Health Podcast with Connie Sellecca: Sitting is Killing You; Workout for Your Brain; The Benefits of Art

In this episode, we feature:

An interview with behavior expert and best selling author, Daniel Pink.

Workout to reduce stress. 

Reframe your self-talk.

Sleep displacement is killing you.

And more ways you can improve your health today!

For more information, and to sign up for our private coaching, visit tesh.com

Our Hosts:
John Tesh: Instagram: @johntesh_ifyl facebook.com/JohnTesh
Gib Gerard: Instagram: @GibGerard facebook.com/GibGerard X: @GibGerard

Transcript

Unknown: 0:07

Gib, hello and welcome to another episode of the podcast. I'm Gib Gerard. Today we have another intelligence for your health with Connie Celica. Episode, our guest this week is none other than best selling author Daniel Pink. He's got a new book called The Power of regrets. You'll be hearing from him. So here we go without further ado, intelligence for your health. With Connie Celica, dry indoor air can make your allergies worse because it can increase congestion in your sinuses and nasal passages, the solution is to get a humidifier, especially in the bedroom while you sleep. Dr Nita Ogden is an allergist and immunologist, and she says that will keep your respiratory tract lubricated. However, other indoor allergens, like mold, can grow like crazy in a moist environment, so you want a happy medium between too dry and too humid, so set your humidifier below 50% too much sitting is harmful to your health. So how do you know if you're too sedentary? Here are some signs you're not moving enough. First, you're often out of breath, even just carrying a load of towels to the washing machine. Cardiologist Dr sanul correales says when we sit, we take shallow breaths, which provide less oxygen to our heart and muscles compared to when we're standing and moving, and weaker muscles will leave you feeling winded after even the slightest bit of exercise, another sign you're too sedentary, you're always fatigued. Research from the University of Georgia shows that within just two days of inactivity, the body begins to decondition itself, which means it's shutting down and preparing to be less active. And that can leave you feeling fatigued. A final sign you aren't moving enough memory glitches hours spent sitting lead to a thinning of the brain lobe responsible for memory. So being too sedentary can lead to forgetfulness, but a dose of exercise will not only boost blood flow to that area, it can also help with age related cognitive issues coming up. We'll talk to Daniel Pink, author of the new book The Power of regret. He'll share a list of the most common regrets people have around the world and explain how we can begin to overcome them, but first, if you're in pain, mentally, dialing it down like the volume on the TV can make you feel better. That's according to Dartmouth neuroscience professor, Dr Tor wagger, his research shows that when people touched a hot plate, they actually felt less pain when they mentally turned it down by telling themselves it was cooler than it actually was, compared to those who just ignored it, which means if you're feeling overheated or your running shorts start chafing, tell yourself it doesn't hurt that badly, that mental tweak will help the sensation of pain feel less intense, so you can push through and finish your 10k or survive a sweltering heat wave. Do you know someone who always orders an iced coffee even in the dead of winter? There's a psychological reason why iced coffee lovers can't give it up even in cold weather, and the simplest answer is, it's their routine. Psychologist Dr Deborah Gillman says, As with a lot of routines, once they're formed, it becomes ingrained. So daily iced coffee drinkers may stick with it simply out of habit, because making the same decision every day saves mental energy for other tasks and decisions. Routines provide a sense of stability in an otherwise unpredictable world, and knowing what to expect can make people feel more secure and less anxious. Another reason some people prefer iced coffee, the flavor is less intense. The hotter the coffee, the stronger the flavor, since high heat opens up temperature sensitive proteins on our taste buds. Cold drinks also make people feel alert and refreshed, on top of the boost from caffeine, whereas hot beverages make us feel more relaxed. Okay, listen to this. If you're anxious about something that's happening tomorrow, get a little more sleep tonight, according to the experts at UC Berkeley, increasing your sleep before a stressful event by turning in a little earlier or sleeping a little later can reduce anxiety. It works by decreasing activity in the area of the brain that heightens stress, the amygdala. So if you have a job interview tomorrow, an exam or an important sales call, get a little more sleep, and you'll feel calmer and more in control. Tomorrow. Today, our special guest is Daniel Pink, a New York Times best selling author who's written books about motivation, persuasion, time management and more. Pink's latest is called the power of regret. How look. Backward moves us forward. So I asked him to break down the most common regrets most people have at some point. What I found is that around the world, people have the same four regrets. One is what I call a foundation. Regret. A foundation regret is if only I'd done the work. These are regrets people have about not saving enough money, about smoking but not taking care of their health, about small decisions early that lead to bad consequences later. Second category are what I call boldness regrets. Boldness regrets are if only I'd taken the chance. These are regrets that people have about not traveling, about not speaking up, about