Speaker 1
Good morning and welcome to your next chapter of production of The Heights at Avery Heights, a one-of-a-kind senior living community centrally located near the most entertaining and historical spots ever in Connecticut. It is time to celebrate our seniors and give them wholehearted encouragement to bravely step up to new experiences with optimism, with inner peace, and the courage to never give up on growing. Along with Siobhan Mattingly, she is the Heights Senior Living Specialist.

Speaker 1
I’m Gary Byron. Siobhan, good to see you. Good morning.

Speaker 1
Good to see you. Happy Easter. Yes.

Speaker 1
Actually, I’m sorry, we just had Easter. Happy Tax Day.

Speaker 2
Oh, gosh.

Speaker 1
No. I know. Although it’s a weekend this year, so I think people get an extra day. Yes. Doesn’t that usually happen?

Speaker 2
Probably Monday. Yeah, Monday.

Speaker 1
Yeah, Monday or Tuesday.

Speaker 2
Yeah. So you look great. Thank you. What have you been up to? Just living, planning, planning our little financial, what is it, four, four shows, four

Speaker 1
parts series. Oh, that’s coming up next month, right?

Speaker 2
That’s coming up next month, yes. Our first show will air on the 22nd.

Speaker 1
Very nice. Of May? Oh, no, of April.

Speaker 1
Of April, yeah. Do you like the change of season? Do you like the warmer temperatures in the spring?

Speaker 1
I do. It’s finally in the air. I do.

Speaker 2
I love the spring, yeah. Hopefully we’ll finally be able to open our patio. We need like steady warm, you know, this weird kind of cold, hot. Yeah.

Speaker 1
Change the air inside, open up the windows.

Speaker 2
Yes.

Speaker 1
You know, out with the old. That’s what I love.

Speaker 2
That’s my favorite part, actually, letting the air and opening the windows.

Speaker 1
How could you not?

Speaker 2
Yeah.

Speaker 1
Do you get involved? Are you more of a homebody or do you like to traverse the state and get out and about?

Speaker 2
I like to walk.

Speaker 1
Okay.

Speaker 2
I like to walk fast.

Speaker 1
Like hike or just go for a walk in the neighborhood?

Speaker 2
Both. Both. I love to go to the reservoir.

Speaker 2
I love to go to like Taki Mountain. And I do love to walk in the neighborhood. I like to walk far.

Speaker 2
I was walking like four or five miles. I could just keep walking. I love to walk.

Speaker 2
Yeah. And it’s really good for you too.

Speaker 1
Oh, sure.

Speaker 2
Yeah.

Speaker 1
I’d rather. See, I remember a buddy of mine had a membership at a gym. And in the wintertime, I would go with him because he could take a friend.

Speaker 1
He had a kind of member. He bought the platinum package or something like that. And he would always say, well, you’re my motivation because I know that you’ll go.

Speaker 1
And he says, you know, sometimes it’s good to go with a buddy. He says, if you like. It is.

Speaker 1
If you said no, I’d probably come up with an excuse to not go because I know you’re counting on it. You’re looking forward to it. You’re going to meet me there.

Speaker 1
I have to go. Well, that’s great. He says, but because I told him, I go, well, you really, I’d rather walk outdoors, take in nature, just breathe fresh air than being on a treadmill in some stuffy room

Speaker 2
I love walking outside it’s so pretty I always go with friends but it’s really fun because you just lose it’s three and a half miles but you don’t even realize you did it until the next day then you’re feeling it but you don’t realize you did it because you’re just talking and hanging out with friends

Speaker 1
it’ll become a day in fact you deal with this with your residents when you’re not as able to endure the physicality of a hike or even a long walk. I mean, you always see people of all ages, elderly. But you’d be amazed, though.

Speaker 2
We have a new resident, 103 1⁄2. He will actually, next month in May, he’ll be 104. And this guy, he’s got a walker, but he’s upright and chatting.

Speaker 2
He just did a presentation at a local library. Really? Yeah, this guy, he’s got all his own teeth, which are just so cool.

Speaker 2
I know, I’m so weird. He’s talking to me. I’m on the tour.

Speaker 2
This is how ridiculous I am. And I’m staring at him. I’m like, are those your own teeth?

Speaker 2
And he’s just like, yes. But they’re just so cute. They’re just his teeth.

