Rejuvenation

#37 Bladder Woes… overactive bladder?

Overactive bladder; Little Britain’s terrifically incontinent Mrs Emery; girding my loins; overturning taboos; OAB diagnosis, incontinence definitions and dubious drugs; Kegels and pelvic physio with TENS therapy; the Cooch Ball; surgery… the unkindest cut of all?*; the Emsella chair

(* “The unkindest cut of all” was one of my late dad’s favourite jokes, referring to the practice of male circumcision.Though probably politically incorrect today, it still makes me smile, so I’ll take that chance.)

Here’s a blogpost that’s been a long, long time in the making… more than 15 years. During that time, I’ve personally researched just about every treatment for urinary urge and frequency, from Kegels to TENS, from the Cooch Ball to the drug solifenacin. The latest is the Emsella chair.

 

Me perched on the Emsella chair, with Tímea of Eden Beach Pilates

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#36 Ageing Disgracefully? – Part Three, DIY for Ageing Backwards

The disgraceful fabulosity of ageing backwards; eat for longevity – all hail to cake!; Dave Asprey’s plan to maybe live forever; Dr Kara Fitzgerald; take this ageing backwards quiz!; epigenetic tests to measure ageing; eating for longevity; would you eat a politician?; time-restricted eating; destressing for longevity; grounding, walking in nature

Feature photo, above: My crazily energetic Les Mills Pump class friends at Craigie Leisure Centre

You know the slightly lame jokes some of us start making about birthdays after a certain age: “I’m not having birthdays anymore” (a bad idea), or “I’ve started counting backwards”.

While it would be a dreadful shame to renounce the champagne, cake, prezzies and general hurrah-ness that go with celebrating the anniversary of ones birth, actually ageing backwards would be a fabulously disgraceful approach to getting older.

Eat for longevity
Eat for longevity – let them eat cake!

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#35 Ageing Disgracefully? – Part Two, Massage Benefits and Oxytocin Boosters

Gimme some skin – huggers and huggees; hugs, kisses and oxytocin; more massage benefits; boosting oxytocin; tend and befriend; happy babies; DIY rejuvenation; lavender lies and self-care multi-tasking; paying for it

I’m a touchy-feely sort of person who starts to wither without physical contact. We’re not all like this, I know. My dad was physically affectionate; my mother not so much. He was the hugger, she the huggee. That’s what it’s like with me and Roy, too. I’m the hugger, he’s the huggee.

boosting oxytocin
Hugger on the left, huggee on the right

Gimme Some Skin

Since hearing somewhere that human beings require at least 15 hugs a day, I’ve started to demand that many from Roy. (Why it’s 15 is anyone’s guess… and probably was.) He’s sensibly acquiescing, no doubt seeing the wisdom of me filling my quota at home, rather than at the beach, the gym, the mall or the train station.

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#27 Uric Acid Part 2: Drop Acid!

Uric acid (UA) is the new bad boy on the block… so move over, salt, sugar and cholesterol! High UA threatens the heart, the liver, the kidneys and the brain – not to mention my most favourite organ of all. So, what drives high uric acid, and what can we do to Drop Acid? 

As mentioned in my blogpost #26 Uric Acid Part 1: Gouty Tales (see here), my recent uric acid (UA) blood test came back an optimal 4.7 mg/dL. That bodes well for me living long and strong, but what about my darling husband?

Fortunately, I found out that  coffee lowers UA, and I told him so. It was the best news he’d had all year. Imagine, though, how miserably gouty he’d be if he wasn’t such a coffee-head.

Uric Acid is lowered by coffee
All sweetness and light, as long as he can have his coffee

My new UA Sure II uric acid monitor was delivered a couple of weeks ago, but at the time I started writing this blog I had not yet used it to test Roy. I was wondering how I would manage to pin him down and extract the necessary drop of blood from his craven finger.

