Rethink Common Sayings about Aging - Common or Normal?

In this podcast, Dr. Rodney and Karen talk about common sayings about aging that can begin to feel true. We are surrounded by a culture that worships youth and denounces getting older. Have you found yourself saying any of these?

Here are a few of the sayings that we hear all too often about getting older:

1. In answer to the question of, “How are you feeling?” they answer… “Not bad for ____ (fill in age)!
2. If I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself.
3. I am Over the Hill!
4. You’ve gotta die of something so I might as well eat, drink and be merry.
5. I exercise so I can eat anything that I want.

We know this is common but is it NORMAL?

We want you to challenge your thoughts about growing older so that you can go the distance.

Our goal is to help you gain clarity, confidence and control over the aspects of your health that you can control so you can increase your health span in order to do what only you can do.

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Transcript

[00:07] Dr. Rodney: Welcome to Stance for Health podcast with Doctor Rodney and Karen Wirth, where becoming healthy is not complicated. Control your health by focusing on six areas of life that we teach you so you finally have the energy you want, have to do what you want instead of being a victim of your age. I have over 20 years experience working as a chiropractor, and Karen is an author, speaker and longevity coach. We've seen how a tiny change in your habits today can open up your life to a powerful future. Start today and take your stance for health.

[00:48] Karen: Welcome to Stance for Health. Our topic today is a really interesting one. It's one we face regularly. Ready? Rethink common sayings about aging. Are they common or normal? So we're surrounded by a culture that worships youth and denounces getting old. Because here's a few of the sayings that we hear all too often about getting older. You ask somebody, how are you feeling?

[01:18] Dr. Rodney: And they say, not bad for 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 or 80, as though age had certain feelings associated with it. Right?

[01:31] Karen: Exactly. So while that's a common saying, it's assuming that when you get older, things are going to hurt more. You're going to fall apart, your health will rapidly deteriorate. What do you want to say to that? Is that common or normal?

[01:52] Dr. Rodney: The first thing that comes to mind is when you injure yourself, you basically, Reese, your body has to restore that tissue that gets torn or damaged. And in the absence of the right nutrients, let's just say that that scar tissue starts to send messages to your brain. Or the fascia that's interrupted doesn't get ironed out because it's wrinkled.

[02:18] Karen: So there is wear and tear on the body as we get older just by virtue of injury or.

[02:26] Dr. Rodney: I think where I was going with that is that you don't necessarily have to leave it there. You don't have to leave it wrinkled, you don't have to leave the that type of scar tissue, or you don't have to keep that message, doesn't have to keep being signaled to the brain.

[02:43] Karen: Gotcha.

[02:43] Dr. Rodney: Right. Contrary to popular belief, what it is, is you just, if you just leave it there, assuming it has to stay that way, inflammation tends to breed more inflammation, and pain tends to be gut pain.

[02:56] Karen: I love that. So in other words, the normal should be, if I'm hurting, it doesn't matter what age I am, I'm going to get to the root cause and find out what's going on.

[03:06] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. And isn't that just part of the chiropractic premise. Isn't that just part of the homeopathic premise or the naturopathic premise, or even myofascial release or functional medicine? I mean, it depends. Just name the discipline. We're all really wanting to accomplish the same thing. What we tend to assume in the first place, or the premise that we assume in those disciplines, is that the body can heal itself. I love that. That's the original design.

[03:40] Karen: The body can heal itself if you give it the right food, the right motion, the right rest, the right. All the things that we talk about in our longevity cycle. Love it. Are you ready for the second one?

[03:53] Dr. Rodney: Sure.

[03:55] Karen: If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.

[04:02] Dr. Rodney: Aren't there some assumptions with that?

[04:04] Karen: Yes.

[04:05] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[04:06] Karen: And that's usually somebody laughing and saying, I eat whatever I want, I drink as much as I want. Or the famous person. I'm not sure. I didn't research it to see if that really is a quote from George Burns, but I could just picture him with a cigar and his whiskey and if I'd ever, you know, whatever.

[04:29] Dr. Rodney: Sure.

[04:30] Karen: Accent. He had her. I'm not an impersonator.

[04:33] Dr. Rodney: He had that kind of. That attitude, didn't he?

[04:35] Karen: Yeah. And lived to 100.

[04:38] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[04:38] Karen: And a lot of people say, well, if he can do it, I can, but they don't end up with that.

[04:44] Dr. Rodney: And there was another woman that lived to 122, I believe, and her. We're not proponents of this lifestyle. I don't want you to think that. And yet she lived 120, and she would, I think she was somewhere close to a glass or a shot of whiskey, bourbon daily, and smoke. No, no, wait. She smoked cigarettes.

[05:10] Karen: That's it.

[05:11] Dr. Rodney: That's what it was. She smoked cigarettes.

[05:13] Karen: Now, though, on that point, not that we're proponents of smoking, is that she also was in Europe, and that's another whole.

