It is interesting how when I see things from the outside, I am very good at identifying them. And on the inside, I often forget what is so obvious to me when I am the doctor!
Thankfully, two weekends ago, I attended a functional medicine conference and had a huge aha – I realized what had been the root of my problem. I changed my supplement regimen and quickly my symptoms started resolving. The reason I am belaboring this point is because I think it is important to know that we ALL get stuck sometimes and can all fall into a trap of negative thinking. I am not a depressive person, but was feeling quite depressed about the idea of never feeling great again.
While there are things that can wear down over time (like joints if we have chronic inflammation for too long), most of the symptoms people experience from day to day, that we learn to live with and accept as aging, ARE NOT AGING! They are symptoms giving us a sign that something is off and if we just make some changes, those symptoms will go away. Some common assumptions of aging include ….
- Fatigue
- Brain Fog
- Weight gain
- Sleep issues
- Pain
- Stiffness
- Blurry vision
- Headaches
- Anxiety
- Night sweats/hot flashes
What happens if we let these things go too long? Things break down eventually. If we get on top of them as early as possible, WE CAN CHANGE THE TRAJECTORY OF OUR HEALTH.
There is a term I have been hearing a lot lately. HEALTHSPAN.
noun
- the part of a person’s life during which they are generally in good health.
“the goal is to enhance and extend healthspan”
We all know the term LIFESPAN – what we want, is for our
HEALTHSPAN = LIFESPAN
In order to make this a reality, we need to address health issues before they take root. Not once they become entrenched. At this point we are climbing an uphill battle and the typical way that it goes is that the quality of life declines slowly until death.
We have so much control over preventing this from happening. As Peter Attia, a renowned author on aging articulates – “We need to be “proactive” in our medicine so that our health journey is one of great health, rather than prevention where we are trying to avoid disease”..
Did you know that blood sugar issues can cause every single one of the symptoms I have listed above? Did you know that these can all be addressed by changing what and when you eat? A CGM (continuous glucose monitor) will give a great deal of insight into fixing these patterns so that symptoms can be alleviated quickly.
I encourage you to be proactive about your symptoms today. Take control of your health trajectory! Don’t wait until those roots of disease are firmly planted in the ground.
A little take away tip that can have a big impact:
- Eat within 30 minutes of waking up
- Don’t go more than 4 hours without eating
(Most of us are not at the point in our health where we should be intermittent fasting!)
Longevity is a word we all understand. We all want to live a long life, but we want that life to be a healthy one. We want our HEALTHSPAN to match our lifespan. That is our goal at Wellness Architecture – if you want to start your journey towards a healthy heart and increase your HEALTHSPAN, fill out this application today to see how we can help. You can also visit our testimonials page and check out what other patients have to say.