Andrew Weil's Blog: Dr. Weil's Healthy Living Blog, page 6

By Andrew Weil, M.D.

What is microdosing and what, if anything, can it do for you?

Simply put, microdosing is taking about one-tenth the amount of LSD or psilocybe mushrooms needed for tripping.

In recent years, microdosing has become increasingly popular, especially among entrepreneurs and techies in Silicon Valley. Users of these low doses credit them with many positive changes, including easing anxiety, increasing creativity and improving both work performance and relationships. Whether this really happens or is all in the mind of the beholder has not yet been definitively answered by clinical trials testing the effects of microdoses against placebos, but preliminary research is positive, and more studies are underway. At the moment, most of what we know comes from the self-reports of people who microdose regularly.

James Fadiman, author of The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide and a respected authority on psychedelics and their use, collects information from microdosers worldwide. Many have reported decreased anxiety and depression as well as new feelings of resolve that have helped them professionally.

Fadiman recommends taking 10 micrograms of LSD every three or four days while continuing with regular daily activities.

Scientists in Europe have been studying the effects of microdosing for some time. (Research in the U.S. has been limited because LSD and psilocybin are illegal here.) The first placebo-controlled study of microdosing was conducted at the University of London. It was designed to determine if the participants, none of whom had used LSD in the previous five years, could even feel the effect of such a low dose. Some microdosers contend that you don’t; others maintain that if you don’t, it isn’t working. For the study, the participants were randomly assigned to take LSD or a placebo. Results showed that the microdoses altered the participants’ sense of time but suggested that most did not feel any drug effect. The study, which was published in 2018, also tested participants’ perception of time on the basis of how they reacted to the length of time a blue dot showed on a computer screen. The participants were to hold a key down as long as they saw the dot. Those who received microdoses held the key down longer than those who received the placebo, which better represented the time interval.

Another study, from the Netherlands, also published in August 2018, concluded that microdoses of psilocybin don’t affect abstract reasoning or the ability to solve problems and think rationally. But it did show improvements in the types of thinking regarded as the underpinnings of creativity, including mental flexibility and the ability to focus on abstract concepts in order to find answers to specific problems. However, because this study had no control group, there is no way to know if the improvements resulted from the activity of psilocybin or the subjects’ expectations.

James Fadiman says people tell him that microdosing has helped them get off pharmaceutical drugs, while others report improvements in sleep and maintenance of healthy habits.

Dr. Weil’s take:

“I’ve tried microdoses of LSD twice and did not like the feeling – could not get comfortable with the stimulating energy of the drug effect, which lasted too long (about 10 hours). I’ve microdosed with mushrooms several times and liked that better, but have not done it often or regularly enough to notice any effects on mood or creativity.”

Sources:

Devin B. Terhune et al, “The effects of microdose LSD on time perception: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial,” Psychopharmacology, April 2019.

Bernhard Hommel et al “Exploring the effect of microdosing psychedelics on creativity in an open-label natural setting,” Psychopharmacology, August 11, 2018, doi: 10.1007/s00213-018-5049-7

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Reflection:

While I was searching for a meaningful topic for the October, 2020 Legacy Tips & Tools, I knew I’d found it when I read Kate Murphy in The NY Times. On September 1, 2020 she wrote, “We humans are an exquisitely social species, thriving in good company and suffering in isolation. More than anything else, our intimate relationships, or lack thereof, shape and define our lives.”

After sheltering-in-place for more than six months to avoid contracting or communicating COVID-19 to our loved ones, we know Murphy’s words to be true deep within ourselves even if we’ve not spoken the words aloud.

In my studies about veterans and “moral injuries” I read Sebastian Junger. In his book, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging he discussed a theory of Charles Fritz’s from his book: Disasters and Mental Health.

Fritz’s theory was that modern society has gravely disrupted the social bonds that have always characterized the human experience, and that disasters thrust people back into a more ancient, organic way of relating. Disasters, Fritz proposed, create a “community of sufferers” that allows individuals to experience an immensely reassuring connection to others. “As people come together to face an existential threat, class differences are temporarily erased, income disparities become irrelevant, race is overlooked, and individuals are assessed simply by what they are willing to do for the group. It is a kind of fleeting social utopia that is enormously gratifying to the average person and downright therapeutic to people suffering from mental illness.” Surely the 2020 pandemic counts as a disaster that creates a “community of sufferers,” although we’ve been unable to come together in person yet to ‘experience an immensely reassuring connection to others’ – to experience the ‘social utopia that is enormously gratifying and therapeutic.’ But we know it to be true as we know experientially the opposite, the loss of community, that the pandemic has wrought.

On the other hand, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” and we’ve been highly creative to experience community through technology (think of what these months would have been like without being ‘with others’ on Zoom), sharing “air hugs” and making phone calls to combat loneliness.

Community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that are alive not for ourselves but for one another. Community is the fruit of our capacity to make the interests of others more important than our own. The question, therefore, is not ‘How can we make community?’ but, ‘How can we develop and nurture giving hearts?’

– Henri Nouwen

Taking Action:



Take time to reflect on the difference between ‘tribe’ and tribalism (which has polarized our country even before COVID) and love. Philosopher, Micah Goodman, in a recent podcast suggests that the opposite of community is tribalism. He defines tribalism as individuals united in shared hate, while community is united by love.

