Copy of Is some movement better than no movement?

What if you went to see your doctor, not because you had a problem, but because you were healthy and wanted to keep it that way?

Modern medicine is focused on problem solving. But what if we could preempt the problems from occurring in the first place?

This isn't preventive medicine.

There are some things we simply cannot prevent.

But we can figure out what your risk factors are for developing problems later in life and try to take action now to lessen the impact on your life later.

That's what I call preactionary medicine.

Let's get started!

Table of Contents

1. What should you eat?
2. Is exercise the anti-aging prescription you don't want to hear about?
3. Is anxiety a risk-factor for Parkinson's disease?

What should you eat?

If you listen to the "influencers" all over social media, it can be quite confusing: only eat meat. Only eat vegetables. Eat more fish. Stay away from seafood. Eat dairy and eggs. Avoid dairy and eggs.

So which one is it?

Well, the answer is quite simple: there is no one-size-fits-all approach to our human diet.

Check out this TEDx talk which dives a little deeper into how different foods affect different people:

A big argument from all the "influencers" out on social media, is "this is what we evolved to eat" and, therefore, this is what you should eat.

But what do we really know about what the earliest generations of humans ate?

Well, the answer is (again) quite simple: everything.

What the fossil, archaeological and ethnographic evidence indicates, then, is that there is no one diet that nature prescribed for us. What our ancestors ate varied dramatically over time and space, driven in no small part by what was available to them as seasons changed, climate shifted, and populations spread into new ecosystems. Forged in that crucible of uncertainty, we evolved the ability to survive and thrive on an impressive diversity of foods. Hunter-gatherers around the world eat diets with wildly different proportions of plant and animal foods, and all of them appear to be healthy, protected from heart disease, diabetes, and other maladies that are common in industrial populations.

Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/to-follow-the-real-early-human-diet-eat-everything/

What does all this mean for you then?

There will be some foods that work well for your body and others that don't. How do you figure out which one is which?

1. Keep a food log and be sure you include how the food makes you feel. Does it upset your stomach? Does it bloat you? Does it give you diarrhea? Do you break out in rashes? Or ... do you feel energized? Fresh? Happy? And yes, does the food give you solid, satisfying bowel movements?
2. Considering the above TEDx talk, get yourself a blood glucose monitor and check your blood glucose response to different foods. Start by checking your blood sugar first thing in the morning and about 30 minutes before you eat a large meal to get a sense for your baseline. Then check it about 30 minutes after you eat. Combined with the food log, monitor which foods spike your blood sugar and which don't. A small rise from your baseline is perfectly normal. But when your blood sugar spikes significantly, it tells you to avoid that food. Over time, you will get an idea of what foods work for you and which don't. I'm lucky: my body loves pizza, by the way.
3. Get your gut microbiome checked. Once you know where you are starting from, there are a variety of natural ways to alter your gut microbiome to help you establish a more healthy relationship with the bacteria that live with, in, and for you. Establishing a healthy gut microbiome can also help with a variety of diseases (the gut microbiome has been linked with diseases such as eczema and even autism).

At the very least, eat food as close to the source as possible. The more processing is done along the way, the more problems the food will cause. My rule of thumb: if it comes in a box, it's probably not good for you.

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Is exercise the anti-aging prescription you don't want to hear about?

The short answer is, of course, yes.

But what does exercise even mean?

Perhaps we need to look at what exercise doesn't mean instead: doing nothing.

It doesn't take a lot of movement to reap rewards. Of course, the more you do, the more you gain but Rome wasn't built in a day so you don't have to go crazy if you are just starting out.

The following are some takeaways from a recent and very large study (over 45,000 participants!):

• For each increase of 2 hours per day spent sitting and watching television, the odds of healthy aging dropped by 12%
• Conversely, every additional 2 hours per day of low-level physical activity at work upped the odds of healthy aging by 6%
• Each extra hour per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity (normal pace walking or the equivalent) was associated with 14% higher odds of healthy aging

Source: https://www.mdedge.com/internalmedicine/article/269828/womens-health/trading-tv-time-physical-activity-boosts-healthy-aging

As you can see, it doesn't take a lot of activity to gain the rewards of a longer and healthier life.

What's holding you back?

Is anxiety a risk-factor for Parkinson's disease?

In this recent database review, researchers may have discovered that anxiety could be a risk factor for developing Parkinson's later in life:

After adjusting for a variety of sociodemographic, lifestyle, psychiatric, and neurological factors, they found that the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease was double in those with anxiety, compared with controls.

Source: https://www.mdedge.com/neurology/article/269820/parkinsons-disease/anxiety-prodromal-feature-parkinsons-disease

Of course, we must consider that correlation does not imply causation so more research in this area will need to be done to better understand a possible connection between anxiety and Parkinson's.

What I find interesting about this possible connection is that cannabis can be used to control some of the symptoms of Parkinson's and is used recreationally by a lot of people to treat their anxiety symptoms (even though anxiety is not an allowable condition for medicinal marijuana in states like Ohio whereas Parkinson's is).

Parkinson's is an incredibly debilitating disease so finding ways to discover it early and then either delaying its onset or preventing it altogether would be monumental.

Conclusions

Using the tools available to us in what I call preactionary medicine, we are able to predict your risk of developing certain medical problems later in life and take preemptive action now.

What questions do you have? What topics would you like to see covered in future newsletters? What roadblocks exist in your life to live a healthier and longer life yourself?

Let's hear your thoughts, questions, and feedback in the comments below ??

Stay healthy and live longer!

--Fx

Felix Boecker, MD