Optimal Physical Health

• Do you want to optimize your physical health?
• Are you looking for strategies to improve your brain health?
• Would you like to improve your mood, memory, and concentration?
• Are you looking to achieve better fitness?
• Are you an entrepreneur and want to reach the next level of performance?
• Do you have a family history of health issues want to prevent illnesses in your own life?

If so, you’re in the right place. My passion is helping people achieve the best health possible, and that starts with the mind and body. This web page is jam-packed with free information, tips, and strategies that I have garnered from the latest research, my clinical practice, and my own experience. Make sure to click around and read, and stop back often as we are always adding more information to better serve YOU.

So let’s talk about optimal physical health.

On this site, we talk extensively about: Detox, nutrients, and mindset in other areas of this web page. Be sure to check those out so that you do not miss the other ingredients in a whole-person integrative health approach to helping you reach your performance objectives.

First Thing’s First: We have to understand how healthy your body is, what issues is it up against (toxicity, inflammation, genetic mutations), and strategize how to promote an ultimately healthy environment. This will require appropriate laboratory workup, changes in your lifestyle, and a mindset tune-up.

• Detailed Laboratory Workup: Get to the root cause of your symptoms. Getting to the root cause is pivotal in creating a program for improving energy, fitness level, strength, and performance. Here are some suggestions:
  • Have your doctor run all the basic labs that give information about physical and brain health. My new patient panel includes CBC, CMP, TSH, FREE T3, FREE T4, REVERSE T3, LIPIDS, SERUM IRON, TIBC, FERRITIN, VITAMIN D 25OH TOTAL,  GGT, HS-CRP, FIBRINOGEN, APOE, MMA, SERUM FOLATE, SERUM ZINC, SERUM SELENIUM, SERUM HOMOCYSTEINE, SALIVARY CORTISOL X4, MTHFR, COMT, HFE.
  • OAT Test
  • Toxins in the body are like a stick in the spoke wheel of your bike, identifying what types of the toxic burden you are suffering from will help identify the right type of detox for your brain and body.
    • GLP Tox Non-Metal Toxicology Screen
    • Metal Toxicology Screen
    • Glyphosate Testing
  • Amino Acids and Fatty Acids are the building blocks of your brain, muscles, and organs. Examine your building blocks to identify problem areas that need to be addressed.
    • Amino Acid Plasma Summary
    • Comprehensive Fatty Acid Metabolism Summary
  • The Gut-Brain Axis tells us that the health of your gut directly impacts the health of your brain and body.
    • IgG Food Allergy Test + Candidiasis Testing

Habits for Peak Performance

Think of a garden. You’re growing resiliency, a fast metabolism, efficiency, strength, endurance, and longevity. Your garden needs plenty of sunlight, water, and careful tending. If not given the attention it needs to thrive, weeds may grow up and choke out what you have planted.

This is the same with the health of your brain and the activities you do each day. Ask yourself the following questions:

• How much time do I spend cultivating a healthy body?
• What healthy activities do I engage in on a regular basis?
• What is my mindset? Is it angled towards growth and life or is it destructive?
• What is my relationship with my body?
• How do I think about myself? Do I love myself and value myself? Or am I critical of myself?
• What kinds of silent messages am I giving my cells via my thoughts?

Jerome Groopman, Chair of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and renowned author and physician states: “To hope under the most extreme circumstances is an act of defiance that permits a person to live his life on his own terms. It is part of the human spirit to endure and give a miracle a chance to happen.”

Habit #1: Mindset.

Our mindset is a powerful part of our trajectory in health and longevity.

Here are Dr. Cain’s Top 8 Mindset Tips for Longevity and Peak Performance:

