 Welcome to Taking Your Health Back here on Think Tech, Hawaii. I'm Eileen Paolo-Crisco, guest host filling in for a great friend and dynamic community leader, Wendy Lo. Taking Your Health Back is aired live at 2 p.m. every other Tuesday. Joining me on the show today is Anthony Crisco, founding member of the Fashion Research Society, inventor of the fashion nation method of self-myofascial release, co-author of the best-selling book, pain-free every day, and a passionate wellness educator and coach, who not only island hops to teach and inspire, but he even travels globally to share his knowledge. Anthony, it's great to have you here today. Today we're going to discuss long-term self-care that you can incorporate today. Well, thanks for having me on the show, as always, and let's get started. Okay. Let's talk about self-care very quickly. It should be a no-brainer, right? Yeah, it should be. However, what do we end up noticing? There's always something that comes up that keeps us from getting to the point where we can take care of ourselves, whether it's the kids, the groceries, the refrigerator breaks, I got the car breaking down, I got PTA, I got sports. It's always something. And the trick is, how do we incorporate things today to ensure our long-term success in the future? And that's what we're going to talk about. Right. We want to take care, most of us want to take care of others, but really we, I, you are the most important person in your life so that you can do things that make you feel good. Take care of others, right? Absolutely. Right? If you're doing everything for everybody, but at the end of the day, you feel like a wreck. What's the point in that? Right. Okay. Now, feeling like a wreck, how do you, first of all, how do you not feel like a wreck? What is the first thing that you would suggest? Well, the first thing I would suggest is use a fascinator roller or any type of massage, movement, yoga, anything on a regular basis that's going to get you to get out of your shell and start focusing on self-care for yourself. And I've never heard anyone ever say, boy, I sure have regret going out into the ocean and getting some fresh air. No one's ever said that. They always go, wow, I can't believe I live on this island. We never get out. I'm so glad I did. I mean, I know that's happened in our world. Right. So you're talking about massage, and we know we've seen your classes all around the island, and you've also taught at autoimmune conferences, especially last month all around the island. Yeah. The islands. Self-care has a lot to do with knowing yourself, and I really believe that massaging, self-massaging, you really get to know yourself. That's right. Well, if we can look at slide one, I'll give an example of one of the best techniques that you could do for yourself. In this image, I'm rolling my side of my neck. However, it's more than just the side of the neck. What you have in this area is a muscle that goes from the front of your chest and wraps all the way around to behind your ear, and it's the muscle that turns your head left to right. Well, if I remove that muscle, underneath that muscle are a bunch of nerves, and these nerves aren't the nerves that go to your fingers and hands and feet, no. These are the nerves that go to your senses, your eyes, your ears, your nose, your voice box, and the vagus nerve. It's under here as well. It's known as the wanderer. It goes to all of your organs, and this can help with respiration. This can help with your heart rate. This can help with your digestion. This helps with what we call all of the autonomic processes in your body, meaning it can help stimulate the things that you cannot control. If you have a methodology to de-stress yourself and allow all your natural functions to occur at a higher rate and a more natural state instead of always in this fight or flight, guess what? You're going to live longer, sleep better, be more happy. Everything around you is just going to get better. Why? Because you focus on you. Yeah, that really makes sense. You talked about the vagus nerve, and now it stimulates the parasympathetic system, which we know is a system to rest and digest. Kind of brings things down a level. I know a lot of people that run around in a frenzy, and you can see this very shallow breathing, and I'm thinking, that's got a skyrocket, those cortisol levels, right? Well, if you think about cortisol, it's the stress hormone. And think about it like this. If you're always going and you don't have a chance to restore and rest, it's like having one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake. Is your car going to last very long running it to the ground like that every day? Well, what's more important? Your vehicle or your body? I would say my body. OK. And I would say my breathing just, some people say it's overrated. Just breathe, take deep breaths. But we know that breathing is healing, right? And if you want to learn more about this whole method, we have our book being published. It's coming out soon. It's been a long process, but it's called Pain-Free Every Day. And within the book, it talks about this fascination method of self-mile-fast release, of self-care. It talks about all the other way you can learn to balance your body in