Dr. Mantell on Active Aging
Monday, June 10th, 2013
My heart was touched recently in my favorite local deli in San Diego. No, it wasn’t the Reuben sandwich I treat myself to once a month, nor was it the sour pickles. It was an unexpected birthday party that I found so moving. “Would everyone please join us in celebrating Mary’s 102nd birthday?” the hostess’s voice sang out. I looked up and there was Mary, sitting next to her husband and beaming with excitement, joy and fulfillment. Her children were gathered around their own children and grandchildren, and for a moment, the entire restaurant saw what life was supposed to be. Longevity, health, well- being, happiness and family—what The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily represent those of the Publisher. more could Mary have imagined in her life? I could not resist chatting with Mary when the festivities quieted. Of course, I asked her what she called “the million-dollar question”: “What’s your secret to your longevity and obvious happiness?” Anyone whose passion lies in active aging could have predicted the answer. “Son,” she replied, “I choose to be happy, and regardless of any interferences, I’ve always been active.” That sums it all up, doesn’t it?
The Health-Fitness Institute
Monday, June 10th, 2013
Imagine the next IHRSA annual convention in San Diego.
Sure, my city, San Diego, is tagged as “America’s Finest,” but I’m not talking about where the convention will be. I’m talking about what the convention will be—more specifically, what you’ll come away with that will turbo-charge your bottom line.
But why wait until next year to revolutionalize your business?
Why and How to Trust Your Personal Trainer
Thursday, May 23rd, 2013
Here are some striking research findings: Children as young as 14 months can differentiate between a credible person and a deceitful one. And even as we get older, all it takes is 100 milliseconds of exposure to a person’s face for many people to judge trustworthiness or deception.
In the key relationships in our lives, trust influences whether we feel comfortable being our vulnerable, genuine selves or whether we feel defensive and guarded, anticipating harm. Trust is tricky and all-powerful, as it determines how we feel while making all kinds of decisions — accepting a dinner date, riding in a cab, heeding a doctor’s advice, hiring a babysitter, buying a certain product, or signing on with a personal trainer. We can perform these actions with ease and comfort, or with stress, fear, and anxiety — and trust makes all the difference.
Emmy Award Nominated show Dr. Mantell featured in…
Tuesday, May 7th, 2013
The Media and Mass Shootings from Jim Patton on Vimeo.
Dr. Mantell’s interview on CNN Radio
Sunday, February 17th, 2013
Click here for CNN's Barbara Hall recent interview with Dr. Mantell.
5 Steps to Greater Wellness
Sunday, February 17th, 2013
Many companies are busy establishing employee wellness programs, looking for ways to motivate employees to increase their health and wellness and thereby reduce health-related costs (insuring an employee will escalate from $10,616 in 2012 to $11, 283 in 2013). Click here for the full article.
Do What You Love: Part I
Thursday, February 7th, 2013
For many of us, midwinter can seem like a dull and lifeless time when we feel a bit of “cabin fever.” But it’s not for Michael Mantell, Ph.D., who talks about how he manages to stay joyful in this two-part edition of CBI Unbound . In Part I, which follows, he describes the importance of doing what one loves instead of just “working.” In Part II, he’ll lay down some suggestions for reaching that goal. For more, click here.
Stop Working Now
Monday, January 28th, 2013
The other day after a terrific workout, I was leaving the gym and a friend offered the standard, “Hey, have a great day at work!” Much to his surprise, I responded as I often do to that type of comment, “Oh, I don’t work anymore.”
Dr. Michael Mantell Discusses How People are Coping in the Wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting
Wednesday, December 19th, 2012
Friday, November 23rd, 2012
“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”?— W. Edwards DemingMovies, television shows, lyrics, books, radio programs, sports, software, news—in other words, just about everything these days is available “on demand” or features an on-demand component. You can have whatever you want when you want it. Click here to read more.
