Dec 19th, 2018
I've read books, listened to podcasts and talked a lot about health with others. Here's what I've learned.
First off - life is short, it really is. And even though you have hopefully 70-80+ healthy years on the planet, those years will pass quickly. Why? Because there is so much to fit in:
Childhood
School
University (+ Post Grad?)
Young work & party years
Marriage
Children
Middle and later working years
Traveling
Reading
Retirement
Hobbies
and on and on..
I lived in London for a year, and I love this quote.
Samuel Johnson was quoted as saying "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life". But really this can apply to any place, time or life. There are endless things to do in life, and as long as you've not grown tired of them you will keep finding more to enjoy!
Wait isn't this about books on health?
Well I suppose it should be given the blog title, but why try to be healthy? Well suffice it to say it improves your odds at a better lifestyle, longer life and more enjoyable time on the planet. The cruelest part of life for most is that we age and get old. If you didn't - I bet you'd live your life much differently. But aside from the Holy Grail, Fountain of Youth, becoming a Vampire or other hocus pocus life extension techniques, there aren't many significant youth and life extending options in modern day medicine. Your best bet is to live as healthy as you can.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or health professional. Even though I've learned a lot through self study I can't tell you what to do, instead this is my own experience from what I've read.
I read in National Geographic many years ago that having a healthy heart is 50% genetic and 50% lifestyle. The point of this is you can't control everything about your health as much of who you are and your health success in life is based on what's encoded in your DNA. However, we can control a lot. If you have some poorly encoded genes in your DNA, you can try to help avoid them expressing potential negative traits through lifestyle, diet, etc.. especially with professional help and advice. Similarly you can help your positive genes express positive traits.
This is where health books come in. They explain how the body works and why you should do certain things with your lifestyle to improve your health. Mostly recently I've read:
Dirty Genes - A look into some key genes that are thought to govern certain health conditions and how to help improve them
The Longevity Code - A look at how cells age and how lifestyle affects the speed of aging
The Telomere Effect - A look at how telomeres (the little buffer zones at the end of your DNA) shorten and hence age cells, and how lifestyle affects it
What I can say about books like this is that if they are founded on good science and research they hold some interesting lessons into how the body works. I still feel like 500 years from now we will look back and see how little we knew overall, but until then I think these types of books are a good read!
May I summarize however the strategy in many of these books to help your health:
Eat healthy food - views on healthy vary, and it's likely to be subjective so consult a nutritionist, however as a general rule eat fresh organic whole foods and skip processed, carb filled, sugary chemical filled foods
Exercise your body - try to be active to some extent everyday. Depending on your age and general condition, being active can mean different things. An elite athlete may work out for 4 hours a day at a high intensity. For someone who's 85, it may mean a walk around the block. Consult your doctor on what's right for you
Sleep well - this can mean 6-9 hours of solid sleep a night to make sure your mind and body can recover and be ready to take on the day. Poor sleep affects you in so many negative ways
Be mindful - social media, friends, traffic, work, school and more cause all kinds of stress. Stress I imagine will be more and more recognized as a major issue to health. Get on top of it with yoga, meditation and restful times
Don't smoke. Ever - Every cigarette you smoke is killing your body. Stop it right now if you're doing it. It can increase chances of cancer, heart disease, bad skin, bad breath, hair loss, grey hair, etc, etc, etc.. It's not worth it
Relationships - Build solid meaningful relationships that last. These people will not only make you happy, but can help you during tough times. Humans are a social species, you will feel better with great family and friends
Now there is certainly more than just this in the books, but almost every health book I've read highlights these or at least a subset of them. The books help you learn why these are important and it's that learning which helps you be motivated to keep improving because you understand what happens if you don't.
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