[05:22] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. And we don't know how much she smoked, but that she did or when she started. Yeah.

[05:27] Karen: I mean, it's almost like people are looking for that exception to say, well, I can do it, too. If they can do it, I can do it. But is that a normal thing? Should we be saying that?

[05:43] Dr. Rodney: My agreement with it is that that person probably has well expressed genes for longevity and they don't.

[05:53] Karen: Could it be that in their childhood they ate really well and they. They were very much into motion and doing all the right things and had a better foundation than what kids are getting today.

[06:10] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. And then continued into adulthood and seniorhood.

[06:15] Karen: Yeah.

[06:15] Dr. Rodney: Doing the same things. Because that's when you study the. Dan Buettner's work on blue zones from National Geographic, he's. I think that's something they're all doing, is they're all continuing to move.

[06:28] Karen: Yes.

[06:28] Dr. Rodney: Just like kids.

[06:29] Karen: Yes.

[06:30] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[06:30] Karen: And to eat in moderation and do those things. All right, here's the one that I've heard so many times. It's when people start saying, I'm over the hill. H I l l, not the other. Over the hill. That came out okay. You were looking at me funny. I thought, did I say the password? I know.

[06:58] Dr. Rodney: All of this just makes my. Makes my wheels turn and over the hill. I think that's what. What we said to open this was. You had me fill in the blank with what? Not too bad for 30. Not too bad for 40, maybe. I just said 40 to start with.

[07:12] Karen: Yeah.

[07:13] Dr. Rodney: And over the hill. Okay, so is that accompanied by a particular set of symptoms? Is that accompanied by a particular set of my. Is it a mindset? Is it diseases? Is it. You're slowing down, you don't have the same speed or velocity and running. What. What is it you.

[07:36] Karen: I think it's part of our society that says, life is so much better when you're young, but is it because you're not sure who you are, you are struggling with so many different things, financially as well as so many others. And so is it the best time of your life? The people that say, oh, high school was the best time of my life, I think that's very sad that they never went on to do more than that and to improve on that. I don't think that there's a hill that you're over. I think that we should set health goals and continue to reach them. And, of course, my dad is my. My hero when it comes to this, because he, at age 84, learned how to play tennis and they wanted to put him in competitions, but he didn't do it because he was still pastoring a church full time until the age of 99. So I think that over the hill mentality goes hand in hand with this. Wanting to have an ideal time in your life when you do nothing and you can just sit and enjoy, but do you.

[08:47] Dr. Rodney: Takes me down a rabbit path.

[08:50] Karen: Oh, go for it.

[08:51] Dr. Rodney: I love rabbit holes because. Yeah. Because I feel like I'm recently, just recently, coming out of a mindset that came with my brother's death. And for those of you that are listening, yeah. My brother, my younger brother, three years and three months younger, died about this time last year. It was October 2, and then obviously.

[09:18] Karen: Two weeks before that, which would be right. He was in the hospital on life support a year ago today.

[09:26] Dr. Rodney: And so some of these mindsets, oh, that's so tough. Some of these mindsets I have to imagine were present with him. And it actually stirred in me some of those same mindsets of, well, what's the use? And I know that I'm this kind of a spoiler alert. It was almost as though I started to partner with or agree with some of those things that got him there early. And that's, and that's not what you and I are about.

[09:58] Karen: No, it's not.

[09:59] Dr. Rodney: And so it took, it's taken a. I'm not saying I'm like I'm healed.

[10:04] Karen: But you are aware. And that's the first step coming out.

[10:09] Dr. Rodney: Of it, isn't it? To go back to their original statement, which was what?

[10:14] Karen: Over the hill.

[10:15] Dr. Rodney: Over the hill.

[10:16] Karen: But is it normal?

[10:17] Dr. Rodney: Right. I think I can show respect for my brother to say that he lived in the past at the end and say that I don't agree with that. At the same time, if his best days were in high school, that was sad to revisit that and to live there.

[10:35] Karen: Or when he was, he was a weightlifter. And so when he was, he was always seeking to be in that shape again, for he could win competitions, right?

[10:47] Dr. Rodney: And to do so artificially. So if you're listening to this and, and fill in the blank, for him it was bodybuilding and using chemicals of all kinds. Maybe you're kind of stuck in the twenties, your age mindset or how you felt or what you were able to do or the freedom of your life or the adventure, your twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, whatever that is. If you're not over the hill. Over the hill is basically what I'm starting to look at is the next life into the next dimension that's over the finish line.

[11:26] Karen: Yes. And it's so, it's so it's.

[11:28] Dr. Rodney: You're, we're not, you don't. In the middle of a marathon, people will hit the hill they call the wall. That's it.

[11:37] Karen: And so they just have to keep going because the exhilaration is there. So if you are in a difficult health struggle at this moment, we want to encourage you that we are here to help. There are people who can help you. And it leads us into the next one, because the next common saying is, well, you got to die of something, so I might as well eat, I drink what I want and you know, I'm going to die.

