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
Lifestyle Habits for a Fulfilling Aging Journey
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. We have been talking to Dr Ogugua Osi-Obu. She is an aging medicine specialist and a pioneer in Nigeria. She lives in the city of Abuja.
Dr Bola Sogade:I just want to thank you so very much for taking the time on a day that is a public holiday in your part of the world, just taking the time off to come and speak on Coco Pod's podcast, a podcast that we really believe is impacting women, is changing lives, is educating. You know both the patients and the providers, and you know as we close. One more thing is that you know I want to also encourage the healthcare providers. You know, when you see the patients, to guide them, because some people they just see the doctor and they don't even know what the visit was about. They don't know their cholesterol level, they don't know their blood pressure or they report their blood pressure as a single number. You ask what's your blood pressure? They say 140, 140. Okay, okay, there's another number.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:So I guess?
Dr Bola Sogade:yes, you know. As we close, I just want you to make a statement. Both the young people and the older people need a kind and empathetic clinical provider that is filling the gaps for the things they don't know that they should know about themselves. So can you make a closing remark about that please?
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:Right. So, as clinical providers, we must make the time to talk to our clients, to our patients, and so our major role really is to give information. And in giving information, we must also give time for assimilation of the information. And part of what we even do when we examine younger doctors to become specialists is to actually know about your skills for communication with your patient Really important If your patient has spent 30 minutes with you and cannot walk outside there and say the doctor said that I have this, this is the reason the doctor has given this medication.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:These are some of the side effects that can come from this medication. You haven't done well for that patient. So we must spend time to make the patient understand what we have found to be. You know the situation for them, why we're running certain tests and, if the tests are back, make sure you explain the test results in a way that they understand it and explain medication or your non-pharmacological therapies that you're recommending and what side effects to expect from the medication, so that they don't go out and they're looking for another doctor to explain all of this. I have friends who call me and say oh, yeah, I saw the doctor today. Oh, I said well, what did the doctor say? Well, I didn't really understand it. So, yes, paula, you're right.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:We as care providers must take that extra time to make sure that our patients understand they're on the same page with us. Sometimes we assume that they know as much as we do not download the information to them in a format that is simple, easy to understand and even they can reproduce. So one way to ensure that they've actually assimilated all that you've told them is to make them okay. So what have I just said? What have we just decided we're going to do? Okay, so what have I just said?
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:What have we just decided we're going to do? And you're saying we have both agreed making them members of the team decision-making team. This is what we're deciding on and this is also why you don't give a recommendation and the patient is not quite comfortable or not motivated to do it. You need to make another recommendation, and you wouldn't know that unless you've actually asked for feedback on okay, we've discussed, say, a, b, c, d. What do you understand? What is it we both agree that we should be doing for you in this situation and it takes time, but you have better quality clientele who are happier leaving you when you take that extra time to explain things to them and very likely to bring more people your way because of how you have made them feel that you're working that journey of ill health with them.
Dr Bola Sogade:Now we look at some of the highlights from this outgoing series. We gained valuable insights from Dr Ogugua Osiyogu from Abuja, nigeria, an expert in aging. We explore the fascinating journey of actually growing to an old age with vitality. We uncover the secrets behind longevity like that of the Icaria's inhabitants. Icaria is home to a remarkable population who enjoy some of the longest lifespans in the world. We explored how lifestyle richness in social connections, a good, healthy diet, for example, a Mediterranean diet regular physical activity and a relaxed approach to life contribute to remarkable health and happiness, like of the Icarians, places where they're said to forget how to die because life expectancy is in the 90s.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:So we're definitely living longer globally. We know that the average life expectancy globally is in the 70s. The regions of the world that actually have the highest average life expectancy are called the blue zones of the world Okinawa in Japan, where if you're born today in Okinawa, you're expected to live into the 80s. Places like Ikaria in Greece, where they're said to forget how to die because their life expectancy is in the 90s. So generally in this part of the world, because of the youth bold, you find that older people are thought to have had their lives and so make way for the younger ones. But as long as you're alive, you have rights Rights to good health care, rights to an opportunity for lifelong learning, rights for opportunity for employment if you have the desire for it, and these are all the things that are embedded in the WHO's decade of healthy aging. So part of the advocacy that I do with other stakeholders is, you know, shining light on this aging issues to ensure that we curb what we describe as ageism, which is a prejudice or discrimination purely based on age. Oh, you're 85, you've had a life. We don't need to see you, we don't need to hear you, we don't need to make any plans for you.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:And this ageism cuts across sectors. It's institutional, it's there in the family. Even the older persons themselves have prejudice against themselves. They feel oh, you know what, I'm old, you don't need to have any plans for me, spend money that you could spend on me, on my grandchildren. So one is to ensure that you don't take away their autonomy for decision making. So when we constantly make decisions for them, you're reminding them that, oh, they're actually getting irrelevant because they have become old. 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 you don't have the energy to deal with the concerns that they're expressing, let someone else step in. So those are the things that we hope to change the mindset towards aging and towards older people, to ensure that we give them a platform to continue to live healthy and contribute to society. By the way, so I make appearances on television and radio to talk about these aging issues.
