Age Into Your Best Self, with Dr. Deanna Minich

Oftentimes, what happens in the aging world is that we're looking for like the next new hacks. We're looking at trying to fill the gap of something physical. But I do think that we can approach vitality from a mental, emotional mindset.

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Hello and welcome back to another episode of Five Journeys podcast, Live like youe Matter. Dr. Deanna Minick is our guest today and she's an internationally recognized teacher, author, scientist, speaker and artist. She has more than 20 years of diverse, well rounded experience in the fields of nutrition and functional medicine, including clinical practice, research, product formulation, writing and education. As we say in Boston, she's wicked Smart. She's authored six books on health and wellness and over 40 scientific publications. Her passion is teaching a whole self approach to nourishment and bridging the gaps between science, spirituality and art and medicine. Welcome, Deanna.

Wow, so great to be here with both of you.

So how does this all relate to aging and healthy aging?

Well, normally we think of life as like a straight line, but I really do think it's very circular. You know, as we move into the later decades, we may find ourselves really reflecting on some of our earlier days, like kind of looking at our ancestry, our genetics and what formed us. Right. So what is aging anyway? Because, you know, I have somewhat of a polarized fear feeling to this word aging. I, I almost feel like, you know, is it aging that we need to look at or is it longevity and vitality? Is it resilience? You know, I, I do think that so much of our semantics within medicine and healing, you know, even if we think of healthcare, is it really healthcare or is it disease care? What about the word stress? Is there, you know, stress can be healthy. So is it stress in a negative way or is it resilience and leveraging the stress for a benefit, becoming more alive in that process? So when I think of aging, you know, we're aging when we come out of the womb, right? I mean, like from the moment of conception, we are aging. You know, what is aging really? I think what we're really talking about is optimal wellness, a healthy body, a healthy mind, a healthy spirit. And what I, you Know, I tend to look back to the work of Dan Buettner, right. Which I know that both of you are familiar with the blue zones. Looking at the people that live the longest tend to have certain characteristics and they're not all food oriented. You know, in fact, I just happened to see some type of circulation. About the oldest person on the planet right now is 118 years old and she's a nun living in France. Now, this woman, you know, being a nun, no children, living a life of service. And one of the things that Dan Buettner had identified, I think there were nine characteristics of healthy longevity. And one of them was a sense of purpose and meaning. And I almost feel like if we had a dietary supplement for purpose and meaning, that would be all we would need. Because purpose and meaning drive so much, they drive our behavior, how we get out of bed in the morning. I mean, really, the joie de vie, you know, this sense of like, why am I here? The age old question of a very philosophical question, like the meaning of life, you know, the existential debate of our existence. Right. So I do think that purpose and meaning are huge. And oftentimes what happens in the aging world is that we're looking for like the next new hack, stem cells, Botox. We're looking at trying to fill the gap of something physical or, you know, seeing it in that way. But I do think that we can approach vitality from a mental, emotional mindset. You know, people who smile look younger to me. They look more vibrant. Doesn't matter how many wrinkles they have on their face. You know, to me it's about their vital force. It's about their chi, their prana, how they are exuding themselves into the world. Right. How they radiate. And I feel like that's oftentimes overlooked. And then people are just looking for again, like that quick fix of like, okay, but it's all temporary. Those things are elusive. They're shiny objects. They're mirages, in my opinion.

Yeah, when somebody tells me they're. They can't wait to retire, my antenna goes up. So what are you going to do after you retire? How are you going to contribute what it's going to be, what's going to be in the next phase? Because without that purpose, why should you wake up? Why should you exercise? Why should you eat? Well, there's nothing there. Just to live life, just to be alive, just to get through it, right? Like, that's not very interesting. No, it's, how do you go through the world?

