Keeping Fit as You Grow Older: What You Need to Know
Even younger people who are exercising frequently are sometimes worrying about what will happen when they get older. Can you keep up with an exercise routine? Am I just going to cause damage to myself?
It’s true that you’re going to experience some loss in stamina over the years. But it should be no secret by now that people often exaggerate how bad growing older is! And that applies here, too. In fact, many of the things that people fear about getting older are already being fought if you’re exercising now. So stop worrying so much!
As for exercising when as you approach and move past fifty, there are certain things you’ll have to be wary of. www.webmd.com has a great article dispelling myths about exercise in older adults. Here are some of our tips!
Speak to your doctor
You should be getting physical check-ups from your doctor every year. You may even want to have at least a couple a year, especially if you’re working out at an older age. This may seem like an obvious bit of advice. But a lot of people out there who exercise frequently feel that they don’t need to go to the doctor. After all, they’ve got it all covered with all this exercise, right?
Medical office - middle-aged male doctor greeting patient, shaking hands.
Make sure your doctor is kept abreast of what you’re doing when you workout. This will help them assess you correctly. Some problems that can occur during workouts may not manifest in the short-term, so they need to look for early signs that a change is needed.
Men: fight falling testosterone levels!
Sorry, guys! Chances are you’re going to suffer from falling testosterone levels as you get older. Unfortunately, the fact that it’s happening may not be apparent to you. How noticeable it is varies from man to man. If you’re exercising, some of the symptoms will definitely be less noticeable. One of the giveaways is weight gain, which you’ll be fighting with that exercise.
But low levels of testosterone often manifest in ways that will directly affect your exercise. Your energy levels and muscles mass will start to decrease. And with those, your general physical strength. Don’t worry, you’re not collapsing from the inside! It’s normal. But you might need some form of testosterone boost to keep up with your regime. Read more about doing this safely at www.newtestosterone.com.
Put more focus on warm ups
As previously noted, your muscles are going to get weaker as you get older. This is something you’ve fighting long-term with all that exercise you’ve been doing throughout life. (As a reminder, this is why exercising from a young age is important. It will help with physical strength and mobility as you get older!)
One of the most frustrating aspects of getting older is an increased susceptibility to injuries. Even if these injuries are minor, they will disrupt your routine something fierce. And, of course, warm-ups have always been about preventing injury during exercise. You may want to spend more time of your warm-ups to ensure you’re getting the right blood flow to your muscles. Need a reminder of the best warm-up routines? Check out www.prevention.com.
Keep your brain sharp, too! Quick note: the process of getting older will be much easier if you exercise your brain, too! You’ll be surprised how much it can benefit your physical health. Keep on reading, writing, and doing the occasional Sudoku puzzle!
Bladder cancer is the 5th most common cancer in Canada, yet is relatively unknown to the public. Events are planned across Canada in May to promote awareness of #BladderCancer and BCC is calling on Canadians to #ShowYellow.
TORONTO (APRIL 25, 2016) – May marks Canada’s first Bladder Cancer Awareness Month to help shine the spotlight on a common but poorly understood cancer, affecting about 80,000 Canadians.
Bladder cancer is the 5th most common cancer in Canada – 4th for men and 12th for women. An estimated 8,300 Canadians will be newly diagnosed with bladder cancer this year. Bladder cancer is the most expensive cancer to treat on a per patient basis because of an 80% recurrence rate. Yet, at 20th out of the 24 most common cancers, research funding into this disease lags almost all other cancers.
“Awareness of bladder cancer is extremely low compared with other cancers,” says Tammy Northam, BCC Executive Director. “This lack of understanding can result in failure to recognize the early symptoms, leading to diagnosis at a later stage in the disease. Early diagnosis is critical because it results in better outcomes for patients.”
On May 14, BCC will celebrate Bladder Cancer Awareness Month in spectacular fashion. Toronto's CN Tower will be lit in yellow and red to support BCC’s “See Red? See Your Doctor.” Campaign.
