Top Reason Why People Get Sick in Retirement?
Episode 235
In this episode of Integrative You Radio, Dr. Nicole Rivera discusses the unexpected challenges many face after retirement, including declining health and unfulfilled dreams. She explores how long-term stress, adrenaline-driven lifestyles, and postponing personal fulfillment lead to burnout and health issues later in life. Dr. Nicole emphasizes the importance of not waiting for retirement to start living fully. She encourages listeners to focus on what truly matters—family, relationships, and personal happiness—while balancing work and life now. Dr. Nicole highlights that life is happening in the present, and urges listeners to align their actions with their values before it's too late. Tune in to learn more! What you’ll learn: Don't Wait for Retirement: Delaying personal fulfillment and self-care until retirement can lead to declining health and missed opportunities. Balance Work and Life Now: Prioritize meaningful relationships and personal happiness alongside career goals to avoid burnout and regrets. Align Actions with Values: Ensure your daily life reflects your core values to create long-term satisfaction and well-being. Quotes: "Time waits for no one. Start living now." - Dr. Nicole "The grass is not greener on the other side of retirement. I will guarantee that."- Dr. Nicole Curious about Integrative You? Dive into Integrative You Radio with Dr. Nicole Rivera, where she explores the intersections of holistic health, personal growth, and living in alignment with your core values. Each episode provides insights and practical advice to help you achieve a more fulfilling and energized life. Links: Website: Integrative You Instagram: Dr. Nicole Rivera Interested in Concierge Integrative Medicine? Learn More here: Integrative You . Got a question, want to schedule a call, or just want to say hi? Text us at (732) 810-1084.
Topics: retirement, integrative, health, life, nicole, stress, values, personal
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## Top Reason Why People Get Sick in Retirement?
- Don't postpone your happiness and well-being until retirement; start prioritizing them now.
- A life focused solely on career without present fulfillment can lead to burnout and health issues.
- Aligning your daily actions with your core values is crucial for long-term satisfaction and health.
- Focusing on relationships and personal joy alongside professional pursuits is vital to avoid future regrets.
Pull quotes
This is the place where you become limitless. **Unknown:** We are covering the latest and greatest topics, of course, in a disruptive fashion around integrative medicine, mental health, and human behavior.
We will be sprinkling in some truth bombs for our healthpreneurs, so they can join us in our mission to evolve healthcare.
If you are health curious and growth focused, you are in the right place. **Unknown:** But buckle up, because this is real, this is raw, and this is disruptive.
Transcript
**Unknown:** Welcome to Integrative U Radio, hosted by Dr. Nick Carruthers and yours truly, Dr. Nicole Rivera. This is the place where you become limitless.
**Unknown:** We are covering the latest and greatest topics, of course, in a disruptive fashion around integrative medicine, mental health, and human behavior. We are also covering how those topics affect the human and family dynamics. We will be sprinkling in some truth bombs for our healthpreneurs, so they can join us in our mission to evolve healthcare. If you are health curious and growth focused, you are in the right place.
**Unknown:** But buckle up, because this is real, this is raw, and this is disruptive. This is Integrative U Radio. Welcome back to another episode of Integrative U Radio. Dr.
**Unknown:** Nicole here. So we're talking about a topic that has been heavy, heavy, heavy on my mind, and this has partly been from conversations having with people, observations, and then more recently, one of the books that I've been reading just reiterated this very specific concept. And so I've been having conversations with Dr. Nick, my husband, about this idea of retirement.
**Unknown:** And that in my observation over the past decade, there have been so many individuals that waited for retirement and then in their retirement found themselves regularly at doctor's appointments. And of course, I looked at this from a couple of different lenses as to why. Is one, is it that they've had this very specific routine and schedule of showing up to their nine-to-five job or showing up as an entrepreneur, probably working 10 hours a day or more, and they've had their days consumed by routine and schedules, and now they don't, and it's almost more comfortable to have something to do, even if that is going to doctor's appointments. Second idea is all of the years of working, working, working, quote unquote, "doing what you have to do" and doing very little of what you want to do, not taking the vacations, not doing the family dinners, not going out with friends, missing so many holidays or events or opportunities for fun, that now after running on stress hormones and, and putting so many things to the side, that now your stress hormones start to come down and all your symptoms start to come out.