“…aim to build community, to transcend boundaries, to love differences, and to marvel in similarities.”

– Brain Pickings 2020

Muse and write for 15-30 minutes, about your personal need for community (as clarified by losing it to the COVID pandemic). Delve deep to find words to express your personal feelings about community and how you feel about its loss.

We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race.

– Cicero

After you’ve written for yourself, consider writing a legacy letter to future generations, sharing your learning during the pandemic about the meaning of community and humans’ need for love. Remember to close your legacy letter with a blessing that comes from your depth of understanding about community.

May this uncertain time increase your understanding of our need for community, and for love. May a new understanding about balancing self-actualization and commitment to community be a gift to you from this pandemic, and to those who come after you.

– Rachael Freed

Rachael Freed, LICSW, senior fellow, Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing, University of Minnesota, is the author of Your Legacy Matters, Women’s Lives, Women’s Legacies: Passing Your Beliefs & Blessings to Future Generations and Heartmates: A Guide for the Partner and Family of the Heart Patient. Rachael can be found at [email protected] and www.life-legacies.com

The post The Legacy Of Community appeared first on DrWeil.com.

By Aly Cohen, M.D. and Frederick vom Saal, Ph.D – The coronavirus has changed just about every routine in our lives, cleaning now among them. The rational fear of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) spread has led to an enormous growth in the creation and use of a multitude of products that we wipe, spray, and fog, particularly where we eat, sleep, commute, and study. But in the US the history of the use of chemicals has often been followed years later with public health agencies realizing that potential adverse effects on health were downplayed as everyone focused on supposed benefits. This approach has often led to massive overuse of different classes of chemicals, which is the case now with cleaning and disinfecting chemicals. We are faced with a pandemic that is causing unprecedented, exponential use of cleaning and disinfection products, and we already are finding evidence this is leading to downstream health issues in humans and wildlife.

From oven cleaners, air fresheners, toilet bowl cleaners, laundry detergent and softeners, chemical wipes and mildew sprays, the drive to make your home, office buildings, schools and shopping areas sparkling clean and eliminate germs has become a multi-billion-dollar industry. Cleaning products and disinfectants are among the most toxic products sold today. In fact, because of their high toxicity, they are the only household products regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission under the 1960 Federal Hazardous Substances Labeling Act. Household cleaning products that have known hazardous ingredients will have one of three warning signs:

Danger (skull and crossbones): could kill an adult if just a pinch is ingested
Warning: could kill an adult if a teaspoon is ingested
Caution: will not kill an adult unless an amount from 2 tablespoons to 2 cups is ingested.

However, this 60-year-old law for determining poison risk is grossly outdated, since many modern household cleaning and disinfectant products can kill you. Many newer products are particularly dangerous to have around children, whose increased sensitivity to their toxic effects was not taken into account in the 1960 law. More than 300 children are treated for poisoning from these products each day in emergency departments across the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with, on average, two children dying. In fact, accidental poisonings from cleaners and disinfectant has increased by 20% in the first quarter of 2020 as compared to rates from 2018 and 2019, according to one CDC report. Researchers believe the increase coincides with stay-at-home orders and guidelines to clean hands and surfaces to prevent COVID-19 infection.1

Disinfecting Versus Cleaning

One of the most important ways to reduce exposure to some of the strongest, more toxic chemicals is to first decide how aggressively you need to clean vs. disinfect! For example, cleaning refers to the removal of dirt and germs from surfaces, but does not necessarily kill germs. BUT, by removing them, it lowers their numbers and the risk of spreading infection (the amount of virus you are exposed to matters). Removal of germs, the vast majority of which cause no harm to human health, can be done with products that are a lot less harmful to the human body than stronger chemicals used to remove infectious bacteria and viruses. For simple cleaning, we can use safe, effective cleaners such as bar and liquid soap made without fragrance, coloring, preservative, and that can contain anti-bacterial chemicals that are not necessary for basic cleaning.

Disinfecting, on the other hand, refers to using chemicals to kill germs on surfaces, but this involves using chemicals with much stronger, and potentially lethal, ingredients. Disinfectants are chemicals that can have serious effects on human health that may become apparent after short-term as well as long-term use. Bleach is one example, where this strong disinfecting chemical can cause short term health issues like cough (bronchospasm), shortness of breath, and even trigger an asthma attack. Long-term use may increase risk of thyroid gland dysfunction and other endocrine disorders if protection for skin contact, inhalation, and ventilation of the use area, are not managed properly.2 The important point is that unlike simple cleaning products, disinfectants are designed to kill organisms.

With the Covid-19 virus, disinfection is critical to reduce spread of the virus, especially on door handles, light switches, table and counter surfaces, and arms of chairs, so both a diluted household bleach solution or an alcohol solution (think “rubbing” alcohol or isopropyl alcohol, which are not drinkable) with at least 70% alcohol should be effective.