How to Connect with 80 Million Potential Clients
Tuesday, November 20th, 2012
An estimated 51.4 million Americans belong to a health club and, according to IHRSA’s latest data, 12.5 percent use personal-training services. But what about the rest of America, especially the growing overweight and obese population? Two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese (Flegal et al., 2012), which means that 78 million adults, and more than 12 million children, are obese. This epidemic, costing the U.S. approximately $147 billion per year, feeds a $60 billion industry of products, services, diets and foods—all designed to help people lose weight. With the wave of diabetes, heart disease, orthopedic and other ailments linked to unhealthy weight, the American population is indeed in need of help.
Health coaches know how to help. But do you know how to reach those who aren’t among the 51.4 million who show up in gyms week after week?
Why the Answer to Motivation Is You
Tuesday, November 6th, 2012
When it comes to belly buttons, having an “inny” or an “outy” has no real effect on health. When it comes to motivation — especially for health and fitness goals — being an inny or an outy can make all the difference.
Do Two Sets and Call Me in the Morning
Tuesday, November 6th, 2012
© Steve Young – Fotolia.com
It’s not entirely unlikely that you’d hear a physician say this, or something like it, to a patient these days. With an ever-increasing overweight/obese population and escalating lifestyle-based illnesses, the demand for evidence-based, fitness/health/wellness programming is growing. And it’s being offered in a wider array of settings—from small, independent, commercial gyms to medical exercise facilities that include post-bariatric surgery centers.
Middle-Age and Not Yet Fit? Uh Oh.
Tuesday, September 11th, 2012
Depending on who you ask, it seems almost everyone these days is “middle-age.” The US Census says it’s basically between 35-54 years old. Some say between 45-60, and others say it extends to 65 years old. Point is the idea of “middle-age” covers a whole lot of people, including a lot of members of The Sporting Club.
The visible signs of aging, including loss of skin elasticity, graying of hair, 10-20 lbs. accumulation of body fat, decrease in aerobic performance, maximal heart rate, strength, flexibility, and fertility, and of course, menopause, to name just a few of the common “ills” middle-age can bring, are seemingly universal. But the chronic health conditions associated with older age are more troubling.
Well, guess what? If you are somewhere in the middle-age range of life, you can not only foil these mid-life widespread conditions, but perhaps even more important, you can help reduce the risk of developing chronic illnesses up to twenty years later! Want to delay biological aging by more than a decade?
Click here for the full article.
RIP Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Rihanna: The Celebrity Death Hoax Fad
Friday, September 7th, 2012
It all started with Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. After the singer’s shocking death followed by the death of the actress a day later to cancer in August 2009, Twitter users started claiming other celebrities were dead too. Britney Spears. Sean Combs. Paul McCartney.Why are people motivated to start such rumors for sheer sport? San Diego-based clinical psychologist Michael Mantellsays while the technology is new, the human motives behind the hoaxes are as old as the “Martian panic” created by Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” radio show in 1937 and the boy who cried wolf.“Twitter allows liars to creatively manipulate a sense of power over tens or hundreds of thousands of followers. The power they wield works because they play on our adoration of the stars they write about coupled with our emotions upon hearing of a “death” or tragedy occurring to them, blinding our rational thinking and normal skepticism,” explained Dr. Mantell. “They want us to feel emotion instead of use our critical thinking.
“It builds the sense of power in the perpetrator of the hoax, but only temporarily. He/she must do it again to keep up their otherwise failing and false sense of power. They do it to build up their own sense of poor self-esteem that borders on self-loathing.
“There is also the “I want to be first to spread the news–makes me feel important–I’ll tell my friends before anyone else does.” This helps cement the erroneous belief we hold onto. We believe things more when we spread them to others,” said Dr. Mantell.
But now that we all know about the celebrity death hoax phenomenon, why aren’t we more skeptical? Why don’t we stop to check these reports out first since so many of them, especially on Twitter, turn out to be completely false?
