Finding Care for Self
Finding Care for Self Right Now
by: Nita Lapinski
Many friends and clients ask me what I see with what’s happening in our world. I’m reluctant to talk about how I feel, as we are in a tender time and easily hurt or angered. Covid-19, racial disparity, gender issues, politics, religion, our collective consciousness, and how we express these have become contentious and, in many cases, shatter delicate relationships.
The eruption and spread of Covid-19 was not a surprise to me, because in my reality, everything is connected. Everything. Tragically, people are dying alone, separated and isolated from those they love.
Covid-19 is remarkably contagious, dangerous, wide-spread, and requires us to separate. It is a physical manifestation of our fear, anger, vulnerability, and fatigue, which is what we experience with the virus. This kind of fearful global thought has been gaining momentum for about a decade.
Over the years, we have become more polarized and less accepting of each other’s differences and surer of who is right and who is wrong. Middle ground no longer exists. We are intolerant of difference of opinion on any topic, whether it be racial inequality, politics, religion, or basic rights. Nowadays, you must be on one side or another. We each believe our view is the right one. If others don’t agree with or believe in what we do, we label them stupid, short-sighted, and ignorant.
I believe the universe is always reflecting belief and collective consciousness back to us.
I don’t have a magic answer or deep wisdom that might save us. There is only myself and a choice each day of who I will be. I do my best to practice humility, not to judge the choice of another as right or wrong, or good or bad, and instead ask, “What can I give? How can I support?” I will not label you as a good person or bad based on your choice to wear a mask or drink and drive or if you lose your temper or vote for someone I wouldn’t. There is no need to make you wrong so I can be right. Because of this, there is an absence of fear, anxiety or dread in my life. Gone is sadness or disgust with the growth of others; rather, I am happy with myself. I am grateful for all that I have and all that I am and I speak it daily.
My best advice is don’t waste time trying to figure out what happened or who is responsible. Be gentle with yourselves and each other. Don’t judge yourself and you will judge others less. Respond with love and understanding. Help others and lift them up without discrimination. As we shift who we are, what and how we think, we let go of fearful anxiety and blame. As we practice acceptance of ourselves, we open to love. This is how we change the world.
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Re-igniting Your Relationship
Do you like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain?
You don’t have to answer… these are just the lyrics to a familiar song about a longtime couple who went “looking” for adventures in romance and wound up re-discovering one other.
Maybe one of the reasons the song has stood the test of time is because many men and women can relate. Keeping a relationship fresh can be challenging when you’ve been together for a long time. Jobs, kids, parents, stress, plus the effects of aging can all take a toll.
If the romance between you and your partner tastes a little flat, don’t assume it’s “love on the rocks.” There are many things you can do. Think of this list as a swizzle stick for your marriage, stirring up all those feelings from when you first fell in love! So, belly up to the bar and let’s see what’s on the menu.
Write a Love Letter to Your Spouse
Everyone loves to feel loved. Spending some time thinking about and expressing what you love and appreciate about your partner is a great way to re-kindle some of those feelings. Human psychology often leads us to take things (and people) for granted. Let your spouse know you are still in love with him or her. There’s a good chance that some of those little details you fell in love with haven’t changed a bit.
Try Something New Together
Whether it’s a new restaurant, a weekend away to a place you’ve never been, or a salsa class, doing something new together will boost both of your dopamine levels and give you that “butterflies in the stomach” feeling we associate with new love. According to Psychology Today, studies show that learning a new activity together strengthens a couple’s bond.
Kiss More Often
Did you know that simply by smiling, you can improve your mood? The physical act has an impact on your mental state. In the same way, you can increase feelings of love and attraction by simply making an effort to kiss, touch, and cuddle more often with your partner. Give it a try!
Revisit Special Places
Where did you meet? Go on your first date? Did you have a particularly romantic encounter, for example on a cruise or vacation? Go back to that place and watch how the triggered memories can rekindle your flame.
