What’s the Best Personality Type to Be Healthy, and How to Live to 100 | Karen Owoc

Karen Owoc is a certified clinical exercise physiologist, health educator, and health and habit coach who assists adults with type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cancer, obesity, orthopedic limitations in addition to cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease.  She also is the weekly health expert on KRON 4 Morning News Weekend. Each week she condenses new scientific studies to a six-minute education segment, translates medical language, creates visuals, and distills information into practical healthy living tips. As the recurring health expert on ABC 10 in Sacramento, she creates distinctively clever, fun, and healthful food demonstrations.

Follow Karen on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter, and buy her book, "Athletes in Aprons."

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Transcript

Ep 67 - Karen Owoc

Greg: [00:00:00] Coming up on the Greg Krino show. 

Karen: People used to think that those that, or type a, or the ones that were at highest risk for a heart attack. That's what they used to think years ago. But I have to tell you, the type a personalities are the ones that are the best cardiac rehab patients, because when I tell them to do something, they do it and they want to do it the best in they're great patients, but it's the type D said are most prone to having a heart.

Hello, 

Greg: my friends. Welcome to the Greg Krino show.

Welcome everyone to the Greg Krino show, where we talk to experts and people with unique experiences so we can become better critical thinkers and have a little fun in the process. Before we begin, please help me grow our audience by giving a five-star rating and friendly comment on your podcast app and share the [00:01:00] show on social media.

If you would like to learn more about me and my guests, head over to GregKrino.com and subscribe to the newsletter. And if you have ideas for the show, please email me at GregKrinoShow@gmail.com. In today's episode, we have exercise physiologists, TV, health, expert, and author. Karen people are living longer today and it's possible to extend our good years well into our eighties and even our nineties.

If we make good lifestyle choices, In this discussion. Karen shares her experience, helping patients at the VA. She gives a few tips on how to maintain a healthy diet while on the go. And she helps us detect and save ourselves from a heart attack. If you want to learn more, check out her book, athletes and aprons, the nutrition playbook to break 100, you can follow her at Karen dot com and that's K a R E N O w O c.com.

And if you're in the San Francisco bay area, watch her weekly health segment on K R O N channel four. And [00:02:00] with that here she is. Karen . Karen. Oh, walk. Welcome to the show. How are you doing this morning? 

Karen: Great. Thank you for having me, Greg. 

Greg: Thanks for coming on. So you are a clinical exercise physiologist and San Francisco bay area health expert, and author of athletes and aprons, the nutrition playbook to break 100 and I want to make it to a hundred years old.

That's. My lifelong goal. I want to get there and you're helping people to do it. So you have an interesting personal story, some tragedy in there as well. I noticed with your family. So what got you to go in this direction with health in particular, helping us with the aging process? 

Karen: I have a family history of early onset heart disease stroke, as well as cancer.

So I saw that in the cards early on. So in college I was really involved in sports and I was really interested in [00:03:00] biology, the physiology and the whole connection between the body and how we feed ourselves and how we treat ourselves. So I decided to kind of focus on a career that kind of embodies everything.

I started out actually in physical therapy and. I didn't quite take to it as well, because when you're a physical therapist, you focus in on one particular area, one impaired area of the body, and I wanted to treat the whole body. And that's what lifestyle medicine, and is all about lifestyle.

Medicine is kind of the new buzzword in medicine these days. And, uh, so my mom, my brother had a heart attack at age 35 and yeah, very young. And that was what's happening in our family. And my cousin had a heart attack at 32 massive. So my brother, even though I [00:04:00] was involved in cardiac rehab, I really couldn't seem to get to him and help him.

And he decided to go on the track of, you know, well, these are the cards I've been dealt, then this is the way I'm going to live my life the way I want to. And I see that in patients they'll either go one direction or the other, and you know, going in the direction of I'll just live my wife life the way it is, they truly don't last long.

And he did pass with heart failure and 14 years later, And then my mom had early onset cancer right before my baby, right. Was, she was diagnosed right before my child was born. And, you know, she only saw a few months of his life, but, uh, yeah, 

Greg: yeah. That's uh, yeah that's really tough.

You know, we all tend to look at our families and assume life is going to be a certain way. And, you know, we are in a sense we can't change. Obviously we can't [00:05:00] change our family history and there are certain genetic predispositions that we can't get over. Uh, but there is, I guess the way I look at it as more of like, we're all born with like a certain size glass, but it's up to us how we choose to fill it.

And, you know, like with my family we, we do have pretty good health and longevity. But you know, I've got a grandfather who died in his sixties because he smoked. And so even though most everybody in my family has lived well into their eighties, some into their nineties, just that one choice.

And that's like a 30 year difference just because of that one choice. And yeah, I began to think, well, what would happen if somebody in your family had decided to make different choices? Would they have gotten that extra 20 or 30 years? Have you seen like how much of a variation, the genetics versus lifestyle decisions plays in.

Karen: You know, genetics is actually doesn't play as big of a role. I just came back from a conference. I just spoke at a conference nurses conference in long beach. I was down [00:06:00] in your area and yeah, there was another, there was there wa present the, one of the presenters presented a study of that genetics played a small role.

It was the lifestyle that played the most, had the most significance. And I see that too. And in our veterans, uh, I treat mostly Vietnam combat veterans and smoked. They have a long history of smoking. A lot of times they start smoking in the military and they are suffering now from COPD, emphysema uh, fibrosis of the lung.

So, and cancer. It really does make difference. So my whole premise behind writing the book is all about, uh, taking control of how long we live and that we can take control how well we feel and how functional we're going to be when we're in our 70 eighties, nineties and beyond. And [00:07:00] you passed a hundred.