**Unknown:** Because think about it. If you are normally someone who has headaches or migraines or gut issues, if you're in the woods about to run from a tiger or some type of predator, then all that stuff goes away because the adrenaline is pumping to get you out of a situation. The same thing if somebody can have a gunshot wound or, or a major injury, but they could still run because of the adrenaline that's pumping through their system. So the same thing applies is if you're running on adrenaline and stress hormones for most of your life, and now you slow down and those stress hormones start to go down, all those underlying biochemical imbalances, inflammation issues, they all start to surface.
**Unknown:** And now you're like, "Why do I feel like crap?" Or, "Why did I get this serious diagnosis? Why? Why? Why?" And now again, you're in declined health.
**Unknown:** You end up in doctor's appointments, and you start to reflect on your life. "I should have. I should have. I should have.
**Unknown:** I should have done that. Should have spent more time. I should have done all those things." And now your health declines and declines and declines, and your mental health declines and declines and declines, and you realize the grass isn't greener on the side of retirement. And there are so many people that are going through this, and they are passing away in their sixties, in their early seventies.
**Unknown:** So what, what's the culprit? I-is the culprit long-term stress hormones and burnout, underlying conditions that they never knew that they were there because their body was covering it up due to all of the adrenaline and cortisol that was pumping through? There's a lot of possibilities, but then there's also the possibility of slowing down and reflecting on all the things you didn't do, and now the people aren't around to do it with. Your kids are older.
**Unknown:** Your kids have their own families. They're out of the house. Some of your friends are no longer with you. Some of your friends you never stayed in contact with 'cause you were too busy doing things and, or you got a divorce because you weren't around, you weren't present in your relationship, maybe because you were building wealth, building a business, doing something else.
**Unknown:** So w-we have to really sit back and think about our lives now. We need to take inventory on what's working and what's not working, because the grass is not fucking greener on the other side of retirement. I will guarantee that.If you are a person that is just in this mindset of, "I need to, I need to, I have to, I have to, I have to," and that's the majority of your life, you're not even gonna know what to do with yourself when you finally, quote unquote, "retire." You're not gonna go on vacation. You're not gonna go to the golf course.
**Unknown:** You're not gonna go all of a sudden have this beautiful relationship with your family, and your kids, and your wife, and your husband, and your friends. The ship has sailed, so the time is now. The time is now because great, you made the great living. What the fuck are you spending your money on?
**Unknown:** Are you spending your money on friends because you don't have any? Are you spending your, your money on a spouse because you don't have a quality relationship? Are you spending your money on going on vacations, but your kids aren't even happy to be with you because you weren't around through most of their lives? Like, what are you spending your money on?
**Unknown:** You have a bunch of cars and you have a bunch of houses? Cool. That's fine if you have all the other pieces that fulfill your life and your values. But if you lived your life sacrifice for success, success in one area, and you sacrifice everything else, that will follow you.
**Unknown:** It's not that all of a sudden all the buckets get filled. Now you have great relationships because you're retired and you have a great family 'cause you retired, and now you travel, and now you do this, and now you do that. It's not how it works. It's living your life the way you choose to now.
**Unknown:** And stop listening to all the bullshit injections of what you're supposed to be, and how much money you're supposed to have, and you're supposed to work, and you're supposed to do this, and you're supposed to do that. 'Cause at the end of the day, you're in the driver's seat of your life and you can do whatever the fuck you want. But of course, it's all about figuring it out and the balance. So if you say, "I'm gonna quit my job and I'm never gonna work again," oh, great.
**Unknown:** Do you have the assets and the, and, and the reserves in order to do that? Or do you have a plan B? Are you taking a break to figure out your life's inspired work that's gonna allow you to make more, more money than you ever have? It's all about looking at the big picture and having the vision.
**Unknown:** But a couple of things that I want to really drive home here is the crucial years of your children's development and the connection with your children is birth to seven years old. So if you're the parent that's in the mindset of, "Well, I'm gonna work really, really, really, really hard and I'm not gonna be around a lot because I'm building a great life for them to have money later," not how it works. You either build the connection or you don't. So not being around in those years is going to create a permanent divide with you and your children.
**Unknown:** It's also gonna more than likely create a divide between you and your spouse because you're n- you're never gonna get each other. If one person, all they do is work, work, work, work, work, and then the other person is the homemaker and constantly with the kids, and that connection, th- and nobody is taking the time to spend time together or communicate properly, massive divide, which leads to separation later. So these are things you're never getting back. It's...
