Linking an health article with the study on Moderate drinking

I have previously reported on the possible benefits of moderate drinking alcohol for longevity and cardiovascular health. Drinking alcohol beyond moderate drinking only proves detrimental to health. 

Why moderate drinkers (one or two drinks) live longer than nondrinkers is still a puzzle to me. I understand the benefits of red wine on the cardio vascular health and beer on bone health, it is pretty consistent that more than two drinks takes away any of the benefits and proves only detrimental to your health.

Alcohol related to cancer I have not heard of any benefits. How drink he relates to cancer is worth checking out.

In Men's Journal this month, Melaina Juntti reports four beers, or five glasses of wine a week can be linked to a risk of mental decline. Melaina had previously reported the link between cancer and alcohol. I followed up with her articles with the studies she referred to. Men's Journal has had many articles favoring moderate drinking for their audience. 

The UK study about moderate drinking leading to a possible risk a mental decline is a fairly large study over a period of 30 years. As with any study about drinking alcohol there's always a problem with drinkers understating their actual use. The participants of the study since 1985 showed moderate drinkers had a mental decline in function and viewable loss in parts of the brain. These losses have been associated with various types of dementia. 

With the cancer studies and alcohol there seems to be a strong correlation in seven types of cancer that cause 5.8% of all deaths. “There is strong evidence that alcohol causes cancer at seven sites in the body and probably others. Current estimates suggest that alcohol-attributable cancers at these sites make up 5.8% of all cancer deaths world-wide.” 

Liberty trike - Easy to assemble, biking with electric
assistance. 5 speeds up to 11 or 12 miles an hour. 

You can look at the links below yourself and decide for yourself. With heavier drinking there are different mental impairments that we should all be concerned about. If you are a moderate drinker make sure you back that up with just a drink a day and once and while two. If you don’t drink don’t start recommended by lifestyle doctors like Dr, Cooper. 

Will studies like this cause public policy to change? For example in Chicago they are trying to tax sugary drinks to reduce soda pop consumption. Alcohol and tobacco are both heavily taxed. Will alcohol be penalized like the tobacco industry bring back some sort of political prohibition? 

Health changes should be for personal and knowledgable reasons. Life as brief as it is should be enjoyed. Health enthusiasts can be overzealous and legalistic. Our tendency to do these things maybe why I kicked back against political correctness. 

What is healthy? What is beneficial? You are in control of your health. You live your life, your medical team can help you. Your careful reading may give you insights that can guide you. Choice is exactly that. Keep walking  

http://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/articles/just-5-drinks-a-week-can-damage-your-brain-w493425?utm_source=mjnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=072117_11

http://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/357/bmj.j2353.full.pdf

http://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/articles/drinking-can-cause-cancer-what-you-need-to-know-w430950

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.13477/full

Baseball and memorial Day

My dad, (Norm or Jake) , Anita the oldest ,
and Cliff all served in the Navy

Cliff and Anita were old enough to serve in WW2. My dad was just underage. They all served in the Pacific. Cliff served in combat, I will look up the ship he served on. Where did Anita serve? I will have to check it out. She married an Navy officer and pilot.
My day served to young and found out and served in a kitchen in Guam. When he got of age they reissued rank and gear. On Guam he went souvenir hunting and had some adventures with the "gooks" as he called them who were still fighting on the island. He discovered bodies with out heads in the many tunnels and caves which ended the adventures,

Haven't the Cubs been playing well. My Dad listen to the World Series from Guam. He would've enjoyed this year's team. He would get a kick out of Joe Madden.
nita, Cliff, and Jake were Cub fans.baseball was important to the GI's. Civil war Soldiers darn near  invented the game. The made up the early pro leagues and mangers. Run a flag, see a grave and watch the Cubs.

Can we accept who we are?

I was writing a devotional from my book "Walking with Jesus, a walker's view". I was thinking about gifted and ordinary people. They all begin the same way as babies. We have the idea of unlimited potential with each little one. That's a good idea but as we see life unfold most of us wind up ordinary.  What do you think?
"How God works with each of us includes weather we are ordinary or gifted. Every child can play the game of sports, but not every child is going to be a professional player. Every child hopefully goes to school, but not every child is a genius. Every child is beautifully and wonderfully made, but not every child will have stunning looks. We need to understand that God does not look at the ordinary the way we do. God loves ordinary people that is why he made so many of them."

"People often throw away the gifts that God gives and they live selfishly and even stupidly. But an ordinary person who walks with God whether we ever recognize it or not, we will find out in heaven God's value of that ordinary life." 

Can we accept who we are? Can we value ordinary?

Making goals and habits

Our Daily Bread this week had a great devotion on Instant Gratification By David C. McCasland that I like you to read at http://odb.org/2014/03/03/instant-gratification/ Our Daily Bread can be a great habit.

Planning and goals are more productive than instant success. Being older there is the importance of the here and now, but some things still take time to happen. When it comes to health we may need to start today but results still take time. Clint Eastwood was interviewed on TV and he was asked how he still looked fit. His answer was simple and wise. He responded, "habits developed a long time ago". He still kept doing the things he had done since early in his career. He also talked about his love of music that he stilled loved and enjoyed. Mr. Eastwood had developed some good habits including his growth in the art of movie making. Gene Hackman, retired from acting has developed a love to write novels. Living is a good habit to keep doing as we age. We may have to make some changes.
When it comes to our health, it's good to make goals that won't happen tomorrow, or the next day, or in two weeks. I was just looking at an advertisement for following a particular diet plan, and it said in 21 days you can lose 10 pounds. The "then had a before picture". There had to be at least 60 pounds difference in the two pictures. Not that the ad was lying, but it took more than three weeks to lose that weight. A lot of times we look at those kind of ads or we look at ourselves and if we are not losing a lot of weight right away, we get discouraged and quit.

