Hello dear reader,
After a short break, it’s good to be back. I hope you enjoy today’s article and that it inspires you along your health journey.
If you do, please like it 👍 or share it ✉️ with a friend. A massive thank you to those of you who do so regularly. If you don’t like it, well, that’s also helpful feedback.
For the last several years, my health was in the backseat while I navigated other aspects of life. But I’m trying to fix that. Not because I'm looking to strut like a peacock on the beach. I just fancy not being dead sooner than I need to be. l also want to improve my quality of life if I can.
A literary lighthouse guiding my health journey is Dr Peter Attia's book Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity. He states that in 1900, most people were likely to die from “fast” causes:
accidents
injuries
infectious diseases
Humanity has made considerable progress in reducing deaths from these causes. Life expectancy has more than doubled since 1900.
But these days, most people are likely to kick the bucket from “slow” causes linked to one of the chronic diseases of ageing:
heart disease
cancer
neurodegenerative disease
type 2 diabetes and related metabolic dysfunction
Like the growth of an alien tree, many of these diseases can take years or decades to evolve in your body. Statistically, many readers of this newsletter are already unwittingly busy dying slowly from these diseases.
The good news is that many of these maladies are hitched to our lifestyle choices and preventable to varying degrees. A 2014 study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that in the US, 20-40% of deaths from the five leading causes could be prevented.
This is understandable if you look at what causes most deaths. We're basically committing a slow suicide. This chart shows how deaths in the United States could be reduced if the “risk factors” to which a population is exposed were eliminated (e.g. alcohol use) or reduced to an optimal, healthy level (e.g. body-mass index).
Now, I don't mean to belittle modern medicine. Its accomplishments are miraculous. But it tends to focus on mending what's broken rather than preventing the breakage in the first place.
In the EU, less than 3% of healthcare is spent on preventative care. Statistics are similar elsewhere.
Preventative measures can be way more impactful than treatments. Like the humble smoking ban, which has saved more lives than lung cancer treatments ever could.
Despite the obvious value of prevention, most of us, myself included, don’t have a dedicated health mentor guiding us towards long-term well-being. Aside from the occasional check-up, I only visit the doctor when unwell.
Although I’ve always exercised, I’ve never done it with specific health goals in mind. It’s also been for general “fitness” or some activity (e.g. a marathon). I didn’t know, for example, the insane longevity benefits of improving muscle mass, muscle strength and VO2 max. From the New York Times:
A 40% decrease in mortality risk with relatively little effort. That’s insane.
So this is why I’m trying to be more proactive about my health and take it more seriously. I haven’t become a kale-drinking CrossFit Ironman yoga freak. I’m just progressively trying to get the foundations right: sleep, exercise, nutrition and mental health. I’m aiming for consistency over intensity, trying to build a routine that’s easy to follow and enjoyable. Something I can stick to for years.
I'm also sifting through the noise to understand my body better, poring over books, podcasts, and YouTube content and roping in the odd professional. It's a complex labyrinth, so the process is gradual and ongoing and will take years.
Fast forward a few months into my renewed road to wellness, and I’m chuffed with the dividends. Apart from hoping to add a few (good) years to my life, my current quality of life has rocketed. I'm sleeping better, brimming with energy, and less anxious. My increased vitality has infused new life into my time spent with my two young kids. And better posture and feeling more comfortable in my skin have boosted my confidence.
If you're thinking, 'But I'm too old for this', here’s an 82-year-old lady deadlifting almost 100kg.
We live busy lives, often chasing wealth at the expense of health. It’s an irony considering that few monetary investments yield returns better than an investment in health. Without your health, a flashy car and fancy beach house mean nothing. Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, hit the nail on the head:
"A healthy man wants a thousand things. A sick man only wants one."
*If you want to a little dig deeper into the ideas discussed in today’s newsletter, I highly recommend these short and easy-to-digest podcast interviews with Dr Attia and Dr Daniel Lieberman, Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.
If you enjoyed today’s edition, please give the like bottom below a click. Have a great (and healthy) weekend.
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