Feet and Teeth

There was a saying while I was growing up, "If you can keep your feet and your teeth you will live a long life". I have found this to be true. First, since when I was young keeping my teeth was the thing. My parents saw that competing grandparents to give me candy from birth until age 4 rotted out my baby teeth so I had all my front teeth pulled when I was 4. So after that Dad took it upon himself since he was very health conscious and studied with Jack LaLane's teacher Paul Bragg to take me to the dentist and always get my teeth filled and taken care of. He also taught me that one should always get a root canal rather than have an adult tooth pulled. I saw what happened to my friends who tried to be cheap and just pull their own adult teeth. The rest of their teeth would drift and there would be nothing but problems ongoing. So I had my first root canal on an eye tooth when I was 25 in Tijuana in 1973. It cost me only $75 to get a root canal then with a good dentist then there. But an eye tooth only has one root so it is less expensive anywhere you go because for example a molar has at least 4 root channels. Your front teeth are the only ones with only one root channel each.

So, my father had taught me well in regard to always fixing my teeth including root canals. This last year I had my first tooth implant when one of my teeth could not be root canal ed and instead had to be pulled. Because it was one of my front teeth I decided to have an implant which can be very expensive. This particular one because of all of the problems involved eventually cost me about $10,000 all told over about 2 years of work. However, you should be able to get an implant for between $2000 and $5000 dollars depending upon where you live in the U.S. and less some other places around the world.
Though it is hard to get used to someone drilling into your upper jaw like I experienced and screwing in a metal (likely titanium) receptacle and then screwing a stainless steel temporary screw into that receptacle until it heals properly and then months later putting your permanent tooth in place by screwing it into the socket, it is still great to have a tooth almost as good as your original one in place eventually which looks the same or better.

Also, since I have always been a jogger most of my life where I would jog about 1 mile or more each day to stay in shape I eventually started to have feet problems starting with bone spurs in my early 40s by age 40 or 41. I went to a podiatrist (foot doctor) and was advised not to jog anymore. I was pretty sad about this. I also found out that I had hundreds of miniature fractures throughout my feet from jumping off of roofs when I was 8 to 15 years of age for fun with my friends. We used to see who could jump further off of roofs and so I guess I had eventually created fractures in my feet doing this. Though they had healed up by my late teens or early twenties I guess, they were becoming a problem more as I aged. Then when I got into my 50s I started to have other kinds of feet problems. After I had had a heart virus my circulation wasn't as good as it had been and I noticed that my blood wanted to pool down in my ankles and feet a lot. So I walked more and wore Crocs which massage your feet so the bottoms of my feet didn't get numb from a lack of circulation. Then I went to a Phlebotomist and he told me that I need to laser the returning vein to my heart up the inside of each of my legs so stuff wouldn't start to ooze out of my ankles within about 5 years. However, because I am 6 foot 5 inches tall my main veins in both the inside of my legs is too big for standard lasers to go up inside of to do the job. So, while I was in Aberdeen, Scotland I found out my wife's friend that was married to an English doctor was a blood and vein specialist and he recommended a VNUS vein technique that he felt would work for me even though laser couldn't. He felt the VNUS technique would work the best for me even though he wasn't sure it was available yet in the U.S. So yesterday when I looked it up on the Internet I found it was spelled VNUS rather than VENUS like I had thought so if you need the same kind of procedure you might want to research VNUS technique alongside of Laser technique to see which might be best for you. They insert a heating element up into your vein from around your ankle and this heat causes the vein to close so you don't have fluids eventually oozing from your ankles within a few years time. And your other veins take over the job of getting your blood back to your heart from your feet.

Starting in my 40s when my podiatrist told me I shouldn't jog anymore I increased my walking and fast walking and bicycling. So, for example if I want to simulate the cardio of a mile long jog I ride my bicycle uphill so my heart beats really strong. If I do this once a week or more my heart health increases and I feel better. But, of course one has to keep all aspects of one's health in one's awareness as one ages. For example, I find if I really work out hard one day at age 63, I often need to rest the next day, so that the effects of weight lifting or a really long walk over hill and dale or a really arduous bike ride or cross country skiing so my body can build up from that exercise rather than just be torn down from it. So, as one ages there has to be a strategy to build oneself up. Before I was diagnosed hypothyroid at age 58 I used to get Bronchitus 1 to 3 times a year. Since I was diagnosed with hypothyroid and got Armour thyroid I never or almost never get bronchitus ever since. But when I used to get bronchitus 1 to 3 times a year and had to worry about dying from bronchitus turning into pneumonia I used to start working out on my exercycle in the middle of my illness. I did this because if I didn't do this it often took me 1 to 3 months to get my stamina back after the illness and I found this onerous. So I learned to keep working out at least 1/2 hour a day even when I was sick. So instead of taking me 1 to 3 months to get my stamina back after a bout with bronchitus it only took me about 1 week. So, there are tricks to get strong and to stay strong at every age. You just have to design your exercise and diet to keep you going no matter what. Maybe you will live to 100 or more? Maybe we both will.