By Cheval John

March 7th 2018

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Today’s episode of What’s The Word? features Beth Frates, M.D., co-author and founder of The Wellness Synergy.

The Wellness Synergy provides people the tools and skills needed to optimize their health and wellness.

Dr. Frates decided to enter the medical field after a health scare with her father when she was eighteen years old.

In that time, she earned a degree in both biology and psychology from Harvard University and earned her medical degree from Stanford University.

Dr. Frates co-authored the book “Life After Stroke: The Guide to Recovering Your Health and Preventing Another Stroke” published by John Hopkins University Press.

In this episode, you will hear:

-the transition to founding the Wellness Synergy Center
-why moving around can help your brain
-how social media helped Dr. Frates to stand out in her profession

Snippet on Vallano Media TV

Full show on BlogTalkRadio

The episode was recorded on Facebook Live via Blue Jeans Network

Dr. Frates’ Website: www.wellness-synergy.com

Twitter: @BethFrates

You can also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcast, Stitcher and Google Play Music.

Quotes from Dr. Beth Frates On:

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

There’s pressure to perform and produce.

I think it was very heavy in the 80s where my dad was living in New York City and running his own company.

I believe there’s similar pressures but I do think it’s a little better.

People talk more about family, work-life balance than they did when my dad was experiencing his health setbacks.

So I think we have made some strides.

I think especially entrepreneurs and those who are responsible for the profits of the company still feels stress about the employees and making sure they can provide a good life for the employees and for the clients or customers or whatever their business is.

I think there’s still a lot of stress.

The idea though is if you don’t take care of ourselves, if we don’t have proper nutrition, exercise, sleep, then we won’t be at our best and we won’t perform at our best.

So the tide is changing slightly in we’re understanding you cannot pour from an empty cup.

If we want to do our best job at work, we really better take care of ourselves so that we are our best for everyone else instead of I’m not important, I just have to get the work done, get the work done, get the next client.

We need to realize we can do that better if we have the energy, if we have a clear mind, if we have a sense of purpose, if we feel good about social connections, if we feel good about our relationships with those around us and with those at work, we’ll be more productive and be able to really give our best authentic selves to those around us.

EXERCISING FOR THE BRAIN

Most who people think about exercise think about the heart which is right.

Exercise is really good for our heart and our cardiovascular system.

We can reduce blood pressure.

We can reduce cholesterol.

We can do a lot of good by exercising and we can even increase insulin sensitivity.

What we don’t tend to think about is what exercise does to the brain.

A lot of physicians don’t tend to know this.

We know know that after exercising, you get an increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which is also called “miracle grow” for the brain.

It helps neurons to make new connections and it also increases neurogenesis.

All very good.

Research shows that if you look at MRI’s, you can look at the hippocampus, a specific part of the brain that is intricately involved in consolidating memories.

So if you want to keep your memory for a long period of time, exercise should be on you list.

One-half of people who are 85 or older have memory problems.

So if you want to be in the half that does not have memory problems, I recommend exercising.

How much do we need, that’s the question.

There’s a lot of research still going on around that.

But, the recommendation is to accumulate 150 minutes of moderate intense physical activity in the week which is like a half hour, five days a week.

If you want to exercise more on the weekends, you could be doing half hour, both days on the weekends or you could be doing an hour both days on the weekend depending on your schedule.

You get all the benefits that exercise can give to all your organs including your brain.

The ten minutes come from the United States Health and Human Services Department which holds all the data something like 8,000 studies that were done on exercising.

They found that if you exercise ten minutes, yes, just ten minutes every day for a total of 70 minutes, your chances of getting sick or dying goes down dramatically.

If you are not exercising three days a week for 30 minutes for three months, you are considered at a sedentary level, which means sitting down.

If you are considered sedentary, you have an increased risk of a heart attack and a stroke.

SOCIAL MEDIA

I did not want to get involved with social media.

I did for a very long time use LinkedIn because that’s very professional.

You set up your account and you connect with people.

It seemed as if I didn’t have to have interaction.

You would connect or not connect and that would be it.

I wasn’t very involved with messaging or posting or anything.

So that worked for me really well.

Our department of physical medical rehabilitation at Harvard University which is based at Spaulding Rehab Hospital has a lot of great research and a great program.

In April of last year, the department said, “We’re all doing great things, but nobody knows what we are doing. We have to get up with the times. Yes, we’re physicians, but we need to promote our programs in order for them to survive and thrive.”

So they encouraged us to get on Twitter and post.

I have a colleague, Dr. Julie Silver, who basically set me up and taught me about Twitter.

I’ll never forget I did not know how to tweet.

I did not know how to retweet.

I did not understand if someone put an @bethfrates that meant they wanted you to retweet.

There’s a whole world of twitter that I did not know.

As I was figuring out twitter, I found it to be remarkably fun.

It was enjoyable.

It was not drudgery because I like learning about other people.

I like learning what other people are doing.

It’s fascinating.

It’s great to see what other people are doing and posting.

I am involved with many different physician groups and I’m also involved with other patient groups.

I feel like I’ve gotten a lot out of Twitter.

In fact, I have actually made friends from twitter that I would have never have met.

Some are not even in this country (United States).

Certainly not in my state or in my department.

I gained friends and some colleagues I might be presenting with.

I have gotten opportunities like this and other podcasts to do because of twitter.

I’m finishing a book proposal hopefully this year and I have been told that you need to have a following of some kind.

They have asked me, “How many people follow you on twitter?”

It helps if you have some followers because then the publicist thinks, “Okay, she could potentially sell this book. There are people who are listening to her.”

So that might help me.