What good is living longer if we’re not living well while we’re here?
That’s pretty much the whole idea behind my Wellness Wednesday show, Keeping the ‘Live’ in Alive!
Every week I go poking around for interesting things that might help us feel better, stay stronger, keep our brains working, have more fun, connect with other humans — and maybe learn something we didn’t know yesterday.
And this past week? I covered everything from fat bears in Alaska to creatine, younger brains, cellular “battery swaps,” cold calls and why we all need a little more adventure.
Fat Bear Week Is Down to the Final Two — and I’m Following This
Yes, this is actually a thing — and I love it.
Every year, Alaska’s Katmai National Park celebrates its brown bears as they bulk up before hibernation. People around the world follow the bears on live cameras at Explore.org and vote during Fat Bear Week.
Millions of people have gotten hooked on watching these magnificent creatures catch salmon, raise their cubs and basically eat like there’s no tomorrow — because for hibernation purposes, there kind of isn’t.
September 29, is the Fat Bear Week 2026 FINAL.
The final two are Bear #89 “Backpack” vs. Bear #910. Backpack narrowly beat #164 “Bucky Dent,” while #910 defeated #132 and her three cubs in yesterday’s semifinals.
My engineer Bob pulled up the live bear cam ON EXPLORE.ORG while I was on the air and suddenly, we were watching bears fishing for lunch during my radio show.
Too bad it isn’t that easy for humans to pick up some salmon for dinner. LOL
HOW DO YOU WARM UP A COLD CALL WHEN NOBODY GIVES YOU A NUMBER TO CALL?
Remember when you actually called somebody you wanted to do business with?
Now we have LinkedIn, email, texts, DMs, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, contact forms, Calendly links — and somehow with ALL these ways to communicate, it sometimes feels harder than ever to actually connect.
My conclusion?
Relationships are everything.
And being older has an advantage: we’ve had more time to put good people “in the bank.”
But you still must make new relationships.
My advice: Be human. Be warm. Have some personality. Use somebody’s name. Tell them why you thought of them. And for heaven’s sake, if you’re pitching somebody, include your full name, company, phone number and website!
Please don’t make me conduct a small FBI investigation to figure out who you are. LOL.
And if somebody doesn’t respond? Give them the benefit of the doubt and follow up. Your brilliant message may simply be sitting in their junk folder.
HERE’S THE LINK TO A BLOG I WROTE ABOUT THIS TOO:
HOW DO YOU WARM UP A COLD CALL WHEN NOBODY GIVES YOU A NUMBER TO CALL?
A RARE GLP-1 VISION CONCERN WORTH KNOWING ABOUT
One health story really caught my attention.
A 66-year-old woman who had been taking Wegovy reported suddenly losing vision in one eye and was diagnosed with a rare condition called NAION, sometimes described as a type of “stroke” of the optic nerve.
The possible connection between semaglutide drugs and NAION is being studied, and the show discussion noted that researchers have not established that GLP-1 medications caused this individual case. The condition has been described as a very rare potential risk, and the overall benefits of these medications may still greatly outweigh the risk for appropriate patients.
Still, it’s information worth knowing — and worth discussing with your own doctor, especially if you experience any sudden vision changes.
CAN EXERCISE ACTUALLY HELP KEEP YOUR BRAIN YOUNGER?
We know exercise helps the heart, muscles, bones and waistline.
But what about your brain?
I talked about new research involving postmenopausal women suggesting that regular aerobic exercise may improve executive function and measures associated with brain health.
So maybe we need to stop thinking about exercise only as something we do to look younger.
Maybe we should be moving to help our brains stay younger.
Now that motivates me.
CREATINE ISN’T JUST FOR BODYBUILDERS ANYMORE
This one surprised me.
I’ve always associated creatine with my daughter, son-in-law and people pumping iron at the gym.
Apparently, I need to update my thinking.
And maintaining muscle becomes incredibly important as we get older — particularly during weight loss, when we don’t want to lose valuable lean tissue along with the fat.
My takeaway?
Creatine has officially made it onto my “I need to learn more about this” list.
CELLS GIVING OTHER CELLS NEW “BATTERIES”?
This may have been the coolest science story of the show.
Think of it as one cell saying:
“Hey, your battery is dying. Here — take mine.”
Obviously, the actual science is a whole lot more complicated than that, LOL, but the research could have implications for certain rare mitochondrial diseases.
Every time I read something like this, I’m reminded how many brilliant people are out there trying to solve problems that once seemed impossible.
“MOVEMENT LONGEVITY” — NOW THERE’S A PHRASE I LIKE
Jennifer Aniston has been talking about something called movement longevity — shifting the conversation about fitness away from punishment and appearance and toward something much more important:
Staying capable.
Strength. Mobility. Stability.
Being able to get up, get out, travel, carry things, bend down, play with the grandkids and keep doing the things that make your life YOUR life.
