Looking for Magic Part 2

Back in 1971, Dick Cavett hosted a TV show. He invited Jerome Rodale, age 72, “the guru of the organic food cult” as his guest. During taping, sitting next to Cavett, Jerome proclaimed that he would live to be 100. However, that guru then made a snoring sound and died right there in front of Cavett and his audience. So much for proclamations. In this skewed sample, the writer made a point regarding magic. I agree, that there is not, at this time, a 100 year longevity pill. We all know, there are seven different areas in the world where centenarians flourish. However, we also know that their lifestyle is more complex than a diet alone. Physical activity, nonsmoking, minimal stress, social network, are a few correlates of these centenarian groups. In our country. Dr. Thomas Frieden, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated “since 1900, the average lifespan, in the United States has increased by more than 30 years; 25 years of this gain has been attributed to public health advances.” This means that we must require more than ever clear thinking and appropriate funding for our EPA, oil spill remediation, clean water programs, global disease detection and prevention, mental health research, reducing the sources of lead exposure, pesticide contamination etc., if we expect to live healthier and longer .We have more than enough cancer. As I am older then the individuals listed in this post, my secrets have credibility. My magic formula was clearly identified when I listed 7 prescriptions found on pages 18 and 19 of “It Has Nothing To Do with Age” published by Winter Goose. For example, one my physical activities includes running 50 K trail runs. PS The current administration is letting us down by downsizing EPA and reducing funding in many important government programs areas affecting our health while increasing the military budget.

Looking for Magic

The article titled “No Magic Pill Will Get You to 100” published in the March 11, 2018 edition of The New York Times was thought-provoking. In this article, the writer provided interesting examples of a number of scholarly educated individuals pursuing a long or extended life. For example, geologist Anatoli Brouchkov ingested bacteria that he harvested from the Arctic. This bacteria was injected into female mice that seemed to extend their youth. The geologist said. “If you found some prehistoric microbes, how could you not put them in your mouth?” Then there was Valter Longo, director of the University of Southern California Longevity Institute. Dr. Longo [per findings of Satchidananda Panda of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies] undertakes long intermittent fasting. On the other hand, Dr. Charles Brenner, a biochemist, adds high doses of nicotinamide riboside to his milk regime in the hopes that it slows down his aging process. Turning to the research lab, Clive McKay, nutritionist, fed his rats a low-calorie diet while at Cornell. Today, from that study, there exists two male white rats that are 130 years of age equivalent to man years. Despite that Dr. McKay Incorporated a low-calorie diet, this athletic individual had two strokes and died at age 69. Another prominent scientist Dr. Roy Walford published “The 120 Year Diet “and “Beyond the 120 Year Diet” but unfortunately died of ALS at the age of 79. Then we find out that wild foods enthusiast Euell Gibbons died at age 64 of an aortic aneurysm. Unfortunately, he was born with a genetic disorder that predisposed him to heart problems. Another nutritionist, Adele Davis studied the dangers of refined foods like white bread. Unfortunately, she contracted cancer and passed away at the youthful age of 70. Physicians, familiar names and best-selling diet authors Nathan Pritikin [low-fat] and Robert Atkins [low carb] passed at age 69. To Be Continued