More events are planned across the country and Canadians are invited to visit www.bladdercancercanada.org to find out how they can become involved. Bladder Cancer Canada is active on Facebook and Twitter and will be promoting and posting frequently with hashtags #BladderCancer and #ShowYellow through the month of May. May marks Bladder Cancer Awareness Month in several other countries, including the U.S. and the U.K.
BCC holds annual fundraising walks in about 20 cities across the country every September. Registration opens for the walks starting in May and BCC welcomes everyone who supports this important cause. More information at http://www.bccwalk.ca
What: Mother’s Day Walk
When: May 8, 2016 at 11 a.m. (Sign in at 9:30 a.m.)
Where: Streetsville Memorial Park, Mississauga
Why: To fund breast cancer research at Sunnybrook Hospital that impacts local patients
How to register: www.mothersdaywalk.ca or call 1-800-567-8767
Try these Lemon Poppy Seed Bites that are perfect for those always on the go!
Here’s how to make them at home…
Ingredients:
1 scoop fermented vegan proteins+ vanilla
½ tsp poppy seeds
1 lemon squeezed, and zest grated
2 tbsp ground flax seed
½ c coconut flour
¼ c ground almonds
¼ c ground pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp maple syrup
6 tbsp unsweetened vanilla almond milk
Coating:
¼ c coconut flakes
2 tbsp poppy seeds
Directions:
- Mix in coconut flour, ground flax seed, fermented vegan proteins+ and lemon zest, and thoroughly mix ingredients.
- Add in maple syrup, lemon juice, almond butter and almond milk. Continue to mix until doughy texture is achieved.
- Mix in ground almonds, ground pumpkin seeds, and poppy seeds by hand and roll into bite size portions.
- In separate bowl combine coconut and poppy seeds. Roll each bite in mixture to coat as desired.
- Makes approximately 1 dozen. They freeze well and taste great when thawed.
Voila! Enjoy super tasty, extra healthy lemon poppy seed bites made with fermented Vegan proteins+, which you can enjoy guilt free!
fermented vegan proteins+ is the first and only complete fermented vegan protein from seven plant-based sources, providing advanced digestive support, and maximum nutrient absorption – without the bloat. With 20g of dietary protein per serving, fermented vegan proteins+ supports optimal digestive health and primes the gut for other health promoting ingredients. Genuine Health’s unique, artisanal fermentation process unlocks vitamins, minerals, amino acids and carbohydrates for optimal absorption by the body by removing anti-nutrients and amplifying nutritional potency. The difference between good health and great health lies in the amplifying power of fermentation! For more information visit, www.genuinehealth.com.
Genuine Health is a great supporter of the David Suzuki Foundation and donates 5% of all profits annually to the organization
Why You Need To Keep Track Of Your Fitness Goals'
April is about the time of the year when we find out whether we have managed to make fitness a habit or not. We're now nearly four months into the year and four months since we resolved to do more exercise.
The challenge now is keeping up all the good work. We're just getting to the stage where training is starting to feel enjoyable. It's no longer a painful pursuit we feel that we have to do to stay healthy. It's something that gives us a sense of freedom and self-esteem.
It's about this time in our training, however, that we start to plateau. We get stuck in a rut, doing the same safe exercises over and over again. We don't challenge ourselves like we did before, and our fitness levels stop going up.
That's why it's so important to start tracking your progress. Using trackers fr om sites like fitnesstracker24.com make the process easier. One of the benefits of tracking is that it quantifies your progress for you. You get to see exactly what it is you're doing from week to week and what you need to do to improve.
Suppose, for example, you have a regular running route that goes for about four miles. A tracker will tell you exactly how far you have run and in what time. Of course, you could do that just using a watch and working out how far the route is on a map. But that means that you end up running the same route every day.
Fitness trackers are a great way of building variety into your routine. There's no need to take the same route every day to compare your performance. With GPS tracking, you can go pretty much wherever you want and still get a comparable score at the end of it. The flexibility of fitness trackers is their greatest strength. If you are somebody who regularly hits the gym, you can use fitness trackers to keep a track of the weights that you are lifting. The goal should be to increase the weight you can lift by about 5 percent every week or so if you're just getting started out. Trackers can record and store what you've lifted without you having to carry around a notepad and pencil around the gym.
