Draw up the golden thread, while relaxing the shoulders - Habit of the Weekr

A more subtle habit, this week.  Take an imaginary thread from the soles of your feet right through your pelvis, then the crown of your head,.  Pull that thread upwards, grow taller.   However this week while pulling your golden thread, all your shoulders to move independently..  Let's not allow our thoracic spine to move as asingle unit, a wire cage, if you will. Instead allow your shoulder blades to be free.

Habit of the week-  Drawer your golden thread, leave your shoulders behind.

Learn something new - Habit of the week

There was lots of talk during the week about mental health, and wellbeing. One discussion I heard dealt with long lead time that will be required to correctly diagnose dementia, and Alzheimer's disease, never mind cure it.  Neuroscientists are in it for the long haul, don't necessarily believe the headlines.  However the program wrapped up with this helpful thought.

What can you do if you have received a diagnosis of dementia,  aside from all the medico's, pathology and testing regimes, what can you do?
This is the recommendation

1. Get physical- do some exercise.  The brain is a vascular organ, it has a rich blood supply,  so whatever is good for the circulatory system is also good for the brain.  Cardiovascular or aerobic exercise stimulates blood flow.  Who hasn't been for a walk to clear the head.  Or got a great idea, while walking.
2. Social.. Connecting with people is good for your grey matter.  Get out that door and see people, make that phone call?  I wonder if screen time counts, ? Probably not.
3. Learn something new.  Extending yourself, mentally is good for the brain.  It is certainly something you can undertake, yourself.  

I have been learning iItalian for more than 20 years, now.  What a joy it is to be able to hear something in Italian and understand, or at least get the gist of it.  To be able to say something in Italian,  is good fun.  The most delightful, surprising thing is to look at life through the prism of another culture. The first response to some weird way something might be expressed in Italian, is to think, " that's strange,  my second response, delight.  My third response,  why do we express the that particular notion the way we do in English.

Here is an example. "This spaghetti has no taste" in Italian becomes "gli spaghetti non sanno di niente". This spaghetti knows nothing.   Ha

Habit of the week Learn something new.  See what delights are in store for you.

Love the FLOTUS = Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States

She has done it again.  Got some headlines for all the right reason... I'm talking about Michelle Obama.  There has been a fun video of various edited clips of her talking to Colbert, having a sack race with Jimmy.  Always fun, graceful.  She even danced on Ellen's show.

This reminds me of the lunch they hosted in July the kids state dinner.... a little late in publishing this on the blog.  Here is the link http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/michele-obamas-lets-move-america-campaign

While you are there you can check out her speech on the video provided.  Oh, and Barack was there, too.

What a role model she is.  She advocates physical activity, growing veg in the garden. and this grand Kids State Dinner is all about healthy meals.  

Lift your breastbone to the sky - Habit of the Week

This habit follows on from last week's lengthen the back of the neck. So if we have been practicing last week's habit, this one will be easier.   So "Lift up your heart".  Just like the metaphor,  when we lift our chest a little it aligns our posture, i.e. spine.   It therefore makes room for our inner organs and aids digestion.  We look better.... All wins, so far.

Mood altering?  What do you think?  I think the reverse is true when we are "downhearted" or we allow our chest to sink low, our posture conveys a negative mood or outlook.  Lifting our breastbone to the sky is like putting a smile on our body.  We look great. and we might just brighten up our world.

This week's habit - Lift your breastbone to the sky.

Lots to talk about - Catalyst

The benefits of interval training were discussed on Tuesday nights Catalyst.  They discussed the benefit of sprints.  They were discussing exercising hard, for 30 second intervals with a four to five minute rest.  Four times.  They noted that you may need a good 20 min warm up.

They suggested that the effects of interval training go all the way to the cellular mitochondria.  These are the power house of the cells.

This training may reduce the effect of free radicals, and lead to improvements in fitness, and slow down the rate of ageing even in the skin......


The guinea pig, whoops, presenter stayed with this training regime for 15 weeks and showed an improvement in body composition, namely a reduction in body fat, an improvement in VO2 max, the measurement of aerobic fitness and in crease in number and activity of mitochondria.
We have met this idea before, Michael Mosely did a documentary on abbreviated training.

I believe these fast sprints confer benefit and should be a part of a good exercise program even for older adults... That is why we have been doing these 8 sec sprints 12 seconds slow, intervals for MORE THAN TEN YEARS now.

Glad everyone else is catching on.
The show, Catalyst, is well worth a look .. I'm sure you can watch this episode on line.  In fact, here is the link http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories - six minutes of exercise

So much to talk about. 4 Corners Documentary - Medical testing

This week, there have been a few remarkable stories in the media which relate to our health, wellbeing and fitness.  Firstly I saw the documentary on Monday night, 4 Corners about the waste in medical tests, scans etc.  Doctors are keen to find answers, we the public demand to know what is going on and everyone is frightened of being sued.  So the number of MRI's have increased.  Turns out that having an MRI does not make a sore back better.  Similarly,  minor keyhole operations on the knee may not be beneficial.  A personal note -  My own daughter had an extremely painful knee whose pain was eased with an op.

It had been suggested, last year, that having an MRI for a bad back may in fact cause the patient to feel worse, when presented with the evidence - to feel a victim of the terrible condition.  However, most of us have some back issues and a majority of people's MRI would not look so good.  The question is then how do those who are in terrible chronic pain manage their condition.

It turns out that many medical items arrived on our health schedules from the '60's and '70's without the evidence that current items require.

An MRI costs a lot of money and now GP's can order them.

One of the GP's in the documentary said that we are uncomfortable living with uncertainty.  ...

Turns out that certainty is very costly indeed.  These unnecessary tests run into the billions of dollars, which is money which could be spent better.  The program gave the example of suicide prevention suggesting 1000 lives could be saved, if some of this wasted money went to suicide prevention.  I think money spent on exercise older adults would reduce falls.

In fitness class, discussion which arose from this show, class members said that it is better to know everything we can about our condition.    I say, too, that information is power. Find out whatever you can about your medical condition.  Class members also gave examples of people who had neglected their medical conditions with terrible or even fatal consequences.

The TV program suggested that we, the patients, could refuse a medical test. However, I think this situation is something for the medical fraternity to tackle.
The government is proposing a line by line review of medical item numbers.
Bring it on. While health shouldn't be about money, as our population ages, and the health budget blows out, it will really start to hurt,,,,,,,,the bottom line.