Archive for June, 2006
I’m away on vacation with my family in the South West of England this week and eating “holiday type” food and being more sedentary than usual, as there is no opportunity to go to a gym down here, I was starting to feel like some exercise.
We spent the day at the wonderful Saunton sands beach, today and by early afternoon I really was feeling like doing something active. The three miles of flat sandy beach beckoned so I couldn’t resist just setting off for a run.
No high technology running shoes, or treadmills festooned with heart rate monitors, incline controls and fine speed adjustments - this was just me running barefoot along a beautiful sandy beach on a hot and sunny day.
It was magnificent!
I probably only ran for 2.5 miles in total, but just jogging along the waters edge, past the group of people who had found a stranded lobster, along further until the place where I started was just a shimmering apparition in the heat haze and onto totally deserted beach, I felt that this was what being reasonably fit is all about.
The ability to just take off like that without fear of health issues, without help from technology, without getting out of breath.
Exercise for exercise’s sake.
June 30th, 2006
Written By: chris
A new obesity pill is available on prescription in the UK from today.
Apparently it controls appetite and can therefore help the obese patient reduce their weight significantly. This, of course, is good news as it will help reduce their risk of heart disease and diabetes, particularly as it has been shown to reduce the fatty deposits in arteries and organs.
There are side effects such as nausea, dizziness and diarrhorea, though these are reported to be short lived by the manufacturer (perhaps predictably). Another side effect is that these “once a day” pills cost £55 (GBP) per patient per month.
I know that these pills will mostly be prescribed to those who cannot lose weight by other means, such as changes in lifestyle, but it does get me thinking about health care priorities.
My monthly gym membership is £44 (GBP) per month. For this I get access to a superb 25 metre swimming pool, a huge cardiovascular suite, spa and free fitness classes covering a wide range of subjects from aerobics to Yoga. This is also for peak access so I can use these facilities from about 7am to 10pm seven days a week.
What are the side effects? Well I feel fitter and healthier than ever. I can walk long distances without feeling tired. I can swim a mile in 40 minutes and oh, by the way, I’m losing weight too!
Why does the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) invest so much in drugs? The NHS could get some great discounts with commercial gyms and fitness centres - or even better still - open its own dedicated facilities. It would save millions of pounds per year and yet create a fitter, healthier population.
The National Health Service would then live up to its name rather than its current status, at least in my opinion, of the National Illness Service.
June 29th, 2006
Written By: chris
I have always wanted to live to a ripe old age. Right from the time I was a kid, I’d tell people, ‘I am going to live to be 100 years old.’ Well, seeing the world as it is today, I have come down on the original number of 100 a bit (80 should suffice). However, the desire to live a long life is still there. And over the past few months I have added another parameter to ‘long life’ – healthy. I don’t definitely want to drag myself over the last few years; I guess that wouldn’t be worth too much.
Recently I read about Harriet’s life. Actually, I first read about her death, and then caught up with her life. For someone like me aspiring towards a long life, Harriet was an instant celebrity. For those who don’t know, Harriet is a Galapagos tortoise that passed away last week at the ripe old age of 175 (that reads more like a batsman’s score in a cricket match than someone’s age!). She was an institution, and some of the landmarks she witnessed make awesome reading – she was 35 when Lincoln was assassinated, 82 when the Titanic sank, and a 111 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor!
And all without too much exercise or hard work! Just imagine, you loll by the pool (in Harriet’s case, pond) all day long, eat at your leisure, walk maybe a few steps, grow fat and big, and yet live to be 175! Why? Because that, god bless you, is your actual life span!
We on the other hand, are different. We have invented and discovered a thousand different ways to run ourselves close to the edge, and another thousand ways to get back from the brink and into the pattern of a healthy life. We work too hard, we are scared of sickness. We work too less; we are still scared of sickness. We have money, comfort, luxuries, technology, but to what end? We spend all our time rung behind things, and then sweat the nights away thinking of the next imminent visit to the doctor and what it might show up…
There are times like these when I wish I was just a damn tortoise – not too significantly noticeable to have the rest of the food chain above me behind my back, and yet able to live a contented, worry-free life, and long life!
June 28th, 2006
Written By: daisy
How about some good news for a Monday?
Apparently regular exercise not only helps you stop smoking, and improve your sleep, it can even improve your sex life too!
We all know that regular exercise can reduce our cholesterol and blood pressure levels, as well as help us shed those extra pounds, however we’ve got more reasons now to make that trip to the gym that we’ve been promising ourselves.
Feeling fitter and healthier helps us feel better about ourselves - more desirable, and apparently more desiring - and according to the research even improves our performance. You also get to sleep better afterwards!
June 26th, 2006
Written By: chris
When I was learning about Cardiology at our local General Hospital I had to become proficient in performing exercise tolerance tests (ETT’s) on patients with chest pain, or who were recovering from heart attacks.
ETT’s, commonly known as stress tests, are undertaken by wiring a patient to a specialised ECG (EKG) machine that analyses the electrical activity of the heart in real time, whilst the patient undergoes progessively more strenuous exercise on a treadmill.
