Villages Vitality: Senior Life Unscripted
This weekly podcast will cover in detail, people, clubs and activities here in The Villages, Florida. Each show will run 20-30 minutes. We cover topics of interest to active, vital seniors. Topics range form activites to medical topics, from Alzheimer's to Zomba and everything in between of interest to seniors.
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Villages Vitality: Senior Life Unscripted
Redefining Health: The Role of Exercise and Beating Sugar Addiction #2 OF 3
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Ready to revolutionize the way you think about weight loss and exercise? We promise you'll gain newfound insight as we chat with Dr. William Shang, sharing his personal journey and profound understanding of insulin resistance and weight management. Hear about the transformative role of exercise, particularly strength training, in boosting basal metabolic rate and preventing diabetes. Learn why building lean body mass is a game-changer and not to be overlooked.
Ever wondered about the link between your sweet tooth and your mood or energy levels? Get set for a fascinating deep-dive into sugar addiction and its consequences, including a surprising look at how sugar came to dominate our diets. With the help of a unique plant-based remedy from India, Gymnema Sylvestre, we explore realistic ways to curb those sugar cravings. We also delve into the potential of coffee as a dessert substitute and other natural aids for weight and blood sugar control.
Finally, be inspired by Dr. Craig Curtis's unwavering commitment to community health education, and discover practical tips for living a longer, healthier life. From weekly Alzheimer's tips to the promotion of longevity, there's a wealth of knowledge waiting for you. Tune in for an invigorating conversation that promises to challenge and change the way you approach your health.
Villages Vitality Senior Life Unscripted is Produced & Directed by Mike Roth
A new episode will be released most Fridays at 9 AM
Direct all questions and comments to mike@rothvoice.com
If you know a someone who should appear on the show, please contact us at: mike@rothvoice.com
Weight Loss, Exercise, and Sugar Addiction
Mike RothThis is Mike Roth on Open Forum in The Villages, Florida . Welcome to season number five . I'm here today with Dr William Shang .
Dr. William ShangThis life journey of mine eventually led me . my interest in .
Mike RothYou're thin , or at least you're probably a metabolistic . What do they call that ?
Dr. William ShangBasal metabolic rate .
Mike RothBasal metabolic rate is probably well within the normal range .
Dr. William ShangDo you know what the major determinant of basal metabolic rate is ? Weight and height .
Dr. William ShangNo , it's lean body mass . It's how much muscle you have on your body . If you have a lot of skeletal muscle on your body , you will have a high metabolic rate . So if you do strength training and you increase muscle , then you will increase your basal metabolic rate and you will be burning calories throughout the day . I think most people have the misconception that weight lifters , people who do that , they're the gym rats . But we're only talking about two hours a week .
Mike RothTwo hours a week in the gym .
Dr. William ShangYeah , so one session for an hour , then followed by another session in an hour , and what you're doing is creating these very small , microscopic tears in the muscle at a very gradual rate , as then the next day your body's repairing it , and then the day after that it's still repairing it , and that takes a lot of energy .
Mike RothSo that's why we feel strains when we go to the gym .
Dr. William ShangThat's right .
Mike RothThen you want them taking Tylenol . Well that you probably overdid it .
Dr. William ShangThen If you do it right , it's a little bit achy the next day , but you don't want to do what I did initially .
Mike RothWhat did you do initially ?
Dr. William ShangI followed Arnold's prescription there .
Mike RothOh , and what happened to ?
Dr. William Shangyou Well hurt my shoulder and I was out for months and there is . So there was a study that was done and this is more than two decades ago now . The US government funded this national diabetes prevention program and they studied the best way for people to exercise to beat diabetes and beat metabolism . And what's interesting is that , even though the study beat all medication , we don't know that much about the exercises that were done . You have to actually read the study and you've got to look at the supplement that came with the study and you can see how they exercise .
Mike RothWhat kind of exercises did they use ?
Dr. William ShangThey did not use any fancy gym equipment . It was all what they call those selector type , the one with the little key that you stick into those metal plates . Yes , and they had X number of times . You do it and you gradually progress and I was so intrigued by that . It was not in the public domain easily . I took their studies and I wrote a book on it Because it's so important that the public knows that it's in their hands , they can do this and what is the name of the book ?
