Aging Backwards_10 Years Lighter and 10 Years Younger in 30 Minutes a Day

by Miranda Esmonde-White

  DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

  The digestive system is designed to take the food we eat and break it into molecules small enough to be absorbed through the walls of our cells and burned as fuel in our mitochondria, the calorie-burning furnaces of our cells. Digestion is achieved through a complex system of tubing (the esophagus and intestines) and chemical processing stations (liver, pancreas, kidneys, and bladder). The system starts in the mouth and ends when the nutrients get delivered to cells, excess fat gets delivered to fat storage units, and waste products get eliminated.

  When everything is running smoothly, we should be totally unaware that within the walls of the body this amazing feat is being accomplished. We should feel no pain or discomfort or bloating as the food makes its way through the system.

  The digestive system is housed in the torso. Every human being is born with sufficient space for the digestive system to function efficiently. The catch is that we have enough space only if we have good posture, when our spine is at its longest. Poor posture collapses the spine and shortens the space required to comfortably house the digestive system. The result is that the tubes and organs become compressed and push outward against the walls of the body. You cannot squish the tubes and factories by limiting their space and still expect them to function effortlessly. This reduction of space makes the passage of the food uncomfortable, inefficient, and painful.

  It doesn’t take a scientific study to show us that many Americans have a big problem with digestive discomfort. Anyone who walks down the aisles of a pharmacy will be confronted by row upon row of over-the-counter digestive medications.

  Two parts of the digestive system can be helped with exercise:

  1.the upper part, where problems such as heartburn, acid reflex, and choking can occur

  2.the lower part, where issues such as constipation and poor elimination are common

  The upper part, the area of the body from the waist up, is most affected by poor posture as the spine droops forward, collapsing the rib cage and shrinking our height. When the body droops forward, the rib cage has to go somewhere, and that is how the esophagus tubing gets blocked. The only place that the ribs can go is backward toward your spine, which means the lungs, esophagus, heart, and liver are all crammed inside and fighting for space by pushing against one another. While all the crowding is happening inside your rib cage area, the food you have just eaten is trying to make its way into your stomach. Simply straightening your posture makes digestion easier and more comfortable.

  Good posture is achieved by lengthening and strengthening all the muscles of the torso. Many people don’t know how to improve their posture and so they get very discouraged. In Part III, I will share a series of simple exercises to show you how to improve your posture. (It’s easier than you think!)

  The second part of the digestive system that requires strong muscles is the intestinal part, which most people refer to as the stomach. When we think our “stomach” is bloated, it is probably not our stomach at all but our intestines.

  The intestines are a 30-foot-long hose or tube that occupies the space between the waist and rectum. The intestines are lined with a type of muscle that involuntarily pushes the feces through without our having to think about it. Without these involuntary muscles, the feces would be incapable of moving through the intestines. Like other “in-groups” of muscles that work as assistants to certain groups of muscles, the abdominal muscles are designed to act in partnership with the intestinal muscles: they help the intestinal muscles push the feces through the intestines.

  If we lead a sedentary life, we will have weak abdominal muscles. The intestinal muscles won’t have anything to push against, and that lack will slow down the movement of feces through our intestines, leading to a hardening of the feces and constipation.

  When we see people who have a large protruding abdomen we say they have a “big stomach,” but what is really happening is that they have weak abdominal muscles so their intestines are hanging out! When the abdominal muscles are weak there is nothing keeping the intestines in place, so—to repeat—they hang out.

  Think of the “toothpaste effect”: The more we twist and squeeze our toothpaste tube, the easier it is to squeeze the toothpaste out. Our intestines are tubes and they need all the help we can give them to make elimination fast and pain-free. Relaxed, easy movements that involve twisting and turning and as much movement of the torso as possible loosen up the “innards,” helping encourage easy elimination.

  THE NEUROLOGICAL SYSTEM

  The neurological system, which is made up of the brain and nerves, is a sending-and-receiving system that communicates with every cell of the body. The neurological system is the command center responsible for regulating every part of the body—from heating and cooling to healing and nourishing to simply helping us experience, understand, and enjoy our lives. And a recent explosion of research has found that exercise is by far the best medicine to protect and support the function of your neurological system, especially your brain.

  Exercise is a proven antidepressant; exercise helps us relax, focus, concentrate—and come up with great ideas. Exercise even increases the size of our brains. By raising our levels of BDNF—brain-derived neurotrophic factor, sometimes called “MiracleGro for the brain”—exercise causes the stem cells in our brain to create new neurons and greatly increases the number and function of mitochondria in our brain cells. What could be better than more energy factories in our brains?41

  In younger adults, exercise-induced brain growth takes place mainly in our hippocampus, the primary site of memory in the brain, and this growth may help prevent the onset (or slow the development) of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. This effect is even more important among older adults, especially those at highest risk. One study conducted by the Cleveland Clinic followed 97 older folks (ages 65 to 89) who had not yet shown signs of cognitive decline. After 18 months they found that those at highest genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease who didn’t exercise had lost 3 percent of their brain mass in those 18 months, while those at high risk who had exercised lost no brain mass at all.42

  Another neurological concern as we grow older is trouble maintaining our balance—truly one of the most frightening signs of aging. If we don’t feel steady on our feet, ordinary activities—walking to our car, taking a bus, visiting friends—become daunting challenges with the potential for serious injury. Add to that the sense that you are “losing it,” and neurological concerns can be terrifying.

