Ageless Lifestyles® LLC

Ageless Lifestyles® LLC Anti-Aging Psychologist Dr. Michael Brickey interviews leading anti-aging experts on how to live longer, heatlhier, and happier.

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Q: Dr. Brickey what supplements do you take?

A: Frankly, I take quite a few because I am at high risk for arteriosclerosis. I think in terms of three types of supplements:

    1. A GOOD MULTIVITAMIN
         In a perfect world, we would get all the vitamin, minerals, and antioxidants from the food we eat. But with less than optimal eating habits, soil depletion, and restaurant foods, most of us can’t count on our eating habits or foods to provide all the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants we need.

Generic and popular brands of multivitamins provide the basic vitamins and minerals. A multiple vitamin is far less expensive than taking vitamins and minerals individually. It also insures that vitamins and minerals are in healthy proportions to each other. (Too much of one vitamin or mineral can inhibit the use of certain other vitamins or minerals.)


      Besides cost, the differences between a generic or common brand name multivitamins and premium multiple vitamins are that the premium brands are more likely to:


  • use higher dosages

  • use the most effective variations of vitamins and amino acids
    Example: Vitamin E has eight chemical variations with four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. Many multivitamins use less expensive variations of E rather than the more effective bioidentical d˗alpha variation with d˗gamma tocopherols.

  • use multiple versions of a vitamin.
    Example: Vitamin D has two physiologically relevant forms D2 and D3. While D3 is believed to be metabolized more effectively, the vitamin is poorly understood and D2 may have a unique contribution to our health. Thus, some multiple vitamins include both.

  •  include trace minerals and antioxidants (e.g., extracts from vegetables, fruits, and berries).

    Thus, I take a very good comprehensive multiple vitamin with trace minerals and antioxidants. If you are willing to invest in the extra insurance of a premium multivitamin, there are several highly regarded premium multivitamins. My preference is SeaHealth|Plus, which has 17 fruit and vegetable extracts and 72 trace minerals.

 

    2. PARTICULAR HEALTH ISSUES

 

    If you have particular health risks, you may want to consider supplements that help with that issue. For example, if you have frequent urinary tract infections you may want to drink cranberry juice or spare the calories and take cranberry juice extracts (if you aren’t taking SeaHealth|Plus which has cranberry extract anyway). If you recently took an antibiotic, you might want to eat some yogurt that is rich in probiotics or take a probiotic supplement such as acidophilus.


    Being a male I take saw palmetto to reduce my risk or prostate cancer. Since I am high risk for cardiovascular problems, I take supplements as well to enhance cardiovascular health. I get several blood tests a year and use the results to help make adjustments in which supplements I use and the doses. 

 

    3. FISH OIL
     
       Cardiologists have been behind the times on this but now even the American Heart Association recommends:

Fish intake has been associated with decreased risk of heart disease. On the basis of available data, the American Heart Association recommends that patients without documented heart disease eat a variety of fish – preferably omega-3-containing fish – at least twice a week. Examples of these types of fish include salmon, herring and trout. Patients with documented heart disease are advised to consume about 1 gram of EPA + DHA (types of omega-3 fatty acids), preferably from fish, although EPA+DHA supplements could be considered, but consult with a physician first. For people with high triglycerides (blood fats), 2 to 4 grams of EPA + DHA per day, in the form of capsules and under a physician’s care, are recommended.


    A shift in Americans’ diet to more processed foods, corn oil, and soybean oil greatly increased omega-6 fatty acids in our diets. Further, these days few parents give their children cod liver oil (which is high in omega-3 fatty acids). Consequently, the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids has gone from a healthy 1:2 to 1:20. Having too much omega-6 fatty acids relative to omega-3s results in inflammation. There is an increasing consensus among researchers that inflammation is the common denominator of most chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

 

    You could correct the imbalance by eating lots of fish such as tuna, salmon, and sardines, but that would expose you to a lot of PCBs, mercury, and other toxins in the fish. Unless highly refined, cod liver oil has the same problem. The easiest way to increase omega-3s is to take fish oil supplements.

 

    While an aspirin is an aspirin and vitamin C is vitamin C whether it is generic or a brand name, with fish oil it is extremely important to remove the PCBs, mercury, and other toxins the fish have consumed. This requires an expensive distilling and refining process. The person who has done the most research on fish oil and is extraordinarily thorough in removing the toxins is Dr. Barry Sears. You may choose to take chances on the quality of other vitamins but don’t compromise on quality of the fish oil you consume.