Speaker 2
You know, the things we take for granted. You don’t see that a lot. Yeah.

Speaker 2
And they’re nice teeth, too. They’re not just his teeth, but they’re all just like our regular rows. But they’re so little.

Speaker 2
They’re just almost like his baby teeth.

Speaker 1
well but you know what they say as you age you shrink i mean i don’t know if you do your bone

Speaker 2
your teeth shrink too i don’t know i don’t know but he’s very any any uh it’s neat he told me good

Speaker 1
clean living that’s what’s kept so what see interesting that you say that i don’t know what that means because i once asked a woman who was over a hundred and she was talking she was a wine drinker uh she’d have a shot every now and then and i was like looking at her like are you kidding me. So I actually finally precipitated me to approach her. And I finally because I didn’t know her all that well.

Speaker 1
And I said, so, you know, I congratulate you on reaching such a milestone. And she goes, oh, I’m in my hundreds. And I said, well, what’s your secret then to longevity in life?

Speaker 1
And of course, she told me a couple of things that I was kind of expecting. Just don’t let things get to you and exercise and eat healthy and sure, the same stuff. But then Whenever I heard, I have a glass of wine every day.

Speaker 1
Yes. And, you know, I’ll have a shot every now and then and a beer every now and then. I’m like, okay.

Speaker 1
You know.

Speaker 2
But it’s moderation.

Speaker 1
Well, everything is in moderation.

Speaker 2
But that’s the thing, though, with, you know, people in general. We don’t know how to, like, boundaries and have moderation. So even, like, that shot of red wine every day, that’s really good for you.

Speaker 2
That’s part of the Blue Zones, the nine places throughout the world where people are healthy. That’s one of the things they do. They have a shot glass of red wine.

Speaker 2
Many of the people do to stay healthy. Every day. Every day.

Speaker 2
But that’s healthy. But then when people hear, oh, glass of red wine every day and these big goblets, it’s like, no, it’s just a shot.

Speaker 1
I don’t know if it was a shot. I think it was a wine, but it was one glass. It was a glass.

Speaker 2
It was a box.

Speaker 1
Yeah, right. A box of wine. I have a box of wine over here.

Speaker 1
I don’t even know what kind of wine. We never got to that point, but she said a glass of wine. Did she say with dinner?

Speaker 1
She may have.

Speaker 2
That’s nice, too. And if she’s out and about and she’s talking to you, they say intergenerational communication is important as well because it keeps you young. It keeps you not in your zone of just talking to people the same age all the time.

Speaker 1
I so believe that.

Speaker 2
Yeah.

Speaker 1
There’s a psychological aspect to all this where if you get somebody that’s just lonely, that could lead to depression, and you have very minimal interaction, as opposed to a person who, I’m not saying every day you’ve got to be out and about, but three, four days a week, and you’re out and you’re socializing and you’re active. Right, exactly. Purpose. Good word. I think they do live longer.

Speaker 2
They do, yeah. And this gentleman, I mean, someone wrote a book about him. He was, like I said, he was just at one of the local libraries doing a presentation.

Speaker 2
You know, he’s just, whenever you sit with him, I mean, he’s fascinating. You know, I was, I didn’t want him to leave. Like the lady who brought him, she was like, we have to go.

Speaker 2
And I was just, I was fascinated. He was just talking about his life and the war and, you know, and he was just pleasant. He’s just super pleasant.

Speaker 2
I mean, before he came to the community, we kind of, he came to one of our events. And, you know, we always want to introduce people to residents. And so we brought one woman over and we said, oh, we want you to meet this gentleman.

Speaker 2
And she pulled over. And literally, it was like he was at a wedding. There was a line of people coming over to meet him and holding his hand and talking to him.

Speaker 2
And, you know, he’s super popular.

Speaker 1
Do you ever ask these people, it doesn’t have to be in their hundreds, even in their late 80s and on, you know, or mid 80s onward or forward. Just talk to them and have them compare life and what it was like all those years ago when they were growing up, you know, compared to what it is now. Because, you know, you talk to kids and I don’t want to belittle this, but, you know, talk to talk to kids and they’ll tell you, oh, we got it tough. We got it tough. And I’m like, you got it tough.