Mike RothDr Jen .
Dr. William ShangIt's called the first program Fighting Insulin Resistance with Strain Training . It's available on Amazon , but in there I show you what the government discovered . And what's amazing to me is that we don't spread the knowledge like the governments in New Zealand or Australia , because of the way the incentive are built in this country . The health care it's into the drug companies . Well , I don't want to blame them , it's just the way the incentives are set up .
Mike RothSo how long ago did you write your book ?
Dr. William ShangI think it's seven years , seven years now .
Mike RothOkay , in the past seven years , how many copies were sold approximately ?
Dr. William ShangI think three or four thousand , three or four thousand .
Mike RothIs it available as an ?
Dr. William Shangaudiobook ? No , I think I would have to sit down and read it , but I don't even like to hear myself .
Mike RothOkay , don't worry , I have AI voices that can read it for you , but only seven . Is that seven thousand ? No no , or did I say three or four thousand ? Three or four thousand ? How many people do you think should read in America , in England ?
Dr. William ShangWell , I wouldn't necessarily have to read . I would say if you take this knowledge , it's well close to two-thirds of our adult population who have so at least 50 million people Easily and what's really the take-home message here is that medications they don't treat necessarily the root problem here .
Mike RothThey give you systematic relief .
Dr. William ShangPerhaps , maybe , Maybe , Maybe you know statins , for example . They work on an enzyme that's in the muscle , so that's why many people who take statins have muscle soreness . But my question is , why would you want to do that when you can do the same thing without a medication , without the side ?
Mike Rotheffect , and how much exercise per week would someone need to do beyond just walking for a half hour a day to drop the statins ?
Dr. William ShangHmm , well , it's individual .
Mike RothJust take your own , guess you know .
Dr. William ShangOkay . So I would say that you can only do the best you can do Well as we age , we all have other problems , whether it's hips , knees , shoulders , back .
Mike RothWe have these parts of our body that are wearing out or become arthritic and that makes people resistive to exercise , because the exercise is going to make that part of their body hurt .
Dr. William ShangOkay , good , okay , I can answer that question better . There are undoubtedly areas that and everybody who it hurts to move . What's great about metabolic exercise , or the exercise of moving those large muscles , is that you can pick and choose . You got a shoulder that hurts . Don't do lat pull-down . Don't do overhead presses . You don't have to . You can do those portions that help and that don't hurt .
Mike RothOkay , so this becomes selective and individualistic . Each person needs to pick the exercises that they do , and I think you said you need two hours a week of these types of exercises Right , two sessions a week . Two sessions a week , that's right Of an hour each .
Dr. William ShangThat's about how long it takes . I mean , not everyone who starts off is going to be able to do an hour , but Right , right , and there are people who are already too far going and can't move very much . Yes , that's you know . Obviously , the best time of the planet tree was 20 years ago , but the next best time is today , okay so , Okay , that makes sense .
Mike RothAnd then you have to water it , fertilize it to make sure the thing grows . That's true . Put it in a place where it's actually going to get some sunlight . Okay , let me ask you about something else we talked about before and we wanted to put this in the show . This is the area about sugar and how people become addicted to the taste of sugar , whether it's in cookies or cake or ice cream . You have a solution for a strange one , but I wanted to share with our audience what that solution is .
Dr. William ShangPrior to the commercialization of sugar , which was about the time of the industrial evolution , the average person's sugar intake came from honey .
Mike RothOkay , maybe maple syrup . Yes , good stuff .
Dr. William ShangBut that was it . There aren't too many other natural sources of sugar , and in the 1700s the average person in England had one teaspoon of sugar a day . That much okay . That much About 10 years ago we peaked in the US at about a little over a cup a day of sugar and it was hidden in a lot of different
Sugar Addiction and Indian Herbal Medicine
Dr. William Shangthings .
Dr. William ShangIt's massive and sugar meets the criteria for an addictive substance . No kidding , what are the criteria ? Well , let's think about it . If you don't have sugar , does it change your mood ? If you don't have sugar , do you crave it ?