not asking people out on dates, about not starting businesses. These are regrets people have when they're at a juncture and they can play it safe or take the chance, and when they don't take the chance, they often, often, often regret it. Third category moral regrets. Moral regrets are, if only I'd done the right thing. These are people, again, who are at a juncture. They can do the right thing, they can do the wrong thing. They do the wrong thing, not always, but a heck of a lot of the time, people regret it, especially things like bullying, marital infidelity, other kinds of transgressions. And finally, the fourth category are connection regrets. Connection regrets are if only I'd reached out. These are regrets of relationships, not just romantic relationships, but the full spectrum of relationships we have in our lives, and oftentimes these relationships drift apart. And we want to reach out, but we're skittish about it. We think it's going to be creepy, we think the other side won't care, and we're wrong. And so it drifts apart even further. And then sometimes it's too late. And so when you look at the regrets from all over the world, it's these four things over and over, foundation, regrets, if only I'd done the work, boldness, regrets, if only I'd taken the chance. Connection, regrets, if only I'd reached out and moral regrets, if only I'd done the right thing. Today, we're talking to Daniel Pink, whose latest book is called The Power of regret. He says, even though most people try to avoid or even deny they have regrets. Lots of research shows we can actually use our regrets in ways that boost our mental health and help us become better problem solvers, better negotiators and happier people overall. Pink says it all starts with reframing how we talk to ourselves after making mistakes that we regret. One incredibly important point on mental health in general and regret in particular, is we need to reframe how we think of ourselves and our regrets and mistakes, when we stumble, when we screw up, the way we talk to ourselves is cruel, it's vicious. Our self talk is absurd. It's angry and it's vindictive and it's mean, and we shouldn't do that. We should talk to ourselves with the same generosity that we would talk to somebody else. And so one important way to arrest the march toward rumination. One important way to arrest the march toward some of these other mental health problems is to treat ourselves with self compassion, to treat ourselves with kindness rather than contempt, to recognize that our mistakes, our screw ups, our regrets, are part of the human condition. It happens to everybody, and also that any mistake that we make is a moment in our lives, not the full measure of our lives. And when we do that, just simply teaching people self compassion can do a great deal in helping people stop the dissent into serious problems, but also start the process for making sense of our regrets and drawing lessons from them. If you don't have time for your usual hour long workout, just exercise a little like go for a 10 minute walk or bike around the neighborhood. A study in Human Resource Management found regular exercisers are better at handling work life conflicts compared to people who slack off on fitness, because exercise is proven to lower stress, which in turn empowers us to tackle tough tasks at work and at home. That means the next time the boss dumps extra work on your desk, you'll be less likely to feel overwhelmed if you've carved out at least a few minutes a day for exercise. Today's medical term spinal disc herniation. That's the full name for a herniated disc, which refers to when one of the soft cushions or discs that separate the sections of your spine suddenly tears or slips out of position, as 3 million North Americans discover each year, having a slipped disc can be extremely painful, first, because it means the bones along your spine may be grinding together. Plus, when a disc pushes up against a nerve, it can trigger everything from shooting pain along your back to numbness and weakness that extends all the way to your arms and legs. Research shows that most herniated discs. Are simply the result of aging, because as we get older, our discs tend to dry out and become less flexible, which makes them more prone to tearing or sliding out of place, and that's more likely to happen in men, by the way, since they don't need extra room in their body to carry a baby, so their spines are straighter and even less flexible than a woman's The good news is that many slipped disc issues repair themselves with rest and gentle stretching, but talk to your doctor if you experience pain or numbness that lasts more than a week since that could mean you need surgery. And that's today's medical term spinal disc herniation coming up. We'll hear more from Daniel Pink, best selling, author of the new book The Power of regret. He'll explain how imagining a phone call to yourself 10 years from now can help make you happier and less stressed today. But first, if you're trying to build muscle, do this functional fitness move after picking up grocery bags or your laundry basket. When you put them back down, lower them slowly, according to Edith Cowan University, you'll build more muscle because you'll get extra time under tension. It's called an eccentric muscle contraction in which activated muscles are lengthened. And even if you only do that for three seconds a day, you'll strengthen your muscles more than lifting a weight or holding a weight. Putting the weight down slowly will do more for your muscles. When you know you should go to bed but you decide to keep scrolling on your phone or watching one more episode of a TV show, there's a term for that. Researchers call it sleep