Pursuing Health

“Being a professional athlete, it’s a really selfish lifestyle that you need to lead. You’re number 1, 2, and 3.  You think about yourself -  it’s your life.  Like Cami said, it’s that extra percent that you put in that people don’t see.  It’s the sleeping during the night, the recovery in the evening, the food that you eat, the meal prepping, the training. It is everything, it’s the whole package.  So, all of a sudden - my body is my work tool and all of a sudden it’s not mine anymore.  I’m sharing this with someone else, and my body isn’t going to come first anymore.  She’s going to come first, no matter what, and I’m grateful for that, but it’s definitely something that you… It’s weird.  It’s a weird feeling.  It’s an incredible feeling, but it’s also really, really strange.” - Annie Thorisdottir   Known as “Iceland Annie,” Annie Thorisdottir is a two-time Fittest Woman on Earth (2011-2012) and ten-time CrossFit Games veteran. With a background of gymnastics, pole vaulting, and boot camp, Annie made her Games debut in 2009 at 19 years old.  Since then, Annie has been a staple in our sport and she is known to train hard and always compete with a smile. After placing second in the world in the 2020 CrossFit Open, Annie declined her invitation to the 2020 CrossFit Games as she prepares for her next big event: she and her long-time partner, Fred Aegidius, are expecting their first child in August of 2020. Camille Leblanc-Bazinet began her Crossfit Games journey in 2010, and she has competed every year since, ultimately earning the title of “Fittest Woman on Earth” in 2014.  In 2019 she made the transition from individual athlete to team competitor and took home silver as a member of Team CrossFit Krypton.  A former gymnast and Level 1 Seminar staff member, Camille has also been a member of the Canadian National Olympic weightlifting team and holds a chemical engineering degree.  She and her husband, Dave Lipson, recently announced that they are expecting their first child in September of 2020. Annie, Camille and I recently caught up for a long overdue chat.  We compared notes on how their pregnancies are progressing, talked about how their training routines have changed, and discussed how their experiences as competitive athletes are helping prepare them for motherhood.  And, of course, we shared lots of laughs along the way!     In this episode we discuss: Camille’s intention to retire from competition, and Annie’s desire to compete again Camille’s pregnancy experience vs. Annie’s pregnancy experience so far How they shared the news with their partners How Camille and Annie’s training has changed  since becoming pregnant How every woman’s pregnancy is different and the importance of listening to your body Lessons Annie & Camille have applied from their competition days to support their pregnancies What it’s been like to experience pregnancy alongside their exceptionally fit and supportive partners The lessons they hope to instill in their children     You can follow Annie on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. You can follow Camille on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Links: I'm PREGNANT - 10 Weeks In, Annie Thorisdottir Camille's announcement to Dave Féroce Fitness Renaissance Periodization Dottir Project Related episodes: Ep 14 - Camille Leblanc-Bazinet on Moving Forward, Engineering, and Body Image Ep 57 - Annie Thorisdottir and Fred Aegidius on Team Work and Individual Performance Ep 81 - Postpartum Training and the Road Back to the CrossFit Games with Lindsey Valenzuela Ep 82 - Training during Pregnancy and Healing Diastsis Recti with Lisa Ryan Ep 83 - Pelvic Floor Health for Athletes with Julie Wiebe, PT Ep 110 - Kara Saunders on CrossFit and Expecting Baby She-Bear If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating. I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below and on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every other Tuesday. Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice. We recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.   This post was originally published on April 27, 2020.