“We have always been able to put our critical reasoning aside. We are physiologically built to focus on what’s alarming and dangerous, and the media knows this well,” explains Mantell. “Social media also allows us to see immediately a large number of others who “believe the hoax” by the sheer outpouring of grief, shock and wailing, which we instantly believe must be true if everyone else is believing it. We think, “If so many people are reacting, it must be true.”
Is There Psychology Behind Healthy Eating?
Friday, September 7th, 2012
Food has come to have meaning, and perhaps that’s the problem. Isn’t food just fuel for a healthy body? When did food become more than just nourishment? Doesn’t healthy eating mean eating the necessary food groups in an enjoyable way to maintain a normal, stable weight?
Psychologically healthy eating means “eating without meaning.”
Dr. Mantell’s latest radio interview: 3 Crazy Notions that Prevent You From Getting Fit
Tuesday, August 14th, 2012
We operate from three basic emotions — all negative. Without awareness, these fundamental emotions have the potential to derail us on our path to a happier, healthier life. Click here if you are ready to shift from a negative to positive state and achieve your fitness goals.
Dr. Michael Mantell Discusses San Diego Double Shooting
Tuesday, June 5th, 2012
Dr. Michael Mantell discusses the new details revealed in the San Carlos double shooting. The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office Monday released new information on the deaths of a San Carlos teen and her father.
‘Excellence’ is Medicine
Friday, May 11th, 2012
The more than 10,000 clubs and fitness businesses in the U.S., which serve more than 50.2 million individuals seeking health and fitness, are gearing up to accommodate continued growth over the next five years. It’s been forecast that more than three out of 10 Americans will increase spending on club memberships during this period. Here’s my universal healthcare proposition to assure your ongoing success:
Status Quo…or Change…for 2012?
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
If your game plan this year doesn’t include shaking up your operation—from hiring to training, front-desk service to locker-room soap dispensers, and from the friendliness of trainers to broken machines, and yesterday’s program offerings—then you might want to think about firing yourself.
10 Minutes Before You Exercise
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
Ever wonder what world-class, elite level athletes do before they get on the field? They do the same thing that well-informed fitness enthusiasts, celebrity trainers and leading coaches do. They use relaxation and visualization techniques to boost their performance.
Helping Others in the Wake of Tragedy… Dr. Mantell Discusses the Aftermath of Whitney Houston’s Death
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Overweight and Obese Children
Sunday, February 12th, 2012
Obesity is not just a problem of adulthood. Yes, nearly 70% of adults are either overweight or obese. But, sadly, approximately one out of three children between the ages 2-19 are also overweight or obese.
It Pays to Sweat the Small Stuff
Sunday, February 12th, 2012
When I wrote my book in 1988, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff—PS: It’s All Small Stuff, I wasn’t thinking about how gyms and health clubs could increase profitability. If I had been, I would have written Sweat the Small Stuff—PS: It’s the Small Ones that Generate Cash.
6-Step Plan to Avoid Procrastination
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
Most of us vow we won’t procrastinate, but we inevitably end up…procrastinating. It seems to strike even when we’re excited about a goal.
Burning Out on Exercise Before the Resolutions Even Take Hold?
Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
Does this sound like you? As you started to get dressed to head to the gym this morning, you found yourself spending more time organizing your gym clothes rather than actually putting them on. Then, instead of mixing your protein shake in your typical “automatic” way, you began surfing the web for new shake recipes and didn’t ever get to prepare one. Avoiding exercise due to burnout?
Take a Hike
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
There’s a Latin proverb that says, “Solvitur ambulando,” meaning “The problem will walk itself out.”
Dr. Tad Kostrubala, who was head of psychiatry at San Diego’s Mercy Hospital back in the ‘70s, became famous for creating the stir about “running therapy” by taking depressed patients out for one-hour walk/run therapy sessions. He found in his research at SDSU’s Rehabilitation Counseling Department that his subjects enjoyed both psychological and physiological benefits from walking and running in therapy sessions. He understood that people are built for walking.
Believe it or not, many laughed at his approach in those days.
