10 minute read
ANTI-AGING BENEFITS OF EXERCISE
from Absolute Living
by Eduardo Pena
By Kim Goletz
Photogra hy By Peter Jo
atha Ima es
Most people correlate exercise with weight loss, and it’s true that exercise can help you lose weight and maintain a healthy body composition. More importantly, though, exercise is a major contributor to your quality of life and important for your overall health. While we cannot stop or turn back time, exercise has anti-aging benefits that can help you feel and look younger.
Exercise can improve your sleep, boost your mood and decrease stress levels. For example, have you heard of the “runner’s high?” This is a real thing! When you exercise, your body releases endorphins. These endorphins help boost your mood, help relieve stress, and can reduce your risk of anxiety and depression. Regular exercise can help you feel more relaxed and can help improve your sleep. During sleep, your body repairs and restores itself, which can lessen the effects of aging. Exercising can also give you a sense of accomplishment and the satisfaction that you have done something good for yourself. This is empowering and good for the spirit.
Regular exercise can improve your health, give your immune system a boost, and lower your risk of disease. These affects can help you live longer and improve your quality of life. Exercise lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cholesterol problems, dementia and some cancers.
Exercise, particularly strength training, helps build strong, healthy muscles and improve bone health. This can improve your strength and posture, help you appear younger, improve your balance, and decrease your risk of falls and fall-related injuries.
There are some things to keep in mind in regards to exercise. Be sure to consult with your doctor before starting any exercise program. If you are unsure of how to exercise, ask your doctor or enlist the help of a trained professional, like a personal trainer. If you have never exercised before, be sure to start at a lower intensity and exercise for a shorter duration to prevent any injuries. Gradually increase the intensity and length of time until you reach the recommended amount of time and intensity of exercise.
Overall, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) recommends that adults 18-64 years old perform 150 total minutes each week of moderate intensity activity (a brisk walk), along with strength training that includes 2 or more days a week of muscle strengthening exercise. You can divide this throughout the entire week so it works best for you and your schedule. For example, you can
Kim Goletz is an Indy native, wife, mom, a practicing physician assistant, nutritionist, trainer, and founder of Refine YOU an online fitness and nutrition company. She has a lifelong passion for the health and fitness industries, and has dedicated her life to helping others. The Refine YOU blog provides fitness and nutrition tips, recipes, and tips on how to live a healthy lifestyle. Her mission with The Refine YOU Program is to help as many people as possible with customized nutrition and workouts to be the best and healthiest they can be.
do a brisk walk for 30 minutes 5 days a week and perform strength training workouts for 30 minutes twice weekly. The important thing to remember is to be sure to incorporate aerobic activity and strength training into your routine, not one or the other.
Most people feel overwhelmed when they try to incorporate exercise in their busy lifestyles. When you are trying to work exercise into your schedule, try to aim for no fewer than 2 times a week for 2-3 weeks. Once you are consistent with this schedule, then increase the amount of exercise in your schedule for another 2-3 weeks. These incremental changes allow you to create a habit and increase your chances of success. A lot of times, if you try to drastically change your routine, this can result in failure and frustration.
You do not need to go out of your way or spend a lot of money to exercise. Going to a gym or having a lot of equipment at home is not necessary. You can utilize free resources for aerobic exercise (exercise apps, YouTube videos, parks, your home or your neighborhood) and perform body weight exercises for strength training. However, having some equipment at home or going to a gym will give you more variety with your routines.
Exercise is not the fountain of youth, but it certainly has anti-aging benefits to help you feel and look younger. Making your health a priority and incorporating regular exercise into your lifestyle will do wonders for your mental and physical well-being. Be the healthiest YOU possible—mind, body, and spirit!
Jamie Walton
317-558-7444 geico.com/indy 5977 E 82nd Street Indianapolis ¡Hablamos Español!
By Writer Susa Salaz | Photogra hy By Gabrielle Cheikh Noel | Art ork By Eduardo Peña
DYNAMIC DUO
Drs. Patricia Grabinski, DC, and Peggy Solano, DC, are more than chiropractors. They are also sisters, business partners and patient-centered integrative practitioners passionate about serving the community and beyond at their Carmel healthcare facility, Function First.