  Fear of falling is a real and all too common concern in old age, one that makes us feel dependent on others as we develop a growing feeling of insecurity about our safety. The solution is to start taking precautions against losing balance before we age! The loss of balance does not happen rapidly; the nerves that communicate with our muscles and keep us steady take decades to age and die.

  We need something called balance reflexes to fire a message into our muscles when we are in danger of losing our balance. The loss of balance reflexes is generally a case of simple neglect, a failure on our part to stimulate these reflexes when we still have them. As with every other part of our body, the maxim “Use it or lose it” is applicable: It is within our power to prevent, delay, minimize, or reverse the symptoms of poor balance.

  All movement—from sitting on a chair to standing and walking—requires us to stay on balance. Without balance reflexes, we would be incapable of doing any of the above movements. Being on balance is basic to human life and it works when the brain sends messages to fire up the appropriate muscles to prevent us from falling over. A baby learns to sit without falling by slowly stimulating its balance reflexes through trial and error. Every time it falls over, the baby’s balance reflexes are stimulated until eventually the balance reflexes and muscles become sufficiently strong to keep the infant on balance.

  As we age, the reverse happens: When we lose our balance or feel unsteady, we instinctively reach for a railing or another person, or anything to prevent us from
falling. But the result is that we are robbed of opportunities to stimulate our balance reflexes, and so they shrivel up and atrophy, compounding our balance troubles rather than solving them.

  In our day-to-day lives, we rarely put ourselves in dangerous, off-balance situations. We subconsciously sense when we are about to lose our balance and take instant precautions to regain it, as when we slow our pace before walking over a patch of ice. It is important to note that when we strengthen our muscles, we do not automatically strengthen our balance reflexes. The small, subconscious acts we take to stabilize ourselves before we lose our balance also prevent us from stimulating our balance reflexes and set us up for long-term degeneration of those reflexes.

  The trouble is that most people do not understand the importance of exercising the balance reflexes. As children, all of us ran, jumped, crawled, and did cartwheels or other forms of gymnastics. We were unwittingly exercising our balance reflexes and reinforcing the importance of these connections in our brain. As we mature, however, and take on the responsibilities of adulthood, most people become sedentary, letting the vital neurological connections they’ve built in their youth begin to disintegrate. Rather than seek out unstable situations, we subconsciously avoid them; we use a walking stick or grab the railing on stairs out of a sense of precaution rather than necessity.

  When we are young, our nerve fibers can grow an inch a year, but after a certain age they cannot. This is why we have to do all we can to maintain whatever balance reflexes we have to prevent any further atrophy and death of nerve cells. Once dead, they are gone forever. Whatever the state of your balance reflexes is today, start challenging them now in order to prevent any further loss of nerve cells. (See “Exercises to Stimulate the Neurological System” (in this chapter) for some fast and simple exercises that you can do anywhere.)

  Different health problems connected to aging have a way of creeping up on us. At first, we are completely unaware that we lean on a wall for support or sit on a chair to take off our shoes or hold the arm of a chair to help us sit down or stand up. Simple exercises like standing on one leg and not holding a support while writing the alphabet with the other leg will really help prevent any further loss of the valuable nerves called balance reflexes. It is never too late to start!

  In addition to stimulating the balance reflexes, the neurological system plays thousands of other vital roles in keeping us feeling young, healthy, and active. The foremost concern for most of us as we head into our senior years is remaining lucid and mentally focused by maintaining as many brain cells as possible. I am always interested in any studies that offer helpful tips on how to keep the brain functioning optimally.

  Scientists know that aerobic exercise increases memory and brain capacity, and in recent years it has been established that the same theory applies for less strenuous types of exercise such as tai chi. According to scientists from the University of South Florida and Fudan University, when a group of non-senile elders from China participated in low-intensity exercise such as tai chi three times a week, compared with those who did not, subjects experienced an increase in brain volume, enhanced memory, and improved cognitive abilities.43 As dementia is linked to brain shrinkage, it can be assumed that low-intensity physical activity such as tai chi or ESSENTRICS can delay symptoms of dementia.44

  EXERCISES TO STIMULATE THE NEUROLOGICAL SYSTEM

  In everyday life, we never deliberately put ourselves in off-balance situations, but we need to exercise the balance reflexes in order to prevent atrophy.