Diluted household bleach solutions should be used with extreme care to effectively disinfect SARS-CoV-2 on a variety of surfaces, which requires people to follow manufacturer’s instructions for application and proper ventilation. Check to ensure the product is not past its expiration date, which could reduce strength and effectiveness. Unexpired household bleach will be effective against coronaviruses when properly diluted. Never mix household bleach with ammonia or any other cleanser.
Avoid handling bleach if you have a history of asthma, COPD, emphysema or other lung conditions. Use skin protection (rubber gloves), eye protection (clear mask, eyeglasses, sunglasses, or swim goggles) when handling bleach, and make sure the room is well ventilated and/or windows are open, and no children or pets are present.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the US recommends this bleach solution mixture:

5 tablespoons (1/3rd cup) bleach per gallon of water or
4 teaspoons bleach per quart of water.

Links to EPA’s ‘List N’ and CDC list for effective disinfecting products:

Cleaning and Disinfection for Households
Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)

Long-term use of a strong disinfectant should be carefully considered. If it is not necessary to disinfect the area, you can use a variety of safe, effective cleaning products. Nowadays, there is never a reason to use unsafe products, there are just too many good products available! Look up safe products at EWG’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning …or just make your own, using simple ingredients such as white vinegar, real lemon juice, sea salt for scrubbing, castile soap, 100% organic lavender oil.

We provide many “do-it-yourself” recipes for making safe cleaning solutions, and also discuss in our newly released consumer guidebook, Non-Toxic: Guide to Living Healthy in a Chemical World, the reality is that in the U.S., with the exception of products with older known hazardous ingredients, today, manufacturers of cleaning products and disinfectants are NOT required to list the full ingredient panel of their products. Cleaning products producers are also not responsible for supplying information about any testing or toxicity findings for the products that they create, because in the U.S., they are protected as a trade secret. In the event of an accidental poisoning, even poison control centers are unable to access information about the ingredient details of the product ingested. While industries argue that protecting their profits from products by keeping ingredients secret is essential, not informing consumers about chemicals in these products that have been shown to cause harm is unacceptable.

Health Effects from Cleaning Product Ingredients

Researchers have shown health effects in both animal and human studies for several classes of cleaning ingredient chemicals. Phthalates, a class of chemicals added for fragrance or ‘perfume’, are intended to increase the shelf life of the product’s odor. Research shows that phthalate exposure during pregnancy has been associated with developmental abnormalities in both animal and human studies.3 ‘Anti-bacterial’ chemicals, such as Triclosan, the most widely known antimicrobial, are registered with the EPA as pesticides. Triclosan is marketed under more than a dozen different names, including Microban, Irgasan, Biofresh, Lexol-300, Ster-Zac, Bactroban, and Cloxifenolum.  Antibiotic chemicals, such as triclosan, are readily absorbed through human skin and are often detected in blood. In fact, 75% of urine samples4 and 97% of breast milk samples in the United States and Sweden were found to include triclosan. After only one shower using a body wash containing triclosan, researchers found blood levels of triclosan immediately increased! Paraben and quaternary ammonium compounds are among other classes of chemical additives raising concern, especially now with the coronavirus. These unregulated chemicals may pose serious short and long term health risks, and they are particularly dangerous for fetuses and should be avoided by pregnant women.

Cleaning and disinfectant products are now being used in greater quantities (using ‘foggers’), over a wider variety of surfaces, and are used among workers (occupational risk) and lay people (teachers, administrators e.g.), who may not have experience using these stronger chemicals. Perhaps of greatest concern is the now pervasive use of many powerful disinfectant chemicals in environments such as schools and day care centers where the evidence for safety has yet to be fully elucidated, and where vulnerable students with history of asthma, or vaping may likely experience increased risk for lung injury from repetitive, long-term exposure, thus placing them at increased risk of dying from COVID-19.4,5

And the effects of constant spraying of disinfectant chemicals in outdoor venues, such as restaurants, sidewalks, over neighborhoods (via drones) and public spaces has not gone unnoticed. Adverse effects on the environment and an increase in death of wildlife is yet another downstream effect from the pervasive use of many chemical cleaners, which make their way into local bodies of water (streams, lakes, aquifers), and according to the WHO, can deleterious effects on our natural surroundings, as well as making its way into drinking water for humans and wildlife.6

 General Rules for ‘safe cleaning’?

The ‘less is more approach’ is always best. Buy and use fewer products.  Dispense with the use of fabric softener, dryer sheets, and air fresheners. This is the first step to eliminate hundreds of undisclosed chemicals that may be harmful to your health. Clearly, you cannot rely on statements on product labels to assess the safety of these products, since they are essentially unregulated. Buy the products with the least ingredients in the product, and with most ingredients you can recognize.

In general, it’s wise to avoid products that contain ammonia, chlorine bleach, quaternary ammonium or “quats”, and non-chlorine bleach substitutes such as oxygen bleach, which are corrosive and irritating to skin. Avoid use of air fresheners, carpet powders, cleaning products with bleach and other lung irritants, and products containing fragrance or perfume. Limonene and other citrus fragrances are often added to cleaning products and should be avoided because of their ability to form formaldehyde when used with ozone in the air. Also, look for companies that are reputable for not only having ingredients safe for the planet (no microbeads or nanoparticles used for instance), but also use ingredients safe for human health. Look up your cleaning products on the internet or just make your own!