Greg: Yeah. Yeah. I it's really incredible. I was, I watched our, I saw, uh, an Instagram post just a few weeks ago and it had, I think it was cause Betty White died. It was like the golden girls and they were in their fifties and then the sex and the city women, they're also in, I think they're even older than the golden girls were.

And then you look at how the difference now, some of that's obviously makeup and hair and the way they dress and all that. But our perception of age is a lot different now. And I think people who. You know, grew up, maybe the, a lot of the Vietnam vets, some of the older guys, they have a certain idea of what age is.

And maybe when you're in your fifties, well, that's about time. You start shutting it down and you just glide into your sixties and seventies, and then you die and it's not true anymore. I mean, now 50, 50 I'm hell, I'm almost in my fifties. It's nothing. It's really no big deal and people can, yeah, they got to start getting used to the fact that we're, you know, if you do it right, you can't make it to a hundred and why not have some, [00:08:00] a good 80 to 90 years of a quality.

Karen: My dad lived to 1 96. So, uh, he had really good genes, but he had a lifestyle that was active all the time. He ate really well throughout his life. And I kind of patterned my, my, my lifestyle after his, and he was my role model. And, uh, but yeah, you can take control over how well, how long you live.

But I didn't know the golden girls, they were in their fifties. That's young. 

Greg: I bet that might've been like season one or whatever. I don't know how many seasons went, but they were, yeah, they were like in their fifties when they started 

Karen: like liking grandmother. I know, 

Greg: I know now maybe in the show they were playing people who were.

So, I guess that's possible, but I don't think it was much older than like 60. So it's yeah, it's, 

Karen: It's true because eighties is now the new 60 and, [00:09:00] uh, we're just, uh, as long as we take care of ourselves we can reverse our progression 

Greg: of eight. That's true. And then I was looking at the age life expectancy, charts and numbers.

And I didn't know this, but I guess now it's like what, 76 for a male and maybe like 79 or 80 for a female in America, but that's our life expectancy at birth. And so as you get older, that top end actually gets higher. So if you already are 60 or 65, your life expectancy is not 75.

It's more like 80 or 85. Now, obviously when you get way up there at 95 and 96, That pretty much can be your life expectancy, maybe a year or two later, but the older you get that top end life expectancy actually grows. So if you're already, like I said, if you're already in your fifties, your life expectancy is not 75.

It's probably the, it's probably 83 or 84. 

Karen: And you know, they, the [00:10:00] there's discussion that this generation is going to be live long, less long because, and it's kind of true because, uh, a lot of my patients were starting, you know, when I first started my career, the people in cardiac rehab. Seven 60 seventies and older.

And then they started to be more like 40. I would get a lot of 40 year old men that were having their heart attacks and their lifestyle. I look at their life. They say, well, how can that be? And I'm active. I eat well. And I said, well, what's what else do you do? Well, they sit in a car all day driving to work.

A lot of them were engineers. So they did a lot of sitting at the computer all day long and then commute here in the bay area to an hour and a half plus commute. And, uh, and then they come home, sit down dinner, then decompress sitting down in front of the TV and then go [00:11:00] to bed and start that lifestyle all over again.

So having heart disease, heart attacks early on, it's not unusual anymore. 

Greg: And these are the veterans that you're dealing with. Yeah. 

Karen: Veterans that actually, cause I also worked in, uh, before working for the VA. I was working in the community hospital here in San Ramon. So I get a mix of all kinds. The veterans, those are the ones I deal with mostly right now are in their seventies.

So they have a lot of different diseases as a consequence of not only their service, but their lifestyle after their service. 

Greg: Okay. The Vietnam era folks, what kind of prejudices do they have? Not cultural prejudice, but what kind of ideas they have about aging and health and what have you seen that you've had to teach them?

Like, are they sort of like the general population in terms of what they need to do? Or are there something specific about [00:12:00] older veterans in particular that needs to be changed? 

Karen: Well with the veterans, they are. They ha they still have PTSD from Vietnam. So with the stress comes, stress eating and, uh, heart disease.

What I like to see one day is when you see those questionnaires, do you have heart disease? Do you have you had a stroke? It should say on their veteran status, because if you are a veteran, you are already at a higher risk of having heart disease. So just from the stress, you know, stress is when you're stressed, you release a lot of cortisol.

Cortisol is very damaging to the arteries, the inner lining of the arteries, the endothelium. So they only, not only have that, but. A lot of it is also caused their problems are caused by stress eating, which is [00:13:00] then you have diabetes. So you have the obesity, diabetes, the heart disease, and it just starts to do spiral down after that.

Is there 

kind 

Greg: of like the tough guy attitude as well that you'll see with veterans, like, I'll see this, even among my friends, like you're not a tough guy, unless you have the red meat and you know, if you're a vegan or a vegetarian, oh, you're kind of a wuss. Like, do you think that's also part of it is just, they have this perception of what it means to be a tough guy and they just want to eat a certain way.

You can't do that. I mean, you, I 

Karen: think by the time they meet me, they, uh, maybe they, that was their attitude before, but by the time they meet me, they know that they have to fix something. They have to change something because it's a life or death situation. So if they don't change their lifestyle, you know, they'll end up like my brother or to something and they need help and guidance in the, in [00:14:00] that area.

Blood of them know, by then that meat is not the healthiest thing for them. And, but eating more fruits and vegetables and, uh, that, and I do give them a questionnaire. They do have to fill it out and, uh, and score it. Uh, lots of times they score negative points when they, uh, when they actually, when it comes down to it.

And then their goal, every week we set a goal and they try to get that score up. So. 

