Get Moving: Strive to improve overall wellness

I see many men in my office with chronic pain, and one of the main causes of their ailments are generally poor health or lack of overall wellness.

Wellness means you are functioning at your maximum and most efficient capacity. There are many signs of trouble and if you ignore them, they will lead to chronic disease. In my own case, I ignored some early signs that I should have heeded.

When I see patients in my office, I always think about not just their chronic pain, but their overall health. In almost all cases, if their overall health is not corrected, their pain will rarely be treated beyond temporary relief from injections or chronic use of medications.

There are many ways to approach your overall health and most people know them. They include proper sleep, adequate diet and exercise. But there are two others, hormone optimization and correcting nutritional deficiencies. These last two are rarely addressed but are gaining more and more attention.

Let's briefly look at sleep. We should, on average, be receiving seven to nine hours of restful sleep a night. Some of us are lucky and can do with less.

As men age, we suffer some degree of sleep deprivation and many of the reasons are tied to chronic diseases and some do require help in the form of prescription medication. Unfortunately, these medications have side effects and sometimes do not provide adequate sleep quality with patients oftentimes complaining of still feeling tired when they get up in the morning. Luckily for us, there are more natural and healthier approaches.

Diet is another area of concern. While many of us eat "healthy," there are times when we still have room for improvement. Two of the best general diets are the Mediterranean diet and the anti-inflammatory diet. However, always listen to your physician if you have diabetes or heart disease.

Exercise is very important. As men get older, we need to maintain muscle strength and keep our bones healthy. There are many different types of exercises and routines out there. In general, if you are on a regular schedule, then stick to it. However, you should strive for a balance of strength, flexibility and aerobic exercise.

If you are starting out, unless you are young and in great physical shape, you should get advice from your medical provider before starting exercise. One of the best exercise approaches out there is called HIIT, this stands for High Intensity Interval Training. It involves brief periods of high intensity, based on your exercise capacity, and interspersed with rest periods. Men of all ages can do this but it must be adjusted to your general exercise level. If you are not familiar with this type of exercise, then seek the advice of a certified personal trainer. Luckily for us, we have very well-qualified personal trainers in our area. It would be money well spent.

The last two pillars of health are hormone optimization and correcting nutrient deficiencies. Unfortunately, in conventional medicine, there is some debate whether they are effective. As men age, two very important naturally occurring hormones start to go down testosterone and growth hormone. Testosterone seems to gain a lot of attention, in men and women, and it is easy to measure by blood or saliva. There are a few different ways to address testosterone deficiencies and many ways to replace it. All have their own pros and cons.

When looking at different protocols, you need to look at cost and effectiveness. In my opinion, there are very expensive protocols out there that could be cheaper. Make sure you are seeing the results you need.

Growth hormone (GH) peaks at age 20 and, in general, the levels are 40 percent lower at age 40. GH is responsible for symptoms of aging, loss of muscle mass, loss of bone density, increase in fat stores, loss of skin elasticity, thinning of hair, poor immune function and poor sleep patterns. The Food and Drug Administration has only approved GH for a few specific medical conditions and it has been banned by most professional sports leagues in the United States and by the International Olympic Committee. Fortunately, men do have a few options if they want to address this naturally.

Ways to increase growth hormone (GH) naturally:

Lose belly fat.

Use intermittent fasting.

Try an arginine supplement. When arginine was taken on its own, without any exercise, there was a significant increase in this hormone.

Reduce sugar intake.

Don't eat a lot before bedtime. A high-carb or high-protein meal may spike your insulin and potentially block some of the GH released at night.

Take a GABA supplement. It is a calming agent for your brain and central nervous system. It's often used to aid sleep. Interestingly, it may also help increase your GH levels.

Exercise at high intensity. Exercise is one of the most effective ways to significantly raise your GH levels.

Take beta alanine around your workouts. It can optimize performance and boost your HGH levels.

Optimize your sleep.

Try melatonin supplements. Try extended release preparations. Research has shown a melatonin supplement can directly enhance HGH production.

Other supplements are available that can provide short-term increases in GH, such as: glutamine, creatinine, ornithine, L-dopa and glycine.

Another way to increase GH is called peptide therapy. This requires a prescription by a physician and involves giving GH precursors/peptides, which is legal, and can result in an increase in GH without the use of GH. This can provide a boost when the natural options don't work enough. These are safe and nontoxic, and as with testosterone, it needs to be monitored for effectiveness.

Nutritional deficiencies are becoming more and more recognized as a determinate of health and wellbeing. If you do have a nutritional deficiency and are taking a vitamin pill, you still might not be receiving the proper nutrients. There are a few reasons for this and they include poor dietary habits, changes in food quality, gut malabsorption and changes in farming methods. One of the best ways to address this is through IV nutrient therapies that allow for feeding vitamins, minerals and amino acids directly into the blood stream. This increases the blood concentration beyond that which can be achieved when supplementing through a pill.

Dr. John Lucio completed a fellowship in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona. He is board-certified in pain management and is the medical sirector of the SSM Health Spine and Pain Management Center.