Dr Bola Sogade:While aging is inevitable, there are steps that one can take to age gracefully and maintain a healthy and vibrant lifestyle.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:But I guess, as humans, changing behavior is difficult. So there are six pillars that we look at for healthy lifestyle or, if you want to call it, healthy aging. One of them is ensuring that we eat healthy, mostly plant-based, very low calories from meat. Second pillar is adequate, restorative sleep. Sleep deprivation has been linked to things like dementia, which will give you, even if you don't die, you'll have very poor quality life. We expect that people get seven to eight hours of restful sleep per night. The other pillar social connection, so meaningful social connection where you have a feeling of relevance. You have a lot of joy when you're in the midst of these people, and so you keep looking forward to being able to engage with this group, people who have the same values as you as you live in life. The other pillar is being able to avoid toxins like excessive alcohol, tobacco, so if you develop chymecyte, if you develop a heart attack or stroke, those conditions could shorten your life. The other pillar is being able to identify conditions early, so prevention and early detection, and that means we have to get into the habit of an annual check. But those well checks are really important to pick up the numbers. We talk about people knowing their numbers. So that's another major thing. As we're aging, we know our numbers. And what are these numbers? Numbers for blood pressure, numbers for blood sugar, numbers for cholesterol, your body mass index, and when we come to specifics like the prostate specific antigen, the PSA for men, for us to be able to detect prostate cancer early. And it also, you know, we have age and gender appropriate screenings that must be done Colonoscopy, for instance, to detect colon cancer. Guidelines are now recommending that we start screening from 45. And for those who have family members who have had colon cancer, that they start screening 10 years earlier than when their loved one or their significant family member actually was diagnosed with colon cancer. There's also a mammogram for women, pap smear also for the women. So it's important that, as we're going through life, this age and gender appropriate screenings are done so that we can detect any disease conditions early and comply with interventions.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:Again back to the human behavior. There are times when we tell people around here that we've diagnosed you with high blood pressure and they don't want to accept it. And because they come to no acceptance, they don't follow up with recommendations, they don't follow up with clinic visits, they don't follow up with treatment and unfortunately for some, they end up at the emergency room with complications. So that acceptance and the discipline to follow up really important because then we can manage those conditions and you don't have to develop the complications that could shorten your life from them.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:Six exercise very important. Physical activity has been found to be maybe the most important lifestyle attribute. You know that we must all imbibe across the life course, so we're all expected to get at least 150 minutes of quick paced walk so you don't really have to, you know, go and spend time or money in a gym. Again, this also could be done in a social group, so you're walking with your group of four or five or six, whatever, and this translates to about 30 minutes of walking minimum five times a week. The other target for physical activity is 10,000 steps a day, and what that means is that we can't be sitting for a prolonged period of time. What I tend to advise my clients to do is after every hour to make sure they get up and move. And really, when people can take ownership, we come to decision making with the client and their family members. We do not impose anything, so we make them understand why this is important, have them take ownership. But I guess also they must be motivated and that motivation might require you counseling over and over and over and having them also get social support, so family support that is meaningful If one is able to follow this lifestyle, practices or habit across a life course, because aging doesn't begin at 60.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:We know that it begins from birth, but actually now newer evidence is showing us that it begins from conception. So the milieu, the environment in which the fetus grows, it's very important. The environment in which the fetus grows is very important. If the mother is an alcoholic, being battered by, you know, a husband who engages in domestic violence, the mother is a chronic smoker, all of that affect that environment in which the fetus grows and such people have been said not to age, as well as those who grow in an environment that is free of all of those negative conditions. So it's a life cost approach for us to actually live long and healthy, we have to imbibe those attributes.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:So children must have appropriate vaccination. So children must have appropriate vaccination. They must be prevented from those, any life diseases that could shorten their lives. The adolescents must also have appropriate education on prevention of unnecessary pregnancies that can affect, you know, not just physically but psychologically. Not just physically but psychologically. And you know, such a young girl does not grow up free of psychological burden, because we know health is not just physical but it's social, it's psychological. So it's a life course approach. Do you live in an environment that is free of violence and the wars? We know I mean, if we look at the world today, there's a lot of displacement from the wars. We know I mean, if we look at the world today, there's a lot of displacement from the wars and that brings on a lot of psychological issues, lots of social issues. People are now dependent on the state or others for their livelihood and those are some of the things that also affect how this individual's age going forward.