Greg: Wow. Would you recommend the exercise portion first or the diet portion first? Or is it a holistic thing? Like where would you start this program for your say typical 65 year old veteran? You know, he was 50 pounds overweight and, you know, maybe walks around the block once.

Week I'm here. Where do you start with a guy like that? 

Karen: Well, our program, well, first of all, it's all home-based. We could explain. I can explain that. But part of it is in, I [00:15:00] set this straight out at the beginning, we cover four different domains and that is exercise, nutrition, uh, psychosocial as well.

So, we're always setting some type of, I call it the happiness goal every week. Something that really helps bring up their spirit makes them quote, unquote happy. And then, uh, the, another goal would be maybe the weight loss, whatever thing else that they're working on. Or, and if they have oxygen issues and in working on maybe using more oxygen or less oxygen with their everyday activities so that we have, so one doesn't take precedence over the other.

We, we, I address them all every week. I have to tell you a story about one of my veterans. Yeah. So he, you know, he had other issues. A lot of our veterans have, they've kind of, because of the PTSD, they've used, you [00:16:00] know, alcohol and other drugs to kind of numb themselves and as well as food. And so sometimes it's difficult to kind of break through that level of motivation, you know, kind of have to get them going again.

Uh, one of my patients, uh, now that we're on video, we use video as well as just phone calls, but, uh, he said, well, I had all these goals set up, he agreed to them. And then I said, okay. So, the next week I call, I said, how did it go? You know? And he said, oh, I decided I'm going to start this week instead.

And so I said to him, okay, go to your garage, get on that truck and treadmill, have your wife hold the camera in front of you. And I'm going to watch you, what you do, your whole treadmill routine. And he was an ex Marine. So not XiO it there once every Marino is. 

Greg: Yeah, don't worry. I didn't even know that, but that [00:17:00] happens.

Yeah. And 

Karen: he, uh, he just kind of looked at me. He goes seriously. And I said, seriously, we'll get on the treadmill right now. And he did his routine and that's all it took to kind of get him started and get him going. And knowing that I'm calling him on it, if he doesn't, uh, doesn't follow through on the goals that he agrees to each 

Greg: week.

Yeah. The diet starts tomorrow. This is the mantra. I know it's yeah. You got to take that first step. I think that's what people have to realize is that ultimately it is you making a decision and actually taking that step. Nobody can do it for you. You can have all the coaches in the world read all the books in the world.

I have all these grantee, you know, big goals, but if you don't actually physically take that first step, nothing's going to happen. And yeah, that's 

Karen: so true. And that's why I said, it's just those little steps. It's not uh, you know, don't try and take this big, giant step and think that you're going to do all this.

So I always [00:18:00] start small. And because every time you set a goal, you want to be able to achieve that goal in that period of time one week. You know, if you feel, if you don't feel confident, like on a scale of one to 10, if you don't feel like on the confidence level, you're more like a four or five then I would say, okay let's back up a little bit.

And let's, uh, we want the goal to be achievable because that's going to help calm self-confidence and keep that motivation going each 

Greg: week. So as he still on the program now, have you tracked him? 

Karen: Yes, he's still active in our program. And, uh, he following and doing more weightlifting, which is what he really likes to do.

He just needed a little push to get started 

Greg: again. Well, I think it's also finding things that you enjoy doing. Like, you just mentioned how he likes weightlifting and I think just getting somebody to do anything that they, like, I think people go, oh, I've got to go [00:19:00] out and run three miles or five miles. I hate running.

And then they don't even do anything. And, you know, I used to think, well, you have to do a mix of things, whether it's weightlifting or cardio. And, but the problem is, I think just getting started and a sofa person just enjoys walking around the block and they enjoy hiking. Okay, well, let's do that first.

And then you can sprinkle in the other thing. As we get down the road, but just, you know, we got to get started. And so whatever you like, you know, if you like, uh, I don't know, playing racketball or something. All right. Well, let's go and smack the ball around or go shoot some hoops of basketball or something.

Just something to get you. 

Karen: I always say you have a fitness personality. And that means that, you know, not everybody's cut out for running and jogging. And like, if you have the personality where you like to talk to people, socialize with people and beat your, you get your energy from other people. Then the last thing I [00:20:00] would prescribe is swimming because swimming laps, you're not talking to anybody, they would hate it.

So being that for that person, I said, you know, join a class, you know, being around other people. So you really have to hone in to what you really like and your personality. If you're very competitive, maybe pair up with another person that's also very competitive, but just, uh, you know, figure out who you are and what you might like and try a lot of different things.

Greg: Well, that's true. I mean, knowing your personality is a big aspect of it. And you talk about that. In your book, you say they're nine personalities prone to weight gain. Can you kind of go into some of that? I didn't know there were nine. That's a lot, first of all, but can you kind of talk about a few of those?

Karen: So people that are very impatient. So this is when you are when you create stress for yourself, stress promotes, generally eating problems. [00:21:00] Uh, most of the people that I've dealt with over the, all these years, uh, when they say they have, uh, eating, uh, not so much a disorder, but a problem they are, it's created by stress.

So one of the things, if you're a very impatient person, then definitely you're not only creating stress within yourself, you're creating stress for the other people around you. You know, everybody's, you know, you're pushing them along, you know, you're not working fast enough. You're not walking fast enough.

You're the slowest I'm behind the slowest driver on the freeway. Those are people that create turmoil within themselves because of this, their impatience. 

Greg: Yeah. I can see that being a problem, I find myself as I'm a pretty athletic person, I've been doing sports my whole life.

I, uh, I don't have any particular problems, but I will say I'm one of those folks that if I'm stressed or if I'm bored, I'll eat and it's just, it [00:22:00] just happens. And I imagine if somebody has, you know, a lot of it has a stressful job or has one of those very type a personality. And they haven't had the discipline or the experience to go out and sort of balance that out on the exercise and they could get into a lot of trouble as well.

