Category Archives: Health

Why I feel half my age

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It is nice to be able to see a book that explains, using a review of all the possible scientific research, the foundation of nutrition.  Teachers know from the Canadian Food guide what we need to eat in order to be healthy.  There is a difference between knowing and putting into practice.  There is a difference between knowing and modelling.  After reading this book, I was happy to know that I eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and I exercise.   It is really a good reminder.


This book is filled with physiological details about the effect of food on the anti-aging pathway.  I will only mention some scary statistics and a few things I still need to include in my own diet.

Today, 1 in 500 Americans even get close to a modestly healthy diet.  70% of Americans are on prescription drugs.  The leading risk factor for death in the U.S. is what we eat.  It’s food.   80% of chronic disease and premature death could be prevented by not smoking, being physically active and adhering to a healthful dietary pattern.  8 out of 10 American adults fail to meet the national physical activity guidelines.

AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) flips the switch in our body from storing fat to burning it to restore energy balance.  AMPK also cleans house, sweeps away accumulated waste and effectively institutes a sort of cellular reset.  AMPK also activation and leads to mitochondrial biogenesis.  Foods that boost AMPK are barberries, black seeds, hibiscus, and vinegar.

Autophagy is our body’s recycling system.  Food that boost autophagy include: coffee, mushrooms, mangos, green peas, lentils, cheddar, lettuce, corn, broccoli, chickpeas, cauliflower, wheat germ.

An apple a day keeps the doctors away.  Apples actually improve artery function.  Strawberries can improve cognition, cholesterol, inflammation and osteoarthritis.

You have problems with inflammation?  The top 5 foods that cause inflammation are:  cheese & pizza, cake & ice cream, chicken dishes, pork, and burgers.  The author says that within hours of eating a high-fat meal, your arteries can stiffen, cutting in half their ability to relax normally.  Food that decreases inflammation:  turmeric (single-most anti-inflammatory food), ginger and garlic (in second place).  Tea is the most anti-inflammatory beverage.  Also, we need to swap refined grains in favour of whole grains.  Blueberries and strawberries can significantly reduce markers of inflammation.  Beans are also great anti-inflammation if you are not allergic to them.  A daily green smoothie, packed with fruits and vegetables is great.  Kale is particularly anti-inflammatory.  Flax seeds also reduce conventional inflammatory markers and blood pressure.

Traduction de Gemini:

Pourquoi j’ai l’impression d’avoir la moitié de mon âge

C’et agréable de pouvoir voir un livre qui explique, en passant en revue toutes les recherches scientifiques possibles, le fondement de la nutrition. Les enseignants savent, grâce au guide alimentaire canadien, ce que nous devons manger pour être en bonne santé. Il y a une différence entre savoir et mettre en pratique. Il y a une différence entre savoir et modeler. Après avoir lu ce livre, j’étais heureux de savoir que je mange beaucoup de fruits et légumes et que je fais de l’exercice. C’est vraiment un bon rappel.

Ce livre regorge de détails physiologiques sur l’effet de la nourriture sur le processus anti-âge. Je ne mentionnerai que quelques statistiques effrayantes et quelques éléments que je dois encore inclure dans mon propre régime alimentaire.

Aujourd’hui, aux États-Unis, seulement 1 Américain sur 500 se rapproche d’un régime alimentaire modérément sain. 70 % des Américains prennent des médicaments sur ordonnance. Le principal facteur de risque de décès aux États-Unis est notre alimentation. C’est la nourriture. 80 % des maladies chroniques et des décès prématurés pourraient être évités en ne fumant pas, en étant actif physiquement et en suivant un régime alimentaire sain. 8 adultes américains sur 10 ne respectent pas les directives nationales en matière d’activité physique.

L’AMPK (protéine kinase activée par l’AMP) bascule le commutateur de notre corps du stockage des graisses à leur combustion pour rétablir l’équilibre énergétique. L’AMPK fait également le ménage, balaye les déchets accumulés et institue efficacement une sorte de réinitialisation cellulaire. L’AMPK active également la biogenèse mitochondriale. Les aliments qui stimulent l’AMPK sont les épines-vinettes, les graines noires, l’hibiscus et le vinaigre.

L’autophagie est le système de recyclage de notre corps. Les aliments qui stimulent l’autophagie comprennent : le café, les champignons, les mangues, les pois verts, les lentilles, le cheddar, la laitue, le maïs, le brocoli, les pois chiches, le chou-fleur, le germe de blé.

Une pomme par jour éloigne le médecin. Les pommes améliorent en fait la fonction artérielle. Les fraises peuvent améliorer la cognition, le cholestèrel, l’inflammation et l’arthrose.

