Retirement is More Healthy
Retirement is More Healthy
It must have been about a decade ago. It was another snowy day like today. I awoke at the break of dawn, and rushed out the door to the hospital that was several miles away. Leaving so early in the morning, the expressways hadn’t even been plowed yet. I did this often. Jumped into the car during inclement weather. While most were waiting out the storm, I was cruising to the first of many destinations. There was so much to do. So much that wouldn’t get done that day when I lost control of the car and bumped into a semi. I walked away physically unharmed but my car was totaled. This morning I was faced with the same situation but my circumstances have changed. Fully ensconced in my half retirement, I had no reason to rush out the door. My errands could wait. It makes me realize that retirement is more healthy than the way I used to live.
All these years I have been taking risks and battering my body. It is time to stop.
Risk
Looking back now, it’s shocking how much risk I took in the name of work. I traveled through just about every storm that hit the Chicagoland area over the last ten years. No matter how bad the roads, I had a job to do. Hospitals don’t close. Patients don’t all of a sudden get better because of a storm.
I took my responsibilities seriously to everyone else, but not to myself. I risked life and limb and suffered through rain, sleet, snow, and bitter temperatures. Luckily I was only in one accident.
My half retirement schedule is more healthy. I can decide to not show or arrive late once the streets have been cleared. There is no life or death situation that needs my immediate tending. And if worse comes to worst and I can’t make it in to a meeting, I can take it by phone.
Sleep
Another luxury of late is sleep. I am actually sleeping 7-8 hours a day now. This is far more than I had in the past. Not only would I go to bed late and wake up early, I would often get interrupted throughout the night by phone calls. My quality of sleep was lousy.
Retirement is more healthy. I am sleeping more and getting interrupted less. My body clock is already shifting. Before I would automatically wake up at 4am. Now if left alone, I will sleep soundly till 7am.
I feel more energetic and fall asleep less on the couch. Furthermore, being well rested has even elevated my mood. The world seems a whole lot more manageable on a full night of sleep.
Diet
Work is horrible on diet. It seems every nursing station and meeting is accompanied by bagels, doughnuts, cookies, and candy. There is no end to the junk that ironically is shoveled in by health care workers. And it is not just about availability.
Stress is a major factor. When faced with little time and high stress, sweets often become the go to munchy when on the run. It is no wonder that doctors are prone to gain weight. Who has the energy and will power to avoid such things in the middle of a hectic day?
Retirement is more healthy. Meals can be planned and snacks can be packed. The high stress is replaced by more enjoyable activities. It is much easier to make good choices when the time crunch and stress are kept at a manageable level.
Final Thoughts
There are many benefits to slowing down at the W2. One is that retirement is more healthy. It is an antidote to risky behavior, lack of sleep, and poor dietary intake. And we haven’t even begun to consider the benefits of stress reduction.
Should everyone retire? Probably not.
But for those of us who can afford it, healthy living might be one of the best arguments in favor.
Glad to hear you’re sleeping more doc, we talked about that in Orlando. And I’ve spent some time and hospitals and man you ain’t kidding, it boggles my mind the amount of junk food they cram in hospital cafeterias and vending machines. A building full of people who know exactly what that poison does to your body, it’s so strange
Between sleeping more and eating better, I should add at least a decade to my life!
Glad to hear that this all seems to be heading in a better direction! Retirement certainly can be healthier. Keep heading to that direction, Doc G.
Thanks TPP. You’ve been really producing some great stuff on your blog lately!
Good points. I binge eat (bad habit, I know) under poor sleep and stresses of work! As an aside, the sleep and diet part i saw in myself while taking care of a newborn too…;-)
Cheers!
Thankfully, the newborn stress lets up eventually.
Totally agree, and there is more time for exercise, walk the dogs, to think, and to just do nothing. Additionally, more of the idle time thinking is not spent thinking about procedures gone awry or decisions that I am second guessing. Fewer negative thoughts counterbalanced by more positive thoughts (ie vacation planning)!
Yep. You’re in the half retirement space also. Feeling good so far.
I have been semi retired/ retired for almost a decade now. It is easy to fall into the lack of sleep. The fact that you do not need to “get anywhere” the next day sometimes harbours staying up late to read/ watch Netflix etc.
Furthermore, I find it is still easy to overeat. To overcome those habits it is more about designing a better system around oneself. Without that, work or retirement will get you the exact same result in time.
What was concerning was your ability to allow the “badness” to envelope your life so readily in the past.
What systems will you put in place that when the reward is high enough, that you would not again allow “badness” of lifestyle to seep in again?
I think you bring up a good point. I think it is all about habit. Forming and continuing the sleep and healthy diet habits take practice. Also saying no not only to others but also yourself.
I love getting enough sleep now as an author instead of as a surgeon.