I mean, are there other, go ahead. Yeah. 

Karen: Yeah. The competitive personalities, since you breathe, freeing that up, you know, that could also be, uh, uh, stress, you know, stress related trait and the person that's very competitive. I don't know how you are, but if you're very competitive and you're competing, not only with yourself, but with always having to be the best at, uh, at a sport at best at a job, the best at getting them, making the most money, all those things, always having to be the best that's very stressful because you can't always be winning.

And that could also create disappointment in themselves because they're not, uh, [00:23:00] they're not. Uh, up to where they feel like they should be. And, uh, that can create a lot of internal stress. Yeah. I 

Greg: like to say there's a, there's where they say there's type a there's tight beat, then there's type C. I think I'm like one of those types.

C oh, there's a type D now. So I know that we all know the type a that's you're very competitive. The type is very not competitive. You're very chill. I guess I thought the type C was more, you pick your battles. Like sometimes you are competitive. Other times you completely relax. You just kind of go with.

You're a situationally dependent type of person. I guess. That's how I am. What is the type 

Karen: D type C? Yes. So very compliant. This is could also be the one that suffers from quiet stress because they don't want to, uh, express. They may also tend to hold in their anger in their displeasure because they don't want to yeah.

Type C cause they don't want to create any conflict. So that could be [00:24:00] problematic to now type D is the distressed personality. So this is the person that actually is more pulls away from other people. They are not real social. They, you know, they push people away. So they're very Isolated, they isolate themselves.

And so of all those personalities, a, B, C, and D, which did you think is the most, uh, as that higher risk of having a heart attack? 

Greg: I will say, D am I right? Oh yeah. The isolated, I always figure that most human problems are due to isolation. That's just my view of the world in so many ways, but that's true.

So why is. 

Karen: Uh, because of that, the whole social people, I mean, it's people need to connect with other people. And this is the sad part I see in our veterans. A lot of them are very [00:25:00] isolated and after being in the military, you're used to having your own built-in family. Right? And then when you leave the military, some people don't have a family to go to.

So they don't have that structure, that social structure anymore. And that's really hard for them. And some are alone. I have veterans that are, who live way out in isolated areas of the county, and also don't have family that they can count on. So that's that's. Problem that, you know, increases their risk for a heart attack.

People used to think that those that have, or type a, or the ones that were at highest risk for a heart attack. And that was the, that's what they used to think years ago. But, and, but I have to tell you, the type a personalities are the ones that are the best cardiac rehab patients, because what I [00:26:00] tell them to do something, they do it and they want to do it the best in their great patients.

But it's the type D said are most prone to having a heart 

Greg: attack. Yeah. There's a lot of psychological aspects to these. I'm seeing a lot of overlap in PTSD and and. Problems health problems. And, uh, and just in the being obviously a veteran and, you know, seeing a lot of my friends now we're in our forties and fifties even, and you know, the body's starting to break down and you can't just rely on your old military family and your youth anymore.

Now you're kind of off on your own. And that presents a whole other list of problems that I think we're not prepared for. And you just, you hit the nail on the head is that we are used to having our family around us. And now in that family was your military family. And that's when that's gone. You can, you know, spiral in bad directions.

And we think of, [00:27:00] you know, obviously suicide is the most extreme example of that, but, and we think of alcohol and drugs, but it can also be food and just lack of exercise. And in fact, that's probably a lot more common than alcohol and drugs. I mean, food and lack of exercise. God, that's probably half the population right 

Karen: there.

Right. And those are the lice. What I call the, you know, those are lifestyle diseases that these people suffer from. You know, they are diseases that are a consequence of how they've lived their life. So, and like you said, just lack of exercise and eating and you know, one of the questions I get a lot is, okay, I know I should not eat this.

I shouldn't need that. And what do I do? And. The first thing that to, in order to break out of the stress, eating, you first have to realize that you're doing it. A lot of people don't realize that they're even doing it, and they're just having these [00:28:00] uncontrollable cravings. So I do tell them, you know, start creating a log, uh, you know, a diary of what is it that you're feeling at this moment and what is it that you're craving?

And you'll start to see a pet and even where we're, where are you sometimes just sitting on the sofa is a trigger to, yeah, I'm going to decompress and this is how I'm going to relax. And then I eat this bag of potato chips. So start really taking inventory of where, what I'm feeling, where I am, what I'm doing, maybe even who I'm with.

And what are those trigger foods? Because until you realize that you're doing it, are you able to, uh, counter. 

Greg: Yeah. They say, knowing is half the battle. I think those are the public service announcements when I was a kid. Yeah. It's a lot of times it's just a awareness of it is the first step.

Karen: So if you are stress eating, then the way to cope is to find other ways to [00:29:00] cope with the stress. So whether it's, uh, exercises a great way to, to relieve stress, uh, even massage, uh, uh, meditation, but finding other ways, knowing that stress is your trigger for overeating, then finding a way to cope with that stress.

Greg: Yeah, definitely time management. I also find that for me in the most stressful times of my life, going for a walk was the best going outside and just enjoying the sunset, walking around the neighborhood, looking at the houses. That was that really prevented a lot of a you're walking. So you're not just sitting there just throwing down, you know, beers and potato chips, but it also just made me less depressed and it was just physical movement.

And being outside, I think was those are the top two things for me. 

Karen: And you know what, they've done studies on this. And they [00:30:00] actually found being out in nature helps decrease depression and reduce stress. So they found that, you know, being outside, looking at nature, but not everybody could be outside.