I’ve changed my own thinking about exercise lately.
Some days I just tell myself:
MOVE.
Get away from the computer. Get outside. Walk. Stretch. Do something.
Because the goal isn’t simply looking better.
The goal is staying in the game.
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU HAD AN ADVENTURE?
I believe adventure belongs in the wellness prescription.
And adventure doesn’t have to mean climbing the Matterhorn.
Although one of my best friends seems to be somewhere around the world doing exactly that every time she sends me another photo. LOL.
It could mean riding your bike on a trail.
Going somewhere you’ve never been.
Taking the longer drive.
Making a left instead of the right you always make.
Trying something that pushes you just a little beyond your comfort zone.
We even talked about Survivor. Strip away the TV drama and think about what’s happening: unfamiliar environments, problem-solving, teamwork, physical challenges, adapting under pressure and figuring things out with other human beings.
That’s a pretty good recipe for keeping your brain — and your life — engaged.
THE DAILY TOAST
I ended the show with this thought:
Here’s to never getting too old to try something new, go somewhere different or surprise yourself.
You don’t need to be on Survivor to have an adventure.
You just need to keep saying YES to life.
Here’s to Keeping the ‘Live’ in Alive!
Cheers, my friends.
Onward!
Debbie
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT:
092326-0
English (US) · 0:42:27
00:04
It’s time for the Debbie Nigro show with Debbie Nigro, who says she’s still a babe, or at least she thinks she still is. That’s right, attitude is everything, and Debbie’s delusionally young. No one sees the glass of Cabernet half full like Debbie. She’s fresh air with a magnetic flare. Some day has arrived, and as far as she’s concerned, it’s time to roll. When I’m with you, it doesn’t matter where we are or what we’re doing. I’m with you that’s all. That matters Time passes much too quickly when we’re together like them I wish I could sing it to you, oh no I wish I could sing it to you Silent, silent, silent, silent, silent.
01:58
Okay, finally the beginning of the show. Hi, everybody. I’m Debbie Nigro. What’s going on with you guys today? Hopefully, something good, something positive. If not, shift gears. Yeah, you have to punt sometimes, you know. So, this is Wellness Wednesday, a show I do called Keeping the Living Alive. And I guess, you know, we all just Try and do our best every day. Little things make you happy and like enhance the day. Like this jacket I’m wearing. I want to… I noticed that. Alright, I wore it even though I’m sweating. I kept it on for you Bob. I want to talk about it. Plus you get a vest on. Oh yeah, I got that too. No, I’m so hot all of a sudden. I was so cold this morning. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I said, Oh no, This is that time of year when that happens. When the closet is still full of summer stuff. And you’re freezing and you don’t quite have the transition ready. But I did buy this leather jacket. I haven’t bought myself a leather jacket in many, years. And you know when you see something in a store and you look at it and you touch it and you try it on and it’s so you.
03:13
But you’re like, no, I don’t need this. I shouldn’t get this right now. And you put it back. And then you go home and you remember it and you’re thinking about that item. You should have got it. And then you happen to be back in the same store the next day because I had to bring something back. And I thought, let me see if that jacket’s still there. And it wasn’t where I thought it was. And then I saw it. It was the only one. It’s a green leather jacket that’s. It’s the right size? Wow. Right size. There was only one. It was my size. And it was long enough because I’m, you know, I have a long torso and I can’t wear these short, little cute jackets all the girls wear. So I put it on. I was staring at myself. I said, I took a picture of myself, sent it to a friend, and then a person said, Oh, that is such a great jacket for you. I go, that’s it. I’m taking it. So here we are. Now I’m taking it off and I have my new leather jacket on today. All right.
03:57
So I wrote a blog this morning. I have a lot of things to talk about today, as I always do on Wellness Wednesday, which, you know, I kind of look forward to because I get to learn and keep myself current and relevant while helping. Everybody else stay current and relevant about what might be out there in the universe that we need to know about health, wellness, longevity, adventure, you know, relationships, whatever it is, okay, to have a better time while we’re still here. Because what good is living long if you’re not living well, right? And it’s breaking my heart as I hear every day the sheer number of people that I care about who aren’t going to make it, who are going through some horrible things and we’re the unfortunate ones at different times of their life that something that they have can’t be helped.
04:41
And it is really terrible. Three different women who are sort of counterparts in my age group, which I consider young, either didn’t make it or not going to make it. It’s just terrible. And they’re families and friends and such a hard suffering. So if you have a chance to enjoy today and the days to come, then you got to maximize, right? By all means, one of my great dabservations. A Debbie observationI just smashed it together. Debservations is if you still got a pulse, you still got a shot. Oh, all right. Which brings me to the blog I wrote this morning. I actually wrote a blog, and it was about something that’s kind of been loud to me lately. How do you warm up a cold call when nobody gives you a number to call? That’s the name of my blog. In the olden days, you could make a cold call, ’cause it would ring. You’d have somebody’s phone. You could call that phone number and somebody would actually pick it up, like a receptionist at a company, a person in a department, and you could actually have a conversation with a human. And back in the day.
