Learn Tai Chi and Build Your Own Blue Zone

#1 Let’s begin by looking at how Tai Chi is a great path toward a longer, active health span.  Click on the video below to see

Wendy Ma, Vince McCullogh and Matthew Ma

lead an Emeritus Tai Chi session.

#2 This link is another good place to start your own Tai Chi path. Click on the video below for an orientation by Ron Cohen to the 18 Shibashi movements linking breathing to moving meditation. Shibashi is a good warm up for more advanced forms of Tai Chi.

Ron, Cindy and Paul have been leading a Sun-style t’ai chi ch’uan group

at Heritage Park in Dana Point, California at 10:30 am Thursdays for over 10 years? 

Maybe they’ll show us how.

#3 Coming soon with Paul et al.

Or go straight to Yang-style t’ai chi ch’uan.  Click HERE to practice the short form with Vince McCullough. 

"What is essential is invisible to the eye." 
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Blue Zones are hot spots of longevity like Okinawa Japan and Sardinia Italy where it’s common for people to live actively beyond 100.  
This page will focus on Tai Chi which also contributes to a longer healthspan for

120 and Beyond

Click HERE for more about Blue Zones

#4 This is my favorite lesson, Vince names each position to create a moving narrative.

#5

Why Tai Chi?

1. Moving mindfulness does for your brain what rocket fuel does for NASA Planetary Missions. Tai Chi will put you into a longer health span orbit.

2. Tai Chi is one of many physical activities that delivers increased quantities of oxygen and nutrients to the brain, which fuel the brain's glial cells in their work to feed and clean up the brain's neurons.  By the way,  Alzheimers is a build up of plaque that glial cells are tasked to clean up.   See previous Brain post.

An excellent example in the creation of My New Blue Zone took place in late August of 2018 when Bill and Alexandra invited  me to join their Tai Chi community with Vince McCullough.  They met daily at the beach to enjoy a moving group meditation. I believe practicing Tai Chi two or more times a week and building my own Blue Zone will help make it possible to reach 120 and Beyond.

The Human Brain...  uses more energy than any other human organ, up to 20 percent of the body's fuel consumption* and 
fully 25 percent of the body's total oxygen consumption.**   

*(https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-does-the-brain-need-s/)
**(http://www.humanneurophysiology.com/cbfo2consumption.htm)

Blausen.com staff (2014). "Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 

How do we protect our most valued asset? First, let's gather important neurological information from a reliable source: MIT   This video begins by shining a light on our greatest neurological risk. 

  Your Brain vs. Alzheimer's:  "Knowledge is Power." Click here for the video.  "33% of US adults will die of Alzheimer's or age related dementia." Not the news we want to hear but there is good news too!

From this first resource we learn that there is a noninvasive technique to reduce beta amyloid plaques in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease.  Before we get carried away it is important to know that not all successes move from mice to humans. That said, we now have a compass pointing in a very compelling direction. It's hard to imagine a more non invasive experiment.  Exposure to 15 minutes of flickering Christmas lights a day.  More details to follow.

My Friend Yuji Chapter 1

During the 40 years I've studied Anatomy and Physiology and brain research, much has been published about slowing or eliminating the negative aspects of aging. In the next few years you'll begin to hear more frequently, medical discussions about living a high quality life to 120 and beyond. Personally, I plan to squeeze up every savory drop along the way, and this be the log of that journey. 

By now you may have read about Blue Zones, places where people live over 100 years of age. A book has been written about what these places have in common. Then on one of my trips to Japan I had a first hand experience with the elements of the Blue Zone.  See the video below.

 Goem: the Japanese word for the connection between people, a key Blue Zone element.

I went to Japan in search of the land of my mother's parents. Along that journey I met Sohji and his father Yuji Ishihara, a hidden genius who could solve the most impenetrable mysteries. This is about My Friend Yuji, who became my brother.

The journey: At 44 I had a mild heart attack, like a two by four, reminding me to take better care of my body. I instructed my cardiologist to: "be more aggressive with me than any patient in his history." He immediately ordered me into a program of cardio work outs 5-6 days a week. 