Fix Your Physiology
Sometimes there is a physiological component to why you just aren’t “feeling it.” Hormone imbalance can take a toll on your sex life, creating loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, and vaginal dryness. Low hormone levels can cause belly fat build-up and a reduction in lean muscle mass, making you feel less attractive. Out of whack hormones can even tank your mood, create anxiety, or launch you into depression. If any of this sounds familiar, a SottoPelle provider may be able to help. Bioidentical hormone replacement with pellet therapy is a safe, proven way to bring your hormones back to healthy levels so you can look and feel your best.
So, whether it’s piña coladas, whiskey sours or a cold glass of non-alcoholic bubbly water, let’s toast to your relationship and all the ways to keep it fresh and fun even as the years go by!
Fits Like A Glove
Finding your “fit.”
Some things we just have to live with.
Luckily, the symptoms of hormone imbalance are not one of them.
Still, hundreds of thousands of women and men are suffering through uncomfortable physical and mental symptoms that take a toll on their work, relationships, and quality of life. Sometimes their doctors have told them to “just live with it.” Others may have offered them hormone replacement creams, pills or patches made of risky synthetic hormones.
There’s another option.
What makes SottoPelle® different?
The SottoPelle approach to hormone replacement therapy is different, as we use bio identical HRT “pellets” placed painlessly under the skin. Let’s take a look at why this is the most desirable approach to HRT.
The definition of bioidentical is “chemically identical to what your body produces naturally.” This means your body can’t tell the difference between bio identical hormones and the hormones your body once produced, naturally. To your body, they are the same, and that means that in your body, they behave the same way.
The “Hand in the Glove” Analogy
We like to think of Bio identical Pellet therapy as “a hand in a glove.” The glove is the hormone pellet, and the hand is your body. When you put the two together, everything fits…” like, a glove”. The two work seamlessly together.
If you were given a glove designed any other way, your hand wouldn’t fit quite right. That’s what happens with synthetic hormones. They are made with estrogen or testosterone, but they are not biologically identical to your own. This creates a “mismatch” in your body that can lead to unwanted side effects.
It might help to understand how delicate and sensitive the hormonal system in our bodies is. Hormones bind with cells and tissues via proteins in the body called hormone receptors. Once bound, the hormones can create the necessary cellular changes that keep you healthy and feeling good. Your naturally occurring hormones have the perfect molecular structure to “fit” into these hormone receptors.
When you have a hormone imbalance, your body doesn’t make enough to meet your needs, and you experience symptoms. SottoPelle’s bioidentical hormones, being molecularly identical, are received by your body in the same fashion, react in the same way on a cellular level and produce the same results as your naturally occurring hormones. They quench the thirst of those empty hormone receptors. They fill the gap perfectly.
Synthetic hormones do not have the same molecular structure, absorption capabilities or receptor affinity as bioidenticals. On top of that, the doses are, to some degree, “one-size-fits-all”. The delivery system doesn’t work the same way your body does. The glove doesn’t fit.
Why bioidentical hormones are preferred
The continuing research on bioidentical hormones is making the picture more and more clear: on a cellular level, little things make a big difference.
When we take a look at the science of bioidentical hormone replacement, we learn that:
● bioidentical progesterone does not have a negative effect on blood lipids or vessels like many synthetic progestins
● bioidentical progesterone may carry less risk regarding breast cancer incidence
● bioidentical estrogens and progesterone suggest a reduced risk of blood clots compared to their non-bioidentical counterparts
● bioidentical hormones are safer and work better than commonly used synthetic versions of hormone replacement therapy
Not only is SottoPelle hormone replacement method biologically identical to your own naturally produced hormones, but our delivery method is also individualized. Through blood tests, we know the correct amount of hormones you need, and we can provide it. We don’t have to squeeze you into someone else’s glove.
Also, our unique delivery system ensures that the correct amount of hormone reaches your bloodstream in a steady, consistent dose, not with the ups and downs produced by other delivery methods like pills, creams or patches.
Just like wearing a well-fitting glove helps you do the job with ease, having the right fit for your hormones helps you live your life with balance, convenience, confidence, and joy.
Let us help you find your “fit.” Contact one of our SottoPelle Certified Providers today.