  ABC Exercise: One easy way of stimulating your balance reflexes is standing on one leg while “writing” the alphabet with your other leg (don’t hold on to anything for support). You will probably wobble and struggle to stay on balance, but the effort will stimulate your reflexes. Try to make it through the entire alphabet before changing legs. Writing the alphabet can be done every day until you can write the entire alphabet; then do it at least three times a week just to keep the reflexes from atrophying.

  Commuter’s Exercise: Challenge yourself to stand tall without using the handholds on the bus or train. Be prepared to grab hold if you must, but the instability created by the motion of the vehicle provides an excellent challenge for the tiny fibers of your balance reflexes.

  Yoga: Yoga offers many poses that force the participant to stand on one leg or in positions of instability. The more you wobble around doing a pose, the better stimulation your balance reflexes receive. Doing yoga on a regular basis will strengthen the neurological connections to the muscles—just be sure to balance it out with ESSENTRICS exercises so you don’t overtrain your muscles. Overtraining could lead to imbalances.

  As much as possible, we should not shy away from these opportunities to test ourselves. When walking up and down stairs, or getting dressed, or putting on shoes, do your best to maintain your own balance without reaching for a chair or wall.

  Once again, I am impressed that the body has included in its self-healing systems a process to keep brain cells alive as long as possible. And once again it seems that moving our muscles is part of the process of maintaining life—even brain-cell life!

  As I continued to develop the ESSENTRICS technique, I adopted many of the principles of tai chi and incorporated them into my program. The most obvious element of tai chi that inspired me is sweeping, full-body, rotational movement. I designed similar movements and made them easy to follow and safe for anyone to do, at no matter what age or level of fitness. Through my extensive experience and time teaching my technique, I have come to see that participants who do ESSENTRICS will be likely to reap neurological, cardiovascular, and digestive benefits similar to those of tai chi—a fact that makes me immensely proud.

  CHAPTER 8

  PREVENT AND HEAL AFTER INJURY

  When the wheels of a car are off balance, the car pulls dangerously to one side; this effect makes the car accident-prone and causes unnecessary wear and tear on the entire vehicle. Driving an unbalanced car is a dangerous, awkward, and unpleasant experience—so we tend to fix it right away. Unfortunately, we are rarely as attentive when it comes to our bodies.

  When we have minor injuries or aches and pains, most of us tend to ignore the discomfort. Eventually we may come to tolerate a great deal of pain, hoping it will disappear on its own, or we may simply accept is as a part of life. Exercising to treat the pain is not a commonly prescribed approach, and its effectiveness and efficiency are vastly underestimated.

  Rebalancing the body is similar to rebalancing the wheels of a car: All four wheels need to be balanced in relation to one another for proper function. You can’t adjust one wheel and hope the other wheels will fall naturally into place. Pinpointing one muscle group and ignoring the others will not eliminate a problem.

  Focused, thorough work is necessary to resolve an imbalance, but once the issue has been addressed, the pain is often alleviated. As with a car, however, proper care and maintenance are essential! We can’t expect the body to remain eternally “fixed”; once we’ve rebalanced, the body is in constant need of tweaks and adjustments in order to heal and prevent injuries. A consistent practice of ESSENTRICS accomplishes both of these goals.

  HEALING AFTER INJURY

  The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”45 Fitness and exercise are now recognized as essential to the achievement of good health and healing. In order for exercise to facilitate the healing process, several basic criteria must be met:

  1.The program must not cause further damage or injury.

  2.Blood flow must be brought into the afflicted area.

  3.The injured area must be rebalanced.

  4.The muscles must be returned to their natural level of strength and flexibility.

  5.The entire body must be engaged so as not to cause further imbalance.

  As a full-body strengthening and rebalancing fitness and flexibility program, ESSENTRICS me
ets all these basic criteria.

  My program has been used to heal many common, chronic conditions such as back pain, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, arthritis, frozen shoulder, and knee and hip pain. Movement is a natural part of all healing and should not be dismissed as optional. The right movements can increase the rate of healing as well as prevent many aches and pains in the first place.

  (One important note: Even though I have had the honor of relieving many people of chronic pain and injury, I don’t want to overstate my credentials. I am not a medical practitioner or doctor. I do not want to mislead anyone by exaggerating what correct exercise can do to help. Grave illness or disease is not something that exercise has the ability to cure. If you are in constant pain or you are recovering from a major injury or surgery, I always recommend that you get a doctor’s or physiotherapist’s permission before beginning an exercise regimen.)

  HEALING AND BLOOD FLOW

  I often have clients who are either recovering from an injury or suffering from chronic pain. The way I approach a workout for an injured client is very different from the way I approach it for a healthy one. Strengthening and conditioning are great for healthy bodies—but not fragile bodies. When I work with healthy clients, I check first to be sure that they are in reasonably good physical shape and will benefit from the dynamics of a conditioning routine.