Speaker 2
You know, my daughter will tell you that you talk.

Speaker 1
Then you talk to this guy, you know, who was a child during the Depression. Yeah. And they didn’t know whether, you know, somebody had to beg for a loaf of bread. And that’s tough. Yeah.

Speaker 2
Well, look at Johnny Cash’s life. You know, the movie with. I remember. I haven’t seen that.

Speaker 1
Yeah, it was a good movie.

Speaker 2
Walk the line. That was a great movie. But remember what happened to his brother with the saw?

Speaker 2
And, you know, he was sawing that wood and it cut him like right, almost like right down his stomach. And then his dad, you know, didn’t, you know, was yelling at him. And I mean, it’s horrible the way.

Speaker 2
I mean, he was, you know, they had the radio. So obviously they had electricity. But what did they get?

Speaker 2
One pair of shoes. And the Loretta Lynn story. I’m just saying like people.

Speaker 2
Oh, right. Call Miner’s daughter. You look at her.

Speaker 2
Look at her. I mean, that was kind of that back in the day to, you know, to me. That’s the way they lived.

Speaker 1
Amazing. And the sad thing is that the, going back to the kids, the kids, they think they got it so rough. Oh, yeah. And it’s like, well.

Speaker 2
My daughter is like, super smart. Well, because they got nothing compared to. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1
You know.

Speaker 2
We were just talking about my grandson, who’s amazing. He’s almost like one and a half now. And so he’s coming into his little personality and he’s hysterical.

Speaker 2
But it’s like, I mean, he’s got everything. He’s got a coat for every occasion. He’s got the cutest clothes.

Speaker 2
I mean, he’s got all these sneakers. And I want him to be spoiled. Just let me just say that.

Speaker 2
But it’s so interesting, the difference. You know, my childhood, I had, you know, for school clothes, we got two things. You know, you get and, you know, that one outfit that you would wear.

Speaker 2
You get a new pair of shoes and one outfit. And maybe an outfit because if you had good pants, maybe you got a shirt or maybe you got a dress. And I was, you know, I was extremely excited about that one thing.

Speaker 2
Whereas, you know, my daughter’s school clothes, that’s it’s an occasion. You know what I mean? You know, so.

Speaker 2
Right. It’s.

Speaker 1
You know, we’re talking about staying healthy mentally, physically to maintain both. Yeah. You know, stimulation and having purpose, you know, and just. Remaining active, you know. it kind of leads into the theme of today’s show about staying which is one of my favorite actually

Speaker 2
it’s staying healthy yes yeah earlier this year like we were talking about before we kind of did that healthy resolution right and so now we’re done with quarter one right so where are we at right oh true yes quarter two now we’ve got new tips and new new things that you can do to stay healthy i think it’s so important i think what happens is we get to a certain point with our health and, you know, where we just stop caring. We just stop, you know, people let themselves go, so to speak, quote unquote, and we stop paying attention to our weight. We start paying, you know, stop going to the doctor, you know, and sometimes people are early in their 60s, sometimes in their 70s. There’s this what’s the point kind of mentality. But, you know, you could be here till you’re 100. Now you can be here miserable till you’re 100 because you didn’t take care of your health. Or like this guy, you can be kind of just still living life at 104 And, you know, I mean, if you look online, I mean, there are people that are still skiing, still have second careers and all sorts of stuff.

Speaker 2
And they’re in their hundreds or their 80s or 90s. So, you know, I think we forget that life is a journey and it’s it’s the whole thing from beginning to end. It’s not we don’t decide when we’re done, you know, and if we’re still here topside, there’s you know, we need to take care of ourselves so that we can have a healthy, happy.

Speaker 1
It was George H.W. Bush was jumping out of a plane at 90 years old.

Speaker 2
Yeah, that’s what I’m saying.

Speaker 1
90th birthday, jumping out of a plane.

Speaker 2
And people think that’s unusual. That’s an exception. But it’s not if you take care of yourself.

Speaker 2
If you, you know, diabetes is, that’s one of the, you know, undetected, you know, biggest, to me, what I see people get, the whole silent killer thing. Because you have that, you’re not doing, following the rules of that, you know. And it’s hard.

