hello we currently have medications for just about every chronic disease known to man so far heart disease diabetes cancer Strokes arthritis you name it there's probably a medication out there for it but what if I were to tell you that aside from medications there was lifestyle changes and lifestyle uh measures that you could Implement to help to prevent and treat chronic diseases sometimes just as well as medications or even better believe it or not well it's true and today we're going to discuss these points and we're going to answer some of your questions here on this episode of ask the doc send in your questions to questions at allhealth tv.com or allhealth go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the askthe do page on our website allhealth tv.com welcome to ask the doc the show where we encourage you our viewers to send in your healthcare related questions and I answer them I'm Dr gumal core and I'm a board-certified primary care physician here in Coral Springs and I'm going to be talking to you today about lifestyle changes and lifestyle measures basically a healthy lifestyle and habits that can help to prevent and treat disease our first question we're going to Jump Right In comes to us from Juliana and Juliana asks Dr core what can I do to help my spouse lower his cholesterol and his A1C Juliana thank you for reaching out and asking us this question you know I get this question a lot for very many reasons and unfortunately high cholesterol and sugar problems or diabetes pre-diabetes insulin insensitivity insulin resistance whatever name you want to give it they're running rampant through our society right now but you know what before I answer this question let's watch a video from our friends at the Mayo Clinic we see it listed on food labels and hear healthc Care Professionals talk about it but do you know what cholesterol actually is there's bad cholesterol and this is what actually builds the the plaques in Our arteries and that's where we get concerned cholesterol is a waxy substance that's found in the fats in your blood when you have high cholesterol you may develop fatty deposits in your blood vessels which eventually could make it difficult for enough blood to flow through your arteries so that bad cholesterol when those pla build if they rupture um they can go and cause a heart attack or even cause a stroke Dr Clare haga a Mayo Clinic physician says what you eat affects your cholesterol levels so you have some power to control it so examples of trans fats a lot of this is going to be your products that are prepackage sometimes things like donuts and cookies you also want to cut back on saturated fats that are often found in animal products like butter or bacon Dr hega says you can also help lower your cholesterol when you take in more Omega-3s which are good fats that you find in fish nuts and avocado for the Mayo Clinic News Network I'm Ian Roth some great information now let's get back to Juliana's question but first let me just explain cholesterol as the video beautifully explained is something that we're all familiar with but Juliana also asked about her spouse's hemoglobin A1c or H1 A1C or just A1C this for those of you who don't know is a protein that we use to Monitor and diagnose diabetes or insulin resistance now this protein basically gives us an idea of how your glucose and Insulin are interacting with each other in your body good or bad high or low when this value is elevated you can be diagnosed with pre-diabetes or with diabetes itself and according to Medical Ma medical societies and the research that we have there are many ways to lower the A1C and the cholesterol but the first and foremost is always your lifestyle and healthy habits incorporating those healthy habits is really going to help to improve the way your body metabolizes the cholesterol the good and the bad cholesterol and how your insulin and glucose react with each other I could go on and on about that all day but that's pretty much the gist and I always tell my patients medications if we recommend them to you which we do very very um we don't take it lightly when we recommend medications but if we do those are meant to be the icing on the cake the cake is supposed to be your lifestyle your exercise habits your nutrition habits your Healthy Habits so I always say take that into consideration when you're trying to lower these conditions and to manage them now the healthy lifestyle habits that we're going to talk about and that you know are the most important is first the diet so a healthy nutritious whole Whole Foods plant-based diet minimizing meat in general definitely red meat but minimizing anything that's processed or packaged made in a factory anything that Mother Earth didn't make really and then exercise engaging in physical activity not just physical activity but moderate to rigorous physical activity and that should be done for at least 30 minutes a day at least five days a week so you want to get at least 150 minutes in a week of physical activity to really get everything pumping and at its best now these items they they all work in various manners to really optimize Pathways in your body to optimize your health reduce your risk of disease and treat the diseases that you have as important as diet and exercise are we can't forget the importance of stress reduction getting at least seven hours of sleep every night and really maintaining good and fulfilling social connections with your loved ones you know it's very very critical to your health whether it's going to be good or bad those lifestyle habits are only going to improve it now our next question comes to us from Jackson and Jackson reached out to us through YouTube Jackson asks hi Dr core my pops was just diagnosed with heart disease they're going to put him on medication but they also want him to exercise if I'm being honest the only physical activity he's had lately is walking from the fridge to the sofa what kind of stuff should I have him do Jackson thank you so much for reaching out you're such a wonderful son that you care and you're asking these questions for your dad to help him that's just really heartwarming you know it just so happens that I have a quick video from our friends at Baptist Health about senior Fitness cardiovascular exercise can lead to a stronger heart and lungs reduced stress levels helps sleep better but