Your overall health and wellbeing will thank you for it.
Methods to Maintain Sexual Health
We’ll get straight to the point: Let’s talk about sex.
There’s a notion that older adults have no business in any sort of sexual activity. However, as we’ve previously shared in our post on how to ‘Get a Bang Out of Aging This New Year’, intimacy is an integral part of our being, and it’s imperative that we care for our sexual health.
This is why it’s high time we break the taboo that surrounds conversations about sexual health. After all, sex is a normal part of the human experience, and should be treated as such. So, we’ve rounded up some key methods for you to maintain your sexual health in this stage of your life and beyond.
Exercise More Often
According to a study conducted by Anglia Ruskin University, older adults who are more sexually active are more likely to experience a greater enjoyment of life. But, it’s important to note that in order to be sexually active, you must be physically active as well. While sexual desires won’t disappear as you age, our agility and flexibility are expected to decline. And since sex is essentially a form of exercise, you must be in good shape to prevent pain or even injuries. To keep your body in tip-top condition, you should engage in cardio exercise at least three times a week. Cardio workouts, such as jogging, swimming, and dancing, help secure both your physical and sexual health, as these exercises help increase your body’s stamina and endurance, while also enhancing heart health.
Talk to Your Healthcare Provider
Developing a healthy sex life in your middle age may be difficult, as some struggle to cope with the physiological changes. Luckily, healthcare providers can help you overcome these huge psychological barriers. Indeed, their support is needed now more than ever, as Maryville University notes the demand for health services managers is expected to rise to 17% by 2024. Their support goes beyond medical assistance, as they teach and rehabilitate their patients who are adjusting to this new stage of their life. As such, you shouldn’t be afraid to open up to them about whatever it is you’re feeling — whether it’s physical or psychological distress. After all, poor mental health can have adverse effects on your physical state: People struggling with depression and anxiety, for example, may find that these issues also affect their sexual health.
Be Mindful of Your Diet
As you get older, one of the biggest hurdles your sex life will face is how your reproductive organs will function. For some men, they’ll find that achieving an erection can be quite the challenge due to poor blood flow and testosterone loss. Meanwhile, women experience a significant loss of estrogen as they age, which can lead to vaginal dryness. Although these physical changes may hinder your sexual performance, you can overcome these obstacles by adopting healthier eating habits.
True enough, University of Minnesota’s Jamie Feldman notes that men should incorporate plant-based and heart-healthy food into their diet to help protect their erectile function. Meanwhile, a nourishing diet also proves vital for women, too, as consuming superfoods like soybeans, flax seeds, and fruits like apricots, peaches, and strawberries will help boost estrogen levels. All in all, a healthy diet is key in promoting sexual health.
Talking about sexual health may still be taboo, but there’s no reason to feel ashamed about caring for your own. At the end of the day, your sexual feelings are completely valid — no matter your age.
Article specially written for sottopelletherapy.com
Prepared by Alicia Wilson
A Day in the Life – Part One
It was 7:30PM and Kendra still had 1000 steps to go. Even though it was the last thing she wanted to do, and even though there was a half-full bottle of pinot grigio in the fridge, Kendra pulled on her Skechers.
“Jasmine!” she yelled into the abyss of her living room, “Come walk with me!”
“Homework!” came the disembodied voice from the next room.
Kendra huffed and clipped her FitBit to the waist of her yoga pants. Her head fairly spun with the neverending to-do list of a 47-year-old single mom, plus she had classes of her own to catch up on. Not to mention her new job at White Owl Publishing required… what was it they called it?
Oh, yes, creativity.
As if her brain had any room in it for that.
It didn’t break Kendra’s heart that her daughter didn’t want to walk with her. At least she wouldn’t have to explain what she was doing on her phone while they walked.
Her forbidden secret.