[12:12] Dr. Rodney: Anyway, tell the joke again, because that's usually when I, the one that Bill Johnson said, oh, well, this is before.

[12:22] Karen: He started his sermon. Bill Johnson from Bethel will share a joke. And so there was this guy that went into this bar, this pub, and ordered three beers. And so he drank them all, ordered a second set of three beers, and the bartender went up to us and said, you know, by the way, I can pour each of those fresh for you so that they don't get flat. And he said, oh, no, no, I'm drinking for myself and my two brothers who are serving in the military. And so one day he came in and only drank two, and so they went after, says, I'm so sorry for your loss. He says, oh, no, I went to the Baptist church and got saved and I don't drink anymore, but I'm still drinking theirs.

[13:08] Dr. Rodney: Because you have to die of something, right?

[13:10] Karen: You have to die of something.

[13:12] Dr. Rodney: So that's, that's what made me think of that is, you know, as you put down, with due respect to you, we're, we're, we're poking fun at this. I hope you can, I hope you can imagine you can go with us on this. As you put down your cigarette, as you put down your drink, as you guess what, as you run too far in your marathon, as you push it to the limit, and working out in the gym, thinking that, hey, if I just burn enough calories at the gym, I'll actually be able to.

[13:39] Karen: That's the storm.

[13:40] Dr. Rodney: Oh, got it, got it, got it.

[13:41] Karen: I was spoiler alert, he got ahead of himself.

[13:44] Dr. Rodney: But I was going to say, you know, that would cause you to have to die of something.

[13:49] Karen: Yes.

[13:50] Dr. Rodney: Right. And if you're choosing it, you can also choose not to die of that.

[13:56] Karen: Yes. One of the interesting research projects that I did just before we started this podcast is the average weight gain per year, and that between the twenties and thirties, the weight gain is 17 pounds. In that ten years and over a lifetime, it's a gain of 45 pounds that just creep up on you. That percentage of weight gain begins to weigh you down. I've not heard someone say that doing pretty well for and then how many pounds they weigh. But I just want to say that beginning to eat healthy foods in moderation, with movement and doing the things that we talk about in our longevity pillars will make a difference.

[14:49] Dr. Rodney: Absolutely. Referring back to one of our other podcasts, the one about consistency and persisting and moving on, the knowledge of it doesn't change you. The mindset might. But there's these are things where you have to take action. You can stop it, you can start it. And the thought that I had, as you said, that was some of the common things that we can do.

[15:12] Karen: Common saying as before we go into, we can do. Okay, okay.

[15:16] Dr. Rodney: So just so you know, it's equal opportunity. If one of these doesn't fit you, we're gonna go for another one here.

[15:24] Karen: Well, the, the one that you started to get into previously Washington. I can eat anything I want if I exercise enough, and the whole goal is to be thin. If I'm thin and I'm working out like crazy, like when you were cycling, then I'm going to be okay.

[15:44] Dr. Rodney: Yeah, well, I can attest to the fact that that doesn't work long term. Over a decade, I would ride my bike. The whole purpose of riding my bike was I noticed that I was, I would drop weight, but the asterisk was a long-distance cyclist. And I noticed that when I did that, I would drop lots of weight. Some of it was water weight from sweating, and I could eat whatever I wanted. The problem was that I was contributing to inflammation to such an extent after training and then riding in one of the local rides over 100 miles. That wasn't just the training for it, it was also the inflammation caused for it. My knee started to bug me one day when I was riding down the trail and I almost couldn't make it. So I am still feeling some of the residual effects of having ridden too hard, too long for that reason, to burn, in other words, to burn calories, to keep the weight down.

[16:42] Karen: And the problem with the calories that people tend to want to eat to keep the weight on when they're extreme athletes is that they're not the healthiest and they actually can begin to tear your health down.

[16:57] Dr. Rodney: Yeah, over exercise, we can actually provide a link to what over exercise does to your cells, to the mitochondria in your cells. And obviously, I alluded to the inflammaging or the inflammation. That's a whole other seminar, or not in a seminar, but a whole other podcast. And we want to help you. If we see you standing close to the edge of the cliff and we know where that leads, we want to talk it down from it. And that was really the purpose of today's podcast.

[17:29] Karen: Absolutely, because we want to help those of you wanting to live a long, healthy life. It's not simply a lot of years, it's a long, healthy life, but you don't know where to start. We want you to gain clarity, confidence, and control over preventable issues that help you to increase your health span and get to do what only you can do. Because at the end of the day, there's only one you, and we want you to take your stance for health.

[18:08] Dr. Rodney: Thanks for listening. Thank you for joining us at Stance for Health Podcast, where getting healthy and staying that way are not as complicated as you might think. Subscribe now and discover steps and small changes that can increase your energy and open the door to vibrant health and longevity. If this podcast has been helpful, please write a review. We'll see you next time.