Tallahassee marathon Yesterday 52-year-old Iain MacGregor, a caddy for a European Tour golf
professional, collapsed on their last hole and died. Heart attack. Moderately
obese fellow. Everyone shocked.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/caddie-dies-heart-attack-madeira-islands-open-article-1.1788211
This morning on the Golf Channel news program, PGA Tour official, Mark
Russell, commented on an obscure rule – in reference to Justin Rose and the
weekend tournament. Mr. Russell is also moderately obese and is often seen on golf telecasts. Other rules officials have similar waistlines.
Also this morning I read an article in the May issue of Golf Digest: “It’s True: Golf Makes You Live Longer.” The article referred to a Swedish report that studies golf-federation data and government death certificates to compare golfers and non-golfers who died in a 15-month stretch. They discovered that golfers lived five years longer than non-golfers.
The article also referred to 111-year-old Ethan Shelton, the oldest known golfer in the world. He plays golf about a dozen times a year. But Ethan’s life didn’t involve golf until he was 72, the age when he took up the sport. He was a barber and founded Shelton Farms in Michigan and had seven children. So golf bloomed late in Ethan’s busy life.
Why would golf add years to life? Sociability. Living an isolated life leads to an early death. And, golf provides purpose in life, what the Japanese call ikigai, a strong factor in their long lives. And maybe exercise, although that’s stretching the band somewhat. The Swedish study mentioned walking. Well, most golfers in the US take golf carts. And most of them are overweight or obese. Most in the UK and Ireland walk. Some carry their own bags. So, yes, that kind of golf gives some aerobic benefit. But not much.
Consider our caddy, the 52-year-old, who dropped dead during the tournament. He carried a bag weighing 40 to 50 pounds over at least four miles each day. Those miles often involve climbing hills. If you count two practice rounds and four tournament rounds, Iain did this six days a week, which is far more activity than the average recreational golfer gets, especially if using a golf cart. Yet, he died, a full 30 years before the average male in Monaco dies.
He was obese. Yet, another example of the battle between obesity and heart function. The runner-author Jim Fixx reasoned that he could enjoy his fat-laden cheeseburgers as much as he wanted as long as he could run a marathon in under four hours. Dr. Nathan Pritikin cautioned that a high-fat diet would lead to arterial plaques, which could dislodge during extreme exercise and get
stuck in the heart or brain, causing a heart attack or stroke. Fixx died, as Pritikin predicted, during a long training run. Massive heart attack. That was in 1984, seven years after he wrote the best seller, The Complete Book of Running. He was 51.
What have we learned in the last 30 years? Did Jim’s death teach us anything? That running can cause heart attacks? That running is bad for you? That saturated fat is bad for your arteries? Apparently Americans, and a lot of Europeans, didn’t learn too much. Today less than one
percent of the population has finished a marathon, that despite a running boom. And, in America, the country that spends more per capita on health care and yet ranks 35th in life expectancy, nearly 80 percent are overweight or obese. We like our fatty foods, our salt, and our sugar. And our waistlines reflect our diet and our lack of exercise.
In the Golf Digest article, there was a single quote on eating: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Michael Pollan, a “food activist,” recommended a “mostly” plant-based diet. But that was it – a solitary reference to one of the most important factors in longevity. Pollan, a professor of
journalism at Berkeley, writes books on food but has missed the target on a long, healthy life when he advocates fats. All centenarian studies, and there are now many of them, show that these populations eat a plant-based diet – for one reason or another. Research studies confirm this. For a more in-depth look at this, listen to a DVD, called Forks Over Knives, featuring one of America’s most brilliant medical researchers, Dr. Neal Barnard.
http://www.forksoverknives.com/
To complete this blog, I’ll mention benefits of running (or any intense aerobic activity), taken from the May issue of Runners World, which I read yesterday while waiting for my wife as she shopped for shoes and dresses, a true act of love on my part. She said that having me with her for this two-hour session was her best mother’s day present ever. So what can running do for you?
