Survival strategies

I’ve Been in Physical Therapy For Over Three Months

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Less is more.

We’ve turned the idea of “exercise” into something so loaded these days, only to be validated by a specific kind of intensity. Just uttering the word exercise now can ignite an all-or-nothing mindset, filled with protein obsessions, endless wearable fitness trackers, or even a costly membership to an elite wellness club. I Won’t Be Shamed — Physical Therapy Is Still Exercise – https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/physical-therapy-still-a-workout-49448831

I used to be a runner. Quite a few years ago my knees told me not to run anymore.

I joined the Y and did the elliptical and treadmills until my knees complained some more. I moved my exercise routine to the resistance machines. Then Covid hit, I cancelled my membership and the months turned into years away from the gym.

I found some resistance bands in the house and started some simple exercises at home. I rejoined the Y and started back with the resistance machines.

Earlier this year my employer offered access to online virtual physical therapy. I took advantage of this benefit from https://www.hingehealth.com/ and have been in physical therapy now for over three months. Less pain (especially my cervical spine, the result of a near fatal encounter with a car), less stiffness, better flexibility, and gradually improving strength. The beauty of the program is availability on demand and it is 100% HEP (home exercise program). Sessions are 10-12 minutes long and you don’t have to leave the house.

Less is more.

I’m Taking Your Phone Away (and you didn’t do anything wrong)

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The study found that those who had high and increasing addiction to mobile phones and social media platforms were at a higher risk of suicidal behaviors and thoughts. At year four, almost 18% of kids reported having suicidal thoughts, and 5% said they had suicidal behaviors. Teens with ‘addictive’ phone use more likely to be suicidal: Study – https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5360042-teens-addiction-social-media-phones-suicidal-thoughts/

Here’s the link to the JAMA article https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2835481/

Yikes!

When People Did Not Have Access to Mobile Internet, they Spent More Time Socializing in Person, Exercising, and Being in Nature.

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https://www.harmonyhit.com/phone-screen-time-statistics/

Our results provide evidence that blocking mobile internet from smartphones for 2 weeks can produce significant improvements for SWB (subjective well being), mental health, and the objectively measured ability to sustain attention. Even those who did not fully comply with the intervention experienced significant, though more modest, improvements. These findings suggest that constant connection to the online world comes at a cost, since psychological functioning improves when this connection is reduced. Blocking mobile internet on smartphones improves sustained attention, mental health, and subjective well-being – PNAS Nexus, Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2025, pgaf017, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf017

Excuse me please, I have to check my phone.

Diet and Healthy Aging

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In the journal Nature Medicine this week there was an important open-access publication about a large combined cohort of over 105,000 health professionals prospectively followed for 30 years. Only 9.3% reached the age of 70 years with “healthy aging” —without 11 major chronic diseases and no impairment of cognitive or physical function or mental health. Our Diet and Healthy Aging Eric Topol, MD – https://erictopol.substack.com/p/our-diet-and-healthy-aging

Dr. Eric Topol’s assessment of this study is well balanced and thoughtfully written. His bio is here: https://www.scripps.edu/faculty/topol/

Healthy aging in this study is described as reaching age 70 without developing any of 11 major diseases: cancer (except for non-melanoma skin cancers), diabetes, heart attack, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

My Half-Birthday is coming up soon. I’ll be 70.5 years young. The biggest take home lesson for me is this:

Beer is better for you than pizza.

Ah, Houston, we’ve had a problem (Scary Charts 03.10.25)

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Source – https://www.apolloacademy.com/there-is-a-significant-need-for-retirement-savings-in-the-us/

Short of forcing people to save for retirement, Social Security remains the safety net for those who lack access to retirement vehicles or don’t have the means to save. – How Many Americans Don’t Save For Retirement? https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2025/03/how-many-americans-dont-save-for-retirement/

TBH, Social Security is a much higher portion of our retirement income than I had planned for.

Men Are Bad at Retirement

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When envisioning retirement, many men imagine traveling, playing with grandchildren and driving that sexy convertible they can finally afford. The reality? For those over 70, 94% of adults watch television every day, with nearly 10% spending more than nine hours a day staring at the shows.

Men die earlier, with an average life expectancy of 73.5 years, according to a 2021 study. That’s about five years earlier than women in the U.S. One study found that men who considered themselves “traditional” men — unemotional and self-reliant — were more likely to ignore medical problems, and suffered worse health outcomes than women. And the problem gets worse as they get older. About 74% of men 55 and older go to the doctor for an annual check-up, compared to 43% of men age 35-54 and 26% of men age 18-34. Why So Many Men are Bad at Retirement https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-so-many-men-are-bad-at-retirement?

This is an interesting article. Just more reasons why I’m not retired.

Retire. Watch TV all day long. Repeat.

Yikes.

There Are Health Related Benefits to Working Past Age 65

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“Our perceptions of working after age 65 have changed over time, and these data suggest that most older adults who are still able to work after the traditional retirement age derive health-related benefits from doing so,” said poll director Jeffrey Kullgren, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., a primary care physician at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and associate professor of internal medicine at U-M. “As we learn more about how loneliness, lack of social connection and isolation intertwine with physical and mental health in older adults, the role of work is important to consider.”Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan. “As more Americans work later in life, poll shows positive health impacts, especially for those over 65.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/02/250211141049.htm (accessed February 12, 2025)

National Poll on Healthy Aging Team. The Intersection of Work, Health, and Well-Being. University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging. January/February 2025. Available at https://dx.doi.org/10.7302/25186

It’s 8:00 AM…yes, I’m Thinking About Drinking

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Alcohol use is ubiquitous in the United States, with 84% of adults reporting use at some point. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a serious and persistent disease at the extreme end of alcohol use that contributes heavily to the burden on the healthcare system, with more than 200,000 hospitalizations each year due to the condition. About 6% of people in the United States have AUD. However, only 7.6% of patients with AUD seek treatment, although several pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatment options are available. Stephen Soreff. Rapid Rx Quiz: Alcohol Use Disorder Treatments – Medscape – Dec 30, 2024. https://reference.medscape.com/viewarticle/1002119

  • Overall mortality rates increased from 10.7 (95% CI, 10.6-10.8) per 100,000 in 1999 to 21.6 (95% CI, 21.4-21.8) per 100,000 in 2020, representing a significant twofold increase.
  • Adults aged 55-64 years demonstrated both the steepest increase and highest absolute rates in both 1999 and 2020.
  • American Indian and Alaska Native individuals experienced the steepest increase and highest absolute rates among all racial groups.
  • The West region maintained the highest absolute rates in both 1999 and 2020, despite the Midwest showing the largest increase. Edited by Lora McGlade. US Alcohol-Related Deaths Double Over Two Decades, With Notable Age and Gender Disparities – Medscape – November 21, 2024. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/us-alcohol-related-deaths-double-over-two-decades-notable-2024a1000l98?

Nearly 500 years ago, Swiss physician and chemist Paracelsus expressed the basic principle of toxicology: “All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison.” This is often condensed to: “The dose makes the poison.” It means that a substance that contains toxic properties can cause harm only if it occurs in a high enough concentration. https://www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/health-and-safety/the-dose-makes-the-poison/

Dry January? If you’re doing this trendy behavior you know you drank too much this past holiday season.

Cancer warnings on alcohol? No one will read them.

Trust your intuition. If you’ve ever felt like you drink too much alcohol then you do.

1-800-662-HELP or text 988 for SAMHSA’s National Helpline.