Time to Talk with Jen | Conversations that Matter | Jen Graziano

Time to Talk with Jen Graziano

(180) Time to Talk with Jen | Conversations that Matter | Jen Graziano - YouTube
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Transcript:
(00:00) Jennifer is here to discuss a sensitive subject we all need to talk and think about here now is Jennifer Graziano and time to talk good morning Westchester it's 9 A.M on Monday and that means it's time to talk with me Jen Graziano I'm a licensed funeral director who oversees my family's funeral homes Cox and Graziano of both Mamaroneck and Greenwich Zion Memorial Chapel of Westchester and the Fred D Knapp and Son Funeral Home of Greenwich every Monday I come to you discussing important topics and
(00:32) sensitive matters that all of us need to pause and reflect upon at some point and through this show I hope to provide a platform to do so if you're joining us on air this morning on 1460 wvox we welcome your questions comments and calls to 914-636-0110 Vinnie's got a full house back there in the control room good morning everyone and good morning Facebook live viewers Tim judge my co-host this morning man behind the camera and founder of Greenwich local.
(01:05) com so good morning everyone we are gonna do I'm gonna give you lots of information today I want to talk about um articles that really illustrate the impact of stress chronic stress and the Nexus between that and diseases such as Alzheimer's cancer um the genetic predispositions and gender predispositions um as well to Alzheimer's so lots that we're going to talk about on health today um but so much going on this weekend for sure Tim are you seeing have you seen all these videos lately about people disturbing the wildlife and you know the all the article that I
(01:49) mean the the video that's gone viral about the woman who was taunting the bison and all the stories that are coming out I mean what what is going on with people I don't know first one I saw was months ago where someone actually got mauled or maimed or whatever from that and why would someone do that I mean that was a viral video that someone went up to a bison in Yellowstone and got injured which is not entirely a rare occurrence but now we had another one this weekend who just walked up and was fixing her hair in front of a bison I
(02:19) don't know I mean totally off topic but I think it speaks to everybody looking for a photo op I mean this is something that's unheard of I mean you coexist with animals you're in their territory but to approach a wild animal um there was a story of like a thousand pounds yeah the baby calf that was rejected by The Herd because so you know a human picked it up took it and then brought it back so Public Service Announcement leave them alone I mean it shows you this culture that everybody wants to post
(02:49) something on Instagram and we've become like this mindless Society With No Boundaries so that's my two-minute rant about that but deserves to be shared if the Topic's stress let's not stress out the animals because that's when they react and you know cause injury to the humans that are being silly don't stress out the animals very true um so the topic inspired me I recently read a book anti-cancer um that really discussed um so many foods and carcinogens in our food in our
(03:30) environment and the Nexus to that and not so much creating cancer but the spread of cancer and the force and the aggressiveness of which it spreads but one of the stronger points in the book that was really a lot of time and attention was developed was devoted to this was the impact of stress and scientific medical findings that people with stress in their life there were studies about women going through divorce um and the empty increased number of uh cancers in those women um and conversely it showed that people
(04:11) who was suffering from cancer who underwent regular yoga classes Yoga practices meditation therapy had that release um there were measured declines in numbers um significant numbers so I wanna talk a bit about that you know we live in a world where just you can't survive without being stressed everyone is overloaded from our children that have non-stop activities that don't just go to school they go to school and they go everywhere else after um and the pressures that they face are so different so the stress that we have
(04:51) we grow with it we grow with stress we have adolescent stress and then that becomes you know the race to get into college which is again such a different process and then the College Years and then what happens after so we really we can't escape it so how then do we how do we reconcile if we know what it can do how do we avoid it if possible at all um how do we avoid it well it's it's not avoiding it's managing it and um you know having five kids one just graduating from college as you said
(05:30) now in Masters uh going for his Masters um but the rest of them also falling down watching them grow up and knowing the stresses that they have trying to tell them you know you can manage this stress it's not that big a deal just you know to put your head down get your work done but their bodies are also built you know they're growing into it they're using their stress month you know they're learning from their Stress Management and growing those muscles I
(05:58) think that's what I've observed not a professional on this matter uh other than my experience but um I think as you get older the stresses um you know they build up over time and that's what uh you know you're always fighting stress and it's how you manage it going forward and everything that you know from our environment from the foods we do you know if you're not taking care of yourself and balance balancing what you're doing with yourself diet and exercise those stresses will compound and then uh
(06:29) result in unhealthy situations so I want to talk a bit about some of the things that we know stress can cause and among them, it's chronic stress weakens the immune system so again patients undergoing cancer treatment immunity is key you really need to bolster the immune system strengthens the immune system in order to fight the disease so again something that we know there's a direct correlation between stress and a weakened immune system reading an article from City of Hope online you