Dr. George Slavich is a leading expert in the conceptualization, assessment, and management of life stress and it's relationship to poor health. He is the founding Director of the Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research at UCLA whose goal is "to advance the science of stress and health to help prevent disease and improve human health and resilience worldwide." Since beginning his career as a clinical psychologist, Dr. Slavich has been researching the relationship between stress and health for over 20 years.  His area of focus is psychoneuroimmunology, which studies the effect of the mind on health and resistance to disease. By integrating tools from psychology, neuroscience, immunology, biology, genetics, and genomics, Dr. Slavich’s research has provided new insights into the inflammatory response to social stress and helped to pioneer a new field of research called human social genomics. He has also developed the first online system for measuring lifetime stress exposure called the Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN), and proposed a new theory called the Social Safety Theory, which hypothesizes that developing and maintaining friendly social bonds is a fundamental organizing principle of human behavior and that threats to social safety are a critical feature of psychological stressors that increase risk for disease. Dr. Slavich completed undergraduate and graduate coursework in psychology and communication at Stanford University, and received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon. After graduate school, he was a clinical psychology intern at McLean Hospital in Boston and a clinical fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He subsequently completed three years of NIMH-supported postdoctoral training in psychoneuroimmunology at UCSF and UCLA. He is presently an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA, a Research Scientist at the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, and the Founding Director of the UCLA Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research. His research has been covered by many media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Scientific American, TIME Magazine, HBO, NPR, U.S. News & World Report, and others. In this episode, we talk about the science behind how stress impacts our body down to the level of gene expression and immune system activation, what type of stressors seem to have the biggest impact on our health, some of the things we can do to mitigate the negative impact of stress, and how measuring stress may improve our ability to address it on a large scale. We also talked about how Dr. Slavich's work provides insight into the current coronavirus pandemic including the impact of stress on chronic systemic inflammation, why we should be practicing physical distancing instead of social distancing, and how best to communicate with others during this time to preserve the protective effects of social bonds on our health. Bio adapted from uclastresslab.org     In this episode we discuss: How Dr. Slavich got into the field of stress research and what motivates him Psychoneuroimmunology: what it is, and how it can be used to study health What happens in our body when we are exposed to an external stressor Which types of stressors most negatively impact health Social Safety Theory Social genomics Physical distancing vs. social distancing Whether connecting via technology can have the same impact as connecting in person The impact of stress on our biology relative to other lifestyle factors, and what we can do to influence our stress response and reduce chronic inflammation Tools for reducing the impact of stress on the body: mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy Quantifying and measuring stress Three things Dr. Slavich does on a regular basis that have the biggest positive impact on his health One thing he thinks could have a big impact on his health but he has a hard time implementing What a healthy life looks like to Dr. Slavich     Links: A Cold Fact: High Stress Can Make You Sick, Sheldon Cohen The Media Equation, Clifford Nass & Byron Reeves Social Safety Theory UCLA Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research The Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN) Donate to UCLA Stress Lab Research Related episodes: Ep 105 - Sleep, Stress and Brain Health with Dr. Nate Bergman Ep 116 - How Healing Works with Dr. Wayne Jonas Ep 135 - Immune System Strength with Dr. Leonard Calabrese Ep 138 - Pursuing Health Pearls: Our 10 Favorite Ways to Combat Stress and Anxiety If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating. I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below and on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every other Tuesday. Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice. We recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.   This post was originally published on April 13, 2020.

