Cocoa Pods
Podcast - Cocoa Pods Series: A feature of the Birth Center Foundation.
We discuss all things' women, all things' pregnancy, all things' after. Reasons why women fall very sick ( morbidity) or die (mortality) before pregnancy (adolescent girls and young adults),during pregnancy and after are discussed in this maternal morbidity and mortality reduction academy; especially with an emphasis on minority women, all over the world; and ways for all involved in care to work together collaboratively and mitigate and or eliminate risks in women’s health.
Cocoa Pods
The Secrets to Staying Vibrant as You Get Older : Science-Backed Tips
Unlock the secrets to empowering your elderly loved ones and fostering a nurturing environment of inclusion and respect. Join us as we explore the transformative power of decision-making freedom and active participation in family activities for older adults. By valuing their input and encouraging social engagement, we create a vibrant community that celebrates the enduring contributions of our elders. Listen to the valuable insights from Dr. Ogugua Osiyogu from Abuja, Nigeria, as we discuss how families can support their older members in maintaining a sense of autonomy and relevance.
Discover the incredible potential of lifelong learning and how it can reshape the aging experience. From senior centers to university courses, we reveal opportunities that keep the elderly engaged and fulfilled. We delve into the science of healthy aging, discussing the profound impact of a plant-based diet, probiotics, and stress management on well-being. Together, we explore the fascinating world of cellular regeneration, autophagy, and senolytics, offering practical insights to promote vitality and longevity.
Experience the joy and therapeutic power of music and dance, as we share personal stories illustrating their profound impact on older patients with dementia. Learn how simple lifestyle adjustments, like intermittent fasting and hydration, can lead to a long and healthy life. We also highlight the significance of social connections and self-contentment in achieving happiness and well-being. With practical tips and inspiring anecdotes, this episode is your guide to building a life that honors the wisdom and vitality of our elders.
Sometimes young people feel they're going to remain young forever, and then they have the luxury to take risks, but those risks can actually be the reason why you're not healthy at an older age.
Dr Bola Sogade:Hello and welcome to CocoaPods, a podcast of the Birth Center for Natural Deliveries Foundation. My name is Dr Bola Sogade. I'm a women's health specialist. On this podcast, we talk about all the issues relating to women's health and identify the problems, and talk about ways in which we can mitigate the problems. In this series, we explore the fascinating journey of actually growing to an old age with vitality. We'll uncover the secrets behind longevity. We'll explore how lifestyle richness in social connections, a good, healthy diet, regular physical activity, and a relaxed approach to life contribute to remarkable health and happiness. Today we gain valuable insights from Dr Ogugua Osiyogu from Abuja, Nigeria, an expert in aging.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:Yes, thank you so much, Dr Shoghade, for having me. It's really a pleasure. It's really good to be on this podcast with you and I'm excited that we'll be talking about aging.
Dr Bola Sogade:Thank you. I n continuation from our previous two episodes, what are some of the things that the family can do to make them relevant. You know, what are just some of the practical things that family members can do to help their older persons.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:So one is to ensure that you don't take away their autonomy for decision making. So I've seen some of my clients in the clinic where I'm asking a question of the mother oh so how is that pain? Oh, and maybe she starts telling me about the pain and the doctor goes no, no, no, you're always complaining about that pain. That's not a new thing. And then I go it's not about it being new or old. This is definitely of concern to her. So we need to listen. So being able to listen to them, show them respect, have them make decisions for themselves, because some younger adults now feel, oh, mom and dad are too old to make their own decision. Mom wants to eat something. Or you just come and say oh, mom, this is your breakfast. You didn't even ask her, and so she's already feeling oh, I can't even make decisions about what I eat.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:Mom, we're going to an event. Here is what you're going to wear. There's no question about. Oh, you know, which of your outfits would you like to wear? Which one do you feel like wearing today?
Dr Osi-Ogbu:So when we constantly make decisions for them, you're reminding them that they're actually getting irrelevant because they have become old. So it's important we bring them into decision-making, even when they live under your roof or they can even make decisions about. You can actually have them take over certain aspects of the home. Oh, mom, you know what? I think? I need you to work with the cook on. Drop a menu for us. You know we like this. You know. That gives them a sense of relevance, that they're still making a contribution to the family.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:We must really listen to them. Don't always say oh well, you told me about this yesterday, you're repeating it again today. Just listen when they complain about the pain or what did the doctor say we should do? Remind them of some of the things that doctors might've said to do cold compress, warm compress. So don't get into a state of despair. It can be inundating, I agree, and in fact what I've said to some family members is when you don't have the energy to deal with the concerns that they're expressing. Let someone else step in. So I had a daughter call me to say oh, her mother is 84. She's always calling about having pains here, having pains there. Who's going to have pains if not her at 84? And I'm only 50 something?