Know Yourself

An article titled, “I Think I Can” in the February 25, 2018 edition of Time highlighted the power of thinking. Research published in Health Psychology studied 84 female hotel room attendants. These female employees told the researchers that they believed they completed little or no daily exercise during the workday. 42 or half of these female workers were told that they were meeting or exceeding national recommendations for 30 minutes of daily exercise. Within a month, these 42 females began believing they were now exercising because of their work. In fact, they lost weight, body fat and developed lower blood pressure, even though their daily work routines remained the same. A second study employing statistics from the National Health Interview Survey, and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey examined data on 61,141 participants. Questions pertaining to whether or not they felt they were getting more, less, or about the same amount of exercise as most people their age was the important variable. Further, many of these individuals wore accelerometers tracking their physical activity. Then the researchers correlated the above information to data from the National Death Index that measured death rates. They found a strong association between people dying early and their beliefs that they were relatively inactive, regardless of the accelerometer measurements. In fact, the reality was that they were getting as much exercise as others their age. However, the risk of early death was 71% higher based on their belief regarding the amount of exercise. In other words, the perception that other people their age were more active had negative health effects consequences. Likely, these irrational thoughts increased their level of stress hormones. Once again, the power of thinking is significant. It doesn’t matter if one’s beliefs are correct, truthful or factual. It’s the perception of the beholder. However, thoughts, about some topics, tend to increase stress levels, depending upon the meaning we give to these ideas. For example, levels of stress can be exacerbated when dealing with loss, work, divorce, marriage, health etc. Further, irrational beliefs such as seeking approval; having to be loved; needing to be perfect; blaming others; complaining about fairness; and dealing with prejudice and frustration further increase levels of stress. It’s our thinking that gets us into trouble. Defense mechanisms such as repression, rationalization, projection, isolation of affect, intellectualization, etc. attempt to reduce anxiety or discomfort, but distort reality, evoke behavior choices and have disastrous long-term effects. Thus, fictional beliefs, assumptions, distorted generalizations, fairytales, non- rational thinking, prejudice, or other nonsensical self-talk, or delusions not only evoke behavior, but lead to unhappiness, depression, and ill health. This parataxic thinking is a function of consensual validation, anxiety, and a distorted self-perception. On the other hand, believing “I can” when it comes to realistic, logical, rational syntactic thinking coupled with appropriate behavioral choices increases expectancies that result in positive goal setting and achieving. The ancient Greek aphorism “know thyself” fits perfectly but extremely difficult to attain since choice or behavior is influenced by perception which is influenced by need, or drive of the individual. PS A Florida mom of a 12-year-old bullied girl who took her own life apparently said “I never thought she would kill herself.”

The Power of Fiction Part 2

Establishing a minister for loneliness or creating a commission on school safety is simply imaginary or fiction. Ministers or commissions cannot solve false beliefs; provide re-parenting; nor fix the flaws of the development of secondary narcissism. A few examples of false , erroneous , non-rational beliefs , include heaven, hell, Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, a dream home, happiness, let’s fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here, bringing democracy to the Middle East, and a fountain of youth that propel behavior .These irrational beliefs are pipedreams, fantasies, falsehoods, and, simply nonsense. These notions have been created by religious leaders, political types, and economic marketing because they are expedient, wishful thinking with some major ideal transformation at the end. Not only do these ideas or dreams exist in our mind, they also direct our repetitive behavior. Some of this fiction furthers our capitalistic economy. Dwight Eisenhower said it best in describing the war machine when he labeled it “the military-industrial complex.” I ask you what “dream house” has ever cured or compensated for feelings of insecurity, inadequacy or inferiority. By the same token, has the purchase of many automatic military weapons eliminated any underlying fear or insecurity? No, you have to keep feeding the fear by purchasing more and more weapons and bullets. We are born helpless, dependent, and inadequate. We cannot survive on our own. We are only able to survive within the context of caretakers. Intellectually, we have matured and made mountainous discoveries with breathtaking works of art. Emotionally, we can be stuck in the dark ages with our fears, prejudices, beliefs that propel us irrationally over and over again, with anger, and revenge, along with the ability to kill and maim our own. Yes, we are social and nonsocial, which is also part our nature. Society and culture exploits our fears and provides platitudes, prayers to solve our fragile insecure state of being. Pick your fantasies, dreams and fiction wisely. However, don’t expect a pot of gold when reaching that irrational goal state at the end. One of my fictional beliefs includes “keep moving.” PS According to Stephen Hawking “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

The Power of Fiction

I am certain that Facebook and Twitter, with all the so-called “friends” has not solved the loneliness problem in the United Kingdom. A February 11, 2018 article in the New York Times titled “Is Loneliness a Health Epidemic?” addressed this troublesome issue. According to the article in question, Prime Minister Theresa May referred to loneliness as “The reality of modern life.” In fact, a consensus of public health leaders agreed with her and Great Britain now has a “Minister for Loneliness.” There have been numerous studies that have correlated loneliness and social isolation to heart disease, cancer, depression, diabetes, and suicide. In fact, our former United States Surgeon General has stated that “loneliness and social isolation are associated with a reduction in life span similar to that caused by smoking 15 cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity.” The professor, who wrote the article, didn’t think that we have a loneliness epidemic. He cited various studies that had contradictory results to prove his point. First of all, we know that all studies are flawed based on the non-universal population sample studied. We know that a random sample of individuals is not really random because of the tremendous cost required to obtain such a sample. With that being said, it’s not surprising that the loneliness findings have different conclusions. Another problem related to a conclusion is the lack of a clear cut definition of loneliness. One definition of loneliness stated “Sadness because one has no friends or company.” Sadness, according to the definition, can also mean depression, which is a mood state. It is known that sadness is only one component or mood state of an individual. Loneliness suggests [the absence of real friends] that an appropriate degree of secondary narcissism has not been developed or established. When secondary narcissism is impaired, we find an individual that is too self-centered, not concerned about the other, and therefore narcissistic. This suggests deficits in being able to form appropriate and/or meaningful attachments. In the process of development, if that individual has also developed hateful sadomasochistic tendencies, coupled with depression, then we can expect future mass military style shootings. To Be Continued

