Age Management Medicine: The answer to the decline of medical care?
By Dr. Andrea Pennington June 20, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Lecture
Dr. Andrea Pennington
Thur, June 26, 3pm
Sala Quetzal, Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos

The state of North American health care We have just ended a century of unprecedented advances in medical knowledge and technology. Serious medical conditions that were once considered disabling or a death sentence are now curable and most devastating disease conditions that exist today are now manageable or preventable.

In spite of all the amazing medical advances in recent years, there exists a great paradox in health care today—we simply cannot afford it! The economics of today’s health care has made all of the advances in medical science less and less available to just about everyone—including even those that are willing to pay for them. As medical costs continue to soar, patients are increasingly being denied coverage for crucial services by their insurance companies.

If health care is so expensive, what can you do?

So what can we do to avoid all of these problems and receive the best health care possible? The answer is really very simple—don’t get sick! We must do everything possible to avoid disease and maintain excellent health.

Disease prevention is definitely the key to North America’s health care crisis. The question, then, is how does one go about obtaining top quality preventive health care?

Unfortunately today’s medical practice devotes little, if any, time to teaching patients about preventing disease, maintaining quality of life as people age, promoting the virtues of exercise and proper nutrition, and the importance of hormonal balance and optimal hormone levels in preserving vitality.

Most people do not know how to incorporate these areas into their lifestyle consistently. We must all learn how to maintain our quality of life and zest for living, how to prevent the accumulation of body fat and how to get rid of it if we already have it, and how to prevent or reverse the loss of bone and muscle tissue. This becomes critically important as we age if we are to avoid nursing home care, chronic pain, immobilization, mental deterioration, and prescription drug dependency.

How do we know if we are at risk?

Everybody must become proactive in managing their own health, preventing disease, and maximizing the quality of their lives. Remember, we don’t die of old age—we die from degenerative diseases.

Many “early warning” signs of degenerative diseases can be can easily obtained tests that can prevent or delay their onset. I have included a list of tests at www.LifeEssenceRetreats.com. 

Each of us should request these tests on a routine basis to help us take action early on to prevent disease.

The vast majority of primary care physicians are not allowed time and/or have the time to review this information, nor are they well versed in the nuances of nutrition, bio-identical hormone optimization and lifestyle management. However there is a new medical specialty that deals specifically and exclusively with all of these issues—Age Management Medicine.

The practice of Age Management Medicine, a proactive approach to aging

Age Management Medicine (AMM) is dedicated to the science of healthy aging and emphasizes the enhancement of health over the treatment of illness.

Traditional medical practices follow the “fix it when it breaks” approach. AMM focuses on disease prevention, wellness and quality of life. Its goal is to promote a more dynamic life throughout middle age and beyond by utilizing scientifically sound, twenty-first century strategies that enhance health, quality of life and longevity.

We must all change our thinking about aging. Older does not mean sicker. The majority of us have a strong enough genetic makeup to live beyond 85. The key is to make the best of the genes we have.

Incorporation of AMM practices into our daily lives allows us to compress the time we are sick to the very end of our lives. We cannot stop or reverse the aging process, but we can definitely manage it better than previous generations have. We can avoid premature disability and death. After all, what are the benefits of living longer if we end up in a nursing home locked into a body or brain that doesn’t work during the last 20 to 30 years of our lives?

What can you do to help prevent premature aging?

As part of my medical practice, I specialize in Age Management Medicine. Many of my clients, friend, family and complete strangers will ask me, how can I prevent the onset of premature aging? With this in mind I have compiled a list of for you to review and put into practice. In this case practice does make perfect! As part of this column we will review each of these tips in upcoming articles and interviews.


Author’s note: My former mentor, Dr. Alan Mintz, and colleague Dr. Jeffrey Life of the Cenegenics Medical Institute contributed to this article.


