Octogenarians

I have been blessed to have the privilege of taking care of elderly patients in my primary care practice. These people have taught me so much. They are full of a lifetime of wisdom and have plenty more to teach me. The ones that really catch my attention and provoke my curiosity are those who may be old chronologically but are young at heart. They tend to be healthy and active and enjoy their lives. They are living the life I would want to have if God lets me live into my eighties.

I have noticed some commonalities in healthy and happy octogenarians. One of the first things I recognized was the majority of these vibrant elderly exercise or lead very active, in-motion lifestyles. None that I can recall were sedentary couch potatoes. Many make it a daily ritual to go for a walk and some of them walk several miles a day, rain or shine. It is a habit for them. A body in motion tends to stay in motion!

Another more elusive quality I noticed is octogenarians tend to live above their circumstances. Many of them have lost spouses, children, careers, fortunes, and some degree of personal health. Yet, they manage not to dwell on their losses or let the losses define who they are.

They have recognized that life is not fair and they deal with it. This is a lesson I hope I have taught my children. Life is not fair. The world does not revolve around any single individual. God's plan for the world does not hinge on me! His plan will be accomplished with or with out me. I think this is one of the most important lessons of life.

I believe learning that life is not fair is the beginning of learning gratitude. Gratitude is another character quality in healthy and happy octogenarians I have witnessed. I think it is hard to be depressed or feel sorry for yourself if you generally are a person of gratitude. We all go through periods of depression and malaise, but generally people who practice or understand gratitude do not stay in those dark places.

I think people who are known for their character quality of gratitude are generally more interested in helping others than in being helped. And I believe this is one of those funny things in life, the more people you help, the happier you tend to be. Our culture today tends to sing a different song.

These healthy and happy octogenarians tend to not hold on to bitterness or anger. They are generally gracious and forgiving individuals. They know that holding on to bitterness or anger will destroy their souls. "Bitterness will dry up your bones." 

I know there are always exceptions, but I do believe if we tend to live an active lifestyle and practice gratitude, we will improve our chances of becoming happy octogenarians. Next time you see someone in their eighties enjoying their day, stop and talk to them. I am betting you will be blessed by the conversation.

Natural Treatments for Depression and Anxiety

It has been estimated that over 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety and/or depression. Most people have a combination of symptoms of anxiety and depression. It is like a coin; one side is heads (depression) and the other side is tails (anxiety).

Often the same medications can be used to treat either depression or anxiety. Modern medicine has developed many medications that can help. SSRIs are popular medicines used commonly and are very effective and have few side effects. But what I would like to focus on today is natural ways to help you deal with anxiety or depression.

I believe one of the best ways to begin working on anxiety or depression is to learn to control your thought life. Too many people are captive to their thoughts and let their minds drift in any direction. The Bible has some good advice on this in Philippians 4:8 where Paul tells us “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.”

Every thought we have has an emotion tagged to it, and we become a product of our thoughts. If someone is depressed or anxious, you can bet they are having many depressed or anxious thoughts. So one of the keys to naturally getting better is to learn to control your thought life.

Most of us will dwell on things that are out of our control. I would estimate that over half of the things anxious and/or depressed people are thinking of are things that are out of their control. The research is pretty clear on this. We have about a minute to deal with a thought when it comes to mind before we start to ruminate on the thought. Human nature is to take a thought and go to the darkest corner. This is one reason solitary confinement is the worst punishment for prisoners. They are left alone with their thoughts.

One strategy is to stop and give yourself about one minute when a thought comes to your mind. If you can influence the outcome; think about it, pray about it, and come up with a plan or get some advice. If, however, you cannot influence the outcome of the thought, do not allow yourself to think about it. Actively move your mind in another direction. Lift up a quick prayer but do not dwell on the thought.

Often when people are depressed or anxious, they withdraw from family and friends. They want to be left alone. While this may be helpful at first to gather thoughts and gain perspective, it can become part of the problem. I encourage my patients to get back to doing the things they know they enjoy. This can seem a little artificial at first, but our emotions usually follow our actions.

It is like a train. Our actions are the engine and our emotions are the caboose. Eventually the caboose gets to where the engine was. If you start acting a certain way, you will eventually start to feel a certain way.

Sleep is a great remedy for anxiety. It is amazing how much better the world appears after a good night’s sleep. Cut back on your caffeine and be sure to get 7–9 hours of good sleep.

Exercise is my favorite way to deal with stress. It has an immediate and lasting impact on my mental state. It is amazing to me how much better I feel after a good, vigorous workout. I think it also helps me sleep better.

St. John’s wort is a common supplement taken by many with some proven results. Another supplement often used is SAMe (S-Adenosyl-L-Methionine). It is made from naturally occurring proteins in our bodies and has had some proven benefits. I take a product from Thorne Research called Methyl Guard. It is full of B vitamins that can improve mood and boost energy levels.

Eat whole foods, get some good sleep, exercise, hang out with family and friends, and control your thought life. I bet you will start to feel better!

Stress: Learn to Control Your Thought Life

Everybody has stress. If you are alive, you have stress in your life.

Not a day goes by in my clinic that I do not treat someone with stress. It can come disguised as many things.

Fatigue is often secondary to stress. Insomnia almost always has something to do with anxiety. Headaches are often related to stress. Many conditions are also exacerbated by stress.  A diabetic’s blood sugars are elevated when they are stressed.

Depression and anxiety are usually related to stress. In broad terms, depression occurs when people dwell too much on the past. Anxiety is being too overly concerned about the future. However, these are generalizations and are not true for everyone.