But perhaps the biggest appeal of fitness trackers is the fact that they always give you a goal to strive for. Without all the helpful readouts and data, it's hard to know whether we are making progress. In some sports, like weightlifting, conditions change every week. The type of exercise may change, the number of sets might vary and so on. Just look at the sheer number of regimes you can try out at bodybuilding.com.
Trackers change all this and allow you to compare what you're doing today with your past performance. It's a remarkable tool. And it all comes down to the fact that trackers keep you accountable. They let you know when you're not making progress and prompt you to do something about it.
New study shows higher levels of vitamin D can drastically lower risk of cancer by 67%
TORONTO, Ont. – Women with high concentrations of vitamin D have been found to have a much lower chance of developing cancer, according to a recently published study.
Published in the journal PLOS ONE and authored by a team from Creighton University, University of California, San Diego and GrassrootsHealth, the research found a 67% reduction in risk for all cancers in women with vitamin D levels > 100 nmol/L (40 ng/ml) compared to womenwith vitamin D levels < 50 nmol/L (20 ng/ml).
Drawing on results from one of Creighton’s past studies, Dr. Heaney and researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine worked with Dr. Lappe’s team and GrassrootsHealth to provide data from its members to aid in the study. Combining both pools of data, the researchers were able to create a larger overall cohort of 2,304 women with a broader range of serum levels for the analysis.
The resulting conclusion was that women with higher than 100 nmol/L (40 ng/ml) vitamin D levels were associated with substantial reduction in risk of all invasive cancers combined.
Dr. Heaney, one of the study’s authors, noted the importance of sunlight in vitamin D absorption. While ancestors spent a lot of time outdoors in direct sunlight, today more time is spent indoors and behind computer screens.
“Be sure you’re getting as much vitamin D as nature would give you under natural circumstances and you were wandering around outdoors exposing a lot of skin in the summer,” said Heaney. “We have got to find a way to translate [these studies] into policy; public health policy.”
In Toronto, Dr. Reinhold Vieth, scientific advisor for the Vitamin D Society and professor at the University of Toronto, is encouraged by the results.
“This analysis provides more evidence that vitamin D plays an important role for cancer, and not just bone health,” said Dr. Vieth. “More vitamin D, or more sunshine, is related to lower cancer, heart disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis or death. Fortunately, taking advantage of the health benefits of vitamin D couldn’t be easier as it comes for free with spending time in the sun.”
Approximately 12 million Canadians (35%) fall below the minimum vitamin D blood level requirements of 50 nmol/L set by Health Canada and the Institute of Medicine and 90% of Canadians do not meet the 100 nmol/L recommended by this research study.
“The takeaway message from this study is clear,” said Perry Holman, Executive Director of the Vitamin D Society. “If you want to help prevent the risk of cancer for you and your family, ensure that your 25(OH)D vitamin D blood levels are greater than 100 nmol/L.”
The Vitamin D Society is a Canadian non-profit group organized to increase awareness of the many health conditions strongly linked to vitamin D deficiency; encourage people to be proactive in protecting their health and have their vitamin D levels tested annually; and help fund valuable vitamin D research. The Vitamin D Society recommends people achieve and maintain optimal 25(OH)D blood levels between 100 – 150 nmol/L (Can) or 40-60 ng/ml (USA).
References:
McDonnell SL, Baggerly C, French CB, Baggerly LL, Garland CF, Gorham ED, et al. (2016) Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations _40 ng/ml Are Associated with 65% Lower Cancer Risk: Pooled Analysis of Randomized Trial and Prospective Cohort Study. PLoS ONE 11(4): e0152441. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0152441
USING MILK TO REFUEL, REHYDRATE AND REPAIR A GREAT OPTION AFTER WORKING OUT
Sports dietician offers advice on why milk has so many benefits for athletes
Milk and chocolate milk have been getting increased attention as go-to recovery beverages of choice for those who workout, but are they really as great as so many people believe? St. Vincent Sports Performance sports dietician Sigornie Pfefferle says absolutely.