(07:04) know again everybody experiences stress but chronic stress it's different it's that Perpetual weighted that that heaviness that is just constantly over you and that leads to depression as well and again depression can cause fatigue will result in a lack of exercise all of these behaviors again are weakening the body weakening the immune system and disabling your fight-or-flight syndrome so we see um again stress is known to speed up the spread of cancer throughout the body especially an ovarian breast and
(07:38) In colorectal cancer when the body becomes stressed neurotransmitters like norepinephrine are released which stimulate the growth of the cancer cells the stimulation can help cancer cells evade death and they expand and they go to new environments in the body and they attack so avoiding stress again it's difficult but there are so much out there now I feel in terms of resources that we really can have ways to help be mindful and calm the mind and body um it's so interesting you know you wouldn't really think it but it's so
(08:14) true a yoga class yeah a meditation class and there are so many apps online available to us just going online there's the Calm app there are ways to do a 10-minute meditation a day and something so seemingly simple can really really yield such benefits so things that we don't think about often um do you know what people do you meditate to him no not directly when I exercise I go into a space where you know I don't listen to music while I'm exercising or anything like that so I I get deep into my own
(08:54) thoughts so I would call that you know passive meditation well that's very true but exercise again and you know it doesn't have to be um you know it doesn't have to be yeah anything you know it's so intimidating to start exercise with the first time but it could be something as a 15-minute walk yeah whatever on a morning like this yeah that's what I've read as well that you know even just getting out and doing any kind of 15 minutes of a good um you know brisk walk is so much better for you than than not doing anything
(09:25) obviously but um it takes just as little as that to uh see benefits and doing that on a regular basis just getting up to stretch and walk even if you don't have a regular exercise routine agreed so one of the other articles that I was reading about um from a researcher at Temple University is chronic stress also harms the brain and has been known to have links to dementia um it says that chronic stress, in particular, has been shown to harm the brain in a variety of ways and inflammation is something
(10:03) that um we really really need to be aware of there are so many diets that are out there and available that help reduce inflammation in the body which is what we want to do but inflammation is one of the primary ways that chronic stress affects the brain when the body is stressed pro-inflammatory cytokines are produced which can damage cells and lead to cognitive decline again when you're overloaded you are sending you know these transmitters are really going like crazy in the mind and over time it just
(10:38) yields to that cognitive decline that memory impairment that memory loss is that inability to function um they always talk about how babysitting your grandchildren and keeping your mind sharp there are so many things you can do to also promote brain health um but again over time this is being you know these things are being documented things that we took for granted for so long we're often quick to say oh you know I'll be fine this doesn't matter it's really not true um I'll add the one of the greatest
(11:14) misnomers are uh you know to say comfort food oh I'll have some comfort food or give yourself a snack sugar and comfort food are most definitely probably not good for you whatever you're reaching for comfort food probably not a salad as comfort food but you know they stay fasting is good for you all that kind of stuff but comfort food is uncomfortable for your body absolutely you know I can't think of comfort food that I would categorize as something that's going to be good for me so you
(11:40) know reaching out for snacks or some kind of comfort food um probably not the best thing for you at all and they also have about sugar and its connection to cancer as well it's really one of the worst things that you can do and you can you know and obesity being on the rise you know food is made so much differently all the GMOs and processed foods and you have to really start at such a young age it's not you know not to say you're not putting your kids on a diet but awareness and food awareness of what
(12:13) you're taking in your body that starts at Birth really yeah so you have to grow your children up with that mindset um you know everything in moderation which I still think is the best diet um as well as you know intake you know fruits and vegetables should be introduced at a young age and you know you try your best and then you send them off to school and then it's like I wish I could send them off to school they're still all of them are still home um no I'm talking about like young
(12:44) school Like Preschool like you know you try like yeah you try four years not to have any like juice or juice boxes and then you go to like a party and it's like oh yeah um yeah there used to be only sodas on uh you know Saturday night with the pizza night soda and now their soda's crept into their lives and I'm watching them eat it I'm like wait a minute you know it's not Saturday night why are you having soda on a not Saturday night but you know that I'll do a whole show I can't control them
(13:12) anymore the health effects of that yeah um going back though to mental and cognitive Health um there are actually studies now that show that air pollution um has been related to a variety of obviously asthma lung cancer heart disease um but recent studies also suggest uh published by the British medical journal there's strong evidence for a biological relationship between air pollution and the onset of dementia so these small air pollutants known as PM 2.