Those suffering from coronary heart disease cannot deliver enough oxygen to their heart muscles as the level of exercise increases, which is detected by small changes in the ECG trace. This is termed ST segment anaylsis and is a reliable indicator that coronary heart disease is present.
In my time at the hospital, I performed hundreds of these ETT’s on a whole range of patients, mostly those who had some form of chest pain.
Of course, chest pain, of any sort, should be taken very seriously, particularly if it occurs in middle aged men who have a high risk of heart attacks. It is the hospital’s policy that these people should be seen as soon as possible and undergo an exercise tolerance test to detect, or eliminate, coronary heart disease as a cause.
As I performed hundreds of these tests, and became proficient in detecting small changes to heart activity, and diagnosing coronary problems, one major factor started to shine through.
By and large, what one does for a living determines how healthy we are, particularly with heart disease and conditions such as high blood pressure.
I saw many patients who lead sedentary lives, particularly truck drivers who spend all day driving, often in stressful traffic conditions. As truck drivers generally enjoy cooked breakfasts and fast food from “greasy spoon” restaurants, they often have unhealthy diets along with prolonged periods of inactivity. Almost invariably, middle aged truck drivers were diagnosed with coronary heart disease when attending our ETT clinics.
Another group stood out too - those who had active outdoor jobs. I tested quite a few people who were professional gardeners and landscapers. They presented with chest pain, but generally were amazing on the treadmill. Used to physical work, they could undergo high levels of exercise without showing any coronary problems at all.
Their chest pain was probably due to muscle strains and other factors of “non cardiac origin”.
I learnt a valuable lesson when running that clinic. Keep those coronary arteries in as good a condition as you can, by leading an active life and eating a healthy diet. Couple that with as little stress as possible (which is difficult) and you might get through life without encountering someone like me during an exercise tolerance test.
June 25th, 2006
Written By: chris
As a child I always looked at yoga and ayurveda with disdain – a bunch of some stupid exercises and some dubious concoctions that made you feel ill just at their mere sight. I remember there was this very old gentleman who used to visit us for an evening chat with my dad. He used to finish off the whole packet of biscuits with the tea served to him and then would expect us to serve him with dinner as well.
Those were good old days of hospitality and my parents always took care of him and would send him home after a hearty dinner. This became almost a routine. So every second or third day he was expected.
Since I did not like him very much I once asked him contemptuously why he visited us so often. He was very frank – I am very poor and alone, so I come here to meet you all and have food. He said he skipped his meals for two to three days and he was not affected because he was a yogi. So he would eat only twice a week. The first thing that came to my mind was that he was talking rubbish. I told him that he was kidding. He smiled at me and kept quiet.
He told my parents that he had no work and his only son could not afford to take care of him. So all he did was experiment with yoga. He said he was working on a solution to hunger other than food. For me he was a major laughing stock and a joke which I shared with my friends. We all planned that I would go and live with him for at least couple of days to know the real story.
The old man was very welcoming and for two days he gave me a rundown on yoga, which I found sickening. He would accompany me to a nearby restaurant and sit with me watching while I had food. He did not eat himself. I remember that he promised to pay the restaurant owner later as he had no money. I spent those two days with open eyes as I was on a serious investigation. The old man had no clue on the purpose of my visit nor did he bother to ask.
On the morning of the third day he accompanied me back to my home. There he had a hearty lunch again.
I made my skepticism into a profession. More than twenty years later, on an assignment as a journalist, I had a chance to live in a commune of ascetics in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. I spent two months investigating about the real age of the inmates of the commune as quite a few I was told were more than a century old while they looked much younger – something like in their 60s and 70s. I was told, and saw with my own eyes,l that they used to eat only once to twice a week. The younger ones were eating maximum thrice a week.
Without telling the commune inmates the purpose of my visit I watched their movements, day and night for a number of days. I made checks and cross checks with the villagers living around the commune. I concluded that they were really very small and infrequent eaters and were all in perfect health. They were used to starvation. All the commune inmates were yogi, the practitioner of yoga.
My third encounter with yoga happened when my own sister was struck with rheumatoid arthritis. I investigated the subject when all other treatments failed. Among many things I learnt how a yogi could awaken his higher mental faculties to win over hunger and desire, and could free himself to live healthier and longer.
Now all the pieces of the puzzle started falling into place. That old man of my childhood and the inmates of the commune seemed to smile at me in their wisdom. And not with the contempt and skepticism I had previously had for them.
June 24th, 2006
Written By: lalitgambhir
For those that have never been to the gym before, the first time can be a really intimidating one. Especially if you are trying to get into shape by shedding a few pounds. Intimidating not because the crowd there are unfriendly. Not at all. Intimidating because suddenly you find yourself in another planet of superfit men and women, bulging biceps, washboard abs, and toned bodies.
