the mechanics of how you are sitting followed by exercise recommendations to counter the imbalances that occur to the soft tissues with sitting.

This time of year, with the fall weather and the return to studies and work our risk from prolonged sitting and diminished activity increases. It is important that you consciously work to counter this in your lifestyle. Three suggestions for countering this risk are

1. Replace some of your lunchtime with exercise.

2. Plan your TV time so that you aren’t drawn into watching mind numbing hours of programming.

3. Incorporate into your day simple posture improving stretching movements such as these provided by Straighten up Alberta.

Adding life to your years.... Dr. Les

Haute Route....You must be crazy! Seek the “Freak”

Over the past 33 years, I’ve riding enough miles to go from the earth to more than 2/3 the way to the moon, competed in 7 Ironman Triathlons, run enough miles to circumnavigate the planet twice and swim the equivalent distance from LA California to Hawaii.  Believe me when I say I’ve been called “crazy” more than a few times about my commitment (some will call it an obsession) to athletics.  And I wouldn’t want it any other way.   

One of my biggest fears is to be categorized as “normal” by today’s standards.  I could provide you with the health risks of being considered part of the majority, or normal, but that’s for another day. 

In my last blog post I described the six (6) rules that will increase the quality of your life, and rule #6 was to find your passion and keep it fuelled.  I love listening and seeing someone that’s totally passionate about something in their life.  Check out this video of my good friend Bob Willet’s son Nolan, doing some basketball drills.  This is what passion looks like.

  

To get to this level of proficiency (he’s now 14 and even better) he has to practice every day until his fingers bleed; push through that pain and then do some more.  A normal person without this kind of passion will never understand his level of commitment.  If it hasn’t already happened, someday, somewhere, someone will call Nolan “crazy” to dedicate this amount of time and effort to his sport, but what they will never understand is this is Nolan’s passion and the pain associated with the volume of training to become this good is what he considers fun.  

Let me illustrate how I’ve fuelled my passion for athletics for over the past 30 years.  A passion which honours me the coveted title of being a “nut case”.  In my early days of running, when I thought 10km was a pretty good distance, I used to think marathons were reserved for those crazy freaks that were borderline masochists, but after racing a number of them myself, these “crazy freaks” began to look pretty normal....Time to refuel my passion.

When I read about this bike race called the “Race Across America”; whereby the cyclists rode non-stop across the USA taking only brief stops for sleep.  I thought to myself, “Now those guys are definitely crazy”.  So I decided to ride my bike from Toronto to Ft Lauderdale, Florida, and raised money for Leukemia Research (a disease that took the life of my mother at the age of 56).  When co-workers, friends and even family heard what I was planning to do, many called me “crazy”, and I liked the fact that I wasn’t “normal”.  But after doing the ride which saw us average over 160km every day for 16 days in a row, it too seemed normal....Time to refuel my passion.

I happened to be turning the channels on my TV in the fall of 1982 a year after my bike trip to Florida when I witnessed Julie Moss crawl across the Ironman Triathlon finish line on ABC Wide World of Sports.  I thought to myself, what kind of passion and determination does a person require to force themself to crawl across the finish line when every cell in their body is telling them to stop.  Clearly Ms. Moss was a certified “crazy freak”.... and I knew right there I wanted whatever it was that made her go.   

 

After a while, I was curious to learn how crazy someone had to be to train for and race an Ironman.  So I taught myself how to swim and placed 10^th overall in my first Ironman attempt.   I was thought my place as a crazy Ironman was secure.   And I did 6 more just to be safe.  Now that so many people have done the Ironman, my “crazy” status is once again in jeopardy, not to mention my need for a new goal to refuel my passion.  

So after riding my bike across the USA (north to south) two more times in an effort to raise money for cancer survivors, I was once again looking for something to refuel my passion.  Last year my stepbrother Gerry Patterson who lives in the south of France, emailed me a link to an event that makes the Ironman look like a warm up (if that’s even possible).  It’s called Haute Route (“High Road” in English) and it’s as close as I will ever get to sport’s ultimate sufferfest Nirvana, the Tour de France. 