So what makes milk so great? It's all about refueling, rehydrating and repairing:
Refuel
"During a workout, our muscles primarily use carbohydrates, which are stored in our bodies as glycogen, as a fuel source," Pfefferle says. "Well, just like gas for a car, as you work, those fuel stores get burned leaving you on empty at the end of a workout. In order to recover quickly, you have to refuel/refill the tank with carbs, and milk, especially chocolate milk is a great source of carbs."
Rehydrate
"It is essential to replace the fluids and electrolytes, primarily sodium, lost via sweat post-exercise," Pfefferle says. "Milk not only helps replace the fluid lost, but, because it contains about 150mg/cup of sodium, it can help replace some of the electrolytes lost in your sweat, too."
Repair
"Intense, long workouts break down muscle; in order to repair muscle, you need protein," Pfefferle says. "Milk is an excellent source of high quality protein needed to repair and rebuild muscle. In fact, research has shown that consuming protein and carbs, both of which are contained in milk, immediately post workout leads to a six times greater rate of protein synthesis vs. waiting 3 hours to refuel."
Pfefferle says milk not only covers the three R's of recovery, but it's also packed with other vitamins and minerals essential to everyday health, most notable are calcium and vitamin D, both essential to bone health.
"So next time you are looking for a post workout recovery option, go for a tall glass of milk," Pfefferle says.
About St. Vincent Sports Performance
St. Vincent Sports Performance has supported and helped develop world-class athletes since 1987. The first and largest hospital-based program of its kind in the United States, St. Vincent Sports Performance employs over 60 Certified Athletic Trainers, sports medicine physicians, certified strength and conditioning specialists, licensed sports psychologists and registered sports dietitians. Together they have trained athletes at every level from middle school, to Olympians, to the NFL and NBA, to Motorsports and NCAA athletes. Learn more at definingsportsperformance.com.
Having a rigid routine for training can be difficult for some of us and impossible for others. If your daily schedule changes regularly, you still want to be able to get fit. This means you’ll need a great activity, sport or exercise regime to do at any point in the day you can spare an hour.
With this in mind, here are a handful of fitness and exercise ideas suited to each different time slot in the day.
Morning… go running
Going for a run very early in the morning sets you up for the day, because cardio gets your heart pumping! The roads and streets will be quieter; if you live near main roads, you’ll find crossing much quicker. After all, which runners like jogging on the spot for five minutes because they can’t cross a busy road? If you’re running in a hot country or area, going early morning also means lower temperatures.
Public swimming baths tend to be at their quietest at this time of day. This is because most people are at the office, and the kids are still at school. The quieter the pool, the more space you will have to swim in and less you’ll be distracted by others. Check in advance if your local pool holds swimming classes for kids or the elderly, for example, so you can avoid these times too. A great idea is to head to the pool one hour before an in-water exercise programme begins. That way you could do an hour of laps, followed by an hour of water aerobics or something even more sporty, like water polo! That way you get two lots of exercise from only one trip. Avoid midday to 1 pm if you want to miss those exercising on their lunch break.
Late Afternoon…take a class
In the time between the lunchtime rush and the early evening rush, things quieten down a bit. That is why now is a great time to take a class. Lower participant numbers will make for more free equipment and space. Plus, the less in the class, they more attention you’ll receive from the instructor. They may even be willing to tailor the class more to you and your fellow participants. Remember that the gym isn’t the only place to take classes. You could watch a video tutorial on your TV, or head to your local church hall or school if they hold classes there. When it comes to picking a type of class, consider what your body needs the most. Check out http://physicalculturestudy.com/2016/02/23/5-things-you-should-be-doing-for-your-body/. This article touches upon the value of exercise for your body, amongst other things.
Evening…. Head to the gym
While gyms can get busy in the evenings, having lots of other people around might act as good motivation for you. It may also be the case that your gym runs the most classes at night, and/or has the most personal trainers around. In the winter, going at this time also means you don’t have to be training in the dark outdoors.
