17 minute read
Golden Years
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Many aspects of ageing can be proactively mitigated with Functional Medicine and Swiss Biological Medicine methods, rather than waiting to treat individual symptoms of ageing-related diseases or only addressing the external appearances of ageing. At LifeClinic and LifeHub, doctors and practitioners take a scientific wholebody approach to Anti-Ageing and Medical Wellness. For example, working with partners like Deep Longevity, they use Artificial Intelligence to help determine biological age, which can lead to better lifestyle interventions and treatments for disease prevention and longevity.
LifeClinic doctors might also recommend special laboratory tests that are much more detailed than your regular “annual health check,” and design customized treatments that might include diet and lifestyle changes, supplements, detoxification, IV or other innovative therapies, that could help you look, feel, and perform like a younger you.
Below are some common ageing-related complaints.
TIREDNESS OR SLEEPING PROBLEMS Chronic tiredness or poor quality sleep can be due to an imbalance of your hormones. Often seen in fast-paced Hong Kong, your body could be releasing too many stress hormones - leading to your feeling “wired” all day, and sleeping problems at night. If this continues for a long time, your main adrenaline-producing organs, the adrenal glands, might also become depleted and “burnt out”. This is why many people in highly competitive industries like finance and law are often tired. LifeClinic Says: It is important to investigate the many underlying root causes of why an individual is feeling exhausted all the time. In addition to a detailed look at dietary and lifestyle habits, we might also test for hormone levels. Any imbalances found could then be corrected with a combination of diet and lifestyle recommendations, nutritional supplements or sometimes bio-identical hormone creams or capsules. Many clients who might previously have been tired for years can experience a noticeable improvement in their energy levels and sleep quality within weeks of starting treatment. DIGESTIVE ISSUES AND FOOD INTOLERANCES Allergies and food sensitivities are on the rise worldwide, and it is increasingly common for people to find they have developed a new allergy or intolerance to foods they never had a problem with before. The culprit can often be poor gut health. A healthy gut biome is essential for the immune system to correctly identify and neutralise bacteria, parasites, and viruses, while not over-reacting to innocuous substances like gluten, dairy or eggs!
LifeClinic Says: If you have itchy and watery eyes or a congested nose in the mornings, or if you frequently feel bloated after eating, you can consider having a blood test to check for food sensitivities or allergies. An experienced Functional Medicine doctor or practitioner may also recommend an advanced stool test, called GI Map, to determine if there is enough good bacteria to protect the gut, if there are sufficient enzymes to digest your food, and if there are any signs of “leakiness” or inflammation that may have given rise to new food allergies or intolerances. A nutritionist will then be able to guide you through what you should and should not eat, and prescribe additional treatments if necessary. Most people who follow this protocol find their allergies or digestive symptoms improve significantly within a couple of months. DETERIORATING MENTAL PERFORMANCE In order to protect our brains and stay sharp as we grow older, it is important to identify and address things that might be negatively affecting it, such as harmful diets and
TO LIVE & PERFORM BETTER, FOR LONGER
lifestyles, weak beneficial gut bacteria, or deficiencies in vital hormones or nutrients. Studies out of Harvard University have shown that mental ageing may also be related to declining levels of a molecule called NAD+, and that restoring these to healthy levels could significantly help. LifeClinic Says: If your memory seems to be much worse or it is taking you much longer to do simple mental tasks that used to be easy, consider consulting an experienced Functional Medicine doctor or practitioner. Once the likely underlying causes are identified, they could be removed, and a personalised treatment protocol could be followed to restore your mental performance.
DETERIORATING PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE As we move into our 40’s and beyond, it can take more effort to get going in the mornings, our endurance and stamina may decline, injuries seem to happen more, and sex might not feel as important or spontaneous as it used to be.
LifeClinic Says: We all age, but we do not all age at the same rate. Using physical age markers and special blood tests, it is now possible to estimate your biological age. This can give an indication of how well we are ageing. If you are ageing too quickly, a personalised Medical Anti-Ageing treatment program could increase your overall energy and performance.
