HOW GOOD IS EXERCISE FOR SENIORS? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS!

A new review of reviews of the benefits of exercise tells us that exercise is as close as we're likely to get to a panacea.

Seniors exercising

Credit: Asahia/Wikimedia Commons

Writing in the Scandanavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, an international team of researchers reviewed all of the highest quality reviews and meta-analyses to date on the relationship between exercise and health in people in their sixties or older. The smallest group studied comprised 855 individuals, while the largest study tracked more than 400,000. The results are impressive:

If you're 60 or more and physically active, compared to your less-active peers, you're:

     22 percent less likely to die from any cause during a comparable time period

     25 to 40 percent less likely die from cardiovascular disease

     12 percent less likely to develop breast or prostate cancer

     29 to 39 percent less likely to fracture a bone

     50 percent less likely to become disabled (unable to perform basic activities              of daily living)

     26 to 38 percent less likely to experience cognitive decline or impairment

     32 to 42 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's Disease

     14 to 21 percent less likely to develop some other kind of dementia

     17 to 21 percent less likely to suffer from depression

      and significantly more likely to experience healthy aging, a better
      quality of life and more years spent in good mental and physical health.

To some extent, the range of outcomes comes from different studies using different criteria. However, for most of these relationships, more exercise produced better outcomes. The researchers conclude that any amount of physical activity has some benefit, but recommend at least 75 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity.

"Physical activity plays a key role in the 'compression of morbidity,'" the authors write, "decreasing the time spent in ill-health as people age and ensuring that an increase in life expectancy is also an increase in life-time spent in good health."

Not a bad payoff for investing at 10 to 15 minutes a day exercising.

-----

REA




   

TRUMP TO ATTACK SANCTUARY CITIES

The New York Times reported today that the Trump administration is planning to deploy heavily armed border patrol tactical units to hunt down and capture undocumented people in sanctuary cities.

In normal times, these highly trained, heavily armed units are used near the border to deal with equally heavily armed, highly dangerous individuals or groups, such as gangs of drug or arms smugglers.

Coming soon to a sanctuary city near you

Credit: James Tourtellotte

Now, cities such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles that have defied Trump by declaring themselves to be sanctuaries for undocumented people, will see these tactical units working side by side with ICE to enforce Trump and Stephen Miller's draconian immigration policies.

There's no doubt that this will play well with Trump's base. Images of uniformed, armored squads "taking down" immigrants whom Trump's true believers have been conditioned to fear and hate will provide visceral proof that tough guy Trump is making America great again.

For me, it brings to mind the aphorism, attributed to psychologist Abraham Maslow, that if the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. These special tactical units are hammers, trained and primed to strike. When they are deployed against ordinary people in the heart of our cities, innocent people will die. It's just a matter of time.

-----

REA

EARTH'S VITAL SIGNS: THREE VERY SCARY GRAPHS

For anyone who is not being paid or propagandized to deny global heating, these three graphs say everything that needs to be said:

 Atmospheric CO2 over the last 800,000 years

Credit: NASA

Atmospheric CO2 over the last 60 years

Note that the rate of increase is speeding up!

Credit: ESRL

 Credit: NASA GISS

By the way, today--2/12/20--the Mauna Loa CO2 observatory clocked the highest ever concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere--416.08 parts per million (ppm). Scientists tell us that the safe level is 350 ppm or less.

And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that Earth just experienced the hottest January on record.

-------

REA

A SPOT OF GOOD ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS FROM THE UK

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced this week that the UK will ban the sale of all gas- or diesel-burning cars by 2035--5 years earlier than previously planned, and just 15 years from now.

UK going green

Credit: NRMA

It's a bold goal, but, as critics point out, implementation will require major improvements in the UK's power generation and distribution system, as well as specific rules and regulations to encourage what remains a huge transition.

Still, supporters explain, every step towards this impressive target will provide significant environmental and health benefits.

We need all the good news we can find, environmental or otherwise, so kudos to Boris and the UK.

-----

REA

BEWARE A WOUNDED NARCISSIST

Back in May, 2017, I posted an essay entitled "L'etat c'est moi--Trump's identity problem." In it I pointed out that, as a narcissist, Trump would be unable to distinguish between himself and the nation.

I wrote, "It's safe to assume that to a narcissistic ruler, there are no boundaries between himself and his realm. The poster child for this, at least until now, has been Louis XIV of France. He's famous for proclaiming, 'L'etat? L'etat c'est moi,'--The State? I am the State.'"

Beware a wounded narcissist

Credit: Flickr

Under the stress of impeachment, this enormous flaw in Trump's character could not have been clearer. Here's what he said at the National Prayer Breakfast just after the Senate found him not guilty: "As everybody knows, my family, our great country, and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people. They have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing, very badly hurt our nation."

In his mind, to criticize him is to criticize the nation. And of course, anyone who dares to criticize him is necessarily dishonest and corrupt. I suspect that it will not be long before he labels his critics as traitors. And, among his millions of devoted followers, there will be many who will take this not just as permission, but as a call to action.

As I wrote in that essay, the safest way to deal with a wounded and enraged narcissist is to walk away, get as far away as possible from their black-hole-like sphere of influence. Unfortunately, with Trump as president and with a Senate that has now told him that he can do no wrong, that's no longer an option for any of us.

-----

REA