China’s Senior Care And Senior Living With Bromme Hampton Cole 柯 博 明

Bromme Hampton Cole 柯 博 明 was Vice President of Deutsche Bank, then later President of Hampton Hoerter Healthcare, a technology company focused on providing digital solutions for senior health care management.

He was also the President of Care Expo – 董事长, China’s largest multinational aged-care B2B conference and trade show. Most recently he was Director of Special Programs for Chun Xuan Mao (Senior Living L’Amore), one of the largest senior health care companies in China. He migrated Quality Assessment to an online platform which allows for greater Quality Assessment efficiency tracking.

He’s very committed to finding better solutions and discovering overlooked opportunities in supply chains. He wants to implement disruptive technologies to leverage advantages in eliminating systems.

Please join me and Bromme, and hear him share his experiences in Southeast Asian senior living.

Hanh Brown: [00:00:00] Well, hello. Brahmi how are you?

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:02:09] I’m well, how are you?

Hanh Brown: [00:02:10] I’m doing well. Thank you. So, um, tell me what intrigued you about Asia and what are you doing in the senior living?

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:02:17] Well, it’s a bit of a long story, but when I was a youngster back in the early seventies, My family moved to Taiwan, where we spent a number of years living there.

[00:02:29] And my father ran a bank in Taiwan and it was such a foreign, unusual place for me to live prior to moving to Taiwan. We lived in Madison, New Jersey. And before that we’d spent some time in South America, but moving to Asia as really a ten-year-old was just such a unique experience. And it had a real formative impact on my life.

[00:02:53] And as I got older, I went to college. I always had fond memories of having lived there. And once my career had started after graduate school, I began working in healthcare and specifically I had a number of opportunities to work in senior care from a finance and consulting point of view. Right. About 2008, 2009.

[00:03:14] I’d heard that there was unfolding a demographic opportunity in China. And at the time I had just sold a business, decided that I would go and investigate. And when I got to China, I found that indeed there was an enormous story there. And not a lot of native expertise in sort of the modern ways of senior care, which was something that the Chinese really, really wanted to know about.

[00:03:41] I guess it was my experience when I was younger, having lived in Taiwan that made the transition to China, very easy for me. I had some basis for the language. I knew the culture fairly well, and so I really enjoyed it. And as it turned out, I spent just not 10 years there.

Hanh Brown: [00:03:58] Culture is typically parents live with their children and the children take care of the parents.

[00:04:03] The parents gave life to children in, they gave them food and clothes and education for all the things that the children receive from the parents, the children have the eternal obligation towards them. They have a debt towards their parents. And the only thing that the children can do in order to repay is to take care of their parents in their old age.

[00:04:22] Well, so how is that culture compared to the Western culture? What is your take on how the Chinese came around to accepting senior living?

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:04:30] You’re absolutely right about that. What you’re describing here is generally referred to as the system of filial piety and children take care of their aging parents and their grandparents for as long as they live.

[00:04:42] And that system has worked great for China for thousands of years in the modern era. However, Filial piety has been redefined. And the new definition is that I, as a young Chinese man have a job where I’m making more money than, or young Chinese woman were making more money than my family seen in centuries.

[00:05:05] And so I still want to take care of you. My parents, I still want to honor you, my parents. And so I’m going to provide for you a care level that I am incapable of doing. And so that is sort of the basis for which a modern version of senior care has developed in China.

Hanh Brown: [00:05:25] is having seniors move in with their adult children.

[00:05:28] Is that over? Do you think the world is becoming more and more Western certain respect?

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:05:33] It has, but you’d be surprised at, in a lot of, you know, take a step backwards. There are approximately 44,000 senior care or nursing homes in China. Most of which were built in the late eighties and early nineties under various government programs.

[00:05:50] One was called Starlight. Program and the other worlds called something like the beautiful engineering program. And it wasn’t really until 2009, when all the demographers in China convinced the Pollock Bureau that the need for a focus on aging be included in Russia, which was the 12th 50 year plan.

[00:06:08] China plans its economy every five years. And for the first time ever, the issue of aging had been mentioned in the fifth year plan. And that brought it to everybody’s attention. And all of a sudden, every real estate developer in China began building a senior care facilities. The issue was they could build great senior care facilities, great apartments.

[00:06:27] It was the operational expertise and a care expertise was what escaped them. And you had a great deal of myself and a lot of my colleagues. Flocked to China and we were helping them build these. And one of the interesting things that we found was that while a lot of our expertise in senior care was readily accepted, the older, you know, the residents of these communities really wanted to have a Chinese bent on there.

