Taking Control of Aging Through Fitness, Nutrition and Relationships

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning with us today is Dr. Mason Pimsleur, and he’s a good friend, and he’s an award-winning internist with the New York City Health and Hospitals, and he specializes in geniatrics and helping elderly people. Well, Dr. Pimsleur, tell us, what have you done this week to save a life?

0:24 Speaker 3 Well, interesting stuff first.

0:26 Speaker 2 Thank you, John.

0:27 Speaker 3 Good morning to you on this Sunday morning. I like to say living longer is not enough. The real goal is to live better, maintaining our physical strength, mental sharpness, independence, and quality of life as we age. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today on how we could make ourselves stronger. better when we turn.

0:49 Speaker 2 To be 80, 90, and as you.

0:51 Speaker 3 And I always say, to live to 100, which is not far, that’s not far-fetched at all, actually. So I say like one of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to aging is that the physical decline is going to be inevitable. And we can’t do anything about that.

1:10 But what we can do is we can make sure that we keep our muscles good. We keep our brain health good. And we do that through maintaining good muscle mass for the muscle part. And that because we don’t want to get sarcopenia. So what we need to do is we need to do weight resistance training when we’re

1:31 in our 40s and 50s and continue it in our 60s, 70s and 80s.

1:36 Speaker 2 And it doesn’t have to be heavyweights.

1:38 Speaker 3 It could be two pounds, five pounds weights that we just lift every day with our hands and do it while you’re at your desk doing it. They sell these on Amazon and other companies. And we need to eat proper protein to maintain our muscle mass. So I’m focusing on muscle mass the most so we can keep our

1:59 core in place and keep our body musculoskeletal in place. And I wanted to also bring up about protein, that we have to eat a special amount of protein. And it should be 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram.

2:15 So if, say, someone weighs 65 kilograms, you multiply that by 1.2 grams. And that will give you the right amount of protein. So I want the audience to know at home, hey, how much protein should I eat each day?

2:32 And it should be whatever your kilogram weight is and multiply it by 1.2, which is simple formula to do protein shakes, chicken, fish, stuff like that. And that all can help us when we turn to be in our 70s and 80s so we can walk well, we can have good gait, all that stuff, John.

2:56 Speaker 1 I understood. Now, let me ask you a question. Is the average age going up, especially in New York City, where we have the best hospitals in New York, so are the elderly versus the average for the whole country?

3:11 How do you see it? I mean, because you’re there every day.

3:15 Speaker 3 I’m on the front lines. I’m an internist, but I’m a fellowship trained geriatric specialist. So I was at the VA hospitals all over, did my training. So, yes, the average age is going up. I have a patient 102 years old with good quality of life, independent.

3:31 Speaker 2 She’s a home health aide.

3:33 Speaker 3 She does for someone that’s 70-something years old. So New York City, yes. Other places have very good health care, too. But the average age is no longer 80, 75. Now the average age, what I see, should be, people are going to debate it and say no, but I should see easily in the early 90s to mid-90s.

3:57 Speaker 1 So until then, me and you have talked about it. We talked about it with Dr. Michalos. We’re looking for a doctor. Yeah, we’re looking for the there’s a lot of people out there looking for that gene that turns off and makes us die at the age of 95, give or take five years.

4:16 Speaker 3 Yes, but look at your friend, Dr.

4:19 Speaker 2 Vagalos, right? And look how he’s living and he’s older.

4:23 Speaker 3 So even without finding that so quickly, we still can do well, very well. That’s what I want to give people hope. I see it all the time. You asked me about savings. So I did a colonoscopy when they didn’t want to do it. And we discussed this before on a patient that was 82 years old or 81

4:41 years old. And they found the colon cancer and they removed.

4:47 Speaker 2 It at Columbia, actually. And she’s doing well now on chemo. So you have.

4:54 Speaker 1 The elderly people. If they don’t have an advocate, then they’re going to die.

5:03 Speaker 3 John, even younger, if they don’t have an advocate to get through the doctor’s phone numbers to get through the tests. And if a doctor just says something and the patient isn’t up to date, they just accept it.

5:17 Speaker 2 It’s no good. I have that happen all the time. And I’m.

5:20 Speaker 3 Becoming burnt out I have patients that I have to keep calling in the hospital yeah they’re going to die and another thing that’s so important other than medical is people need friends people need companions because loneliness could actually shorten your life as well John understood it could cause cardiovascular Dr.

5:44 Speaker 1 Mason Pimsleur we’re out of time but I want to continue this discussion And thank you for coming on this Sunday morning. And we’ll talk again real soon.

5:53 Speaker 3 Oh, I want to thank. Thank you very much. WABC doing a great job getting this out there.

5:59 Speaker 2 Thank you so much.