displacement. And according to a study by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 91% of people report losing sleep because they stayed up past their bedtime looking at a screen, whether their phone or TV. And part of the reason we have sleep displacement is because apps are designed to be addictive. They're not designed to help you relax. They're designed to keep your attention and although it may feel good in the moment to get your fix of scrolling or watching videos, the result is we end up feeling exhausted the next day and constantly being sleep deprived. Is a recipe for burnout, weight gain and disease. It's why health experts say your first health priority should be to get seven hours of quality sleep each night. Okay, listen to this. Don't sip a margarita before your meal. According to McGill University, people who sipped an alcoholic drink 30 minutes before eating ate 15% more food. Why? Because alcohol whets our appetite and makes food taste better, so you eat more. In studies where participants were asked to rate their hunger throughout the experiment, researchers found people had higher hunger ratings after drinking alcohol. If you still want that Margarita, sip it after your meal back with more health intelligence from Daniel Pink, author of the new book The Power of regret. It explores some of the ways we can harness the negative emotions most people associate with regret and turn them into something positive. For example, pink says one proven way to live a happier life with almost no regret is to constantly practice self distancing. Self distancing is a technique that we can use for solving our own problems and drawing lessons from our own experiences. And the reason we need to self distance is that we don't do a very good job of addressing our own problems, largely because we're too close to it. We're too enmeshed in the details. We're like scuba divers, in our regrets, in our decision making, and what we need to be are oceanographers. So there are a whole bunch of techniques that one can use to get some distance. So let's say you have a regret, you've forgiven yourself, you've disclosed it, you're trying to find a lesson in it to go forward, some things that you can do. It sounds goofy. Talk to yourself in the third person. So I shouldn't say, What should I do? I should say, what should Dan do? That is an effective technique. Other techniques you can say, what would I tell my best friend to do? That's one of the best decision making tools that I know of, because it gives you that distance. When I have been in situations people come to me and say, Oh, I don't know what to do. Should I do this? Should I do that? And I say to them, Well, what would you tell your best friend to do? They almost always know. They know what their best friend should do. They're just not ready to do that themselves. They're not clear that that's the lesson for themselves as well. Back with more health intelligence from Best Selling Author and thinker Daniel Pink, and one of his techniques to live a life with no regrets is to imagine making a phone call not to a friend but to yourself 10 years from now. And I asked him how that can help us have fewer regrets. The U of 10 years from now has your best interest in mind, and I think we can make a very. Safe bet, what the U of 10 years from now is going to be interested in, what the U of 10 years from now is going to care about. The U of 10 years from now is not going to care about whether you bought a blue car or a gray car. The U of 10 years from now is not going to care about whether you wore you know, your your red shirt today, or your green shirt today. But the U of 10 years from now we know from this collection of regrets from 20,000 people, is very likely to care if you didn't build a stable foundation for yourself and for your family. Is going to care if you didn't take a chance, if you didn't do something, if you had the opportunity to be bold and you chickened out, the U of 10 years from now is going to have some words with you. The U of 10 years from now wants you to be good. It wants you to make the right call. It wants you to make the moral decision. And I think most of all, the U of 10 years from now, wants you to make decisions that foster connection, belonging and love by reaching out to people who you care about and who care about you. Here's a quick way to clear brain fog in the morning, sip some ice water. According to UCLA research, it can boost your mental alertness by 40% in five minutes. That's because the water quickly rehydrates brain cells, and the cold temperature chills your brain, which releases energizing beta waves, more intelligence for your health. From Daniel Pink, a best selling author whose books include when the scientific secrets of perfect timing. In that one, he says, one way to be more productive and truly flourish at work is to take regular breaks. I asked Daniel Pink how he defines the most effective and restorative breaks. There are some design principles for taking breaks that restore our energy, our focus and our well being. There are five core principles of restorative breaks. First, something beats nothing, so even a very short break is better than no break at all. Second, moving is better than stationary. So breaks when we're in motion, when we're moving around, are far more restorative than breaks that are sedentary. Three social Beats Solo. This is pretty interesting, that breaks with other people are more restorative than breaks on our own, and this is true even for introverts. Four, outside is better than inside. So breaks when we're in nature, even in an urban setting, just simply being outside is better than being inside. And finally, number five, fully detached beats semi