General Practice Associates, LLC

Are you ready for more health chats? The next series is from Laurie Santos PhD from Yale. The topic is happiness. She has a YouTube lecture series on the topic if you want more details. I will do 10 tips and talk a bit about each one. All of this is researched and proven
Happiness matters for your performance. Happy people earn more, when beginning out in life. Happy people perform better, think clearer and enjoy their work more

2. Happy people are more social, socializing in turn makes us happier. In person is better than on the telephone. Texting and social media are not effective

3. Helping others makes them happier, but it also makes us happier, more than we expect. On the way home from work, think about all the people you helped today and enjoy the warm glow.

4. Make time for gratitude. Write 5 things daily that you are grateful for, or when you get in the car to come home just think of them. This will improve your mood, lessen pain, headaches anxiety and depression and help sleep. Express gratitude with a thank you note, tell them how they make a difference. This effect lasts about 3 months in the recipient.

5. Healthy practices help mental health and happiness. This includes anxiety and depression reduction. 30 min/d exercise, or 150 minutes a week, eating and sleeping well. For most people, 7-8h/night is ideal

6. Be in the present moment and savor the good things. Try avoid multitasking with watching a show and surfing the net at the same time, you enjoy each less that way. Enjoy your meal. Meditate. Do yoga. The more you try suppress unpleasant experiences, the worse you will feel, your memory will deteriorate. Get through them with recognizing what is happening, Allow the feelings to be just as they are, investigate with interest and care, don't act on urges, the episode will crest and wane just like a wave. Yelling or insulting yourself doesn't work, think of how you can be kind to yourself, similar to how you would treat a friend. Go into problem solving mode, hug yourself and be compassionate

7. Love your job by focusing on your signature strengths. Infuse these into your work flow.

8. Become wealthy in TIME, not in money. You will run out of time, you may run out of money. Work smarter, not harder

9. All Sucrose, high fructose corn syrups are bad. Artificial sweeteners lead to weight gain by making you hungry. Stevia increases hunger too.

10. If you have mild-moderate sleep apnea, try The Breather, $49 on Amazon, it reduces apnea significantly. It is a breathing exercise device.

11. Gratitude improves your odds of living longer. Send a written letter to someone special expressing gratitude.

12. Apps that are good. Google gemini is better than Chat GPT for health advice accuracy

This is from a recent lecture by one of my favorite teachers, Frank Domino MD. This is my summary.

1. From 1970-2022, there have been 89% less heart attacks.
Cancer is becoming the leading cause of death. Treatments are more effective for cancer. Dementia is more common too. Walking 150 minutes a week lowers the risk of heart attacks, cancer and dementia. Genetic tests for dementia are of minimal benefit at this time. Not worth doing.
2. If you are on an ACE inhibitor for hypertension, eg Lisinopril, it is is worth switching to and ARB like Losartan to lower risk of dementia.
Herpes, zoster (shingles) and CMV ( Epstein Barr Virus) all increase risk of dementia. If you have recurrent herpes and take daily prophylaxis such as Acyclovir, it will lower your risk of getting dementia. The following vaccines lower risk of dementia: Flu, Shingles, Hepatitis B, RSV

3. The following medications reduce the risk of getting dementia: Blood Pressure meds, statins, SGLT2, GLP1. The GLP1s are the weight loss drugs everyone is trying to get on. Beware though that there are serious side effects with them. The main point is that if you need any of these for the appropriate diagnosis, then the extra benefit will be there for dementia risk reduction

4. Tylenol does NOT cause autism. The following does: pre-gestational diabetes, pregnancy exposure to Covid (the Covid vaccine is safe), advanced maternal age, environmental toxins, certain meds. The most dangerous risk factor is if a sibling has autism, there is an 8 fold increase in risk

5. Don’t cook with beef tallow, it increases the risk of heart disease. Seed oils are safe to cook with at home, lowers heart disease. Olive oil is still the best, up to 1 tablespoon of butter a day is safe.

6. Protein intake of 0.6-1g/kg/d is ideal. 2% dairy is the healthiest. Fish, eggs, seeds, nuts are good for your heart health. 4 ounces red meat or less/week is fine. Alcohol less than or equal to 1 drink a day is healthy.

7. MMR vaccine is safe. RSV vaccine for >75y or >60y old with other illnesses is safe, and lowers risk of death and dementia. I had an 82y old in ICU with RSV pneumonia recently. The virus has been around a long time but the vaccine is relatively new. Long enough to get safety data though.

8. Potatoes are safe unless they are fried. Fries increase the risk of diabetes. Grains are healthier than potatoes.

💊 Medication Savings Tip

If you take prescription medications and have a copay, it may be worth checking prices through Cost Plus Drugs In many cases, medications are less expensive when purchased directly through Cost Plus Drugs than when using insurance.

You can visit their website at https://costplusdrugs.com
to search your prescriptions and compare prices — you might find significant savings.

Homepage of Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug homepage. Provides safe, affordable medicine or medication with transparent low prices.