* I am not a doctor but I have been protocolized into the CVS Hall of Fame. I was on 15 orange bottles for ten years. It didn’t have to be that way. These are my opinions only.

You want more headroom? You want to live out these years productively? Take more responsibility for your health and fitness. Read the manual. Get a personal trainer for 30 days. Have them do a squat assessment on you to see if you have any alignment issues. Your body is one big kinetic chain. Weakness in the hip can cause problems all over your body. Feet, knees, low back and shoulders.

Stay away from chiropractors. When I was having serious head pain (from statins) I went to one who almost took my head off. On one visit I told him that neck snap thing he was performing was killing me for two days after my visit. He listened intently, nodded in agreement, told me to lay down and then he snapped my fucking neck again. ??!!

Walk everywhere, use a fitness tracker. Take one week out of your life and track your calories. Use My Fitness Pal . Find your basal metabolic rate with this free calculator. Your BMR is what it takes to keep your lights on. Your weight times 10 is a good rule of thumb. Then figure out your activity level using the free calculator. Then you will have a good idea what your maintenance calories are.

Don’t live your life from his or her prescription pad. Don’t take their exercise or nutrition advice as gospel. Doctors get about four hours of nutritional training out of eight years of education. Medicine is a business. Don’t forget that. My doc was the pamphlet queen of Massachusetts. She was also obese.

If they get you on a prescription, they own you. You will be managed by the numbers. They follow protocols. They need you in their practice. They will tell you that age is the culprit and you need to be managed into acceptance. Uh, I don’t think so.

I am 74 years old and just jumped off my blood pressure medication. If you are over 65 and are getting pilloried with prescriptions, you need to think seriously about holding up your end of the bargain.

The less you see of your local pharmacist the better off you will be. Take it from me.

Just sayin’.