Health Podcast: Sing For Your Blood Pressure; The Ultimate Anti-Aging Guide

In this episode we feature: 

An interview with anti-aging and longevity physician, Dr. Chris Asandra 

Practice ADVANCED Gratitude 

Exercise for your hormones 

Get Cold to save your marriage. 

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

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Gib. Hello and welcome to the episode of the podcast. I'm Gib Gerard, here with another special intelligence for your health with Connie Celica, edition of the podcast today. Her guest is Dr Chris assandra. He's an Anti Aging and Longevity physician. So here, without further ado, get all the anti aging information you could possibly want. Here is intelligence for your health. With Connie Celica, if you have a stressful commute, sing along to the radio, because as the sound of your voice reverberates through your body, it relaxes your mind. That's according to neuropsychologist Dr Rita eichenstein, studies have even found that singing before surgery lowers blood pressure. So crank up the radio on your way to and from work and sing along. Do not stifle a sneeze. It could rupture your throat. That's exactly what happened to a man in England, who suppressed a sneeze by pinching his nose and closing his mouth, it ended up bursting his throat from the force of the sneeze, landing him in the hospital. How can a sneeze do all that? Well? When you hold one in, you're holding in something that shoots out at 150 miles per hour, and holding in a sneeze can create pressure more than 38 times that of a normal sneeze, and although a throat rupture is rare, there are plenty of other potential complications, including a brain aneurysm, collapsed lung, broken rib or burst eardrum. Dr Z Yang Zhang, from the University of Texas, sees a couple of sneeze induced cases each year. He says the whole point of sneezing is to get something out of your body, like viruses and bacteria, and by holding it in, it can send that bacteria into your nasal cavity, triggering a sinus or ear infection. So do not hold in that sneeze Coming up, we'll talk to anti aging physician, Dr Chris assandra. He'll break down the role our hormones play in our health and vitality, and how we can optimize those hormones to help us live longer, but first, to feel closer to your friends, family or anybody. Get cold together, take a walk in brisk weather. Stand in the frozen food aisle. Take your family skiing. According to the journal Psychological Science, facing freezing conditions together can help you bond. In studies, volunteers dipping their hands in ice water together reported greater loyalty to one another and were more motivated to work as a team afterward. That's because sharing physical discomfort strengthens relationships, creates bonds and encourages cooperation. If a ski trip isn't in your future, eating super spicy food together can work too. It's the feeling of physical discomfort, not the ice or snow, that makes the difference. To get through tough times, we need what's called advanced gratitude, that's the ability to appreciate the bad events in life because of what we end up learning or gaining from them, like appreciating how getting fired led you to start your own business. So here's how to practice advanced gratitude in your own life, According to psychologist Dr Robert Emmons, first get into the habit of being thankful, because the more we look for the good around us, the easier it is to see and studies have found that people who keep gratitude journals are happier and healthier. Next when something stressful happens, immediately start looking for the good that way, when your stress neurons fire, your gratitude neurons will fire too, counteracting the damage of stress. The final way to get to advanced gratitude, think of your worst moments and then remember where you are now. When we remember how far we've come, it builds our resilience. Okay, listen to this this time of year, it's a good idea to use a neti pot or nasal saline rinse. That's according to the Washington University School of Medicine. For those who don't know, nasal irrigation is the practice of literally pouring or spraying a saline solution into the nose to help clear away mucus and debris, and researchers are convinced a daily nasal irrigation will help remove any virus allergies, pollutants or pollen. The simple act of flushing the nose with saline made from distilled water or tap water, boiled for 10 minutes and cooled, helps clear away fine particulate matter and eliminate virus particles before they have a chance to incubate today. Our special guest is anti aging physician, Dr Chris assandra, founder of a Sandra MD in Beverly Hills. He specializes in the latest anti aging treatments, including hormone replacement therapy, which is designed to restore our hormone levels so we can go better. Back to feeling like we were in our prime again. And I asked Dr essandra How our hormones are affected by aging and the signs to look for. So cottie, as we age, we lose our hormones, and our hormones decline as we age. So that's kind of an indicator. For example, in menopause, for women, they'll notice body changes. They'll notice irritability, hot flashes, etc. That's usually an indicator the hormones are decreasing, and it is a sign of aging there. As for men, they may have less energy. They start