WarrenMm-hmm .
Dr. William ShangYeah , if you , let me think of some other . What happens when you stop eating sugar ? Oh yeah , when you stop eating sugar , then you crash . So one of the problems is and it was actually created by the US government when they decided to make the recommendation to decrease cholesterol on our foods is that we had to put something else in there to make food palatable , and that was sugar . And so it was very quietly a few years ago that US government says cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern , but so sugar , oh yeah . So I brought something today .
Mike RothOkay , why don't you tell our audience what you brought Go get ? It Comes in a little pill bottle from like a drug store or Amazon .
Dr. William ShangSo this is from just a . It's happens to be swan's environments , but I'm not advertising for them . It's called Guinness Stemma Sylvesteries .
Mike RothSay that or maybe spell it for our listeners .
Dr. William ShangSo the first word is begins like the word gym , gymnasium , g-y-m-n , and then ends E-M-A , and then the last word is Sylvestery , like ruin that cat on the cartoon .
Mike RothWhat's Sylvester Stallone ?
Dr. William ShangSylvester Stallone right , Except it's T-R-E instead of E-R .
Dr. William ShangThis is an Indian substance , the Asian Indian substance that they use in herbal medicine to treat high blood sugar , and it's remarkable . I think one thing that I was when I researched these nutraceuticals , these plant-based medicine to treat pre-diabetes , is that there was a lot of research out there , but it's not in your typical journal that I used to read , like JAMMA or the New England Journal . They are published in other type of journals that don't overlap . So I brought this today and I thought we can try this and you can see for yourself .
Mike RothOkay , so what you've done is you've taken one of the capsules apart and put it into a piece of paper . A small amount , probably a couple of grams , would you say .
Dr. William ShangOh , it's less than that . It's less than that , it's just so . This is the ground up dried leaf , and so we're going to put this on our tongue .
Mike RothOkay , so we're going to take this brown powder . Put it on our tongue so we may sound a little different .
Dr. William ShangAll right , so we're just going to move it around and coat the top of the tongue . To me it tastes like mocha , I don't know . What do you think ?
Mike RothIt's got a different kind of taste . It's not really mocha .
Dr. William ShangOkay , so I brought some sweet tarts , some candy there with different colors , so you can pick one , that something that you can ?
Mike RothI got a gray one . It says chip . Let me choke a lot .
Dr. William ShangOkay , so I have the same color as you . Okay , okay . So I think it's great , great .
Mike RothWe put it on our mouths .
Dr. William ShangAnd you've been chewing it . And what do you taste ? Mike , these sweet tarts are pretty sweet .
Mike RothI'll confess I've never had a sweet talk by itself . Okay , If I taste anything , maybe a slight hint of grape .
Dr. William ShangA slight hint of grape . Okay , now , these are okay . These are very sweet . How much sugar was in them ? Oh , okay , there's a gram of sugar in each one . This is kids candy . Okay , this should be knock your socks off . Sweet .
Mike RothOkay , so it's not knock my socks off sweet when I crushed it with my teeth . That's when I really began to taste the grape type flavor in it . But it didn't taste sweet , it just tasted grapy .
Dr. William ShangOkay , so it only lasts for about 30 minutes , so don't worry , your taste buds will come back .
Mike RothOkay , my strawberry shortcake for dessert at dinner will be okay .
Dr. William ShangYou won't be able to blame me for it tasting bad . This is an interesting substance because it helps in two ways . They sell this in a liquid form too . You can spray in your mouth for people who don't have the willpower to resist sweets during the holidays or anytime . There you go . But it also it works because it blocks the sugar receptors on the tongue .
Mike RothIt's funny . You mentioned that we had a Mercedes-Benz holiday party last Tuesday night and there were 68 people at the party and we had a catered affair some fish , some veggies , some rottolatini eggplant , a little bit of steak and the only thing that we ran out of was cookies . Okay , since my wife and I actually purchased the cookies , we knew there were over 100 cookies . With only 68 people . They were going like that and there were leftovers of everything else .
