Glaube, Hoffnung und Liebe: Die geheimen Zutaten für ein langes Leben | Dr. Antje Göttert | QS24

Are you already registered? Welcome, dear viewers, here in our format Nature Medicine. Today I have a doctor here who has collected all her knowledge from many decades ago in a book. That is, the 100-year-old logbook. And so many important findings have come together in it that really touched my heart. My heart also because I have already done around 4,000 interviews and have seen that health has many, many perspectives, a lot has to be considered, a lot has to be seen, there are many causal connections. And the lady managed to put it wonderfully together in a book as a library, as a lexicon, just to see where the causes are for certain symptoms that I experience in my body. That fascinated me so much that I invited her, author and specialist in the field of skin medicine. And who that is, I'll tell you right after the intro. Stay tuned. Yes, here we are again and now I can also show you my guest, Dr. Antje Göttert. Welcome, dear Antje. Thank you very much. Yes, we have already done a show about the book and said that we would just introduce individual areas and today we go on and say we go in the letter G. Do I believe? Yes, G. And under G stands faith, hope, love. And that a doctor, a specialist, a school medical doctor suddenly comes up with such a topic as faith, hope, love. Phenomenal. Really, that's so nice. And also shows that you learn as a doctor for a lifetime to really become as competent and as good as you are. So thank you that we can talk about this topic. What comes to your mind spontaneously what you wrote in this book? Yes, just now when you introduced me, the first thing that came to my mind yes, I am a specialist and I have completed the normal course. Specialist training at the hospital, specialist training, but what has basically accompanied me since childhood is a belief. A belief in, I now call it God, in the past it was also God for me, or in something divine, so to speak. And yes, when I look back at it now, it was something so valuable for me to have this connection, this basis. That was the first thing that came to me. The chapter is called Belief, Hope, Love. And there I tried to put it into words what that meant for me in the course of my life, in principle, my training. Insofar as I believe that it plays a role in my patients, a role in how we feel, how healthy we are and how we also act together. And yes, insofar it was very important to me to include this topic in such a medical counselor. For example, you wrote, I quote, a positive feeling for age, what you have, leads to the fact that you live on average up to seven years longer. And that's extreme. Well, I know people who really deal with their age in a very appreciative way. But that this is crucial for my life expectancy of seven years, that's a lot. That's extremely beautiful. These are valid investigations. Nobody came up with that. And that should lead us to look at how do we talk about age? What do we connect with age? And that's often negatively associated. And you can also set a counter-pole and focus on what is good about age? And what else is beautiful? And what is all possible in age? For example, the plasticity of the brain, so that new connections are formed, so to speak, is possible up to a high age of life. That means I can still learn something new and my brain will change accordingly. Fascinating, isn't it? Yes, exactly. But often people say the opposite. I'm already old, I don't have to remember that anymore. And that's all you don't need. You just have to work to get rid of it. Then it's very contrary. But the attitude alone is very important. It plays an important role. I am always praised for my gray hair. And I have to say, I always say, I deserve every single gray hair. And I like gray. I have a positive association with my gray hair. But of course you can also see it differently as an aging process, right? Yes. There is a certain awareness of youth, I would say, that we think we still have to do everything to look as young as possible. Especially us women are not free of that. And then you start with some injections and whatever is done. But that's a spotlight, not the real beauty. I always see that. When people shine and radiate from the inside, that's a lot more. It's a bit of a deviation. I'm also a dermatologist. And of course women come to me with this topic. And I'm not the one who says, no, don't do anything. Not that. But it has to be reasonable. And that the person, when it's done, really feels comfortable with it. And not that it's like a substitute for something that's not okay. Often enough it is so that we prevent a good attitude towards us and our parents that we always sneer at some beauty. Yes, that's the way it is. But now I can ask you a question. It's always said that the skin is the mirror of the soul. Is that really true? Yes. That's definitely true. We can see a lot of things on the skin, both physically and mentally. And I mean, you can already notice that as a layman. When you meet someone who's not doing well, you can tell very quickly. You can see it in their eyes. Exactly, for example. You can see it in their eyes. You can also see it in their skin. The attitude is not necessarily the skin, but everything in everything affects someone who is satisfied with their life, happy with their life, very differently than someone who is not satisfied. I started with these seven