[00:06:57] Care program, which really meant in many ways, a traditional Chinese medicine approach.

Hanh Brown: [00:07:04] lots of fees and religions strongly influenced their way of living and thinking their health care is a blend of traditional values while respecting an individual’s choice. Caregivers combine information about the culture and clinical assessment to provide culturally sensitive care.

[00:07:21] Well, here’s a quote from nature. It is from a classic Chinese medical text written to express the importance of preventative medicine. The sages of integrity did not treat those who were already sick, but those who were not sick. When the disease has already broken out and is then only be treated, would that not be just as late as to wait for thirst before digging a well, or to wait to go into battle before casting weapons?

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:07:48] Well, traditional Chinese medicine, as I’m sure a lot of your viewers are acquainted with is more preventative than it is anything else. And it’s really a holistic approach to. Curing one’s maladies. And that means the use of herbs and certain types of foods in great quantities to address ailments.

Hanh Brown: [00:08:11] the Chinese philosophies and religion include confusion, principles, terrorism theory of yin and yang and Buddhism.

[00:08:18] The beliefs and values include the way of education, practice of acupuncture, herbal treatment and diet therapy. So with regards of caregiving, the Chinese incorporate traditional Chinese medicine with Western science.Is that what you see?

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:08:33]It growing really fast. Let me put it that way. I mean, they’ve come so far in the last 10 years.

[00:08:38] It’s mind boggling. I would generally say they’re probably at the bottom of the second inning in their development in comparison to where we are. I think they’re probably someplace, you know, in the early eighties, late seventies, early eighties, there is a fascination with the CCRC concept there as we had.

[00:08:56] Back in the late eighties, but I don’t expect their learning curve to last much longer. You know, by, in the next five years, they will have learned everything. And there’ll be very little distinction other than the fact that those facilities are Chinese and ours.

Hanh Brown: [00:09:12] Let’s say there are two families, each dealing with the diagnosis of dementia with a family member.

[00:09:18] In one case, the patient whose family tries to keep the diagnosis a secret, and the family rely primarily on professional caregivers and eventually a nursing home. In another case, the patient is a grandmother. As soon as the diagnosis is suspected, her family pulls together, bringing her into their home and surrounding her with affection.

[00:09:41] These two approaches of dementia reflect very different attitudes towards the disease. In one scenario, it is perceived to be an irreversible neurologic condition, a problem that the family leave to the health professionals and keep it out of the public. In another scenario, the family sees it as an opportunity to draw together around the loved ones.

[00:10:02] So it’s not a secret, but it is an opportunity to care. The attitude towards dementia and how the family responds to it. In my humble opinion, makes a difference on the wellbeing of the loved one. The shift in attitudes of dementia in China has changed tremendously. A decade ago. Many families were ashamed to admit that their elders had such a disease.

[00:10:23] And because of lack of awareness about the disease, many dementia patients were confined to a psychiatric wards of hospitals, which plays steel bars over the windows. So, what do you see the difference of the attitude of dementia between the Western and the Chinese culture?

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:10:39] To a certain extent there’s similar means, you know, dementia presents itself in the same way, whether you’re Chinese or whether you’re Caucasian.

[00:10:48] Here in the United States and just generally in the West and just as full disclosure, I’m not a doctor and I’m certainly not a memory care specialist, but I have been around it for long enough to know what I see to my sensitivity today. We’re sort of in the third era of dementia, understanding. The first year was sort of characterized by extremely barbaric chair.

[00:11:12] It was restraining these individuals. Oftentimes they were thought of as being, having been invaded by evil spirits. And that lasted for quite a long time until doctors realized having performed medical tests on those who were deceased, that really the cause of many types of dementia was the twisting of neurons and their binding by.

[00:11:34] The clumpy protein. And that gave way to what is generally known as the amyloid hypothesis and around that Rose all of these psychostimulant drugs. And for a long time, that was the way that we would deal with dementia patients. When we would give them all these drugs and pharmaceutical companies spent.

[00:11:58] Billions and billions of dollars developing these today. I see us more in sort of the third year of our advancement here, which is really a relief. And some of the academic research has shown that these psychostimulants are just an enormous problem that they often create. More problems than they solve.