05:55
We had what was called a Rolodex where you could physically put all the people’s numbers and you knew what their number was. I don’t know anybody’s number except one. I know Dave’s. That took me about, I don’t know, six years to remember that. I know my daughter’s and I know my friend Maureen’s, but that’s it. Oh. And I know the studio callin number in case I don’t make the show, I have to call Bob and do the show from my phone in the car. What phone numbers do you know, Bobby? The original phone number for my house when I was a kid. Yeah, we remember that because we had to physically had to dial it, yes. The last landline I had for my apartment. I remember that number because I still use it as a code for something else. Oh, yeah, everybody uses something for something, the codes. The problem with the codes these days is that every time you put in a code, they say that something’s been breached, you need a new code.
06:47
And people have 700 codes and really have no idea what’s going on with their lives. Which brings me to the communication thing and the cold call. Instead of the phone and phone numbers, we now have LinkedIn messages, emails, DMs, texts, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, contact forms, calendar links, and like other places I keep forgetting to check, okay? All right. And yet. My point was with all these ways to reach each other, it sometimes feels harder than ever to actually connect with somebody. Oh, yeah. Kind of ironic. Everybody has their own gates. Yes. You have to penetrate. And I think everybody gets comfortable with a certain platform. There’s people who are always on Instagram, people on Facebook, people always. And they get used to the communication style there. And if it’s not yours, you don’t even think to go there and check. Somebody might have left you a message, right? Anyway, relationships are everything. I’ve told you that. I’m a fan of you know.
07:39
Continuing to tell you how Continuing to tell you how important it is that you have relationships because they connect you to all kinds of things warmly. It’s not a cold call, it’s a warm relationship. So people have to nurture the relationship they have, but you’ve got to keep making new ones. Especially now. And how you do that may and I was talking about how being older actually has its advantages because one nice thing about being older and wiser is besides knowing before you buy certain shoes are going to hurt you so you don’t buy the shoes is that you’ve had more time to build relationships and you got people in the bank. Right? So I’m going to come back because the bank managers keep changing if you want to use the imagery, right? You know, companies reorganize, people retire, people get promoted, people get downsize and somebody will announce like on LinkedIn they’re excited for the next chapter. Because that means something happened in the last chapter, which goodness knows what. But anyway.
08:34
I want to talk a little bit more about how you warm up the cold call when there’s nobody to actually call. And I have some things I want to share that work for me. And I’m hoping when I post this, I’ll learn from some other people what’s working for them. Okay. I’m Debbie Nigro. Yeah, yeah. And this is the Debbie Nigro Show, Wellness Wednesday. Keeping the living alive. More to come. I got to tell you about that bear, too. Don’t forget to remind me about. The bear. Okay. Yeah, so it’s Fat Bear Week. I know it means nothing to you, but when I tell you the story, you might get a kick out of it. Hi, everybody. I’m Debbie Nigro. Keeping the living alive. This is today’s theme here on Wellness Wednesday in the studios at WGCH. Thank you. Bob Small, my trusty engineer. We’ve been together for, I don’t know, a long time. He’s the boy I’ve been with most, longest, the longest. Oh, that’s scary. I know, it is. It is when you look at the overview. All right.
09:43
I am going to get back to how to warm up the cold call, but I’m going to do the bear thing now because the fat bear week has returned and the salmon are swimming for their lives. Okay, situation. It’s like we’re all afraid to call a bear fat. Come on. Well, they actually. It’s a very smart description of what’s going on, I think. Well. There’s an annual thing that’s been going on where people, this is actually the 12th annual Fat Bear Week, okay, in which the public gets to vote for the fattest of the brown bears up in Alaska, Katmai, or Katmai is the name of the park, Katmai National Park. Alaska’s Katmai National Park. Do you know about that? It’s a single elimination tournament and it celebrates the park’s brown bears as they build their fat reserves ahead of their winter hibernation. And is that my music or yours? Your music? It’s nice. It serves as an opportunity for distant viewers like ourselves to enjoy the remote national park. And last year, believe it or not.
10:41
More than 17 million votes were cast from 100 countries before the public crowned Bear No. 32, nicknamed Chunk, that year’s Victor. And so apparently it’s gearing up to be one of the fattest weeks yet. What the bears are doing, of course, Are getting ready for hibernation, right? So they’ve been out there. It started in 2014. Fat Bear Week started as Fat Bear Tuesday. And at the time. The park posted a bracket on Facebook, kind of like the one they now use, showing side by side photographs of the park’s brown bears as they bulked up between June and September. The first thing I thought was thank goodness they don’t do this for humans. Thank goodness there’s no Fat Person Week after the winter. Right? What? Because we bulk up. You know, right? Because we bulk up. Everybody starts to hunker in, you know, with the blankets and the TV and the snacks and, you know, where are you going? I’m just so glad they don’t have this, you know, that human week because that would be so rude. Anyway, the guy named Mike Fitz, who was a National Park Service ranger at the time back there at Katmai National Park.