 

    Dr. Barry Sears is the creator of the Zone Diet, which balances healthy carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in Mediterranean style diet. In his latest best seller, Toxic Fat, Dr. Sears describes how inflammation is a major underlying cause of chronic diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and arthritis.

     Benefits of fish oil:

 

Side effects: While thinning the blood is usually desirable (the reason daily low dose aspirin is recommended), thinner blood slightly increases the risk of bruising or bleeding, nosebleeds, or stroke from hemorrhaging. It tends to have a cumulative effect with aspirin, Plavix, or Coumadin.

 

  • Other health benefits   Research indicates that fish oil also:
    • helps with weight loss
    • helps reduce arthritis, diabetes, and other autoimmune diseases
    • enhances brain functioning and the brain’s gray matter volume
    • reduces macular degeneration (an eye disease)
    • may help with Alzheimer’s, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia
    • fosters healthy skin, hair, and nails

 

    With most supplements, the risk from using a generic brand is low—just that they may have cut corners to keep the prices low and dosages may be unreliable. With fish oil, however, the risks are high. Inexpensive fish oil is likely to contain lead, mercury, and PCBs.

 

      Dr. Barry Sears has focused his career on fish oil. His Omega|Rx fish oil is the gold standard. It goes through two refining processes to make sure it is the purest anywhere—and I believe it is the only fish oil that has every single batch tested. Consequently, it is the best there is and the safest there is. Cut corners if you must on other supplements, but do not cut corners on fish oil.


    I’m delighted to be able to offer you a 10% discount on your first purchase of Omega|Rx, SeaHealth|Plus, and other Zone health, weight loss products, and books.

 

    Just click here and use the promotional code AGELESS at checkout. There is a lot the zonediet.com website. My recommendation is to select Omega|Rx fish oil and SeaHealth Plus. I also highly recommend a copy of Dr. Sears’ latest best seller, Toxic Fat, in which he shares his latest research on inflammation, metabolism, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and what it really takes to lose weight.


CLICK HERE and use the promotional code AGELESS at checkout OR call 1-800-404-8171 and use the promotional code, AGELESS.


If you can just afford two supplements, Omega|Rx and SeaHealth|Plus should be the ones.

 

OmegaRx SeaHealth Plus

Toxic Fat by Barry Sears: Download Cover

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    Holistic Health Wellness

    At the Ageless Lifestyles Institute, Dr. Michael Brickey and associates help people grow young and live with purpose. The Institute provides research, motivational seminars, speaker services, publishing, and life coaching for holistic health and wellness, & anti-aging psychology.

    "Change can be quick, easy, and painless when you know how to engineer it," says Dr. Brickey. To learn the psychology of a youthful mindset at every age men click here / women click here.

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    • Life Coaching

    Life Coaching and Life Makeover Coaching

    Are you cheating yourself out of fully enjoying life?
    Do you have a vision and a plan for your life?

    You wouldn’t run a business without a plan, why run your life without a plan?

    My clients are typically successful people who are not as happy as they would like to be. Many also want to take their success to an even higher level. Often they are very good at their jobs but still feel unfulfilled. Typically they have a plan for their careers but not for their lives.

    Having a plan for your life means knowing your life means knowing and following your vision, mission, and values. It means being crystal clear about who you are, what you want, why, and how you will achieve it. Once you have your vision and mission, examine your values, beliefs, rules, self-talk, and environment and tweak them to make sure they are congruent with your vision and mission. These are the keys to living your life on purpose.

    If you are satisfied with your life, read no further. This is for people who want the best possible life and are willing to examine their lives and make changes to be the best they can be.

    What are life coaching and life makeover coaching?

    A life coach is a mentor, personal advocate, and partner who focuses exclusively on your interests. A life coach listens well, helps you figure things out, and helps you become clear about your plan and strategies to achieve your goals. Athletes know a coach is vital to reaching their full potential. A life coach is like having a personal trainer for your life. Change can be easy, fast, and painless when you engineer it well. Life coaching focuses on a goal or a few goals. Life makeover coaching develops a comprehensive plan for your life.

    What issues do life coaching and life makeover coaching address?

    Life coaching can aggressively do a life makeover or address specific goals such as: improving health, enhancing relationships, making career decisions, quitting smoking, helping aging parents, preventing alcohol abuse, and personal growth. While therapy presumes there is something wrong with you and you need to be fixed, coaching presumes you are doing a lot of things well and want to do even better—to take your life and your career to a higher level.

