Aging Gratefully: The Doctor and The Man from Hollywood on the Third Age of Life

I Saved $342!

admin — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 19:35:32 +0000

The Internet — besides being the information superhighway and all the obvious reasons it’s great, I have found what might be its best use when It comes to consumers like me – comparing prices of various products and services and getting to research the companies behind them. All the information on whatever it is you need, right at your fingertips. I was looking for a fifteen year term life insurance policy. I wanted $200,000 to protect my mortgage. Instead of calling each company, having to deal with phone menus, sales people and hard-sell, I found the greatest site – www.AccuQuote.com/save. In my case I found a range of annual premiums from $1,590 to $1,976. That’s a difference of almost 400 dollars and I‘ve never been one to turn down a savings of $400. But I also had my choice of companies and the one I wanted was Genworth, for $1,643, a little more, but still a savings of $342. All the answers I was looking for, and all it took was a visit to www.AccuQuote.com/save. Check it out.

Episode 7: Alice Solomon: Find Your Love After 50

admin — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:00:47 +0000

At one time it was thought that if you were a single woman, 50 or older, your dating life was over. Nothing is further from the truth. According to our guest today, Alice Solomon, author of the book, Find The Love of Your Life After 50, it’s just a matter of knowing how and taking the risk. Her book is filled with useful advice about how to find healthy relationships with men.

She graduated from Wellesley College cum laude at the age of 50, then wrote the syndicated newspaper column, A Guide for Gorgeous Grandmas.

She has her own radio show and is the author of two books on dating in later life. She has appeared on The Today Show and National Public Radio.

“Being single stinks,” she says. ”A gal 50 to 70 lives with a companion for 35-40 years. Then he dies or leaves the marriage. He’s gone, she’s alone - supporting herself alone on half the income. If she does nothing about it she eventually becomes spiritually, intellectually, societally destroyed. Then her married friends disappear.”

Alice Solomon paints a gloomy picture. But then she tells women what to do about it. “You need courage. You need to be adventurous, open-minded, adaptable and flexible. Stop being so chummy with old friends. Be open to making new friends.”

In this spirited and enlightening interview women learn what to look for in cyberspace, where to go to find companionship, if there’s such a thing as a perfect man and more of what they need to know in order to find the love of their life after 50.

Episode 6: Eric Plasker: The 100 Year Lifestyle

admin — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:17:58 +0000

It may sound like a strange question, but how long do you want to live? Wouldn’t everyone say as long as possible? As long as they can be healthy? Well, according to Dr. Eric Plasker, you are deciding every day how long you live by how you manage your life. Are you managing your life to have as high a quality as possible and to live to be 100? Or are you managing your life filled with destructive patterns, survival strategies or complacency? On this podcast Dr. Plasker will tell you why change is easy– it’s thinking about change that is hard.

Health and wellness expert Dr. Eric Plasker has written the bestselling book The 100 Year Lifestyle, which reveals the secrets to making the most of our extended life spans and living it to the fullest. He is also a licensed chiropractor and the founder of The Family Practice—a chiropractic coaching and training organization geared toward building highly successful and profitable family practices.Dr. Plasker explains how the quality of your first 100 years can be as high as the quantity. And if you think it’s too late to make changes, you’re dead wrong. Dr. Plasker tells us why we think changes are hard to make and how to break ourselves of that negative attitude.

Episode 5: Diet Myths Debunked:Lisa DeRosimo, MD

admin — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:00:04 +0000

America is overweight. Most of us are on one diet or another throughout our entire lives. What is wrong? Why don’t we lose weight? What is the right kind of diet? Is the same approach best for everyone? Our guest today is Lisa DeRosimo, M.D. who is board certified in a relatively new field of medicine, Bariatric medicine. Bariatric Medicine specializes in the comprehensive treatment of overweight, obesity and related disorders. If you or someone you love needs to lose weight, this podcast is for you. Dr. DeRosimo holds a Masters Degree in Nutrition from Cornell University and a medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is in private practice in Palm Beach Florida and Charleston South Carolina. In her wellness care clinic, Dr. DeRosimo prepares a “personalized eating plan” for each patient. Included are lifestyle changes that each person needs to make to maintain their proper weight, energy and health. Patients check in weekly. She encourages women around 50 to eat 3 meals per day but they must include an activity plan and cut back 500 calories per day. Women who follow her plan lose 2 lbs. per week and do not gain any back. She gives suggestions on what to eat, what not to eat, and talks in depth about your metabolism and nutrition.