11:51
Said the engagement on those few Facebook posts that started back then that they did was super high like way higher than anything they had tried at the park previously to get attention. And that gave him the idea. He said, Oh, now we get more people participating, and now we’ll make it instead of just a Fat Bear Tuesday. We’re going to make it a Fat Bear Week. So now everybody in the world is going to know about Katmai National Park. And so they have live stream cameras. I really want to watch them right now and like stop talking. And the cameras were installed in the park by the philanthropic group, exploreorg Is this their website? Yeah, I think the. Is there a website? Yeah. I think it’s exploreorg might be the place you get it, right? They put the webcam in there, so they must have it. One of the things that makes the webcam experience very special is that you get to follow the stories of the individual bears. So you know them across the season, across the years. And this is according to Mike Fitz.
12:51
Who is now the resident naturalist at exploreorg and so it basically helps people form better connections with the bears, tell their stories about surviving in the wild, you know? Hmm. Yeah. Okay. And then also, they got a bigger… They want more people to come over to this park that might otherwise not go there. But with all these fat bears there. I don’t think I’m going to make that my first choice. Okay. Actually, the fat bears are probably a good place to go. The skinny bears you have to watch out for because they’re still hungry and they see a chubby Italian. We got a problem. All right. And then the salmon. I’ve always wanted to go salmon fishing in Alaska. It’s been one of those bucket list things Don’t ask me why. I don’t know. I don’t even fish really, but I always wanted to go because they go, they swim upstream. It’s fascinating, right? So these look very physically different when they’re doing that.
13:42
Too. Yeah. Because they’re going through quite a different cycle in their life. Yeah. Yeah. So, anyway, so the family will be there. Everybody’s going to, all the mothers and father bears and kid bears are all there. Hmm. They said we, the people behind this that we see a lot of ourselves in brown bears. We see how hard mother bears work to raise their cubs. That’s so true. And we understand their hunger. And at least on some level, of course, you know, their stories of surviving. I did the other day see somebody put up a video and don’t ask me why I like wildlife videos. So they were like a bunch of bears running after each other. And it was the women. You put the live cam on right now. We’re watching bears during a live radio show. This is the best thing ever. How many are there? There’s a half a dozen. One, two, three, four, five, six. And they’re all in the water like just eating salmon like hors d’oeuvres right out of the water. Yeah, exactly. Oh.
14:39
That is a really cool picture. It’s exploreorg Yep. And we’re live in Alaska and in the park they want to get more attention to that I never heard of that now we are all talking about which is Katmai National Park. All right, great first story. Let’s move on. I want to go back. That cold call. What works? You know. How do you connect with people these days when it’s so much technology to break through or not know how to use or try and figure out. A good personal email still gets me. Like when somebody writes something really nice, because I can tell if somebody’s done an AI thing. Right? I just touch a turn off turnoff. They did a quick AI scan of me and they try and make it sound like a personal liar, liar, pants on fire. Use my name. Tell me why you thought of me. Give me some clue as to why we should be having a conversation. And please, and this is a real pet peeve of mine, put your full name.
15:32
Your email, your company. If you don’t have a company, your name, your phone number, your website, whatever you’ve got, as opposed to just a name at the bottom with no idea where you come from. Really? You’ve got to be kidding me. All right. You would not believe how many people send me like a business pitch. And I have to conduct like a small FBI investigation to figure out who they are. It’s like not right. All right, tone. I’m big on tone, So we should do a song about tone. And what I mean by tone is sort of like the energy you put through in any communication. Whether it’s a text or message or DM or whatever it is. If somebody writes me in warmly, upbeat, maybe throws in a little bit of personality and humor. There you go. There’s the The weekly fire or police siren. It’s fire exactly The police sirens are different.
16:18
Interestingly. We must trigger. We learned that. Me talking on this show must trigger the alarm at the firehouse because there’s no way every single show. Well, don’t forget, the firehouse is just down the street. And this road takes them to almost everywhere else they need to go. This is how we keep local, hyper local while doing a local, regional. And national radio show that becomes a podcast. I love it. This is reality. Okay. So, anyway, somebody writes me a little humor, a little something. I pay attention. It sounds like a corporate memo written by six people, approved by legal. I’m not really interested. You lost me. And we’re people trying to connect with people. That’s really my point in the world. Sound like an authentic person. Okay? Please. And everybody’s using AI. I have no problem with that. It’s great, okay? It helps you get background on people. But then just be yourself. Write how you write. Talk how you talk. Leave a message, okay? Please, all right? I’m terrible at some of this stuff. I mean.