(13:48) 5 particles those specifically are being shown to have a correlation to dementia um PM 2.5 exposure uh their authors note that there's a 17 increase in the incidence of dementia for every two micrograms increase um as they measure these em 2.5 um again what we're emitting into the air it all Paints the picture um that the world is certainly much different and you have to really be aware of everything not to say live your life afraid of everything and not to go out because we don't recommend that but we are really starting to see the impact
(14:30) of where we live how we live and what we eat and what it's doing to our body and I think that's the overall message today um you know even though there's such a thing I was never aware of soaps and detergents and you know what yeah what is in these products I got introduced to an app by my cousin over the weekend Yuka I think it's called where you can scan and see everything um from food and products that you have and again things like that you know you don't want to be neurotic but you do you
(15:08) do want to raise awareness for sure you're trying to say reduce your stress level and then you introduce that app where you're scanning everything I find out what's drives you out so um goes hand in hand um Tim did you know uh there was another story published about women in Alzheimer's disease and that's a true story of gender inequality that the statistics are higher than women did you know that I didn't know that so nearly two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer's disease currently are women
(15:40) and now there's um questions about the validity of this long-held assumption that because women tend to live longer than men that that was the reason for those numbers but they're saying uh not so much it's not really just attributed to that longer life span so what else might put women at extra risk could it be genetics biological differences in how men and women age or lifestyle factors that specifically pertain to women and obviously they want to answer these questions so they can help paint a
(16:12) better picture um reports research reports to show that estimate at by age 65 women have a one in six chance of developing Alzheimer's disease throughout some point in their life and that was compared against a one in 11 chance with men at the same age um while the while age is the greatest risk factor for developing Alzheimer's oh hang on one second is that a caller on the line hi is that Joanne on the line yes hi hey Joanne how are you good thank you how you doing then great to hear your voice and you're your
(16:52) um friend also um yeah I I also know the judge family in New Rochelle big family Emily judge I don't know if he's related to yes yeah yeah big family yep God any way you know or you're reading on um I mean what I want my statement is you can imagine the effect that that's all going to have on these children today being exposed to what they were exposed to in terms of um number one just being locked down like they were a couple of years and not being able to afford to socialize and then they're all on there
(17:32) consequently, they're all on their iPad's iPhones the other Joanne they mean the sociological effects on kids the cognitive decline the emotional effects you know those are the covid casualties as well and they don't get enough attention and it's something we probably won't fully appreciate and recognize until they're much older until later I know and it's very scary to me because you know I think about that and then you know uh was that um the fact that they um also this bullying is such a big thing so you
(18:07) can imagine even where it causes I'm sure you know you guys have heard um deaths also children check their suicide rate is up because of that is what I meant to say you know there was that 14-year-old girl in um I was watching her dad uh speak about it on TV in New Jersey and uh just the pressure and the stress from that alone and bullying in and by itself to me is such a big thing today and I I'm just so against it but I so imagine what these kids are going to go through right I can't even begin to you know by the time
(18:41) they get that age or not even way younger than even the ages that you're speaking about but the effect that um is you know I don't know how you deal with that or what you know if you have any kind of uh it's very difficult to be a parent of a middle school girl um in this day and age it absolutely is because and younger and younger yeah well you're fighting to raise them with these values that you speak of and these values that we have and these and the world is against you everything is
(19:12) against you um when you have to have conversations with your children about gender when I mean this is a world gone mad and I have to tell you never in my life would I have expected my you know that I would have a child and grow her up in a world so vastly different from mine I I wasn't by any means older when I had her um and I always say this the generation gap between myself and my parents was minimal I mean I grew up in a very similar world to my parents they were born in the 50s I was born spot on 1980
(19:47) um but now I mean I I can't relate to anything of what you know and here we are she's going to the same school that I did she's an Ursuline girl and you know relatively sheltered there but not so much I mean the world is just crazy there's only so much you can keep from them um but again you have to fight every day to raise them with values and to continue to show them what they're seeing in the World At Large it's not okay but you're right um exactly and you know Jen I'm sorry just not to
