I've always tried to live in a healthy way. I tried to eat a healthy diet, but I've been confused by well meant, but wrong nutritional advice, about what a healthy diet is. I've tried to keep fit, in mid-life, to the extent of running marathons for a few years. Generally, I've been able to say, "I'm healthy."
[Edited 2022] However, I've been challenged to take a new interest in health, and I'm amazed at how much I've been able to learn since December 2012. At 70+, I was at least as healthy as I had been 20 years earlier, perhaps as healthy then as I'd ever been in my adult life.[/Edit] The secret of that, was just in becoming more mindful about my own health. That is what I suggest that you do. Proceed quietly but deliberately making an effort to learn more, and to keep better written records of your progress. Take an interest in your own health; you can't expect anyone else to do that for you.
[Edited 2022] Lest I give the impression of perfect health, that's not the case. I've had varicose veins since the age of 30, operated on three times before the age of 50. Still potentially a problem. I weighted 72kg when running marathons at age 56, at age 68 I weighed 95kg and was both unwell and unfit, before discovering Banting. For the last several years my weight has been 73kg to 74kg. I have marginally high blood pressure. I've been told that taking a statin might be helpful. I did try that, but suffered leg cramps. I've got an enlarged prostate, and needed to use a catheter to urinate for a few months until I had a surgical operation. (Very successful.) I have a problematic right knee, better now than 20 years ago when I stopped distance running. I'd like to keep dancing, so I'm trying to protect it a little. The other issue I've had is hives; which I once ascribed to something I was eating, but which I now believe is the result of anxiety. I'm not the sort of person who likes to admit to anxiety, but this web site, the inadequacies of it, concerns me. When I work on this web site the itchy skin goes away. I'm not currently using any medications, although I do get vaccinated, and I have used medications for short time periods in the past.[/Edit]
If you suffer from poor health, a key reason is likely to be misleading information. There is misleading information on supermarket shelves, your mother gave you misleading information; your friends give you misleading information; the news media is full of misleading information. When you go to your doctor, the most likely thing he/she will give you, "the accepted professional advice" which sometimes is even more misleading information. (If you press your doctor, by asking informed questions, if you have your own knowledge, you might also get better information.) Doctors try to keep it simple. They try to protect their own position as professionals. They don't like to say, "I don't know." In public anyway, they don't like to go against the recommendations of their Professional Societies Code of Practice, or the Heart Foundation, or the Diabetes Association, even if they believe that the recommendations of those organisations might be outdated and wrong. There are institutional rules that are intended to ensure the best standard of care for everyone. But institutions are slow to change, and sometimes the accepted code is not longer appropriate.
The whole health field is in a state of rapid change. It used to take 20 and often 30 years for new medical research to get into general knowledge and use. Today that can happen in less than 10 years. Institutions and governments and professional bodies are struggling to keep up. It's not that the Heart Foundation, or the Diabetes Association, or your doctor intended to be caught behind the science. Change takes time and in big organisations, it can take a long time.
My intent in this site is to make some developing new scientific knowledge, good information, easily available to you. I seek to offer reliable advice. It's important that you know, understand, and use basic health knowledge. Very few people have that knowledge. Most of us live in ways that are directly or indirectly causing the lack of health we experience. Probably the most important thing you can do is begin to adjust your lifestyle. But to do that you need a good reason for making changes, reasons you believe, not something I or someone else told you. Change is only possible when YOU believe it. That's one good reason to keep a personal health journal.
There's no money to be made in preventative medicine. Advice on how to live well; is everywhere, but GOOD advice is hard to find, and that's confusing. Most of the disability's people face later in life, are caused by poor lifestyle choices extended over many years. Those choices are often the response to bad information that you believed was "good." People believe they are doing the healthy thing, when in fact, the opposite is true. 50 years ago, before modern scientific knowledge of body metabolism and how food is processed in the body was developed, bad information was the best anyone knew. Sadly, the bad medical information about the cause and treatment of the heart attacks that killed President Eisenhower, is still being offered by many doctors today, with the same result. Except that today we recognise the problems with smoking, and methods of doing blood tests and various scans has vastly improved, but we are still trapped by the idea that fatty deposits, from high blood cholesterol causes heart attacks. Maybe, that's not quite right. The science in this area remains confusing.
