'The Grit' is a TakePart series that presents global news, pulverized. The author is a British journalist who has been writing about world events for more than a decade, and still thinks there is a future for the human race.
How old do you plan to be when you shuffle off this mortal coil, breathe your last, cash in your chips, buy the farm, finally log out, or otherwise quietly leave the frame? 80? 90? 100? If it’s anywhere near the latter, you may want to try moving to Japan.
We know people in Britain, Japan, Australia, and Canada live longer than Americans. What we didn't know is that America isn't catching up. According to a new joint U.K./U.S. study, it's falling behind.
American men can expect to live to 75. American women should get to 80. In Japan, where life expectancy is the best in the world, men make 79, women 86. Worryingly for Americans, those relative gaps are growing.
Why? The answer is poverty, wealth, and ambition. Yes, wealth. We'll get to that.
Let's deal with poverty first. If you are poor in America, you are far more likely to die young than poor people in comparable nations. Our British/American researchers contend this has nothing to do with population size, racial diversity, or economics, and everything to do with inequality.
Life is so grim for some communities in the Deep South, Appalachia, and parts of northern Texas, that average life expectancy for a man is around 67. If you reside in a really poor household, smoking, obesity, and high-fat, high-salt junk food diets quickly set you on the wrong path. The country’s negligible healthcare finishes you off.
The American medical system is no friend of people without money, and any country that makes it more rewarding to be a cosmetic surgeon than a community doctor is tossing a large part of its population to the dogs.
But is this the only reason why America comes 38th in the world life expectancy rankings? Them pesky poor people distorting the average?
Partly. But there's another killer out there...
This one creeps up on the non-smokers who cut down on the alcohol, take regular exercise, and munch hungrily on those delicious tofu sandwiches. This killer goes for motivated, switched-on people like you.
Ambition.
To create a society that massively over-rewards its winners, you need a high proportion of losers. A lot of these “losers” will be the sort of people who bust their guts to land a good job, strive to achieve the status they see their contemporaries achieving, and...don't quite make it to billionaire's row.
Healthy pressure is a good thing; unhealthy pressure causes stress, and stress kills.
Setting your sights on putting a Ferrari on the drive and sacrificing everything to achieve it isn't healthy. Pushing your employees to the limit in search of the next big deal isn't healthy. And corporate America requires its minions to stress in spades.
If you already take care of your physical health, the best thing you can do right now is accept you're not going to be the next President of the United States or a multimillionaire captain of industry, and act accordingly. Chill out.
So that's what poverty and ambition are doing for America's life expectancy—what about wealth? How on earth can unlimited funds be unhelpful?
As every rich American knows, the best medical facilities on the planet are just a phone call away. And that, apparently, is the problem.
According to one academic, even for the rich, the American medical system has no interest in longevity for its own sake, as living long and well is not profitable.
“Doctors are not necessarily mainly interested in [peoples’] health but work for organisations that have to make an income...You make more money out of a patient who spends more on many drugs and investigatory operations than one who lives longer with less intervention.”
In other words, the health industry in America exists to flog as many drugs and medical procedures as it can. It might lose the patient, but another will be along any minute.
It’s a bleak assessment, because the problem cuts across every social strata. The unequal society, with its winner- takes-all culture, makes America what it is. It’s also the cancer which is (prematurely) killing the patient.
Read more:
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Leadership
Leadership is the most crucial choice one can make—it is the decision to step out of darkness into the light.
Bestselling author and spiritual guide Deepak Chopra invites you to become the kind of leader most needed today: a leader with vision who can make that vision real. Chopra has been teaching leadership to CEOs and other top executives for eight years, and the path outlined in The Soul of Leadership applies to any business, but the same principles are relevant in every community and area of life, from family and home to school, place of worship, and neighborhood. “At the deepest level,” Chopra writes, “a leader is the symbolic soul of a group.”
With clear, practical steps, you are led through the crucial skills outlined in the acronym L-E-A-D-E-R-S:
L = Look and Listen
E = Emotional Bonding
A = Awareness
D = Doing
E = Empowerment
R = Responsibility
S = Synchronicity
After identifying your own soul profile and the core values you want to develop, you can use these seven skills to allow your potential for greatness to emerge. Only from the level of the soul, Chopra contends, are great leaders created.
Once that connection is made, you have unlimited access to the most vital qualities a leader can possess: creativity, intelligence, organizing power, and love.
The Soul of Leadership aims to fill the most critical void in contemporary life, the void of enlightened leaders. “You can be such a leader,” Chopra promises. “The path is open to you.
The only requirement is that you learn to listen to your inner guide.” In this unique handbook you are shown how to do just that, in words as practical as they are uplifting. The future is unfolding at this very minute, and the choice to lead it lies with each of us, here and now.
Bestselling author and spiritual guide Deepak Chopra invites you to become the kind of leader most needed today: a leader with vision who can make that vision real. Chopra has been teaching leadership to CEOs and other top executives for eight years, and the path outlined in The Soul of Leadership applies to any business, but the same principles are relevant in every community and area of life, from family and home to school, place of worship, and neighborhood. “At the deepest level,” Chopra writes, “a leader is the symbolic soul of a group.”