So they've, they found that. These subjects that they were studying, just looking at nature, like either looking out the window at nature, or even looking at, uh, nature pictures of nature on their computer screen or in a book that helped relieve stress. 

Greg: Oh, that's funny that you mentioned that because on my, so I'm an airline pilot and we have these iPads that are issued to us.

And on those iPads, we have all of our flight publications and checklists and all that. Well, my screensaver, I put a Hawaii scene on my screen saver and I knew that it was just nice to look at. And every time I open it up, I'm like, oh, I always feel better when I look at this. And yeah it makes sense.

I'm glad to hear that. I support that study. [00:31:00] You can add it to your attic, to your, uh, to your list of. 

Karen: Yes. Okay. 

Greg: Yeah. No. So kind of getting into your book here, you have a section about eating on the go and that's a big problem for me as an airline pilot. I'm on the road a lot of times, 12, 14 days a month.

Uh, what do you recommend in terms of eating on the go? You know, cause we can't just always have refrigerators everywhere we go. You know, it's so easy just to grab a sandwich at Wendy's, you know, what do you recommend for somebody who's traveling a lot? Like how can they stay healthy in terms of. 

Karen: So are you con are you thinking about what you're eating, uh, on the way to the airport or like in your room after you land and you're waiting to take off the next day?

Greg: I think for me, the problem is, I don't know when I'm going to get my next meal. I mean, [00:32:00] if I have this flight coming up and I'm going to be occupied for a few hours, I'm like, oh man, I don't know what I'm going to eat. So I'm going to just go grab this big high calorie sandwich because I may not be able to eat for eight hours.

Uh, that's kind of the problem with me, I guess. Kicking this around in my mind, maybe answering it myself, maybe time management is the issue. 

Karen: Well, you're right in a sense, uh, having to plan it to some degree. And I have one of the things I suggest with traveling is this is a little steam case.

It's called the liquid steam case. And it's made out of it's made out of silicone actually. And it's, it looks like this. I 

Greg: don't know if you're on the camera and just 

Karen: it's liquid it's L E K U E. It's Swedish, I believe. And you just [00:33:00] put there's this little steam tray on the bottom. You just have to put like one to two.

Tablespoons of water in it. And then you could put a piece of chicken, you could put vegetables. So if you're able to get to a market or and then just stick this in your microwave most hotels have a microwave and you could just, a piece of chicken can actually cook in here in three minutes. 

Greg: So you said L a K E L 

Karen: E Q L E K U E.

And I do list that in the book as a possible, and it's, you know, it's look, you could squish it into your suitcase really easily, and we could put anything in there to heat it up. The other thing I suggest is when this hot logic mini and it is a little oven, it's a, it looks like. It looks like a a lunchbox, right?

Greg: Yeah, it 

Karen: has, it has a plug that you can pull out and you can plug it [00:34:00] into an outlet and, uh, inside you could fill it up with your vegetables or whatever it is you want and cook it, it'll cook to 165 degrees. So it will cook your food as well as keep it warm. And I love this little hot lodge. I have people that, you know, they're on the go all the time.

So they're eating out of the car or, you know, they're eating on the job and they love that because they can just plug it. There's also a battery adapter. You could, uh, you could, uh, Plug it into your car and heat up your food. So, yeah, that's uh, if you're able to take something like that, but I really liked the liquid.

That's something you could really stick in your box, but, uh, if you have access to a grocery store, there are a lot of things that you could, you can grab and go. It's just not a matter of getting the junk food. [00:35:00] I do have a list in my book of things that you could. Is there anything, did you take a look at?

Is there anything in, in that, uh, section that sounds like something that's doable? 

Greg: You know, I didn't dig in that deeply. But I will do that though, because there are so many chapters you have like 25 chapters of things in there. So I'm going to, I'm going to get in into that in more detail.

I've also noticed that. You know, had access to a grocery store, just grabbing a bag of spinach, I guess usually it's the greens that I'm missing. And I will literally just get a bag of spinach and just eat it with my hands. I know that's not very, it doesn't sound very appetizing, but when you need to get the greens in, you'd sometimes just.

Just eating them directly is good. Like at least you got something, but yeah. Spinach and just start pounding it and 

Karen: you know, yeah. Now the, some of the stores are a little bit more you know, they do have the salads to go, just try to avoid some of the ones that have ham and a lot of processed cheese, but just with the greens, [00:36:00] uh, are good option.

And then the fruit, even frozen veggies, you could throw it in that liquid way that Steamcase and take it back to your room or 

Greg: whatever. Yeah. Tons of options. I want to take into another one here. So you have a chapter on cereal. I'm a huge cereal eater. I love it all. I'll eat a box a day. If I was really, you know, not feeling great about myself and it was just comfort eating.

I could easily do a box in a day. What are some goods? That's my comfort food at. 

Karen: Yeah, like cocoa Krispies, that kind of 

Greg: know I tend to avoid the sugary ones. I mean, I have eaten them. I will sometimes, but no, just some like good old fashion. Oh, I can't even, you know, just Cheerios. I know that yours has some sugar in it.

It's not the most healthy, but it's kind of in the middle, I guess. Uh, but 

Karen: actually, yeah, Cheerios, everyone thinks that Cheerios are, you know, cause it has the heart on it. It's hard to help them. [00:37:00] But actually I have a box here that, uh, whenever, you know, when we had classes, in-person classes, uh, I'd have everyone bring their, uh, favorite cereal, you know, favorite breakfast food.

And of course I got lots of Cheerios, but you look at the, so looking at the ingredients on Cheerios and this is the honey nut Cheerios, but whole grain oats. Okay. That's good. But the second ingredients is sugar and then the next one brand and the next one is corn starts. So you have start, uh, which is quick to, uh, increase your blood sugar.