The scent of Woods’ rose was thick in the Scottsdale evening air as Kendra logged the first 100 steps down her driveway onto the paved road. The sky was the dark, sleepy blue of a missed sunset. Two younger models of walkers passed her, looking far better in their yoga pants than she did. Kendra remembered the not-so-distant past when she’d had firm, muscular legs, too. When she’d been able to talk and jog and breathe at the same time. When her body didn’t feel like it was constantly being run over by an invisible truck. When her brain wasn’t full of taffy. When she wasn’t overwhelmed.
She was just passing 300 steps when she stopped feeling sorry for herself and pulled out her phone.
“I am healthy. I am strong. I am vital.” She whispered the mantras to herself as she logged into the account she’d made a week ago on the site Ximena had recommended to her–the one all the divorcees were using. Her profile pic was a bit outdated, but it still looked like her, sort of. Sure, her short, dark hair was thicker and more lustrous, she’d been a healthy weight, and everybody lied in their profile pics anyway, right?
It was just for fun anyway. Kendra checked her activity to see if she’d gotten any “action” as Ximena called it, and almost tripped on her 565th step.
Holy franks and beans, she had ten more “kissy lips”!
Something about that both thrilled and terrified her at the same time.
She scrolled through the list of men, quickly swiping away the obvious nos. After turning back toward home and logging another 400 steps, she’d whittled it down to three potentials. James was a handsome bespectacled widower, but his prose was heavy with grief and neediness. Cole’s profile was promising, but there was more information about his English bulldog Ruby than there was about him, and Kendra was a card-carrying cat lover. The third one was a handsome salt-and-pepper airline pilot with a nicely-trimmed beard and a friendly smile… what was his name again?
Kendra caught another whiff of Woods’ rose as she stabbed at the phone with her finger while logging the last hundred steps back up her driveway to the front door.
Kyle. That was it. Kyle.
Wait a minute.
Kendra stopped short just before smacking her nose into her front door. She squinted at the photo. She didn’t have her glasses. She needed her glasses! She squinted harder.
It couldn’t be.
But it was.
Kendra gasped. The metal windchimes in the entryway sang mournfully in the dry breeze, and something like a wave of desert wildfire spread across Kendra’s chest and up her neck to her scalp, making her feel like she might spontaneously combust at any second.
This wasn’t just any Kyle. This was Kyle from high school thirty years ago. This was Red Converse Kyle, the star player on the volleyball team. This was Let’s Study Together Kyle.
This was I’ll Walk You Home Kyle.
This was First Kiss Kyle.
Preventative Care
Preventative and proactive care is the cornerstone to SottoPelle. We are sharing important resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help take a more proactive approach to your health and well being as you age.
The doctor of the future will give no medication, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, diet and in the cause and prevention of disease. ~
Thomas A. Edison
For more help in preventative services you may need – try this app below.
Stress & Nuts
We all know about stress. Everyday something happens in your life that seems stressful. You can find an entire day, week or year consumed by stress. Are you driven mad by NUTS?
Beyond being a huge glutton of our mental time, stress is really unhealthy.
Does stress impact how we age too?
Science and studies seem to indicate it does.
“Chronic stress accelerates premature aging by shortening DNA telomeres.
Telomere length is a marker of both biological and cellular aging. Stressful life experiences in childhood and adulthood have previously been linked to accelerated telomere shortening. Shortened telomeres have been associated with chronic diseases and premature death in previous studies by Dr. Owen Wolkowitz and colleagues at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).(1)
Is All Stress Created Equal?
No, there are physical and emotional stressors and they impact you differently. Their are also instances were we self impose stress on ourself.
“Like most psychological theories, it’s gone through a few changes over the years. Experts had long believed that the Zeigarnik effect was the brain’s way of prompting its owner to finish a task, nagging the mind to wrap up what had been started. But recent research has found that the Zeigarnik effect is a little more specific than that.
“(The) unconscious is asking the conscious mind to make a plan,” write Roy Baumeister and John Tierney in Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. “The unconscious mind apparently can’t do this on its own, so it nags the conscious mind to make a plan with specifics like time, place, and opportunity. Once the plan is formed, the unconscious can stop nagging the conscious mind with reminders.”