With clear, practical steps, you are led through the crucial skills outlined in the acronym L-E-A-D-E-R-S:
L = Look and Listen
E = Emotional Bonding
A = Awareness
D = Doing
E = Empowerment
R = Responsibility
S = Synchronicity
After identifying your own soul profile and the core values you want to develop, you can use these seven skills to allow your potential for greatness to emerge. Only from the level of the soul, Chopra contends, are great leaders created.
Once that connection is made, you have unlimited access to the most vital qualities a leader can possess: creativity, intelligence, organizing power, and love.
The Soul of Leadership aims to fill the most critical void in contemporary life, the void of enlightened leaders. “You can be such a leader,” Chopra promises. “The path is open to you.
The only requirement is that you learn to listen to your inner guide.” In this unique handbook you are shown how to do just that, in words as practical as they are uplifting. The future is unfolding at this very minute, and the choice to lead it lies with each of us, here and now.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Your Body’s Natural Process of Renewal
The Stem Cell Theory of Renewal proposes that stem cells are naturally released by the bone marrow and travel via the bloodstream toward tissues to promote the body’s natural process of renewal.
When an organ is subjected to a process that requires renewal, such as the natural aging process, this organ releases compounds that trigger the release of stem cells from the bone marrow.
The organ also releases compounds that attracts stem cells to this organ.
The released stem cells then follow the concentration gradient of these compounds and leave the blood circulation to migrate to the organ where they proliferate and differentiate into cells of this organ, supporting the natural process of renewal.
Your Body's Natural Process of Renewal
When an organ is subjected to a process that requires renewal, such as the natural aging process, this organ releases compounds that trigger the release of stem cells from the bone marrow.
The organ also releases compounds that attracts stem cells to this organ.
The released stem cells then follow the concentration gradient of these compounds and leave the blood circulation to migrate to the organ where they proliferate and differentiate into cells of this organ, supporting the natural process of renewal.
Your Body's Natural Process of Renewal
Friday, January 14, 2011
Aging: Mediterranean Diet as Brain Food
The Mediterranean diet — heavy on vegetables, fish and olive oil, with moderate amounts of wine— may be associated with slower rates of mental decline in the elderly.
Some previous studies have suggested that the diet has beneficial effects for the brain, but the evidence has not been strong. A new report analyzed data from a continuing study of 3,790 Chicago residents 65 and older that began in 1993. The researchers tested the subjects’ mental acuity at three-year intervals, and tracked their degree of adherence to the Mediterranean diet on a 55-point scale.
High scores for adherence to the diet were associated with slower rates of cognitive decline, even after controlling for smoking, education, obesity, hypertension and other factors.
The study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, has significant strengths in its prospective design, large sample and use of a well-validated dietary questionnaire. But the authors acknowledged that they could not account for all possible variables, and cautioned that it was an observational study that draws no conclusions about cause and effect.
Read full article here:
Some previous studies have suggested that the diet has beneficial effects for the brain, but the evidence has not been strong. A new report analyzed data from a continuing study of 3,790 Chicago residents 65 and older that began in 1993. The researchers tested the subjects’ mental acuity at three-year intervals, and tracked their degree of adherence to the Mediterranean diet on a 55-point scale.
High scores for adherence to the diet were associated with slower rates of cognitive decline, even after controlling for smoking, education, obesity, hypertension and other factors.
The study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, has significant strengths in its prospective design, large sample and use of a well-validated dietary questionnaire. But the authors acknowledged that they could not account for all possible variables, and cautioned that it was an observational study that draws no conclusions about cause and effect.
Read full article here:
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a complete healing system, part of the Chinese Medical model often producing amazing results. It is performed by certified practitioners and physicians to treat certain medical conditions.
Acupuncture is a therapy that has been used for centuries. It is philosophy-based medicine, and constitutes a main component of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Acupuncture is a wonderful complement to western medicine, but is not a substitute for it. It is also starting to make inroads into veterinary medicine.
It is performed with sterilized, thin, filamentous needles. It is a relatively safe treatment in the hands of a competent practitioner.
It is supported by scientific research as a physical therapy aimed at healing body, mind, and sprit. Acupuncture is a method of encouraging the body to promote natural healing and improve function. In this context acupuncture is one of the safest of therapies.
Acupuncture is thought to be most effective when practiced regularly over a period of time. It has been used for centuries to treat a wide variety of medical conditions, including headaches, high blood pressure, back pain, infertility, and more recently as a method to help people quit smoking. Acupuncture has also been used in the treatment of alcoholism and substance abuse.
Read more:
Acupuncture is a therapy that has been used for centuries. It is philosophy-based medicine, and constitutes a main component of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Acupuncture is a wonderful complement to western medicine, but is not a substitute for it. It is also starting to make inroads into veterinary medicine.
