Rayro's Health & Fitness Advice: Serious Stuff!

Since I am going to be 69 years old on Feb. 4, 2007 and appear to be in splendid shape, and I have earned all those advanced degrees too, I feel fully qualified to tell everyone else what they might do to stay in good health and shape:

I. Fitness
Everyone should exercise to the fullest extent of ability and available time in order to maintain flexibility, strength, cardiovascular health, and sanity.

Let’s start with the 10-15 minute quickies that are possible in a pinch, such as a) Royal Canadian Air Force Exercises, or some equivalent, for cardiovascular health, strength, etc.; and b) Pete Egoscue’s basic stretches on pp. 277-282 of his really fascinating book, “Pain Free,” which also addresses very clever ways to tackle musculoskeletal aches and pains through movement.

But whenever possible, more time should go into fitness for life. I also use Egoscue for warm-ups and after-stretches on days when I make it to my local YMCA to work out on those elliptical machines and/or the Nautilus weight machines for at least half an hour.

To maintain balance, flexibility, and good coordination, nothing in the world that I know of comes even close to learning to do Feldenkrais routines; take a class in Awareness Through Movement®, and you will soon see what I mean. (Yoga and T’ai-chi are fine too, but I think they are not as complete & savvy as Feldenkrais.) Don't forget to dance whenever possible.

II. Health & Medical
Supplement your excellent doctor with the best website doctor I know of: Dr. Andrew Weil, MD, http://www.drweil.com -- and I fully recommend his books and newsletter too. You are neither too young nor too old to check out his advice, which is based on a fabulous grasp of both Western and non-Western approaches, as well as on quite a knowledge of alternative medicine. His own brand of vitamins that he pushes should be taken only as a suggestion, since you can usually find far less expensive substitutes out there, especially at Vitacost.com. His FOOD advice is very valuable too, and I do follow it closely — but not his recipes!!

If you are over 50 years of age, you may also profit from Dr. Weil’s discussion of a new product called Juvenon, an equivalent of which can be found at a much lower price at Vitacost.com with the name Alpha Lipoic Acid & Acetyl L-Carnitine HCL (manufactured by NSI).

For muscle aches and pains, explore the use of herbal creams like a) Arnica; b) Ruta graveolens (Rue); and c) Rhus tox, if the first two did not work. A good acupuncturist can do wonders too.