terms of breathing, meditation, social engagements, et cetera. Right. So you talked about meditation. Another great way to really just keep your breathing in check, right? Yeah. Meditation. Now, I don't meditate as often as I should, but I do make sure it takes some time out of every day. I go a quiet place in my house, and I lay there, and I breathe in with intention. I breathe deeply. I feel. I wait until I can hear my heart beating inside my ear, and I exhale slowly, and I let my belly rise, and I let it sink. And trust me, after a few of these solid, intentional, deep breaths and solid exhalation of all the old air, I feel great. I'm feeling like, wow, it just felt like I had a 20-minute nap, but I did it. Right. Yeah. Yeah, it is really good. I probably should meditate more myself. But when I do, I really feel like I've spent that time with myself to collect my thoughts, but just not keeping track of this frenzy of thoughts that go by. But just one thought at a time, and it's really refreshing. It's great to have that time to be still, or even just to be one with maybe your creator. It's interesting you mentioned that frenzy of thoughts, right? What are those frenzy of thoughts? I know what mine are, like, oh, the kids. Where's my son? Oh, I've got to get gas. Oh, I've got to fix the truck. Oh, the dog. We need dog food. It's nonstop, and it will run your life if you don't get a hold of it. So part of this meditation is also, instead of complaining all the time about, oh, I got to do all these things, maybe you should stop and look around and appreciate what you have. Because there's a lot more people in more dire situations than a lot of people. I know that all they do is grumble, grumble, grumble. And I'm like, if you stop and smell the flowers like my father used to teach me, guess what? You realize, I'm a pretty lucky guy. Every morning I wake up, and I go, hey, I'm still alive. I'm still here. I have another chance to make an impact on someone. That's how I do it. Yep, that's great. So meditation sounds like it will help reset your mindset. Just says this self-massage process that you were talking about helps reset your tension in your body, maybe your posture. Right. We have to reset the physical. That's the self-massage part. We have to reset the mental. That's the purging of all of the rat race thoughts. And you have to reset the spiritual, meaning, wow, I'm so lucky to be here right now at this moment. Because if you don't pay attention, you might miss it. Right. You might miss the good stuff in all the time you're complaining. Right. Sometimes I feel like when I'm at the beach, I'm meditating. Absolutely. I swim regularly. And I've noticed as I began to swim longer and longer and longer, it's almost like I'm going to fall asleep in my sleep while I'm swimming. Why? Because I'm so relaxed. I'm so happy. I'm in the perfect place at that moment for me. Right. Well, let's hope you don't get too relaxed and fall asleep swimming. That sounds a little dangerous. Now that we're on the topic of swimming and water, let's talk about hydration. Ah, wonderful. Well, let's talk about hydration. Yeah, this fascia that we talk about, this connective tissue that binds to all of your other structures in your body, it actually holds four gallons of water. Four gallons. How many ounces is four gallons of water? I don't know, but it's a lot. I'm imagining it all dumped out on the floor. That's a lot of water. And if you ask anyone around Honolulu or anywhere around the rest of the United States, ask them, how much water do you drink? And usually, the typical answer is not enough. I drink Coca-Cola, I drink coffee, I drink beer, I drink soda. Well, all of those things are just sapping your nutrients, causing you to dry up and get all sticky, causing your cells to have a hard time functioning. So with hydration, you want to cure 50% of your problem. Drink the water in the amounts that you should. And that amount is at minimum half your body weight in ounces. So I'm about 170. I actually drink about 128 ounces a day. Well, I'm not 256 pounds, but I'm active. So I'm drinking the amount of water I need to supplant the cellular activity that I'm causing my body to have. Does that make sense? That does make sense. A lot of people don't want to drink water simply because they don't want to go have to find a bathroom or they don't want to have to stop doing what they're doing. Usually, it's work or something like that to take care of themselves. It's funny because drinking and going to the bathroom is really an important aspect of self-care that you don't even think is self-care. Well, I'll give you a perfect example. If you have a dog or a cat, would you not give your dog water because you don't want to take them out to go to the bathroom? Would you do that to your dog? No, that is a good point. So why do people do that to themselves? Can anyone answer this? Why do people do this to themselves? Yeah. I think a lot of people think that they're not in a constant state of dehydration, and they don't think that that constant state of dehydration or the level of dehydration that they're at, which they don't believe they're even dehydrated, really affects their health. Well, they want to know why they don't think they're dehydrated. The