Stance for Health

Do you want to live forever?

August 17, 2023 Rodney P. Wirth DC Season 2 Episode 36

In this podcast episode, Dr. Rodney and Karen talk about longevity - one of their favorite topics.

Recently, a health partner asked that exact question, "Do you want to live forever?"

You'll love this lively conversation as they discuss the Six Longevity Pillars:

1. Alignment (Posture)
2. Intake (Food and drink)
3. Output (Movement)
4. Sleep (Rest)
5. Resilience (Your body's ability to heal itself)
6. Hope Perspective (Purpose)

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[00:07] Dr. Rodney: Welcome to Stance for Health Podcast with Dr. Rod and Karen Worth. Where becoming healthy is not complicated, control your health by focusing on six areas of life that we teach you so you finally have the energy you have to do what you want instead of being a victim of your age. I have over 20 years experience working as a chiropractor, and Karen is an author, speaker, and longevity coach. We've seen how a tiny change in your habits today can open up your life to a powerful future. Start today and take your stance for health.

[00:52] Karen: This is Stance for Health, and I'm so happy that you've joined us today. My name is Karen Sebastian Worth. I'm affectionately known as the Hope Lady, and it is my privilege to be here with Dr. Rodney. And we're going to talk about a question that I was asked just this week. You know, we talk a lot about longevity. That is one of our pillars. In fact, we're going to give you the pillars of longevity here at the end of this time together. The question was this, though. Do you live forever? It took me doc and I have been talking about that ever since I got that question. So I want to ask you that. Dr. Linny, do you want to live forever?

[01:36] Dr. Rodney: Yes. But not in the way that you think.

[01:38] Karen: Tell me more.

[01:40] Dr. Rodney: William Wallace once said, we all end up dead.

[01:43] Karen: Tell me who William Wallace is. Again, I know that seems impossible for you to think that I don't know.

[01:48] Dr. Rodney: Who William for any of you non movie watchers over the last 30 years.

[01:54] Karen: Or that type of movie watcher.

[01:58] Dr. Rodney: So it's a kick and stab, blood and guts movie that it was called Braveheart Gotcha. He was a Scotsman, and that Scotsman was responsible.

[02:10] Karen: Who was the main actor in that?

[02:11] Dr. Rodney: It was Mel Gibson.

[02:12] Karen: That's right. I was trying to think of his name. Okay. Mel Gibson.

[02:16] Dr. Rodney: And so when we consider who he was and what he stood for, he was fighting against tyranny at that point, against the English.

[02:25] Karen: Now, this is a spoiler. Someone has not watched it. Right. Because he does die. I'm messing up your you asked the.

[02:35] Dr. Rodney: Question, so I'm just trying to give you a best answer here.

[02:38] Karen: I'm just messing with you, Doug.

[02:40] Dr. Rodney: So it's a little bit like people that die quicker. Maybe that's what you were getting at. He actually dies sooner than we think they should. The reality of is he says, okay, so you might live a long life.

[02:53] Dr. Rodney: He says, we all end up dead.

[02:55] Dr. Rodney: It's just a question of how and why every man dies. Not every man really lives.

[03:00] Karen: Oh, that's good, right?

[03:02] Dr. Rodney: So when you ask me the question, do I want to live forever, it's like, well, I want to live as long as I can, effectively and really live when I'm living. That amount of time perfect as free from disability and disease. As possible.

[03:20] Karen: I like it. I love it. In fact, that's what we're about. So the word longevity simply means long life, but what is it going to look like? So longevity, we've already said, is not living forever because we're afraid to die. Because at that extreme, you have the people that are doing the freezing their.

[03:44] Dr. Rodney: Diseased bodies cryogenic suspension.

[03:47] Karen: Yes, because one day there will be a cure for their ill, whatever is killing them to be brought back. We're not talking about that, but we're also embracing our age. We're not talking about ageism. Have you heard the use of that word much, Doc?