Did you know that inflammation is a component of the vast majority of diseases? It originates in the gut with an autoimmune reaction that advances into systemic inflammation. Examples of chronic inflammation diseases include cancer, arthritis, heart disease, chronic peptic ulcer, and Crohn’s.
Unfortunately, doctors have a tendency to prescribe medication instead of figuring out the original source of the problem. Why is this an issue? Because taking medications only blocks the inflammation, it doesn’t quell the disease process. Inflammation is the body’s way of defending itself, and for acute diseases it is beneficial, but for chronic diseases it exacerbates the problem.
Dr. Lanae Mullane, the Director of Nutrition at LifeSpan medicine is a huge proponent of helping treat inflammation by changing one’s diet. That’s correct, food matters. Everyone reacts to food differently, so why do doctors give blanketed statements about what to eat? To put it bluntly, they shouldn’t.
When clients come to see Dr. Mullane, blood is drawn to see which foods cause that specific person inflammation. Foods are then put into three categories: green, yellow, and red.
Green foods are what the client should focus on eating, yellow are neutral, and red are foods that should be avoided. Dr. Mullane always suggests strictly eating what’s on the green card for 4 weeks, and then slowly (one by one) incorporating foods on their yellow card to see if it causes inflammation.
For more information on inflammation and why food matters please visit www.lifespanmedicine.com. If you would like to speak with expert nutritionist Dr. Mullane and for all press inquiries contact Brooke Cockrell at brooke@kipmorrison.com or 818.209.3800.
ABOUT LIFESPAN MEDICINE
LifeSpan medicine is an integrative, functional medical practice with a team of doctors that offer the most advanced technology for non-invasive medicine. The practice has two locations in Santa Monica and Dallas. Clients range from the average person looking to be healthier to NFL, NBA, and Olympic athletes to movie stars and Fortune 500 executives.
ABOUT DR. LANAE MULLANE
Dr. Lanae Mullane conducts individual consultations and assessments to identify deficiencies and imbalances and customizes plans involving lifestyle modifications, diet, supplementation and exercise. Her clients include families, executives, athletes and young professionals looking to perform and be their best. She helps each client reach any nutrition or health goal they may have from weight loss, to more energy, less inflammation or just feeling and looking better overall. She utilizes her expertise in the kitchen to provide specialized menus and recipes to fit each clients’ individual preferences, food sensitivities, biochemistry, and overall lifestyle.
Herschel Supply Releases Stride Collection
March 24, 2016 - Inspired by the technical performance of lightweight sportswear, global accessories brand Herschel Supply introduces the Stride Collection for Spring 2016. This two-piece headwear offering combines clean, modern design with athletic details that complement an active lifestyle.
Offered in tonal Grey, each silhouette is rendered in a breathable poly microfiber fabric and features perforated ventilation panels to encourage airflow. With a contemporary look and taped seam construction, the crown of each piece is subtly accented by a single screen printed stripe.
Ideal for running, cycling commutes and urban exploration, the low profile Glendale five-panel cap features a clip-fastened nylon webbing stretch-fit strap for the perfect fit. The relaxed six-panel Windsor bucket hat is designed with cool breathability in mind, while providing ample shade during outdoor activities.
Finished with a white brim underlay and a comfortable perspiration band, this design-driven offering is lightly branded with Herschel Supply’s engineered tab.
The Herschel Supply Stride Collection for Spring 2016 is available at global stockists and at herschelsupply.com, which now ships internationally.
About Herschel Supply Co
In the early 1900s, Peter Alexander Cormack, a barrel maker by trade, and his wife Annie made the journey from Wick, Scotland, to Canada. The couple settled in the small town of Herschel, whose population today is counted at 30 residents.
Founded in 2009 by brothers Jamie and Lyndon Cormack, Herschel Supply adopted the name of the town where three generations of their family grew up. Based in Vancouver, Canada, Herschel Supply is a design driven global accessories brand that produces quality products with a fine regard for detail.
Keeping Fit as You Grow Older: What You Need to Know
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