Then you have honey, another sweetener, and then you have brown sugar syrup, another sweetener, then you have salt. And then next try potassium, phosphate. I do write about phosphates. Phosphate has been shown to accelerate aging in mice. So, and there's [00:38:00] so many phosphates in processed foods, you know, even some of the like, well baked goods, it's all in the baked goods.

They phosphate of baking soda, baking powder. And then the next ingredient is canola oil. So you're eating. Sugar and oil and then almond flavor. And then vitamin E for. 

Greg: Preservative. So what would be some good cereals then? I mean, other than shredded wheat, I guess that's just like eating air, but is there anything that's like kind of okay.

Tasting that you would recommend or some brands that we can go to 

Karen: so well, going to the actual whole grains. So looking at oats am. So one of the things, when you look at a box of cereal, you want us to look at the carbohydrates and then the percentage of carbohydrates to fiber. So this particular one has 22 grams [00:39:00] of carbohydrates and only two grams of fiber.

That means there's a ratio of 11, that's 11 to one ratio of carbohydrates to fiber. That's one of the quick ways to look at something. If it's something, if it's good for you, any kind of carbohydrate, that's good for you. So that's not a, that's not a good choice for the. Uh, the, uh, process cereals. So you want to go to the whole grains.

You want to go to whole oats. Good choice would be muesli. And this is by Bob's red mill and this is the old country style muesli. All it is whole grain wheat dates for sweetener. These are sunflower seeds, raisins, whole grain rye, barley, whole grain oats, and just lots of whole grain stuff in here.

And this is, this would be a good choice. You could eat it hot, or you could eat. So that's the, or you could sprinkle it [00:40:00] on yogurt. So this is a great little thing to even, you could pack with you and in your suitcase and make sure you always have some, uh, muesli with you. 

Greg: Okay. Yeah I've had easily a few times that is pretty good.

Wow, fantastic. Any other like food recommendations for being on the go that you can think of? How about walking through the airport? I mean, I guess just going for the salad, I guess would be the best thing. But what about bars? I mean, what about things that are packaged? Cause a lot of times when you go on an airplane, you need to bring something it's already packaged.

Can you think of anything packaged that's okay. 

Karen: You know, I was, you know, walking through the airport and looking at stuff and Some of them. They have some of those, some of the restaurants do have some packaged foods that's prepared there and then they just package it versus the ones that's manufactured.

And that's those aren't so great. But anything would beans as protein. Okay. So some of those [00:41:00] burrito, some of those wraps would be a good choice. I could do that. Yeah. I'm trying to. You know, I know not everybody wants to eat salad, but soups are also a really good choice. If you could get some soups to go, soups are great because they're full of water.

They're a great dumping ground for vegetables. So you get a lot of vegetables in, in one, uh, one bowl of soup and get your beans. You get some protein. That would be a good choice. 

Greg: Okay. Yeah. That's all great information. I, yeah, I can already, I'm already starting to strategize in my mind now how it can improve this.

It's that's been the number. It's been the bane of my existence. I think I love my job, but it is really hard to be, to eat healthy. I can I've even figured out the exercise part of the. I can do a workout in a hotel room. No problem. I have my YouTube channels that I can go to and get a great room workout.

Even like when we were locked down, like I had to travel [00:42:00] to Sydney a couple of times, and you couldn't even leave your hotel room, but it was not a problem. I could do something right there with a towel and, you know, all sorts of stuff. But the eating was always, that's always been a problem. And just the time management aspect of it, finding the green specifically.

And that's right. As I said, one day, I'm like, you know what, I'm just going to buy a bag of spinach and I just ate the whole damn thing. That's 

Karen: actually not a bad idea. That's actually, and then you could even get some fresh lemon and squirt some lemon when you have spinach is very high in, well, it has, what's called non-heme iron.

Meaning that iron is coming from a plant, not from the blood of an animal. So when you eat non-heme iron, you want to combine that with vitamin C to absorb it better. So if you were to, yeah. So if you were to eat the spinach, you know, put some the lemon juice or eat with a tomato or a bell pepper, [00:43:00] that bell pepper is also really high in vitamin C or an orange, orange slices.

So there's 

Greg: a reason then that we have fruit and other stuff on our bed of spinach and lettuce. Okay. Well, 

Karen: yeah, that's really popular. So strawberries, you could grab your spinach, you get some strawberries or an orange Mandarin orange and then some nuts, and then you have some walnuts that would be really good too.

Cause that would be your omega threes and you have a nice little 

Greg: salad there. Yeah. And you don't have to refrigerate the nuts. So that helps us well for traveling. Wow. Great ideas. 

Karen: And there's a lot of. Uh, freeze, dried freeze, dried fruit now. So those make great snacks. So freeze, dried strawberries.

So you could pack those in your bag too. And, uh, put that on your 

Greg: salad. Oh, fantastic. Just don't eat the whole bag of those dried fruits. Cause that can cause other problems I've noticed. So you've got, they're all [00:44:00] dried up and condensed. I know. It's like I can eat the whole bag. It's like, oh great.

Now I've just had about five pieces of fruit all at once. So that's funny. Well, let's I want to shift gears just a little bit. I want to get into, uh, two more topics here. Cause I think both one's really fun. And then one is just, I think very useful, but you have a section on how to stop a heart attack and heart attack.

Heart disease is actually a very big problem for women. We always think of like the old Vietnam vet guy, which we talked about, but it's actually a big problem for women and a lot of women. Think about it as much as they think about maybe breast cancer or some other related problems, but it's really heart disease.

I mean, so, uh, I guess a what, is there something different that women should be doing? And then B how do you stop a heart attack? 