That's why think it's much better to make a goal to be healthy, to lose weight, or to get more fit but don't put those kind of expectations of great loss fitness or health right away. Instead let's take a look at putting the right habits into our life. For example, you may work or have a pension or some type of retirement plan where you have money coming in a regular basis. You take that money and you go to the grocery store and buy your groceries. You fill your gas tank up, you you plan for the things that you need to spend for that month and for things that you want to do. And then you know when you go cook a meal your or go to the store you have already provided the means to do that. It's a matter of a good habit. What are good habits that we can develop on health. They may take five months to actually make it a habit. According to Dr. Cooper says habit formation like seeing the size of a plate that is a good helping for heath that becomes automatic can take five months.  What habits are we talking about:
Well one, the habit of this the three-quarter plate looking at a plate filled with vegetables and an fruit with smaller amounts of carbohydrates and protein, not having to fill the plate. If we only eat one helping I guarantee you you're doing something that is going to help your health.
Two, the habit maybe to go for a walk for 30 minutes every day. It's not the change in one day that you'll see but in the several weeks you'll begin to feel all the benefits of that walk. In a couple months your health numbers will be better. When you start you might be a little sore. That's why we start walking where we ease into it. In time, a 30 minute walk is going to help you with your blood sugar, weight, breathing, health because you're getting a blood all moving throughout your body and the immune system always get a kick to be better that day. Read up on the benefits of walking, http://www.startwalkingnow.org/whystart_benefits_walking.jsp
http://www.sharecare.com/health/walking/article/walking-benefits
Three, another good habit is to drink eight glasses of water every day. Some of that water can be a cup of coffee or tea, but having a lot of fluids throughout the day, will help your health and believe me you're you're going to strengthen your immune system and you're going to be fighting cancer, heart disease, diabetes practicing these three habits and see change over time. Good health is something that we work at and it does take time to make the habit of it. Being in my 60's now, I don't need to look like I'm in my 20's trying to be one of those before-and-after ads. But I do want to better health. Keep walking

The Fat man rules - note #17

As a fan of NCIS, I have bought into the humor of the investigative team as they have become like family to each other. The show is relationship driven as each plays their role to bring bad people to justice. Apparently Gibbs has 69 rules that his team keeps track of and try to follow. The viewer is not aware of them all but about half of them are known. These rules are shared like absolutes but the team and Gibbs regularly breaks them. Which leads to the one rule they all keep; "all rules have exceptions."

Here are some of the rules of the fatman:

1. Walk every day (swim, run, bike)
2. Do some form of resistant training 2 to 3 times a week
3. The older you get move and stretch for flexibility each day
4. Do the fatman exercises to be able to get off the floor and bed - to keep living
5. Think of shores to be done as therapy
6. Do fun activities you enjoy that moves
7. Learn to eat moderately
8. Eat 5 is fine, 9 divine servings fruits of vegetables a day
9. Eat one to two meals with fish every week
10. Develop your health team
11. With diet and exercise do it well 80% of the time (forget about being perfect)
12. Drink 8 glasses of water
13. When retired keep it all moving, 
14. Enjoy your sleep, but move through out your day
15. Talk with at least one person each day
16. Keep learning
17. Remember "all rules have exeptions" Keep walking

Why we play the game - life?

All the greats have been here

This week's superbowl was a blow out, the game settled early. One team and fans elated and another team and their fans deflated. In general most people were rooting for Payton Manning and still taken back by the rudeness of Richard Sherman. Winning doesn't change that, but it shows again defense wins championships. The game's lopsidedness was re-mindful of the Bears winning the game in 85. Different from rudeness the Bears were bold and daring as they sang the Superbowl shuffle. In the game they were stronger, faster, and at every point dominate. Seattle's game was the same. On the run of the Bears like Joe Namath's prediction in Superbowl 3, they had fun. I think Seattle did too. Richard Sherman's tantrum leaves a bad taste in my mouth, the smell of it is fowl, the touch is cold and harsh, the sound and sight of it speaks for itself.
The 85 bears long since retired remain heroes in Bear lore. They will always be the team bigger than two coaches and as big as the city with broad shoulders. Seattle will have their heroes too. Sherman as talented as they come, will get other opportunities. Will he learn and man up? If he does he too may be the better.
I came across a quote John Wooden was used to saying and his players never forgot it. "When the great scorer comes to Mark against your name, he writes not that you won or lost but how you played the game." Grantland Rice I think that is largely forgotten by today's athlete. Every athlete if he or she stays in the game long enough will face defeat. Y.A. Tittle ends his career bloodied and broken, Johnny U on the bench. Brett Fayre cold and old looking, Ali can't punch back, Michael Jordon can't get back to the championship. Defeat is part of the game. For a champion and competitor it will come back to how you played the game? No one is perfect and in our youth and strength we may have be unwise at times. If the game somehow didn't challenge us and made us better for the process; we may have forgotten why we play the game. Somewhere between the joy of it and the lessons learned is the balance. Keep walking.