INSIDE A REVOLUTIONARY NEW WELLNESS COMPLEX
REBRANDING AGING®
WENDY CHIOJI’S ICY ADVENTURE IN ANTARCTICA A NOBEL PRIZE WINNER ON HEALTH AND LONGEVITY
A ROCK ‘N’ ROLL ICON FINDS PEACE AND LOVE Melissa Etheridge Says the Best of Her Life is Right Here, Right Now.
CONTENTS MARCH/APRIL 2017
SPEAKING HER TRUTH
5 | FROM THE EDITOR
6 | GROWING BOLDER WITH ...
15 | ROCK STARS OF AGING ® These geriathletes™ prove the power of purpose. By Marc Middleton
7 | BOLDER HEALTH Why there might not be enough gerontologists. By Bill Shafer
30 | THE TAKEAWAY Now is the time to take risks. By Bill Thomas
8 | 5 QUESTIONS A Nobel prize winner says we can slow the aging process. By Marc Middleton
14 | ROAD TO RECOVERY The most crucial medical advice you may ever receive. By Robert Masson, M.D.
4 G R O W I N G B O L D E R
FEATURES
INSIDE A REVOLUTIONARY NEW WELLNESS COMPLEX
REBRANDING AGING®
WENDY CHIOJI’S ICY ADVENTURE IN ANTARCTICA
9 | GROWING BOLDER FINANCIAL INSTITUTE The secrets of longevity and security. By Marc Middleton
BY MARC MIDDLETON
A NOBEL PRIZE WINNER ON HEALTH AND LONGEVITY
A ROCK ‘N’ ROLL ICON FINDS PEACE AND LOVE Melissa Etheridge Says the Best of Her Life is Right Here, Right Now.
ON THE COVER: Melissa Etheridge. Photo by John Tsiavis.
22 | GROWING BOLDER ADVENTURES Wendy Chioji’s latest adventure takes her to the earth’s southernmost continent. Here’s what she discovered! By Wendy Chioji 28 | BOLDER COMMUNITIES The Winter Park Health Foundation is leading a revolution in wellness. By Jackie Carlin
MARCH/APRIL 2017
MELISSA ETHERIDGE PHOTO BY JOHN TSIAVIS
DEPARTMENTS
16
Rock icon Melissa Etheridge is happy, healthy and harmonious.
FROM THE EDITOR
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Marc Middleton MANAGING EDITOR Jackie Carlin ASSOCIATE EDITORS Katy Widrick, Bill Shafer CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Robert Masson, M.D., Wendy Chioji ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY John Tsiavis, Debi Del Grande, Myriam Santos, Chris Gotshall DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION Jason Morrow, Pat Narciso, Josh Doolittle, Mike Nanus DIRECTOR OF CIRCULATION Jill Middleton
407-406-5910 One Purlieu Place, Suite 139 Winter Park, FL 32792 GrowingBolderMagazine.com All editorial content copyright 2017 by Bolder Broadcasting Inc. Growing Bolder is a registered trademark of Bolder Broadcasting Inc. Nothing may be reprinted in part or in whole without written permission from Bolder Broadcasting Inc.
PUBLISHED IN ASSOCIATION WITH
FLORIDA HOME MEDIA GROUP PUBLISHER Randy Noles ART DIRECTOR Carolyn Edmunds CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Harry Wessel Florida Home Media’s Family of Publications: artsLife
THE CLOCK IS TICKING
W
e’ve entered the post-truth world of fake news and alternative facts. It takes work and discipline to put emotion and personal bias aside and search for the actual truth. There are so many alternative narratives that it’s easy to believe whatever confirms or reinforces your personal bias. Is there anything we can all agree upon? Yes. But it’s something almost no wants to talk about or even acknowledge. It’s the one truth that can neither be denied nor disproven by anyone. That single fact, that one nugget of undeniable truth, is this — we are all going to die. Our refusal to acknowledge and embrace this truth affects how we live, and in some cases how long we live. In this month’s Takeaway, world-renowned geriatrician, Bill Thomas M.D., writes: “Research shows that people who are aware of and embrace their own mortality are happier than people who live with the illusion that they’re going to somehow live forever.” Dr. Thomas calls our final decades “the time for living dangerously;” for getting out of our comfort zone and taking risks. In this issue, Growing Bolder’s Wendy Chioji, a two-time cancer survivor currently battling thymic carcinoma, reports on her amazing adventure — sailing on a small boat to Antarctica with seven others, including her 77-year-old travel companion. Wendy ends her piece with the advice, “Live fearlessly!” And in our cover story, Grammy- and Academy Award-winning singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge says, “Risk-taking is what makes life worthwhile.” “It’s the knowledge that I am going to die that creates the focus that I bring to being alive,” famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson once told Larry King in an interview. “I fear living a life where I could have accomplished something and I didn’t. That’s what I fear. I don’t fear death.” None of us are getting out of here alive. We are all mortal beings. That shouldn’t be a truth we ignore, or a fact that we run from. It’s the very reason every second is precious. Each day is a new opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others, to share your love, to create new relationships and repair old ones. Horace Mann, the great educator, said, “Be ashamed to die until you have scored some victory for humanity.” The clock is ticking.