unfortunately seniors don't get enough of it doesn't have to be complicated anything that gets your heart rate up increases your blood circulation is beneficial from dancing the swimming there are variety of ways to work out and have fun many people enjoy interval training and is a great way to get your heart rate up simply walk ride a bike at a comfortable pace for 1 minute then really pick up the speed for 15 seconds going on almost as hard as you can then return to your base speed for another minute and then back up again for 15 seconds do this a few times and you get quiet the workout wondering how to get started it can be as simple as a walk in your neighborhood today get moving stay active and stay fit what great tips certainly physical activity is a major component of Health but let me start Jackson by telling you this that when we're incorporating physical exercise and activity into our daily routine whereas it wasn't there before at all we should really really start slow because otherwise there's going to be a risk of injury and of Falls things that we really don't want to make the situation worse or to make one's Health worse I know a lot of times people just want to jump in and go from 0 to 100 but that's probably one of the worst things that you can do because you really want to get your body up to a certain level of endurance so you can continue to increase and build muscle build your cardiovascular health all that good stuff so that being said encourage your father to start out slow depending on any other underlying health conditions that he may have so for instance if he has chronic knee pain or back issues there's certain exercises that his physician May recommend that he avoid so you always want to take take into account what your current health status is and entail your exercise regimen to that so you're not injuring yourself or you know putting yourself at risk for any other health issues now a person's health activities um can be tailored by their their physician their primary care physician by a personal trainer who works closely with their physician so there's many resources that you can use but the point of the matter is it should be personalized to him now if your father has been sedentary then it's not going to be likely that he's going to start running a triathlon tomorrow right so start slow encourage him to do maybe even 10 minutes of walking daily I know it doesn't sound like much but believe it or not even 10 minutes of walking has great health benefits so once he gets that into his regimen and his daily routine it's going to become a habit for him a healthy habit and once that becomes a habit he can then increase it so you know next week he can do 15 minutes and then 20 minutes and slowly increase up to that recommended 30 minutes a day now the other thing that's also important in addition to walking and physical aerobic activity is strength training and weight training exercises did you know that lean muscle enhances your glucose and Insulin metabolism as well as cholesterol metabolism and helps with weight loss lean muscle is so important and we unfortunately start to lose it slowly over the age of 30 so even if you do nothing you're going to lose muscle especially the older that you get so that's why really have to combat that by incorporating strength training into our lifestyle also it helps with walking balance confidence um and avoiding you know injuries if you fall or you lose your balance now doing repetitions of various types of weightlifting or weight training exercises even with just two to five pound weights is going to be helpful there's no need for him to jump in and do a 200 pound bench press no that's not how we want to do it start slow slow and increase gradually as you can tolerate it and then once you get to a certain point you're also going to be more confident and you might even find that exercising or working out is fun because it's going to allow you to be more active in life and that's always a good thing isn't so generally increasing your physical activity and exercise regimen should be done slowly and it can actually take four to six weeks to build to an optimal level of endurance so please don't expect this to be an overnight process now we have somewhat of a probing question from Tom and Tom asks us hello Dr core can you stimulate the prostate using your sphincter muscles this is a great question you know why because we often talk about pelvic floor muscle strengthening when it comes to women's health and gynecological health but it's really important for men as well performing certain pelvic exercises helps to strengthen those muscles the muscles that surround the prostate and that support the prostate and the bladder and really maintain that prostate and bladder health in men now these pelvic floor muscles include sphincters which are located in various parts around the prostate gland and these support bladder health and they support the flow of urine as well so it's important for these to be strong and it's especially important for men who have symptoms of an enlarged prostate because it can help alleviate difficulty urinating dribbling or incomplete urination um urinary leakage or even incontinence so very very important some of these exercises are Keele exercises and anal Spiner exercises you can do them a couple times a day for a couple seconds each and over four to six weeks you may start to notice an improvement in your symptoms now these aren't meant to treat symptoms or to treat an large prostate but they can certainly help alleviate some of those symptoms I do however suggest discussing with your physician first because he may have personal recommendations for you based on your own prostate health thank you that was a great question this is exciting we get all these questions that I feel are so useful for everybody to know these health tips they're just so so important oh and I especially love this next question and it comes to us from Eva who reached out from our very own website allhealth tv.com and Eva writes hi Dr core I'm a pre-diabetic middle-aged woman with a little love around the middle high blood pressure and a family history of cancer I've talked to my primary doctor and my therapist and they both mentioned something about the six pillars of Healthy Living I wasn't really paying attention then but I am now oh Eva this is a subject