putting on more fat on their body, despite working out diligently, and muscle mass also decreases. So these are some of the signs that we see with aging, and obviously, as we age, we lose our hormones. That's why, when you're 18 years old, you're able to eat whole pizza or your diet doesn't have to be as strict, and you don't put on the weight as much. That's because your hormones at that time are optimized or higher than they are when you're older. And when you use the word optimize in relation to our hormones. What exactly do you mean? So optimize means being the best that you can be, and getting your hormone levels to that of someone younger than you, or when we're in our peak, during our prime, during life. So it's really about checking the levels, seeing where you're at, and then fine tuning them and optimizing your hormone levels to that of someone who is 3040, years younger, or when we are in our prime optimization also means optimizing your diet, optimizing your health and exercise as well, so that you can utilize the hormones that we give you or the treatments that You're on, and you are able to maximize the benefits. Today we're talking to anti aging physician, Dr Chris assandra, and he was just talking about the role our hormones play in helping us feel fit, energized and healthy as we age. But whether you want to get the most out of the hormones you already have, or you're using a treatment like hormone replacement therapy. Dr Assange says the key to slowing aging is to maximize your hormones. So I asked him, what's involved with that? So many times we have hormones in the body, we want to circulate them more and utilize them. I kind of say it's like filling up your gas tank. You want to be able to push on the pedal too and use the gas in order to make the car run better and more smooth. So, you know, exercising diligently, and I always recommend at least doing both weight training and cardio, because as we age, we lose muscle mass and lean muscle mass, and sometimes a lot of times in women, that can lead to osteoporosis, bone degradation, et cetera. So by exercising and adding more lean muscle that really helps preserve the bones and keeps the body healthy in that way. But the only way to do that is to make sure that we're actually adding weight and resistance training, but also cardiovascular exercises too, to keep the heart healthy. Because, as we know, the heart itself is a muscle. So it's really important that you do a combination of Not, not just one or the other. It's really combination of both to really help facilitate the hormones and get them circulating, and so you can see the benefits from the hormones and take advantage of it, which is worse, eating too much at a party or drinking too much, even if you're not driving too much, alcohol is a lot worse. Registered Dietitian Stephanie middleber says not only does drinking impair your judgment, it also weakens your immune system, so you're more likely to pick up an infection. Drinking too much at a party will also ruin your sleep. Sure, you may sleep heavily at first, but once your body metabolizes the alcohol, your brain wakes up, causing restless sleep, plus drinking increases hunger for high fat foods, so you may end up eating too much anyway. Bottom line, it's best to limit your food and alcohol intake at a party. Today's medical term trichoptolosis, that's what most people call split ends. It refers to when a hair shaft splits and frays open. If you tend to get a lot of split ends, it's most likely due to either heat styling or stress, for example, forcefully brushing tangled hair using a flat iron or changing your hair color. Frequently, it's because heat styling dries out our hair, and chemicals from dyes and other products can strip away the protective layer of the hair shaft, making it weak and brittle and more prone to splitting the fix. Get a haircut, because once hair is damaged, it is impossible to fix. In fact, even though some shampoos and conditioners claim they can heal split ends by sealing the ends back together. Research shows that most of those products only hide our split ends by coating them to make them look smoother. But regular haircuts trim away the damage and expose a new part of the hair shaft that will be stronger and less vulnerable to splitting. Okay, and that's today's medical term trichoptolosis coming up. We'll hear more from anti aging expert, Dr Chris assandra. He'll explain the surprising way constantly scrolling social media is affecting our looks and making us seem to age faster. But first, you know, when you have a cold and your nostrils alternate being stuffed up. Well, at night, when you're in bed, you can simply turn over and drain that clogged sinus. But it's not just gravity at work. There's actually a receptor under your arm that signals the opposite sinus to drain. Well, the Canadian Medical Association Journal says we can tap into that receptor during the day without lying down, just put a water bottle under the opposite armpit of your blocked nostril and squeeze the gentle pressure under the opposite arm. Reduces congestion by 66% and you'll start feeling relief within one minute. Virtual reality headsets are cool, so much fun, but they're also sending a lot of people to the hospital. VR users are showing up in emergency rooms with fractured fingers and toes, rib contusions