years. And now there is a wonderful study that you also mentioned in the book, namely this monastery study based on a retro example where people were I don't know, 10, 20 years built everything retro and showed old films. Exactly. Yes, those were older gentlemen, I would say 70 to 80. And you have set up this house as if it had been 20, 30 years before. That means you have put up pictures that showed when they were 20, 30 years younger. You played music from the radio that was current at that time. And also from television probably came series that were played at that time. And the men got an instruction imagine you are now 50 or 60. How was that back then? And in fact they showed a transformation in a relatively short time that they were much fitter that they were able to organize the household again. They had to do that themselves and they were able to do that. They cooked themselves, they covered the table themselves and ate together. And all these things, they became much more independent again at the moment when the environment played it out for them. That's fascinating how our psyche reacts. And I wrote down that they could suddenly see and hear better and the intelligence increased again. Wow! These are studies that are impressive but are not often mentioned. Actually, we should listen to them every day in the news. Not only negative, but also such positive examples. I think that would be wonderful. And we just want to mention that today Dear viewers, how beautiful and positive it is to have a good feeling for age. But that also shows the next point, humor. And I would like to ask you to write a nice article about humor and how important it is. Yes. At the moment when I no longer take life so seriously, when I no longer feel trapped in the role of a victim, when I say, okay, I can change something here, and bring life back to ease a little bit, focus on what works well, what makes me happy, and also cultivate humor by laughing at myself. Something changes. Not only in my state, but also measurable, medically understandable. And that is simply fantastic. There is also, at least in my hometown it was cultivated, the clown doctors. They have adapted and implemented exactly that, by going to cancer-sick children with a red clown's nose and a little bit disguised. And of course they were also trained before to bring lightness and humor into this so-called heavy world. And that has had fantastic results as a result. I know people who say they never go to bed without reading a joke. That's great. I mean, when I watch TV and a crime with death, I take that with me to bed. But when I laugh at a joke and go to bed, I have a different quality of sleep. Definitely. Whether it's a joke that I take to bed or if I just reflect what was actually nice today, what I experienced, what was good, what made me happy, what was fun, what I could laugh about. That has a completely different quality of sleep and it's just helpful instead of thinking about what went wrong. You wrote a sentence in this context. I wrote it down and that's why I'm reading it. I think it's so good. Humor as the salt of life. And those who are well salted stay fresh for a long time. That's great. That's such a nice sentence. And that's how you got to life. That's how we used to preserve everything, right? Humor as the salt of life is a Persian saying, which brings it to the point. And I really like such sentences. Because it stays in your memory. You can make a picture of yourself and if you have a picture, you preserve it even better. In this respect, I found the sentence very, very beautiful. I took another picture from this letter. I already included it in my collection. I can't let it go anymore, because the picture is so good. It's really about the suffering of people. We have so much suffering over and over again. And you brought the picture with the shell. And the shell is suffering too. This stupid salt comes and scratches, bites, it hurts endlessly. And she wants to let it out. She lures it in so that it doesn't hurt so much. And at some point a pearl is created. And I find this example so beautiful. The more life experience and suffering we experience, the different we deal with it over time. The grandmothers see everything very, very differently than the mother in stress with her own child. And the grandmother says, yes, I know that. There is a shell, there is a grandmother. And I also think that we should focus much more on the fact that suffering is not always so bad, but a guide. Yes, this sand grain that then becomes a pearl, is of course also a beautiful picture. The sand grain that hurts me, that hurts me, but that it doesn't have to stay that way. That I can see how I can change it, how I can change it. Maybe I need help. Maybe I have to talk to someone who can help me with this change. But if I stick to it and say, I don't want to stay in this state, I don't want to be a victim, but I want to get out. And then something wonderful can happen. It's nothing new that you have a certain chance to be in a crisis, that I come to another level, develop further and doors open that didn't open before I got into this crisis. So I think to have this attitude of life, no matter what happens to me in life, I try to make the best of it. I look at what my resources are and if I can't do it alone, I orient myself, who is around me, who can help me. And maybe I can get help so that I can get out of it, develop myself and can live a joyful life