Karen: So women, so men, uh, suffer more heart attacks in women. However, more women die from a heart attack [00:45:00] than men, unfortunately. And a couple, several reasons why number one is delayed care.

Women tend to not go to get care when they have a hearted, when they have symptoms. Now here's the thing with women. Women get warning signs to two months as, as early as two months before the actual heart attack. But those are signs and symptoms that are often ignored because they're so. You know, they could be fatigue.

That's number one, they feel like they have the flu and you know, here with COVID could be anything. And that's often dismissed. Oh, I just feel like I'm coming down with something. I got the flu. I'm not sleeping well, that's another one. And that there could be lots of reasons for them not sleeping.

Well, a lot of people, women, because women tend to have their heart attacks later than men, more in the average age, [00:46:00] 72 versus a man 65, but actually younger. But that, but women generally older, so they could have be having issues with menopause causing difficulty sleeping stress. So. Oh, back pain is another one that, that women have that you wouldn't think the women that have survived a heart attack.

They have told me that they thought they were just, they just overdid it. They were vacuuming too hard or something like that. And so they didn't dismiss those signs. So number one, delayed care men tend to get to the hospitals 16 hours after there's their symptoms occur. That's because the women are pushing them along.

You got to get, uh, to the hospital, whereas a women, 54 hours from the time they first have a symptom. Uh, have a heart, uh, their heart attack when their heart attack is actually [00:47:00] happening. And, uh, these men, these husbands, aren't pushing them to go to the hospital. I guess 

Greg: I can see some, uh, some like sexual role problems.

They're like the women are more of the caregivers and always look at the guy. We know that in general guys die earlier. And so the wife tends to look out for her husband and then it's like, well, who's looking out for the person who's looking out for that person. Then, you know, the husbands they're just hanging out in the couch and he's like, well, my wife's taking care of me.

It's like, well, someone's gotta to take care of her too. She's having problems. So there might be some like, sort of a role stereotype that we fall into and it, yeah, it seems like maybe women need to, I guess be more like guys be lazy and just take care of yourself, 

Karen: but they, cause who's going to take, yeah, they're the caretaker of the family and they don't want, they tend to not want to disrupt the household.

You know, I've had women that said, oh yeah, they were having these symptoms at midnight, but didn't want to wake anybody up to go to [00:48:00] the hospital. So they waited all through the night only to call the doctor in the morning to make an appointment, not go to the ER, but to make an appointment, to see the doctor.

So that's why there's so much damage that occurs from the time that heart attack starts. The clot is grows minute by minute. And every minute that you let it grow. The more damage, irreversible heart damage. You're going to have AF 

Greg: afterwards. Now what about having aspirin available? I've heard that can help you.

Is that something I should pack in my bag when I travel, there's just a couple of aspirin 

Karen: everybody should have. And this is the thing. So when that clot starts growing the platelets, these are platelets. Th those are the things that are causing the clock to grow and an aspirin and not, this is not Thai.

This is not Thailand. This is where regular aspirin. This is called an anti-platelet. [00:49:00] So this will help stop the clock from growing and. And it only, it's a certain type of Aspen. It's the one that's not coded at most of the people that do take aspirin. And if they're on aspirin therapy, they're probably taking the one that's coded so that it breaks down in the small intestine and doesn't irritate the stomach.

Well, that's not the one you want to take if you have, you're having a heart attack. So you want to get the one that's going to break down very easily and act really fast. 

Greg: So coated aspirin 

Karen: is non coated, aspirin, 325 milligrams or four baby aspirin. You know, a baby aspirin is 81 milligrams each. And the thing is you don't want to swallow it.

You want to chew it for 30 seconds and then drink it, follow it with four ounces of water. So they're they actually did a study, studied, uh, taking the aspirin with Alka [00:50:00] seltzer, you know, chewing it, not chewing it. And they found that by chewing it for 30 seconds, followed by four ounces of water was the most effective.

At quickly stopping the clock from growing. Okay. 

Greg: Wow. Great information. Yeah. 

Karen: So it's real important to, I always tell people, put your, put that aspirin at it, certain places around your house, you could be having these symptoms, you know, when you're watching TV. So have some by the TV, have some by the bedroom, but the bed, you know, by the kitchen, wherever you tend to even the car in your purse, but in, in your bag, like you said, when you travel, have that Aspen, it's great first aid 

Greg: for a hundred.

And what's the indication I hear about the numbing of one arm. Uh, obviously chest pain seems pretty obvious, but what are some major symptoms of a heart attack? How do I know? It's that? Not just in digital. 

Karen: That's a good point. [00:51:00] Cause that's what my brother, when he was having his, he was complaining of indigestion.

And, but I could see, I just knew that he was having a heart attack. Also cold being cold and clammy, you know, they're, you're just kind of sweaty, but clammy. The indigestion definitely vomiting. That's another one. So lots of times the heart attack is dismissed as, oh, I it's something I ate. Uh, and a lot of people don't realize vomiting is also part of the sign of a heart attack.

Definitely the, any kind of radiating pain down the arm and the chest pain, chest pressure. And those are the classical symptoms of a heart attack for men pain in the jaw and the throat. Women don't have that 43% of them do not have any chest pain at all. So 

Greg: one of the half then what a women usually experienced.

So 

Karen: they're, uh, shortness of breath. [00:52:00] That's the number one shortness of breath and the fatigue and the abdominal distress. They found that women who are 55 and younger having a heart attack, they go to the ER, they are often. Dismissed and sent home mid heart attack because they don't display those typical symptoms.

Oh, you know, you've got, you know, maybe you have the flu, just go home and rest that kind of thing. 

Greg: So that doesn't inspire confidence in our medical system. 