1/F-3/F, The Loop, 33 Wellington St., Central. T: 2881-8131. lifeclinic.com.hk, thelifehub.com
LifeClinic or LifeHub?
While LifeClinic is an anti-ageing medical clinic, LifeHub is a walk-in medical wellness centre that offers easy and affordable testing, products and treatments to help optimise your health.
VISIT LIFECLINIC IF... You are interested in medical anti-ageing, and in preventing the diseases and the mental and physical decline that can come with getting older. You have a persistent chronic ailment that you just can’t seem to get to the bottom of. You have a challenging condition like
Cancer, Parkinson's or Dementia, and are looking for additional treatment options other than those you have so far been offered. You need a family doctor who will give enough time to actually listen to you.
VISIT LIFEHUB IF... You are generally healthy but wish to improve yourself more and be the best you can be. You are a “biohacker” and are interested in trying the newest tests and treatments to maximise your health and performance. You are interested in high-quality supplements. You are interested in external anti-ageing or aesthetics, so that you can look your best at all times. You prefer quick off-the-shelf solutions facilitated by Health Coaches.
As Time Goes By
We’re all ageing - but that doesn’t mean you need to feel old. Carla Thomas asks the experts what changes we can make now in order to live better, healthier lives.
As much as we might not like to hear it, we’re all getting older by the second. Time waits for no man or woman; in fact, since you started reading this article, you have aged - however infinitesimally.
Ageing is universal, a shared condition that hopefully most of us understand we are all subject to. But despite how unavoidable it is, many of us still think about ageing in abstract terms - something that exists but isn’t applicable to our own bodies just yet.
Part of the problem why many people approach (or avoid approaching, more accurately) the issue of ageing, is because of its negative connotations. “I think one of the biggest misconceptions that people have about getting older is believing that everybody ages badly,” says Dr. Laurena Law. “It doesn't have to be that way - you can actually age really well!”
Dr. Law, 45, is a medical doctor and ageing specialist at LifeClinic, an integrative health clinic located in Central. Certified by the American Association of Anti-ageing Medicine as an Advanced Fellow in Antiageing, Metabolic and Functional Medicine, she has spent most of her career exploring how our bodies age, and what we can do to make the process more comfortable.
“I found that in medical school it was all about medication and what to prescribe for problems after they already exist, but I wanted to take a more preventive and holistic approach so I went into further training to study how we can optimise things like our diet, exercise and hormones in order to improve the ageing process.”
Dr. Law says that we already know what accelerates ageing, listing chronic inflammation, unhealthy diet and poor gut health as some of the most common culprits behind many age-related diseases. The key to slowing the process, she says, is a holistic approach that takes into account all the different ways our bodies start to change as we get older.
“I think a lot of people mistake chronic symptoms, like weight gain or lack of energy, for ageing, when in fact it could be just a sub-optimal level diet, exercise, recovery or sleep.”
Tricia Yap is the founder of Limitless, a movement and functional medicine facility that focuses on helping clients navigate life stages with optimum wellbeing. She mainly trains clients who are in their 40s and beyond, and says that for many, their goal is not to look good in the mirror, but to maintain their physical abilities in terms of strength and range of motion.
“We have people coming in saying, ‘I just don't want to have that back pain anymore’ or ‘I want to be able to pick up my kids’. They want to be able to still do the sports they did in their 30s, but they’re worried because they’re going into their 60s, and that’s where preventive medicine is actually really helpful.”
Tricia Yap
Yap, whose oldest client is 70 years old, says that she’s noticed that women tend to de-prioritise their health more than men, particularly when they have young children. “We do see a drop-off when kids start going to primary school and there is a larger load on the primary caregiver. Maybe they are concentrating on their career and family, and their own health comes last, but when the children are in their late teens, that’s when women start to come back to their own needs.” Yap, who is 38, adds that as more women choose to have children later in life, it’s more important than ever for them to start taking the right preventative steps now to ensure a healthier future for themselves.
That’s something that Dawnna Wayburne, 66, has known, and practiced, for years. A former dancer, Wayburne says she was cognizant early on about ageing, and thought carefully about how to mitigate the effects. “I think it’s more common with dancers and people who work with their bodies to think about these things, because you have these expectations about what your body can demonstrate,” she says.