(20:20) interrupt you but and one more thing that really scares me is I'm going to go to that meeting um uh at the library in New Rochelle it is so you know it's a little tough for it's a city New Rochelle but there's still there's lots of Duty to it too yes oh yeah no yeah I'm a nurse seller at heart yep yep but it's still got the um they're doing a um they're having as a matter of fact a transgender person come in and read to it they're in the story hour which my kids are I've done it with
(20:51) they and they do it with their kids they have you know we have a two and a half-year-old my daughter has a three and six-year-old and those are very important programs at the library however to do this they well I don't know what the point of the meeting is going to be to express our dismay or you know whatever worse than that I'll just use that word that transgender person to come in or I don't know if it's a group or whatever I didn't get the particulars totally on it but that they're going to read to and
(21:25) and uh um, in other words, they really it's in favor of uh transgender business to three or three-year-olds I mean really is that necessary so imagine that to deal with because I've seen what they're doing in the schools like up in some of their schools that if you want to identify as a cat they have a little girl they tell the mothers to bring in a little litter box for the girls I mean are you kidding me no it's just insane and it's just and it's just trying to you know shove this narrative
(21:54) down all of us I mean there is no need to discuss anything remotely connecting to sexuality to anyone at that age I mean and it's something that was never done before a story hour is a story hour and right it's I mean they are just they're they're taking our kids from their youngest ages and growing them up with this narrative and then if you're against it you're bigoted so you know let's talk about safety of our kids these are not safe subjects and we're actually we're robbing them of a
(22:25) childhood and you know exactly again we're setting a stage up for a disaster down the road um so scary so I certainly appreciate your insights Joanne how you know how about my list sentence then how about they teach them you know what we used to learn in schools not keep religion and keep sex out of it let's leave that to the parents you know but but um really it's just insane I'm so afraid with these kids today um give them a good family and that's the best that you can absolutely thank you all right thank you so much always
(23:00) great to hear from you thanks for listening thank you you know going back to um connecting back to health effects as well you know mental health again there are studies now that also show that um researchers have some association with different psychiatric conditions such as um mental disorders like anxiety addictive behavior those are also being shown to cause an earlier onset of dementia and our kids are growing up very anxious um that's a thing depression several studies have identified the depression as a preventable risk factor associated
(23:41) with dementia so you do see a lot more attention being given to mental health awareness now which I credit I think it's a great thing on the morning show today actually assemblywoman shimsky said that there was a round table up in Albany about that last week I think we are realizing that um these are things that need to be addressed and that certainly goes back to the social media concerns that we have and the production of anxiety and depression in our youth there's such a correlation of that you know anybody you
(24:15) talk to around my age we all say it was the cell phones and social media that's really created the biggest difference between ourselves and our children 100 yes you can't shut off and again you know I I don't allow her to have it and then you know that becomes problematic as well but um I have two high school girls and uh they didn't get phones until eighth grade you know when they graduated eighth grade that's when they got phones so they went off to high school together but their head is in their phone
(24:47) you know most of the time so they get you to know if I dare to check their screen time it's you know an hour or more a day uh they're averaging in that phone and so you know I have to that's my competition you know how do I teach them and how do I uh you know get in their head and what's good and what's bad because they're getting bombarded with uh you know opinions that they don't even share with me because you know they're not going to share what they're
(25:15) looking at on their own phone that's a hard enough conversation but uh well imposing limits is certainly the best Safeguard and I have to tell you that was quite a tutorial for me and self-taught very proud of that but um I even think my daughter was surprised that I figured out how to do that but that's the problem too I mean they're smarter than us I mean in your case you're the most tech-savvy person that I know but um you know so your kids probably have a run for their money but nonetheless a
(25:44) a lot that we discussed today a lot of Food For Thoughts we hope you take this conversation further and do some great research as well and this is Jen Graziano with Tim Judge thanking you for taking the time to listen as we took the time to talk like the show follow us on time to talk with Jen.
(26:00) com and sign up for the podcast have a great day everyone bye-bye