    Can you share some examples of life coaching?

    Normally, confidentiality prevents sharing examples of coaching. The life makeover coaching for Let’s Live magazine, however, provides an exception as the stories were published in a 3.8 million circulation magazine.

    Dr. Brickey’s Life Makeover Coaching was featured in six issues of Let’s Live magazine.

    How is life coaching different from therapy?

    Therapists focus on “fixing” what is wrong with you. A life coach can help you overcome bad habits. Their biggest focus, however, is on helping you define and achieve your dreams, to “be all that you can be.” Historically, psychologists and psychiatrists have focused on helping people who wanted to fix problems. Why shouldn’t their talents also help healthier people become even more successful and happier? With life coaching, you don’t have to be broken or sick to benefit from psychology’s rich knowledge of how to motivate and how to change behaviors and take your life and your career to a higher level.

    Health insurance is limited to diagnosed mental health problems. Insurance companies keep information on your “diagnosis,” number of “treatment sessions,” and often more detailed information. Life coaching information is just between you and your life coach.

    Can you do therapy?

    Being a licensed psychologist I can also address traditional psychological issues such as anxiety, phobias, and depression. I do not, however, deal with insurance plans.

    What about weight loss?

    Increasing motivation for exercising, developing healthier eating habits, reducing compulsive eating, and addressing self-image can be helpful with weight loss. I do not deal with diets, however, as “going on a diet” rarely works in the long run. Weight loss strategies need to bring permanent lifestyle changes.

    What typically happens in a life coaching session?

    The format is quite simple. First we follow up on what we discussed last time and any homework. Then I ask what you would like to focus on today. Finally, we summarize and determine what needs to be done next. After each session I send you an e-mail summarizing key points in the session. A session summary helps you remember and makes it clear to you what the life coach thought the most important point were and what your homework is. It makes sure we are both on the same page and gives you a log of progress.
    If your coach does not do this, ask if he or she would. I don’t know any other coaches who do this, but I think it should be a best practices standard.

    What are stages of motivation?

    One of the keys to motivation is appreciating your current stage of motivation and what would move you to the next stage. Unfortunately many coaches miss this distinction. The best explanation of how people change comes from Prochaska and DiClemente’s work. They studied how more than 30,000 people make changes. Let me describe their findings briefly:

    • In precontemplation stage we tend to deny there is a problem, like the alcoholic that says, “I’m not an alcoholic, I just drink beer.” I call this the Scarlett O’Hara stage. Like Scarlett we say, “I’ll worry about that tomorrow.”
    • In the contemplation state, we are ambivalent—we want to change, but…
      I call this the Woody Allen stage as we are plagued with indecision and guilt.
    • We transition to the preparation stage when we begin to focus on solutions rather than the problem and when we focus on the future rather than the past. This is where we develop our motivation and commitment. I call this the Lt. Columbo stage when we carefully gather information and lay out our strategies to solve the case.
    • In the action stage we put our plans into action. I call this the Arnold Schwarzenegger or Xena Warrior Princess stage when we take charge and take action.
    • Finally in the maintenance stage we stick with it. It is the difference between losing weight and keeping it off. I call maintenance the Rocky Balboa stage. Like Rocky we have great heart and keep slugging it out until we become champions.

    Life Coaching questions

    Life coaches are particularly good at asking questions. Here are some you might want to consider:

    • What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?
    • What would your dream job be?
    • What have you been telling yourself has been stopping you from your dream job?
    • What are you doing that is a waste of time?
    • What aspect of your life is most out of balance?
    • What are you putting up with?
    • Who is living the life you most envy?
    • If you doubled your income in the next twelve months, how would you do it?
    • What are you most grateful for?
    • What legacy do you want to leave to others?

    Do I have to stay in maintenance forever?

    If we do the job well, the change becomes so habitual and such a part of your identity that you do it automatically. It doesn’t take an effort. It becomes like brushing your teeth each morning—you would feel something wasn’t right if you didn’t do it.

    What else works especially well in life coaching?

    If you only have a hammer, every problem seems to need a hammer. It is important for coaches to have broad, eclectic backgrounds so they can guide you to using what will be most effective for you. Sometimes just the right story, metaphor, Neurolinguistic Programming technique, or paradox will achieve almost instant results. Sometimes tried and true cognitive behavioral or even classical conditioning techniques work best. Good coaches draw from a wide repertoire of clinical skills and research data.

    What are levels of change?

