Lessons to live long and prosper.

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday Morning with Us is our favorite guy. He teaches us how to live long and prosper. We have doctor Peter and Peter Mihelos and well, doctor Mihlos, what is your tip for the week?

0:16 Speaker 2 Well, today, John, we’re going to talk about an extremely important topic, and that is how mental health affects longevity. And it turns out that the number one illness in the United States and probably in the rest of the world is a mental illness. And mental health turns out to be a significant factor in longevity because it turns

0:35 out that untreated mental health problems reduce lifespan, and if you have significant mental health problems, you can live ten to twenty years less than the general population. And this is backed by facts. A report in the prestigious Journal of American Medical Association noted that thirty eight percent more people are in mental health care since the pandemic, and

0:59 the said Another prestigious medical journal said they looked at one hundred and nine studies in twenty four countries and found that people with severe mental health issues only live have a lifespan of sixty three point eighty five years, and that’s two to three times higher risk of premature death and mental illness reduces lifespan just as much as diabetes, smoking,

1:23 and lack of exercise does, and that’s a very significant.

1:28 Speaker 1 How do you determine if a person has mental illness.

1:33 Speaker 2 Well, there are several different conditions anxiety, depression, and also some of them are genetically schizophrenia, bipolar disorders where you have highs and lows and you’re unable to function, and you can see it. Those people have a poor self care, they have lack of medication compliance, they’re not active with their families, and they don’t engage with people as much.

2:02 Speaker 1 So is that depression. Are you talking about depression or not being comfortable with people?

2:12 Speaker 2 Yeah, not engaged with what’s happening in the world, just like we see in the blue zones who have a lot better mental health. You know, you have social connections. The people in the blue zones attend church, synagogue, must they eat together, they do things together. They have a strong solid core of friends and that they can speak

2:33 to and communicate to. The problem now is with social media and what I call the electronic heroine of cell phones, where people are sitting there looking down at the phone. I see people right here in the city walking around looking down at their phone, not watching when they’re crossing the street. I saw about three people almost get hit

2:50 by those electric bikes today. So the people are now texting, young people are hugging and speaking to each other. And the old days, we’d go and sit down at a coffee shop or diner and have a conversation. Now people are just looking down at the phone and communicating. And also young women, there’s a mental health crisis, they’re saying.

3:11 The CDC says that fifty seven percent of high school girls reported feeling sadness or hopelessness. And this is a national health crisis because they’re looking at Instagram and they’re sending pictures of what they’re eating and what they’re wearing, and what other movie stars in Hollywood and have realistic expectations of what life is, and that initiates depression. But

3:33 there are things that we can do to improve things. We need to teach resilience, we need to improve social connections. We need to tell people that stop being smoking, for example, is very important because our blood vessels get narrow, and our heart and our brain and that feeds our brain.

3:50 And as we learn the other day on WABC, even though our brain is only two percent of our body, it uses up twenty percent of all the oxygen and energy. And the importance of if you don’t feel right to get help, to get therapy. There are suicide hotlines, for example, where you can have someone to talk to, and if

4:09 you really need help, you can get medications to help raise your terotonin levels. There are natural things you can do. Vitamin D we call it a vitamin, but it’s actually a hormone is the precursor to serotonin, which is the happy hormone. And if you have good vitamin D levels and proper light exposure at the proper time of the day,

4:27 you have to avoid screen light between eleven PM and six am, because that’s not how we evolved. We had dark, the sun went down, we woke up in the morning, and we had a rhythm, and we’re constantly not sleeping properly and the sleep cycle. We now know healthy sleeping is important for longevity. So these are some of the

4:45 things that we need to do to teach people to have a healthier population. Because I just was at the Concordia. Some talk to people around the world and one of the biggest concern is they have is about the mental health of the young generation that’s up right now. They’re having a lot of anxiety, a lot of performance anxiety issues,

5:05 and these all things will affect the workforce of the future. In addition, we’re seeing things related to long haul COVID, and anxiety is increasing because of things like long haul COVID, people are having more anxiety, depression, and record number of peoples are filing for disability because of feelings of cognitive decline and brain fog post COVID.

5:26 Speaker 1 So, in other words, one other thing I get. I get one of those meters that tells me how much oxygen there is in my bedroom. And you know, I live on Central Park, and the number fluctuates from five hundred, which is ideal, went into four hundred up to nine hundred. Now, if it’s nine hundred, it means it has more CO

5:52 two in my bedroom instead of oxygen. I open my bedroom window and if there’s an nice wind coming in from Central Park and the wind from the trees, it goes down to four hundred, so I have more oxygen.

6:09 I guess that does that help at night? Especially?

6:13 Speaker 2 Yeah? Absolutely, When you look at all the blue zones where people are living longer, they have a lot of fresh, clean air and clean oxygen, and the inside of our homes is very important that we maintain not only proper oxygen levels, but clean air. And think about all the particles in pollution they plug.

6:31 Speaker 1 Up and I have and I have that sophisticated air purifier that gives you the amount of particular matter in the air, in the air, and if it goes down to zero zero zero once in a while, but if it’s below a certain number, it’s supposed to be pretty good. Yeah.

6:54 Speaker 2 Absolutely for a longevity, clean air and clean order will turn out to be very important come out for all of us in the future so we can continue to live long and prosper.

7:04 Speaker 1 So, if you want to live long and prosper, my recommendation, besides the doctor’s recommendation, is you know how much oxygen you’re having your room versus CO two and you get in the air purefire, one of the sophisticated ones. It gives you how much how do you say, crap is in the air.

7:24 Speaker 2 Absolutely, So, if you can’t be in Saint Petersburg, Florida, breathing fresh, clean air, or on the beach in Coney Island, then you can have to create it indoors with a proper air purifire and have better quality air. And the same thing with your car. We always tell people change your cabin filters and the HEPA filters in your car,

7:41 so even when you’re driving for long periods, you have clean, fresh air in your car.

7:45 Speaker 1 God bless you and God bless America. Thank you so much, doctor Peter Michlos.

7:49 Speaker 2 Thanks John for always getting the truth out on the CATS round Table.