Wayburne owns a ballet studio in Discovery Bay and Isofit, a Central-based Pilates studio, and regularly trains clients there who are in their 70s and up in movement-based disciplines. These are aimed at increasing range of motion, enhancing flexibility and improving balance - all areas we tend to neglect - which can cause serious issues later on in life. She says she agrees that the key to longevity rests in prioritising one’s health earlier on, specifically in the form of daily fitness.
“I think it’s important to make exercise a habit, as early on as your teens,” says the studio owner, adding that she does an hour-long light workout every morning before her tea.
“Exercise often isn’t a built-in discipline; people are so exhausted these days, and physically or mentally taking the time to care for themselves often takes second place,” she adds.
“Making it a core part of your daily routine as soon as possible helps to prepare our bodies for what comes later. Even when you’re in your 50s and 60s, and things
Tricia Yap
start to ache or hurt, there are still ways of taking care of yourself.”
Wayburne says as she gets older, she’s also learning firsthand about what needs her senior clients may have. She has started incorporating more functional training, like being able to do a push-up, which she believes is essential to master in case of a serious fall at home alone.
Most importantly, Wayburne recommends setting the benchmark for one’s own health. Instead of comparing yourself to what others in their 60s can or cannot do, listen and trust in your body - something she learned after a back injury four years ago.
“When I was rehabilitating, doctors would say, ‘Look how well you move for a 60-year-old’ when it should have been how well am I moving for me. There is that ageist mindframe in society, so it becomes even more important to take control of your own health in your later years.”
So what aspects of wellbeing should we focus on now in order to reap the benefits later? If you want to increase your “wellspan” - that is, the number of years in your life in which you enjoy optimum energy, vibrancy and physical capability - start putting the work in now across these seven pillars.
1
MOBILITY & FLEXIBILITY
Changes in the quality of our spine and connective tissue happen naturally as we age, but that is actually compounded these days by modern workplace culture, which requires many of us to sit at computers for hours on end. Dr. Law says this causes worse problems, like back and neck tension and hip tightness, because we aren’t moving our major joints in a full range of movements throughout the day. “It's extremely important to focus on mobility and flexibility, because the risk of hip replacements and cervical disc degeneration increase as we get older,” she says. “In order to prevent that, we want to constantly have mobility throughout our spine and in our joints.”
2
STRENGTH
Dr. Law says that a common condition that tends to affect our strength as we age is sarcopenia, or a loss of skeletal muscle mass and function. “As we get older, we start to accumulate intramuscular fat, and at the same, we start losing density of muscle fibers,” she says. “Together, it amounts to quite a disproportionate loss of strength, which is why older people can often have issues with balance, and have a lot more falls related to that.” Including some form of strength-training, even simple body weight exercises like pushups, can help to counteract this process.
3
BALANCE
It’s not just a loss of muscle mass that can lead to falls. Dr. Law says that our central nervous system also changes as we age, slowing down our reaction times. This means that seemingly minor events, like stumbling on a crack in the sidewalk, can be less easily compensated for by our bodies, leading to a greater risk of injury. “That’s why it’s important to keep up physical activity,” she recommends. Wayburne agrees that balance and the fear of falling can play a big part in insecurities around ageing. Her best advice? “Challenge your balance every day by standing on one leg, and see if you can control your body’s position in space for a few minutes.”
4
NUTRITION
“One of the things that happens as we get older is that our digestive functions and stomach acids fall to half of what they used to be,” says Dr. Law. This in turn affects how we break down and absorb nutrients from food, making our diet choices even more important as we age. Dr. Law recommends consuming nutrient-dense foods, chewing thoroughly, and giving your body time to digest a meal. She also says that certain micronutrients - like iron, calcium and vitamin B12 - become harder for our bodies to absorb, and suggests taking supplements to correct any deficiencies.