**Unknown:** You don't just decide one day, "Oh, now I will be a bigger part of my kid's life." Going to an adult... Going to a football game together as adults versus being part of your kid's football game when he's young, she's young, it's a completely different connection. It's a con- completely different dynamic. It's a completely different rapport that you're building.
**Unknown:** You're never getting that back. Understand that. And is it worth it for you to lose that time and lose that connection? Time waits for no one, and we have this, this push and pull with time.
**Unknown:** There's never enough time. We're always running out of time. Maybe it's about getting super hyper-focused on the things that actually matter because half of the shit that we do in our lives doesn't matter. I take people through a values determination for their families, and we start to get really clear on what are the top values for their family.
**Unknown:** And we realize a lot of times that it's about connection, being present with each other, travel. And then we take inventory on what they do on a week-to-week, month-to-month basis, and there are countless amounts of hours in a week going to sports games and this and that. And they're like, "Yeah, well, you know, my kid, you know, they, they always say that they're really tired and it's a lot, but they really like seeing their friends," and this and that. I'm like, "You understand that if you wanna hone in on your values, then it might be decreasing a significant amount of hours that are spent on these things that are actually not aligned with your values.
**Unknown:** And if you have that time back, then maybe you can have more of that present connection," which could be sitting around the dinner table and opening a conversational dialogue. This could be going out to a lake and having fun with each other and doing things that are allowing for family quality time. So this is a matter of having hyper clear understanding of why did you create a family in the first place. Why did you create a family?
**Unknown:** What was the vision, and how close or far are you from that vision in this current moment? And the same thing really goes for your career. You know, how close or how far are you from the vision of what you thought your career would look like?Owning a business, working in a business, your financial freedom. 'Cause if you're working your fucking ass off and you still have no level of financial freedom, it's time to take that as feedback of, "I gotta do something different." You know, a, a perfect example is I worked so, so, so hard in my business, and I felt like I made money to put money back out, 'cause there was so much money that was required to run the business, to keep it afloat.
**Unknown:** And I had this moment, and it was such a, like... Gosh, I don't even know how to say it. Like, it was such a moment that kind of felt shitty but kind of felt good, was, "Gosh, if I worked a fraction of these hours and I just learned how to h- take the money that I have and, and invest it to make more money, then, like, I probably would be better off in a couple of years." And so it was so shitty because I dedicated my life to this mission and helping people and, and doing great things and creating jobs and creating an amazing work environment, company culture. And, like, there was such a big, deep mission.
**Unknown:** But sadly, that mission was helping so many others, but it wasn't helping me and my family. So I knew that I had to figure out this balance. I had to figure out how to take this feedback, tweak how I ran my business, and tweak how I showed up in that mission, but then also to find the counterbalance of how can I create more generational wealth for my family. So this wasn't about abandoning something altogether.
**Unknown:** It was about making changes and creating or, or making decisions that were more in alignment with what I was trying to achieve. Because unfortunately, what I thought, that if I just worked and I created this great bus- great business and I grew this business, I was gonna create all the financial freedom that I wanted. It just wasn't working in that way for me. I'm sure there are other people it's worked out that way.
**Unknown:** But for me and my values and wanting freedom and wanting the time to have quality time with my family, be part of my child's upbringing, be part of their development and education, I knew that things had to change, and that's scary. And shifting your identity, especially when your identity is wrapped up in something for a decade or longer, it's really hard. And there are moments that you doubt yourself, and there are moments that you feel like a failure, and there are moments that you go, "Am I fucking crazy?" But you have to be able to come back and say, "Am I taking steps to a life where things are more balanced? Am I taking steps towards a life that I can be present in my relationships, I can be present in my family, I can have a career that I actually enjoy that's not energy and soul-sucking , and am I also making strides to create the financial stability or independence that I want for my life?" You know, some people wanna make a billion dollars, and there's other people that could care less.
**Unknown:** Like, some people wanna have a bunch of things, high-priced cars and houses and all of that, and some people just wanna have houses that are assets so that they can have more financial freedom and they can have more time freedom with their families. Like, nobody's right or wrong, so get out of that mindset and stop fucking looking at what other people are doing, 'cause it doesn't matter. It's not what you want and what you should be doing. You need to take the time to get clear on what aligns for you and what's gonna make you happy, and it's what's gonna allow you to wake up refreshed and energized every fucking day.