Dr. Andrea Pennington, a physician, acupuncturist and empowerment coach, is the president of Pennington Empowerment Media and is a physician affiliate of the Cenegenics Medical Institute. She is the author of The Pennington Plan: 5 Simple Steps to Vibrant Health, Emotional Well Being and Spiritual Growth. For more information, visit www.andreapennington.com. 


10 Tips for Longevity

1. Ensure you maintain proper nutrition and hydration

2. Ensure you have regular physical activity

3. Consult an Age Management practitioner and inquire if hormone optimization is an alternative for you

4. Consult a certified nutritionist, dietitian or Age Management doctor to optimize your vitamin and mineral supplementation

5. Ensure stimulation of the mind; research mental fitness techniques

6. Ensure you participate in social networks and maintain relationships and friendships

7. Engage in practical spirituality to live with purpose and passion

8. Practice emotional wellness and stress elimination

9. Get a good night’s sleep, between 7–9 hours, also known as restorative sleep

10. Live in harmony with nature and your environment

Listening to Your Body
By Richard Adelman

Quien sabe (Who knows) what would happen if you listened to your body?

What would be the value of listening to your body, and how might you do it?

When you begin to slow yourself down to deepen contact with your bodily experience, do you recognize any of the following qualities: pressure/compression/density, stiffness/bracing/rigidity, or spaciousness/liquidity/pulsation? These physical-somatic states are typically accompanied by emotions that may include joy, enthusiasm, excitement, desire, and the urge to live more fully; or bitterness, disappointment, sadness, defeat, and depression. Some people experience irritation, impatience, discomfort, pain, and suffering, while others find pleasure, satisfaction, tranquility, and fulfillment. Some feel worn-out and exhausted, as though their life were coming to an end, while others feel renewed and hopeful, as though their life were just beginning.

Is your body something that you have or something that you are? Do you live from outside your body looking in, or do you live inside your body? Your sense of self or identity could be located or grounded primarily in your head, your chest, or your belly. A very common way to experience one's body is by constructing a visual image, looking down at oneself from above or seeing oneself from the outside. Yet it is possible to experience yourself more directly and sensually from the inside.

This brings up an interesting question: Is the body experienced merely as an object, a thing—a tool to be used and manipulated (or perhaps just ignored)—or a living subject which has its own perspective, its own life, worthy of being respected and loved?

Viewing these issues broadly, we may make a few observations. First, although most people tend to have a predominant pattern, they have a whole range of experiences as well. For instance, they may have times when they are inside their bodies, and other times when they are on the outside looking in. Second, how you experience yourself in a physical sense may powerfully affect the atmosphere or background state of your entire existence. Being “compressed” physically, for example, may evoke not only constricted breathing but also a sense of constricted possibilities for living one's life. Third, it turns out that we are able to influence these states and emotions, at least to some degree.

The key to self-influence is the ability to recognize the pattern that is in place and then modify it. For example, as I sit here writing this article on my computer, I begin to notice some things about my posture that I’m not entirely happy with. Although it is not required by my ergonomically-correct computer set-up, I nevertheless find myself subtly hunkering down or hunching forward, compressing my chest, and squeezing my torso and neck. It's as if I'm leaning into my work, trying to materialize ideas by squeezing them out of myself. This is apparently the way I focus myself and my attention for the task at hand. After all, one does have to do something physical in order to concentrate. As I begin to recognize this familiar pattern of organizing myself for work, I begin to ask myself whether I am perhaps being overly intense and whether I would be better off with less “density” or effort. As I soften the pattern of self-compression and forward-leaning, I experience a pleasant internal expansion as I settle back into my body and into the chair’s back support. There's a sense of lengthening and spaciousness accompanied by ease and calm; I find I really don’t need anxiety and intensity to write this article, as I previously thought.

And what do you know? I’m done!

Richard Adelman (M.A., psychology) is certified in both Feldenkrais and Pilates, and has nearly 40 years’ experience as a movement educator. His San Miguel cell is 044 (415) 114-3069; email richardadelman@gmail . He practices monthly in San Miguel at LifePath ( www.lifepathretreats.com  ).