You’re Not Invincible
If you take better care of your car or favorite electronic gadget than your own health, you are not alone. We think we’re invulnerable when we’re young, but when we reach our late 30s, health concerns start cropping up. Major health concerns vary by age, notes Cleveland Clinic internist Raul Seballos, MD, Vice Chair of Preventive Medicine. According to experts at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital, men’s overwhelmingly dismissive attitude towards their health can have dire consequences in the long run.1
“Men in their 60s worry more about prostate cancer, while men in their 50s are more concerned about heart disease or ED (erectile dysfunction),” he says. The American Diabetes Association celebrates today’s “modern man” as someone who is more aware of his blood sugar health. Men with diabetes face greater risk for sexual impotence and lower testosterone levels, which can lead to increased depression or anxiety. These aspects of health can then lead one to feel like they are “off their game” or as if they are not performing well at work, at home or intimately.
At Body Mind Consulting Associates Group we have a strategy for combatting some of these health concerns—what we call the 4M Solution©.
Movement
Inhale and focus on yourself. Many of our male clients consider movement and stretching approaches like yoga to be “for girls.” No so– “Yoga is especially beneficial for men in their 40s, because that’s when flexibility declines more– yoga can improve flexibility, relieve back pain, and reduce stress.”2 Boston University researchers also report that people who did yoga weekly boosted levels of the brain chemical GABA by 27 percent. Low levels of GABA have been linked to anxiety. Practicing yoga can also help your body maintain its antioxidant levels, which deplete when you’re run down, report other researchers.
Your new focus on flexibility is actually a three-pronged effort that also encompasses building mobility and honing balance. Workouts that include a strength-training component: full-body, complete range-of-motion exercises that stress your muscles enough to build or maintain mass but not enough to burden your joints have been found to have most lasting results.
Movement-focused yoga classes are forming at Body-Mind—if you have questions whether yoga might work for you call our offices for a consultation with one of our instructors.
Massage
Every workout you do should now start with 10 minutes of targeted self-massage using a foam roller, says Boyle. Like a steamroller smoothing out a road, this device alleviates knots and tangles that constrict bloodflow and hinder elasticity in your muscle tissue. Research from Japan shows that people whose bodies are more limber have about 5 percent less arterial stiffness—a marker for heart disease.3 Even better: call our office to schedule a full body or targeted massage that will help improve your flexibility trouble zones!
Meditation
One first step to changing your feelings is to be aware of what you are thinking—are your expectations for yourself realistic? Do you find yourself disappointed in yourself or feeling like you “should” be at some place different in your life than you are currently? If you are feeling “in a funk” or as if you cannot shake feelings of anxiety meditation call our office for a consultation with Mr. James Tigert, CH to discuss if hypnosis and other meditation related exercises can help.
Mindfulness
Being mindful is a key component in sustaining health.4
You have no doubt heard the word “mindfulness” thrown around lately–this form of meditation once ssociated with “alternative” medicine has suddenly become very trendy. In an effort to boost productivity at work, companies like Goldman Sachs and Farmers Insurance Group now hire people to host mindfulness workshops for their employees.
In a nutshell, mindfulness meditation is ultimately about cultivating non-judgmental awareness that is rooted in the present moment. It’s about observing emotions and sensations, rather than impulsively reacting to them. As a result, we see and experience what is happening right here, right now, without our fears about the future or our resentments about the past constantly hindering our experience.
In this way, mindfulness allows us to separate what is actually happening from what we imagine or assume to be true. By looking at a problem as it really is, as opposed to what we perceive it to be we can decrease a lot of the psychological stress we experience in the modern world.
“The more stress we have in our lives, the more a counterbalance is required. And, unsurprisingly, stress reduction is just one of many payoffs that comes with a daily mindfulness practice. MRIs show us that the parts of the brain associated with decision-making, problem-solving and emotional adaptability and resilience all light up during practice. In fact, the brain is effectively rewired during mindfulness meditation. New neural connections are made, while old, useless ones die off — a phenomenon that is known as neuroplasticity.”5
As a result, we develop healthier behaviors and break old habits with relative ease. Greater concentration; compassion for oneself and others; and sudden surges of creativity are among the many rewards associated with daily practice. Mounting evidence even seems to suggest that mindfulness can mimic the effects of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs on the body.
Move from your man cave to our offices to help reduce or stave off serious health concerns before they become problems. Mention this article for a 15% discount on Body-Mind services!
1 Written by Elizabeth Santeramo, E. Top 10 health risks for men, http://www.healthline.com/health-slideshow/top-10-health-risks-for-men#12
2 Oz, M., You: The Owner’s Manual.
3 Brant, J. Look Great at Any Age: http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/build-strength-at-any-age/tips-for-your-40s.php
4 Oaklander, M. (2014) Mindfulness for Men. http://time.com/3583139/mindfulness-for-men/
5 http://www.askmen.com/sports/health/mindfulness.html