Dr Osi-Ogbu:So I said well, yes but you don't put it to her that way. Just listen. Yes, you feel like saying, oh, if you don't have pain at 83, you know, but don't voice it because that won't help her at that time. And let's include them in activities, even when they have disabilities, by the way. So I have encouraged family members to you know, your mother is on a wheelchair, but she's alive, so let her engage in activities like every living person as long as she has desire for it. You're going to church, you're going to the mosque. Please have your mother come along, or your dad come along, even on a wheelchair. And I'll tell you my own story. God bless my mom. She died at 88.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:Um, she had had two strokes that left her wheelchair bound, lived in Lagos, and you know I live here in Abuja, but every month I made a point to go into Lagos. We'll make a show of oh, this Sunday we're taking mom to church. She, she would make a fuss. Oh, you don't have to do that. But I realized that once we got her to church, she was happy to be there. We'll put her to the front of the altar. And when we were thinking okay, now the major thing about church is done, can we go? She'd be like, no, but mass is not over. So that made me feel that this was something good we were doing for her, even though she wouldn't want to stop us.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:So we must continue to expose our older people to act like everybody else. So that's important, right? So we need to have them also engage in activities like everybody else, even with disabilities that keep them wheelchair bound or when they have things like dementia. We still need to get them out there and you see their countenance change. You're also making them feel you're one of us.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:We go here, you come with us. We respect you, we cherish here. You come with us, we respect you, we cherish you in spite of your disability. You say we're not ashamed of you just because you have a disability. We're also saying you're alive and so participate like every living person. And you know we ask them about their, their desires. What is it they would like to do? Because I saw you're 70 and I say you could live another 20 years. What would you like to be doing? Uh, over those 20 years while you're waiting? Uh, to be doing over those 20 years while you're waiting to be called up, because the mind, so the mindset also needs to change, which is why we're doing a lot of advocacy.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:You know can get you an instructor. There's a university across the world where they provide some courses where you're not taking exams or anything just for the fun of it, and a lot of the older people participate in this and, like I said earlier, I learn from my clients. The professors in those classes tend to learn from the older persons, but again, it's a platform to just allow them calm, engage, share experience with each other and continue to feel relevant.
Dr Bola Sogade:So you did say that some of the older people might want to enroll in just classes for learning.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:Yes, yes, yes, it could be flower arrangement class. You know something? Anything at all bead making. So when I trained in the US, there are senior citizen centers that actually you know. There are platforms for these seniors to just come and and you see 80, 90 year olds doing choreographic dancing.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:I mean, I, I used to. I used to feel ashamed that you know. So, yes, once you have desire for, but if you desire it and there's no platform, you don't get to experience it and that puts a limit to what you can do. And that's what the WHO is actually trying to do with this decade of healthy aging, 2020 to 2030. Reminding governments, professional groups, academics to say, look, let's look at the older adults, make sure we create an environment for them to live healthy and be able to express themselves, engage with society, live healthy lives that allows them to continue to contribute to society. There is a lot they can contribute, but if we don't give the platform for them to continue to contribute to society, there is a lot they can contribute, but if we don't give the platform for them to come to, the society would actually lose from that wealth of experience that they can share with us.
Dr Bola Sogade:Yeah, you're right, my mom, she's 85. She goes to a senior center and, you know, one of the spoken advantage is that she would say, oh, that 92 year old did that exercise. So I'm going to learn how to do that tomorrow. So it's pouring each other on to being better, to do more. You know, and, like you said, when they grow older is when they have just the wealth of experience, life experience and knowledge, and it would be wise for the younger people to tap on them, to tap on this experience and not miss out.
Dr Bola Sogade:So, you know, thank you for bringing that up, but I wanted to bring on for the young people what is the role of the microbiome. You know because nowadays you know people are talking about the human gut microbiome, and you know they say this consists of trillions of microorganisms living in a digestive tract that they have been shown to have significant impact on aging and overall health. So what is the use of probiotics, prebiotics and dietary modifications? I know you talked a lot about dietary modifications, but what is the role of these in the youth, in preventing aging for younger people?