Depression and anxiety are like a coin. One side is tails and the other is heads. I rarely see anyone that is completely depressed or totally anxious. People are usually either more depressed or more anxious, but they rarely have one without the other.

If you do not learn to deal with your stress, it will often lead to anxiety or depression. This will also affect your physical health as well. I have seen people worry themselves into having ulcers and heart attacks. One thing I know for sure: too much stress makes it very difficult for weight loss.

One of the keys to dealing with your stress is learning what to really stress over! Most people worry about things that are completely out of their control. When people are stressed, they tend to spend about 80 to 90 percent of their thought life on things they have no control over. They will ruminate on an issue for hours, and they cannot control the outcome.

One of the first things to do when you are feeling stressed and having repetitive thoughts is to ask yourself this: “Do I have any influence over the thought?” Can you change the outcome if you allow yourself to think through the thought? If the answer is no, try not to think about it. If yes, then allow yourself time to think through your options.

The research is fairly clear. When you get a thought, you have about one minute to deal with it. After a minute, if you have not dealt with the thought, you will tend to dwell on the thought.

It is human nature to take a thought and go to the darkest corner. This in one reason solitary confinement is the worst punishment for prisoners. They are left alone with their thoughts.

One of the keys then to dealing with your stress is learning to control your thought life. We tend to think about the things we see or hear. If you are under more stress than usual, limit your exposure to things you may find stressful. I find watching the news to be usually depressing, because all they do is show the dark side of humanity. Reading scary books or watching intense movies are probably not going to help you deal with your stress either.

Philippians 4:8 encourages us to dwell on whatever is noble, true, just, pure, and lovely. I have found this very helpful for calming my mind and my spirit.

When I am having repetitive and stressful thoughts, I imagine that I have an “outbox” in my mind. If I am having a repetitive thought I have no control over, I will put that thought into my imaginary outbox. (I know this sounds like psychobabble, but it works for me!) My outbox is God’s inbox. I will pray several times during the day—just a quick prayer. “God, you promised not to put anything on me I could not handle and you promised you would help me. I need your help on this.”

I often play ping-pong with these thoughts, but I keep on saying a quick prayer. Eventually, the thought will typically leave my mind. Sometimes answers come or the situation changes.

I try not to spend too much mental or emotional energy on things I cannot change. Every thought we have has an emotion tied to it. Some are negative, some are positive. Some thoughts are fairly neutral, but these tend to lean toward the negative. At the end of the day, we are the sum of our thought life. If we have a bunch of negative, depressing thoughts, we tend to be depressed. If we have had more happy and pleasing thoughts, we tend to be happy. Control your thought life.

Everyone has stress. Learn to handle your stress. Learn to control your thought life. Your body will appreciate it!

Wishing you an amazing life.

Raise Your Ebenezer Stone

There are lots of reasons why people try to lose weight and trim down. Looking good and feeling good are some of the most common reasons people want to lose weight. Many just want to improve their health and hopefully extend their lives. I want to challenge you to think about this from a different perspective.

I believe that we all have a spiritual part to our existence, that we are spiritual beings. When people think of me, they have some mental picture of my face and body; but that is not the real me. If you were to open up my chest and see my heart, you would still not see the real me. 

I think the real me is my spirit or my soul.

I use my body as a conduit, which lets my spirit interact with the physical world. It is how I relate to my physical existence. But my body really isn’t the “real” me. It is a tool that God has given me to relate to the physical world.

I think we have a spiritual obligation to take care of our bodies. The one thing that God gave you, the thing that he did not give to anyone else in the entire history of our human existence, is you. It is a one-of-a-kind wonder. Even identical twins have differences that can be seen.

In the book of Matthew 25:14–30, Jesus teaches on the parable of the talents. Many of you are very familiar with this parable. If you have never heard about this story in the Bible, I would encourage you to read it today. This story is about a master who leaves his servants with various amounts of talents (money). He goes away to a far country and when he returns, he wants to see what his servants did with the talents.

Some of the servants did well and multiplied the talents. The master gave them a reward. One servant, however, did not do so well. He took his talent and buried it. The master had him punished, and Jesus said that he was a wicked servant.

Romans 12:1 encourages us to make our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. It is our spiritual duty to take care of our bodies daily.

I believe that we will be held accountable for how we use our bodies. I think we should think of our bodies as a “talent” that is loaned to us by our Master. We will have to do some explaining someday for how we treated or even abused our bodies. Fortunately, God is a God of grace, but there will be some explaining to do.

In 1 Samuel 7:12, Samuel took a large stone and raised it up, calling it the Ebenezer stone. Ebenezer means "stone of help." It symbolized to the nation of Israel that they were returning to the ways of the Lord.

They had just won a great victory under the leadership of Samuel and were essentially getting a fresh start with serving the Living God. The stone marked a turning point for the people of Israel. They were no longer going to live under the fear of their enemies. They were victorious.

You may not have been doing so well with taking care of the body that has been loaned to you. There is great hope for your future. Today you can start a new lifestyle, one of health and wellness. Raise your Ebenezer stone today and determine that you will be a good steward of your body. You have a spiritual obligation to do so.

Now if taking care of your body is a spiritual obligation, then we should expect some spiritual help. I believe that God does want us to have healthy bodies and he wants us to treat and fuel them with an eye toward being good stewards.

A simple prayer I would ask you to consider before you eat anything is to ask God to help you glorify Him by the way you fuel your body. (I always feel a little funny asking God to bless the unhealthy food I am about to over-consume.) I believe God will help us, but we need to educate ourselves on how to take care of our bodies. I have found God will not do for me what I should do for myself.

I believe we have a spiritual obligation to take care of our bodies and that He will help us on our journey.