• Reality testing: It’s easy to allow ourselves to go awry with pessimism, expecting the worst while hoping for the best, seeing the glass as half empty. While some may try to push you in the opposite, to force yourself to be an optimist, this is not necessarily the solution to longevity. The true strategy for a longevity mindset is to be real and authentic. Acknowledge your negative thoughts, honor them, and then examine them. How many times have you worried about something that never came to fruition? It was once said that 85% of what we worry about never happens. Find a great counselor or a trusted friend, and ask them to help you do reality testing, allow yourself to be a realist, but always hold on to hope.
• Give Your Body a Massage: Okay, literal massages are amazing, and you should do that too. But this time, I’m talking about a brain massage. Your brain gives information to your brain, so we want to make sure your brain is on point when it comes to the information it’s delivering. Listen to guided relaxation recordings >15 minutes per day
  • Jon Kabat-Zinn has many of these for purchase or for free on YouTube. You can customize them based on duration as well as your need for that day. For example, anxiety, stress, depression, insomnia, relaxation, and more.
• Give Your Nervous System a Coloring Book and Crayon: Personal expression >1 hour per day
  • Coloring
  • Zentangles
  • Journaling
  • Art
  • Music
  • Free association writing
  • Dance
• Go off Grid: Unplug for >1 hour per day (ideally in the morning and/or evening)
  • Turn off your computer, email, phone, and disconnect from the outside world.
  • Alternative activities:
    • Play a game with friends/ family
    • Be creative: Paint, write, coloring books, zentangles, woodworking, pottery, poetry, write music, play an instrument, photography, etc).
• Plug Into Your Body in Real Time: Biofeedback &  Neurofeedback at Home
  • Purchase a Muse and practice three times per week 15 minutes per day 3 days per week
  • Purchase EmWave by Heart Math and utilize this 15 minutes per day 3 days per week
• Harness Hope: Things do not have to be perfect or terrible, there is a lot of gray area in between. Cultivate the belief that you can be healthy, that you can be well. Research tells us that our cells listen to our thoughts. May your thoughts feed your cells’ life.
• Persistence: Never give up. Keep pursuing your goals, listen to your body, strategize carefully, and persevere. Smooth waters a skilled sailor does not make. The miracles that fueled Dr. Groopman’s statement on hope came not from those who resigned in despair, but those who lived in hope and refused to give in.
• Count your Wins: Get a large piece of tagboard and hang it on the wall. Write down every single win. Even if it’s that you read this blog today. Whatever it is, write down your wins. You ate a healthy meal, you took your vitamins, you went to your doctor, you called a friend, you closed a deal, you fed your children; write down your successes and your gains, and be mindful in giving yourself credit for these.

Habit #2: Diet & Supplements

Another habit for a peak performance involves your diet and supplementation.

Diet and supplementation matter. Giving your body nutrients is as important as what you use to water your garden. Do you remember the movie Idiocracy, where they watered the crops with that nasty colored sugar drink? If you water the garden of your body with unnatural substances, your health and longevity will be compromised, on the other hand, learning how to feed your body the best nutrients available, will set the stage for long, healthy life. Watch out for all those fancy supplements you read about online: Read ingredients labels! To learn how to read labels, get the Gut Psychology Book, and chapter 1 will give you all the information you need to make the best decisions about what kinds of foods and supplements you put into your body.

Here are my top 3 Tips for Diet And Supplements for Longevity:

• Eat a Brain Healthy Diet: Read the Gut Psychology Book, this will deconstruct how to eat, regardless of food allergies, paleo, or any other dietary preferences you have. The Gut Psychology Program will give you tips on what types of foods will compromise gut health, and what types of foods will optimize gut health. Get the Gut Psychology Book, here.
• Here are the supplements that changed my life when I was in medical school and building my private practice. They were a turning point in my brain’s performance, and I’m sure you’re going to love them, too:
  • MemorAll™ Brain Support* by Xymogen: 1-2 caps/day (1 at breakfast and 1 at lunch)
  • OmegaPure DHA™ by Xymogen: 2 caps/day (1 breakfast, 1 lunch)
  • BrainSustain™ Comprehensive Brain Support Formula* by Xymogen: 2 scoops in water, or coconut/ almond/ oat milk each morning.
  • Nrf2 Activator™ Antioxidant & Detoxification Support Formula* by Xymogen: 2 per day (1 breakfast, 1 lunch)
  • NeuroActives™ BrainSustain™ Comprehensive Brain Support Formula* by Xymogen: 4 caps/day (2 breakfast, 2 lunch)

Habit #3: Exercise for Brain Health and Longevity

The last habit for optimal brain health is exercise.

Good cardiovascular exercise not only increases blood circulation, optimizes weight and muscle tone, it improves energy, metabolism, brain health, and it also increases feel-good hormones like dopamine, adrenaline, and serotonin which improves your mental health.