Speaker 2
My dad had it. And I can’t imagine not being able to eat sugars and carbohydrates and all this stuff and having to watch every little thing you eat. But if you don’t, when you get older, I mean, I saw my dad just suffer, you know, between his kidneys and his heart.

Speaker 2
And it wasn’t the diabetes. It was everything that fell apart because of the diabetes, you know.

Speaker 1
Are there – give us some tips. I mean, what can we do to stay healthy?

Speaker 2
Yeah, I think one of the most important things that you can do is your wellness visits. Hopefully we all have health insurance, right? So those recommended treatments, the wellness, the yearly physical, it’s no copay.

Speaker 2
All you got to do is just go do it. And a lot of people don’t do that. We had a woman that’s new that’s going to be coming to the community, hasn’t been to the doctor in two years.

Speaker 2
I’m like, what’s going on? And granted, she’s in her 80s. I get it. What’s the point?

Speaker 2
Why am I going? Because you could be here until you’re 100. And like I said, it could be miserable or it could be good.

Speaker 2
And so those wellness visits are so, so important. Maybe they don’t want to know. But if you know, maybe you can fix it.

Speaker 2
Oh, yeah. Detection, right?

Speaker 1
Do you ever hear about those stories? It’s all psychosomatic. It’s like, you know, the person was doing great up until they found out that this and they started taking treatment for that.

Speaker 1
And then there was residual effects to that. And they just kept on going, skating along, not knowing what they don’t know. You know, they, you know.

Speaker 2
But at the same time, people like, you know, especially with COVID, that’s where people got, especially older adults, got out of the groove of going to the doctor. Because obviously there’s that fear, you know, that I’m going to get COVID. Or, you know, people don’t want to go.

Speaker 2
People really have that fear that they go to the doctor’s office or, you know, they don’t want to leave the house. So I think a lot of older adults, unfortunately, stopped going to the doctor. And that’s why this woman probably hasn’t been in two years because we have the telehealth and all that stuff.

Speaker 2
But it’s important to go see your doctor. I mean, I’ve had, you know, I have the hospice background. I mean, we had people that undetected had cancer, undetected.

Speaker 2
And I told you that sad story about that gentleman with his wife. I mean, she fell on the ice. They thought it was just from the bruising or whatever, the fall, and come to find out she had cancer.

Speaker 2
And literally she died in two weeks. And he was blindsided because, but she hadn’t gone to the doctor. And so there was no early detection, no, who knows, who knows?

Speaker 2
We don’t know what would have happened. But that’s so sad. It’s one thing to know someone’s dying.

Speaker 2
That’s still very challenging. But to have the love of your life. I mean the guy was on the phone.

Speaker 2
He was bawling. It was horrible. It was heartbreaking.

Speaker 2
And there’s nothing you can do. Just be there for the person.

Speaker 1
It’s tough. What about exercise?

Speaker 2
Exercise. We always talk about that. Exercise is important. 30 minutes a day. I know for myself.

Speaker 1
It’s pretty easy.

Speaker 2
It is. It is and it isn’t.

Speaker 1
I mean, you know, what does it entail?

Speaker 2
Well, it depends. It could just be going for a walk. Oh, you know, it could be, you know, for myself, I have I try to do kind of, you know, regular, you know, push ups and sit ups and those types of like one, you know, two or three times a week.

Speaker 2
And then I try to do cardio a couple of times a week. You know, I was trying to get to the gym. It just, you know, between my daughter and life, it just wasn’t happening.

Speaker 2
So now I work out at home, you know, and I’m able to, you know, you want to get yourself prepared, put the mat down, get in your workout clothes, whatever you need to do. Because Ann, Mel Robbins always says it’s that five seconds. I don’t know if you’ve heard of her.

Speaker 2
She’s a motivational, kind of like an Anthony Robbins. Actually, ironically, her name is Mel Robbins. And she talks about that five-second rule.

Speaker 2
So it’s not the five-second rule where you drop stuff on the floor.

Speaker 1
That’s what I thought, yeah.

Speaker 2
It’s the five-second rule where in five seconds, if you don’t do what you are supposed to be doing or what you want to do in that five seconds, you’re not going to do it. So if you’re sitting there and you’re like – the other day I was sitting and I wanted to do my cardio Saturday. And I was on the phone with a friend of mine.

Speaker 2
And I was just like, I don’t feel like doing anything. But I’m like, you know what? I can do this phone call and do my walk at the same time.

