Anti-Aging Tactics: From Vitamin D to Saunas

Kristen Sparrow, MD Acupuncture

Ancient Medicine Made Modern

WEBSITE CONDITIONS TREATED HOURS & LOCATION FAQ BLOG

May 2017

Longevity has long been an objective of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Stress reduction, my area of interest, also ties into anti-aging strategies. Rhonda Patrick's detailed podcast considers anti-aging from a more biochemical perspective. I will share some tips below. My degree in Biochemistry has turned out to be useful time and time again!

San Francisco City Sights_Marin Headlands from Land_s End

Fitness and Health


Live Longer With Exercise

Simple tips for Anti-Aging and Weight Loss from Rhonda Patrick

Tim Ferriss' podcast featured Rhonda Patrick, a biochemist and expert in longevity and fitness. A few tips that I thought worthwhile follow.

1. Time Restricted Eating. Try to eat all of your meals/calories within 10 hours, so there is a more prolonged "fasting" in a 24 hour period. Lots of advantages to this regimen from weight loss to improved insulin resistance and lean body mass, and less fatty liver.

2. Take Vitamin D for health and mood. Vitamin D improves serotonin levels.

3. Take plenty of omega 3's to ward off cognitive decline and improve overall brain health.

4. Saunas two to three times a week, or better yet, 5 to 7 times a week cut dementia risk and improve cardiac health.

6. Cut out sugar. It's bad for telomeres (aging), inflammation, and just generally destructive.

7. Get blue light early in the day, and turn off lights and screens later in the day. We've discussed this before.

8. Last and definitely not least, increase the micronutrients in your diet, which affect both you and your gut microbiome by doing everything you can to increase vegetables and fruits in your diet. Patrick provides a smoothie recipe here. It's not bad! And it will definitely, dramatically increase the amount of vegetables and fruit that you purchase, guaranteed.

I also learned that markers of inflammation track with longevity better than even telomeres. HRV (the stress marker that I study in the clinic) correlates with markers of inflammation. So by improving your stress profile, you are not only getting the benefits of improved mood, less pain, and better immunity, but also less inflammation. Nice!

Society for Acupuncture Research Meeting San Francisco 2017

Society for Acupuncture Research meeting was held in San Francisco this year, which was fantastic for me. I go every year wherever it is, but to have it downtown made it so simple.

I presented a poster on some of my latest research. I showed the HRV stress data from 8 patients demonstrating how their stress decreased over time. Because of the sophistication of the monitoring system, in some cases you can see the parasympathetic or "rest and digest" arm of the autonomic nervous system increasing during each session and over time. But also, you can see the "fright or flight" aspect of the autonomic nervous system decrease of time.

Acupressure and Cancer Fatigue

Dr. Richard Harris, one of the co-chairs of the Society for Acupuncture Research, presented his work using home self administered Acupressure for breast cancer patients to reduce the disabling problem of chemotherapy induced fatigue. It's an incredible study, backed up not only by controlled clinical results, but also fMRI data.
Inspiring, and gratifying to be able to provide a safe and free solution to a vexing problem.
He has created an app to help in implementing the treatment. If you know anyone with this problem, have them send me an email and I can get the information for them.

Publications

Publication on migraine treatment is in "analog" version (paper) is out and in the clinic waiting room!

Case Studies with Data

Data Telling the Story and Improving Treatment


	Ancient Medicine Made Modern_ Scientific Solutions_ Remarkable Results I think I've overloaded you with data already this issue, so will just sign off!!