Bottom Line:

Cleaning products in the U.S. are under minimal regulatory oversight and contain chemicals known to cause many health issues. Avoid buying harmful cleaning products to begin with, purchase products checked on reliable online sources, or make your own cleaners with basic, inexpensive natural ingredients. Open windows to clean out odors, spot clean spills and messes at the source, and throw in some old-fashioned elbow grease instead of relying on a toxic chemical fix. And finally, do not try to mask odors with air fresheners that release toxic chemicals into the air you breathe in your home and at work. As we move into this ‘brave new world’ with COVID-19, be judicious with using disinfectant chemicals over the use of cleaning agents, and consult vetted resources, such as the Environmental Working Group’s list for safe cleaning products as well as the CDC and EPA lists for effective disinfectant products.

About the Authors

Aly Cohen, MD is a board-certified rheumatologist, integrative medicine, and environmental health expert, and creator of the environmental health and wellness platform, TheSmartHuman.com. She is working to create ‘environmental health’ curricula to be available to high school students nationally. For more information, go to Dr. Cohen’s environmental health and prevention platform, TheSmartHuman.com and follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, The Smart Human, and sign up for The Smart Human newsletter and listen to the newly launched, The Smart Human podcast.

Dr. Frederick vom Saal, PhD is professor of neuro- and reproductive biology, who’s decades of research is largely responsible for the removal of the endocrine disruptor, bisphenol A (BPA) from plastic baby bottles in the U.S. in 2012.

Dr. Cohen and vom Saal’s new guidebook, in the Dr. Weil’s Healthy Living Guides series, Non-Toxic: Guide to Living Healthy in a Chemical World, published by Oxford University Press is available now, in stores and online. This new book is an invaluable resource to living cleaner and greener in our modern environment, and teaches readers how to reduce chemical and radiation exposures by recognizing potential threats. Non-Toxic is designed to be referred to again and again for its relevant, cost-effective, and practical ways to reduce exposure and thereby lower risk for developing a variety of environmentally associated illnesses, to assist in improving people’s health and even prevent illness, including COVID-19.

Stobbe M. US lockdowns coincide with rise in poisonings from cleaners. Associated Press. https://apnews.com/5621611ac1e1c04de3.... Published 2020. Accessed2020.
Rogan WJ, Paulson JA, Baum C, et al. Iodine deficiency, pollutant chemicals, and the thyroid: new information on an old problem. Pediatrics. 2014;133(6):1163-1166.
Dutta S, Haggerty DK, Rappolee DA, Ruden DM. Phthalate Exposure and Long-Term Epigenomic Consequences: A Review. Front Genet. 2020;11:405-405.
Wittenberg A. PANDEMIC: Toxic cleaners pose new risks as schools reopen. Environment & Energy News. https://www.eenews.net/stories/106370.... Published 2020. Accessed August 16, 2020.
vom Saal F, Cohen A. How toxic chemicals contribute to COVID-19 deaths. Environmental Health News. https://www.ehn.org/toxic-chemicals-c.... Published 2020. Accessed July 2, 2020.
Roth A. Wildlife deaths from coronavirus disinfectant use alarm scientists. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/an.... Published 2020. Accessed August 17, 2020.

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Reflection:

 We know after sheltering-in-place for months to avoid COVID-19 that our lives have been changed perhaps forever. We hear mostly about what’s broken, what’s difficult, and depressing. But there is another perspective of this reality to consider.

In 2003 I wrote The Legacy Workbook for the Busy Woman, where in Chapter 2 “Embracing Our Everyday Selves” I introduced the Greek goddess Hestia, Zeus’ sister. She was the goddess of hearth, home, and temple. Her symbol was sacred fire, source of light, warmth, and safety. Fire, not only essential in homemaking and mothering, also represented spirit, the light of internal meaning.

By demeaning “women’s work” in the 19th and 20th centuries, in order to compete to be “just like men,” women lost something valuable. COVID offers us the opportunity to do a rebalance, reclaiming a lost part of ourselves. Is it any wonder that grocery stores ran out of yeast this spring? Women had returned to their kitchens baking bread as their grandmothers once did.

My neighbor, a fast moving and rising manager in a major corporation, has been working at home since March. She hopes the change is permanent. Slowed by the virus, she’s had time to plant and weed her garden, time to read daily to her 3 year old son, Gio, time to hang washed bedding in the sun, bake cookies, and call her Mom. Intermittently during the workday she returns to her compute to attend a daily Zoom meetings with her co-workers. What she described was that COVID had given her the opportunity to rebalance her priorities … rediscover that her home and family are not afterthoughts, but a most important part of her identity and values.

“Our life’s mission may very well be hidden in the simple routine the we have come to devalue . . .There is holiness and meaning in even the most mundane tasks.”

– Rabbi Naomi Levy

Re-owning devalued characteristics of ourselves, becoming more of ourselves and experiencing ourselves as multi-dimensional, perhaps more whole, is one of the potential gifts of this pivotal time. Becoming our authentic selves is a lifelong task, formed like basalt cooling gradually after blasting out of the fires of a violent volcano (“COVID”) and transforming what was into what is. As our past forms the present, as our history and values mature, and as the contextual pressures of our environment reshape us even further, sheltering-in-place may be the modern woman’s best gift from COVID.

“Home is where my dignity is.”

