Gradually… How do people get healthy? One little bit by little bit at a time. So it seems to work with exercise. Gretchen Reynolds did a nice short review in the July 9th, New York Times on studies of short versus “long” exercise. One group studied – young men from Beijing. Monitors looked at changes […]
Making the World Stupid (12/05/12)
The Nature of Intelligence Item: Put people in rooms where carbon dioxide is more than 600 ppm and watch analytic reasoning and thinking decline. Higher levels – dumber answers. If present trends continue, global levels may hit 1000 ppm at the end of the century. Everywhere. Item: Cognitive decline is accelerated when people don’t physically […]
Why People Won’t Sweat (12/03/12)
Immovable News note: 3.5% of Americans aged 18-59 do 150 minutes or more of moderate physical activity per week – the minimum recommended by the government for health (Gina Kolata, NY Times, 11/20/12). Only 96.5% of the younger adult population is not doing the minimum required exercise. It’s 97.5% for those over 59. Taking away the […]
How Much Exercise is Enough? (10/31/12)
Lots of people ask me how much they should exercise. First I have to ask them what they think “exercise” is. What Is Exercise? Any use of voluntary muscle. The body is an information processing unit which considers and takes account of innumerable elements of which we are not consciously aware – like how physical […]
Why We Don’t Resist Fad Diets (8/21/12)
Resistance is Futile? People often ask me why folks – particularly women – are so prone to fad diets. I tell them there are lots of reasons. One big one – lying is in. If national leaders lie about wars, extramarital affairs and criminal acts, why can’t hucksters ply new heights of health hype? And […]