17:14
I’m always authentic. Doesn’t mean I find all the messages people send me or that I remember to send messages I’m supposed to. And the last thing I want to say about this sometimes you read this is terrible for people who suffer from, like, oh no, nobody got back to me from that email, that phone call, that message, that thing. You know. White silence makes everybody feel really bad. Because you don’t know, do the person not want to talk to you anymore? Did they think you say something wrong? Uh, do they not care hey, have you ever thought maybe they didn’t get it? It got, you know, so I when I always send an email, don’t hear back, I’ll say maybe it landed in someone’s junk folder. Look in your junk folder, you can’t believe what stuff lands in there. Okay. Or voicemail. Sometimes I don’t even know I have a voicemail. So I look back and like, when did that come in? Give everybody the benefit of a doubt. Nobody minds if you gently follow up if you’re waiting to hear back from somebody. Okay. I told him on to say about.
18:09
That we can move on. Wellness Wednesday keeping the living alive here on the Debbie Nye Grosch Show. Yeah, that’s what we’re doing. So many things going on. I was reading about a woman this morning who was freaking out. Because she went blind in one eye from taking one of those GLP 1 drugs. I was like, whoa, what are you talking about? Now, of course. I did some homework on it, and it’s one of those one in, I don’t know, 10000 I got the exact specifics, but it was a todaycom story. And this woman was taking a GLP 1 drug to lose weight. And she said, when she woke up One drug to lose weight. And then she said when she woke up in the morning. She had a problem with not seeing out of one of her eyes. And she has been very challenging. And so they weighed in, of course, with the doctors on the risk. So what the doctors told todaycom is that hundreds of Americans are suing the makers of popular GLP one weight loss and diabetes drugs, saying they weren’t adequately warned of the potential danger of vision loss. So.
19:23
This woman, Diane Wirth, who’s 66, is one of them, and she was diagnosed with a very rare eye injury known as N A I O N, I think it’s called, which is kind of described as a stroke of the optic nerve. Okay? And there’s no known treatment for this condition. This has completely changed her life. She’s a nurse practitioner. She was taking Wigovi to lose weight. Her only symptom was just like the immediate and sudden loss of this vision in her right eye, and she said she was fine when she went to bed. So, Her life’s upended, and, you know. She said she would never have taken the drug. If she knew there was a potential for vision loss but it was not listed on the drug label. Now nobody confirmed that her vision loss was a result of taking a GLP1 medication. She’s suing Novo Nordisk.
20:09
The pharmaceutical giant that makes Wigovi. And a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk told NBC News that it believes the personal injury lawsuits filed in the US are without merit and we are vigorously defending them of course. The pharmacy The pharmaceutical companies have weighed in on this. The drug labels for Ozempic and Mount Jara, which are approved to treat type 2 diabetes. List changes in vision as possible side effects. And the drug labels for Zepbound and Wigovi, which are approved for weight loss, instruct patients with type 2 diabetes taking these drugs to let their doctor know if they notice vision changes. And according to the World Health Organization, according to todaycom they were citing the European Medicines Agency talking about this, this Thing that she has, Naion. I never heard of it, is a very rare side effect of semaglutide. That’s the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wigovi, and this thing can potentially affect 1 in 10000 users. So there was a review of this in June by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. They did not find evidence of a consistent overall increase in the risk of this NAION.
21:28
So definitely something you want to talk to your doctor about. Yeah, even the Novartis people, they told NBC News it has not seen any safety signals and it’s randomized clinical trials when it comes to NAYON, adding it believes the lawsuits are without merit. All right, but everybody thinks patient safety, top priority. Are people going to stop taking these drugs? And all these companies actively monitor safety information for all their drugs. They’re going to continue reviewing all this and keep you posted. But basically they’re saying look the overall health benefits of these drugs likely far outweigh the very small increased risk of this very very rare complication but not if you’re this poor woman. Who can’t see out of one eye. Okay? All right so I want to say about that I can move on Debbie and I grow here we’re living keeping the living alive staring at a live stream of the fat bear week bears up in Alaska that Bob has pulled up on my screen This is kind of lovely actually. These are a couple of smaller ones. Yeah.
22:32
They’re cute like the distance between me and them in Alaska, like where I’m sitting here in Greenwich, Connecticut. I feel quite comfortable about that. All right, can exercise make your brain younger, Bobby? Can exercise make your brain younger? I’ll bet it can. A new study involving postmenopausal women found regular aerobic exercise may improve executive function and measures associated with brain health. Yeah. All right. So. You got to forget exercising just to look younger. What if you could exercise to keep your brain younger? That’s the move here. You got to keep the brain younger. It totally goes wrong when the brain wakes up one day and goes. Who is that in the mirror? I am like 20 years younger than what I’m looking at right now. Okay. Okay. I’ll be right back. I’m Debbie Nygrove. Stay tuned. More to come. Creatine is not just for bodybuilders anymore. You keep seeing creatine, We’re going to talk about that. And, um I don’t know. This one’s kind of wild. There are cells out there now, the news, your cells.