**Unknown:** So I'm very passionate about this because, one, I've been on this journey. Two, I also see this over and over and over again with so many people that I work with, people that are doing things out of desperation, not inspiration. Everything that they do on a day-to-day basis is because they have to do it, because they need to do it, because it's a scarcity mindset. They're not doing it because it inspires them.
**Unknown:** They're not doing it because it's working towards the bigger life goals. It's not working towards balance. If anything, it's keeping them on a hamster wheel, keeping them really, really fucking stuck. I find it interesting because back in the day when I did business coaching, no matter who they were, I would take them through this process to create this amazing proprietary process around their business and cultivate A players on their team and this and that.
**Unknown:** Nowadays, it could take a month, it could take up to three months, and we're working on aligning their professional vision with their personal vision. And half of the people that I'm working with, I'm challenging them because they're fucking miserable, and they're burnt out, and they hate what they do. And I'm like, "I'm not creating a business plan, and I'm not creating a proprietary process around the business that you hate." Because guess what? It's gonna be a complete waste of everyone's time.
**Unknown:** So why don't we get really clear on who you are at your core, what is gonna fulfill you and energize you, inspire you every day, and let's then create a plan around that. And some people will fight me on it, and they will fight me for three months until they're like, "Okay, I surrender. I surrender." And it's usually because they're starting to lose their health because their business is killing them. I've been there.
**Unknown:** I get it. So time waits for no one. And if you are a person that you have not done so much of what you thought you've done at this point in your life, and things are constantly getting postponed, they're getting backburnered, and you feel like there is an imbalance, that most of your life is filled with have tos and need tos, and most of your life is not filled with I want tos and I get tos, it, it's a, it's a feedback mechanism. It's a calling to say, "It's time for a change."It's time for you to start doing things that are going to move your life in the direction that you want to go.
**Unknown:** And yes, that can be scary, and yes, it can be hard. It can be all of those fucking things, but it's not impossible. It takes clarity, and it takes a plan, and it takes tools that are unconventional. You know how many coaches I've had in my life, how many courses I've taken, certifications that I have?
**Unknown:** And the thing that I missed is that it's about pausing, thinking, and aligning myself. I spend majority of my time thinking about ideas, thinking about possibilities, thinking about decisions, circling it back to my values and my family's values, circling it back to my bigger vision, which took me a while to create, and then going into meditation to assure that it aligns here. It aligns in my heart, it aligns in my gut, it aligns in my brain. Because if it doesn't, it gets put to the side.
**Unknown:** So you have to understand that you can't keep operating out of your analytical mind, pros and cons, oh well, you know, because that's not the only compass for making decisions. You can use your analytical mind, but your analytical mind is rooted in fear because your fear is there to protect you. So then you have to be able to tap into your intuition, to your gut, to your heart, to your soul in order to assure that you're making the right decisions in your life. So there's a methodical way to go about this.
**Unknown:** But if you're a person that's been putting life on hold because you are waiting to make the million dollars, multi-million dollars, you're waiting for the right person, whatever you're waiting for, time waits for no one. Start living now. As scary as that can be, start living now. Time is not waiting for you to retire.
**Unknown:** It's not waiting for you to be thinner. It's not waiting for anything. And if you are in a place where your health is not good, yes, there's probably biochemical reasons for that and inflammatory reasons for that. But if you don't change what's up here in your mind, you are not gonna heal.
**Unknown:** Or you'll do something, you'll get better, and then you'll go backwards. That has been my life's goal is to figure out how to create more resilience in the human body. And that resilience comes from the mind. There are tools to help the body in this process.
**Unknown:** But if you do not shift how you think about things, how you perceive the world, how you perceive yourself, you will constantly fall back into your default settings. The default settings of sickness, the default settings of depression, the default settings of anxiety, the default settings of being broke, the default settings of whatever. So it's time for the change. It's time to get out of your comfort zone and to start aligning to what is gonna best serve you because time waits for no one.
**Unknown:** We thank you so much for being an avid listener of Integrative U Radio, formerly known as Integrative Wellness Radio. We appreciate all of your support. We love your comments. Please visit us on social media as well as our website to see all of the fun things happening behind the scenes and the new amazing content and courses that is being rolled out on a monthly basis.
**Unknown:** We hope to see you there.
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About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
Further reading
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