Episode 4: Meredith Medland: Living Green For Real

admin — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:00:05 +0000

Whether Meredith Medland is interviewing celebrities on the red carpet at Hollywood Eco-Fashion Shows or turning on a room full of students in her fitness class “Sexy and Spirited,” she helps people experience an extraordinary level of possibility. The founder of Three Outcomes.com, and a Master Host on the Personal Life Media Network, Meredith is a gifted interviewer and facilitator. She’s known for her unique questions, ability to dig up the real truths and bring humor as well as depth to her interactions with audiences. She is also a podcaster and host of the show, “Living Green: Efortless Ecology for Everyday People.” Her show just hit the top 100 podcasts in June of this year. A frequent speaker to audiences of thousands, she has interviewed on CNN, CNBC, ABC, CBS and been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Meredith has bridged the gap from the boardroom to burning man, by bringing 12 years in digital marketing and advertising and combining it with holistic education, transformational facilitation and somatic movement. Her career as a nationally known internet analyst and Fortune 500 marketer give her a solid foundation from which she can leverage technology to bring the voice of everyday people living eco-savvy lives through her podcast “Living Green.” Meredith probes the psychology of ecology in her unique and entertaining interview style by bringing her midwestern traditional business life and merging it with her more recent transformative Californian hipster. If there is anyone in the world who can bring two very different worlds together — Meredith can. She began focusing on “living green,” after she found that living “in her body” was just the first step in expanding her own personal evolution.

Episode 3: Dotsie Bregel: Baby Boomer Women

admin — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:24:24 +0000

“Aging Gratefully” has been dedicated to helping people find Passion, Purpose and Joy in the aging process. To do that we know it is essential for people to come together and share their support, resources, stories and knowledge. Our guest today, Dotsie Bregel, is doing just that through her prominent web sites for Baby Boom women. She helps them by empowering and connecting them with others on the same path. She has a wonderful story to tell. Listen to this podcast to hear of her fascinating journey and learn from her wisdom. Dotsie is the Founder and creative force of the websites National Association of Baby Boomer Women, and Boomer Women Speak, (the number one website on all search engines for “baby boomer women.”) She established the association, the only one dedicated to serving the healthiest, wealthiest, and best educated group of women to reach midlife, in order to support and encourage women to live their dreams. She is a writer, speaker, and expert on issues concerning her generation of women. Dotsie is passionate about educating and empowering midlife women through her wildly successful Web sites, including more than 60 forums that act as a virtual village for boomers. We asked, “What prompted you to create your baby boomer women websites?” Dotsie answered, “Following Mom’s death and facing the empty nest caused me to hunker down in prayer seeking guidance and direction for the next season in life. I struggled with this question: What do I want to be when I grow up? Yes, I was a 44-year-old baby boomer and was still searching! I’d loved being a mom who stayed home to make a difference, but shortly they’d all be in college and I’d be out of a job. Since I enjoyed my friendships with women and liked us to feel connected and encouraged, I chose to launch a Web site that would do just that. A site that allowed us to share our stories and give everyone a peek into our hearts and lives would help enlighten ourselves and others about our generation of women.”On this show she answers questions such as:“What is the mission of the National Association of Baby Boomer Women?” “What are the member benefits?” “How did you find the associates who share expert advice on your website?“What type of women are joining?”“What role does NABBW play in addressing the joys and concerns of boomer women?” The URL’s for her websites are www.nabbw.com and www.boomerwomenspeak.com.

Values in the Third Age

admin — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:34:48 +0000

Recently a friend called me and told me “Something terrible happened today.” Now, I know this person was diagnosed with cancer two months ago, went through treatments and is waiting for the next biopsy to determine her condition. When she told me something terrible happened I immediately thought the worst, that she’d been given some devastating information about her health. Then she said, “All my jewelry was stolen yesterday.” I let out the breath I was holding and asked, ” Anything else?” “No,” she said. “I’m heartbroken. My engagement ring, wedding ring, all my treasured pieces. I feel so violated.”

I could understand and sympathize with her, having had that same experience myself once or twice in my life. But all I could think to say was, “Don’t take this wrong, but I’m so relieved. When you said something terrible happened I thought it was about your cancer. I know how you feel about your personal jewelry, the financial and emotional value, but they are not your health. I’m not trying to be a Pollyanna, but you can get new jewelry. You and I know, particularly in this stage of life, your health and time are the two things you really can’t afford to lose.”

I hoped I wasn’t being to0 dismissive of the traumatic experience she was going through, but I really needed to throw light on the relative importance of things. If we lose our health and can’t get it back, we lose all. If we lose our precious personal posessions and can’t get them back, we go on, perhaps, depending on our point of view, even lighter and freer than before.