that I'm so passionate about so I love discussing it and it's never too late to reap the benefits of a healthier lifestyle so the six pillars that really maintain and are the foundation of a healthy lifestyle let's get into it well the nutrition part of it I mean I think I talk about this all the time and my patient maybe get annoyed and I understand that but healthy diet Whole Foods diet plant-based diet the Mediterranean diet these are all ways to maintain a healthy diet for your body um regularly engaging in physical activity and exercise at least for 30 minutes a day five days a week remember do it to your tolerance don't overdo it slow and steady wins the race getting at least seven hours of sleep nightly is the recommendation and it's not just seven hours it's seven rest full hours uninterrupted sleep so if you're waking up a lot or you're not even getting the seven hours that can actually be detrimental to your health um stress reduction we talk about that all the time stress can have a lot of detrimental effects on your body on your physical health and your mental health so you want to reduce your stress when you can avoiding risky substances like alcohol and cigarettes um maintaining fulfilling connections with your loved ones that's also very important and Eva I'm so passionate about these six pillars that I'm I'm going to put them on screen because I think they're that important and I really want you to read through them I want everybody to read through them and make sure that they understand there's different ways of uh achieving these goals but just to start is great now in case you missed it the first time here's another opportunity to find out where you can send us your questions send in your questions to questions at allhealth tv.com or allhealth goo on Facebook or YouTube or visit the ask the doc page on our website allhealth tv.com so keep those questions coming and here we have another one from Glenn and Glenn reached out to us through YouTube and he asks hi Dr core my husband is a stress aholic oh I've met some of those I've been one of those he worked in the financial sector and thrived in all that craziness he's not a young man anymore and has been diagnosed with high blood pressure I've been told that incorporating mindful and meditation into your daily routine can help relieve stress and anxiety sounds great but what is mindfulness and where can we learn to meditate oh that's a terrific question Glenn excuse me Glenn and I'm so glad that you asked because it's important to talk about so this reminds me of a patient that I had and I want to share this story because I want to emphasize how important stress reduction and reducing anxiety is the patient I had several years ago was a wonderful gentleman in his mid 50s and he had a thriving business but that also meant that he was under a lot of stress and unfortunately that led to some serious health complications and he was forced to reduce his work and focus on his health and I always say make these changes before you're forced to make them adopt a healthier lifestyle before you're forced to do so because sometimes there's no turning back now mindfulness and meditation have been proven yes scientifically proven to reduce stress and indirectly reduce your risk of cardiovascular conditions and heart disease essentially mindfulness for those of you who aren't familiar with it it's being aware and engaging in your present moment not thinking about the future not thinking about the past not worrying about the future or the past and really just focusing on what is in front of you today where you're at in life today and the things that you have to be grateful for today because that really brings about feelings of calm and a sense of accomplishment and achievement and it's just it just feels good inside when you're not worrying about things but just being appreciative of what you have and that results in happiness and that's a good thing we all want to be happy right now meditation there are so many resources available online there's apps there's so many ways to learn how to meditate and I think the one thing that I want to emphasize is about meditation is that it's a process um you know I'm not going to say that I am great at meditation even though I think it's great it's very difficult to do it it takes a few tries I I have failed many times um because it is very difficult to just shut off your mind and think about the now and just kind of be um but I can tell you for sure that it is very beneficial and it's very worth it so it might take a few sessions and even if it's just a few minutes a day I highly encourage meditation it has been proven to do so much good in your body that I won't get into detail but just trust me on that now the next question comes to to us from our Instagram viewer and this is from lxmi hi Dr core I'm a 60-year-old Widow and I live by myself my husband and I had just moved to Florida when he suddenly passed away I'm so sorry to hear that LXI my kids live across the country and I don't really know anybody here I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm lonely which I think is having an effect on my health is that even possible my heart certainly goes out to you lxmi I I know how difficult uh that transition can be and that such a great loss and how how negatively impactful that can be on your life so I'm very sorry that you're going through this but I'm glad that you wrote in for the question because you're 100% right having those feelings of loneliness can certainly negatively impact your health but you said 60 that's the new 45 so there's there's no need to worry there's ways to help to get help and we really encourage you to do so I want to talk a little bit about loneliness unfortunately in the last several years we've definitely had a rise in loneliness across the country across the world with the pandemic absolutely and even though we have more ways of being connected nowadays and we have FaceTime you have cell phones you have um video chatting there there's so many ways to connect with your loved ones and with other people but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're building those fulfilling deep relationships and honestly even even though we have all those ways to connect we've never been lonier as a society and we are seeing the negative impacts of that on our health statistics and in