[04:04] Dr. Rodney: I hadn't heard that much in this context, in the longevity context.

[04:10] Karen: So ageism probably affects women more than men. If you look at actors and actresses. So you have a Robert Redford, let's say he embraces the wrinkles and the characters that he can play with that. And no plastic surgeries, no injections, nothing like that. You put him next to an actress of the same age, and they're saying, oh, she looks pretty good for her age. I think the main one I've ever seen with this and she would joke about it was Joan Rivers. And she would go on talk shows. She had had so many plastic surgeries. She would joke about it. She was a comedian. And she would say, but I am smiling because everything was Botox. And so we're not talking about that either, because we want to embrace our age and be proud of our age.

[05:05] Dr. Rodney: Does that resonate in this context? Absolutely. I think it's great we embrace our age, but at the same time, we don't embrace what's often associated with that age.

[05:18] Karen: That's a good point, because we have health partners that come in and say, well, how are you doing? And they're like, Pretty good for 75.

[05:28] Dr. Rodney: Lot of assumptions there, right?

[05:30] Karen: What does 75 look like? The other point, longevity is not a slow death. I think we've got a couple examples of that from our health partners. Do you want to tell us about the one that really stands out every time we talk on this topic?

[05:46] Dr. Rodney: Every time? Yeah, I think I've changed the way I ask the questions.

[05:51] Karen: Yes, you do.

[05:52] Dr. Rodney: It's saying, don't you want to live to be 120? To somebody. It's saying, I'm asking them. All right, if you were free from disability and disease, how long would you want to live?

[06:05] Karen: So let's back up a minute. So when we started on the longevity soapbox, so to speak, we were looking at Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, and the reality of the fact that Moses lived to 120. He walked up a mountain to die. He looked over, his eyes were clear, and he was 120. So that we used to ask him when we first started, yeah, do you want to live to 120 and tell us what this particular health partner is?

[06:37] Dr. Rodney: This particular health partner. And at that point, we were still calling them patients, because that's just what you call people that go to a doctor's office or any wellness facility. And the reality is, patients suggest suffering. And this one in particular said, I don't want to outlive my kids. And she got really emotional and never came back. But it looks like from the outside is that by going to your wellness facility, I have to want to outlive my kids. I have to outlive my kids in order to keep coming here.

[07:13] Karen: In fairness to her, she had a very busy schedule taking care of she was a sandwich generation. I don't know if you've ever heard of that, but it's on the caregiver's terms. It's where you're taking care of teenagers and your two sets of parents, her in laws and her mom and dad. And so that's besides working a full time job. And so it was like, I don't want to put on my kids what these four people are putting on me and having to take them to the doctors and the constant sense of that.

[07:51] Dr. Rodney: Wow, that's really good.

[07:52] Karen: Yeah.

[07:52] Dr. Rodney: I had forgotten the full circumstances. That's great.

[07:57] Karen: And then another young health partner who is studying to be a nurse, and she basically said her grandma has dementia. Headed towards perhaps Alzheimer's, does not know who they are, is very pleasant, but is lingering in a state of unconsciousness, so to speak, or not remembering what happened a minute ago with that dementia. And she said if Grandma knew the burden she was placing on us, she would wish that she could go ahead and die and be with Jesus and Grandpa. That breaks my heart.

[08:42] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. Especially when you put it that way. Nobody wants to be and that's the motivation, isn't it? Nobody wants to be a burden on their family or on society, and that's what we're taught.

[08:54] Karen: So let's change our perspective with the hope perspective, because we have examples in our family, and the main one being my dad, who made it to almost 102, where he slid into Heaven's home base. He sprinted into there.

[09:12] Dr. Rodney: He really did.

[09:13] Karen: Now we made him use a walker. He just would grab his little walker and run. And so that's what we want to look at the power of hope in healing does, and in longevity. We want to create a rejuvenation lifestyle. Let's define longevity from that perspective. It's from a hope perspective. The way you ask your question now, you reframed it from losing that particular health partner. So now you ask you said it earlier. Can you repeat that? That was so good.