Since "The Flexner Report" of 1910 transformed the nature and process of medical education in America, the medical profession has tried to claim the high ground of being "scientific." But in 1992 The International Cochrane Collaboration was formed, because failure to follow the best science was still not common. The collaboration was set up to evaluate the available evidence from randomised controlled trials. We are trying to make progress, in the use of science to improve medicine.
There is good news. Everyone gets older, but it's possible to get older and not become unhealthy. Today, many people are doing exactly that. Modern scientific evidence about the sensible ways to improve your health is available to you. Search for it. The problem is; you've been so thoroughly indoctrinated all your life, that you'll find some of the new science is utterly unbelievable. For instance, vegetarian diets are now considered a second-rate means of nutrition. Animal based foods are considered essential both for satiety and for nutrient density. Besides, saturated fats in your diet are necessary and good for you, and we should seek to eat more of them. All that less fat promotion on the supermarket shelves is nonsense. Saturated fat is not bad for you, does not clog your arteries, and does not cause heart disease. Some of this new science is so contrary to what we've always been told, that perhaps you won't be able to accept it, at first. Continue your research with an open mind. There is better health at the end of the journey. You won't believe what I have to say, (there's no-good reason why you should), and I expect it will take you two years of work to discover your own truth.
The time it takes you to do your own research, is time you must invest. There is no other way forward, the problem is "inside the fortress." Get started, go as fast as you can. In "Triumphs of Experience" (2014) the author George E Vaillant, explains that the few people who die before age 55, usually die because of things they have no control over. Almost all of those who die between 55 and 80 suffer ill health for many years, and often die, because of lifestyle choices over which they have significant control." You don't want to be in this group. You need not be. Find other people who are fellow health searchers to talk to. Some of them will have good ideas that make sense to you.
In "Triumphs of Experience" George E Vaillant, explains that for people over 80, having good genes helps. 55% of the people Vaillant studied who were still alive at 85, were in good health and fully functional. Vascular risk factors, were the main problem for people over 85. (Not dementia as expected.) For most of us, there are many years of successful life ahead.
My own research over (four) [Edit 2024] twelve [/Edit] years has allowed me to develop some useful writing. I'm also following several forums where the latest research is being discussed, and reading new books as recommended to me. The key is to use and maintain a high ability to do the things you enjoy.
[Edit 2022] So what sort of things do I do at age 81?
I'm currently using a phone app called ""Fitify" for a, mostly daily, 40 minute, slowly strength building exercise routine. For a couple of years I did attend a gym, that worked well too. I'm still working as required, although officially retired for 10 years. My wife and I go dancing (ballroom) for about five hours a week, in two sessions. We are in a walking group, 6km to 10km once a week. Hill walking is not a problem. We try to cycle one long ride a week, about 30km. Today, I try to run short distances, sprinting as best I can. I'm using the 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test, by M. Buchheit, using his app on my phone. I've painted an 80 metre straight line course on the footpath close to home. I use it 3 or 4 times a week. Running that 80 metres 4 to 8 times. I'd like to do a 5km park run, I can, but it knocks my knee about, so I don't.[/Edit]
Heart Attack July, 2022
This is very recent, all the details are yet to be discovered. But three of my arteries have "significant blockage" - a surprise to me. That didn't happen recently, it's been a loaded gun for a long time, back when I was too heavy (12 or 15 years ago). In June 2022, I got Covid, and my theory is the Covid was the trigger that fired the gun. Can't be sure about that, but it's a reasonable idea. Can't be sure of the future either, but I'm confident enough that the good work I've done in the last 10 years will be helpful. I am now taking heart medication.
I was told that three of my arteries were severely blocked, and that I was a good candidate for a triple bypass in the future. Stents were ruled out. I also learnt that many people who had run long distances in the past develop calcified arteries. Given a heads-up, I've done more to improve my cardio-vascular fitness since.
Second Angina Attack
In September, 2023 I had a second angina attack. After 3 days in hospital I came home with three stents in a single artery. Since then I've taken to opportunity to go back to the gym, three times a week, and I'm making progress building strength, and cardiovascular capacity. In January, 2024 I began to do 5km Park Runs again. Slow but good things take time.
We should know the health basics, but let me repeat them using George Vaillant's thinking. Good self-care is the answer, stop smoking, use alcohol sparingly, be careful about your weight, control your blood pressure, and get a good education. (Including a good health education.) That's what I'm trying to do too.