 

Haute Route is considered the toughest and highest amateur Cyclosportive in the world. It is a seven (7) day bike stage race from Geneva to Nice through the highest roads of the French Alps; the very same roads that have been made famous by the professional cyclists of the Tour de France for the past 100 years.  Haute Route covers 780km and the cyclists climb an unthinkable 21,000 meters (or the equivalent of 2.5 times the height of Mt Everest).  Talk about refuelling the passion.  Doing something like Haute Route is clearly CRAZY, even by my standards, that's why I LOVE IT!

There’s an old saying that, “Pain welcomes company”.  Well the kind of pain and suffering being served up by Haute Route welcomes a whole team of crazy people.  So my step brother Gerry and I have formed a team of 9 riders that are every bit as crazy as he and I to join us. Follow this link to Gerry’s Blog to meet the other members of our team, who will join 600 other people that have the same passion for the sport of cycling in next year’s race.

The point of this blog is not to encourage you to sign up for next year’s Haute Route, or play basketball like Nolan Willett.  No, it’s to encourage you to find your passion like Nolan, or my step brother Gerry, or the other countless number of people that started with a small passion and over time gave it fuel.  Never stop seeking that freak within you, while feeding your passion with bigger goals and objectives that makes you feel alive.  And when someone asks you why you do it, or calls you crazy, you know you’ve arrived; you’re no longer normal, which means you’ve finally found the “freak” within. 

Enjoy the Ride..... Rob

6 Rules that will Increase the Quality of your Life

Over the weekend I participated in the Gran Fondo Rockies 170km cycling “race”.  Well, they say it’s not a race, but hey, they give you a number, a time and the top 5 male and female finishers were awarded prize money.  So as far as I can tell, it had all the characteristics of a race. 

Training for a 170km bike race, or just trying to increase the basic quality of your life requires 6 key criteria. If you follow these 6 basic rules, you will enjoy increased energy levels (at any age). 

1. Eat Healthy, (Most of the Time):  I have to admit, I have a sweet tooth and I love French Fries and Onion Rings.  That said, I rarely eat this stuff because over the years, I’ve made small changes to my diet whereby I don’t crave it.  When grocery shopping, stick to the outside aisles, because that’s where you’ll find the healthy whole food and avoid the inside aisles where they stock the processed foods that are accountable for the health crisis in North America.  Over time, increase your fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, whole grains and lean meats, to the point where this becomes the majority of your calories consumed and junk food is the exception.  Finally, watch your portions.  North Americans eat way too much and generally have no idea what a healthy portion looks like.
2. Keep Moving & Move More:  I’m often asked how many times a week should one exercise for optimal health.  The answer is 7 days a week for a minimum of an hour.  If you live a sedentary life, start walking.  Instead of plopping your butt in front of the TV with a bag of chips and a beer, or wine and cheese.  Get moving and go for a brisk walk.  It’s easy, free of cost and you will feel better when you’re done.  If you’re already active, try switching up your routine, or increase the training intensity.  As the ad goes, “Just Do It”.
3. Sleep:  This is one of my areas where I can certainly improve.  Sleep is critical for the body to recover, especially for those of us that are active.  I’ve written on this topic before and I have two suggestions, 1) go to bed this week 30 to 60 minutes earlier, and 2) get into a pre-bed routine that reduces the exposure to TV, Computers, and work e-mails.  Making these two changes will increase the quantity and quality of your sleep, thereby increasing your body’s ability to recover and be energized for the next day.
4. De-stress Your Life:  I look at stress as being both negative and positive.  The stress that you place upon yourself to improve and drive yourself to new levels is positive.  By its very nature, healthy stress is a motivator.  It makes us better people.  Having just watched the Olympics for the past 17 days, we witnessed incredible performances that were the result of positive stress.  While at the same time these very same athletes do everything in their power to eliminate all negative stress from their lives.  If you have issues at work, or within your family that are causing internal turmoil, deal with it, because the stress is unhealthy and will affect your ability to sleep, exercise and eat properly.  The good thing about negative stress, it’s usually within your power to control, or eliminate.  But like most things pertaining to health, it requires action on your part to make it happen. 
5. Drink H2O:  With all the exotic drinks that are available these days, there’s still nothing better than good old fashion water (even our tap water).  Water is the ultimate energy drink and don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.  If you eat a healthy diet, there’s no need for vitamin water, energy drinks, sports drink, electrolyte replacement drinks, etc, etc.  And if there’s just one thing you take away from this post that will make a huge change in your energy levels, stop drinking soda pop.  Just remember, the majority of the human body is water and it needs approximately 2 litres (67 oz) every day, and more depending on the intensity of your exercise.  If you want to turn you water into a more exotic drink, slice up a lemon, lime or orange for some flavour.  Finally a word on alcohol; if you’re female, more than 1 drink a day is considered unhealthy and 2 drinks a day for men.  Many of our chronic diseases are directly attributed to the increase in social drinking habits, especially amongst women.
6. Find and Fuel Your Passion:  Anyone that's met me for more than 5 minutes will know my passion is cycling.  Living your passion fuels your spirit.  Finding and living your passion is a key criterion for living a quality life.   If you don’t know what your passion is, list the things you used to love doing and start doing them again until one emerges.  People often lose their way when they live without something they love to do that defines who they are.  If you know what your passion is, but aren’t doing it, now’s the time to stop procrastinating and make it happen.  You’re body and soul will thank you.