23:31
There’s some cells giving other cells replacement batteries. Focus on that. Try and understand what we’re talking about here. I don’t understand. I’ll tell you when I come back and we’ll learn together. Okay, that’s what the show’s about. Wellness Wednesday, come away with a little nugget of something you didn’t know before. A laugh, a smile, some commiseration. I, um. I’ve done my job. Okay? I kind of like doing this. All right, come on back. I have climbed highest mountains I have run through the fields only to be where Everybody wants us to run through feels. You ever notice that they’re pushing how that sport should be like a daily thing? Like, who’s got a feel to just run through? Who’s got the right shoes? Please. Hi. I’m Debbie Nigel. This is a show I dedicate to all of us who are lucky enough to still be here, who woke up this morning and said, Okay, here we go. Another day, new page, right? Keeping the lid in a locker. Keeping the live in alive is something that I’m passionate about, always have been. You know.
24:55
Why just be here if you’re not going to have a good time while you’re here? Okay. Do your best anyway. Once, if you’re having a good day, like if you’re feeling good, you need to do more things with that day because you know what happens on days when you don’t feel good. You don’t want to do nothing, right? You’re sluggish, you’re creaky, you’re tired. And you’re just not motivated. And you just, you know, it’s okay to fold them, hold them, fold them, lay back. But on days when you are good, you’ve got to have a great day. Okay. What does that mean? I don’t know. It’s different for everybody, but, you know. I’m here to share some knowledge. One of the things I wanted to tell you was about creatine. And this is really interesting to me because I have been looking at creatine like something my daughter takes, my son in law, the people at the gym, like that doesn’t relate to me and has nothing to do with me. Liar, liar.
25:45
Pants on fire. I learned something new. Texas AM is highlighting research suggesting. That creatine may have benefits that extend beyond muscle and athletic performance, including areas involving brain health and aging. Okay, so I’m like, okay. Let me do a little more homework. So I’m reading the Texas AM story. New research suggests that creatine could help aging adults maintain lean tissue and strength even without structured exercise. So I’m like, wait a minute, if I take this stuff, I’m going to build lean muscle without having to exercise? Kind of, yes. Okay. Creatine has been one of those supplements that, you know. People have been talking a lot about for building muscle and boosting performance and supporting healthy aging. But this new research is very important because one thing we know is you have to maintain muscle. The more, the older you get, the more it becomes like an issue. Like, think about it. And look at all the people in the GLP 1 drugs. The big story is great.
26:47
Great. They lost a lot of weight, but they also lost muscle and they need to, you know, figure that out. So they did a 12 week study that was published in the International Society of Sports Nutrition. And what the researchers found out after looking at these adults between 45 and 65 who took creatine is that they gained lean tissue and strength even without exercising. Those. Who combined creatine with exercise saw even greater gains. So this was really big, okay? The Main person behind this, Dr. Richard Kreider, who’s a professor and director of the Exercise and Sport Nutrition Lab at Texas AM, has been studying creatine for more than 30 years, and it’s a naturally occurring compound, typically, that helps replenish our cellular energy. It’s been studied for its effects on exercise, muscle strength. But now we’re talking a whole other category here, okay? People who Were not in the exercise program, so you can take it, they gave some and didn’t let them exercise and gave some who did. Random. The people who were not in the exercise program who took creatine gained about 24 pounds of lean tissue over 12 weeks. Lean. Lean mean. And they also improved their leg.
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And bench press strength. People in the exercise program completed the resistance training. And the aerobic training three times a week and adding creatine to their diet led to greater gains in leg and bench press strength time to exhaustion I mean just amazing one area where creatine did not seem to add a benefit was in when it came to aerobic capacity. So you know they’re talking about muscles not your ability to run a mile okay does this work for any age yeah I’m gonna start taking creating. I really, after reading this, and they looked at the and I really, after reading this, I mean, they looked at the challenge these days with weight loss, losing fat without losing muscle along with it. That’s been a major problem. So. People in the exercise program followed a diet that was supposed to create a modest calorie deficit, right? And after 12 weeks, those who took creatine gained nearly three pounds of lean tissue and reduced their fat mass. So, they had it balanced out right there. Uh huh. Hmm. Uh huh. Uh huh. And they found out adding, this is the first study, I’ll wrap it up on this.