Vous avez des problèmes d’inflammation ? Les 5 principaux aliments qui causent de l’inflammation sont : le fromage et la pizza, les gâteaux et la crème glacée, les plats au poulet, le porc et les hamburgers. L’auteur dit que quelques heures après avoir mangé un repas riche en graisses, vos artères peuvent se rigidifier, réduisant de moitié leur capacité à se détendre normalement. Aliments qui diminuent l’inflammation : le curcuma (l’aliment anti-inflammatoire le plus important), le gingembre et l’ail (en deuxième place). Le thé est la boisson la plus anti-inflammatoire. De plus, nous devons remplacer les céréales raffinées par des céréales complètes. Les myrtilles et les fraises peuvent réduire considérablement les marqueurs d’inflammation. Les haricots sont également un excellent anti-inflammatoire si vous n’y êtes pas allergique. Un smoothie vert quotidien, rempli de fruits et légumes, est excellent. Le chou kale est particulièrement anti-inflammatoire. Les graines de lin réduisent également les marqueurs inflammatoires conventionnels et la tension artérielle.

Outlive

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https://www.amazon.ca/Outlive-Longevity-Peter-Attia-MD/dp/0593236599/ref=sr_1_1?crid=346F6IGMI2BHU&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.e1Nvy_abhJxNMrLIJ1IJ8Aq45uZJyUfdBC2fpgVRVO52RReXw_DC-vBvAZKKuwBtDuniuuZp60QkXsAbINZIV0D55J61nElKIS8uzeIQsLsAu3wyXkdxyx1IN0-rclo7EAWk21FANkB0KfSEOj_oUUpIN0lCgfecKCeMDRxuypO7GslC8ZM4aWZITVDPJnnnrspSHOVNkOi6O0cLVnQBD_KqU6NUHEVet8rq8FWK6sIdnKqBdZDEt44ajfPbJx52s9gHYwAufoKaQdC-ZtlVn2N4wbZtZ5exmehNk5ENHF0.Y03OPQtZeCKIKh2ZKPaJWp8dSyWwj1oQ3Bk6MFNwd_w&dib_tag=se&keywords=outlive+peter+attia&qid=1708867201&sprefix=outlive+%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-1

This book is outstanding, truly remarkable.

The author is a medical doctor, a surgeon who attended the best medical schools.  During his practice, he thought that what he was doing was not significant.  As a surgeon, he was operating on cancer patients, just to extend their life by only one year.  He thought of his work as not significant enough.  There must be another way to keep the population healthy.  At the societal level, what was done to inform the population about the effects of smoking and prevent smoking, saved far more lives than what surgeons could do with lung surgeries.  There are diseases, like dementia and Alzheimer’s, that currently have no  known treatment.  The only way to deal with those diseases is prevention, long term prevention.  Hence, he started the discussion of Medicine 3.0, where we look at health from a longer perspective than 1 week, 2 years or even 10 years.

Here are some of the important ideas of the book:

“The fitter you are, the lower risk of death.  There is no other intervention, drug or otherwise that can rival this magnitude of benefit.”  “Exercise-based interventions performed as well as or better than multiple classes of pharmaceutical drugs at reducing mortality from coronary heart disease, pre-diabetes or diabetes and stroke.”

He also discusses the importance of diet, not eating too many calories.  Olive oil (as opposed to butter) lower incidence of stroke, heart attack and death by 31%.  There is a strong link between calories and cancer.

Many studies have found powerful associations between insufficient sleep (less than 7 hours per night) and adverse health outcomes ranging from increased susceptibility to the common cold to dying of a heart attack and Alzheimer’s.  Sleeping well is essential to preserving our cognition as we age and starving off Alzheimer’s disease.  “The decimation of sleep throughout industrialised nations is having a catastrophic impact on our health, our life expectancy, our safety, our productivity and the education of our children.”

Countless people are in desperate need of help with their emotional health, yet they fail to recognise the signs and symptoms of their condition.

It’s a 482 page book that provides details and scientific research backing those ideas for proactive medicine.  I really enjoyed reading this book and finding out that the longest living person in history was a French woman who cycled till 100 and lived healthy to 122.

 

J’ai utilisé l’IA Gemini pour traduire en 1 seconde.

Ce livre est exceptionnel, vraiment remarquable.

L’auteur est un médecin, un chirurgien qui a fréquenté les meilleures écoles de médecine. Pendant sa pratique, il a eu l’impression que son travail n’était pas suffisamment important. En tant que chirurgien, il opérait des patients atteints de cancer, uniquement pour prolonger leur vie d’un an seulement. Il pensait que son travail n’était pas assez significatif. Il devait y avoir un autre moyen de maintenir la population en bonne santé. Au niveau sociétal, les actions menées pour informer la population sur les effets du tabagisme et prévenir le tabagisme ont sauvé bien plus de vies que ce que les chirurgiens pouvaient faire avec la chirurgie pulmonaire. Certaines maladies, comme la démence et la maladie d’Alzheimer, n’ont actuellement aucun traitement connu. Le seul moyen de les combattre est la prévention, la prévention à long terme. C’est pourquoi il a lancé la discussion sur la médecine 3.0, où l’on considère la santé sur une perspective plus large qu’une semaine, deux ans ou même dix ans.