Speaker 2
I got myself up. But it’s like if I had waited that five seconds more, it’s like getting up in the morning. If you lay there more than that, if you hit that snooze and you lay there more than that five seconds, her thing is you’ve got to get up.

Speaker 2
She calls it ready, set, go. Ready, set, go. And you get up.

Speaker 1
You know what? There’s validity in that. It works.

Speaker 1
I’m thinking about it right now. I’m like, there have been times I’ve had lazy moments. Yep.

Speaker 1
And then like a flash of inspiration where I’ve got, oh, I got to do this. And then I’m like, okay, that’s gone. Yep.

Speaker 1
Five seconds. Then again, this episode of Seinfeld. I haven’t seen this one in a while.

Speaker 2
But you can take that with you too on your walk. Put your, you know, your Bluetooth in.

Speaker 1
Oh, I wouldn’t even do that. Are you kidding me? I want to take it all in.

Speaker 2
Yeah. Well, you can watch it while you walk. You got to be careful.

Speaker 1
But some people will give you a legitimate excuse, particularly the elder.

Speaker 2
Yes. I’ve got aches and pains.

Speaker 1
And I, you know, the osteoporosis, I’ve got arthritis. I’ve got the…

Speaker 2
And that’s where you go see either, you know, a specialist, you know, kind of a personal trainer who specializes for older adults. And some of the gyms have that. I know the senior centers have those.

Speaker 2
We have one. Mark can always give us a call and I can kind of connect you and he can kind of maybe help you. But also physical therapy.

Speaker 2
Talk to a physical therapist. You can talk to your doctor and say, listen, I want to exercise. Can you give me a prescription for physical therapists for consultation or what have you?

Speaker 2
And a physical therapist can kind of tell you what you can and can’t do based on what’s ailing you. Does diet have anything to do with this? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2
Diets, yeah.

Speaker 1
I mean, other than the obvious, yeah, I don’t eat a lot of sugar, kid.

Speaker 2
You know, I don’t eat a lot of sweets.

Speaker 1
But, I mean. Well, your cholesterol.

Speaker 2
Right. It’s, you know, your sugars. You know, you got to stay away from.

Speaker 2
Sugar’s a huge one, obviously. Fatty foods. And as I sit here, I’m just such, I love French fries.

Speaker 2
But I got to.

Speaker 1
Me with pizza.

Speaker 2
Last week, actually, I was so bad. We ate out like almost every day. And I was like, I can’t this week.

Speaker 2
So this week I went to the five second rule. I was so tired last night, but I went to the grocery store and I’m setting myself up for the, for the rest of the, you know, the week coming up. It’s important.

Speaker 2
Yeah.

Speaker 1
Some people though. Oh, you know, let me do this really quick. Folks, you’re listening to your next chapter, a production of The Heights at Avery Heights, Along with Siobhan Mattingly, I’m Gary Byron. What about, I mean, as you age, even as you hit middle age, my eyes are getting worse. But, and that’s just me in my 50s. When you get into your, what’s so funny?

Speaker 2
Because you said earlier, about your birthday.

Speaker 1
Oh, yeah, about my age.

Speaker 2
About your birthday.

Speaker 1
Yeah.

Speaker 2
You’re your age. So I’m questioning it now.

Speaker 1
I’m sorry. I did. I told you I was 35, didn’t I?

Speaker 1
I didn’t think you believed me, but I… I did. But, you know, your hearing starts to go. You got to get all that checked.

Speaker 2
What did you say? You know, and your vision. Yep.

Speaker 2
Those are key. Your eyes, your vision. You know, you want…

Speaker 2
Again, that’s part of your wellness business. Even your dentist.

Speaker 1
You know, people have a dental fear, even in their 20s. Oh, dental phobia.

Speaker 2
Yeah. But you got to go to the dentist because the last thing you want to do is lose your teeth. or you have your teeth all kind of wonky.

Speaker 2
You know, you want to go to the dentist. Every six months, get your cleanings. I mean, I’ve been lucky.

Speaker 2
For some reason, my teeth, you know, I don’t get cavities. I don’t know what’s going on there. Some people, I guess, have these teeth where they don’t have.

Speaker 2
I don’t know. I know. I know.