Dr. William ShangSo this is . It works by blocking the sugar receptors on your tongue . Hopefully you've experienced this . Now we also have sweet receptors in the pancreas and we have sweet receptors in our brain . That's what makes us crave sweet stuff , and the way that the Indian doctors used it is they would ingest it . You can take the . I open the caps , you can just swallow them and it goes into the pancreas , into the brain , and it blocks the desire to eat sugar .
Mike RothOh , no more desserts .
Dr. William ShangWell , it's not as intensive craving .
Mike RothWell , I mean that worked for me as a diet Many years ago when I was noticed I was getting a little bit of weight and eating out a lot for business . I figured it was easier to drink a second cup of coffee and not have dessert , and that worked for many years . Not so much anymore . I don't like coffee as much anymore .
Dr. William ShangWhat I find very interesting is that there's a whole bunch of plant-based medicine out there that is relatively unfamiliar to the public in general . That helps with various aspects of weight gain , lipid management and high blood sugar .
Mike RothSo from a medical perspective , there are a few doctors in the villages , sometimes chiropractors , that are professing that their methodology will create weight loss , and they're probably using these natural vegetables or extracts to get there as opposed to a prescription drug .
Dr. William ShangIt could be . I don't know . I'm not familiar with any particular person you're talking about Certainly the medical profession , because our medical license allows us to do surgery and write prescription drugs . This is not our daily work per se . I think what's interesting about this is that the average person can avail themselves of something that actually works , and these are , as I mentioned earlier , these are studies that have been done . It's just not readily available . One of the benefits that I have with an academic affiliation is I can pull these studies up they're not behind a paywall and see that there is actually a scientific basis for suggesting me .
Dr. William ShangSo I wrote this up in my second book , which is you have two books . I have two books , right , we hope . What's the name of the second book , the second book ? It has this title called the Thin Prediabetic , which I wish . I probably should rewrite the contents then , because I was thinking about somebody who has a high glucose level and they go to their doctor and the doctor would say well , I can put you on metformin or you can lose weight . Oh , you don't need to lose weight . Then what can they do ? But most of the book actually has to do with these plants and other supplements that might work .
Mike RothAnd that will also on Amazon .
Dr. William ShangYes , also on Amazon .
Mike RothThis is Mike Roth with Dr Craig Curtis . With today's Alzheimer's tip , what is the diagnostic process to split the difference between someone who has Alzheimer's and someone who has a different form of dementia ?
Dr. Craig CurtisThat's a great question , mike . So Alzheimer's disease in the past was a clinical diagnosis and we would talk to the patient and the family and they would tell us about this progressive memory loss and maybe other symptoms that have been occurring over the past three to five years and we would simply test their memory and maybe wait another year or two and retest their memory to look for decline . Nowadays it's completely different . As a matter of fact , now our diagnostic process involves actually looking for amyloid in the brain , which we now know causes Alzheimer's disease . How do you see amyloid in the brain ? We can see amyloid in the brain using PET scans , which is the most common way , and now we're working on using blood tests , which are going to be coming out in the next few years . In fact , there's already one blood test that is FDA cleared to detect amyloid in the blood which is reflecting amyloid in the brain , and that would be the differential between another type of dementia and Alzheimer's
Promoting Longevity and Health Education
Dr. Craig Curtis.
Mike RothYes , sir .
WarrenDr Curtis's goal is to educate the village's community on how to live a longer , healthier life . To learn more , visit his website craigcurtismd . com , or call 352-500-5252 to attend a free seminar .
EmilyRemember our next episode will be released next Friday at 9am . Should you want to become a major supporter of the show or have questions , please contact us at mike at rothvoice . com . This is a shout out for supporters Greg Panjian , tweet Coleman , Dan Kapellan , ed Williams , Alvin Stenzel and major supporter Dr Craig Curtis at K2 in the villages . We will be hearing more from Dr Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week . If you know someone who should be on the show , contact us at mike at rothvoice . com . We thank everyone for listening to the show . The content of the show is copyrighted by Rothvoice 2023 , all rights reserved .