At 59, I learned I needed to correct a Kyphosis, an over-curvature of the upper back probably from a combination of slouching and aging. Here was my first lesson about the critical importance of our backs for continuing health and well being. 

Healthspan

Once there was talk about lifespan, but here we focus on HEALTHSPAN, optimizing health and well being in order to enjoy a longer lifespan without avoidable disabilities. Watch this video by neuroscientist and author Lisa Genova for clues on what can be done to protect your cognitive reserve.

Click HERE for what you can do to prevent Cognitive Loss by Lisa Genova

Notes from Lisa Genova's Ted Talk

A single human brain makes over 100 trillion synapses.

Alzheimer’s is the result of loosing synapses.

At 9:52 neuroplasticity,  cognitive reserve and what we learned by studying  678 retired nun.s

At 12:00 cognitive reserve=more functional  synapses…  we build cognitive reserve by increasing our formal education, high degree of literacy,  in people who "engage regularly in mentally stimulating activity".

Mentally stimulative activity creates many extra back up synapses via recruitment of multiple pathways.  These extra pathways provide cognitive recall when some synaptic pathways have been compromised by Alzheimers.

Mentally stimulative activity is not crossword puzzles which is the retrieval of information you already know.  Instead, pave new neural roads: new books, learning new languages, Italian, Japanese, learning from new Ted Talks,  meeting new friends, taking notes.

 

Mentally stimulative activity is rich in meaning that recruits sight, sound, association, emotion or in other terms, the four quadrants of Barbara Clark's integrative learning model:  kinesthetic, sensory, intuitive, cognitive activities.

People with Alzheimers don’t lose their emotional memory. "You might not remember what I said, but you will remember how I made you feel."

Neuroscientist Lisa Genova is also the author of among other books, Still Alice which was the book behind the movie of the same name.  

Click HERE for the trailer.

I believe everyone should have at least one mentor, someone wiser, or more expert in the habits of who we are planning to become.

I'm about to take on a second mentor to guide me along this path. . .
Stay tuned.  

Most of us take our health and well being for granted until . . .

Increasing low back pain over a year led to a "9 TO 10 on the Zero to 10 PAIN SCALE". Something had to be done. I'll tell you that story in a moment, but first . . .

What's the point of living a long life if we can not  luxuriate in the pleasures, no matter how great or small, all along our journey.
No one ever said from their death bed: "I wish I'd spent more time at work." So let's do something fun, something pleasurable, something to treasure, every day. Try a new recipe, do something novel for your hungry brain.  If we don't, then who will?

"It's not time for the 'S' word.  SURGERY IS THE LAST OPTION" --Willian Dillin, M.D.

I started with William Dillin, M.D. who completed the Neurosurgery and Orthopaedic Spinal Surgery Fellowship at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia in July 1985. His practice is devoted exclusively to spine surgery.
His first recommendation was physical therapy, saying surgery would only be the last option, but the condition remained progressive over a year of PT. When my pain reach 9-10, surgery became the last option. I asked my family doctor for referrals and consulted with his top three recommendations asking them about their surgical success rates. Dr. Dillin had the highest surgical success rate.

Dr. Dillin, explained that this X-ray shows 7mm of anterior (forward) displacement and misaligned lumbar vertebrae that should be positioned one directly above the other. That vertebral displacement was now putting pressure on my L-5 spinal nerve and causing inflammation, pain, and possible neurologic loss. It was now time for surgery.

The day I was to call to schedule that surgery, a friend recommended  Dr. McCowin, D.C. and Corrective Care for back problems. I scheduled a consult at her clinic (now the OC Medical and Disc Institute in Irvine)  where she practices Non-surgical treatment designed to identify and correct the underlying problems which cause pain and suffering.

There, I learned Dr. McCowin employs the Pettibon System, Corrective Care, which concentrates on muscle memory to retrain the body to hold the spine where it should be to promote lasting correction and pain relief.


PROGNOSIS: Dr. McCowin, examined my X-rays and determined that "Corrective Care" could have me back skiing by the end of December! Treatment would proceed in two phases.
I learned that I'd been holding my head 31 mm. too far forward, a position that had flattened the natural cervical neck curve. Over the years that has caused a cascading effect that has contributed to my severe lower back pain and spondylolisthesis.