reason people don't think they're dehydrated is your body has a feedback loop where when you don't drink water, it causes you to be less thirsty. And when you do drink water, you have to drink more water because your body says, oh, I like that. Do more of that. But when you're starving your body of water, your body starts to go into this conservation mode. Therefore, it says, well, we don't know when we're going to get water again, so don't utilize water in my organs. And you wonder why your kidneys are inflamed and your liver's inflamed and your joints are inflamed and your hair's falling out and your eyes are dry. Yes. Yeah, there is that autoimmune dysfunction, maybe a disease, right? Sjogren syndrome. And that's where they have dry eyes and also dry mouth. Yeah, and this dry eye sensation, it feels like greedy sand in your eyes. Imagine. And it could have been prevented if you drank some water. Yeah. We need water for running around, even if we're not running around, just functioning every day. I always have to remind myself that water is a catalyst for chemical reactions. So these mechanisms of our body aren't happening if we just don't have enough water. And isn't our body just one giant vessel of trillions of chemical reactions happening every second? I mean, you were a cellular biologist. You did breast cancer research. If your cells didn't have water, what's wrong with it wouldn't function, right? Yeah, just complete imbalance. Complete imbalance. And oftentimes, you don't see the result of the imbalance until months later, even a year later. We could even call it catastrophic chaos. And you're doing it to your cells. Right. Yes. So if you're watching out there right now, drink some water while we're doing this show, please, I beseech you. And make sure they're not diuretics, or even maybe eating fruit. Fruit has a lot of water content, right? I love fruit. Fruit has tons of water, and fiber, and vitamin C, especially all the citrus. And it's the vitamin C is, I would say, get on a limb here and say it's the antioxidant of antioxidants. True or false? That is true. Do you want to expand on antioxidant? I mean, a lot of people, if you throw that word around, antioxidant, antioxidant, we know that has something to do with stuff that we buy off the shelf, right? Supplementations and vitamins. What exactly is happening when you do take an antioxidant? OK, well, before we talk about antioxidants, we have to talk about what oxidation in our body and what that means. Basically, your cells produce waste products. Those waste products can become toxic in your body. And those waste products is what causes free radicals to attack your tissues. Yes? Yes, that is true. We're going to hold that thought on free radicals. That's kind of another big word like antioxidant. We're going to take a one-minute break. We'll hear a little of some words from our sponsors, and we'll be right back with Anthony Crisco on Taking Your Health Back. Thanks to our think-tech underwriters and grand tourists, the Atherton Family Foundation, Carol Mun Lee and the Friends of ThinkTech, the Center for Microbial Oceanography Research and Education, Collateral Analytics, The Cook Foundation, Dwayne Kurisu, The Hawaii Community Foundation, the Hawaii Council of Associations of Abarbon Owners, Hawaii Energy, the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum, Hawaiian Electric Company, Integrated Security Technologies, Gailin Ho of BAE Systems, Kamehameha Schools, MW Group, the Shidler Family Foundation, the Sydney Stern Memorial Trust, VOLO Foundation, Yuriko J. Sugimura. Thanks so much to you all. Hello, Hawaii. We're back on ThinkTech Hawaii with Anthony Crisco. I'm guest host Eileen Paulo Crisco. And we're back to talk about healthy ways, healthy tips that you can incorporate every day to live a healthy life. And you can start today. Anthony, so we were talking about antioxidants and nutrition. Let's continue that. OK, so we talked about antioxidant. We talked about how sales produced waste products that like to fester in your body. Well, the antioxidant says, hey, you, free radical, you come with me. You don't belong here causing damage in this body. Let's go. And the bottom line, if you have more water and more vitamin C and you're getting some sun and you're moving, getting some activity and you're having social interactions and you're laughing, your body produces chemicals that help decrease the amount of cortisol, the amount of stress, the amount of oxidation that can happen in your tissues. And with that, when you take care of the body by moving and by giving your body the proper nutrients and the proper hydration and the proper interactions, then guess what? All the stress that you carry starts to decrease. And the outlook on things actually improves. So all those elements that you quickly listed, those are actually things that give you more energy, right? Right, well, think about it. Have you ever been like, I'm working. I'm working. I'm working with the kids. I've got to cook and clean. And you hit your bed and you pass out. That's probably most of us. If you're a working parent with children, that's probably you too. Well, what if you had a little extra energy to go for that extra walk, pet your dog a little bit more