I placed 2^nd overall in that Gran Fondo and after 170km of hard racing, it came down to a sprint finish between three of us and I was edged out by a wheel at the line by the guy in the front of this picture.  This picture was taken after 160km of racing with only 10km to go and by this point, we were all sufferring. 

After we finished the other two guys I sprinted with were surprised that a 56 year old guy could compete with guys that were 15 to 25 years younger.  The answer was simple and contained in the 6 points listed above. 

For the most part, I eat well (most of the time), I train every day (a day off is the exception), maybe if I got a little more sleep, I could have beaten the other guy to the line (note to self, go to bed 30 minutes earlier, starting this week), I drink approximately 4 litres of water every day to fuel my body, I deal with all stressors in my life and eliminate the negative ones that affect my wellness and finally, I know my passion and enjoy doing it every day.

Implementing these 6 basic rules will certainly increase the quality of your life.

Enjoy the Ride...Rob

Not Enough Time for Your Health & Wellness - Try Outsourcing

In my last post I shared the transformation story of Peter LeClaire;  a guy that went from 245lbs to 165lbs in less than a year.  He celebrated this accomplishment by racing in one of the toughest single day cycling events, the Etape du Tour, a 200km race over 4 Category Mountain passes.  Peter’s transformation back to health and fitness was the result of making time for the things that were important to him and that aligned with his goal of taking control of his personal health by eliminating or outsourcing the things that were no longer important. 

In this blog, Dr Les provides some great advice to follow if you catch yourself making excuses because you have no time for your health and wellness.  Think about all the things you do in your busy life and ask yourself what value each brings to your overall health and well being.  If they don’t contribute value, consider outsourcing them so you can focus on what’s truly of value.  And this doesn't mean to outsourse just so you can work more hours than you already do.

My wife and I agree that cleaning the house adds no value to our well being and takes away time from the things we enjoy, so we outsource it.  Many of my neighbours outsource their lawn cutting duties to someone else, (I actually enjoy maintaining my lawn, so I do it myself).  The point is everyone is different.  So take a mental inventory of the things you do and consider outsourcing those activities and chores that prevent you from taking control of your health and wellness and let someone else deal with stuff that gets in the way.