Speaker 2
On the flip side, my husband’s teeth are just root canals and scrapings and scalings. And I’m like, so I can’t really say. I think you should go to – I’m going to recommend you go to the dentist, but I’m not going to harp on that too much because I feel bad because for some reason – now, watch.

Speaker 2
I get like 10 cavities, which would be karma, right? Good. I do have to have a wisdom tooth pulled.

Speaker 2
I will say that. Now? Really?

Speaker 2
I have one left. Yes. I know.

Speaker 1
I had them all pulled. I have one left.

Speaker 2
I should have done that. I had one pulled when I was pregnant with my son, and then I had another two pulled, but this one’s kind of left and hanging out.

Speaker 1
I had two that needed to come out in my early 20s or early to mid-20s, and I had to go to an oral surgeon. The oral surgeon goes, listen, I got to take these two out. Absolutely.

Speaker 1
They must be killing you, he says. But you got two others that are not bothering you at all. They’re hidden.

Speaker 1
They’re going to come out in about five or six years. They’re going to start, but I can see them. So here’s your option.

Speaker 1
I’m putting you under anesthesia. I can just get all four and be done with it or I don’t have to and they’re not going to bother you for another five years. You probably need them out in five to six years.

Speaker 1
We can cross that bridge then if you’d rather. And I go, well, if I’m already out and you’re already doing this, take them all out. And he goes.

Speaker 2
Smart. Because this one they think I’ve got an oral surgeon and it might be wrapped around. That’s what I’m saying.

Speaker 2
I didn’t go to the dentist for years. And then I started going. Actually, my daughter and my son was in kindergarten because one of the parents that worked there was a dentist.

Speaker 2
a hygienist. And that’s how I ended up going. She was like, you haven’t been to the dentist?

Speaker 1
And I was like, so I started going to the dentist. And no cavities? No, I’ve got these teeth

Speaker 2
that, I don’t know. What about

Speaker 1
keeping medications in order? I would imagine it’s easy to confuse them.

Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean, what’s good is nowadays certain doctors, PCPs, do kind of have these systems. I don’t know how they do it.

Speaker 2
It’s kind of almost scary. But they have these systems where they seem to know, like my doctor, when I go to my doctor, she’s like, are you still taking this medication? And I’m like, what medication? Because I had gone maybe to the emergency room because I had, you know, pain or sprained something. And I’m like, what medication is that? I don’t even think I ever filled the prescription. But it was good that they do that. She’ll go through, my APRN will go through all my medications where I’ve been that year when I come in for my physical. So some organizations have those, some don’t. So you’ve got your heart doctor over here, your other OBGYN over here. So no one’s kind of talking to each other. So you could be having medications that are interacting all over the place. So it’s really important that you review your medication list.

Speaker 2
And you can probably do that with either like your pharmacist or actually the best thing to do is do with your primary care physician to sit down with them and say, okay, what am I taking for medications? Is something interacting? Because that can cause trouble as well.

Speaker 1
I would imagine a good night’s sleep goes a long way.

Speaker 2
Yes. Yeah. And I’m so bad with that, but it really is important to get your sleep. Yeah, and you can’t catch up on sleep. I know that.

Speaker 1
I do know that.

Speaker 2
You cannot. People say, oh, I’m catching up on my sleep. No such thing.

Speaker 2
You’re doing nothing. You’re lazy and resting and taking a nap, which I do every Sunday. But you’re not catching up on anything.

Speaker 1
So I was talking about sleep one morning and how sleep deprived I am because I do the morning show.

Speaker 2
But you’re probably used to it.

Speaker 1
You never get used to it.

Speaker 2
Okay.

Speaker 1
Believe it. I’ve been doing this for four years. Only four years?

Speaker 1
Four years. I was Brad Davis’s co-host my first seven or eight months. And then when COVID came, his family didn’t want him to leave.

Speaker 1
But then his health started to decline. He went to the VA. And I thought I was just keeping his seat warm.

Speaker 1
But yeah. Yeah. So I’ll start my fifth year in July.

Speaker 1
So I’m winding down my fourth year. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2
So what was I even talking about? The sleep deprivation.

Speaker 1
Oh, thank you.

Speaker 2
And the fact that your memory might be.