[00:12:19] And there’ve been a number of researchers out there who said we should step back and look at this disease much more holistically. And the papers that have been produced here suggest that there are lots of ways that dementia can be addressed. Still there is no cure, of course. And there won’t be a cure for quite some time in that respect.

[00:12:40] It’s a lot like cancer, you know, there are so many different types of dementia, but there are things that can be done that have been proven to alleviate some of the conditions. And sometimes you can delay the later stages of dementia. For example, I was reading a paper the other day that suggested that in the gut.

[00:12:59] Microbiome. There are things that go on that can lead to early onset of dementia or even aggravate if you already have it. And it went on to suggest that certain things, certain foodstuffs diets high in carbohydrate diets high in processed foods are possibly the worst things that you could possibly be eating, not just for an older person, but as somebody in their thirties and forties.

Hanh Brown: [00:13:27] Yes, we do have control over the six pillars for a brain healthy lifestyle. And that includes regular exercise, social engagement, healthy diet, mental stimulation, quality sleep, and stress management,.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:13:42] Precisely, and there also been studies about oral hygiene. Those who pay a lot of attention to oral hygiene and the reduction of plaque in the mouth that also has a profound link to the onset of dementia.

[00:13:56] And so all of this good hygiene and good diet plays a very important role into how things eventually unfold. I have a friend of mine who has experimented with the keto diet on a number of his patients. And the results of course are a significant drop in weight and a recognization that is astounding.

[00:14:17] And the keto diet just sort of goes to underscore how a diet rich in vegetable fat. It seems to be much better for you than a diet. Rich in carbohydrates.

Hanh Brown: [00:14:28] Diet is high in fats, very low in carbs with moderate protein, the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease start to lose the ability to use carbohydrates, but may still be able to use cutone.

[00:14:41] If you adhere to a Mediterranean base heart and brain healthy diet, some people believe it may lower. The risks of Alzheimer’s. What’s good for the heart is good for the brain. So now that you are working on your own creation of a diet drink, that’s a keto friendly. So tell us about that.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:14:59] Oh, you mean the diet drink that I’ve been working on?

[00:15:02] You know, there are a number of diet drinks out there that are keto friendly, but there’s really not a drink that contains a significant amount of fat and fat being the energy source for keto diets, my friend and I developed a drink that gets its fat from coconut. We’ve extracted all the sugar and we’ve come up with two different flavors right now.

[00:15:22] One of them is a coconut vanilla flavor and the other one is a chocolate flavor. We’ve test marketed them in Australia and there we’re developing a strawberry drink as well as a coffee flavor. And we hope to be able to bring it to the United States sometime later this year.

Hanh Brown: [00:15:38] There has been significant changes in senior living over the years with more focus on healthcare services, promoting fitness and wellness by providing individualized care in a comfortable home-like environment.

[00:15:51] There are services to help residents enjoy their retirement with other people all the same age and promote the idea of aging in place. So, what is your take on the changes of senior living over the years?

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:16:03] Well, you know, obviously the industry has matured a great deal. One of the things that I see that’s really refreshing, you know, back in the late eighties, early nineties, there was this whole culture change movement, which led us away from the medical model of care, to more of a holistic, more of a focus on wellness.

[00:16:22] And today there’s been a movement towards this so-called aging in place, which, uh, I think is just very refreshing. Why not stay at home and adapt familiar surroundings to your present condition? That is to my mind, I think one of the best ways to live out your maturity. The other thing that I’ve been seeing a lot of in the last five to 10 years are, you know, diaspora of elderly to foreign lands.

[00:16:51] Costa Rica is a well-known destination for the elderly to move. And in Asia, I see a lot of Australians choosing to live out, to do senior living in Thailand and Vietnam. And that’s for a number of different reasons. One, the weather is beautiful in these places. Costa Rica, Thailand, Vietnam, and to the standard of living is enormously low.

[00:17:14] I know people who live in Vietnam for $1,200 a month. And healthcare in Thailand, healthcare in these other places is very good, especially in Thailand. It’s extremely good.

Hanh Brown: [00:17:27] Healthcare systems are influenced by the national objectives. It’s also influenced by the structure of the government and its economic conditions.

[00:17:35] Countries like Thailand is becoming not only the cation destination, but also retirement destination.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:17:41] Absolutely timeline has developed a medical tourism industry. That is second to none, I guess, maybe a trail Singapore, but it’s extremely. Extremely affordable and very high quality.