It is performed with sterilized, thin, filamentous needles. It is a relatively safe treatment in the hands of a competent practitioner.
It is supported by scientific research as a physical therapy aimed at healing body, mind, and sprit. Acupuncture is a method of encouraging the body to promote natural healing and improve function. In this context acupuncture is one of the safest of therapies.
Acupuncture is thought to be most effective when practiced regularly over a period of time. It has been used for centuries to treat a wide variety of medical conditions, including headaches, high blood pressure, back pain, infertility, and more recently as a method to help people quit smoking. Acupuncture has also been used in the treatment of alcoholism and substance abuse.
Read more:
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Ancient Acai – The Brazilian Amazon’s Super-Berry
Acai (ah-sigh-ee) is a small purple berry from the Brazilian Amazon that has been found to be one of the most nutritious and powerful foods on the planet – jam packed with antioxidants, healthy omega fats, amino acids and dietary fiber.
Ancient Acai - the purple berry with an energy punch has been enjoyed and used as a subsistence food by the natives of the Amazon region for millennia. But it is only now beginning to become known to the American consumer, looking for ways to slow the aging process and maintain vibrant health.
Amazonian acai is establishing itself as an important superfood - gaining popularity with the healthconscious crowd.
Antioxidants help the body get rid of free radicals. The body produces free radicals when it digests food, metabolizes medicine and fights disease, so they are necessary parts of the human condition, but a buildup can damage the body. Antioxidants are credited with preventing coronary artery disease, some cancers, macular degeneration, Alzheimer's disease, and some arthritis-related conditions. according to WebMD.com.
Pomegranates, blueberries -- even wine, chocolate and coffee -- contain high levels of antioxidants. The U.S. Department of Agriculture measures those levels with something called an ORAC score -- Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity.
Acai berries have nearly eight times higher ORAC scores than pomegranate, which is near the top of published charts.
Read more here:
Ancient Acai - the purple berry with an energy punch has been enjoyed and used as a subsistence food by the natives of the Amazon region for millennia. But it is only now beginning to become known to the American consumer, looking for ways to slow the aging process and maintain vibrant health.
Amazonian acai is establishing itself as an important superfood - gaining popularity with the healthconscious crowd.
Antioxidants help the body get rid of free radicals. The body produces free radicals when it digests food, metabolizes medicine and fights disease, so they are necessary parts of the human condition, but a buildup can damage the body. Antioxidants are credited with preventing coronary artery disease, some cancers, macular degeneration, Alzheimer's disease, and some arthritis-related conditions. according to WebMD.com.
Pomegranates, blueberries -- even wine, chocolate and coffee -- contain high levels of antioxidants. The U.S. Department of Agriculture measures those levels with something called an ORAC score -- Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity.
Acai berries have nearly eight times higher ORAC scores than pomegranate, which is near the top of published charts.
Read more here:
Monday, November 1, 2010
Corn Syrup -- More High Fructose Than We Thought?
More and more food companies are catching on - have you seen the "contains no high fructose corn syrup" on food labels? There is good reason for this.
Here is a recent news article:
For years, nutritionists and industry officials alike have considered the merits of high-fructose corn syrup with one key fact in mind: At a chemical level, it has nearly equal levels of fructose and glucose.
As it turns out, that may not be true after all.
A new study published in the journal Obesity measured the amounts of different types of sugars in 23 kinds of drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup. And they found that several brands contained corn syrup made up of 65 percent fructose, not 55 percent, which has been the commonly cited statistic until now. The average percentage of fructose in the drinks is 59.
Because fructose has been proved to be worse for your health than glucose, these findings will likely only further damage the already faltering brand of high-fructose corn syrup, which the Corn Refiners Association has attempted to rescue with a series of television ads and a name change to "corn sugar."
Several experts, however, including but not limited to the Corn Refiners Association, have pointed out serious problems with the "obesity" study, suggesting that more samples were required and that the very high-fructose drinks could have been mixed differently at a stage in their process that does not reflect on HFCS generally.
Read more at Foodpolitics.com
Here is a recent news article:
For years, nutritionists and industry officials alike have considered the merits of high-fructose corn syrup with one key fact in mind: At a chemical level, it has nearly equal levels of fructose and glucose.
As it turns out, that may not be true after all.
A new study published in the journal Obesity measured the amounts of different types of sugars in 23 kinds of drinks sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup. And they found that several brands contained corn syrup made up of 65 percent fructose, not 55 percent, which has been the commonly cited statistic until now. The average percentage of fructose in the drinks is 59.
Because fructose has been proved to be worse for your health than glucose, these findings will likely only further damage the already faltering brand of high-fructose corn syrup, which the Corn Refiners Association has attempted to rescue with a series of television ads and a name change to "corn sugar."
Several experts, however, including but not limited to the Corn Refiners Association, have pointed out serious problems with the "obesity" study, suggesting that more samples were required and that the very high-fructose drinks could have been mixed differently at a stage in their process that does not reflect on HFCS generally.
Read more at Foodpolitics.com
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