Welcome to my podcast, Healing with Dr Helena, where I challenge the limiting way we currently view disease, and offer a new paradigm for vibrant health and true healing. If modern medicine isn’t providing you with enough answers, and you want to come alive and thrive, rather than merely survive, this podcast is for you.
It’s also for people who want to boost their brain to perform at their peak, avoid Alzheimer’s and other dementias, and live longer, stronger, healthier and happier.
Each episode comprises four parts:
- A Brain Booster
- A Health Headline
- An Exploration of What’s Missing from Modern Medicine
- A Whether Report where I answer your whether questions eg ‘I’d like to know whether you can explain how …’
So let’s take a look at episode 5.
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Today’s Health Headline is: Sitting is the new smoking — literally!
I know we usually start with a Brain Booster but for today’s Brain Booster to make sense we have to dive into the Health Headline first. Now I suspect this is not the first time you’ve heard the statement that sitting is the new smoking. But have you stopped to reflect on what it actually means? Or more appropriately, stood up to what it means? Or do you think it doesn’t apply to you because you go to the gym every day?
Well think about this.
Imagine you own a sleek, smooth-running car with a powerful engine, beautifully polished body, and not a scratch on its shiny metallic coat. And every morning you take it on a short spin around the block. But for the rest of the day, the car just sits in your garage. Day after day. Eventually, what happens?
The tyres develop flat spots, the battery weakens, and parts begin to seize — not because it wasn’t driven at all, but because it wasn’t driven enough. It sat around in the garage for too many hours a day.
Our bodies work like that car.
How many hours did you spend sitting yesterday?
In the car, at your desk, on the sofa, watching TV, at the dinner table, or in bed scrolling on your phone?
For a lot of people, when you add up the hours — even if they go to the gym, go for a run, or take an hour-long walk every day, the time they spend sitting is shockingly high — sometimes 10 to 12 hours a day.
And here’s the most alarming piece of news: People who sit for more than 11 hours a day have a 40% increased risk of early death from heart disease, stroke, cancer, dementia and complications of type 2 diabetes, compared with people who sit for less than four hours a day. Meanwhile, people who sit for more than eight hours a day have a 15% increased risk of early death. So there’s a dose-dependent effect.
And sitting for more than 8 hours a day confers health risks comparable to smoking a packet of cigarettes every day — especially for cardiovascular disease.
Sitting really is the new smoking — literally, not just figuratively. Tune in to find out why.
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Following on from today’s Health Headline, your Brain Booster is:
Quit the sit — and stand up for your brain!
Don’t leave your brain in the care of your chair!
A study published in the journal Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy in 2020 found that when 70-plus-year-olds sat for three uninterrupted hours, their blood pressure went up, and there were changes in their blood vessels that made it harder for blood to circulate through their brain. This is known as ‘increased cerebrovascular resistance’, and it means that it’s harder for blood to deliver oxygen and nutrients to the brain. Not good.
So your call to action is: move to improve every aspect of your health, including your brain. Today’s episode unpacks exactly what that entails.
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So what’s missing from modern medicine? A public health campaign titled:
Beware the Chair!
Rise to the Occasion!
Stand to Attention!
Stand up for Yourself!
What’s missing from modern medicine are posters with slogans encouraging movement pinned up in every doctor’s waiting room, hospital corridor, retirement village, nursing home, school classroom, office, library, bus stop, billboard and anywhere a poster can fit.
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And today’s Whether Report answers the question: Can you tell me whether varicose veins increase the risk of dementia?
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Click here to watch the episode on my YouTube channel, or listen to Healing with Dr Helena on your preferred podcast platform. I’ll publish a new episode every Monday, and you’ll receive an email notification that morning. Please subscribe to my podcast or YouTube channel so that you don’t miss an episode, and send your whether questions to: podcast@drhelenapopovic.com
If you’re happy for me to play your voice on my podcast, you can provide an audio file. Otherwise, you can type your question for me to read out.
I very much look forward to answering your questions and exploring how we can all build a smarter brain, stronger body and deeply fulfilling life.
Please forward this Health-e-Byte to anyone who has a desk job or spends a lot of time engaged in seated activities.
Photo credit: I took this photo in the Garden District of New Orleans. I thought it was very appropriate for today’s podcast episode.