Enjoy the Ride …. Rob

"Great idea! If only I had the time! “

Great idea! if only I had time! This is a common refrain from patients when I suggest that they would benefit from a change in their lifestyle. It doesn’t matter if I recommend they increase their level of exercise or decrease the number of visits to fast food restaurants. Their answer is almost always the same. "Great idea Doc! If only I had the time! “ Even a small change seems overwhelming.

My patients are intelligent people. They readily see the merits of my recommendations but between getting the kids to soccer practice, buying groceries, keeping up with work responsibilities, household chores and volunteer commitments, their time is already maxed out. Even if they wanted to, they don’t have time to cook dinner every night or get to the gym every morning.  Somehow the days become weeks and then months…until suddenly they realize that they haven’t exercised in years and the last time their family sat down to dinner was…well, they can’t remember when.

This conundrum of wanting to do something but not having the time was reflected in a recent Maclean’s article titled, Outsourcing our Lives, the trend to use outside resources and expertise to help with our day-to-day chores.  But even if our wealth makes it possible to outsource painting the fence and our position gives us an underground parking spot, we all are constrained by one thing—time.

Everyone has the same 168 hours in a week!

Outsourcing is a great strategy but obviously not everything can be outsourced. No matter how time consuming it is, we can’t hand over the activities associated with maintaining our personal relationships or sustaining our physical, emotional and spiritual well- being.

As much as it would be great to hire someone to exercise for you or eat your vegetables—it can’t be done! Even if you hire someone to buy your partner or your children a birthday present and someone else to bake them a cake, you still have to spend time with them in order to have a meaningful and fulfilling relationship. Not everything can be outsourced.

The bottom line is that you have to prioritize the activities that you can’t delegate or outsource. The top three barriers to prioritizing are:

1. Perfectionisim—It is stressful and unrealistic to try to eat, sleep and exercise optimally every day. Lay out an ideal plan and aim to be 90% compliant. For example: If you eat 5 times a day that is 35 times a week. Give yourself permission to be perfect 30 of the 35 times.
2. High expectations—Establish clear and realistic objectives.  Your exercise regime will be different if your objective is good health compared to training for performance. Ask WHY and then establish HOW.
3. A complex lifestyle with many competing priorities— The promise of more free time has not materialized. Technology does not always make our lives simpler. Blackberries, Bluetooth, Twitter and Tweets require us to be available 24/7 or at least to feel like we are supposed to be available.

How do we overcome these barriers? Here are my top five tips:

1. Outsource/ Delegate: Accept that it is an inefficient use of your time and energy for you to do some tasks. If you don’t increase value or receive pleasure from an activity, then consider outsourcing it. If you don’t enjoy cooking, hire a personal chef. Don’t scoff—this is easier and less expensive than you think. (Just make sure they cook healthy meals!)
2. Don’t try to balance the ideal day. Balance a week instead. Attempting to fit in all the things you should do in a day is difficult. It is better to look at the pattern of a week.
3. Combine your activities. If your goal is to exercise every day, get some of your exercise while walking the dog or working in the garden.  
4. Have family members contribute. Many hands make light work. It is impressive how much easier projects around the house are when the kids contribute.
5. Conquer the time management challenge. Be more attentive to the important things—family, exercise, fun, time off—things that you can’t outsource.  You will find you have better health which results in increased energy and a larger capacity to enjoy the things that are really important—the things that bring life meaning and joy.

Of course as often happens when you are dispensing advice it causes you to look in the mirror. I must admit that I could be a more effective outsourcer and delegator.  I could have outsourced the writing of this blog post and had more sleep last night, more time with my family and a longer bike ride this morning!

When I am sorting out my priorities I have to remind myself of a favorite quote, “In life you can have anything you want. You just can’t have everything you want.”

What have you outsourced and what have you outsourced that you wished you had done differently?

Adding Life to Your Years ..... Dr Les