[09:47] Dr. Rodney: Absolutely. If you were free from disability, or in this case, some form of dementia right. How long would you want to live? If you were relatively free from that and you were still effective and you weren't a burden on society?

[10:03] Karen: Still effective?

[10:04] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. How long would you want to live? And that's what everybody assumes, is that those are going to be the cases with us. In fact, that's how we even figure how much life insurance you need or how much you need to have life insurance.

[10:19] Karen: You need millions of dollars because you're going to be on a life support machine, or you're going to need somebody.

[10:27] Dr. Rodney: The full care, as free from disability as possible.

[10:31] Karen: And we have a really good role model with the blue zones. So if you're not familiar with the blue zones, it's where Dan Butner, a national and geographic person working for them, started studying these areas. They used a blue pin to circle the areas where people lived like this. So no disability later in life. They're fulfilling their purpose and they're doing something every day towards that longevity, not just superheroic efforts every once in a while. So in those blue zones, I'm so excited to say that I didn't know it growing up, but my daddy spent much of his life ministering to people in one of the blue zones, which is the Nicoya and Peninsula in Costa Rica. What we want to talk about that is what are the longevity pillars now that we've defined? No disability in later life, fulfilling your.

[11:31] Dr. Rodney: Purpose, which is effectiveness. Really?

[11:33] Dr. Rodney: Yes.

[11:34] Dr. Rodney: Still getting results.

[11:35] Karen: Exactly. And so let's talk about the pillars of longevity that we've defined, because resilience is one of the first. It's what you take in what your movement is, your sleep and your purpose, your hope perspective.

[11:57] Dr. Rodney: I like referring to some of our previous podcasts with regard to resilience as it relates to the tree that the lead branch was restored. Yeah, because we're all capable of that. It's just a question of whether or not you choose that. And that's what stance is about.

[12:14] Karen: Yes. Could it be that that person that says not too bad for 75 has just accepted the norm? That my joints should hurt, I should slow down, I should forget things? I mean, maybe they were forgetful their whole lives, but all of a sudden they go, oh, a certain age, and you tell me when that hill is. Because you get over the hill parties when you turn 30, when you turn 40, when you turn 50, when you turn 60. And for sure on 70, they're giving you the Depends. But we went just a few weeks ago and had an 80th birthday celebration for your mom.

[12:55] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. And she was walking on heels, stilettos.

[13:00] Karen: Not just three inch heels. I don't even do that. But it's because she's doing these things. So let's put our pillars around what your mom does.

[13:09] Dr. Rodney: Oh, my goodness. Yeah, she's exercising, doing movement, probably hours a day.

[13:15] Karen: Yes, for sure.

[13:17] Dr. Rodney: Every week, five and six days a week.

[13:21] Karen: So she never misses those? No, we text her every day.

[13:25] Dr. Rodney: And she does have a sense of purpose right now, it's caring for my father in law, I mean, my stepfather, I should say. And with that, she has to watch carefully his diet and as a consequence, hers, too. They eat lots of fish, salmon, and they're pretty free from processed food. I don't end up eating a lot of processed food. She makes all of her little she calls them bar bites. She makes them herself. I always used to think they were going to the bar, and it turns out she's bringing the bar to them.

[14:00] Karen: Yes. Now that I get that, I was like, bar bites. Okay, so the other thing about it is that she goes to the Chiropractor regularly.

[14:10] Dr. Rodney: Yes.

[14:10] Karen: Because another one of the longevity pillars.

[14:12] Dr. Rodney: Is alignment once or twice a month. I think she goes once a week when he's in town because he lives the kind of lifestyle we do, too.

[14:22] Karen: Yeah. So alignment and good posture.

[14:25] Dr. Rodney: Yes.