and facial lacerations after crashing into obstacles in the real world because you can't see what's around you while you're playing. Data shows that 14 million virtual reality headsets will be sold this year, and as the number of people using VR headsets rises, so does the number of people injured. A study published by Dignity Health Medical Group found that incidents of VR related injuries have risen over 1,000% in the last five years, as use has increased, and in just the last year, there's been a 100% increase in VR related emergency room visits. Okay, listen to this, guys, it's time to stop sitting with your wallet in your back pocket. Dr Stuart McGill is a professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo, and he says a thick wallet can put tremendous stress on your hip joint and lower back, which can lead to chronic back pain. It can also tilt your pelvis and misalign your spine. Dr McGill says, either remove your wallet from your pants entirely when you're sitting or driving, switch to a thinner money clip, put it in a front pocket, or go digital and use something like Apple or Google Pay back with more health intelligence from anti aging expert Dr Chris assandra and at his clinic in Beverly Hills and in anti aging medical centers across North America, a ground breaking treatment is being offered called peptide therapy. So I asked Dr what peptides are and how they help us stay healthy longer. So peptides are a string of amino acids that are strung together to perform a certain duty in the body. Mainly, peptides help with healing of the body or stimulating growth hormone and as we age, we lose our growth hormone levels through time. So when peptides do is help stimulate the body by telling the brain cells, liver, etc, to start producing growth hormone again, as if you are in your prime, maybe 18 to 25 but the nice thing about peptides is they have several different ones, and you can tweak them or pick the right one based on your need. For example, some people want more muscle, so this can add more lean muscle to you. Some want more fat loss, or some may be recovering from a surgery, and certain peptides may help you heal faster after surgery or an injury. Athletes use them a lot of times, and also can help your gut as well heal your gut if you have GI issues. So peptides are great because it's kind of the new growth hormone type therapy we always heard about. A lot of people using HGH or human growth hormone. Peptides are safer, more economical, and you can use it long term with virtually no side effects, back with more health intelligence from anti aging physician, Dr Chris assandra, and one of the more surprising moves he recommends for helping his patients live longer is to plan a daily digital detox where you avoid using all digital devices for at least an hour, say before bed. He says, not only will that help you get better sleep, which has loads of anti aging benefits, a digital detox will also help you avoid using social media and getting stressed out about what your friends are up to. And I asked Dr Sandra how that can benefit us, I think, in a roundabout way, by increasing our stress levels and cortisol levels. It does affect people's, I think, look overall. But, you know, looking at social media all the time and seeing these perfect people behind filters, right? Everybody's using a filter these days, they can definitely take a toll on you mentally. And then people want to look like that, even though it's unachievable. Yeah. Yeah, and so, yeah. I mean, in some ways, I think it can increase your stress levels and inadvertently cause more obesity and you to become more obsessed with your looks, when you should be more obsessed with your health. If you're on antibiotics, drink green tea. According to Alexandria University in Egypt, green tea helps the medication destroy harmful bacteria up to three times more effectively. That's because the natural antioxidants make the bacteria less resistant to treatment, more intelligence for your health. From Anti Aging and Longevity expert Dr Chris assandra and I asked Dr Sandra, which diet choices, if any, could actually help us live longer? My advice with any dieting is to limit your sugar intake or try to eliminate it completely. As we know, sugar can be very inflammatory. Sugar can be very addicting. So I see a lot of my patients are have high sugar diets or eat a lot of sugar. When we ask them to stop and they go on a certain diet, more rich in fruits, nuts, vegetables and good carbohydrates like quinoa, brown rice, et cetera, once they start coming off these complex carbohydrates and these processed sugars, the sugars actually there's a withdrawal. That some people even say it's like coming off drugs in some ways, and that's how toxic sugar can be, because it's very addicting. It can cause a lot of inflammation in the body and can lead to other health issues like diabetes. And so, you know, that's the hard part, is getting off the sugar and really sticking to a very pristine diet, and there is going to be a transition period. I tell everybody, when you switch to a very healthy diet, it's going to be a little bit of a shock to the body, but in the long run, it's way better for you. People see great benefits. Their skin glows, they lose weight, their collagen comes back. Sleep is better. They have more energy. So it's a it's to