Episode 2: Aging with Cancer, Diabetes and Other Chronic Diseases: Walt Lewis, MD and David Spero

admin — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:02:14 +0000

Modern medicine has performed miracles with acute illness. If you have a heart attack, if you’re shot with a bullet or you have pneumonia, you want the best trained western doctor available to treat your condition. But people with chronic conditions have a different experience. They are often treated with powerful but often only mildly effective drugs, frequently with disturbing side effects. Today’s show features two men who are doing something that’s different, yet tried and true about chronic illness. This show will be good for your health. Walter M. Lewis, M.D was trained as a traditional western medical physician in Internal Medicine. He practiced at the Santa Barbara Medical Clinic, now the Sansum Clinic. When Walt Lewis was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he first tried the accepted, mainstream medical practices for a cure. Unable to reverse his condition that way, he decided to break with his years of medical training and commit himself to a totally naturopathic program. He retired after thirty years of practice, took his wife and daughter and moved to

Hawaii, switching gears to heal their bodies, minds and spirits along with his own. He let go of his mental stress and began a specific health diet, regular exercise and prayer. After those five years his “terminal” cancer was in complete remission. Returning to

Santa Barbara he had the opportunity to join the Issels Clinic, a naturopathic clinic where he now does healing work mostly with patients who have advanced cancer conditions. David Spero has been a nurse for 32 years and has lived with multiple sclerosis for 25 years. He is author of two books: The Art of Getting Well: Maximizing Health When You Have a Chronic Illness; and Diabetes: Sugar-coated Crisis, which won 2007 Eric Hoffer Award for best small-press book from Writers’ Digest. He is working on a third book, tentatively called, Hotter, Safer Sex. He has been co-facilitator of the

San Francisco MS self-help group since 2001 and currently works with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement on improving care of people with chronic conditions. Mr. Spero and Dr. Lewis answer these questions about chronic illness: What are the keys to maximizing health when you have a chronic illness?Why don’t people take care of themselves, and what gets in the way? What is the most important skill needed to overcome a chronic illness?What is stress? How does stress cause chronic illness? What protects against stress?Why is the support of other patients, families and people in the community crucial to most people’s success in managing chronic conditions?Why have medical advances made so little impact on Type 2 diabetes and other chronic conditions?How are chronic conditions diseases of powerlessness, and how can people empower themselves to improve their behavior and health? They explain that Naturopathic Medicine is a partner with your body in building up immunity, and tell of other ways to strengthen yourself. For instance, in the case of cancer, radiation and chemotherapy are major insults to your body. The problem with all this is that medical doctors and naturopaths don’t talk to each other. There needs to be an free exchange of information about the patient so that the best of both treatments can be designed.This is an inspiring show with two men, one who overcame terminal cancer and one who has lived a normal life with MS, telling the world how they managed to beat the odds on chronic illness.

Does Age = Wisdom?

admin — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:11:56 +0000

Remember the old saying, “Older but wiser?” Someone recently asked me if age actually does equal wisdom… In a perfect world, it would, wouldn’t it? What’s the use of all your experience if it doesn’t make you wiser? The answer is that wisdom only comes from experience defined and revealed by personal growth. Otherwise you’re doomed to repeat your old patterns, both good and bad, a state of stasis — neither hell or heaven, but certainly not living in gratitude for the moment. The most complete scientific studies of adult development prove that continued spiritual and emotional growth adds up to a joyful Third Age. Are you continuing to grow? What are you doing about it? What can you suggest that others can do?

Episode 1: Women’s Bodies, Women’s Minds with Christiane Northrupp

admin — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:40:22 +0000

Dr. Northrup continues to be a familiar face in the media. Her numerous empowering works have been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Today show, NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, The View, Good Morning America, and the Rachel Ray Show. Internationally known for her empowering approach to women’s health and wellness, Dr. Northrup is a leading proponent of medicine and healing that acknowledges the unity of the mind and body, as well as the powerful role of the human spirit in creating health. Dr. Northrup put her own personal truth on paper in 1994 in her first book Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom (Bantam). This groundbreaking reference of raw facts and intriguing case histories became a New York Times best seller, has sold more than 1.25 million copies, and has been translated into 16 languages. Dr. Northrup continued to gain national recognition with her first two public television specials Women’s Bodies, Women’s Minds and Women’s Bodies, Women’s Choices. After that, she wrote her second New York Times bestseller, The Wisdom of Menopause: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing During the Change (Bantam). In this breakthrough book, she unearths new revelations about menopause, refutes the stereotypic definition as a frenzy of hot flashes and hormonal mood swings, and instead proves that it is a powerful , hormonally supported opportunity to rejuvenate your body, mind, and spirit on all levels. Over 1 million copies of this gutsy work have been translated into 15 languages. Dr. Northrup discusses menopause, which she calls “The Mother of all wake-up calls.”She talks about hormone replacement therapy, then describes bio-identical hormones, and how women can create them for themselves with, among other natural components, natural progesterone 2% skin cream (over the counter), low glycemic diet, avoiding white foods, omega 3 magnesium 400 mg. per day. She tells us why so many women suffer degenerative diseases at midlife and how your beliefs shape your body. Dr. Northrup is candid, clear and speaks from a world of experience.