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To show that adding creatine to an exercise and diet program, you know, weight loss into an exercise and diet program anyway, you know, weight loss can produce a greater reduction in body fat percentage than exercise and diet alone. Wow. This is the latest findings built on decades of research into creatine’s potential beyond athletic performance. All right. Make a note. Debbie. Creatine. I got things on my notepad to buy today. So hard to keep up in this day and age. New topic. Move on. All right. The beauty of knowledge is that when you get more of it you can solve bigger problems, right? So there are people who have Challenging diseases, all right? And there’s a new study that found out that it’s from Stanford. Stanford Medicine. Healthy cells from bone marrow transplants can transfer mitochondria to unhealthy neighbors. Basically, they can just, you know, recharge the other cells’ batteries for a group of rare genetic diseases.
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This is great, okay? Yeah, there’s a lot of mitochondrial disorders out there, okay? That, you know, these are hereditary diseases, terrible. So this finding is really hopeful for the first effective treatment of mitochondrial disorders, which is a group of genetic diseases in which cells, motors, which are called mitochondria, that’s the motor are dysfunctional. You know, your car doesn’t, motor’s not working. You’re pretty much not going anywhere, right? Isn’t that kind of a basis to some of the people’s science in relation to cancer, that they’re feeling that it could be in the mitochondria? I didn’t get that far, but I’m sure you’re right. I saw something about that. Because we’re able to get knowledge faster. See, that’s what AI is doing great for the world. It’s helping people find solutions to things with, you know, with human brains, involved that would have taken a whole lot longer and hopefully this is One of those great new things that, from all the knowledge in the world, they found that the cells are talking to each other in ways that are more consequential than most people who’ve studied this have realized.
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And this has a lot of implications for disease treatment. Okay, there you go. Thank you so much. The study’s lead author, Hyun Min Chong, PhD, who was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford Medicine when the study was conducted. So many smart people in the world, I tell you. I love that nobody does the same, not all people do the same thing. You know, if you look around and you just see how many different occupations there are in the world, and that somebody is great in each one of those occupations. Thank goodness we’re not all exactly alike. It would be just a really boring place to live. All right. Um. Next story. Wellness Wednesday. Keeping the living alive with Debbie Nygro. Yeah. Okay. Um. Jennifer Aniston has a new phrase for what we’ve been talking. About, I guess, for a long time, movement longevity. She made an announcement with this company called Pivolv.
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I think she made the announcement today. Positioning exercise less around punishment and appearance and more around strength, mobility, and staying capable. See, we’ve shifted the narrative, which is good. Yes. So, keeping the living alive is kind of about that. Yeah, they have movement longevity, a new fitness category built for healthy aging. I have a different head about this lately myself. I just try and move every day. Like, I try and move enough. And I’m struggling because I’m in front of my computer a lot. I’m writing a lot. I’m communicating. I’m like, and then I just jump up sometimes.
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Like, I’ll be in my house and I’ll just jump up and run out the door. Sometimes, sometimes, no pants. I’m like, I got to get out of here. Dave’s like, what’s going on? I got to get out of this house and just air out, see people, move around, get some air, do some steps. You know, I just got to move. You got to move. Otherwise, you’re no good. Anyway. But yeah, you know, getting working on building muscle, I think, makes a lot of sense when you do it to make it, make it so easier for you to do things. Right, that’s the whole point. As opposed to looking better. Right, right. We are who we are. You can look a little better, get a new outfit, you know, whatever. Go out in the dark like I do. Movement longevity is all about building and maintaining the strength, mobility, and stability needed to live fully, more freely, and stay capable at every stage of life.
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You got to stay capable. All right, we can move on. Just making a point, not a free commercial for too long. I think adventure always belongs in a wellness prescription. You know, the more new things you see and do, the more joy you have, the more excitement is in your life, the more adrenaline pumps, right? I have a best friend for, oh, I don’t know, fourth. 4000 years. And she’s now traveling the world and sending me pictures and all of us pictures on a regular basis of like, I’m climbing the Matterhorn. I’m over here doing this.
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I’m in an ice cave. I’m over here. I’m like, wow. She is just living, man. And she happened to, later in life, meet a lovely guy who loves to travel and can and has the means to. There you go. You have to have the means to do it. And she’s just having a blast. She’s in the realm. She’s in Switzerland over here. I’m jealous, but I do live vicariously through her pictures. And I know that adventure is something that we all seek more of, right? So there’s new research looking very specifically at how adventurous outdoor learning and nature and physical challenge and social connection all interact with physical and psychological well being.
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And, you know, I’m all about people still taking shots, risk it or regret it. Getting out, having more adventures. Of course, we’re a little more neurotic because nobody wants to get hurt. Which is why I haven’t taken my bicycle out all year. Ah, come on. Not once this year did I take my bicycle out of storage. That really hurt me when I thought about that this morning. I’m a trail girl. I love riding my bike on the rail trails. I read whole stories about the rail trails and who could believe they took the railroad beds and that are no longer functional and they paved roads and trails that you can bike and skate and do whatever like all through the county and the state and to other places around there and I have not done it by Bobby. So obviously, I haven’t seen anybody on the rail trails this year.