Sounds great, right? It’s like a built-in to-do-list, no iPhone note required. But here’s the thing: That constant mental nagging can seriously drain you after a while.”(2)
To Recap “stress comes in two basic flavors, physical and emotional — and both can be especially taxing for older people. The impacts of physical stress are clear. As people reach old age, wounds heal more slowly and colds become harder to shake. A 75-year-old heart can be slow to respond to the demands of exercise. And when an 80-year-old walks into a chilly room, it will take an extra-long time for her body temperature to adjust.
Emotional stress is more subtle, but if it’s chronic, the eventual consequences can be as harmful. At any age, stressed-out brains sound an alarm that releases potentially harmful hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Ideally, the brain turns down the alarm when stress hormones get too high.
Stress hormones provide energy and focus in the short term, but too much stress over too many years can throw a person’s system off-balance. Overloads of stress hormones have been linked to many health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, and weakened immune function. For older people already at heightened risk for these illnesses, managing stress is particularly important.
Over time, the brain can slowly lose its skills at regulating hormone levels. As a result, older people who feel worried or anxious tend to produce larger amounts of stress hormones, and the alarm doesn’t shut down as quickly. According to a study published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, women are especially susceptible to an overload of stress hormones as they age. The study found that the impact of age on cortisol levels is nearly three times stronger for women than for men.
The flow of stress hormones can be especially hard on older brains in general. According to a report from the University of California at San Francisco, extra cortisol over the years can damage the hippocampus, a part of the brain that’s crucial for storing and retrieving memories. Several studies have found that high cortisol goes hand in hand with poor memory, so we might be able to chalk up certain “senior moments” to stress.”(3)
How Can We Combat Stress?
Some studies indicate that having multiple major life events in a year can create advanced aging. So in a case like mine where a parent passed, sick spouse and selling a home does that mean I will age faster?
I don’t think anyone can tell you for sure as aging is associated with many factors like genetics, environment and balanced lifestyle.
You can offset some of the detrimental effects of stress with the help of friends, family, strong support networks, and strategies for coping with stress.
Reduce your NUTS!!
Yes, humor is great for reducing stress so hopefully your smiling now. Nagging Unfinished Tasks (NUT) are all the unfinished things we perceive or think about that just rent space on our brain and have an impact on our stress level.
“Dr. Oz says they are “often very simple to fix but if you never get around to them, NUTs create a subtle underlying angst that can undermine your health.” Author Jack Canfield calls them “messes and incompletes” and says they “rob us of valuable attention units”.
This variety, these Nagging Unfinished Tasks, are most definitely NOT good for us. They cause not only mental stress, but eventual physical stress. Who needs ‘em?!
Well, unfortunately, I bet we all got ‘em. Those hanger-on projects, tasks, and to-do’s that just seem to never go away. They are those uninteresting, challenging, boring, tedious little things we simply don’t want to do.
So how to handle them and move on to and make room for the things we DO want to do?
Here are some ideas:
Use a simple time management principle: “Do it, Delegate it, Delay it, or Dump it”. The moment you’ve got a task in mind to add to your to-do’s, make a decision on what to do with it… right then and there. Maybe it doesn’t even need to go on the list.(4)
Have stress-reducing techniques on hand. Try meditation, humor or exercise. I love taking a drive and listening to music or going for a great foot massage. Find your comfort zone – a place, person or activity that brings you comfort.
Age well – stress less!!
For more guidance on fitness visit: Lifefit.life
For more information on healthy and balanced lifestyles visit: sottopellelifestyle.com
If you just want to have fun and learn about cool people and topics listen to us on Adventures in Aging on iTunes.
(1)https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201404/emotional-distress-can-speed-cellular-aging
(2) https://advice.shinetext.com/articles/the-zeigarnik-effect-is-your-best-new-motivation-hack/
(3)https://consumer.healthday.com/encyclopedia/aging-1/age-health-news-7/aging-and-stress-645997.html
(4)http://www.debbielousberg.com/soapbox-blog/nuts/
Hugging for your Health
Hugging for your Health
We all know that hugs make us happier, but can they really keep you healthy?