Then came an unexpected stroke of luck! – he woke up a few mornings ago with a twinge of gout in one ankle, and immediately demanded that I test his uric acid levels. Right now! I hastened to comply: you don’t argue with a gouty husband.

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#21 How is Your Light Diet? Part One: Vit D, Sunshine and More

Our light diet may be as important as sleep, nutrition and exercise, VERNE MAREE discovers.

I rejoice when I see Roy outside with his shirt off. Not only because he – like most of us – looks heaps better with a tan, but because I know it’s boosting his immune system and helping him to live long and strong.

In fact, he’s just had a load of blood tests – and his Vitamin D is way up where it belongs.

Light Diet
Roy on Yallingup Beach, WA, a couple of weeks ago.

(The above pic of Roy on Yallingup Beach was taken a couple of weeks ago; click here for that travel blog post, and if you like it, please sign up to Travels with Verne and Roy!)

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#18 Collagen for great skin and strong bones

Get more collagen, says VERNE MAREE! Working to keep your skin taut and healthy and your musculoskeletal system strong, collagen is the body’s most abundant protein. 

When my dear friend Christa suggested I do a blog on collagen – maybe marine vs bovine – I thought, why not? Call me strange, but collagen is in fact something I think about most days: whether I’m adding collagen powder to a smoothie, making bone broth, or, sadly less frequently, booking a collagen-boosting facial treatment.

For me, collagen is about both looking young and staying strong.

A daily cup of collagen-rich broth is one of the best things you can do for your skin

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Remedial Yoga Massage Kirsty Stone

#12 Yoga Massage – Kirsty Stone, remedial massage therapist

What is yoga massage? Verne Maree meets remedial massage therapist Kirsty Stone and discovers its magical benefits.

Of course I am deeply fond of my husband, and I appreciate his sterling qualities and myriad skills. But alas – and this may come as a shock – he isn’t perfect.

Now that we’ve safely celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, I must reveal that he does not do massage. Never has, never will. He won’t even give me a backrub. (Not a proper one, anyway. He says it hurts his hands.)

On the futon at KS Therapies

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#9 – Christmas Wish List for a biohacker

Here’s my Christmas wish list! All I want for Christmas* is a countertop water flosser, a new cover for my MacBook Air, an ozone generator with oxygen tank, the new Gen. 3 Oūra ring sleep tracker, a couple of mood-enhancing wearables like Hapbee and Apollo Neuro, an infrared sauna and a continuous glucose monitor.

  • purely in my biohacking capacity, that is…

“What do you want for Christmas?”, 11-year-old Mia asked me a few days ago. Only in retrospect did I realise my granddaughter was probably hoping I’d ask the same question in return – but she’d given me the idea for this blog post, and not being much of a multi-tasker, my mind wandered and I dropped the ball.

My husband didn’t ask what I wanted, so I told him anyway: an ozone generator plus an oxygen tank. Not only might this be the weirdest ever Santa request, it didn’t help my case that I thought it was the kind of tank that scuba divers use.

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Blood donation at Edgewater Donor Centre

#8 Blood donation benefits – rejuvenation and longevity

Blood donation benefits go way, way beyond saving the lives of others. Wondering why I’m donating blood? If you guessed it was for selfish motives, you’d be right. Though I do like the idea of helping my fellow citizens – and it’s estimated that each 470ml donation can save up to three lives – I mainly do it because it’s good for my own health and longevity.

By donating blood I’m burning calories, reducing my risk of cancer and protecting myself from liver disease, diabetes, atherosclerosis and other signs of heart disease – plus, the fact of helping others has been shown to increase our happiness and improve our mood.

Selfie of me donating blood, increasingly happy and in a better mood

Donating Down Under

Last week, I finally succeeded in donating blood here in Australia. I’d registered as a donor around three years earlier, but was deemed unsafe because of having visited South Africa, a malarial region, within the previous six months. (Odd thing, that: they happily took and used my blood in Durban!)

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