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But what did I learn when I was out there? Well, it’s really hard to be on your phone when you’re riding a bike on a trail. So you get yourself out of the usual picking the phone up every two seconds. I hate that. Phone every two seconds. So there is a big story out there. It’s a big field of study exploring the links between health and well being and adventure outdoor learning, you know. And what do they want us to know? They just want us to know that, you know, we are, we are trying, everybody’s still trying to get back technology, even since COVID.
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Like, it has had a long tail about people and how they act with other people and for themselves. And where they go, and who comes over, who doesn’t come over, who has company, who likes people, who doesn’t like people, who’s going out. You know, there are people who are just happy to go by themselves in the woods. Be my guest. I’m going with somebody in case I get lost. We’re both lost. We can yell twice as loud. Sedentary behavior is rising. It’s not good. Okay. The World Health Organization noted globally 81 of adolescents don’t meet the minimum physical activity.
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Adolescents. That is so wrong. Okay. So this. Adolescence. That is so wrong. Okay. Do they still have gym at school? I hope. Yeah, they do. And, you know, this is affecting everybody’s mental health, you know, for the kids, for the parents, you know, people in general. The development of life skills all through childhood and adolescence are really critical for future health. But, you know, some countries and some of the social and educational environments in many countries impede many opportunities for this development. But we actually want to talk a little bit more about the benefits of outdoor experiences for your health, okay? Alright, when’s the last time you had a great adventure? Ah, and you need one. Hello, everybody. I’m Debbie Nigro. I’m the instigator for Good Fun and Commotion. Yes, I am. And this is Wellness Wednesday. Last story. I’m just wrapping up the show here in the studios at WGCH. Keeping the living alive is my theme, and I’m passionate about that. You know, and I was reading about some new research that has proven that adventure learning, outdoor learning, nature, physical challenges, social connection is really how we should be educating at least some of the time kids, adolescents, adults.
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Because when you’re out there and you’re more than one person, you have to figure something out, you have to rely on each other. What came to mind was the show Survivor, obviously, which that’s a little bit different because I hardly ever watch survivor but has a lot of the ingredients of outdoor adventure learning, right? So that’s not a formal program but you know the contestants are out there, they’re in nature and they deal with unfamiliar environments and they have to solve problems and they take physical risks and they learn survival skills. It seems to be a great deal about How they interact with each other and build teams.
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Yeah, and about other people. Not very nice sometimes. I agree. But they’re constantly adapting under pressure. Those are the highlights, the positive things, you know, which was a classic adventure learning element. You know, I don’t think we have to all go on Survivor. Like, well, last time you did something outside that challenged you that wasn’t, like, lifethreatening Yeah, no naked and afraid for me, thanks. No naked and afraid. I actually have a friend’s cousin who– Who did that? Yeah. Ooh. We were sitting around one night and it’s yeah, it was a cousin’s daughter and she says, you know, I’m I’m on survivor I know naked and afraid I got looked at her like you’re kidding. She’s really tough and I was like, wow and then when I caught the episode of like she is really naked and I’m afraid for her. Okay anyway yeah, I think if you push yourself past your comfort zone, you always get a little thrill, right?
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That’s the difference between surviving and thriving. Well, sometimes pushing you past your comfort zone is taking a car drive that’s a little farther than you normally would go. Make a left instead of a right. That’s a good start. Okay, there you go. All right, so we’re at the end of the show. Anything you wanted to tell me about before we left here today? Just glad to see you. Yeah, and happy to see you guys too. And all you guys listening, thank you so much to all of you who tune into the show live on 1490 on the dial here at WGCH and also on the digital live stream, which you can reach from anywhere WGCHcom I got some guy in the UK trying to convince me that he’s the one who’s going to help me put my show globally.
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I’m like, okay, okay, I’ll get back to you. Anyway, I have the Daily Toast. I never send anybody off without some inspiration. So here we go. Attention, everyone. It’s the Daily Toast on the Debbie Nigro Show. Okay, here’s to never getting too old to try something new. Go. Somewhere different or surprise yourself. You don’t need to be on Survivor to have an adventure. You need to just keep saying yes to life. Here’s to keeping. The live in alive. Cheers, my friends. I’ll see you next time. I’m at DebbieNigrocom if you want to see where some of my stuff shows up and where I write a blog and sometimes I put shows up there. You know, it’s just my little house. Instagram at The Real Debbie Nigro. LinkedIn, Debbie Nigro. Facebook, The Debbie Nigro Show. Always a pleasure. See you next time. Give me pennies. I’ll take anything.
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