Today it seems that only those who earn their living providing meds for depression are denouncing “running/walking therapists.”
Physically, walking reduces heart rate and resting blood pressure, lowers the LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio while increasing the “good” HDL cholesterol, increases insulin receptor sensitivity and glucose tolerance.
On the emotional side, walking clearly leads to changes in the same neurotransmitters that antidepressant medication targets for reducing depression and anxiety. Walking not only improves mood and feelings of well-being, but reduces stress and leaves walkers with a better self-image.
One midwestern medical group, HealthPartners, is so convinced of these findings that their doctors prescribe pedometers to patients who appear with depression. Along with the pedometers, patients with depression are directed to walk for 30 minutes a day, three to five times a week. That’s not meant to replace necessary medication or cognitive behavioral therapy, but it’s a key driver in recognizing the value of walking away your problems.
Locally, we have some awesome walking/hiking trails for you to check out. Here are a few of my favorite mood-lifting paths:
1. Batiquitos Lagoon Trail. 2 miles of trails in Carlsbad
2. Iron Mountain. Get ready for a 7 mile hike up this mountain in Poway
3. Mission Trails Regional Park. This is the king of them all with more than 40 miles of scenic historical trails, lakes, and mountains
4. Torrey Pines State Reserve. If you love the ocean, this is for you.
5. Mission Bay Park. 12 miles of paths for you to enjoy around the Bay
Someone once said, “a pedestrian is someone who thought there were a couple of gallons left in the tank.” Current research tells us pedestrians are those who plan on many more miles left in life, with happiness and well-being.
Stamp Out ANTS (and get rid of negative thinking)
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
Need to get moving but find that ANTs are in your way? Well, not really those tiny, pesky creepy crawlers found on picnic tables everywhere. These ANTs are “automatic negative thoughts” that creep into your thinking, actually affecting your ability to do many things, including being more physically active.
Burning-out on Exercise?
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
Here are six tips that I know will help recharge you and reset your direction back to health if you are experiencing the symptoms of exercise burnout, that “nah, I don’t want to exercise today” feeling on top of physical and emotional symptoms of overdoing it at the gym.
2012 Is All About Being Happy
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
This year it’s all about happiness. That’s the buzzword in the positive psychology of well-being “movement” and, this being the column about well-being, I’m going to bring you some fresh new ideas about how best to bring happiness into your lives.
Three Tips to Avoid Dreaded Holiday Weight Gain
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
Waistlines, mirrors, jeans and scales. At this time of the year, those are not among our favorite things. Parties, festive meals, late night drinking, office snacking, and lack of time to exercise soon will soon be upon us. It’s time – right NOW – to prepare.
The Worry Epidemic
Monday, December 19th, 2011
Dr Michael Mantellin the UK’s “Fabulous Magazine” noted, “There’s no question that there’s more anxiety today and women in particular are feeling it,” he says. “The rise in anxiety is related to women being told by society they can have it all. The great job, husband, children, perfect body…
Does a disastrous first marriage make your second more likely to succeed?
Monday, December 19th, 2011
Dr Michael Mantell says, in the UK’s Daily Mail, that couples marrying the second time around aren’t blinded by love
San San Diego Fitness Psychology – Surviving the Holidays? – Think Accurately or Believe the Media and Suffer
Monday, December 19th, 2011
In .28 seconds I found 64,800,000 tips—honestly—on Google on how to “survive” the holidays. Sixty-four MILLION tips on how to “survive” the holidays! What in the world has happened to us? Have we gone mad? C’mon now. We need more than sixty-four MILLION tips on how to “survive” the holidays? When did the media create this insanity?
Too Early for New Year’s Resolutions?
Monday, December 19th, 2011
Here are the top 10 resolutions found most frequently for the past several years.
Are You Equipped to Coach The 6,000,000 Women Who Will Get Pregnant This Year
Monday, December 19th, 2011
Michelangelo’s belief that “Every block of stone has a statue inside of it and the task of the sculptor is to discover it” provides the mindset for the fitness coach in approaching every client. Nowhere is the coaching model more compelling than with a pregnant client.