As little kids we were told about an apple a day, but can a hug a day really keep the doctor away too? Recent studies have shown that “hugging protects people who are under stress from the increased risk for colds [that’s] usually associated with stress,” notes study lead author Sheldon Cohen, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania. Hugging “is a marker of intimacy and helps generate the feeling that others are there to help in the face of adversity.”
Some experts attribute the stress-reducing, health-related benefits of hugging to the release of oxytocin, often called “the bonding hormone” because it promotes attachment in relationships, including between mothers and their newborn babies. Oxytocin is made primarily in the hypothalamus in the brain, and some of it is released into the bloodstream through the pituitary gland. But some of it remains in the brain, where it influences mood, behavior and physiology. How hugging fits in: “When you’re hugging or cuddling with someone, [he or she is] stimulating pressure receptors under your skin in a way that leads to a cascade of events including an increase in vagal activity, which puts you in a relaxed state,” explains psychologist Tiffany Field, director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine. One theory is that stimulation of the vagus nerve triggers an increase in oxytocin levels.”(1)
Science is proving what our mom’s and even common sense has proven throughout our lives, kindness and love has amazing healing properties. When we feel stressed our bodies suffer, but when we feel that reassurance, support and a simply put gesture of love – it thrives.
I have started an experiment where I am hugging people I love at least 30 seconds a day. It seems silly, but so far, the results are amazing. I feel very happy doing it and the person I am hugging seems happier. It’s not a scientific study but does it have to be? Just go ahead and hug someone.
Source:
Get A Bang Out of Aging this New Year
Get A Bang Out of Aging this New Year
he end of summer is drawing near. Did you take time to regain your vigor and excitement? You see all the ads about getting your beach body ready and almost everyone shudders. Our obsession with body image should be refocused on body health. For people over 40, the feelings of body inadequacies are only worsened by the changes that aging has on our sense of sexuality. It is a catch 22 as improving our vitality is heavily integrated in staying “ sexy.”
Attitudes about sexuality and aging – we can change the perceptions about sexuality via education and therapeutic approaches.
“The myth: Only the young are sexually attractive.
The culture we live in exalts youth. Turn on the TV or open a magazine and you’ll be barraged with images of supple skin, firm flesh, long eye leashes, full lips and lustrous locks. If your mirror is reflecting a different picture these days, you may feel like the party is going on without you.
The reality: Older can be quite sexy.
Sure, thinning hair, laugh lines, and a paunchy midriff are no picnic. But think back on what it was that made you attractive in your younger years. Was it your soulful brown eyes, your crooked smile, or maybe your infectious laugh? Chances are, those attributes are still as appealing as ever. In fact, a 1999 survey conducted by the AARP and Modern Maturity magazine revealed that the percentage of people age 45 and older who consider their partners physically attractive increases with age.”
Read More: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/attitudes-about-sexuality-and-aging
Somethings often seem easier in theory than in application. In the throes of Menopause and/or Andropause or just busy adult lives, how do we keep passion alive?
Sexual health and aging: Keep the passion alive
“Sexual feelings don’t disappear as you age. Here’s how to keep the flame burning.
Sexual health is important at any age. And the desire for intimacy is timeless. As you age, sex may not be the same as it was in your 20s, but it can still be very fulfilling. Discover which aspects of sexual health are likely to change as you age — and how you and your partner can adapt.”
Read More: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/sexual-health/in-depth/sexual-health/art-20046698
Keeping LifeFit® will keep you healthier and sexier. Biomechanics and physics teach us that things in Motion stay in Motion.
“You’ve likely heard that regular exercise can reduce the risk of chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, or osteoporosis. But a growing body of research shows it may have another, more surprising effect: improving your sex life.
In men, regular exercise appears to be a natural Viagra. It’s associated with a lower risk of erectile problems. In one study, sedentary middle-aged men assigned to participate in a vigorous exercise program for nine months reported more frequent sexual activity, improved sexual function, and greater satisfaction. Those whose fitness levels increased most saw the biggest improvements in their sex lives.”
Read More: http://www.health.com/sex/exercise-and-sex
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