Hanh Brown: [00:17:54] some of the best places to retire in Asia or Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand in Taiwan.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:18:03] Yeah. In fact, I’ve got friends in Australia who recently retired and they spend nine months out of the year and a little beach resort area called , which is not far from the old Saigon or as we call today, they bought a condo there and there just really have an idyllic life.

Hanh Brown: [00:18:20] There are many things Vietnam is famous for, besides being a Southeast Asian country.

[00:18:26] People come to Vietnam due to the ancient history, diverse culture and its beautiful natural landscapes.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:18:33] It’s a fascinating place and it never fails to stimulate an amaz. It’s just a deep, rich culture and I’ve never had a bad experience really anywhere in Asia, especially in all my travels and 10 years in China.

Hanh Brown: [00:18:46] So what languages do you speak or how many languages do you speak?

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:18:50] None really. I’m still working on English, right? No, I mean, I spent a number of years in South America when I was a youngster and I picked up a lot of Spanish there and in high school, for some reason I was fascinated by French. I think it was just the fat of the time.

[00:19:08] And so I studied French for throughout high school and I went to college there for about a year in France. And of course, you know, I lived in Taiwan for a while. I picked up, I developed my ear for Mandarin when I was in Taiwan and I really picked up a great deal of what they call , which is the official language of China while I was living there.

[00:19:29] I can’t write Chinese. That requires a focus on a dedication that I just didn’t have, but I can get myself through most trouble with the language, with my level of mandarins.

Hanh Brown: [00:19:39] My English is not that good either. I believe by now, it is what it is and not likely to get better. I do speak Vietnamese and regret that I should’ve done a better job in teaching my children how to speak Vietnamese better.

[00:19:52] Well, Vietnamese is a singular official and national language of the country. There are 110 officially recognized dialects and languages spoken in Vietnam.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:20:03] Well, you know, Vietnamese is an interesting language. It’s a derivative of a number of Asian languages. There’s a fair amount of Chinese and Vietnamese.

[00:20:12] I find most curious that today they no longer use a traditional Vietnamese writing. In fact, Vietnamese haven’t used their traditional writing and almost. 150, 175 years.

Hanh Brown: [00:20:23] Alexander. I wrote a French Jesuit missionary who came to Vietnam in 16, 27. Within six months of his arrival, the Rhodes was preaching in Vietnamese fluently in Vietnamese.

[00:20:36] Each syllable has one of six tones, which completely alters the meaning of the word. And one, two or three of 11 distinct vowel sound.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:20:46] I think it was a French missionary who developed a writing they have today.

Hanh Brown: [00:20:51] So, what impact are you making in senior living or for the baby boomers?

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:20:55] So having just returned from the time that I spent in Asia, I promised my family that I was going to spend some time with them and I don’t think I’m really going to jump back in to.

[00:21:07] Any long-term scale projects for another few months, I’m quite satisfied right now with working on small little projects, like the keto drink that I’m working on right now. And I’d like to continue working in the dementia field, try and provide solutions to make people’s lives easier and to raise awareness on how healthy lifestyles can help offset or delay the onset of dementia.

Hanh Brown: [00:21:33] According to a research published by the world health organization. The number of people with Alzheimer’s disease around the world is expected to reach 75.6 million by 2030. The number of people with dementia in China is also projected to be 14.1 million by this year in 23.3 million by 2030, costing the country up to 114.2 billion.

[00:21:59] This is according to the world health organization.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:22:02] Having been born in the early sixties, um, sort of the tail end of the boomers. And I may be living a fantasy here, but I mean, at my age I feel enormously healthy. I don’t have anywhere near the aches and pains that my children complain about on a daily basis.

[00:22:19] I work out at least once every two days, I walk through 15 to 20,000 steps a day. Uh, you know, I think that aging, for me, meaningful aging, where you become in firm and fragile, serious decline. I don’t see where that begins for most of us who stay healthy. We’re so much more aware of that today than the previous generation was.

[00:22:42] And so I don’t see meaningful or infirmity for another 30, 40 years.

Hanh Brown: [00:22:50] We live in a country that has resources for us to have a brain healthy lifestyle. Somethings that we do have control over. For example, our cardio exercise and strength, training, weight, and resistant training, human beings are highly social creatures.

[00:23:06] We don’t thrive in isolation and neither do our brains. So we need to develop and maintain a strong network of friends. Eat a healthy diet, get a good amount of sleep. Manage your stress, the discipline, and the commitment to do all of these things are hard, but the resources are readily available.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:23:23] Well, I’m a much more aware of it.

