Health Risks of Being Left Handed ,President Obama, and Mindfulness

"None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone."– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Are you right-handed or left-handed?  Or, are you mixed handedness, which means you use different hands for different daily tasks and that you do not have a dominant one.  About 10% of people are left-handed, and about 1% of the population has mixed handedness.  In studying identical twins (they have 100% of the same genes) findings suggest that they do not always share the same handedness which means that genetics do not tell the whole story.  Apparently, environmental factors, while in the womb, play a significant part in the development of handedness, since babies born to older mothers and low birth weight babies are more likely to be lefties.  On average there no significant differences in IQ between righties and lefties.

There is some evidence that lefties are better at divergent thinking, have salaries that on average are about 10% lower than righties, and likely to be a greater risk for developing a number of psychiatric and developmental disorders.  Wouldn’t you just know it, because six of the last 12 US presidents have been lefties including Pres. Obama, and George H. Bush. Thank goodness President Obama has good language skills, divergent thinking, and the absence of ADHD symptoms. Let us hope he is not treated for a psychiatric disorder.  Just kidding!

In a 2008 study, psychology professor Alina Rodriguez found that left or mixed handedness in children was linked to a greater risk of difficulty with language, as well as ADHD symptoms; and knowing that a child that had ADHD symptoms at age 8 helped predict much more accurately, whether or not the child would continue to have symptoms at age 16.

Several studies show that stressful life event such as the death of a loved one or job loss during pregnancy increases the risk of having non right-handed children.  In one study of 834 – mothers and their three-year-old children, researchers found that mothers who reported multiple stressful events during the third trimester of pregnancy and experienced stress were more than three times likely to have a mixed handed child 17% compared with 5%.

Lefties have an advantage in sports such as tennis; fencing in baseball, when up against a right-handed competitor, but not in non-interactive sports such as gymnastics. This information was based on an article in the Wall Street Journal, December 6, 2011.

Today, Secretariat, and I are going to do a “happy “run. He is reading a book on mindfulness and is now able to rate his happiness during his running feats.  I asked him to pay attention to his thoughts and happiness during the second half of his run. I  did a 5 mile loop since I am still concerned about my cold symptoms. I might add that today’s run was not as fast as yesterday’s. However,  I was smiling when we parted. Secretariat started laughing as he headed off to do a longer distance.  I rated my run as a 3 on a three point scale.  He will rate his run also. From Secretariat: I ended up doing 15 miles and I rated my run as 3 also. The rating system is from 1 to 3. 1 being not that enjoyable and 3 being mostly enjoyable.

Another reason to be happy going into the holidays is related to a statistic that I just read.  Within five years of retirement, 60% of NBA players are bankrupt, while 78% of NFL players are either bankrupt or in financial stress within two years. Be happy that you are not a professional basketball or football player.  Happy holidays to you.

Reading Nutrition Labels,Muscle Repair,and Silent Heart Disease

 Happy Holidays

203 mostly white women participated in a simulated grocery shopping experiment in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The participants were recruited to view computer images of 64 foods.  They were given a brief description about price and nutrition.  Meanwhile, unbeknown  to the participants, the researchers, with the use of an eye tracker device, measured how long they viewed the food image on a screen.  After they finished that part of the experiment, they were given a questionnaire about their shopping habits. The findings were: roughly a third of the participants reported that they usually look at calorie content on labels and about a third said the same for that content.  However, the eye tracking data show that only 9% of the participants looked at calorie content in roughly 80% of the items.  More participants viewed information at the top of the label where calories and fats are listed rather than the bottom, where there is information about sodium, sugar and vitamins.  The data suggested that the average consumer does not read the entire nutrition labels.

Do you know all the information that is listed on the labels of foods that you buy?  Do you have each product memorized, so you do not have to read the entire label?  You probably do not have time to read the entire label after all you because you just read the important stuff anyway.  We become what we eat, so be careful.

 A research study using mice was done to evaluate growing new muscle tissue with severe leg injuries. The scientists used a scaffold-like protein implant coded with reprogrammed human cells. Muscular injuries generally heal themselves, but scar tissue often blocks the repair of large-scale muscle injuries.  The results showed that the micro threads attached to mouse tissue at the wound edge became increasingly less visible as the wound filled in with new muscle fibers.  A significant increase in scar tissue was found in the non -implanted wounds compared with the implanted ones.  Full muscle function was near hundred percent in the implanted animals after 10 weeks compared with just over 50% in control group. I wonder if this procedure would be applicable to horses or humans.   Well, maybe one day we will find out?  Keep tuned.

