When it comes to longevity speech, male scientists are mostly leading the way. This is what the longevity expert Vonda Wright says, whose new book, “Unbreakable: The Woman’s Guide to Aging With Power” (“Inquadible: a female guide to aging with power”, in free translation), aims to balance this scenario.
“We have a range of people framing male longevity as something positive and with a very hopeful message,” says Wright, Orthopedic Surgeon and Orlando -based author. This is something positive, but “for generations, when thinking about women living more, the solution is anti -aging, as if there was something wrong with us. There is nothing wrong with us. We are aging differently from men.”
Women on average live more than men. But Wright is focusing not only on living more, but in living better. In her book, she addresses the feminine from the perspective of women. She observes the role that transforming hormones play in this process and encourages women to work on disease prevention and strengthening during the early years of midlife-instead of waiting for health.
These years – between 35 and 45 years old – can be used as a period to strengthen, instead of succumbing to the myth that the best days have stayed in the past, says the expert. Wright calls this “critical decade”.
“I believe and demonstrate that with a daily investment in our mobility, in intelligent nutrition, mobilizing our mindset,” says Wright, “we can live healthy, vital, active, cheerful and unbreakable lives for a long time in the predictable future.”
A CNN He talked to Wright about how women can work to age with power. This conversation was slightly edited and condensed for more clarity.
CNN: How can women change their mindset about aging?
Bad wright: I dedicate a lot of time in the first part of my book asking women to identify their values - their “why” to make changes. I value independence – being able to do what I want when I want to do it. If I get help, it’s because I want, not because I need it. I value a clear mind. Once you know your values, you can form your goals. Many women do not want to be a burden on their children.
CNN: What are some important scientific discoveries about female aging and how do they influence your advice?
Wright: There are estrogen receptors everywhere, from brain to muscle and bone. Without estrogen, almost all organic systems are affected, meaning that the aging rate increases. For example, during the period, women may lose 15% to 20% of our bone density. This is faster (than the loss of bone density that men experience in aging).
The brain is hungry without estrogen, and the lack can also increase inflammation and the risk of cardiovascular disease. Making your decision -based hormonal optimization decision, not fear, is one of the first decisions I want women to make.
CNN: What changes in the diet can contribute to female longevity?
Wright: I will give some practical structures and tips. Number 1: We are not losing weight. We are recomposing ourselves, which means that it is matter what we are done, because we are trying to maximize the lean muscle and minimize body fat – not to be thin, but to be defined.
Number 2: Women deserve to eat. We were taught by generations that we can only be small and therefore we do not eat. But you need to eat to be healthy, so what do we eat? I am a great defender of 1 gram of protein by ideal weight a day, so we can support the muscle we are trying to build.
But we need to stop eating so much sugar in this country, because it is cooking us from the inside out. Contributes to multiple diseases caused by age -related chronic inflammation. I am not against carbohydrates; I am against simple carbohydrates and sugar because of what they do to our glycemic index, which measures how quickly a food makes your blood sugar rise.
I prefer that people get their nutrition from whole foods, and this is why the book also contains dinner recipes and plans.
CNN: What are the most important types of movement to age hard?
Wright: I prescribe exercises with the acronym “face”.
Of is flexibility and amplitude of movement of the joints. Tendons, ligaments and muscles naturally shorten over time, resulting in rigid joints and curved people and dragging on. Some great exercises for this are pilates, yoga, tai chi and dynamic stretching.
OA is. The book presents a great scheme to take care of your heart, and it is not about doing high intensity interval training seven days a week. I prescribe 80-20 aerobic activity, which means 80% of the time we are in lower heart rate exercises, whether walking or doing another activity, and 20% of the time we are in Sprint. This is modeled from what we do with professional athletes.
OC means “carrying weight”. Our goal is strength and power, so heavy weight lifting is very well detailed by hundreds of pages in this book. Basically, it means making fewer repetitions with heavier weights.
Finally, and it is balance and agility of the feet. You may be strong and flexible, but if you stumble and fall, you often have what we call fatal fall and break something that, 50% of the time, takes the person to a nursing home.
CNN: How can women progress to weightlifting?
Wright: This can start by creating a sequence. For seven days in a row, you do something that is beneficial to your body, such as walking every day after your most substantial meal. Then you won’t want to stop because you have struggled a lot.
Also start a basic or initial bodybuilding program. I have one of these in my book, just to teach you how to move your body. It will take six or nine months to progress to heavy weights, but it is not difficult. Hiring a personal trainer to teach is very useful. I encourage people, with the arrival of the parties, not to ask for a bag or some appliance. Ask a personal trainer.
Once you get there, this is what you should do for life, because we are trying to build strength and power, not necessarily resistance or larger muscles.
CNN: What are the best ways to develop mental resilience?
Wright: The work I quote in the book is built around the development of mental resilience, and there are 10 resilience factors. Interestingly, one of them is physical activity. A, from Dr. Paul Bartone and Dr. Steven Stein, was held with War Prisoners, US Army Rangers, and people with really difficult congenital problems. One feature common to all these people was that they had a practice of physical activity.
If you learn to lift heavy weight, what happens physically is that you get stronger. But every time you finish raising weight, your brain feels invincible. Another example is that I make Sparean Stadion obstacle races in legendary stadiums, and often invite women who follow me on social networks to participate. They appear at different levels of fitness – some unpaid, other world -class athletes. When they finish doing difficult physical things, your brain has changed too.
It is really important to realize that you deserve daily investment in your health. Often people, especially women, prioritize everything in the world before themselves. But the reality is that, to do the job, we need to realize that we deserve the daily investment.