again. Because life is not just joy, it is ups and downs. We come into crisis automatically. And that's the art of life. Yes, yes. My youngest daughter two or three years ago came up to me and said, Dad, life is not just joy. I thought, how sweet. Nevertheless, it's always about how we focus on it. And the example with this shell and a pearl is a picture. We can hold on to that. And you also told another picture, a story about bad luck. Who knows, maybe you want to explain this story. I did a psychotherapeutic training after Viktor Frankel. I think it was a teacher in this training who told this story. I just thought it was so beautiful that she always accompanied me. I don't know if I can put it together but it's always about a circumstance. Let's say a farmer. I think it's a horse that is being stolen. And then everyone says, terrible, what a misfortune and so on. And then the horse comes back with a whole herd of horses. And then the son rides and he has an accident, a riding accident and breaks his leg. And then everyone says, oh my God, what a misfortune, that's terrible. And then the farmer says again, who knows, it can be bad luck, but it can also be luck. And then the army comes and says, every suitable man has to go to war, is now being withdrawn. But the one with the broken leg was not withdrawn. And so on. And then everyone says, oh my God, what a misfortune, but the farmer always said, who knows, it can be bad luck, but it can also be luck. And to have this attitude that we just take it as it comes, at least try, so it doesn't always work for me, but try to take it as it comes and then do our best. But it also shows this story that we can never grasp the moment in which everything is actually thought. I also always have the feeling that my life, what I had or still have, that's bad, I'm not that old. No. Everything I have experienced has made me what I am now and do. And if I hadn't experienced the whole story, I would never have been able to run a TV show and moderate and set up a repertoire. It wouldn't have been possible. But what I had to experience, it's incredible. Whether there was a big plan behind it and there you go to a crossroads and there you fall on your nose and there you hit your nose in the blood. And then again, to finally gather these experiences everywhere. Retro perspective is seen as so exciting. And today I have such a deep confidence to say, if something breaks down, the universe is already looking for the next one to come and be built. You just need confidence in life. Yes, that's exactly this art of living. I am currently in training with Christina Kessler and that's exactly the kind that Christina Kessler propagates, in principle, to live. That we don't think with our minds that we could foresee and plan everything and this is the only way. But that we leave it open. That we think wildly, that's a term of hers, and see what comes. And then again don't struggle with anything, but say, yes, this is the way it is and possibly something will develop from it. And keep your eyes, your ears, your heart open for what I want to develop. What we may not be able to grasp with our mind at all. So this trust or this being in connection with me, with my inner self and also with what surrounds me on a higher level, that creates a certain freedom. It opens up a lot. And going in there and giving up, that does a lot. That's why I liked your book so much. We have a lot of medical wisdom but also life wisdom. And ultimately this can always be together with our health. And I could philosophize for hours about such quotes. Because it just goes to the heart. And there is so much open and the world is so big. And as I said, it turned out so well. And I read a lot of books, but I get so much. You don't believe how many books I always get. But this one, after ten pages, I knew I had to read it. And until the end it really is a great follow-up work. And that's why it's also very important for you, dear viewers, you know we hardly do book ads with us, but if it's really worth it to have such a library and such a classic book at home to follow up if you have a problem and from this lexicon you can see that the connections are very complex and you can act on different levels to achieve an improvement here. Then it's just worth it. I just wanted to say that without advertising, of course. Yes, dear Antje, I thank you very much for the presentation and that we could talk a little about this letter. And the alphabet has 26 letters. We still have 26 episodes ahead of us and until the end we will certainly have every viewer with us who says, now I also need the book. Yes, great. Thank you very much for coming by and I wish you all the best. Thank you very much. Yes, and dear viewers, a skin doctor, an expert in the field of skin problems and we talk about completely different topics is somehow very exciting. And that's what touches my heart again and again when a doctor just goes on her way, on a journey for 30, 40 years and just learns and learns and learns and brings this knowledge together to simply provide the patient as best as possible or to help or to serve. And I just believe that with such a treasure you really do a great service to yourself when you just read it through and take in the complexity of life a little bit, that it has many contexts that are ultimately beneficial to our health, but also those that are not beneficial to us. In this sense, all the best and see you next time.