Category Archives: Mind-Body Connection

With Years Come Wisdom, Guest Post by Joe Gardewin

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Our recent guest post on aging inspired yet another guest post, this one by long-term reader Joe Gardewin. I hope his words inspire you as much as they inspired me!

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Dear Doc Roxanne, 

I may not be an expert on aging but, at 78, I do consider myself aged or, as my friend, Tom Isern, says, “seasoned.” In other words, most of my life is in my rearview mirror. Ha! That is not a bad thing, because I’ve had a pretty full life. But I do hope to live for a while yet and, in all honesty, I think I will. I think that, in part, because I have a good family doc who has now followed me for 20 years. In her words I am “… not the patient I worry about most.” 

These are my thoughts on [hopefully] living a long, healthy life:  Continue reading →

A Nation of Sugar Addicts

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A few years ago I wrote a piece on cravings for the Sam’s Club newsletter. In the process of writing it, I became further convinced that sugar is a recreational drug to which a great many Americans are addicted. Today I’m going to discuss my impressions. But we’re going to start not with sugar, but with alcohol. Continue reading →

Gratitude and Wisdom

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When I was eleven years old, my parents, always “early adopters” of the latest technology long before this kind of thing had a name, bought a brand new stove with a smooth white ceramic top. It was called a Corning Cooktop, and its most memorable feature, at least to me, was that its elements remained white even when they were hot enough to boil water. Was it really that hot? You had to take it on faith — or not. No matter how long I stared at it, I could not convince myself that the white ceramic stovetop was hot. And that is why I still remember, all these many years later, the perfectly oval burn on the tip of my right index finger. I only touched that hot stove once, but that was all it took. I did not cry, even though it hurt a lot. I just stared and stared. I could not take anyone else’s word for it; I needed to see for myself. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even tell anyone in my family. I just needed to know. Continue reading →

Disturbing News About Ultraprocessed Products

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My friend Nancy recently asked about a jar of “light mayo” whose first and third ingredients were water and “modified food starch,” respectively. She bought it because, in contrast to the 100 kcal found in conventional mayonnaise, it listed calories per serving at 35 kcal. I would say that it is an expensive way to buy water and flour. Currently, approximately two-thirds of the calories in the standard American diet derive from ultraprocessed items. I would like to discuss the many recent articles connecting illness and ultraprocessed products. Note that I don’t call them “food.”  Continue reading →

Your World Affects Your Health

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After many years of imagining what it might look like to take down the half-wall between our kitchen and dining room, we finally did it! This week, amid tons of banging, ripping, tearing, and dislodging, down came that wall and, frankly, the only one who wasn’t happy about it was the dog. I have learned a lot this week about updating 50-year-old kitchens, and yesterday’s news was the biggest: Our carpenter/project manager par excellence said that he can always tell from the project whether the family enjoys cooking. Wow — that was an eye-opener! 

Why should I be surprised? Environmental cues affect our behaviors whether we realize it or not. A well-designed kitchen is a kitchen that functions with as few obstacles as possible. The stove is near the sink is near the refrigerator. So does that mean that a well-designed kitchen inspires people who might otherwise describe themselves as “I don’t cook”? I hope so, because the research is clear: the more cooking and eating done at home, the likelier the food is to be nourishing. And the fewer obstacles to healthy behaviors, the better we rest, move, and eat.  Continue reading →

Meditation is My Happy Place

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Last week I said a few words about my own meditation practice, how I started with an approach that I call one-minute meditation, and how I had no idea where it might lead. I just knew that I liked listening to what regulator meditators said about their own experiences. So I thought I would try it out. One-minute meditation is just what it sounds like. It’s great for starters. It’s hardly much of a commitment. I mean, it’s one minute. You won’t be late for the sake of a single minute. Continue reading →

Every Little Bit Counts

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I have some amazing news to share. A recent study published in the journal Diabetes Care observed a reduced risk of diabetes (type 2) in older women who walked just 1000 steps more every day. You can access those findings here. This week’s post might, at first glance, seem a little dry to you, but if you’ll stay with me for a couple of minutes, I think you’ll find an important observation here that may resonate deeply. It’s not about diabetes, or even walking for that matter. It’s about success. Continue reading →

Your Health is Where You Want it to Be

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Good morning, and happy Sunday! I want to tell you about a conversation I had with a patient this week. She was someone I’d never met before, and, like many before her, she was absolutely flummoxed about what to try next. She had already done everything she could think of to lose weight. I think you know this story. I’ve told it many times before, and you may even have experienced it yourself. Maybe you’ve been on practically every diet, eaten cabbage soup, denied yourself your favorite foods, carved out time you didn’t really have to get more exercise than was comfortable at the time. Of course none of this was sustainable. You can’t eat cabbage soup for breakfast forever. So what’s next? Next comes balance. Continue reading →

Baby Steps

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This week i had a conversation with a patient, a math tutor, about the difficulty she was having measuring up to her impossibly difficult personal standard. Why “impossibly” difficult? Because I’m sure that she was doing the best she could. And to ask more of herself, at least right now, was impossible. Continue reading →

Set an Intention

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These are not easy days, to say the least. But one thing that really helps me is to start each day by setting an intention.

What does that mean? Well, I might say to myself, “Today, I will take a few deep breaths.” Or, “I will keep my eyes on the road.” Or, “I will be kind to myself.” Intentions can be abstract or concrete. They can help you study, close your eyes, or stretch your arms to the ceiling a couple of times a day. They can let you stay in bed, ask for a back rub, take a long bath. Intentions are multi-purpose, which is an essential part of their charm. I weave them into the fabric of my days, and they make my weeks more interesting, resilient, even productive. The possibilities are endless. Continue reading →