Karen: Well, one of my patients, she was young. She was in her early fifties when she had her heart attack and she was having the abdominal distress. She was upstairs when they called 9 1 1, they actually had her walk down the stairs to the ambulance and she went to full cardiac arrest after that, because.

They didn't, it didn't register that she was having a heart attack at that time. She was just having the [00:53:00] abdominal distress. So we really have to know the symptoms and we have to be the advocates of our care. You know, if you go to the ER and you're having these symptoms that you don't feel right. Demand, you see a cardiologist and, uh, before you go home.

Yeah. 

Greg: I think anything we can do to educate ourselves in emergency medical care is huge. I've heard so many stories of just misdiagnoses and things that were very preventable. You know, we're already, you know, even the beginning of this conversation we're talking about food and exercise and cancer, and those are kind of like longer term, slower ways to die, but the heart attack and the stroke and these things that.

You know, seconds, literally seconds will save your life. I mean, I had a story here. I was, uh, piloting, I was, uh, flying from LA to Hawaii and a woman had a heart attack on the [00:54:00] airplane and we were probably an hour and a half out of LA heading toward Hawaii. And just for the public, it takes a good 30 minutes for us to turn the airplane around, like figure out what is happening and turn the airplane around and get headed back toward land.

So if you're having heart issues or you have any, anything, especially if you're flying overseas, if you're over in the middle of the ocean, we can't just turn the airplane around instantaneously. We're not in radar contact. We can't, it's not like you're flying domestically where you can pretty much land, you know, within five minutes of knowing what's going on.

So yeah, traveling is, uh, adds a whole other feature to that. And so you have to know. Immediately how to take care of yourself. Uh, the aspirin thing is fantastic advice, knowing your symptoms. Uh, and of course a, you know, don't fly if you can avoid it, if you know, you're, uh, vulnerable.

Yeah. 

Karen: At risk. I always say before you fly, get in shape, you know, get, be sure because, and you don't ever want to think [00:55:00] of the worst case scenarios, but you know, sometimes you do what if your plane crashes, what if you have to get on the floor and crawl? I have a lot of people that can't get down on the floor and much less crawl and get up again.

So those are the kinds of things you have to think about. Are you going to be able to survive in that instance if something happens? 

Greg: Yeah. And there's a ton of information in your book, which everybody can read. And so it goes on and on is it's a large. Uh, a large book. So, so you're also a San Francisco bay area health expert.

Just if you could just kind of describe what it's like being an expert on TV, like, how do you like it? How do you get in there and do something like that? I just don't know anything about it. This is just kind of me just, you know, asking a person who's on TV a lot. Cause I maybe one day I'm thinking about doing that myself.

So there was a little bit of selfishness in this question. 

Karen: Yeah. Yeah. So [00:56:00] I it's fun. I love it because it, one thing I like about it is because it keeps me on top of the, it keeps me on top of my expertise, you know, every week I create a segment and. Usually I try to make it timely, but a lot of, you know, something's going on in like somebody, just someone famous just had a stroke, then maybe I'll talk about strokes and explain what strokes are.

Or but most of my topics are evergreen. They cover everything from exercise, nutrition, uh, longevity, weight management, stress, and, uh, kind of covering the whole gamut. And you know, when, uh, when my mom passed away, I really had a hard time reading things on health. It just I'd get really. Depressed and I didn't even want to rethink, so one of the things that I do with the [00:57:00] segments, I make them a little bit lighter and always have a positive action step at the end, some type of takeaway so that, you know, people say, oh, I can do that.

You know, I can, uh, take that one little step so that there's some positivity and hope involved in these segments. So I got started is I was a guest and one of my colleagues, he was on the show as a guest and he says, oh, this gal, Karen would be really good. I, so I went on and. That was it.

They said, Hey, can you do this every week? So, yeah, so we, we have almost a 200 segments, uh, just finished cross the 190 segment mark. And, uh, so it would be been doing it for four and a half years now. Wow. 

Greg: That's great. That's channel four up in the San Francisco. 

Karen: [00:58:00] Yeah, the 10 0 4. So every Sunday and we used to, I used to go into the studio to do it and after COVID, uh, it became, uh, remote.

So everybody knows my living room because I do that, the living room remotely. 

Greg: What about future projects? Anything we can, uh, watch you do in the near future? Any anything coming up? 

Karen: Well, let's see pretty much. Just different appearances. I love going and speaking at conferences and talking about longevity, functional longevity, and, you know, it's all about not only living long, but being functional when you're a hundred and beyond.

So, so pretty much just a lot of it. I have a lot of interviews lined up in the next few 

Greg: months. Good. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing those and how do people follow you? I see a Karen dot [00:59:00] com is that it? And there are there other ways that we can follow. 

Karen: Uh, Instagram, I, and also, uh, on I'm on Facebook too and Twitter and Pinterest and LinkedIn.

So 

Greg: everything I do cover it all I know, it's like got to keep adding on social media that's why I'm stressed out. And that's why I overeat. There's too much social media. 

Karen: I agree. I agree. 

Greg: All right, well, Karen, oh fuck. I appreciate you coming on. I've learned a lot and I'll heat your advice and I hope I can make it to that century mark one day and beyond.

I mean, I think it's really exciting, so I appreciate you helping us out. 

Karen: Well, it was a pleasure. Nice to meet you and nice talking to you too. 

Greg: That is it. My friends. Thanks for listening. If you like the show, please consider a five-star rating and friendly comment on your podcast app and share the Greg Krino show on social media.

If you want to [01:00:00] learn more about me and my guests, head over to GregKrino.com and subscribe to the newsletter. And finally, if you have ideas for the show, please email me at gregkrinoshow@gmail.com. Take care and see you on the next episode.