SPRING 2017
Inside the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
SMOKEY ROBINSON
ONE OF THE MEMORY MAKERS IN MORGAN STANLEY MOMENTS
WINTER 2017 | $3.99
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SPECIAL ISSUE: CLYDE BUTCHER AT MEAD BOTANICAL GARDEN 12/16/16 12:23 PM
STEINMETZ HALL • BRIAN WILSON • DEEPAK CHOPRA • SUMMER PROGRAMS
ARTSLIFE_SPRING17.indd 1
1/16/17 10:44 AM
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Marc Middleton, Editor-in-Chief marcmiddleton@growingbolder.com G R O W I N G B O L D E R 5
SPEAKING HER Rock icon Melissa Etheridge is happy, healthy and harmonious. BY MARC MIDDLETON
16   G R O W I N G B O L D E R
MARCH/APRIL 2017
ON AGING
PHOTO BY JOHN TSIAVIS
“Age is experience, and believe me, I wouldn’t trade my 50s for any other time that I’ve lived. You get the payoff for all the hard work. You understand more. You acquire wisdom.”
GROWINGBOLDERMAGAZINE.COM
G R O W I N G B O L D E R 17
Another battle with cancer hasn’t slowed Wendy Chioji down. She recently went on an expedition to Antarctica, which was the seventh continent she has visited. 22 G R O W I N G B O L D E R
MARCH/APRIL 2017
ANTARCTICA BY SAILBOAT GROWING BOLDER ADVENTURES
Wendy Chioji’s Latest Adventure Takes Her to the Earth’s Southernmost Continent. Here’s What She Discovered! BY WENDY CHIOJI
W
hen my friends, Laura and Fede, asked if I wanted to sail on their 66-foot Ocean Tramp from southern Argentina to Antarctica, I was all-in. I had to do some logistical juggling with my clinical trial requirements, but I gave an equivocal “yes” pretty quickly. It would be my seventh continent to bag, and getting there by sailboat would make the trip even more epic. I get outrageously seasick just watching sailing videos, but I’d deal with that later. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. I had all the gear I needed from my Mount Kilimanjaro climb (another Great Adventure), and I found a 77-year-old travel companion, Heike, who said, “yes” more quickly than I did. We were a crew of eight from the U.S., South Africa, Australia and France. Plus there was Captain Fede along with Laura, our expedition leader, and just as importantly, Miguel, our cook. Our Frenchman was a scientist trying to find out if whales have a sense of smell. His experiment encompassed alternately throwing out krill (whale food) and clay to see if the whales responded. We got to help by tracking whales and birds, taking photos, flying the drone with the Go Pro and more. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, the seasickness. I did hypnotherapy and acupuncture. I had prescription patches and
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bands and ginger candy and Zofran. But I was sick as a dog for three straight days sailing south. The Drake Passage is often called the world’s worst; it’s the meeting place of the Atlantic and the Pacific, and it’s a pretty violent get-together. I don’t think they like each other much. I didn’t see much of the Drake from my bunk, with my eyes closed. A few times, I almost saw the floor, suddenly, when a particularly violent pitch of waves forced me to jam my feet into the ceiling. (Addendum: A $6 box of Dramamine kept me upright and feeling mostly fine on the even rougher return trip. Go figure.) When I came out of my seasickness coma, I was rewarded with some of the most stark yet beautiful vistas I have ever seen. Seeing the South Shetland Islands around Antarctica and the continent itself was like looking at another planet. Towering glaciers; dangerous but gorgeous icebergs. Everything was white and blue and gray and black — even the animals. We were delirious to see our first seven gentoo penguins (like the ones on Happy Feet) playing on an iceberg. In the next three and a half weeks, we’d see tens of thousands of them. No exaggeration! Traveling by sailboat was a terrific choice. We were nimble and spontaneous. We anchored in safe harbors around the islands and G R O W I N G B O L D E R 23