[00:23:25] And as I get older, of course, you know, I have parents who also age and I’m just more in tuned as some of the issues that people around me are experiencing and based on my experience and what I’ve done for a big part of my career, I’m able to make suggestions and offer advice to people where. Someone who’s not in the industry would have an enormous learning curve in front of them.

[00:23:52] And I find that because I’m in the industry, a lot of my colleagues, all of my friends will often ask me, what should they do in this situation? Or where should they look for community for their parents? You know, inevitably people were in this industry are the source of a lot of inquiries and a lot of information for their family and friends.

[00:24:11] I had no idea that I’d end up in this type of, a lot of people ask me, so why are you in healthcare? Why are you involved in the aging industry? And my flip answer to that is I’m just lucky, but it came about quite by accident. And after I’d gotten out of graduate school, I found myself in a bullpen, in an investment bank being called upon to.

[00:24:33] Work on various different projects. And it just so happened that I was asked to work on this one portfolio of loans, which were secured by healthcare properties. We won that bid and that was it.

Hanh Brown: [00:24:45] You have a long history with China, a relationship and roots with the people. You even have a Chinese name.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:24:52] Yeah. You know, it’s funny how that worked out. Sure. Enough. And the whole China thing, people often ask me, not just why you went, but how was it that you were able to stay there for so long? And my simple answer is if you know the story about the one eyed man in the land of the blind, you have your answer.

Hanh Brown: [00:25:11] Here are some interesting facts about Asia Asia’s population of over 4 billion people is greater than detto all the other continents combined, both the highest point on land, which is Mount Everest and the lowest point on land, the dead sea are found in Asia. It is a continent of buried landscape. In 2005, a Chinese billionaire built the world’s largest shopping mall in Dongguan China.

[00:25:37] It is so big. It bows of an indoor rollercoaster. What’s even more interesting is that since it open 99% of the mall has remained unoccupied. China is so wide that it naturally and should cut across up to five separate time zones, but it only has one national time zone, which is China standard time.

[00:25:59] Japan is a wonderful place to live shows as long as you don’t get fat because it’s against the law. Well, the top 10 tallest buildings in the world nine are found in Asia. Only two countries in the world, India and China have a population about 1 billion people in both of them are in Asia. The 10 largest shopping malls in the world are also located in Asia.

[00:26:21] Being over a hundred years of age is amazing, but in Japan, there are over 50,000 people who have surpassed this 100 year. Mark. Everyone in Vietnam has the same birthday. Would you celebrate it? And the Vietnamese new year also known as that.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:26:37] There’s tons of opportunity, even in your Homeland, Vietnam, it tends to be today.

[00:26:42] Demographic is very, very young country. I think only 5% of the population is over 65 years old, but I’ve been to Vietnam. A number of times for the aging industry. There are a number of companies who are very farsighted and are trying to think about not just trying to think about they’re actually working on developing senior communities.

Hanh Brown: [00:27:04] Do you speak the native language or do they speak English to you?

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:27:08] Sure. English is the most widely spoken language in the world. And I’ve traveled throughout most countries in Asia with the exception of I’ve not yet been to Bhutan, which is someplace I don’t really have to go there, but there’s not much senior living in futon these days.

[00:27:23] To be specific about your answer. Usually when I traveled who country is because I’ve been invited by a colleague or a business, that’s interested in the work that I’ve done there. And so they’re prepared for my arrival and there’s usually a translator, but I’ve always been humbled by the degree to which people speak my language.

[00:27:44] I always try and show my gratitude when I’m traveling in these places, by learning a few words of their language, that goes a long way.

Hanh Brown: [00:27:51] The Chinese investors were totally dependent on the Western partners management and operational know-how. The Chinese owners prefer short-term operational support from the Western partners for about two to three years before they establish themselves for independent operations.

[00:28:07] The senior care sector does not have global brands like the hospitality sector, which has well-established global brands that are household name. This means there are not as many best practices for domestic senior care sector to adapt from the internationally recognized best practices. Most foreign investors that are entered China a few years ago are facing similar challenges that the us is facing, which are locating hiring training and retaining talent.

[00:28:35] So what are the Chinese import from the us? And what do we import from China with regard to senior living?

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:28:42] If you’re referring to specifically construction techniques, I don’t think that there’s anything that we can import from them in that respect. In fact, today they’re importing all of our architectural concepts entirely.

