Ancient Greeks
Health Secrets of the Aegean
Oh to be Greek and living on the island of Ikaria, where people live to be 100, laughing, dancing, and, um, still having sex. The New York Times reports today on a study of Ikarian men between 65 and 100, noting that "80 percent of them claimed to have sex regularly, and a quarter of that self-reported group said they were doing so with “good duration” and “achievement.”
The dude in the picture is Evangelos Koutis, age 99. To paraphrase When Harry Met Sally, "I'll have what he's having."
More...Other Places
Research
Sitting Will Still Kill You
The evidence is mounting that excessive sitting will, um, shorten your life. "Every single hour of television watched after the age of 25," reports the NY Times today, "reduces the viewer’s life expectancy by 21.8 minutes."
Put another way: "An adult who spends an average of six hours a day watching TV over the course of a lifetime can expect to live 4.8 years fewer than a person who does not watch TV."
Ouch. And, get this, these results hold even for people who also exercise. Exercise is critical, but lot's of sitting remains dangerous even still. The good news, however, is that there is a simple solution: Get up and move around! Run, don't walk to Social Workout, and set yourself a goal: Workday stretch breaks for example, or maybe you want to track your walking minutes, miles, or steps?
Choose your metric, and begin managing what you measure. We've got your back.
More...Live Now!
Living by the Numbers!
Coming to NYC today and tomorrow, the much-awaited Wired Health Conference featuring some exciting speakers taking on the theme "Living by the Numbers." Among the notables: Wired's own Quantified Self gurus, Kevin Kelly and Gary Wolf, as well as Timothy Ferris, Craig Venter, and an Olympic Gold Medalist Aston Eaton. Should be good!
Missing Something
The Future of Obesity
MedCityNews reports that spending on obesity treatments is diverging in the U.S. and Europe — this due to regulatory quirks rather than efficacy or consumer preference. Kind of disturbing, actually, to see how many "treatments" there now are for obesity, and how much we'll be spending on them in 2019. Conspicuously absent from this graph is a line item for spending on, um, "prevention."
Research
Eat Junk Food, Lose Your Mind
This just in from Mark Bittman (via New Scientist magazine):
Just in case you need another reason to cut back on junk food, it now turns out that Alzheimer’s could well be a form of diet-induced diabetes. That’s the bad news. The good news is that laying off soda, doughnuts, processed meats and fries could allow you to keep your mind intact until your body fails you.
Yup, too much sugar in the diet spikes your insulin levels and hurts your brain cells. Ahem, those at risk, please proceed directly to the Social Workout healthy eating goals area....
More...Academic
Take Back Yoga?
Harvard Business School has published Branding Yoga a case study investigating the commercialization and marketing of yoga. Prof. Rohit Deshpandé and his team compare the rise of yoga bad boy Bikram Choudhury with You Tube phenom Tara Stiles, whose sexy videos and alliance with Deepak Chopra have, so the argument goes, become the face of a new generation of yogis. The big questions: Can yoga be patented? And is it appropriate to mix and match spiritual rituals and beliefs to form an ersatz, commercialized fitness?
More...Online & Video
Research
Live Long and Prosper!
Today's data-driven fitness inspiration: A new 40-plus year study of nearly 18,670 people strongly indicates that mid-life fitness makes for late life healthiness. Specifically, writes Gretchen Reynolds in the New York Times, "the results show...that being physically fit 'compresses the time' that someone is likely to spend being debilitated during old age, leaving the earlier post-retirement years free of serious illness and, at least potentially, imbued with a finer quality of life."
Conclusion: Walk, run, dance, swim, cycle, stretch. Start now. Rinse, repeat. Live long, and prosper.
Unholy
Social Fitness Goes Tabloid!
The Daily News has caught up with the social fitness moment. Today they do a round up of apps, including Fitocracy, Zombies, Run, and Teemo. In building Social Workout, one thing we hadn't yet considered: Calling on the undead for motivation....
Upgrades
A New Release from Gain Fitness
Owen Thomas was the first to rave to me about Gain Fitness back in late 2010. These guys are smart, he said, they're ex-Google. ('Nuff said!) And when GAIN came out, it had a wonderful look and feel.
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Online & Video
News
Jilian Is Pro Technology
SheKnows.com interviews Jilian Michael's who is shamelessly pro-technology. (Buyer beware, she's hawking the "Jilian Michael's Slim-Down Solution" app.) But she makes a fun comparison between technology and homeopathic cures...
SheKnows: In an age where technology has arguably led to higher levels of obesity and more unhealthy lifestyles, how do you think technology can reverse that trend -- or can it?
Jillian Michaels: I think that technology can play an integral part in reversing that trend. It's almost like homeopathic medicine -- you know that concept that's like "If you can't sleep, we're going to take a caffeine extract and use it in such a way that it helps you sleep." Like cures like. In that same way, technology cures the contribution that it has previously made to our obesity.
Goats
My Soapbox
I think commercial soaps (Dial, Zest, Lever 2000, Dove) contribute to the high rate of cancer in the US. Just my personal theory. I just don't believe running synthetic ingredients all over your body everyday can be good. Sodium Laurel Sulfate, found in nearly all toothpaste and shampoo brands is an industrial agent, and causes these products to lather.
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Eat Right
White Death
Sugar is the enemy. Americans consume far too much of it. It is thought to be extremely addictive, as much as cigarettes. It is thought to cause ill health including: diabetes, cancer, acne and depression. It also has been found to increase the signs of aging. Nothing about it is good!
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Super Foods
The Next Big Thing
The first superfood hit the US market in the late 90s. It was the blueberry and the industry exploded. Since then, we've seen the goji berry, noni, mangosteen, raw chocolate, acai, blue-green algae and chia seed all became a must-have commodity.
The very notion of a superfood is modern and American; it's marketing, not nutrition.
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Give a Dog a Bone
Immediate Gratification
We're deep into week two of Dawn Patrol, waking up at sunrise each day. I'm not struggling, yet. Waking up at that hour just naturally gives some breathe and space to the day, otherwise impossible as the day gets going. Journal writing, Dharma talk listening, yoga, running along the East River...all activities leading to a more conscious and connected me. Translation: I'm happier.
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