detached. So a break has to be a break. A break is not going out for a walk with your nose in your Instagram feed or your work email. And so when we line these things up, it seems like the ideal break is for people you know every afternoon to take a 15 minute walk outside with someone they like, talking about something other than work and leaving their phones behind. I think that that 15 minute afternoon walk break every day would restore a lot of well being in the workplace and a lot more productivity on the job, here's a strange, natural cure to help your body heal faster. Get some wild blueberries, and if you get a little cut, or scrape clean the wound, then squeeze the juice of one wild blueberry on it or dab it on there, fresh or frozen, it doesn't matter, then cover the cut with a bandage. According to the University of Maine, the polyphenol compounds in wild blueberry juice increase the rate at which blood vessels regrow, and that can speed up the healing process by two days. And scientists say wild blueberries have up to three times more healing polyphenols than regular cultivated blueberries, so make sure the ones you get are wild. Here's an email I received at Connie at intelligence for your health.com It comes from Dana Esparza, who writes My friends say we should not wear sunscreen because it blocks our ability to get vitamin D from the sun. Is that true. Dana, tell your friends it is not true. Theoretically, it makes sense if sunscreen blocks the UVB rays that burn or tan the skin, it should also lower vitamin D levels. But according to Harvard Medical School, that is not the case, because no matter how much sunscreen you apply, and even if you reapply it religiously, a portion of the sun's rays will still reach your skin. In fact, a study compared the D levels in people who were told to use sunscreen all summer and another group that used a placebo cream, and there was no difference in their vitamin D levels, mainly because people are very inconsistent when applying sunscreen and they miss spots like the ears, the scalp and the back of the neck and knees. But if you want to get more vitamin D beyond what the sun provides, the answer is food and supplements. Talk to your doctor about supplements and add these foods to your diet. Wild caught fish like tuna, mackerel and salmon also eat more liver, egg yolks. Cheese, shiitake mushrooms and foods fortified with vitamin D, like breakfast cereal and orange juice. Thank you for your email. Dana, I hope this helps. Okay, listen to this. Here's the best treatment for tired feet. Soak them at two different temperatures. In other words, put them in cold water for 10 to 15 minutes, then put your feet into hot water for the same length of time and continue until your feet feel better. Podiatrist, Dr Leslie Campbell says that alternately constricts and dilates blood vessels and helps flush away the fluid that causes swelling and that dog tired on your feet all day, feeling and to draw out even more excess fluids, add Epsom salts to the water. Do this once a month to extend your life by up to 10 years. No gym required. Have an artistic experience, whether that's through a coloring book, watercolor paints, or going to a museum. According to the book, your brain on art research shows that art experiences, whether as a maker or an enjoyer, rewires our brains, triggering the release of neurochemicals, hormones and endorphins. That means that art can radically improve our physical and mental health, and it's why more healthcare providers are prescribing arts engagement to treat a bunch of conditions from heart disease to chronic pain, dementia and depression. And if you're creating art, it does not have to be good for it to benefit you. One study found that doing 45 minutes of any kind of art lowered the stress hormone cortisol by as much as 25% Other research shows art making strengthens our executive function and decision making, and just one art experience per month can extend your life by 10 years more intelligence for your health and behavior expert Daniel Pink, if you'd like to know more about him or his latest book, The Power of regret, check out the power of regret.com and Earlier, he said the most restorative kind of work break is a 15 minute walk outside in nature, ideally with a friend and no phone. But if that's not an option for you, pink says there's another effective break that you should never skip during the day, and that is your lunch break. Lunch is valuable because it's a break that human beings are not wired to work relentlessly without any break at all. You know, we've been, you know, this is another area where we've been sold a bill of goods. We think that the way to get more work done and better work done is to power through. We also think somehow it's morally virtuous to power through and the evidence, which is overwhelming, says that's not true, that that in in the very important domains of life, of high performance, things like elite athletes or elite musicians, they think of breaks as part of their performance, not as deviations from their performance, Not as a concession, not as a sign of weakness, but as a sign of strength. Professionals take breaks. Amateurs are the ones who don't take breaks. That's it for our show today, our special intelligence for your health with Connie Selig, edition of the podcast, I'm Gib Gerard. Don't forget to rate comment and subscribe on Apple podcast. Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. It helps us out a lot. And also you can reach out to us on social media. All of our links are listed down in the show notes. We try to respond to every DM, every mention of the show, because ultimately, we do the show for you guys. So thank you so much for listening. You.