Gadgets, Wood Chopping and the Amish

The February 26, 2018 edition of Time’s article “What Can We Learn from Amish People?” spurred interest. These devout people [with Swiss Anabaptist origins; related but distinct from Mennonite churches] live primarily in the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. They continue to flourish somehow without such electronic gadgets- as TVs, computers, cell phones etc. In the 1900s, regular average life expectancy in our country was 47. However, the Amish had a life expectancy greater than 70. A century later, most of us have caught up to this group. Further, between 1992 and 2017 this population of people increased by 149% while the rest of the US population increased by 23%. Fitted with the pedometers, these religious folks are about as six times as active as the average American. Not only do they take more steps, they also lift, chop, saw wood and plant their crops. It has been reported, that these individuals have an obesity rate of about 4% compared to 36% for the rest of us. They also have lower tobacco-related cancers, and other cancers. Some Amish have the, PA I gene, which is associated with an average life span of 10% longer than people without this particular gene. These fortunate subjects have 10% longer telomeres [the ends of the chromosomes].All good for aging. Another advantage is that the elderly are cared for at home by relatives. They are not hustled off to some location of strangers being cared for by minimum wage employees. Not surprising, the Amish people also have significantly, by half, lower suicide rates. However, their diet is heavy on pancakes, eggs and sausage for breakfast and meat, potatoes, gravy and bread for dinner. As a result, the Amish have high rates of blood pressure and heart disease issues. This suggests that physical activity alone does not guarantee good health. It is been reported that neighbors, at times, have expressed discrimination, hostility by the throwing of stones and other objects at the Amish horse driven carriages. Yes, outside prejudices exist against this group. It would be interesting, to assess the degree of narcissism and group narcissism within this religious group to determine their prejudices. In conclusion, it would be prudent to see if changing their diet would increase their lifespan. They have mastered the keep moving.

Healthy Strategies

Under what conditions would you volunteer to participate in a study on weight gain? Well, 23, overweight men and women participated in a study referred to as “omics” reported in the January 28, 2018 edition of The New York Times. The researchers evaluated changes in genes as well as other biological systems that are affected by weight gain. In this research, the volunteers were asked to overeat. The subjects added about 880 calories a day to their diets and in the process gained an average of about 6 pounds per month. Then, the subjects were asked to cut back on the calories and lose that weight. Time wise, it took most of them at least twice as long to lose the weight they had gained .Further, these subjects were then asked to keep their weight stable and return after another three months for a final round of tests. The findings were that 318 genes worked differently after these 23, had gained even a little weight. Some genes were more active while other genes were turned off .Also, weight gain resulted in increased inflammation throughout the body and the possible beginnings of cardiomyopathy, which is an enlarged heart. Likely, most of the genes reverted to their previous normal state, once the men and women lost their added weight. The keyword here is most but not all. In other words, imbalances or shifts occur biologically even after small amounts of weight are added to your frame. A second study found in the March 2018 edition of Health evaluated obese men. In this particular study, one group dieted for two weeks and then did not for another two weeks over a total period of 30 weeks. This group was compared to those that dieted continuously. They found that intermittent dieters lost more weight. In essence, additional weight is not good, especially if you’re obese. Perhaps, intermittent dieting of two weeks on and two weeks off is something to consider. I like the word intermittent, which means, according to the American college dictionary: “alternately ceasing and beginning again.” I like the meaning because it’s a process and no one is perfect. I would classify my running and eating behavior as intermittent. I total, on the average, 50 miles per week running and walking on the trail. That total might cover six or seven days. As a result, I alternate the number of days; miles per day; and the amount of time running and walking. If the trail is sloppy and conditions are poor, I spend more time running on the street. Intermittent and variability are key strategies for my running regime. As far as eating behavior, it’s certainly easier Incorporating intermittent strategies in reducing the number of calories. My ratio is more restriction than overeating. However, when it comes to ice cream, I have Incorporated, a different ratio. I suggest that if one wants to limit calories and exercise, keep a concrete record in order to accurately compare. PS Whatever you do, keep moving.