– Irshad Manji

Taking Action:

1. Make a two-part list: on one side of a piece of paper, list domestic activities you enjoy (for example hanging laundry in the sun); on the other side, list domestic activities you dislike, find boring or lacking in meaning (for example, turning the family’s socks right side out). Or instead perhaps differentiate by listing “the ordinary domestic things you love” and “the ordinary domestic things you don’t love, but would dearly miss should your life be at risk.”

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.”

– Helen Keller

2. Muse and write for 15-30 minutes, your purpose to explore your domestic preferences, passions, gifts and talents. Something you took for granted or thought meaningless may awaken new interest or old memories. Recall your mother’s and grandmothers’ domestic and creative talents, and attitudes. Then muse about what domestic activities you particularly value and want to be part of your future daily life.

“You need only claim the events of your life to make yourself yours.”

– Florida Scott-Maxwell

3. After you’ve written for yourself, consider writing a legacy letter to women of younger and future generations about your personal domestic values and your sense of how the domestic has been in times past and continues now to have the possibility of spiritual meaning for our culture.

“The spiritual journey is the soul’s life commingling with ordinary life.”

– Christina Baldwin

“May the Greek goddess, Hestia, and COVID-19 be sources of blessing for you. May a new freedom of attitude and action be a gift to you in this pivotal time, and to the women who come after you.”

– Rachael Freed

Rachael Freed, LICSW, senior fellow, Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing, University of Minnesota, is the author of Your Legacy Matters, Women’s Lives, Women’s Legacies: Passing Your Beliefs & Blessings to Future Generations and Heartmates: A Guide for the Partner and Family of the Heart Patient. Rachael can be found at [email protected] and www.life-legacies.com

The post The Legacy Of Hearth And Home appeared first on DrWeil.com.

Reflection:

Do you remember being a child of four or five wondering about the puffy white clouds floating in a perfect blue sky as you lay in the sweet-smelling grass? Or your wonder as you freed a minutes old butterfly newly born from its chrysalis? Or your wonder the first time you rode a two–wheeler or paddled a canoe or heard a symphony live? Those moments of awe and curiosity, the wonders of life that we experienced as young children, seem uncapturable today.

Yet ‘wonder’ is a gift and a legacy available to everyone that we can pass on to those who will come after us. We just need to reawaken it in ourselves, nourish it with our attention, and experience it (and share it).  Certified Legacy Facilitators have been meeting on Zoom since May to document our responses to the twin pandemics we’ve been exposed to. In July I invited them to write about WONDER, both a noun and a verb, with complex meanings: the first relates to curiosity: “wondering why or how.” The second refers to “awe and amazement.”

As I began my writing I found myself wondering at the power of John Lewis’ life and the awe I felt about him; but I also found myself curious about how he’d maintained his dignity, strength, and love when for fifty years he’d been spat upon, beaten, and imprisoned. I further wondered if I would’ve had his strength given his circumstances.

Thinking about his circumstances, I wondered how I would have related to what Jews experienced during the Holocaust. Would I have had the courage and dignity to go on when I’d lost my name, my family, my spiritual community, and experienced the brutality of humiliation, beatings, starvation, and worse?

John Lewis’ answer was love. He wrote: “Anchor the eternity of love in your own soul and embed this planet with goodness. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won. . . .”

But I admitted in my wondering that I didn’t believe I’d ever have the largesse to love humanity as John Lewis and Holocaust survivors did . . .. My wondering grew bigger than simple curiosity; it related to what my life and its purpose is. It’s not a new question, but what felt new was honestly letting myself look inside, taking off my masks.

After my writing I felt neither happy nor pleased with myself, but cleaner, more honest, less naïve. The surprise and wonder I experienced as I wrote honestly for myself was worth the unmasking I did, and now I will turn my curiosity and awe, my wonder, into a legacy letter for my grandchildren and theirs.

Taking Action:

Take some time to muse about the wonder you experienced as a child. Allow yourself to visit your world today opening to wonder, though it may be of an entirely different nature than you experienced back then.
Reflect on these thoughts: The National Book Award winner, Ta-Nehisi Coates, wrote, “I wanted to learn to write, which was ultimately, still, as my mother had taught me, a confrontation with my own innocence, my own rationalizations.” And Fr. Richard Rohr wrote: “…our thoughts and actions become more mature…only when we begin to question our own viewing ‘platform.’”
Consider your own experience of wondering, perhaps a gift of being sheltered-in-place without our usual diversions and distractions of this unique moment.
Write to those you love about your experience, values, and feelings. Document your experience of wonder, then and now. Close your letter with a blessing of love.

May we all be enriched by wonder, its memory and the wonders all around us today, and may we grow by writing honestly for ourselves and those who will follow us, and may our wonder help build a world of love for everyone,

– Rachael Freed

Rachael Freed, LICSW, senior fellow, Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing, University of Minnesota, is the author of Your Legacy Matters, Women’s Lives, Women’s Legacies: Passing Your Beliefs & Blessings to Future Generations and Heartmates: A Guide for the Partner and Family of the Heart Patient Rachael Freed [email protected] and www.life-legacies.com

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By Myles Spar, M.D. – The recent difference in impact of COVID-19 between men and women, with men being more likely to get seriously ill and to die of the virus than women, has highlighted a greater fact about the difference in life expectancy between the genders. We take it for granted that women live longer than men. This is the case in over 98 percent of countries in the world. In the United States, average life expectancy is almost five years longer for women than for men (76.3 years for men vs. 81.1 years for women). Almost five years! Why? Why is it that for every major cause of mortality that affects both men and women, men die faster?