It's not interesting and it's not fulfilling, you know, and my dad's an interesting guy. He's the opposite of my mom. He's the life of the party. He's the junk food guy. You know, he just lives by the. You know, he has something in that sense of purpose and meaning that I really identify with. Like he has been a way shower for me. And so, you know, he never wanted to retire. We had kind of a mock retirement party, but there was no way that this man would retire. And I would never want him to retire because I think he would just go down not having that sense of purpose. And I can remember having a conversation, even with Jeff Bland where he said, what is retirement? It's retiring, putting a new tire on. What is that new phase of one's life? And I do think that every decade has a certain energy, has a certain feeling, certain. So if we think of the 60s as part of that classic retirement decade. But what happens in our 60s, you know, what is our legacy? How do we transition? And I was reading a study, I don't know if it was New England Journal of Medicine or what it was, but basically showing how people in their 60s can be some of the most productive people in society because neuronally, they're vast. Their experiences and what they've been through and their neuronal connections are incredible. Now, if they can keep their bodies on par with their mind. Right.

Well, that's, that, that, that's part of the problem is they've beat up their body this whole time and they don't feel like they have. A lot of. A lot of people don't have a lot of time because feel like they don't have a lot of time because they've been working 80 hours a week eating junk food, this, that, the other thing. But yes, I think the people that we see and that actually take care of themselves. 60s, a vital, vital time, prime of life.

60S are the new 40s or maybe even the new 30s, if we really go into that decade with that mindset.

Yeah, the thing also, as you talk about decades, I always talk to patients about at 20, you can eat, sleep, drink, stay up all night. Most of the time, your body will be fine. With every decade, you have to work harder on your health or you get old. So people that at 40 are working out, eating well, moving their spine, are going to live very well to their 60s, 70s, 80s, 90, 100, and be vital. But if you are like this, crunching all the time and sagging your head and being, typing on the Computer, like we all do. And don't reverse that. Don't take time to reverse that. Then age sets in. So it's really about, like you said, vitality. It's about the prana. It's about really getting out there.

Yes. And, you know, I just. I. So I'm 51. I just entered into my. My 50s, and I feel like this is a really amazing decade. My 40s had a lot of change. You know, I don't wear reading glasses yet, but, you know, I noticed my eyes were changing a little bit. But, you know, there's something about the 50s that I feel is very liberating. You know, I'm not menopausal. My hormones are still good. But there's a shift in my thinking. And what I'm focusing on for this decade is exactly what you just mentioned, which is the skeletal system, the muscles, you know, the power of muscle, into our 50s, our 60s, our 70s. And, you know, I did a lot of yoga throughout my life. Like, I was always drawn to yoga. I was doing yoga since I was 19. Well, then my body started changing, like last year, and I started having more muscular pain. I'm like, how could this be? Well, as it turns out, yoga made me incredibly flexible, but not very strong. And so what I needed to do was shift from. And I will be shifting into this decade of really focusing on muscle. And as I start, you know, when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So now that I look through the eyes of muscle, it's like, oh, my gosh, like cognitive health, like muscle insulin sensitivity. You know, muscle is a depot for mitochondria, which controls energy. It just. It gives me a different appreciation of part of the body that I. I would say I've somewhat neglected and not had that same perspective into. So I love the decades because they always. It seems like you're always learning something. There's a theme to them. And I think for women going through their fourth, you know, their. Their 40s, 50s, 60s, these are really pivotal. And like you said, so much of how we live in the 50s, as an example, will determine how our 60s will be. And how we live in our 60s will determine our 70s to some extent. So really trying to look throughout to see what have we been neglecting.

I think it's really important to put a plug in here, especially for women. I don't see men, so you'll have to jump in about whether this is something men experience. But there are two really critical things that occur for women, typically between 45 and 60 and one is, we transition from our reproductive years to our post reproductive years. And acknowledgement of that transition, it's critical because it's a huge change. And I say to women, just as there are developmental stages, when you are five, you're in the developmental stage where you're transitioning from being a woman who reproduces to being a woman who does something else, does not reproduce. And then what does that open up? And in that time, I find just women will come to me and say, like, I'm in the wrong job or I'm in the wrong marriage, or I'm not happy. And I'm like, you're perfect because you're in the developmental stage of transition where you question, what's my legacy? Who am I going to be in the world? Am I in the right job, marriage, career, relationship, whatever that is. You're doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing from a developmental standpoint. And who are you going to be? Is the question you need to answer. And that may or may not include the job or relationship or whatever that is. It might shift because you're now looking at it with eyes that are less dependent on what it means to, oh, I need to have a job that gets me X, Y and Z. Well, no, you need a job that fulfills you and a relationship that fulfills you. Who are you going to be for the next 20 years? What's next?