TREATMENT: Phase one, physical therapy to train my brain to hold my head in the proper position and use muscle memory to keep it there. Decompression treatments would help restore intervertebral disks. Adjustments by Dr. Dunkley would physically manipulate the vertebrae and move them back toward an optimal position. Additional elements of the treatment will be added shortly.

The xray below shows my flattened cervical curve before treatment.

This corrective treatment is based upon the key principles of the Pettibon system:

~Gravity is an absolute environment to which the upright spine and posture of humans must develop and relate.
~There is an absolute optimal position for the upright spine and posture.
~Consider the skull as a vertebra. The only vertebra that knows its neurologically optimal position and has the ability to establish and maintain that posture.
~Posture is controlled neurologically. Righting reflexes and the cerebellum regulate the skull's upright position—keeping the skull upright even at the expense of displacing the lower spine.
http://120andbeyond.blogspot.com/

After 20 Pettibon System visits and treatments, visible improvement can be seen in the xray below, showing a 31 mm to 18 mm. correction of the cervical curve with the ideal being 0 mm or my head positioned exactly above the vertebral column.
Comparing the two xrays illustrates more of a cervical curve in the lower photo, half way home!

My skeptical brain questions the numbers but the absence of pain tells me that the Pettibon approach is working.

July 28, 2011, I've been exercising the muscles that position the spine and using muscle memory to correct the misalignment and relieve 90% of the pain. As of January, 2012 it appears that surgical intervention is unnecessary. Great news considering:

68% SURGICAL FAILURE RATE: In a comprehensive set of studies carried out by the University of Washington School of Medicine, it was determined that the outcome of lumbar fusion performed on injured workers was worse than reported in most published case series. They found 68% of lumbar fusion patients still unable to return to work two years after surgery.

Source: Outcome of Lumbar Fusion in Washington State Workers' Compensation
Franklin, Gary M. MD, MPH; Haug, Joanna MSc; Heyer, Nicholas J. PhD; McKeefrey, S. P. MN; Picciano, Joseph F. BA
http://journals.lww.com/spinejournal/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=1994&issue=09000&article=00005&type=abstract

In December, I elevated my computer screen six inches (photos soon) to position the center of the screen at the same level as my eyes and places my head in an optimal position.

For those of us spending hours on a computer, sitting up straight is an critically important habit for Optimal Living to 120 and Beyond.

AVOIDING SURGERY: Optimal quality of life is part maintaining optimal physiological levels and part informed decision making. Avoiding surgery for example had benefits that were two fold:
1. a significant percentage of surgical patients do not experience reduced back pain and need follow up surgery within 5 years.
2. There are risks of permanent neurologic loss associated with anesthesia that would diminish cognitive function and negatively impact my goal of enjoying life to the maximum. Carpe diem!
http://medind.nic.in/iad/t04/i6/iadt04i6p439.pdf

One piece of equipment.

“IF THERE WAS ONE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT, I’D SAY EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A FOAM ROLL.”

The core, (center of gravity) is where all body movement originates. This cylindrical group of muscles^** should be on at low levels all the time in preparation for action and motion from simply picking up a pencil to swinging a golf club.

Using a foam roll to stabilize your core will improve your posture and protect you from low back pain and sports injuries.  Come back next week for a foam roll video that life long will maximize your quality of life, especially if you spend time in front of a computer screen.

As for 120 and Beyond,
it's my way of shattering the old paradigm pairing infirmity and aging.
Instead, let's take care of our bodies for a high quality of life for the remainder of our days. Carpe diem, Seize the day, every day.

If you've been sitting at your computer for a while,
notice the tilt of your head, the position of your back.
Remember our mother's admonition?
"Sit up straight."
If you sit up straight, notice the delta, between where you were and sitting up straight. Over a lifetime, that small difference in posture leads to that all too common back pain as we get older.

Laying with your spine on a foam roll 5 minutes a day, allows gravity to return our upper back to a more optimal posture, countering the way we round our backs as we work or sit.
We should hold our bodies as do
the Maasai, standing, sitting tall.

Little things, optimal life.

** Core muscles: transversus abdomnis, multifidus, diaphragm, and pelvic floor.