Are men genetically programmed to die sooner than women? Is it determined in our genes that men develop cancer and heart disease more often than women? No. Men have a 60 percent higher chance of developing cancer and a 40 percent higher chance of dying from cancer than women, even when you leave out gender-specific cancers like breast, cervical, and prostate cancers. In fact, men have an increased risk of mortality, both cancer-related and non-cancer-related, at all ages. Of the top ten causes of death in the United States, men are winning in nine of them.

This difference in lifespan between men and women has been relatively unexamined because it has been assumed to be based on biology. But this does not appear to be the case. For one, the extent of the gender gap in life expectancy changes across time and across countries. In the United States, the gap has been narrowing, from 7.8 years in 1979 to 4.8 years in 2011. If the gender gap were encoded in our genes, it would not be changing so much over time. The change is thought to be due to women increasingly taking on stresses and habits that used to affect mostly men, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, and working outside the home, while men are still less likely to lead a health-promoting lifestyle. Clearly there is more to the gender gap than our genes.

Perhaps masculinity itself is killing men. It seems that doctor avoidance, risk-taking behavior, and stress may be the best explanations for the gender gap. It is true that men just don’t go to the doctor. Men are twice as likely as women to say they do not have a usual source of healthcare, and men attend half as many preventive care visits. This means there are only half as many opportunities to screen men for high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, substance abuse, cigarette smoking, depression, and anxiety. Not identifying such risks means fewer chances to intervene in a disease process before it results in a heart attack, a stroke, diabetes, or cancer.

Male gender roles may play a part in making men feel that they should deal with symptoms or illness on their own. Just as men typically won’t ask for directions when lost, they may feel it is not “masculine” to seek help for potentially serious medical symptoms. But it is not all us guys’ fault—too often, the visit to our healthcare practitioner is perfunctory and unrevealing. The typical annual physical is unlikely to be beneficial, as has been shown by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Some healthcare providers, such as myself, are offering more impactful prevention-oriented annual exams, but most are just not changing the way they do yearly checkups. Still, to the extent that higher mortality can be explained by avoidance of the healthcare system, it is important to make resources available that are more relevant, impactful, and accessible to men.

As I write about in my book, Optimal Men’s Health, there is a need for an approach to men’s health that addresses a man’s specific concerns, such as sexual function, prostate issues, avoidance of heart disease, and maintaining healthy weight and optimal performance, in a way that is responsive, approachable, and thorough. A precision prevention model that focuses on working with men to help them achieve their goals by facilitating optimal health does just that.

What does a precision prevention approach look like? It is essentially an integrative medicine model, which uses science-based methods, focuses on prevention and the influence of lifestyle on health, and is open to new and cutting-edge paradigms, combining conventional therapies with complementary and alternative therapies while seeking natural and safer health solutions individualized to the goals of each patient. This book takes such an approach, which involves the use of the most advanced assessments of a patient’s current state of health and risks for future health problems, including genetic and other predictive testing.

Just as important, it starts with a man’s goals rather than merely his chief complaints. After all, health is the most significant influence on whether or not a man is optimally positioned to achieve his goals, such as performance at work, in bed, in the gym, or in the boardroom. In other words, most men respond better to recommendations around health behaviors that will help specifically with whatever goals matter to them, rather than an abstract goal of wellness. Specific goals that optimal health can foster might include being more energetic, being more “on” at work, being more sexually confident, looking better, or being a better father—so why not focus on such goals rather than a general concept of health solely for health’s sake? It’s much more motivating. When those goals are coupled with personalized risk assessments, the recommendations you get are much more likely to have an impact.

What Does He Want His Health For?

The tools of optimal health incorporate an integrative approach. There are 8 key levers that can be used to varying degrees to personalize a plan most likely to help a man achieve his goals.

Medical. This is the lever you’re most familiar with from traditional doctor recommendations and tests, including the use of prescription and over-the-counter medications.
Nutrition. Diet has a huge impact on health and is a powerful tool in your arsenal for achieving your goals.
Behaviors. Drinking, smoking, and things that interfere with sleep, such as excessive screen time, can waylay the achievement of what’s really important.
Stress and emotions. Feeling depressed, anxious, or stressed likewise can prevent anyone from achieving even the most basic progress toward health and overall goals. But there are powerful tools available for minimizing their impact.
Social. Engaging with a community, even one that fosters some competition, can be a very motivating and uplifting part of optimal health.
Physical activity. Staying active is perhaps the most powerful anti-aging tool we have.
Spiritual. This relates to having an identified goal or purpose. Feeling connected with some reason to pursue your goals is extremely motivating.
Environment. What and whom you surround yourself with can facilitate health—or add to your toxic burden.

The key is to pick ONE lever that is most likely to have the greatest inpact on a man’s goals, make a specific plan with metrics to tweak an aspect of that lever, and keep track of the outcomes that matter most. This system of starting with one pertinent change, measuring the change and monitoring the impact can be a powerful tool in getting men engaged and ultimately living healthier, longer lives.