    I think Robert Dilts’ six levels of change is brilliant. Let me give an example. When Candy Lightner’s daughter was killed by a drunk driver, she decided her daughter’s death had to have a purpose. So she founded MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

    The new purpose was a change at a spiritual level—a purpose beyond her own life. At an identity level, she redefined herself from mom to movement leader. At a beliefs level she had to develop beliefs that it was possible to make a difference and that she could be the catalyst. At the capabilities level she might have debated whether she really had the leadership and speaking skills to do it. At the behavior level she learned how to write press releases, talk to the media, and develop an organization. At the environmental level she learned how to have the audience prompt her to tell her story with great power and emotion.

    Change can start at any level and reverberate to other levels. In Ms. Lightner’s case it began at the spiritual level. The best coaches sense what level will be most productive and help you focus on making changes or starting changes at that level.

    Being an authority on living well into your hundreds, does your life coaching focus on longevity?

    Some of my clients focus on health and longevity issues and some do not. My coaching builds in attitudes, beliefs, and coping skills—the ABCs—that support longevity because you need longevity to fulfill your purpose and goals. Longevity, however, is merely a means to achieving your goals. If you don’t have a purpose and goals, there isn’t much point to living longer. Thus, coaching focuses on being clear about your purpose and goals, and how to achieve them—and those goals need to be a lot more than just living longer.

    Life Coaching styles

    Different life coaches have different styles, the most important being how directive they are. You want to choose a life coach whose style fits your style.

    • Directive life coaches (like Dr. Phil) readily share their perspective on what is needed and how to achieve it. They fit well with people who like to get to the point and be as efficient as possible. (I fit this style.)
    • Nondirective life coaches supportively help you discover for yourself what you want and what you want to do. They are especially helpful with people who kind of know what they want and need to do but need someone to help them put it in words and to encourage them.
    • Of course many life coaches’ styles are a combination of these styles.

    Life coaching by phone

    Many life coaches do their coaching by phone. This is can be very convenient. There is no need to commute or dress up. You can be in the comfort of your home in a bathrobe and curlers. Some people also feel less concerned about approval (much like not seeing the priest during a confessional). Life coaching by phone allows people to choose the best coach in the country for their needs and style and isn’t hampered by travel schedules

    .

    How can you choose the best life coach for your needs?

    • Be clear about what you need. If you need technical skills, for example if you were developing an Internet business, you want a coach who has top-notched technical skills. A track record of success is one of the best indicators for technical skills. If you want to focus on personal and career growth, you want a coach who has extensive clinical skills and knows the research literature. Psychologist credentials are usually a good indicator of in-depth research knowledge and clinical skills.
    • Make sure your styles match. If you are not sure of the coach’s style, ask.
    • You need to feel a good sense of rapport. You should feel comfortable and a sense that you could talk about anything and it would be handled respectfully, competently, and with complete discretion and confidentiality. It’s not unusual for a life coach to know you better than anyone else in the world, other than yourself.
    • After several sessions you should ask yourself: Is the life coaching helping me achieve my goals?

    How long does life coaching last?

    I have a ten session Life Makeover Program that is very efficient at coming up with a comprehensive life plan. Some people have a single issue and end coaching when they have achieved their goal. Many people stay with coaching for several years or longer, often having just one session a month. They found something that really works and they stick with it. Some have me on a retainer.

    Life coaching for everyday heroes

    When Luke Skywalker was perplexed, he went to Obe-Wan Kenobi. When King Arthur needed advice, he went to Merlin. When Pinnochio got in trouble, Jiminy Cricket provided guidance. We have personal trainers who charge $50 an hour or more to teach us how to lift dumbbells. There are specialists to teach you any sport or skill. But who is there to help everyday heroes determine how to better deal with stress, change, job problems, and other life issues. Where can an everyday hero find an Obe-Wan Kenobi?

    These heroes found someone who cared about them and focused on his best interests. They found a person who saw the big picture and knew a lot about life, who knew what was needed. They had a mentor. A specialty coach, e.g., a business coach, a career coach, or a sales coach typically focuses on his or her specialty. A life coach needs big picture expertise in how to help a person define, design, and achieve their ideal life. That’s where years of study and clinical experience make a big difference.

    I think I am interested, what do I do?

    If you are interested in the Life Makeover Program go to the Life Makeover Program web page.
    If you are interested in Life Coaching, give me a call at 614-237-4556 and we can take a look at what you want and whether I can help you achieve your goal.

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