6
SLEEP
People of all ages struggle with sleep quality, thanks to a profusion of blue light from smartphones and computer screens. In addition, about half the population have underactive pineal glands, which secrete the hormone melatonin that controls our sleep. But Dr. Law says the situation gets even worse for women as they age. “During menopause, women don’t have sufficient amounts of estrogen and progesterone to keep them asleep, so they tend to be more restless. By the time it’s over, they end up thinking it’s normal to have not slept deeply for years, but it’s not and there is help for that.” Dr. Laws recommends ensuring that you’re getting adequate amounts of amino acids such as tryptophan, glycine and vitamins B6, magnesium and zinc to support serotonin and melatonin production.
5
HORMONES
As Dr. Law says, it’s normal for our levels of hormones like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone to fall as we age. We commonly associate this with menopause, but it can actually start much earlier than that, in a process known as perimenopause. “Perimenopausal symptoms can start as early as our 30s and can range from mild to severe,” says Dr. Law. Symptoms include irritability, anxiety, vaginal and bladder symptoms, hot flashes, headaches and breast pain. “There is also an increased risk of bone density loss and rising cholesterol during this time, which can contribute to an increased risk of heart disease.”
7
SKIN
We also experience a loss of collagen and elasticity in our skin, which leads to signs of ageing like wrinkles. Dr Law says that there is a direct connection from our gut health to the state of our skin, and recommends taking probiotics to keep skin nourished with everything it needs to stay strong and supple well into our advanced years. “Our skin is actually a reflection of the internal state of our body, so it’s important to be mindful of it and pay attention to any signs you might notice.”
MOVE IT, MOVE IT
We asked Hanish Daryanani, a
geratric physiotherapist from Central Stanley Wellness, about the best way to prevent falls and injuries as we age. His advice? Practice “meaningful movement” - any activity that is fun and more importantly social - which keeps you accountable and doing it consistently. “Being older doesn’t mean being on your own; you can still be social and active!” he says. His top picks for meaningful movement activities in Hong Kong are:
1. HIKING: hit the trails with a friend, partner, or with a hiking enthusiast group.
2. ZUMBA: a low-intensity dance class is often fun and always social, plus they’re widely available in gyms, studios and parks.
3. YOGA: Work on your balance, core and body weight strength training in this breath-based practice.
4. TAICHI OR QIGONG: you’ll easily find a community of these Eastern disciplines here in Hong Kong.
Age Well with Yoga
Kishore kumar, co-founder of Prajna Yoga, explains how yoga can help to improve your wellbeing as you age.
Aging is an inevitable and natural part of life. First, we must respect and accept this. While getting older presents many gifts - maturity, grace, wisdom, experience, and perspective - it can also bring many challenges.
As we age, our physical mobility can decrease. One’s risk of illness such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer also increases. Emotionally and psychologically, with age one can be more prone to depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders. Memory can decline, balance can be impaired, and with that, your sense of self can suffer.
Healthy eating and Yoga can assist in preventing disease, injury, and keeping your physical body in good shape, while meditation and brain training exercises can keep one’s mind sharp. If struggle with pain, joint stress, imbalance, osteoarthritis, and other physical limitations, you can benefit from incorporating a yoga practice into their daily routine.
WHY START YOGA?
YOGA REDUCES ANXIETY
By focusing on the breath and slow movements, yoga can help trigger your parasympathetic nervous system, reducing stress and anxiety.
YOGA ENCOURAGES MINDFULNESS
By becoming mindful of not just your body, but also of your thoughts and emotions, you will become more connected to and mindful of your environment, community, and the world around you.
YOGA IMPROVES BALANCE AND STABILITY
Many yoga poses focus on balance and stability, which are both incredibly important as you age.
YOGA IMPROVES FLEXIBILITY AND JOINT HEALTH
Yoga’s easy moves keep you flexible while strengthening your muscles.
YOGA REDUCES HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
Yoga reduces oxidative stress in the elderly. Oxidative stress is one of the underlying causes of high blood pressure and, especially for seniors, is a strong risk factor for heart attacks.
Prajna Yoga has recently relocated to Shop -2, 3/F, Sing Shun Centre, 495 Castle Peak Road, Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon. Check out their new studio, offering Hot Yoga, Aerial Yoga, Wall Rope yoga, Chair Yoga and many more. Showers and lockers are provided.