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Excerpted from the book Optimal Men’s Health by Myles Spar, MD. Optimal Men’s Health is the first in the Dr. Weil’s Healthy Living Guides series and came out in 2020. You can learn more about Dr. Spar at www.drspar.com.

 

Kenneth D. Kochanek, Sherry L. Murphy, and Jiaquan Xu, “Deaths: Final Data for 2011,” National Vital Statistics Report 63, no. 3 (July 27, 2015), http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvs....

“Precision medicine” is a newer term frequently associated with treatment of serious illness, such as cancer, utilizing a personalized approach that targets therapies at an individual’s unique cancer type. However, precision medicine can also be used as a prevention technique, incorporating an assessment of unique health risks based on personal health history, current lifestyle, and genetic testing and involving the development of a personalized plan for disease prevention and optimal health maintenance.

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Reflection:

Living alone as I have for the past 22 years takes on new meaning as the weeks of sheltering-in-place crawl on. I’m a natural extrovert and over my lifetime have sought family and communities to nourish my soul and feel whole. Now I observe that my needing, hungering for, and appreciating community seems universal.

It didn’t take long for my family and communities to become adept (all ages) at using technology to gather. My home Al-Anon group meets weekly over Zoom. Our extended family and friends gathered on Zoom to celebrate Passover. My synagogue has been providing services and classes on Zoom for over a month, each rabbi leading from home. Service and social communities are connecting with technology. (I wish I’d had the foresight to buy Zoom stock in January).

Intuiting the need, I initiated three small communities this month: Being known as “the book granny” I invited my now older teen grandkids to participate in a reading group, providing them structure twice a week, the opportunity to see and catch up with cousins, and I get to read to them as I did when they were younger. Second, while organizing some pictures, I came across a century old photo of my maternal grandparents and their first three children. Deciding to share it with my remaining six cousins (ages 60s to 90s), I emailed it to them with an invitation to start an email community sharing how each of us is dealing with the pandemic. Enthusiastically received, we have now included our children, making the community inter-generational, and are planning a Zoom get together (some of us have not seen others since we were children!)

The third community just began; I invited all the certified legacy facilitators whom I’ve trained over the last decade to come together on Zoom to share ourselves and our work in legacy writing. My hope is that the work of this small professional community will be enriched beyond the personal gifts we’ll share and that we’ll plan to meet again.

I’ve also been reading about the importance of community, and I’ve received several prayers and poems, some of which are here as space permits before we write ourselves as legacy writers:

“The earliest and most basic definition of community – of tribe – would be the group of people that you would both help feed and help defend. A society that doesn’t offer its members the chance to act selflessly in these ways isn’t a society in any tribal sense of the word….”

– Sebastian Junger

”. . . . disasters thrust people back into a more ancient, organic way of relating. Disasters create a ‘community of sufferers’ that allows individuals to experience an immensely reassuring connection to others. As people come together to face an existential threat, class [and other] differences are temporarily erased ….”

– Charles Fritz

“. . . we are saying thank you faster and faster with nobody listening we are saying thank you we are saying thank you and waving dark though it is.”

– W.S. Merwin

Taking Action:

Consider the importance of community in your life – in what ways it nourishes you and provides you with a sense of. belonging and caring.
Reflect on ways you’ve participated in community life – giving and taking, focusing on others’ and your needs – ways you plan to foster community in our pandemic and post-pandemic world.
Translate your reflections, thoughts, and feelings into a legacy letter for someone(s) in a younger generation with the goal of awakening their awareness of the power and need for community.

“May you bless communities with your love and action, and may you be blessed in return as you actively participate in community.”

– Rachael Freed

Rachael Freed, LICSW, senior fellow, Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing, University of Minnesota, is the author of Your Legacy Matters, Women’s Lives, Women’s Legacies: Passing Your Beliefs & Blessings to Future Generations and Heartmates: A Guide for the Partner and Family of the Heart Patient Rachael Freed [email protected] and www.life-legacies.com

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Facing a hard decision? Does uncertainty of outcome immobilize you? Humans can spend an excessive amount of time and a tremendous amount of energy making difficult choices between confusing options. The problem is, that there may be trade-offs that require compromise. Even when making a simple decision between healthy foods for the body and unhealthy foods to satisfy cravings we may run into a perceived impasse.

Ask yourself:

Do I routinely pay attention to my gut or intuition?
Am I problem solving?
Am I contemplating all viable options – even the hard ones?
Am I avoiding a difficult conversation?
Do I allow myself the space to fail? And then try again?
Do I end up regretting choices I’ve made?

If some routine decisions tend to weigh you down and consume lots of time and energy, think about new ways you might approach a decision or choice.

Listen to your heart, your inner compass.
Be patient, be confident.
Be non-judgmental of yourself.
Be true.

Give yourself time to think through a decision but understand when you’ve begun to overthink something. Then trust in your life-long personal values; will this decision reinforce your strong foundation, your life’s purpose? Or will it take away from those?

Talk it through with trusted friends and family: Ask for perspective, advice, a sounding board. Meditate and listen to your inner guide. Journal through your uncertainty. And finally? Set a time-frame!

The post Making Hard Choices appeared first on DrWeil.com.

A Message From Andrew Weil, M.D.

