Capability to handle Variability as a measure of health:
(1/19)
(1/19)
One of the measures of health is our ability to handle variability.
How fast can you run.
How much can your lungs expand & contract
What’s your resting heart rate & what’s your peak heart rate.
How much can you lift
How long can you jump
How quickly can you climb stairs
How fast can you run.
How much can your lungs expand & contract
What’s your resting heart rate & what’s your peak heart rate.
How much can you lift
How long can you jump
How quickly can you climb stairs
Upto a certain age (say mid 20s), this capability increases, then it flattens, and starts falling. Beyond 35, surely, the body gets into depreciating mode. Our capability to handle variability starts reducing....
(3/19)
(3/19)
Our inability to handle variability sounds death knell. And the curve is exponential, i.e., the capability to handle variability depreciates slowly to start with; but there is interlocked fragility. Every reduction of such capability results in more widespread 2nd order effects..
...resulting in an accelerating pace of reduction. Thus with every passing year, and reduced capability, we tend to get weaker & weaker at an accelerated pace. This is a bit like a negative “ratchet & pinion effect”, I wrote about earlier.
Eventually we reach a stage where body can’t even handle basic movements like standing on its own, walking straight, without support. In our great great granddad, Caveman’s times, the one who could not run fast enough to outrun a predator was dead.
(6/19)
(6/19)
My 72 year aunty cannot even brush her teeth on her own. The modern medical science has kept her alive, but not kicking! While she drags on with her life, she lives a poor quality & hopeless life. One questions, whether such life is really worth it.
What can you do to prevent this degeneration?
Post a certain age, say mid 30s, your body starts degenerating, if you leave it on its own. Those above 35, can relate to this – suddenly you cannot leap like a frog from one corner of room to the other....
(8/19)
Post a certain age, say mid 30s, your body starts degenerating, if you leave it on its own. Those above 35, can relate to this – suddenly you cannot leap like a frog from one corner of room to the other....
(8/19)
...some can’t even sprint full pelt (a lot of women), some can’t jump 2 feet. People with Physics orientation can relate it to 2nd Law of Thermodynamics - Entropy (disorder) of an enclosed system keeps increasing, if left to its own.
To contain the entropy, one needs an external intervention. Similarly, you need to induce variability to your life in various aspects – fitness or muscles, lung expansion, heart pumping, eating or hunger, mental exercises etc.
(10/19)
(10/19)
Enter exercise & fasting. When you exercise, imagine being chased by a panther, or chasing a deer yourself. You have to put everything you have to work for next few seconds to survive the attack. Sprint, jump, duck, kick, punch, squeeze, push, pull, climb...
...and do all of this with full intensity. Notice that, a mild stroll with a headphone will not protect you from the panther, nor will it fetch the deer for you.
I wrote about this earlier...👇
I wrote about this earlier...👇
Exercise means to exert – vigour & intensity are integral to it. If you want to continue to brush your teeth on your own (leave alone standing & walking straight) in your seventies & eighties, you must take the body to extremes, with adequate frequency.
(13/19)
(13/19)
While you should stand & walk most of the day, but every once in a while, introduce your body to extreme pressure. This will ensure that when you eat & rest, your body reinforces your muscles with adequate strength.
Do the same with the mental aspects of health. Do not set your life on a monotonous path. Keep learning new skills, solving puzzles, playing chess, memory games, reading books, singing, new recipes, music. If you give up on your brain, eventually, the brain gives up on you!
Bring variability in eating too. I wrote about it recently....
Eating continuously keeps the metabolically expensive digestive system always working and plays havoc with other aspects of our physiology. Taste hunger for a change.
(17/19)
(17/19)
By inducing small variations like these, you keen yourself young & fit for longer period of time. The last 4th of your life is not a punishment for you and your family. You give yourself a chance to enjoy the harvest of your hard work for the first 3 quarters of your life.
I end by this quote from the Bed of Procrustes, I posted yesterday...