[00:28:56] What does come the other way? Meaning the things that we import from China, you know, the furniture that are that’s used in a lot of senior communities throughout this country is of course, as you can imagine, all made in China. Most of the medical devices or a lot of, I would say have their origin in China, if not elsewhere in Asia, perhaps even India.

[00:29:17] And even much to my dismay, a lot of our pharmaceuticals are manufactured in China. So a lot of the tangential products that are used in the aging industry have been manufactured in China for the last 20 years.

Hanh Brown: [00:29:31] Any more thoughts on the Chinese culture, healthy living attitude towards dementia.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:29:36] Other than our discussion about dementia and where we are today.

[00:29:40] And the fact that pharmaceuticals, you know, the psychostimulants really have proven to be maybe saying that they’re an enormous failure is a bit harsh, but I think that they serve very few well in this industry. And the new holistic approaches, the approaches that involve diet, hygiene, and activity, meaning don’t sit in front of the TV for 10 hours a day.

[00:30:08] Those types of things will serve you much better. You’re going to end up getting dementia. Some people have a congenital issue and it’s going to happen anyway. But I think that you can delay the onset certainly by improving your lifestyle dramatically.

Hanh Brown: [00:30:22] Yes, it is important to have a brain healthy lifestyle such as cardio exercise, training, weight, and resistant training.

[00:30:30] Stimulate the brain by maintaining a strong network of friends. Eat a healthy diet. Get a good amount of sleep and manage your stress.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:30:37] That’s true. And even being in healthcare myself, you know, every now and then I’ll get into a rut and I’ll acquire bad habits. I’m just coming off of what will end up being 14 day lemonade diet, where I will shed an enormous amount of weight to get back to sort of my high school weight.

[00:30:58] I do this periodically because you know, in our day and age and the traveling that I do, some things are hard to avoid, but one of the things I’ve started doing in the last year, and I posted this on LinkedIn just the other day, is this idea of periodic fasting and the information that’s on LinkedIn under my bio that you can find is a study done by this group of researchers, which say fasting for a period of 18 hours.

[00:31:23] Every few days has enormous benefits for your health, as well as it potentially has, at least in the animals that they used in the research, it extended their lives dramatically. So needless to say, fasting is one of my new things and the way I feel at the end of the fast is extraordinary. I have amazing energy.

Hanh Brown: [00:31:46] Really.

[00:31:47] So after you fast, and what’s the first thing you do.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:31:50] Well, after a fast in order to get back into eating, then I get, I’ll probably only eat for a day or two. Normally I’ll just have broths, simple foods of vegetable soup, something like that. And it won’t be until the end of. That eating regime, which lasts for maybe 24 to 36 hours.

[00:32:11] I won’t be eating solid foods, obsolete, meat, chicken, and pork, and every now and then some red meat, but the re-entry into eating is always very simple and very gentle.

Hanh Brown: [00:32:22] Nice. Well, I am in my mid fifties and I am at my high school weight and pre pregnant weight after three kids. Yes, that’s right. It’s because I aim to do all the things that we talked about earlier.

[00:32:35] I’m not always successful, but I do aim to get a good amount of exercise, sleep tab, a healthy diet, and manage my stress. So, how are you doing with achieving your high school weight?

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:32:46] I’m pretty close to that. I’ve been in this diet now for about 12 days and it’s called the lemonade diet because all you do is drink this concoction of water, lemon juice, and maple syrup, as long as you want.

[00:32:58] And I’ve been on it for close to two weeks now, and I’ve dropped. Almost 20 pounds.

Hanh Brown: [00:33:02] Congratulations.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:33:03] It’s tough for everybody. Understand, basically I’m a relatively healthy person and certainly you should see a doctor before you do anything like this. But my doctor has always told me that he doesn’t really care how I lose weight.

[00:33:17] The risks of keeping weight on far outweigh the risks of losing that weight. So I’m coming off this diet on Sunday, and I can’t tell you how hungry I am right now.

Hanh Brown: [00:33:29] So what do you plan to eat? It
[00:33:31] Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:33:31] will be a chicken broth to me. It does right now after two weeks, I can’t wait to taste that.

Hanh Brown: [00:33:38] Sure. Thoughts and plans for yourself and for your loved ones, senior living options.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:33:43] You know, I mentioned earlier in this discussion that one of the things that I think is a good idea for most people, and that is really to find a way to remain at home for as long as possible. And that’s true for a number of reasons. Most importantly, Psychologically moving from the place where you’ve lived for so long, long, it’s rough to go to a new place when you’re at an advanced stage, it can be very disruptive to your life.