our patients there is a greater risk of certain health conditions if somebody is lonely for a prolonged period of time especially in the elderly population we see that there's an increased risk of dementia of depression um even premature death can c can be caused by long-term feelings of loneliness now needless to say it's a serious serious health condition and even though you know you may be surrounded by people or somebody might be surrounded by people doesn't necessarily mean that they're immune to feeling lonely because they may not be feeling those deep emotional connections your circumstances Le me are I'm all too familiar with those in fact it's something that my mom went through when I lost my dad and she lost her husband it's very very natural to grieve and to feel lonely after a spouse passes away I know for my mom she found relief in religious groups made friends through there and now we hardly see her because she has such an active social calendar I live two minutes from her but I probably see her once a month which is it's perfect I hope that you're able to find a solution and I hope that you're able to connect with others so that you can get through this time it's very very important to to take the feelings that you have and to share them with others so you can heal and so you can grieve and move on um to say in simple terms there are many online resources too there's a lot of national organizations that have um the goal of Helping Seniors or really anybody who's feeling lonely with um you know they have clubs and other resources I really really hope that you can look into those um maybe consider moving back to where you have family and friends I that those social connections are so important and they're part of a healthy lifestyle I wish you the best and and I wish you peace and strength and I hope you get back to your fighting self soon now we have another question from our website allhealth tv.com and in case I haven't already mentioned it you guys should really check out the website there's a lot of great information on it a lot of tips and tricks uh for a healthy lifestyle so let's see this next question comes from Jay and Jay asks hi Dr core I broke my ankle about six months back and I had to have surgery oh I'm sorry which kept me off my feet for a while as a result I put on a couple cple of pounds okay maybe more than a couple of pounds which surprised me because I'm only 32 I'm athletic and I've never had to worry about weight before my question is this I'm someone who has ADHD and I often struggle with consistency how can I incorporate healthier habits and get myself back on track that's a very great question Jay and thank you for reaching out I'm so glad that you're advocating for yourself because that is so so so important so as you may know Jay establishing a structured consistent daily routine is very very important excuse me guys sorry about that now establishing a consistent and structured daily routine is very very important to managing ADHD and having a plan and maintaining that organization also provides a self of a sense of self-calm and can help you reach the goals that you want to reach even for those who don't have ADHD so that's an important tip all around now I'd suggest starting off with a simple routine the more complex it is the more difficult it is for your brain or anybody's brain to to adapt to it so you want to start slow and steady now that 10-minute walk that that I mentioned earlier that's very important so maybe just start your day with a 10-minute walk and as your brain gets used to it and as you incorporate that and make it a healthy habit you can increase to 15 minutes 20 minutes and then even add on other activities to it but the point is start slow start steady and start with a regimen every day same time this is what I'm doing that's my plan now once you have that daily routine set then it becomes a habit a healthy habit and then it's not going to be so difficult to maintain I hope that you're back to 100% soon now we got another question from Jaylen and Jaylen reaches out to us from Facebook Jaylen asks hi Dr core I'm 25 and I've never had this problem before and no it's not the one that you might think it is I haven't been sleeping well lately and it's having a negative effect on my life my girlfriend says I've been Moody and I feel jittery a lot of the time my question is this what are the long-term effects of poor sleep and what can I do to turn things around jayen thanks for your question it's an excellent question and it is such a important part of a healthy lifestyle to get good sleep now let's check out what this video from the Mayo Clinic has for Sleep suggestions the CDC says one out of three adults doesn't get enough shye the body is not designed to tolerate longterm months and months of not sleeping adequately Dr ven suers says long-term sleep deprivation can cause issues such as heart disease obesity and depression and it can also make health problems you already have worse there are things that happen during sleep that carry over into the daytime and can have very dramatic effects on causing daytime disease for example when you have obstructive sleep apnea you stop breathing during sleep your oxygen levels go down and carbon dioxide levels go up what that does is raises the sympathetic activity your fight oflight system blood pressure Rises and may stay higher into the next day Dr sumers says brief periods of occasional sleep loss is not a big deal for the Mayo Clinic News Network I'm Vivian Williams so as you can see sleep has a important effect on our health and not getting enough enough sleep can be really really bad for your health and increase the risk of a lot of chronic conditions obesity health a heart disease your memory your concentration so much stuff so try to get at least seven to nine hours of uninterrupted restful sleep at least every day honestly even on the weekends now that was a lot of great questions and I love that you guys sent them in I very much appreciate that you trust us to answer these questions for you and I love to keep doing them now that's all we have for today and that's it for this episode of ask the doc thank you for watching guys we'll see you next time send in your questions to questions allhealth tv.com or allhealth go on Facebook or YouTube or visit the askthe dooc page on our website allhealth tv.com