Health in My 60’s

As I mentioned in last week’s post, this year I’m really focusing more on my health and looking for ways to feel better and have my health as good as it can be. When we are young, we sure take health for granted and we don’t think about what we are eating, or even exercising all the time. We take a lot of things for granted in our younger years, don’t we? We move on through the decades and begin to notice little changes and then bigger changes in how we feel and look. They creep up and we don’t notice it in big and glaring ways, but subtle small ways. And then we wake up and we’re in our late 60’s, I’m 68 now and things have really changed with our bodies, how we feel and figuring out what to do to get to a better place.

I’ve spent my whole life trying to do the right things with my health. I tried to eat fairly healthy, but now I’m finding out we don’t even really know what that means without studying and diving into the deep end of our food supply and how much processed foods have hurt our health. I’m finally on board to try to figure this out even more. I’ve never had a weight problem, so I’ve always eaten in moderation, trying to eat what I considered healthy. My parents always had a garden growing up, so I developed a good taste for fresh veggies and I try to eat those regularly, although I wasn’t eating them as much as I should. Mark doesn’t eat that many veggies, so I began not buying them as much and not fixing them for myself, but that’s changing this year. I’m buying organic veggies now and I’m eating a lot more of them on a daily and weekly basis. Hopefully, this will help me feel better too.

Sleep is another area that needs much improvement. I’ve talked to many people that are my age and older and it seems to be an aging thing, but it sure drives me crazy. I’ve tried all the supplements and nothing works consistently. I can have several nights of decent sleep and then one that’s just terrible, tossing and turning, can’t go back to sleep. If you have any ideas on that, I’d love to hear them. I’ve tried melatonin, magnesium and other supplements over the years. Nothing seems to help all the time. If I get 6 hours sleep without waking, it’s a good night. I’d love to get 7 or 8, but that’s pretty impossible these days. I always wake up once and then have to you know…go. Sometimes I can get back to sleep and sometimes, I’m awake for hours.

What started this journey is that in this decade, I’ve noticed a loss of energy, so I really want to get some of my energy back. I am dealing with a few health issues like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and I’m hypothyroid, with hair loss over the last 5 years. So a triple whammy which can really impact my health. I’ve been on meds for the high blood pressure for close to 10 years and the same with thyroid meds. The problem is that doctors put us on these meds and then we hardly ever talk about it again. They just expect you’ll stay on them for the rest of your life. I’m not ok with that and so I want to get to the bottom of why I have these issues and what I can do to improve them. I’m not one to just take the meds and shut up. I want to know why. So that’s my mission this year, to find the answers to some of my questions and find the root causes and not just cover up the symptoms.

That’s why I decided to try a functional medicine doctor. If I can improve and get off these 2 meds I’m on, then I’m all for that. If not, I’ll continue to take them if there is not a better solution. I did refuse to take a statin, because I have read too much about the bad side effects and how bad they are in the long run. I won’t change my mind on those. I don’t necessarily believe everything doctors say, even though most of them mean well and want to help people. Especially after the debacle of what we all went through with Covid and pushing the shots to everyone, whether we wanted them or not. I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t get those shots, nor have I ever had a flu shot or any of those shots. It’s just something I haven’t ever been comfortable with myself. I won’t even do a shingles shot and I’ve had shingles before. I will rely on my immune system to fight things. So far, it’s served me well. I’m fortunate I don’t get sick very often. I don’t even know the last time I had something like flu. I get colds periodically, but can take zinc and knock them out pretty fast. I have had a stomach bug a few times over the years that is highly contagious, but that’s about the extent of me being sick. Knock on wood.

I’ve been working out since I was 25, so I’ve always been active and try to keep on moving all these years. That’s never changed and I’ve shared workouts and how I have gone to the gym and lifted weights and done cardio for a long time. I’m still going to the gym and lifting weights and I want to stay toned and keep my weight in a good place for years to come. I’ve never had to worry about weight, that’s one positive and that’s probably a good thing since I also have skeleton issues. Here’s an old post about working out I wrote over 10 years ago, but I basically do the same workout now.

I was diagnosed with scoliosis and spondylolisthesis when I turned 40. Those issues have continued to get a little worse, but I’ve managed it with chiropractic visits and staying active. I believe whole heartedly that if we don’t keep moving, we lose our momentum and strength. I watched my parents never stop moving and how that served them so well all the way to their 90’s. So, that’s my goal too, to keep moving my body and staying active for a long time. If we sit and don’t get up and move, it’s so detrimental to our health and having a good quality of life.

