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Mackie Shilstone's new book provides a roadmap to better health.
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Minding Health
The Mental Health Association in Metropolitan New Orleans will
hold its annual meeting at noon Jan. 23 at the Eastbank Regional Library's Meeting
Room B (4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie), with an address by Orleans Parish
Juvenile Court Chief Judge Ernestine S. Gray.
At the meeting, the association also will elect officers and
board members. It also will bestow awards for state government leader of the
year, volunteer of the year and media representative of the year.
Call 897-1140 for meeting information.
Coping With Cancer
How to help cancer patients and those who
surround them handle the psychological aspects of the disease and its treatments
will be the focus of the Gene Usdin, MD Distinguished Visiting Lectureship in
Psychiatry at Ochsner Clinic Foundation this month.
The eighth annual lecture, which is free and
open to the public, begins at 10 a.m. Jan. 25 at Monroe Hall at Ochsner (1514
Jefferson Hwy., Jefferson). Space is limited; call 842-1234 for reservations.
Keynote speaker Dr. Jimmie Holland, chairman
of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Wayne E. Chapman
Chair of Psychiatric Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New
York, was author of a study that outlined ways to reduce stress on cancer patients
and their families. She also is an expert in bereavement counseling for families
who have lost loved ones to cancer and has published the patient handbook, The
Human Side of Cancer (Harper Collins, 2000). At the Usdin lecture she will
discuss how to help both families and patients cope with the psychological aspects
of cancer.
Live to the Max
Anyone who has ever heard local fitness expert
Mackie Shilstone on the radio or, even better, seen him in action can attest
to one thing: the guy exudes energy and vigor for life. He's given us a simplified
step-by-step plan for how he's helped himself and countless other athletes and
common folks achieve optimum health in his new book Maximum Energy for Life:
A 21-Day Strategic Plan to Feel Great, Reverse the Aging Process, and Optimize
Your Health (John Wiley & Sons Inc., January 2003, $24.95).
It's not an exercise book, although it does
address fitness routines and stresses the importance of exercise in balancing
the functions and improving the efficacy of the body, mental processes and happiness
in general. In the book, Shilstone recommends the "Pro Circuit Exercise Program,"
which he devised to combine strength and core training with cardiovascular conditioning.
"The beauty of this program," he writes, "is that you can start it at any age
and at any level of fitness and make it as challenging as you want. The Pro
Circuit is designed to give you maximum benefits for a minimum time investment
-- thirty to forty-five minutes, three times a week -- in as few as eight to
twelve weeks. Where you go from there is up to you."
Rather than a fitness book, however, Maximum
Energy for Life is a roadmap for living happily in a fast-paced, demanding,
fast-food kind of world. It explains how to combat fatigue and lethargy through
proper diet, exercise and positive thinking and even gives the reader easy exercises
for dealing with and controlling stress, negative emotions, fear and even workplace
hassles. Shilstone shows you how to reignite passion for your job, reassess
what you want and how to get it and discusses the role of family and friends
in living a joy-filled life.
Shilstone, who has helped numerous star athletes
get back in the game and in many cases extend their professional sports careers
beyond expectations, doesn't just throw out his insights and leave the reader
hanging. Everything in the book is a step-by-step, mapped-out plan complete
with evaluation forms, questionnaires and even meal plans that leave nothing
in question and allow you to eat things like spaghetti and meat balls and even
pound cake. The book also discusses at length, heart disease, preventable diseases
and even stress and how it affects your health, work relationships, family and
personal happiness.
Perhaps best of all, we have Shilstone himself
as a vibrant example of how well the plan can work. It started when he -- as
a 5-foot-8-inch, 140-pound college student -- wanted to be on the football team
at Tulane University. He strengthened himself and achieved that goal, earning
a varsity letter and having the distinction of being the smallest player in
the country. He later turned his methods to other players, helping Michael Spinks
become the first light-heavyweight boxer to win the world heavyweight boxing
title and working with baseball and football players all over the country play
better for longer. Later, he brought his methods to non-sports types at the
Mackie Shilstone Center for Performance Enhancement and Lifestyle Management
at Elmwood Fitness Center, where the general public can benefit from his quarter-century
of experience.
Maximum Energy for Life is an easy
read that motivates the reader through common-sense approaches and goals that
can be reached fairly easily by anyone. And it comes with a big promise: "This
book ... embraces both the science and the passion that I bring to my work with
my clients," Shilstone writes in the introduction. "I know that it will help
you improve the quality of your life, health and performance as well as increase
your joy of living more than you ever dreamed possible." -- Kandace Power
Graves
Lowering Risks
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has
given Tulane University Hypertension and Renal Center of Excellence $10.8 million
to establish a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) to explore links
between high blood pressure and kidney disease.
The NIH grant is intended to expand and speed
along research examining the interconnections of the two diseases; the money
will be used to pay researchers, buy laboratory equipment and fund infrastructure
needs. Grant projects include a clinical trial to examine how exercise affects
hypertension in African-American women as well as studies about salt-induced
high blood pressure and the role malformed kidneys play in chronic kidney disease
and more. It marks the first COBRE in the country to be established with a primary
focus on hypertension.
Tulane center Director Dr. Lee Ham says the
need for the center is illustrated by statistics that show the Southeast region,
which includes Louisiana, has the highest prevalence of hypertension and related
complications such as stroke, coronary artery disease and end-stage kidney disease
in the country. Additionally, the American Heart Association estimates that
2.2 million Americans are disabled by high blood pressure and 200,000 die each
year from hypertension-related causes. Hypertension also has been found in 70
percent of new patients suffering from end-stage kidney failure, according to
the National Kidney Foundation.