Dr. Cory S. Fawcett
Prescription for Financial Success
Surgeons have it notoriously bad. I’m sure this is a much better balance for you. I’m working towards the same thing.
Just wait till you’re all done. Risk is the reason I quit. I was 65 eligible for Medicare with a flush bank account. I already made all the money. I could stay another 4 or 5 years and pile on another million or two but it would make zero difference to my eventual retirement, and every day I went to work what I was really piling up was more risk. Patient care and lawsuit risk, stress risk, health risk, dietary risk, Alzheimer risk. I’ve done a lot of study and my conclusion is the “obesity epidemic” is actually carbohydrate poisoning. It’s expression is metabolic syndrome which is a constellation of disease and is involved not only with obesity but heart disease T2DM HTN CVA risk and T3DM or neurogenic diabetes aka neuro degenerative disease. IMHO the culprit is insulin, too much not too little. Insulin is an anabolic hormone in fact it’s THE anabolic hormone, and insulin’s favorite target is the fat cell. It loves to turn glucose into fat. It will do that morning noon and night. A constant bath of insulin in fact results in insulin resistance, so we TX by adding more insulin in form of injection or pills like glyburide for even more insulin resistance. Then we short circuit the kidney so we can pee out the glucose from carbohydrate poisoning. Insulin crosses BBB so you get a specific brain side response to constant insulin stimulation (also IGF1 and IGF2) the response is neuro degeneration over a long time, specifically receptor population degeneration and some receptors in the brain are necessary for neurons to stay alive. It’s more complicated than this but this is the jist. Certainly there is phenotypic expression of this as any given particular phenotype is more or less susceptible, but there is an 80% correlation between ND and T2DM. Glucagon is Insulin’s nemesis. When relative starvation happens glucagon is released and fat cells give up acetate moieties (aka fat) to send substrate to mitochondria. The process is ketogenic therefore, but not ketotic with all the acidosis dehydration etc. Glucagon is cyclic with insulin not a run away loop like in T1DM where insulin is absent. Insulin shuts off glucagon and insulin is released due to carbohydrates. If you regain normal insulin-glucagon cycling instead of pegged out insulin release from constant CHO ingestion (at the nurses station) normality happens. Weight loss, inflammation leaves, HTN resolves CAD gets better, some evidence ND improves. So IMHO we are suffering long term carbohydrate poisoning. To test this, (since I’m retired) I went on a zero carb diet, just meat fat and water, NO CHO, basically I eat rib eye and drink water. It took 6wks to acclimate to a not constant barrage of glucose but eventually all the proper metabolic proteins expressed themselves to their new reality. Felt like crap in the interim. Your brain works fine on acetate. Your liver has 2 paths to make it’s own glucose from either serine or glycine or from glycerol the byproduct of fat metabolism, your muscles work better on acetate because the respiratory quotient is better resulting in less CO2 production and therefor greater relative breathing capacity, T2DM or pre DM resolves, HTN resolves as inflammation resolves, lethargy resolves and IMHO progression to ND is either abated or slowed (my fervent wish anyway).
Diet I know is a very political topic and I hesitate to write this and my “take” is totally contrary especially to the medical establishment and “healthy eating” lobby, not just MD’s but nurses dietitians insurance companies etc. But go down to the Walmart and look around and see what you see. What “they” are telling us to do ain’t workin.
Since my experiment my A1c went to 5.2 on no drugs, I lost 45 lbs, my HTN resolved my BP is 106/60 and resting HR is 64, my exercise tolerance improved from 2 hours a week to 7 hours a week and I sleep well. I do HIIT circuit kind of exercise so I keep my heart rate very high oscillating between 140 and 180 and use my breathing as the indicator of when I hit anaerobic metabolism and it’s hard to top out my minute volume. On carbs I’d be huffing like a choo choo in nothing flat. The muscular activity of exercise “feels” much more efficient. There is some noxious sensational element to exercise and it seems to me less noxious. It’s probably less acidosis as the body is nothing if not an acid factory with it’s multiple systems designed to control acid and physiologic pH.
My philosophy stand up say what you got to say sit down. If you stay standing it becomes agenda so I’m sitting down. I’m sharing an experience, not advocating an agenda. I never would have had time to explore this if I was still working. There is a growing literature on this. Retirement certainly has been more healthy for me.
Risk is definitely the reason i changed my situation too.
We shouldn´t worry so much about tsunamis, rising sea levels, climate change, Tulip desasters or Zombie attacks ect. and instead focus on the real life risks.
Accidents while commuting being on the top of the list, as well as sleep deprivation, stress, burnout risks and the more severe health issues. like heart attacks. Since there is no blue pill invented, yet, against consultants, corporate nonsense idiology and administrative bs, stepping out of this game as effectve as possible might be the best remedy.
Stepping out or at least having the option to step out and step back in in your own manner.