More than 300 million Americans have been told to stay at home for the next few weeks and maybe longer because of the nationwide spread of the coronavirus, COVID-19. This isn’t easy for most of us, but fortunately most “stay at home” orders allow for some time outdoors – for grocery shopping, to walk dogs or play with children or to get exercise that’s not possible indoors. However, when out for a walk or run it is essential to stay at least six feet away from anyone who is not a member of your household. There’s an important reason for this “six feet” recommendation: when you stand too close to a person who coughs or sneezes, you’re in range to inhale any droplets of liquid they may spray out. These droplets could contain the coronavirus.

Given the stay at home orders, I recommend taking as many walks as possible, and gardening if you can. If you are able to manage some time outside in the mornings, you may find improvements in the quality of your overnight sleep.

I know many of us tend to turn to comfort foods at times when we’re anxious and stressed. Try to be extra vigilant about eating while isolating at home. Focus on planning and preparing healthy, well-balanced meals and avoid snacking out of boredom.

You also may find that practicing meditation daily will help quiet an overactive, agitated mind and can help relieve cabin fever. Try not to take out your frustrations on your spouse, children or any frontline workers with whom you may need to interact. Focus on staying calm.

Being home does have some pluses. It is an opportune time to catch up on reading, to clean, organize and figure out what is essential and what really isn’t. And try to build some fun into your days, maybe with puzzles and games. Try to limit television and streaming to a manageable amount. Bingeing on anything is never a good idea, and bingeing on news and mindless shows can waste a lot of time that otherwise could be used for productive introspection.

Stay safe,

Andrew Weil, M.D.

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Famous writers have written novels, diaries, and journals about their experiences and about their world during painful times that affected millions. Here are a few:

Oryx and Crak, 2003,  by Margaret Atwood is a novel describing a world devastated by a plague that wiped out much of humanity;  Namwali Serpell wrote The Old Drift (2019) about the AIDS epidemic in Zambia; Severance (2018)  by Ling Ma is about a fictional epidemic that taps into anxieties about pandemics; Physician Chris Adrian wrote The Children’s Hospital (2006) about apocalyptic and miraculous events during a plague.

Some of the older books and classics include: The Plague by Albert Camus, about the cholera epidemic in Algeria in 1849; Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author of Love in the Time of Cholera said, “Plagues are like imponderable dangers that surprise people; they seem to have a quality of destiny.” Samuel Pepys’ Diary is about the plague in 1659-61 (check Google for a listing of free PDF downloads). Daniel Defoe wrote a novel in 1772 about the Bubonic Plague from 50 years earlier: A Journal of the Plague Year. Anne Frank journaled through her quarantine in the attic in Amsterdam, never dreaming that millions of people would be interested in her thoughts and feelings and they still are, almost 75 years later.

For the rest of us, who are not famous, don’t even consider ourselves talented writers, we can write a journal for ourselves, and maybe to share sometime in the future with family or future generations.

In a journal, there is no responsibility to be interesting, artistic, or even grammatically correct. Your journal may never be famous, but it can document your story of this extraordinary time in history, help you structure and organize your time, serve to counteract negative feelings of hopelessness and loneliness.

Journal Writing Tips

Here are some tips to structure your journaling if the empty page or totally free-form writing is a barrier. Use any or all of these whenever they strike you as worthy of your time, thoughts and writing:

Something I noticed today that I never noticed before, about myself, others, my environment
Something that was prominent today in the larger world
Something I found myself thinking about today
About my feeling sad (lonely, anxious, afraid) today
About how I’m coping physically and psychologically being quarantined
Ways that I feel myself changing and being changed by the pandemic
Ways that I and my family are connecting while quarantined separately
Something I feel grateful for today
Something I prayed for today
Thoughts I have about: how our world will be different when this ends
Something about the contacts I made today
Creative celebrations I’ve organized or participated while in quarantine
Something I did for someone else today: (a woman who lives in my building has been making masks for neighbors, and, she intends to make masks for workers – in groceries, pharmacies, for delivery people, etc. in our community.)

Writing: offers us something to do regularly as well as the opportunity to document creative ways people have celebrated during “sheltering in place.” (My son-in-law organized a drive-by birthday party for my daughter on her 50th birthday in early April 2020. About 25 cars came rolling by, honking and displaying “happy birthday” signs. We rolled down our windows – it was a gorgeous afternoon – and wished her a happy birthday. She said not only was she surprised, but she felt loved and cared for, and that it was her best birthday ever, one she’d remember always.)

How Journaling Can Help

Journal writing:

Can lead us somewhere we didn’t even know we were going
Can clear our feelings
Can stimulate our creativity
Can surprise us with new ideas
Can keep us connected to others and the larger world
Can clarify our values
Can clarify what’s true not just our imagination running wild
Can lift our spirits.

May your writing bring you satisfaction, joy, and peace,

Rachael Freed (founder of Life Legacies)

Rachael Freed, LICSW, senior fellow, Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing, University of Minnesota, is the author of Your Legacy Matters, Women’s Lives, Women’s Legacies: Passing Your Beliefs & Blessings to Future Generations and Heartmates: A Guide for the Partner and Family of the Heart Patient Rachael Freed [email protected] and www.life-legacies.com

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