purposefully, to call your mother and say, hey, mom, what are you doing? And say, I don't want to talk to anybody. I know how it goes. I've been there too. Yeah, yes, I know. Social interaction is kind of a tough one for me. I'm kind of an introvert. So there are days where I think, oh, there's this event I want to go to. And then maybe about an hour before the event, I'm thinking, oh, I'm a little too tired to face all these people. But anyway, social connections super important in staying healthy, right? That's right. And not only just the social connection, it doesn't have to be with humans. It can be with animals too. They even have a horse therapy where did you know when you get close to these therapeutic horses and you put your chest against their body that their heart rate matches your heart rate because they are literally connecting with your body, with your system, with your autonomic process. They are connecting with you as a whole other being. And they use that for troops who have ADHD and other trauma. And they use it for kids who have a rough upbringing. But again, social interaction, whether it's your friends, your dog, your bird, your cat, that's quality time. Again, have you ever seen your dog sitting in the corner because you're too busy to acknowledge him? Think about how that poor dog must feel. My owner's right there, but they don't even see me. Yes. And when I see my dog, I make sure I put things down or I get down there and I play with him. And he's happy. You can see it. There's my guy Bruce right there. As a matter of fact, what I'm doing, you see I'm holding this little roller. I'm using the roller to roll my dog's fascia too, which is a perfect segue into, we just got approved to do our first fashionator for K9 event at the Elite Animal Hospital. It's a brand new hospital right off of Ward Avenue. But if you have a dog and you want to learn how to pet with purpose, meaning find where those lymph nodes are. We're going to find where those stiff muscles, where the muscles that get so tight typically give the dog's arthritic hips and arthritic shoulders and elbows. You might think of your dog's front arms as legs, but their arms, biceps, triceps, forearm, flexors, extensors, help prevent arthritis in your dogs with purpose. At the same time, you're getting your quota of social interaction. It's a win-win situation, guys. Yeah, that's great. I really see our little dog, Bruce, as our family therapist. I mean, you know, listen to you. It's definitely our family therapist. He's the one in our house who listens and no one else wants to hear you. That's true. It is so great to have a comfort dog. That's right. Absolutely right. All right. So we saw the picture of you rolling, Bruce, or using that fascinator or the little roller to help your dog out, maybe add some uterus to his life. That's right. And help them move better. I remember I used to have a dog that was on Remedill, which is an arthritis medication. And I think one of the reasons why this dog was on Remedill was because I worked many hours, 12 hours a day, and that was a time where he wasn't moving. So his dogs have to move. We also have to move. And I know that there are so many movement programs out there, which ones are good? You know what, when it comes to movement programs, the bottom line is do something that fits your levels of ability, meaning if I have not worked out in 20 years, I'm not going to go out and try a high-intensity program that's going to end up ruining my joints and causing inflammation in all my other areas. You have to start slow, whether it's Tai Chi or yoga or Pilates. Pilates, as I say, is one of the best ones you could start with, because it goes at your level. And then save the other things for later when you know you're fit enough to tackle these physical challenges, because I work with a ton of people where they're like, oh, I'm doing this class five days a week. How come I can't lift my arm over my head? Oh, it's because you're doing the same thing five days a week. And you're not giving yourself any time to recover and restore and replenish your body's ability to stay mobile and free. That's what's really going on. So which program? Well, I would say start with the fashionator program, a self-mile fashion release program. That's the first thing, because you cannot get stronger if your joints are tight and locked and stressed out. You have to purge, restore, reprogram. Then you're ready to do other things. Right, that makes sense. And that kind of movement, that repetitive, whether you're running in the same plane or lifting weights in the same plane, that actually can become repetitive stress. So rather than relieving stress, that type of exercise is actually causing more strain or injury, basically. Right, and there's an old adage out there that says, oh, weakness is pain leaving the body. Wrong answer. Weakness is your body telling me, stop hurting me. That's not right for me right now. But we get so caught up in the mental aspect of, oh, no pain, no gain. I gotta push, push, push. It's good if your body can handle it. But you shouldn't be punishing yourself if you already are having a life full of stress, not giving to yourself, not appreciating where you are, and just absorbing all the hits