“What we’re talking about is systemic, low-grade inflammation where the body’s barometer for this inflammatory response is turned up just modestly.  This contributes to a whole host of diseases.  Diseases of chronic inflammation that range from type 2 diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease with heart disease and stroke, neurodegenerative disease, fatty liver– which is now epidemic in our society– as well as autoimmune disease.  So, now these diseases which are non-communicable– you can’t catch them– they are the leading cause of death on our planet right now and they’re being driven by chronic, systemic low-grade inflammation” – Dr. Leonard Calabrese Dr. Leonard Calabrese, is a rheumatologist, immunologist, and doctor of osteopathic medicine.  He is the head of Cleveland Clinic’s Section of Clinical Immunology and manages the Clinical Immunology Clinic.  After graduating from the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, Dr. Calabrese completed his internal medical training at Cleveland Clinic, followed by a fellowship in rheumatic and immunologic disease. Over the course of his career, Dr. Calabrese has authored more than 300 publications and become an internationally recognized HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C researcher.  He is also passionate about utilizing lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, sleep and stress management to reduce inflammation, control disease, and bolster immunologic function.  Based on growing scientific evidence that environment and behavior play a large role in immune function and gene expression, Dr. Calabrese is leading the charge in educating physicians and empowering patients so that they can feel confident in using wellness behaviors to help strengthen their immune function and improve their overall health and happiness. Dr. Calabrese and I recently sat down to chat about the basics of the immune system and what practices we can implement in our day-to-day lives to reduce inflammation and lower our risk of chronic disease. In this episode we discuss: Dr. Calabrese’s medical background and what drew him to immunology How the field of immunology has changed over the years The role of our immune system: how it interacts with our body and our environment How the immune system can become overactive What inflammation is, and what causes contributes to it What we can do to reduce our inflammation Diet, intestinal permeability and their effect on the immune system The role of diet, exercise, sleep and stress on the immune system Social genomics and how we can influence which genes express themselves Dr. Calabrese’s thoughts on the impact of gratitude practice Habits that Dr. Calabrese implements in his own life to manage stress, diet, exercise and sleep Dr. Calabrese’s vision for the Immune Strength program and how he hopes to help patients on a broader scale Three things Dr. Calabrese does on a regular basis that have the biggest positive impact on his health One thing he struggles to implement that could have a big impact on his health What a healthy life looks like to Dr. Calabrese You can follow Dr. Calabrese on Twitter and via his CME courses. Links: How Your Immune System is Affected by Diet, Stress and Exercise with Dr. Leonard Calabrese National Institutes of Health Nurses’ Health Study The Institute for Functional Medicine Interview with Dr. Alessio Fasano Our health is on your plate, Dr. Roxanne Sukol Why Sleep Is Important for Health: A Psychoneuroimmunology Perspective, Dr. Michael R. Irwin Effects of Sleep and Sleep Deprivation on Interleukin-6, Growth Hormone, Cortisol, and Melatonin Levels in Humans UCLA Norman Cousins Center for Pyschoneuroimmunology Human Social Genomics Stress Free Now 10% Happier, Dan Harris Headspace The VB6 Diet, Mark Bittman Pacer Go! To Sleep The Role of Gratitude in Spiritual Well-Being in Asymptomatic Heart Failure Patients Healio Rheumatology Related episodes: Ep 22 – Brigid Titgemeir on Functional Nutrition Ep 42 – Against All Grain’s Danielle Walker on Advocating, Healing and Celebrating Ep 78 – Lifestyle & Brain Health with Dr. David Perlmutter  Ep 103 – What to Eat When with Dr. Michael Roizen Ep 105 – Sleep, Stress and Brain Health with Dr. Nate Bergman If you like this episode, please subscribe to Pursuing Health on iTunes and give it a rating. I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below and on social media using the hashtag #PursuingHealth. I look forward to bringing you future episodes with inspiring individuals and ideas about health every other Tuesday. Disclaimer: This podcast is for general information only, and does not provide medical advice. We recommend that you seek assistance from your personal physician for any health conditions or concerns.

What does good movement mean? And what are the principles of good movement? And sometimes people have a hard time articulating that, physiatrists, physical therapists included. Because we focus a lot on, is this person strong, do they pass these … Continued The post Ep 132 – Healing Through Functional Movement with Dr. Amy West appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete.

Im still the Director of the Games. Im still Director of Training, also. I still have that responsibility to conduct it. I still have a lot of freedom to conduct it the way that I see the direction that I … Continued The post Ep 131 – Dave Castro on Changes in Life and the CrossFit Games appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete.

We, ultimately- we love CrossFit, but we also view CrossFit as a way for us to be fit and do things outside of the gym. And do them together. We always try to continue reminding ourselves of that, so, in … Continued The post Ep 130 – Kristi OConnell on Training for Joy and Balance appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete.

I believe something as fundamental as nutrition shouldnt be complicated, and if you keep it simple, and you help people make changes, and you encourage them and find bright spots- find positive things in what theyre doing Theyll make those … Continued The post Ep 129 – Improving Your Fitness from the Ground Up: Nutrition Basics with Nicole Aucoin appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete.

But if my model works, I am positive people can copy it. And group visits certainly have been part of the solution. You see a lot of patients, you provide more services, you overcome barriers, you do it in a … Continued The post Ep 128 – Dr. Jeffrey Geller on Loneliness and the Power of Groups appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete.

She said when she went in with the lump they basically denied her mammogram and said, Youre too young for breast cancer, and they wrote on her medical documentation mammography recommended at age 40. And, once I heard that, I … Continued The post Ep 127 – Fighting Breast Cancer with Barbells: Barbells for Boobs Founder Zionna Hanson appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete.

“It was really fascinating because I think theres such a disconnect, right? So, on one hand, we have the whole population of people that are criticizing women doing CrossFit while theyre pregnant. And it literally helps develop the natural– squatting, … Continued The post Ep 126b – Nicole Christensen on Coaching Pregnant Athletes appeared first on Julie Foucher | Reebok CrossFit Games Athlete.