As we reemerge this summer from our prior restricted lifestyles, the so-called “COVID cocoon,” we have an unanticipated opportunity to live better than before and, with thoughtful planning, turn one big lemon into lemonade! With that in mind, here is your checklist of practical tips to help reemerge from our pandemic cocoon-like state and prioritize our well-being:

• Schedule an appointment for an annual physical examination. If there’s one thing that can kickstart your reemergence into normalcy, it’s getting a baseline read on where you’re starting from. Review with your physician any significant changes in health status since your last physical. Those may include an evaluation of your blood chemistries, weight, fitness level, vaccination schedule, and changes in your emotional or mental status. Also, consider the other specialists for routine care including (but not limited to) your dentist, ophthalmologist, gynecologist, and dermatologist.

• Visit friends and family. If fully vaccinated against COVID, it is now safer to visit your loved ones. Travel restrictions are in the process of being lifted, and transportation is becoming more readily available. What we formerly took for granted, such as meeting a friend in a café for lunch or stopping by to look in on an elderly family member, now feels celebratory! (Note that visitation restrictions continue to exist in long term care facilities, so call ahead to check with their social services department on the latest requirements.)

• Schedule on-site events and activities. Miss camping, sports participation, lounging at the pool club, seeing an opera, or visiting the local art museum? Now is the time to begin poring over the available events and activities that may have been closed or restricted over the past year. The adrenaline of re-engaging with your athletic or creative passions will be positively intoxicating! Reservations continue to be required for most activities, so start planning early and enjoy the breadth of what nature, fitness, and cultural institutions have to offer. In some cases, full COVID vaccination status may be required for attendance or participation.

• Be mindful of your dietary and nutritional support needs:  Most of us gave ourselves wide latitude during the lockdown, sometimes treating ourselves to an abundant supply of high calorie, high fat, and/or high concentrated sweets foods delivered (without contact) to our doors.  Your reemergence can still be filled with a wide selection of fun foods, but with a mind towards making them of enhanced nutritional quality.  Similarly, as we get back into a more active lifestyle, our bodies may require nutritional supplements to help compensate in part for any nutrient deficits we may have inadvertently incurred over the past year. Remember to speak with your physician or registered dietitian about your individual dietary needs. Today, commonly used nutritional support products may include (but are not limited to) a quality, broad-range daily multivitamin/mineral supplement, a naturally sourced fish oil for omega-3 fatty acids, and additional Vitamin D3 supplementation (especially for those who had spent significant amounts of time indoors).  Plus, add a daily dose of NTFactor, a phospholipid complex to work with cellular mitochondria to help promote more efficienct energy metabolism, and a probiotic to help improve digestion and restore normal intestinal flora.

• Prioritize your “resolution” activities. Schedule events and activities based on your current lifestyle and needs. For many of us, it may be medical appointments first. Or, enjoying an outdoor concert or playing a game of tennis will be the tonic of choice. A note of caution: Trying to do too much, too soon may leave you stressed and drained after months of reduced activity. Take it slowly, plan carefully, and build up to a summer season that exceeds your expectations!

For additional reference:
Recommended Adult Immunization Schedule
Clinical Preventive Services
National Alliance on Mental Illness
List of Museums in the United States
Find a Park
Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of Health

If you’re daunted by the idea of being an octogenarian marathon runner, let me reassure you that while it’s important to stay active as we age, we don’t necessarily need to maintain the same level we did as young adults.  Even a brisk nightly walk around the neighborhood can do a lot of good in our later years. The important thing to remember is that if we don’t maintain some level of physical activity, we can accelerate the aging process. Physical activity stimulates and increases blood flow into the brain, which is important in maintaining cognition and memory.

Of course, if we maintain physical activity as we age, we also need time to rest and recover.  In fact, we actually need that rest more than when we were younger. While we may not necessarily need more rest time, we need to make sure that we are getting enough rest to completely recover from various activities. No more skipping our recovery time and hoping we can just muscle through it—leave that invincible attitude for the young!

A recent article in the Cleveland Jewish News, “Keeping brain healthy important as seniors age”, shared opinions from numerous professionals in age-related fields on additional actions we can take to improve brain health and prevent some of the decline in brain function as we get older. One important factor? Socializing!

Maintaining social contacts and interactions stimulate our brain networks, and keeping active inter-personal interactions and exercising our brains keeps our nervous system functioning at a high level.  This can be as simple as playing cards with friends or even reading a book for the first time.  

In the above mentioned article, Silvia Orsulic-Jeras, a senior research associate and SHARE program manager at the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging in Cleveland, urges, “It is so important for families to remember to keep their older loved one socialized through interactions. A lot of what happens is people stop asking their older loved ones what they like to do. Learn more about their interests and their life story, spend time with them doing what they love and value.”

Of course, nutrition is also important in aging and especially for brain health.   Nerve cells are the basic building blocks in our nervous systems, and have a much higher rate of metabolism than other cells in our body. They are also much more sensitive to toxic molecules that find their way into the brain. This means that brain nerve cells need much more energy than cells in other tissues in order to function, and they need more protection than other cells and organs from toxins.  They get this energy primarily from the little ‘batteries’ inside each cell called mitochondria, and mitochondria are also important in the removal of toxic molecules in the brain.

Mitochondria supply over 90% of brain cell energy, so it’s easy to see why these little cellular organelles are so important to brain health.  Nerve cells in our brain need nutrients and oxygen to perform their vital functions, including providing high-energy molecules to nerve cells, maintaining calcium balance inside our cells, and important immune functions and other maintenance operations.  If nerve cell mitochondria are damaged or cannot receive the necessary nutrients and oxygen, then all of the biological functions that involve the nervous system are impaired.  

In my next update, I’ll tell you more about the impact this damage can have, and what you can do to help mitigate it by adding to your diet important natural membrane molecules that are already inside your cells, and especially inside your mitochondria!  What are these natural membrane molecules?  One class of the essential membrane molecules inside mitochondria are the membrane phospholipids that compose the matrix of all biological membranes, and this essential class of membrane molecules forms the basis of important natural supplements for your brain like NTFactor^® Lipids. The membrane lipids in NTFactor^® Lipids are essential to maintaining mitochondrial function, and these lipids must be routinely replaced. My next update will go into more detail how NTFactor® Lipids can help maintain your brain and especially your brain mitochondria.

Prof. Emeritus Garth Nicolson, PhD, MD (H)
The Institute for Molecular Medicine
Huntington Beach, California

References

Nicolson GL. Membrane Lipid Replacement—a functional approach to repairing cellular membranes, reducing symptoms, and restoring function.  Functional Food Science 2022; 2(8): 198-204. 
https://doi.org/10.31989/ffs.v2i8.990

Nicolson GL, Ferreira de Mattos G, Settineri R, Breeding PC. Membrane Lipid Replacement and its role in restoring mitochondrial membrane function and reducing symptoms in aging and age-related clinical conditions.  Nature Cell Science 2024; 2(4): 238-256.
https://doi.org/10.61474/ncs.2024.00038