Benefits to exercise:

• Delivers fresh blood and nutrients to the brain and organs
• Protects against health conditions and disease
• Improves mood
• Balances energy
• Improves focus and memory
• Better sleep
• Stronger muscles and bones
• Healthy heart
• Balances blood cholesterols and prevents diabetes
• Promotes detox
• Balances the nervous system
• It’s fun!

Three Types of Physical Fitness:

• Flexibility
• Strength
• Endurance

Activities to boost flexibility

• Cartwheels
• Gymnastics
• Stretching
• Yoga
• Swimming

Activities to boost strength

• Climbing
• Wrestling
• Pull-ups
• Push-ups
• Stomach crunches

Activities to boost endurance

• Running
• Jumping
• Jogging
• Playing tag
• Swimming
• Sports (soccer, tennis, basketball)
• Skating, skateboarding, bicycling

How much should a person exercise each day?

Infants: Activities should be age-appropriate but rolling, reaching, stretching, and around 1-2 months or when your baby can hold his/her head up you can start doing tummy time in short intervals increasing as the baby gets stronger.

Toddlers: Play-time is key for the development of the mind and body. Kids this age are naturally active and can often get the exercise they need through running, climbing, twirling, playing, and exploring their world. Make sure your toddler is getting regularly scheduled play/exercise time throughout the day. They should not be inactive for more than an hour unless sleeping.

Preschoolers:

• 60 minutes of moderate to intense aerobic activity, for example, running, at least 3 days per week.
• 60 minutes of muscle-strengthening like push-ups or crunches at least 3 days per week
• 60 minutes of bone-strengthening like running or jumping at least 3 days per week.
• They should not be inactive for more than an hour unless sleeping.

School-age:

• 60 minutes of moderate to intense aerobic activity, for example, running, at least 3 days per week.
• 60 minutes of muscle-strengthening like push-ups or crunches at least 3 days per week
• 60 minutes of bone-strengthening like running or jumping at least 3 days per week.

Adults

• This will be individualized to the person but an adult generally needs about as much exercise as a school-age child.
• The American Heart Association recommends 10,000 steps per day as a bare minimum amount of movement.

My Exercise Plan

Many people want to Improve their energy through exercise but they feel too tired to even start. Ironically, if you can make an achievable set of goals, you will start to feel more energetic through time as a result of exercise.

Pick a starting point that feels doable. For optimal success, people do better with bite-sized goals that are reasonably achievable and have a reward.

The first thing is to pick a type of exercise that you might like. Then find an accountability partner. The buddy-system has been proven to improve success outcomes but let’s face it- it’s way more fun to sweat it out in solidarity with a trusted companion. If you do not have a friend available to work out with you, another great option is to find a fitness coach. There are many schools that have students training, or there are private coaches. Talk to your doctor about some ideas to find a buddy to get you motivated and keep you excited.

Create your start date, and plan out your schedule. If you do not put it in writing, you might not get it done.

Get out your Workout Log (see the log provided in this program). Write your activities down and make sure you get your heart up to about 120 beats per minute (unless your doctor tells you otherwise, for example, if you have a heart condition this might not be a good idea for you).

You want a combination of cardiovascular and weight resistance.

The research shows that in order to lose weight you need to exercise five days per week for one hour per day.

WOW. That is absolutely amazing, isn’t it? In the beginning, you may notice that your “weight” does not change. We want to focus less on numbers and more on health. Remember, muscle weighs more than fat. In the beginning, you will likely put on more muscle and while you are gaining health, your actual pounds may not change at first.

Stick with it! You’ve got this!

My Exercise Commitment

What I will enjoy if I create and stick to a great exercise routine?

What might happen if I do not do an exercise routine?

What are my motivators for exercising? What is going to keep me going when I’m exhausted, unmotivated, and wanting to throw in the towel?

Who is my accountability buddy going to be and how will we check in with each other?

How am I going to measure my success? What will that look like? (Be specific)

What are my long-term health goals?

What else do I feel I need in order to be successful and how will I get that?

Date I am going to start my new routine:  ______________________________________

Days of the week:_____________________________________________________________

Duration of each day: ________________________________________________________

Which activities am I going to do: _____________________________________________

Tips for success: How to measure your own heart rate

From the Mayo Clinic- “check your pulse at your wrist, place two fingers between the bone and the tendon over your radial artery— which is located on the thumb side of your wrist. When you feel your pulse, count the number of beats in 15 seconds. Multiply this number by 4 to calculate your beats per minute rate.”