A member of my family who shall remain nameless has just been found to have raised cholesterol. He/she is very keen to control it by lifestyle changes rather than go on statins so we're working hard at cutting out foods that are high in saturated fat. Not, incidentally, foods high in cholesterol, like eggs and shellfish - have a look at this:
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Healthyhearts/Pages/Cholesterol.aspx
Basically this says "the cholesterol found in food has much less of an effect on the level of
cholesterol in your blood than the amount of saturated fat that you eat". So we're cutting out most dairy food (not much cheese except for a bit of goat/sheep cheese from time to time), particularly cutting out butter and full fat milk and yoghurt, and virtually all red meat that's farmed using conventional farming methods. So grass-fed beef is better than normal beef, and things like venison and pheasants and rabbits and hare and partridges are pretty certainly better than beef and lamb and pork. And fish - great.
Interesting article here about grass-fed beef: http://www.bulletproofexec.com/the-health-benefits-of-grass-fed-meat-part-2/
But it's not straightforward. You might be interested in this article:
http://www.webmd.boots.com/cholesterol-management/news/20131024/saturated-fat-less-harmful-than-thought
My take on all this is that food which is recognisable as food, apart from dairy, and isn't reared intensively is probably OK. What's not OK is to compensate for sacrificing butter by eating mountains of sweet things.
It's quite cheering that you can eat really well without red meat and dairy. But what has intrigued me is that there are plenty of cookbooks for low fat food but very few which simply focus on reducing saturated fats. Why? Anyone got any ideas?
Apart from all this, it's the old story - exercise is really good for you. Boring but true.
Sunday, 27 October 2013
Saturday, 26 October 2013
Have I chosen a good name for this blog?
"Stay fit over 50" was nicely alliterative. Maybe I should have called this one "Stay supple over 60", and move on to "Stay svelte over 70", "Stay agile over 80", "Stay nimble over 90"? Or maybe I'm just being silly.
But more to the point, staying fit, supple, svelte, or even moderately mobile is definitely not easy with a broken metatarsal. This got me rambling through the internet to find something that provided a bit of insight, and brought me to this:
http://www.betterbones.com/bonefracture/speedhealing.pdf
I'm not sure how rigorously peer-reviewed, sensible or thoroughly researched it is, but it's quite interesting. One of the many suggestions is to make sure you get enough protein. Since I suspect very few people have a clue how much protein is enough, I've interpreted this to mean get a bit more protein then you might otherwise. It also suggests exercise as a way of promoting bone healing. I'm wary about this and don't intend to do anything that hurts, or might hurt, or might even remotely possibly hurt. On the other hand, moving around a bit, stretching, and exercising parts of me that are far away from the broken metatarsal does make me feel a bit more like a human being and less like a slug.
Pain relief is another matter. For most purposes (headaches, etc.) I think ibuprofen works fine; for broken bone pain there's a debate. This is worth a read if you don't mind quite a lot of quite technical stuff:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3259713/
My interpretation of this fairly long article is that the evidence for and against anti-inflammatories for the treatment of broken bone pain is fairly shaky but it's possible that they interfere with the healing process and are probably worth avoiding if there's a sensible alternative.
And for those of you who haven't broken anything, I'll try not to bang on about it so much next time.
But more to the point, staying fit, supple, svelte, or even moderately mobile is definitely not easy with a broken metatarsal. This got me rambling through the internet to find something that provided a bit of insight, and brought me to this:
http://www.betterbones.com/bonefracture/speedhealing.pdf
I'm not sure how rigorously peer-reviewed, sensible or thoroughly researched it is, but it's quite interesting. One of the many suggestions is to make sure you get enough protein. Since I suspect very few people have a clue how much protein is enough, I've interpreted this to mean get a bit more protein then you might otherwise. It also suggests exercise as a way of promoting bone healing. I'm wary about this and don't intend to do anything that hurts, or might hurt, or might even remotely possibly hurt. On the other hand, moving around a bit, stretching, and exercising parts of me that are far away from the broken metatarsal does make me feel a bit more like a human being and less like a slug.
Pain relief is another matter. For most purposes (headaches, etc.) I think ibuprofen works fine; for broken bone pain there's a debate. This is worth a read if you don't mind quite a lot of quite technical stuff:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3259713/
My interpretation of this fairly long article is that the evidence for and against anti-inflammatories for the treatment of broken bone pain is fairly shaky but it's possible that they interfere with the healing process and are probably worth avoiding if there's a sensible alternative.
And for those of you who haven't broken anything, I'll try not to bang on about it so much next time.
Thursday, 24 October 2013
The next phase ...
I've been blogging for some time, here: http://stayfitover50.blogspot.co.uk/
But it has just dawned on me (OK, maybe not very bright ... ) that I'm quite a long way past 50. Actually quite a long way past 60, and heading for 70 in the next few months but I don't intend to worry about that yet.