I remember my first visit to the gym. I felt like the hunchback of Notre Dame at the post-Oscar party. As the guest relations executive showed me through the three floors that made up the gym, all I did was gape, stare, and wonder ‘are those muscles for real?’ ‘Is that a real human body?’ Wherever I turned, that is all I could see - supremely fit men and women in various stages of exercise - some grunting and straining with the coach screaming ‘get that weight up, dawg!’, ‘5 more reps, come on!’ ‘beautiful women toning up their bodies to the nth level of fitness. Youngsters exercising away in a bid to get the 6-packs…
My first impulse was to run out. For a moment I felt that they were all sneering and laughing ‘Hey! Here comes Fat Lucy’ or whatever name they must have conjured up in those nanoseconds when their eyes gave the onceover at the misshapen body structure that answered to my name…
But I didn’t run. Because I was quite determined to get on level terms with at least some of these people… And I am glad I didn’t. Because I found out that nobody laughed. Not when they saw that the person with that ruined body was serious about setting it right. And I found out that they respected you for having the courage to accept that things had gone wrong and you were going to do whatever it takes to set them back right.
I made a lot of good friends, and lost most of those extra pounds.
But that was then. Complacency overcame determination, and now here I am. I am onto jogging, and have decided to restart my gym workouts. But this time its without the trepidation. Which is good and bad. Good because I am not having any sleepless nights thinking whom to bequeath my not-so-small amount of junk in the event I die of shame on the first day. And bad because it has made me complacent, that I can lose weight anyways, no big deal. And complacence was what got me to this state back, in the first place…
June 22nd, 2006
Written By: daisy
There has been a “10,000 steps a day” campaign running in the UK over the last few years, which has boosted people’s awareness of exercise and the amounts required on a daily basis to make a difference to their health.
To monitor the number of steps, many companies were selling belt worn pedometers, and at one point, they were even given away with a breakfast cereal.
Even now, a couple of years into the campaign, you can still see people wearing pedometers on their belts as they go about their daily business.
This is encouraging and I’m sure that its helping many people improve their general health and fitness, however there is now a bombshell - many, if not all, of these cheap pedometers are inaccurate and overestimate the number of steps taken.
Its probably not a surprise, as these are very cheap devices, and I have wondered how many people took the trouble to calibrate these devices to their average step length in the first place (I didn’t when I wore one briefly).
At least the campaign is making people fitter and healthier and that is a good thing, even if they have to walk further each day as a result of these findings.
June 21st, 2006
Written By: chris
Well it had to be done. Once I’d seen the body mass index chart lying on a desk at the gym, I just had to have a look at it.
I’m pretty fit, I thought, I’m sure I’ll be in the “normal healthy range”.
Oh dear!
I’m about 5′10″ so with trembling hands I followed the line on the graph for my weight. Past the normal range and into the dreaded overweight part of the graph!
I weigh 85kg so as I had crossed into the overweight section at 80Kgs, this meant that I was 5 kilos overweight! Not five pounds - 5 kilos, which is about 12 pounds!
I tracked down a senior gym instructor and had a chat with him about it. Don’t worry, he said. Someone who is in the ideal BMI range is going to be pretty skinny - probably with the physique of a long distance runner.
As I do a lot of swimming and muscles are heavy components of the body, I am very unlikely to be in the ideal BMI range.
Phew, but I reckon that not all of those 12 pounds are muscles, so if I see a meter lying around that measures percentage body fat, I’ll probably leave that well alone!
June 20th, 2006
Written By: chris
We hear a lot about how blood clots can cause strokes and heart attacks, but another disease of the arteries can be just as dangerous.
Artherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, is caused by a gradual build up of fatty deposits into plaques, on artery walls. As well as gradually constricting the blood flow through the artery, artherosclerosis is also dangerous because a plaque can rupture creating a potentially lethal blood clot.
High levels of bad cholesterol are primarily responsible for the build up of plaques on artery walls, however research is now indicating that eating five portions of fruit and vegetables per day can reduce artherosclerosis, by up to a third, which is great news.
The research was undertaken on rats, but don’t worry about that - eating five such portions must be good for you anyway.
The hard part is to eat five portions of fruit and veg each day, which is something I’ve been trying to do for a few months now.
Go to almost any supermarket in the UK and you will be met with a bewildering display of fruit and vegetables including many imported “out of season” and exotic varieties.
Some supermarkets helpfully label their fruit with “five a day” type labels so you take the hint and fill your trolley with a whole range of tempting fresh produce and enjoy a virtuous moment when your trolley load looks far more healthy at the checkout than the customer’s in front.
Now to the eating part.
You have a glass of orange juice for breakfast and an apple for lunch - thats two portions. Three to go.
Dinner, and you’ve got to have three portions of fruit and/or veg so that is carrots plus peas, say, with the main course. You can then hit your target by having something like strawberries for desert.
Actually, as I write that I think “hey that sounds delicious”, which, of course it is.
However the next day you’ve got to have five portions of fruit and veg. Then the day after that and guess what? Every day - for ever.
Yes five portions of fruit and veg a day is only a guide, but its an excellent way of building a varied and healthy diet. It’s probably quite expensive and time consuming (shopping and preparing), though remember that frozen vegetables are often more nutritious than “fresh” produce which has been stored in a warehouse for a week.
However if you value your health and want to reduce your risk of artherosclerosis, as well as developing a more healthy diet, then give it a go - take on the 5 a day challenge!
June 19th, 2006
Written By: chris
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