Voici quelques-unes des idées importantes du livre :

“Plus vous êtes en forme, plus le risque de décès est faible. Aucune autre intervention, médicamenteuse ou autre, ne peut rivaliser avec cette ampleur de bienfaits.” “Les interventions basées sur l’exercice physique ont donné des résultats aussi bons, voire meilleurs, que plusieurs classes de médicaments pharmaceutiques pour réduire la mortalité par coronaropathie, pré-diabète ou diabète et AVC.”

L’auteur souligne également l’importance de l’alimentation et de ne pas consommer trop de calories. L’huile d’olive (par opposition au beurre) réduit l’incidence des AVC, des crises cardiaques et de la mort de 31 %. Il existe un lien étroit entre les calories et le cancer.

De nombreuses études ont trouvé des liens puissants entre un sommeil insuffisant (moins de 7 heures par nuit) et des problèmes de santé, allant d’une susceptibilité accrue au rhume banal à la mort par crise cardiaque et par maladie d’Alzheimer. Bien dormir est essentiel pour préserver nos facultés cognitives en vieillissant et prévenir la maladie d’Alzheimer. “La réduction drastique du sommeil dans les pays industrialisés a un impact catastrophique sur notre santé, notre espérance de vie, notre sécurité, notre productivité et l’éducation de nos enfants.”

De nombreuses personnes ont désespérément besoin d’aide pour leur santé émotionnelle, mais elles ne parviennent pas à reconnaître les signes et les symptômes de leur état.

C’est un livre de 482 pages qui fournit des détails et des recherches scientifiques étayant ces idées de médecine proactive. J’ai vraiment apprécié la lecture de ce livre et j’ai découvert que la personne la plus âgée de l’histoire était une Française qui a fait du vélo jusqu’à 100 ans et a vécu en bonne santé jusqu’à 122 ans.

 

 

Myth that sports is for the youth

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Medical science and sports science is not set in stone.  We keep learning constantly.  Continuously asking questions and seeking new knowledge is fundamental to science.  It is how science continues to develop.  Science is not a set of facts.  It is a process that makes us learn about our world.  It is constantly changing as we keep learning and trying to figure things out.  Fast after 50 (published in 2015) is a good example of that.

https://www.amazon.ca/Fast-After-50-Race-Strong/dp/1937715264/ref=sr_1_1?crid=UDHPCCLTVX5H&keywords=faster+after+50&qid=1693771353&sprefix=faster+after+50%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-1

Traditional advice from the medical community has been that older people (50 years and older) should avoid strenuous exercise.  It’s dangerous.  Joe Friel reminds us that research has not been done using older athletes.  Medical research is seldom made on athletes.  Also, medical research is seldom made on women.

He gives us specific examples.  Diana Nyad swam, in 2013, 178 km (111 mi) in 53 non-stop hours from Cuba to Florida at age 64.  Bob Scott was an Ironman at age 75.  Libby James, at 76, ran a half-marathon and established a world record for her category.

Speaking as well from personal experience, Joe Friel says we can remain vigorous well into your 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond.  Speaking from personal experience, I maintain that as well.  In my 60s, I am able to easily cycle 125 km in a day for example, as I did last week, just for fun.

Medical studies are usually of normal aging, of people who are sedentary, overweight and unmotivated.  They believe that what’s happening to them is inevitable and they have no control over it.  Joe Friel suggests that the dramatic change around age 70 may be due to societal effects.  The medical community just does not know what is possible.

Scientists need funding for their research.  That type of money is rare.  The best research on aging are longitudinal.  They follow the same people for 20 years.

Joe Friel recommends placing a great emphasis on how hard your workouts are.  High intensity training is the key.  The most powerful anti-aging “pill” available to us is exercise.  “Aging is first and foremost an attitude”.

 

The art of resilience

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We can use children’s DPA experience as a basis to teach coding skills.  They can relate quite easily to the experience.  Here I used the coding app Hopscotch to recreate students experience at the pool.  Students’ swimming skills were being tested to see if they could go to the deep end part of the pool.  They had to swim the length of the pool to be allowed in the deep end.

https://explore.gethopscotch.com/p/12yeh1x3r9

Sometimes though, students are not encouraged to continue their swimming journey, for various reasons.