[00:34:07] And so adjusting your environment that you’re most familiar with and adapting it to your needs, I think is probably what I would recommend to everyone around me. And when there’s no other choice than I would, of course agreed and recommend. An alternative location what’s ever really going to best serve that person.

Hanh Brown: [00:34:30] Affordability home care, long-term care. Insurance are all huge considerations.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:34:36] on that note, I would recommend everybody to seriously look into long-term care insurance. That’s a must maybe even more important than life insurance.

Hanh Brown: [00:34:45] So, do you have any other thoughts, anything you want to share to our listeners.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:34:49] for all your listeners, if they’re interested in what’s going on in China, and if they’re involved in the industry, I’ve written two books about the emerging senior care industry in China, and those are available on Amazon.

[00:35:03] And if you go to Amazon and you just search under my name, Rami B R O M M E Cole. You’ll find the two books. The second book is probably the best of the two, but both of them give a good idea of what’s emerging over there. And if they’re in the senior industry here in the United States, it’ll provide an interesting.

Hanh Brown: [00:35:23] thank you so much.

[00:35:24] It’s been a pleasure talking to you.

Bromme Hampton Cole: [00:35:26] Thank you very much too. It’s been a pleasure talking to you.

Hanh Brown: [00:35:29] Well, it was a pleasure to have brome Cole share his journey in Asia and his experience with China’s rich culture, his work with the Chinese senior living also Brahmi secret to eight baby boomers, healthy lifestyle, which chicken broth keto diet in achieving his high school weight.

[00:35:47] Well, thank you so much bromine.

Bromme’s LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brommehcole/

Bomme’s Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/HamptonHoerter

Bromme has written two books which are available on Amazon:

“Dragon with a Cane: Profiles in Ageing: China’s Forgotten Generation” – https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Cane-Profiles-Forgotten-Generation/dp/0985687126?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0985687126

“Enter the Ageing Dragon…: Musings on the nascent senior living industry in China” 1st Edition – https://www.amazon.com/Enter-Ageing-Dragon-Musings-industry/dp/098568710X?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=098568710X

Bromme’s Amazon Page:
https://www.amazon.com/Bromme-Hampton-Cole/e/B00EJXROT4%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

The way I see it, healthcare is one of our generation’s greatest challenges. Yet the industry desperately needs more funding, technology and most importantly, entrepreneurial attention. What could be more personal and more important to every individual, family and community than their health and wellness? For me, the answer is nothing. 

Over the past twenty-five years, having worked in various healthcare companies and startups throughout North America, Asia (China/Vietnam) and Europe with diversified interests in acuity (clinical operations), digital aging, technology, finance (credit rating and underwriting) and consumer products, I have found that healthcare industry employees are connected by many common interests. What unites them however, beyond their vocation, is an abiding devotion to helping others live better lives. In sum, it’s about the service of caring.

I am committed to finding better solutions (think: Platforming and AI/Blockchain consilience), discovering overlooked opportunities in supply chains and implementing disruptive technologies to leverage advantages (think: eliminating the “systemness”). I believe in pioneering and the benefits that unfold from being fearless in one’s questions and actions (think: healthcare version of AirBnb/Waze/Uber…go asset light!). Of course, all of this is meaningless without corporate responsibility, towards customers, employees and community. With courage and accountability…that’s how healthcare is improved for everyone.

在我看来，医疗保健是我们这一代人面临的最大挑战之一。对于每个人、家庭和社区来说，还有什么比他们的健康更个人化和更重要的呢? 对我来说，答案是没有.

在过去的25年里，我在亚洲、北美和欧洲的多家医疗保健公司工作过，专注于技术、金融和消费产品。我发现医疗保健行业的员工有着许多共同的兴趣。然而，将他们连接在一起的，不仅仅是他们的职业，还有一种持久的奉献精神，那就是帮助他人过上更好的生活。总之，这是关于关怀的服务。

我致力于寻找更好的解决方案，发现供应链中被忽视的机会，并实施颠覆性技术来撬动优势。我相信开拓精神和无畏于问题所带来的好处。当然，如果没有企业的社会责任，对客户、员工和社区来说，所有这些都毫无意义。唯有心怀勇气和责任感…才能为社会上每个人提升医疗保健服务。