Speaker 1
Well, it probably is. So I’m talking about how I used to go to bed so late, and I get up at, my first alarm goes off at 4.15. My second alarm goes off at 4.30.

Speaker 1
That’s when I get out of bed. So I get out of bed at 4.30 on my second alarm. I’m laying in, now I go to bed at 10 o’clock.

Speaker 1
But here’s the problem. I’m staring at the ceiling. It’s now 10.30.

Speaker 1
Now 11. Now 11.30. Now 12.

Speaker 1
You don’t do, what is it, melatonin? Okay. So I’m talking about this on here one time.

Speaker 2
I always said melatonin, the one in your skin. Did I get the right one? Melatonin?

Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. A listener calls me and says he’s a sleep doctor.

Speaker 1
His name is Jim. So I had this conversation with him off the air. I met with him.

Speaker 1
Brilliant guy. He tells me about the melatonin and all this stuff. I try everything.

Speaker 1
Melatonin messes with my stomach. Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 2
yeah okay so i plus you wake up like you go to sleep but then you wake up after three hours depending on when you go to sleep so it it puts you to sleep but sometimes for me it doesn’t keep

Speaker 1
me asleep it’s a terrible sleep and i i didn’t like it oh oh it doesn’t yeah i don’t know what it is so now i go to bed at 10 o’clock during the weeknights and i’m but i’m talking i’m just staring at the ceiling. Then I tried music.

Speaker 2
Yeah. You got to do the hypnotist tapes.

Speaker 1
Oh, I didn’t do that. Yeah, where you fall asleep.

Speaker 2
They actually have those other, what are they called? The self-hypnosis, but there’s also the tapes you listen to and the person talking underneath the music, but you don’t know they’re talking. It’s kind of cool.

Speaker 1
Subliminal, yes. Subliminal.

Speaker 2
That’s what you got to do. Because you’re listening to the music and then underneath the music, there’s talking, but you can’t, you can hear it, but you can’t, like your subconscious can hear. Getting hungry. But you should do that. That’ll put you to sleep.

Speaker 1
All right.

Speaker 2
Well, before we wrap things up, any last-minute tips that you can give us? Bones. Take care of your bones.

Speaker 2
Oh, your bones. Yes, because a lot of older adults, unfortunately, are at risk of, obviously, their bone health is important. Get your bone density test.

Speaker 2
Manage your aches and pains. That’s important. So yoga, meditation, acupuncture, and other stuff to manage your pain.

Speaker 2
Talk to your doctor about that because something’s not right. Pay attention if you’re in pain. We talked about your eyes.

Speaker 2
We talked about your hearing. Oh, your feet. Take care of your feet.

Speaker 2
Your feet. Take care of your feet. You don’t want to have inappropriate footwear.

Speaker 2
Yeah, because that’ll mess you up as well.

Speaker 1
Wow.

Speaker 2
And good, clean living. We talked about that.

Speaker 1
And maybe a glass of wine every night.

Speaker 2
Every one, yeah.

Speaker 1
Feed your soul.

Speaker 2
Feed your soul. Remember mind, body, and spirit.

Speaker 1
And let’s not forget mental health is a huge component to all this. Yes, yes. That’s right. Take care of mind, body, and soul.

Speaker 2
Forgiveness and grace.

Speaker 1
All right.

Speaker 2
Love and peace. Good stuff this morning.

Speaker 1
Words of wisdom I think anybody could live by. Exactly. At any age.

Speaker 1
Folks, you’ve been listening to the latest edition of your next chapter, Senior Living with Siobhan Mattingly, the Heights Senior Living Specialist. By the way, Avery Heights is a beautiful senior living community. It’s nestled within 43 acres of nature, right in the heart of the junction between West Hartford, Newington, and Hartford.

Speaker 1
Those who live there have access to a full continuum of care, including independent and assisted living to memory care and a whole lot more. We’re talking charming cottages with a true neighborhood feel. They’re all available to rent adjacent to the main building where those who need more assistance reside.

Speaker 1
Please visit AveryHeights.org or by calling 860-953-1201. Again, that’s 860-953-1201 to learn more about their own special brand of community, unlike any other in Connecticut. For Siobhan Mattingly, I’m Gary Byron.

Speaker 1
Thank you so much for listening. Until next weekend, have a good one, everybody. So long.