It’s always fun when at a conference you need to pick between multiple presentations running at the same time. And as usual there will always be an hour or two with presentations I am not that interested in, while at other times I have to pick between 2 or 3 that I would have wanted to attend, but all taking place at the same time. So I did my best. I always say you can’t always get what you want when you want it. So just do your best.
It’s like having to choose between a 20 ounce Ribeye steak or splitting a 48 ounce Porterhouse steak with your daughter.
Which do ya think I chose?
For the answer you need to keep reading….
I went to a presentation given by Russell Jaffe. If you have never been to a Functional Medicine conference before you probably would have left this talk being afraid to eat, drink and breathe as his focus was on all the toxins we are exposed to and the damage they can cause.
He makes some good points. But the reality is that we live in this toxic soup and just need to understand it better and make the best of it.
He did have a few good thoughts.
Try and reduce your exposure to toxins by 80%. Then do your best to detox out the remaining 20%. The slides above give a peek into his lecture.
INFLAMMATION is really a cellular REPAIR DEFICIT. As was presented yesterday he agreed we must first remove ourselves or minimize exposure to a toxin before we can make repairs.
Choose Less Bad and More Good.
Did you know that “New Car Smell” can actually be from Vinyl Chloride? Yep that same vinyl chloride released into the ground, water and burned into the atmosphere from the recent Ohio train derailment.
Gut Transit Time
Healthiest between 12-18 hours
Short is less than 10 hours and can be associated with malabsorption and malnutrition
Average time is 36-96 hours which is too long. This can allow many toxins that are in the stool to be reabsorbed back into the body, where we don’t want them.
So I guess having a bowel movement at least daily is recommended.
Next was a presentation entitled:
It must be my Metabolism- Nutrition to Maintain Muscle Mid-Life and Beyond.
Presenter was a good speaker. But I think sometimes the presenters are held back a bit. They pretty much present only what has been proven by studies in the literature. It is probably the rules of the conference. There could be safety in taking that approach, but on the other hand, it may miss out or delay by years if not decades other safe approaches to health and wellness.
But we did agree on a whole bunch of stuff and there were some good nuggets of info.
Did you know that by the age of 30-40 we lose about 1% of our muscle mass per year, unless we work to prevent that?
Did you know that it is more difficult when older to build muscle due to increases in inflammation, oxidation, stress hormones and nutritional issues?
Did you know that we need to eat MORE protein as we age, not less.
Did you know that with Intermittent Fasting up to 65% of your weight loss could be muscle, UNLESS YOU ALSO WORK ON MUSCLE BUILDING EXERCISES?
Did you know that when it comes to healthy weight loss, we need to use a diet to balance out and improve our Metabolic Resistance (Insulin Resistance-IR) with our Anabolic (muscle building) Resistance as we age. We want to fix our metabolism but NOT lose muscle in the process. So yea, diet and exercise are both needed, but how much of each and what types are unique to each individual.
Last Presentation of the day was on Long COVID, but looking at it thru our connective tissue. Yep, every now and then I like to go to a presentation about topics presented in a unique way that I have not previously thought about.
The talk was good but not much to write up about here. But I will be looking into this further in the future.
If you are an IMW member, feel free to open this discussion when we next meet.
After the presentations I went to the Exhibit Hall to see what new health and wellness products are being used. They began tonight and run through Saturday. I pretty much end up there when a talk is not keeping my interest. I did a quick walk through the entire exhibit hall so I know who I want to speak to over the next few days.
Then dinner tonight at a NYC Steakhouse.
My father’s favorite restaurant was The Palm. Unfortunately he passed away way too young from Metabolic and Inflammatory issues 33 years ago today. So I decided to make reservations at The Palm for dinner. I understand why he liked it so much.
Perhaps hearing about my father dying young can help you understand why I do what I do at the Institute for Medical Wellness. I do not want to let happen to me, my family, my friends or all of my patients, what happened to my father. The early loss of my father is probably my biggest motivator on continuing my work at the Institute for Medical Wellness.
So what did I have for dinner at the Palm?
A- A 20 ounce Ribeye steak
or
B- Did I split a 48 ounce Porterhouse steak with my daughter?
Well a picture can tell the story better.
I have split many steaks with my daughter. When we go to NYC it is tradition to have a steak dinner and split a New York Porterhouse. My daughter said that there is something different about a New York Porterhouse because it was much better than any of the steak places we eat at in New Jersey.
I had to agree.
Not much left.
I took a pic of me gnawing at the bone but decided not to share that here in case any children are reading this substack newsletter.
Tomorrow is Day 3 of the Conference.
Looks like I will be going to between 3-5 presentations as well as speaking with many others in the Exhibits.
So hopefully I will be back tomorrow with more Common Sense Health and Wellness news.
As always, questions and comments welcome below.
Thanks Doc!!
Thx Steve, another good read.(w/pics)