Thing is, getting and staying fit at 50 is not quite the same as at 60-plus. The fundamentals are the same: exercise regularly, don't totally pig out all the time, don't smoke or drink too much, use your common sense, etc. etc. You pretty certainly know all this.
What starts to change is that bodies need a bit more attention and you can't just take them and their fitness for granted. And doctors, whom I try quite hard to avoid, do have their uses.
Which brings me on to the subject of statins. A lot of people I know in my age group are given them by their GPs because their cholesterol levels are higher than they should be (the patients' cholesterol levels, not the GPs - sorry, that was a bit unclear). I'm not a doctor (obviously) so you need to listen to the professionals when big issues like CHD and stroke are the kinds of risks we're talking about, but I think this advice from the Mayo Clinic is REALLY sensible:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/statins/CL00010
Basically, it's saying that if you ONLY have high cholesterol, it's worth talking to your doctor about lifestyle changes before you go on to statins, which of course are not side-effect free - no drugs are. And I'd argue really strongly for exercise, either starting if you haven't done much before, or upping it a bit if you feel you can. Obviously check with your GP first if your health isn't great.
Walking - good exercise, but a slow shuffle for five minutes won't do it. Stride out and keep going for long enough to make yourself feel a bit out of breath. And do it again tomorrow, and the next day ...
Running - this is what I love, and at the moment I'm incapacitated by a broken metatarsal (plastered and on crutches) and it's very, very, very annoying. You see runners in all shapes and sizes and ages so don't think you'll feel weird. Start SLOWLY. If you're not used to exercise, start walking, then walking 50 paces and running 50 paces, and gradually extend the time running. Don't push yourself - if you do you'll either get injured or thoroughly discouraged, and in either case you'll have to stop and that's just stupid. The running magazines all recommend joining a running club. I'm not sure about this for our age group; the clubs are almost always friendly and welcoming, but they assume you're twenty-four and capable of responding to the challenge of doing more and faster. I don't think this is good. Take it at your own speed - if you can manage, after weeks of training, to do a slow 20 minute jog, you've done brilliantly. Most people can't do this.
Swimming - makes you wet and cold but plenty of people like it. As you may have gathered, I don't but that's mainly because I'm rubbish at it.
Dancing - great, for all sorts of reasons.
Going to the gym - I think it's useful if you can't get outside or if you want to vary your exercise.
More about this next time. I'd love to hear your views.
But it has just dawned on me (OK, maybe not very bright ... ) that I'm quite a long way past 50. Actually quite a long way past 60, and heading for 70 in the next few months but I don't intend to worry about that yet.
Thing is, getting and staying fit at 50 is not quite the same as at 60-plus. The fundamentals are the same: exercise regularly, don't totally pig out all the time, don't smoke or drink too much, use your common sense, etc. etc. You pretty certainly know all this.
What starts to change is that bodies need a bit more attention and you can't just take them and their fitness for granted. And doctors, whom I try quite hard to avoid, do have their uses.
Which brings me on to the subject of statins. A lot of people I know in my age group are given them by their GPs because their cholesterol levels are higher than they should be (the patients' cholesterol levels, not the GPs - sorry, that was a bit unclear). I'm not a doctor (obviously) so you need to listen to the professionals when big issues like CHD and stroke are the kinds of risks we're talking about, but I think this advice from the Mayo Clinic is REALLY sensible:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/statins/CL00010
Basically, it's saying that if you ONLY have high cholesterol, it's worth talking to your doctor about lifestyle changes before you go on to statins, which of course are not side-effect free - no drugs are. And I'd argue really strongly for exercise, either starting if you haven't done much before, or upping it a bit if you feel you can. Obviously check with your GP first if your health isn't great.
Walking - good exercise, but a slow shuffle for five minutes won't do it. Stride out and keep going for long enough to make yourself feel a bit out of breath. And do it again tomorrow, and the next day ...
Running - this is what I love, and at the moment I'm incapacitated by a broken metatarsal (plastered and on crutches) and it's very, very, very annoying. You see runners in all shapes and sizes and ages so don't think you'll feel weird. Start SLOWLY. If you're not used to exercise, start walking, then walking 50 paces and running 50 paces, and gradually extend the time running. Don't push yourself - if you do you'll either get injured or thoroughly discouraged, and in either case you'll have to stop and that's just stupid. The running magazines all recommend joining a running club. I'm not sure about this for our age group; the clubs are almost always friendly and welcoming, but they assume you're twenty-four and capable of responding to the challenge of doing more and faster. I don't think this is good. Take it at your own speed - if you can manage, after weeks of training, to do a slow 20 minute jog, you've done brilliantly. Most people can't do this.
Swimming - makes you wet and cold but plenty of people like it. As you may have gathered, I don't but that's mainly because I'm rubbish at it.
Dancing - great, for all sorts of reasons.
Going to the gym - I think it's useful if you can't get outside or if you want to vary your exercise.
More about this next time. I'd love to hear your views.
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