[14:26] Karen: So I love how Doc's sister, Renee bought her this sash that said 80 and Fabulous. And she put on her blingy top and her lean black pants and her black stilettos and oh, my goodness. I'm going to do a reel on that here to go along with this podcast because she really looks fabulous. She's not trying to hide her age. She's embracing it. But she's doing the best she can. So we've got that. She goes to the Chiropractor, she eats well, drinks a lot of water. She is moving consistently. And what about her resilience?

[15:09] Dr. Rodney: She had some kind of a heart irregularity probably five or six years ago now. And it's barely a blip on the radar now. Yeah.

[15:19] Karen: Because she followed this pattern of living right.

[15:23] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. Bounce back. And to look at her, I feel like I look older than she does.

[15:27] Karen: Oh, no.

[15:30] Dr. Rodney: But she looks great for 80. She's embraced that 80 naya wrinkle. Because she does reasonable sun exposure her whole life.

[15:41] Karen: That's true. Grew up on a farm, so she's hardworking and has never stopped that.

[15:48] Dr. Rodney: She doesn't sit long.

[15:50] Karen: No, she doesn't. She has her little doggie that she takes out of their apartment early in the morning and she's out there enjoying the blue space because they live in Florida. What about her sleep?

[16:06] Dr. Rodney: I was going to say she is very deliberate about sleeping. A fair amount. Seven to 8 hours. Rarely does it exceed eight.

[16:15] Karen: And that's significant. And wrapping it up. Hope perspective. What can you say about your mom regarding oh, goodness.

[16:25] Dr. Rodney: Would seem like I'm using the two terms interchangeably by saying she's positive. From a hope perspective. I think it's filtered through hope, the way she lives.

[16:37] Karen: Hope and faith.

[16:38] Dr. Rodney: Hope, faith, positive. Looking at it looks like from a heavenly perspective.

[16:45] Karen: From my perspective, yeah. She's always looking for the best and so involved in people's lives and so has embraced social media. That's how she connects with the grandkids and with us. I mean, you text her every morning.

[17:01] Dr. Rodney: Yeah, pretty much.

[17:03] Karen: She's just very positive. She's a good role model for us in this topic, isn't she? Do you want to live forever spiritually, we will. And one of the things that happens in the Blue Zones is that is their faith. They embrace the faith. One of the factors of a hope perspective is embracing faith and community and being a part of something bigger with purpose. We know that we will live forever in eternity. And that's one of the things that the Blue Zones have in common, is that they live long, healthy lives and quick deaths. They do die at 105, 106, 107. If they become ill at all, some of them just go to sleep and wake up in heaven. But it's a short little segment of their life.

[17:58] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[17:58] Karen: I love this.

[17:59] Dr. Rodney: Me too. Me too. It can't be said enough.

[18:03] Karen: I am so excited to be on this journey with you, Dr. Rodney.

[18:07] Dr. Rodney: Likewise, hope lady.

[18:08] Karen: I've become a longevity coach because I want everyone to feel like I do. In the last seven years, I have de aged. Now the march of time has just gone on. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Every birthday. I'm older, but I'm embracing that age and I'm loving it. I can't wait to share more of the longevity pillars with you. Follow us on Instagram. We're there at Stance for Health, but I've also started another Instagram called Rejuvenation Lifestyle and it is about longevity hacks. What can you do every day in these different longevity pillars that are going to be an investment in a vibrant future?

[18:56] Dr. Rodney: It was good to be with you today.

[18:57] Karen: Great conversation. We talk about this stuff all the time. So we just decided, let's just get on here and talk about what makes us move forward. Why do we think it's a good day? And you, my friend, are the purpose that gets us up in the morning. We are so excited that you're listening. Have any questions, please put them in the comments. Be sure to share and write us a review that would really help this podcast. We love you.

[19:28] Dr. Rodney: Thanks for listening.

[19:32] Dr. Rodney: Thank you for joining us at Stance for Health podcast, where getting healthy and staying that way are not as complicated as you might think.

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