I began having hip pain over 10 years ago as well. One thing I’ve noticed is that most of my issues started after menopause, so I can’t help but think there’s a connection there. Menopause depletes our bodies of so much and it just seems like that’s when all my issues began. I’m glad women are talking more and more about menopause these days because we all have to deal with it. My mom never talked much about it, so I didn’t learn a lot from her. I sort of ignored it until it happened to me and then I had to figure it out. I still don’t have it all figured out, but it does seem like it contributes to a lot of issues. I didn’t have horrible menopause symptoms like hot flashes, which I’m thankful for. We are looking at hormone balancing too with the functional medicine doc.

So, back to the hips. I have severe arthritis in my hips and they are bone on bone for the most part, both hips. I’ve had scans done in the last year and so at this point, it’s up to me when I decide the pain is too much and I’m ready to get hip replacement surgery. I’ve managed the pain for a long time and I’ve had one steroid shot to see if that helped and it didn’t. At this point, I know it will get worse as I get older, so I’ve decided this is the year I’ll get my first hip done. The right one is the worst so I’ll start with that one and get my plans in place. I don’t plan to do anything until after our trip to Italy in April. I’ll keep you posted on that too as I get closer to doing the surgery. My sister has had both her hips replaced in the last 10 years and had a great outcome.

I started meeting with a local chiropractor/functional medicine doctor here in Acworth. Her name is Dr. Deb Schreibner at Lakepointe Wellness and I really like her approach. She looks at everything. In August, I did several tests so we could see where I am with all my numbers, etc. We did a blood test, urine test, hair analysis, and saliva tests. These all show a lot of what is going on in the body and then I started on supplements to get my body more balanced in the right direction. I just did a second set of tests to see where I am now after taking the supplements for 3 months. I also did a 21 day detox, which ended right at Thanksgiving, so I cheated the last couple of days. I was hoping my sweet tooth would go away, but it didn’t. I ate fruits and vegetables for the first 10 days then added in meat for the last 11. Just real whole foods. That got me thinking about changing my eating habits a lot and I’ve stuck a lot of it, adding more veggies in and eating less rice and pasta and adding in quinoa and more healthy alternatives. I’m switching out some of the foods I bring in the house, like mayo and some other things like that, swapping for healthier versions. It’s so hard to figure out what is really healthy, they don’t make it easy! Just be aware, if you go this route with a functional medicine doctor, that it’s not inexpensive and insurance doesn’t pay for it. All out of pocket, which can be thousands with the testing and supplements. I hope it’s worth it, so we will see. I’ll do a follow up post in a few months to see where I am.

I’m not giving up all sugar yet, but I have swapped out my bread to sourdough bread, since that is a better bread for our guts, without all the gluten in regular bread. I’m not giving up all crackers and chips, but making healthier swaps on those too. I’m also learning about seed oils and how bad they are for us, so I’m trying to get those out of the house and be more careful with what I buy that’s packaged. It’s definitely a journey to try to eat healthier and reading labels has never been my thing until now. I did download a couple of apps to help keep me on track, the Bobby Approved app (that’s literally the name of it) and the Yuka app. They don’t always agree on what’s healthy, but it’s a good start.  Bobby Approved app looks at seed oils too and I think the other one does not, but they are both good guides. They both have a bar code scanner you can use when you’re in the store to see what’s good or bad. I’m starting to buy organic meats and pasture raised eggs. Every little bit helps.

I’m hopeful we may get some improvements with our food supply and that the government might start making changes so that our food supply is improved and less toxic. It’s so frustrating to me to hear that European countries don’t allow so much of the chemicals and ingredients that are in our foods and theirs are so much better for us. Let’s hope some changes are coming for all of us. Our country is not healthy and we are the most obese nation in the world. Something needs to change!

So that’s a wrap up of what I’m doing right now to try to improve my health. I am hoping the functional medicine doc will get me to a better place as we work through the issues and figure out what all I need to be taking and hopefully with an improved way of eating, those changes will pay off too. It’s small steps at a time. I’m not trying to change it all at once, but making better choices every day and every week will hopefully get me where I want to be. I want to have more energy and to feel better and to improve my aches and pains, which will improve my quality of life. Food and exercise are so important to us and I’m on that journey to better health. I’ll keep you posted as I move through this journey. I’d love to hear from all of you on how you’re coping with the aging process. There’s so much talk now about pro-aging and aging gracefully. I’m all for that too, but I also believe in being realistic and talking about the hard things, the aches and pains that come with aging. It’s not for sissies, as they say! And that is the truth!