me, it's really a small sacrifice to pay for your health and longevity. If you drink coffee at work out of a ceramic mug, protect yourself and scrub it often. Now that a lot of people are back in offices, you may be grabbing a random mug from the office kitchen for your coffee. Researchers from the University of Arizona say, bring your own mug and take it home and run it through the dishwasher, because when they ran swabs around the rims of Office mugs and tested for bacteria, 90% of the mugs were contaminated with germs of some type. And it gets worse, your chance of coming into contact with E coli actually increases if your mug has been wiped down with the Office dish cloth or sponge. In the study, coliform bacteria, which is from waste matter, was present in 20% of the mugs before wiping and 100% afterward. Here's an email I received at Connie at intelligence for your health.com. It comes from Alison Eastman, who writes, I've heard that a teaspoon of cinnamon a day will keep my type two diabetes in check. My question is, if I put it in my coffee, will the heat make it less effective? Oh, good question, Allison. Now first of all, follow your doctor's instructions when it comes to managing your diabetes, but it is true that cinnamon can help stabilize blood sugar levels, especially after eating something with simple carbohydrates, and that's good news, because studies show that a spike in blood sugar raises levels of insulin, which can increase the risk of type two diabetes, heart disease and even some cancers. So adding a teaspoon of cinnamon to your coffee grounds before brewing is a great way to go. Research shows that when the hot water gets poured over the coffee grounds and cinnamon, it extracts even more of the potent compounds from the spice. You can also try sprinkling a little ground cinnamon on apple slices, the spice prevents the fruit from turning brown and it contains more antioxidants than a quarter cup of blueberries. Thank you for your email. Allison, I hope this helps. Okay, listen to this to boost your memory. Do one crossword puzzle a day. Research from University College Cork in Ireland, found that people who did one crossword puzzle a day experience a significant improvement in Word recall in conversations in just a month, and you don't even need to complete the whole puzzle. Simply attempting it makes your brain more efficient at remembering words. Want a healthier brain with the absolute lowest risk of developing Alzheimer's someday, adopt these habits First, turn down the volume. A study from Johns Hopkins Medicine found a disturbing link between hearing loss and an increased risk for dementia. Researchers say it's because when we damage our eardrum. Symptoms, the hearing centers of our brain begin to atrophy, just like when we don't exercise, and our muscles wither away, and that can trigger a chain reaction where our whole brain gradually shuts down so never listen to music at more than 60% of the maximum volume, also minimize your time spent alone if it makes you feel lonely, researchers say is one thing if you need alone time. But according to a study in the Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, when people regularly say they feel lonely or isolated, they're a whopping seven times more likely to have a buildup of brain proteins that are linked to developing Alzheimer's. That's because socializing and conversation are proven to boost brain health, more intelligence for your health. From anti aging physician, Dr Chris assandra, if you'd like to know more about him, check out asandra. Md.com, his last name is spelled A, S, A, N, D, R, A, and something we've been hearing a lot in recent years is that our mindset has a huge influence on our overall happiness and well being. So I asked Dr Assange if that applies to aging too. Meaning, can we think our way into feeling or staying younger? Yeah, I think depending on how you feel for your age, if you will, does ages faster, because it's that if you feel like you're 80, you're and feel like you should be sitting in the rocking chair, versus the six year olds that I have as patients that say, Hey, I feel like I'm 30 again. It makes a huge difference for that. And sometimes you may need the hormones to get you there to feel that way again, but it's also putting yourself in the right mental state as well to say, you know, I don't have to age like people 50 years ago, did. I mean, I think people 50 years ago, we think of our 56 year olds as it being the end and sitting in a corner and on the recliner or in the rocking chair just kind of withering away. But our society has changed now. We're a lot more active. We our jobs that we have are prolonged now. We have people working in their 70s and 80s now still. So yeah, I mean, it really is a mental state, but sometimes we need to optimize our mental state, whether it's with hormones or with combining that with exercise keeping our body and our mind young. It's a combination of this holistic, global endeavor that you need to have to really feel that way again. So it is really a choice on how you want to feel. I mean, you can either give up or you can keep going. Because, like we all want to live longer now, we all want to play with our kids longer and see our kids grow up, and grandchildren and great grandchildren, 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.