Wendy? I love that. I love that. And one of the things that I feel for women going through that time frame is, is how do they bring in creativity? You know, we've lost a sense of creativity as part of the healing arts. It's become private practice. Right. Rather than the healing arts, how artful we can be. And creativity is one of those overlooked aspects of healthy vitality. You know, it's the juice within us, it's the flow, it's how we move. And so for women who have created babies and children and nourished them throughout their years, now it's like, okay, how else can we be creative? Maybe that comes through an art form, a dance form, a movement, a community, an endeavor, a cause, something along those lines. And I don't know if you two know my personal story of being a woman and wrestling with my own body, especially my reproductive health. But I chose not to have children. I knew that I was going to have this life of being out, and it would just be hard for me, I thought, constitutionally, to make choices about being professional or having a family. So I chose to go the professional route and just to really put all of my energy into that. I found that I needed to create because I wasn't physically creating. I was having this withdrawal of, like, okay, but what am I doing? So I really tapped into color. I started painting. I began making these images, and my husband was the one that was very astutely observant and said, deanna, I think that you're painting your ovaries and your uterus and putting them all over our house. And so I came out in a different way of like, okay, I'm painting my creative expression. I'm painting my organs rather than using them in a physical way. So. But I would encourage all women and all men, too. You know, I think we all have the spirit of creativity within us, and many people will say, well, I'm not an artist. You know, I'm not creative. That negation of being creative really defies healthy aging, because what aging is is the constant creation of who you are. Every cell in our body right now is growing, changing, dying, renewing. We are creative in body. How do. How can we be creative in mind? How can we bring in that sense of meaning and purpose? Right. So, anyway, I really do feel like creativity is one of the missing elements as it relates to a life well lived.

Yeah, I would put a plug in for that. And it's funny, Deanna, as you say, that I don't enjoy painting. However, I have so loved creating our eighth of an acre to be entirely edible and gorgeous. Show stopping. You know, one day I was hiding behind some trees. I was just sitting, reading, and some people walked by and they said, this is the yard, that yard I was telling you about. I'm so glad we walked down the street. You have to see that. And then they saw me sitting there and they went, we love your yard. I said, that was the nicest compliment anyone ever paid me. So really, it's whatever that avenue is that brings you joy, because that's been so rewarding that, you know, we have 50 fruit trees and bushes and a garden and an herb garden, and everything's edible. It's like, that's just such an amazing expression for us. So, yeah, I think it's. What's your. What's your thing?

What's your thing? Yeah, and it can change and it can be diverse. You know, some people, like quilting or jewelry making or just being in the mountains, hiking, you know, whatever your thing is. Just tapping into that.

Yep, you said it best.

Yeah.

I want to make sure people can find you and that you tell everyone all the things the sort of deets about the Eat the Rainbow Toolkit and the book. You have a bunch of books and the rainbow diet recipes. Can you just tell people a little about how to find it?

And everything I have is on my website, which is my name, deannaminick. D E A N N A M I n I c h.com so I have a bunch of information there. So I have a blog which is more sciencey and then I have a tab that says resources. And if you go to the resources tab there are a bunch of free downloads which would be the Eat the Rainbow Toolkit. There would be a food and mood tracker. There are all kinds of shopping lists and things that people can download and use as they would. And then I also have a bunch of events. You know, one of the things that I love about this time is that things are moving into more expansive, I would say connecting time, doing lots of more health professional type lectures, but then also for everybody. You know, again I like to bring in all different kinds of people. So yeah, feel free to go into the website, Deannamenick.com, download whatever you'd like. You can join my social media group which is much more interactive and conversational. It's nourish your whole self community. It's on Facebook. So I've been fostering that group over some some years now since I did the Detox Summit. So we do programs on there and sometimes I just do free programs to bring people's awareness into certain areas.

It's amazing.

So thank you.

Thank you for joining us.

Thanks.

It's been great.

Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Five Journeys podcast. Live like youe Matter.

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