San Diego Fitness Psychology – It’s Not How You Start, It’s How You Finish
Monday, December 19th, 2011
No matter how many magazine articles and internet sites you read or TV and radio interviews you listen to, getting into shape for the new year always comes down to the same pointers. It makes me wonder why there are literally thousands of self-help books, hundreds of thousands of magazine articles and tens of millions of Internet sites that say the same thing over and over again. Do we really need to read the same thoughts year after year, be told the same tips every December, continuously be reminded of the value of a commitment to a healthy lifestyle? Seems so.
San Diego Fitness Psychology – Mental Health
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
Depression, anxiety and aner are all emtions thaty can leave us physically and mentally exhausted. Healing mind and body is as easy as tying on running shoes and heading out into the open air.
San Diego Fitness Psychology – Is This Your Grandmother’s Workout?
Friday, September 30th, 2011
We aren’t alone. There are 78 million of us, and 10.5 million of us belong to health clubs and gyms all over the United States. Baby Boomers. Those born between 1946 and 1964. Already the fastest growing segment of America’s population, we are also the “boomingest” growth factor in gyms across the country, with a nearly 400% membership growth rate over the past decade.
We surely aren’t ready for a quiet at-home retirement. Maybe our grandparents were. Not, not us. We’re too busy looking for ways to defer and compress those age-related disabilities into as few years as possible, as late in our lives as possible, while doing what we can to increase our healthy life-years. Among the most often-cited solutions to this quest are being physically fit, exercising and staying active. The amount of data demonstrating the effect of exercise on slowing the aging process is staggering.
We enjoy kinder, gentler workouts, low-impact exercise, and want to insure that whatever we do diminishes the risk of injury. But gerokinesiologists tell us that we also ought to incorporate more moderate to vigorous posture, strength, endurance, flexibility, agility and balance training into our workouts in order to promote negligible senescence (preventing the normal biological changes caused by aging) – depending on our fitness level and ability to do so.
The American Council on Exercise, ACE, suggests that moderate-intensity endurance exercises at a minimum of 30 minutes five days each week such as low-impact aerobics, walking, cardio equipment, and swimming are primary exercise modes for most older adults. Weight training that initially incorporates low resistance and high reps is also essential at a minimum of at least twice each week to maintain or increase muscular strength and endurance. Balance training such as walking backwards and sideways, heel and toe walking, standing from a sitting or squatting position, are also valuable. Flexibility exercises at least twice each week are also recommended.
We lose 30% of their muscle strength between the ages of 50 and 70 years. Normally, adults who are sedentary beyond age 50 can expect muscle loss of up to 0.4 pounds a year. This reduction in muscle strength leads to impairment in carrying out daily activities, the ADLs, “activities of daily living.” Using free weights, exercise machines, or elastic bands to strengthen muscles sure help, but only doing so in a way that makes sense for our fitness levels and what experts know about the “stability/mobility?movement?load?performance” sequence that applies to posture, strength, endurance, flexibility, and balance training.
In addition to the fitness boom among boomers, anti-aging supplements are becoming big business. DHEA, HGH, melatonin, testosterone, estrogen, resveratrol, and the longevity cocktail (more stuff than I have room to include but B, C, D, E, K vitamins, magnesium, flax and fish oils, L-glutathione, coenzyme Q10, ALA are among the ingredients) are flying off the shelves of health and vitamin shops into the hands of the 55+ crowd.
Therapeutic levels of vitamin and mineral supplements, nootropic drugs for preserving and enhancing oxygen supply and neural functioning in the brain, clean living lifestyle (exercise, no smoking, moderate alcohol), avoiding toxins and radiation (good luck), healthy nutrition, intense physical activity, a sense of accomplishment, positive emotions, healthy relationships—these all go in the direction of adding life to our years and years to our lives.
The gym may well be the central address for increasing our healthy life-years before the doctor and the pharmacy.