Dr Osi-Ogbu:Right. So there's something about you. Are your gut or your gut health? Is your health? With the practice of excessive alcohol use, smoking, poor exercise, all of this actually affects the milieu of the gut. Then the over-the-counter use, especially of antibiotics, then change the equilibrium of the bacteria that should be in the gut. Substance abuse, you know all of those have been linked to change in the bacteria load or the equilibrium of bacteria in the gut. So being able again going back to that diet that is plant-based really important in ensuring gut health. The animal-based diets tend to lead to more inflammation. Remember I talked about inflammation and those are some of the things we're trying to avoid by avoiding animal-based food, in addition to the risk of high cholesterol and all of that.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:So plant-based, high-fiber diet to maintain gut health, Drinking of loads and loads of water also to maintain gut health, and our proteins also to come mainly from plant sources. All of this will help us to maintain gut health. And there's also been a link with stress and gut health, where you have conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, which tends to get flared during stressful situations, and all that. So, really going back again to those six pillars very important Diet, no tobacco all that also help without gut health. Where there's a disequilibrium, the use of probiotics. So there are people who, despite this lifestyle habit, still have some disequilibrium with the gut bacteria and the probiotics are actually very helpful in maintaining gut health and recepting the normal flora of the gut To actually be able to reduce again those inflammatory processes that lead to some of these age-related diseases.
Dr Bola Sogade:So you know. Additionally, another fact about slowing down the aging process is the impact of autophagy enhancement, and I know that might be a big word for some, but autophagy is the body's process of cleaning out damaged cells and regenerating newer, healthier cells, and people have linked things like intermittent fasting, caloric restriction and certain medications to this autophagy enhancement. Autophagy enhancement, you know how can we boost. You know autophagy, which is, you know, the way to clean out from the body damaged cells and regenerate newer, healthy cells. How can we do that, you know? Just clinically or practically.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:Right. So I think it's still all coming back to the same avoiding toxins, you know, tobacco definitely a no-no, excessive alcohol, excessive caffeine use and the senolytics actually also sort of been linked to that, because we're saying with senolytics reduce senescent or dead cells, senolytics reduce senescent or dead cells. So yes, there have actually been studies, particularly in animal models, that have looked at caloric restriction and there's something called the MTOR pathway and rapamycin where you know those rats that were restricted from eating for, you know, six to 12 hours tended to do better than those that didn't. So something to do with telomere shortening, you know you tend to find more of that with aging and with the caloric restriction there was a reduced tendency for that. So there are studies or research that been looked into the benefit of caloric restriction and that also has been linked to the gut health and being able to maintain a healthier lifestyle. So caloric restriction also again back to the issue of inflammation, reducing oxidative stress and having more antioxidant property from the caloric restriction and intermittent fasting. So with intermittent fasting, again, that's actually something that's been looked into significantly in a lot of research.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:Now that we don't need to be eating around the clock. I was on a trip in the last three, four days and I realized that I could be up till 3 pm and I hadn't. You know, I hadn't eaten but kept drinking. So water is very essential. We're all supposed to drink at least three liters of fluid a day. You know, I was drinking all day and I realized that I really didn't feel hungry and I don't feel weak or unhealthy just because I'm not eating those many calories and sticking to just the plant-based.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:Some would say, oh, you're only eating fruits, you're only eating vegetable salad. Are you sure you're going to be full? It's a lot of calories that are useful versus the unuseful or disease promoting calories from your animals or high carbohydrate content. So the rule is 80% of your plate, if possible, to be from your vegetables and only the 20% that will come from a bit of carbohydrate or protein that you want. So I think generally we tend to eat a lot more than we really need and you're getting your gut to go into overdrive mode, consistently metabolizing the food that you're eating. But given the guts a bit of that break with the intermittent fasting have been found to reduce again the inflammation, high load of the oxidative stress that are all promoting the age-related diseases.
Dr Bola Sogade:Well, thank you. So for the younger person out there, or the pregnant younger person, or planning to be pregnant younger person, we've talked about this, but if you are going to summarize to them, this is what you need to do to be like that person on that greek island where you say people, can you say that again, the greek forget to die.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:They forget to die the carrier. Yes.
Dr Bola Sogade:So can you give a summary for the younger people and tie it to the saying for the Greek island?