In the book The art of resilience by Ross Edgly, one of those reasons is debunked.

https://www.amazon.ca/Art-Resilience-Ross-Edgley/dp/0008356939/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+art+of+resilience&qid=1693759485&sprefix=art+of+resilience%2Caps%2C262&sr=8-1

What struck me in this book is that Ross Edgly was not encouraged to swim by swimming coaches.  He was encouraged to practice another sport because he apparently did not have the body of a swimmer.  He was bulky, would not go fast enough.  He started to question the advice of these coaches and the science behind that advice.  He noticed while reading the science that research was mainly done in pool facilities and not in open waters.  His thinking led him to try something that no one had done before: swim in open waters all round the United Kingdom.  That’s more than 2863 km (1779 miles)!  He did that in 157 days.  So much for not being a good body to be able to swim.    He demonstrated a paradigm shift in what we thought the body and mind were capable of.

His motivation was his mindset.  He says that when you are stressed by an external thing, it’s not the thing itself that troubles you but only your judgement of it.  That stress can be wiped out at the moment’s notice by changing your mindset.  When you swim for that long, it’s the mindset that’s most important.  He gives several examples of how he changed his mindset throughout his journey.  Ex: I wasn’t wearing a waistcoat mankini and a gimp mask.  I was wearing an advanced form of swimming technology.  I wasn’t stung by jelly fish… The jelly fish hugged my face.  He also talks about the Power of Seeking a Higher Purpose on the journey.  He did not see a 10 foot wave crashing on a lighthouse, he saw a signpost signalling the way home.  In the end, you have power over your mind – not outside events.

Ross Edgly taught us that anything is possible!

The humble DPA is a paradigm shift

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I just heard on CBC radio that kids won’t do better until teachers get more resources.  Also they mentioned that back to school is more expensive this year.  I must say that there is one thing that Ontario has already in its program that can make huge differences but sadly it is not enforced in the school system by administrators, nor practised by teachers.   I don’t think that anyone will deny that physical education is beneficial but there are so many other things we must do that physical activity just does not get done.  Perhaps, if teachers understood how DPA can impact learning in the short and long term, they might fully support it as opposed to doing lip service to it.

I came across this book in Montreal.  Bougez votre corps pour un cerveau plus fort! by Anders Hansen.  It explains what scientific research has to say about exercise on the brain and learning.  It is not a book about hearsay.  It explains the current scientific research on the relationship between exercise and the brain.  The author is a brain specialist and psychiatrist.

 

 

https://www.archambault.ca/livres/bougez-votre-corps-pour-un-cerveau-plus-fort-comment-l’activit%C3%A9-physique-r%C3%A9g%C3%A9n%C3%A8re-vos-neurones/hansen-anders/9782501154086/?id=3353287&cat=1884314

I found the book in English as well.

https://www.amazon.ca/Real-Happy-Pill-Power-Moving/dp/151072298X

There are so many benefits to physical activity to learning that it is difficult to mention them all here.  Here are some of what Anders Hansen mentions.

  • Research indicates that our lifestyle affects our brain  a lot more than what is usually admitted
  • 20 to 30 small minutes per day is enough to get the benefits
  • Teenagers overcome by stress who need psychological help keep increasing
  • Exchanging one hour of work time for one hour of exercise will make you work more efficiently
  • 5 minutes of exercise is sufficient to reduce the effects of ADHD on children
  • Children who are active improve their ability to focus and are less prone to mood changes or anger
  • People do not know that physical activity is a pill preventing depression
  • Physical activity increases the feeling of self-efficacy. (The mindset to believe in your own ability to succeed)
  • Physical activity boosts your short term and long term memory
  • Physical activity needs to be of the cardio type as opposed to bodybuilding
  • Physical activity has a miraculous effect on imagination and creativity
  • Active children (20 minutes of activity) are doing better in mathematics and reading
  • Children’s ability to focus is improved after only 4 minutes of training
  • When children are active after school their progress in mathematics is obvious
  • Physical activity makes children more intelligent
  • For older adults, physical activity reduces dementia by 40%
  • Physical activity is so humbled compared to pharmaceutical research that its benefits are not discussed in the media
  • It is better to do the activity outdoors than indoors
  • With science most fascinating discoveries, we forgot our most simple remedies

Anders elaborates how scientists came to these fundamental understandings.  As a classroom teacher, I always did DPA with the students, even  by going outside in winter for DPA with my students.  I even had an after school running club, one year.  I wish I had come across that book earlier though.  It might have affected my practice even more.  For people not aware of this research, putting it in practice becomes a teaching paradigm shift.

I don’t know if you remember the PISA scores.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/pisa-scores-by-country

Back in the day, people were shocked at the results.  How could a country like Singapour do better than Canada or the United States.  It was not teaching strategies.  They were doing better because of regular daily physical activity.