From 1983 to 2001, cardiovascular risk factors were assessed in 1,287 brothers and sisters of patients who were hospitalized with heart disease from 699 Baltimore area families. The hospitalized patients had an average age of 46.5 and 67% were men.  None of the siblings who ranged in age from 30 to 59 years demonstrated symptoms of cardiac problems at the start of the study. These subjects were studied over the next 25 years, at five your intervals.  The findings revealed that a family history of premature heart disease showed that twice as many men as women exhibited signs of cardiac abnormalities.  Unfortunately, this disease is often clustered in at risk families, and prevention strategies for healthy siblings are lacking. Are you in a family at risk?  If you are, you might think about that and do something about it.

These studies were found in the Wall Street Journal, edition, Tuesday, December 13, 2011. As far as the third study goes, more and more information is coming out regarding this terrible killer-heart disease.  We know that prehistoric man did not die from heart disease but from infection.  So we have drugs to deal with infection effectively, but it is clear there is no drug substitute for physical activity.  We spend over $2 billion annually in gym memberships, and about $2 billion annually in workout devices for the home. That seems like a lot of money to me.

Let us work together to inspire our friends, family, and others to take better care of themselves.  That truly makes for a happy holiday.

"Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple wavers to dust."– Marcus Aurelius

Mortality,Future of US Health Care,and Portland's Let's Go

"Never give out while there is hope; but hope not beyond reason, for that shows more desire than judgment."– William Penn

Darn it!  Linda and I continue to have symptoms from the colds we acquired on our Mexican cruise last week. Neither one of us neither likes to be sick.  These colds are a surprise for us since we have been pretty healthy. So, I called Laura this morning to tell her that we still had symptoms and did not think it would be good idea to host Saturday’s birthday -brunch run.  It's ok though because Secretariat said he and Debbie will host this year.  What is also difficult to do is to rest and drink liquids, as opposed to exercising and running on the trail.   This cold might interfere with participating in the January 1 New Year’s Resolution Run held Auburn.  For the past two years, Secretariat and I have entered the 10 mile.  He has already entered, and I am going to wait to see what happens to my symptoms before registering.

Within the past 2 to 3 weeks, we have lost two men-one older and one younger.  On top of that, the wife of one of the men who passed recently spent three days in the hospital.  Feeling sick, and witnessing the frailties that exist allowed me to pause and think about my mortality.  On top of that, I read an article titled “The Future of US Healthcare”   in Monday, December 12, 2011 edition of the Wall Street Journal.

The article pointed out that because of increasing health care costs, doctors, employers, and health insurance plans are encouraged to take a more direct approach in assisting individuals to make lifestyle changes. There are financial incentives for doctors, insured, and employers   to make changes.  Making lifestyle changes is a good thing and an economic motive seems to be the catalyst.  I think that can be a good thing.

 The NFL has a “Play 60” program designed to get kids involved in physical activity.  Portland’s “Let Go” program reported on an earlier blog is demonstrating progress in their program.  For those of you who may not remember, this program involves the schools and families to adapt its 5-2-1-0 message.  Translated this means eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables, get two hours or less of screen time, get a least one hour of exercise and consume zero  sugary drinks daily. Compared with year 2007, parents reported that their kids went from 16% to 26% in year 2011 as far as eating the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables.  The children improved from 38% to 45% with their daily recreational screen time-two hours or less as well.  Good job parents, as you are the key.  Hopefully parents are incorporating the same message for themselves.

 Returning to health, wellness, exercise, nutrition, and mortality let us incorporate Erik Erikson’s model. His eighth and final stage of psychosocial development is called “Ego Integrity vs. Despair.”  Of course, looking at his epigenetic chart in his life cycle model, this final stage is associated with maturity.  One hopes to develop maturity and integrity.  It is difficult to develop integrity without maturity, and vice versa. However, physical well-being or wellness has to be part of the equation.  The more physical and emotionally healthier we are, the less likely we are to find  “ despair “as we live out the rest of our lives. The choice and options are certainly clear.  Hopefully, more of us will incorporate the message.