Dr Bola Sogade:So even before we are born, we are aged.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua: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. Yes, because on the social media, in fact, that's something that is risky for older people, because we've seen older people being defrauded financially from the social media connection. So it's often not so meaningful to just sit there, because then you are at risk of being preyed on by some of the cyber crime fraudsters. So we need you to be in the space with other people. It encourages brain tasking exercises you might be playing Sudoku. It encourages so many other pillars. It encourages so many other pillars. So the social connection is tied to so many of the other lifestyle habits that are really strong pillars for healthy aging. Part of a big umbrella physiological process in aging is inflammation. In aging it's inflammation. So when we look at all of the chronic medical conditions that we see there's a recurring process and that's that there is excessive inflammation. So and we do describe a phenomenon called inflammation aging. So when you look at older people and look at the level of inflammatory markers, you have higher levels in older people compared to younger people. So it tells us that with aging we have a lot of inflammation going on, and so with inflammation we have also an accumulation of called senescent cells, or cells that are really now no more able to replicate to have good function. So they accumulate and so reduce function where they have accumulated. The senolytics senolytics, meaning, they're supposed to lyse the senescent cells are being put forward as possible intervention to reduce these senescent cells that no more have function, or rather can even impair function where they accumulate during the aging process. Where they accumulate during the aging process, one or two of them was actually initially being used for cancer treatment and now being further researched as a possible drug to delay aging. The other interventions that are being looked at being able to increase some kind of genetic reprogramming that can increase the level of more youthful cells and reduce the number of cells that have aged, and you're able to then rejuvenate younger cells that can give more, so almost going back to more useful function. So skin would not wrinkle as much. You have cells, you have become a little stronger as a pump Joint, degeneration is regressed and people don't have to deal with aches and pains as they age.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:All those age-related chronic disease conditions diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, osteoarthritis and all that. If we imbibe the healthy lifestyle across the life course, we should actually be able to prevent the development of those conditions. It's possible for us to actually live without these conditions as long as we can imbibe the healthy lifestyle habits. They pace themselves. There's no undue stress.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:I think that was the last pillar that I missed out, that we must pace and get into a place of meditation or taking a break. I know a lot of people just prefer let me just take a pill to live longer. Let me take a pill to the attitude we also put forward. It's all about putting up a positive attitude and that comes also with certain practices. So spirituality is another pillar that has been linked to healthy lifestyle, longevity and I guess that helps us to deal with the stresses of life.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:If you can unburden to a higher being that you believe in, you know what I have. I have these issues, but I know I can't deal with it now. You know and you say a prayer, believe that that's going to help. It is a way of relieving one of undue anxiety and and being able to maintain a stable state of mental health, because with increase in age, the losses that people go through, put them at risk of some anxiety. Am I going to be next? My spouse has died, my friends have died, I don't have the income that I used to have, some have even lost offsprings. All that contributes to a lot of anxiety and some even become depressed and can go into suicidal ideation. But yes, it's promising that with ongoing research, we might actually be able to have people live longer without disability. And it's all about lifestyle.
Dr Bola Sogade:Wow. We want to thank Dr Ogugua for coming to CocoaPods podcast. Thank you so much for your time and the knowledge you've imparted to us today.
Dr Osi Ogbu Ogugua:Thank, you very much, Bola, for having me. I really enjoyed this.
