Optimal Health Uncovered

Heart disease has become the leading cause of mortality for both men and women in the U.S. Listen to physical therapist Shane Foley and nutritionist Francine Blinten discuss proven strategies to maximize your "health span."

From establishing cardiovascular and lean muscle mass baselines to understanding the role your diet plays in maintaining heart health, there are a variety of aspects that can help you prevent — and even manage — heart disease.

Dr. Alon Gitig joins host Michael Beecher to discuss preventing and managing cardiovascular disease through the lens of body composition and insulin resistance. They dive into the relationship between muscle mass, body composition, and cardiovascular health, as well as insulin resistance, the silent epidemic behind cardiovascular disease and dementia.

Dr. Alon Gitig, MD, is a cardiologist based in Yonkers, New York who has been practicing for over two decades. He is affiliated with Mount Sinai Hospital.

With many healthcare practitioners leaving the system and costs increasingly rising, many people are questioning whether our healthcare system is working. These issues affect not just the uninsured who can't afford the care they need, but the average person who can't see a doctor without waiting months, and even the healthcare practitioners themselves, many of whom are experiencing extraordinarily high caseloads.

But at the same time, the rate of innovation in the healthcare system has never been higher, with new life-saving treatments and medications being developed at a rate never seen before.

Dr. Caleb Moore, MD, joins Todd Wilkowski, PT, to discuss the pros and cons of the healthcare system we have today — and some possible solutions to solve some of the issues the system experiences.

Dr. Caleb Moore is a highly experienced concierge internal medicine physician who practices at Greenwich Medical Partners. He specializes in acute care management, chronic care management, preventive medicine, and travel medicine.

While sports psychology and mental performance consulting has been on the rise in the athletic world in recent years, it is important to remember that athletes are not the only people who benefit. From physicians to CEOs, young professionals to entrepreneurs, mental strength can make or break a career.

In this episode, Mike is joined by Arianna Martignetti, Ed.D., and Adam Wright, Ph.D., to discuss the importance of mental performance consulting for athletes and non-athletes alike.  Adam and Arianna explore how they help their clients strengthen mental skills, learn how to use stress management tools, and work with trainers, nutritionists and more to improve their mental and physical performance, both on the field and in the workplace.

While golf is an outdoor season, successful, injury-free golfers should not limit their play to the warmer months. From continuing to practice on a golf simulator to maintaining a proper diet and training regimen, there is a lot that can be done to stay in form.

Without those things, there 's a good chance that the next time you step on the green, you don't play as well or even come away with an injury.

This time, Mike is joined by Adam Rainaud, the head golf professional at the Country Club of New Canaan and multiple-time PGA tour champion, to discuss how to successfully transition from the off-season and onto the green.

Like clockwork, many set New Year's resolutions each January, only to find that achieving it was much harder than they initially thought. The culprit? Not necessarily the goal, but the timeline. Success is not black and white, and looking at it that way can be demoralizing when you're behind on your goals.

In this episode, Mike is joined by Mike Ranfone to discuss why goals fail — and how to make actually achieve them, giving success a whole new definition. Mike Ranfone is a trainer and owner of Ranfone Training Systems based in Hamden, CT.

Check out Mike's gym here, and you can follow him on Instagram at @ranfonetraining.

Paddle Tennis Pro Patricio Misitrano joins Michael Beecher, DPT, to discuss injury prevention during the winter months. With colder temperatures comes a higher risk of injury — unless the right precautions are taken, such as doing a warm-up before your workout.

Patricio and Mike explore the different types of tennis and the most common injuries among them, and get prevention tips from a technical and biomechanical point of view.

Learn more about Patricio's Paddle Camp, where he helps maximize racquet skills, here: https://thepaddlecamp.com/

Sleep can be elusive. We lie down, close our eyes and hope for the best. Yet that may not happen. Much of the quality of your sleep at night is affected by your behavior during the day — for better or worse.

The good news is there's a new coach in town: Nick Lambe, the sleep coach. He joins Mike to discuss why a good night's sleep is so elusive, and how to finally achieve it. From carving out constructive worry sessions to using a sleep journal, here's what you need to know.

To learn more about Nick, you can find his website here.

It's been almost two years since COVID-19 started spreading across the globe, and there is still much we do not know about the disease. As more time passes, however, we are learning more about the effects of Long COVID, a syndrome that affects a portion of people who contract COVID-19.

Kevin Cota, DPT, and Kiera Klaum, DPT, join the podcast to discuss Kiera's time at a skilled nursing facility treating patients, many of whom felt the effects of COVID-19 long after they contracted it.

When Lauren C. started to suffer from a frozen shoulder, it changed everything. She no longer could reach a higher shelf to grab cereal for her son's breakfast, much less continue painting, which is her livelihood. Her shoulder impacted every part of her life — from her sleep to her stress, to her hobbies and to her family. 

Since the start of the pandemic, Lauren has been working with Jon Mendola in Darien to regain not just mobility in her shoulder, but to regain as much of her previous life and hobbies as she can.