Dr Osi-Ogbu:Right. So eat healthy, maintain meaningful social connection. So you know, today the social media, people are challenged by people they don't even know. You're just seeing someone. Oh, this person dresses well.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:No, focus on what is attainable for you and be content with who you are, what you have, because that's important. If you're not in a state of contentment, there's a lot of agitation. If you're not in a state of contentment, there's a lot of agitation. That's undue stress, undue anxiety and you might take decisions that are not health promoting. So be content, maintain social connections with people that have the same values with you. Eat right, avoid those toxins. You know where we all. You go to a party and you drink, drink, drink. A lot of discipline and being able to say this is it. And that discipline even comes even with eating food. So you should be able to say this is all I'm going to eat and once I'm done, that is it. The next person comes and says, oh, look at this beautiful pick and pie, I love pick and pie. And says, oh, look at this beautiful pick and pile of pick and pile, you know. And that discipline and control over what you eat, what you drink, your activities, so that you're not sleep deprived, because chronic sleep deprivation, we know, is not good for aging well, having a positive attitude. So you have a challenge. Don't look at the glass being half empty, but look at it being half full, which gives you hope to be able to overcome that challenge. But if you look at it half empty, you're going to feel defeated and we're not going to want to try make any efforts at overcoming that challenge. We all have challenges. You must be able to categorize those challenges into do I have an immediate solution? Do I have midterm solution? Do I have long-term solution, where you have an immediate solution? So you deal with that. But you know these other two, it's going to take you some time. So mentally you are ready to say you know what. I'm going to unpack this because it will take some time to overcome. But if you put them all in the same mix, you're struggling with the one that has immediate and the one that has long-term and you never really get out of that quagmire. So it's important that we're able to say I have this categories of hurdles, this is how I'm going to deal with them.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:Treat people well, because then you also get treated well. So that attitude that you put forward, showing love to others, so that what you give is what you receive back. It's really important. And believe in yourself, keep investing in yourself, because when you invest in yourself, it gives you more confidence to actually be content in who you are and to say I am enough. That will take away undue anxiety and undue agitation and you keep working progressively towards achieving what your life goals. And that means you must have certain goals in life that you want to meet and just work progressively towards them, making progress every day.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:One other thing, even not just for young people, but even for older people to always count those blessings Every day. You've made some progress. Give yourself a pat on the back rather than say, oh, I had 10 things I wanted to achieve, I've only achieved two. Because I haven't achieved this eight. Oh, my God, for the two that you have achieved. Celebrate them so that you have freedom of mind to now work on. Okay, this other eight, how am I going to tackle them? But if you go into a state of defeat because you achieved less than you had anticipated, you won't be able to even move forward to overcome the other eight and the subsequent days to come. So it's important that we celebrate wins and not always focusing on the things that are undone or unachieved, and make sure you identify a general practitioner, a clinician that you're seeing annually and, in between, whenever there's a problem. Very important that somebody has your history. If there's something they already know, this person has this. This person has that, unlike the situation where you're just doctor shopping. You go from doctor A to doctor B to doctor C. You haven't given any of them the luxury to have your history and be able to take good care of you when you're in need of their care. So it's important and you're going in for those regular checks.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:Sometimes young people feel they're going to remain young forever and then they have the luxury to take risks forever, and then they have the luxury to take risks. But those risks can actually be the reason why you're not healthy at an older age. So measure the risks that you take, both financially and otherwise, because the financial risk also puts you in a psychological state of anxiety, depression if you haven't taken the appropriate risks, and spirituality. There's a lot of studies now that are looking at the benefit of this, even for control of things like diabetes and hypertension, and we just feel that it's a way to measure how you live life. You know, to keep it in check, all of the things that I talked about. You know the fear of not following the will of God would make you actually keep to some of the things that we talked about not smoking, not indulging in substances, treating other people well and all that. All that will come when you feel that you need to come under the control of a higher being, of your creator. So that helps significantly.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:And maintaining good, meaningful relationships. So I find that a lot of young people invest in time and sometimes money in relationships with friends and they deprioritize family. So you find an 80-year-old whose younger adult children are flying from here to there for events for their friends and a whole year might go by and they have not physically seen their parents. So we must prioritize nurturing relationships with parents, with family. Family is also important because, when it comes down to it, your family members are the ones that are going to leave everything else to meet your needs. I mean, there are friends who can be family members, but we must be able to have a balance in deepening relationship not just with the friends as we're growing up, but also family members as well your parents, your siblings really important that you maintain good relationships with them so that they are then your support base and you also remain part of the support base for them as well.
Dr Bola Sogade:We have been talking to Dr Ogugua Osiobu. She is an aging medicine specialist and a pioneer in Nigeria. She lives in the city of Abuja and so you know, as we close, you know, can you tell us a fun fact about you?
Dr Osi-Ogbu:You know just something I don't know. Oh yeah, you did see me do that, dancing in the bus I love to dance.
Dr Osi-Ogbu:And just to narrow before our 50th birthday party, and, and I kept dancing, somebody came and said, ah, and see, I didn't think that you know, you enjoyed doing this. Yes, I love, I love to dance. So that's one fun fact. When I actually met my husband, he looked very serious and I thought, huh, I'm not sure that he can be my partner. It doesn't look like he even listens to music, let alone dance. And in conversation it came out that he actually loves music and I said, thank you, lord. So that's how much music and dancing, how important those two are for me. So, yes, I enjoy music, I enjoy dancing and I do dance with some of my patients in the clinics, especially the older ones with dementia. Some fun, nothing heavy. So I say something and I say, can you sing a song for me? And then they sing, and then they get up and they're dancing and they're happy about that engagement. So, yes, this is a doctor that enjoys music and dancing.
Dr Bola Sogade:Thank you so very much for that Next episode. Some people they just see the doctor and they don't even know what the visit was about.