Chiropractic care is a lot more than it is “cracked” up to be. At Function First, they explain it like this:
Chiropractic is a healthcare profession that concentrates on disorders of the musculoskeletal system, nervous system, and the effects of these disorders on an individual’s general health. Proper clinical consultation, examination, and diagnostic evaluation allows the practitioner to effectively diagnose and render a proper plan of care. Both acute and chronic conditions from falls and accidents, to repetitive stress injuries, as well as metabolic disorders respond to treatment. A plan of care will encompass on one or all of the following: manipulation, spinal decompression, rehabilitative exercise, nutritional metabolic analysis, as well as lifestyle management. All treatment is tailored and unique to the needs of each patient.
“We give people real, workable knowledge and help them build a lifestyle around their health,” explains Patty. The doctors bookend a trio of health-minded siblings—their middle-sister also works in the medical field, serving as a registered dietician in their home state of Wisconsin. Both were inspired at a young age by their neighbor, a chiropractor, who gave their sister regular spinal adjustments while she went through treatment for Crohn’s disease. They saw how expansive the benefits were for her and began to understand the importance of chiropractic care. Peggy began practice in New York with her husband Charles who is now deceased. It was in New York while attending Columbia University’s Integrative Medicine conference that she and her husband were inspired. After transitioning to Indianapolis, they opened one of the first integrative care centers. Patty joined them here first as an intern, eventually moving to her own office. Function First fuses over 60-years of combined chiropractic experience.
“People don’t realize that life catches up with them, and before you know it they are running after symptoms rather than proactively developing their health” says Peggy. Function First treats everything from simple sprains and strains to degenerative disc issues, including pre and post-surgical patients. They can often bridge general care received from a medical physician with complementary treatment protocols. “We find the best treatment cocktail for your condition that is going to keep you healthy and progressing,” explains Patty.
Dr. Cris Vieira, owner of Indy Vital, often works in collaboration with Function First to maximize the performance and wellness of mutual patients. “At Indy Vital we feel that it is very important to partner with other top-notch professionals in the Indianapolis area that are also using natural healing methods and an integrative approach,” Vieira says. Vieira, Grabinski and Solano are all excited about the partnership they have developed, and they are proud to enhance patient treatment plans and aid in healing journeys together.
Upon arrival at Function First I was pleased by the convenience of the commute, with a central location for all those living in Hamilton County. As I walked through the door I was immediately taken aback. I felt the healing energy from the colors of the rooms combined with the soft piano music played by the late Dr. Charles Solano. At every turn I saw results of successful cases, pictures of total body transformation, and words of encouragement from those who have changed their health. I witnessed proven results and was inspired at what could be accomplished in a short 44 days. They see many patients, some which have been with them for many years. They talk about people with health challenges such as chronic pain, fatigue, weight gain, metabolic issues, and stress, all causes of being run down and in a state of despair. Every story is different, but in the end, stress is often the common factor—sometimes it is actual physical stress, but other times it is emotional or post-traumatic, causing adrenal fatigue. They refer to it as “wired and tired.” "You are working through it, but you aren’t totally living. Your body is not functioning optimally and it starts to show up somewhere in your system,” says Patty. The doctors acknowledge these problems are often addressed with a chiropractic spinal adjustment. When undue pressure is applied to a nerve, our bodies don’t function at their optimal state of health. Other times, methods such as detoxification and nutritional guidance are needed.
One of the most popular and successful treatments at Function First is their metabolic program, a powerful personal nutrition program. “If you think this is a diet, then this isn’t for you,” says Peggy. “It’s a lifestyle change.” After a personal assessment, patients on the metabolic program receive custom nutritional support including fruit, vegetable, protein selections and proportions based on a variety of factors. The program helps to balance the system, which decreases inflammation and subsequently increases hydration and metabolism. Each week patients come in for a new body composition, which measures weight, BMI, visceral fat, cellular hydration, metabolic age and more. They monitor patients on a weekly basis.
Patty shares that many people come to their office as a last resort, facing the dangers of obesity, and the metabolic program ends up being a lifeline for them. “It’s a purposeful program, and people get really inspired by it because they see and achieve success when all other programs have failed them.”
No matter the treatment, Peggy and Patty offer compassionate care to all of their patients. They have found that this approach to the body as a whole is a valuable part of enhancing the quality of life for every person they treat. When asked whom they do treat (babies, kids, the elderly, for example), Peggy smiles, “We’ll see anyone with a spine.”
When the nervous system is not functioning properly, other systems, like the endocrine and immune systems, probably aren’t either. A strong immune system is always important, but right now it is crucial. Function First can help align your spine, which will help boost all of your systems, and strengthen your immunity.