from everyone in your circle. Be selfish, be first, put yourself first and take care of you. Right, yeah, you said a key phrase is not ready for you right now. Right, you gave all these tips and you don't wanna just go full speed ahead and try to incorporate it all at once. If your body can't take it, I know some people that try to drink a gallon of water every day just from drinking one pint to one gallon. You know, that scared them away, right? That's right, that's right. Baby steps, right? Baby steps to get there and you have to understand, your body will adjust over time. Remember, if you suffer chronic pain, if you had chronic pain for 20 years and did it happen overnight or did you have these things that you kind of subtly ignored and then it got a little worse and it went from your shoulder to your elbow to your wrist. Now your doctor's telling you you have lupus or something, right? Listen to your body, give it the opportunity to change slowly and you'll see. I've had students in my class, five, six years, the same students and you know what, I love it. They started when they're 81, now they're 87, 88, 89 years old. Wow. And they're not in a wheelchair, they're not using canes. They said, oh, I'm going on vacation. I'll see you in two weeks. And you know, the best thing is I get these pictures of my seniors. They're at the great pyramids in Egypt. Guess what, they're holding over their head. They're a fashionator traveler that they brought with them so they can walk while they're on vacation. Yeah, a self massage tool. A self massage tool. And if you don't have a fashionator, you know, use your own hands, you know. That's right. Use whatever, a hydro flask, you know, maybe not as safe, but you know, just try to get that self massage in, right? It's this mechanical movement you're doing yourself. We've had students who, they forgot their fashionator and they went on a cruise and they said, oh, you know what I used? I used the empty wine bottle and it got rid of the sciatica. So yeah, it doesn't matter what implement you use. Well, it kind of matters. But what matters is, do you know what to do with your body right now for long term result? Right. Now that's a great story about your 80 year old client. I'm sure you've got plenty and plenty of stories about, you know, how somebody came to you and really just needed to revamp their self care program so that they could add years to their life or just improve their quality of life. What is your favorite story? Ooh, my favorite story, that's a tough one. But I would have to say, my favorite story is a woman we started training when she was 81 years old. Her name is Amy Fu. She had severe scoliosis. I mean, so much, it was so bad. Her back was curved like you wouldn't believe. She couldn't walk sideways. She couldn't walk backwards. She couldn't put her hands over her head. And by the time I was done with her, now granted, this was a three year process. When I was done with her, she's putting her hand over her head. She was sprinting from a kitchen to close the door in her room because she didn't want me to see her messy room. And I'm like, Amy, did you just run past me like that? She was so embarrassed. Oh, I did, I didn't want you to see my dirty room. I said, well, think about that. When we started, you couldn't even walk sideways or backwards. And now you're embarrassed at your room. So you're closing the door really fast. That's my favorite story. And the best part was when she said, Anthony, I have to talk to you. I don't think I need you anymore because I'm pain free. And I rose my hands in triumph. And I said, yes, that's what I was waiting for because you now have taken all the things I've taught you and used the tools through your abilities and you don't have the problem and you don't need me. And that's the past the whole point. You need you, you don't need me. Right. So you're saying that her posture was really bad. How much water was she drinking when you first met her? Oh, she was drinking like one of those little cute little water bottles a day. Okay, half your body weight announces. Right, right. Okay, so yeah, she started out like a wilted plant or something. Well, thank you so much for your tips, you know? I mean, you really taught us that in order to stay healthy, you really have to tap into your inner power, right? That's right. You can really empower yourself to be in the driver's seat of your own health. Yeah. But first you have to what? Realize who comes first? That's right. You come first. You come first. And I want you to look into me or ask yourself, who's gonna take care of you? Who's gonna take care of you? And yes, I like to point. You should take care of you because you know what I do every morning? I look in the mirror and I go like this. You're number one. Go take care of your family and take care of yourself and enjoy this life that you're so lucky to have. Yes, nourish your body with water, great food. Well, Anthony, thank you so much. I thank you for joining us here and audience. I thank you for joining Anthony and me on Think Tech Hawaii. Big Mahalo to our sponsors and founder of Think Tech, Dave Fidel. Come back and learn more healthy discussions with Wendy Lowe on Taking Your Health Back every other Tuesday at 2 p.m. Aloha.