1. Burn calories and lose pounds.
2. Live longer. Even 30 minutes of aerobic running a day, five days a week, is significant.
3. Avoid cancer.
4. Feel happier. You’ll sleep better and have better concentration.
5. Beat senility. Yes, running increases circulation in the brain and prevents brain shrinkage, proven by Scottish scientists who took MRIs of 700 people they’ve been tracking since the 1940s. They’ll repeat the MRIs and publish again. Journal of Neurology.
6. Protect knees and bones. Oh yeah, studies show that serious runners have less joint dysfunction than minimal runners or walkers. Sorry to disappoint all of you who think runners will wind up on crutches when they’re old.
LifeNuts advocates six days a week of intense aerobic exercise. But, if you’re obese, you must proceed slowly and, especially if you’re taking medications, be monitored by a physician. If you’re in the 80 percent of overweight or obese Americans, you should realize that your arteries contain
dangerous plaques, which exercise and a plant-based diet can reverse. Nothing else works. If pills worked, you wouldn’t see any fat doctors. If diets worked, people would stay on them. The only thing that works is a complete lifestyle change. Start now before you wind up like Mr. MacGregor.
professional, collapsed on their last hole and died. Heart attack. Moderately
obese fellow. Everyone shocked.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/caddie-dies-heart-attack-madeira-islands-open-article-1.1788211
This morning on the Golf Channel news program, PGA Tour official, Mark
Russell, commented on an obscure rule – in reference to Justin Rose and the
weekend tournament. Mr. Russell is also moderately obese and is often seen on golf telecasts. Other rules officials have similar waistlines.
Also this morning I read an article in the May issue of Golf Digest: “It’s True: Golf Makes You Live Longer.” The article referred to a Swedish report that studies golf-federation data and government death certificates to compare golfers and non-golfers who died in a 15-month stretch. They discovered that golfers lived five years longer than non-golfers.
The article also referred to 111-year-old Ethan Shelton, the oldest known golfer in the world. He plays golf about a dozen times a year. But Ethan’s life didn’t involve golf until he was 72, the age when he took up the sport. He was a barber and founded Shelton Farms in Michigan and had seven children. So golf bloomed late in Ethan’s busy life.
Why would golf add years to life? Sociability. Living an isolated life leads to an early death. And, golf provides purpose in life, what the Japanese call ikigai, a strong factor in their long lives. And maybe exercise, although that’s stretching the band somewhat. The Swedish study mentioned walking. Well, most golfers in the US take golf carts. And most of them are overweight or obese. Most in the UK and Ireland walk. Some carry their own bags. So, yes, that kind of golf gives some aerobic benefit. But not much.
Consider our caddy, the 52-year-old, who dropped dead during the tournament. He carried a bag weighing 40 to 50 pounds over at least four miles each day. Those miles often involve climbing hills. If you count two practice rounds and four tournament rounds, Iain did this six days a week, which is far more activity than the average recreational golfer gets, especially if using a golf cart. Yet, he died, a full 30 years before the average male in Monaco dies.
He was obese. Yet, another example of the battle between obesity and heart function. The runner-author Jim Fixx reasoned that he could enjoy his fat-laden cheeseburgers as much as he wanted as long as he could run a marathon in under four hours. Dr. Nathan Pritikin cautioned that a high-fat diet would lead to arterial plaques, which could dislodge during extreme exercise and get
stuck in the heart or brain, causing a heart attack or stroke. Fixx died, as Pritikin predicted, during a long training run. Massive heart attack. That was in 1984, seven years after he wrote the best seller, The Complete Book of Running. He was 51.
What have we learned in the last 30 years? Did Jim’s death teach us anything? That running can cause heart attacks? That running is bad for you? That saturated fat is bad for your arteries? Apparently Americans, and a lot of Europeans, didn’t learn too much. Today less than one
percent of the population has finished a marathon, that despite a running boom. And, in America, the country that spends more per capita on health care and yet ranks 35th in life expectancy, nearly 80 percent are overweight or obese. We like our fatty foods, our salt, and our sugar. And our waistlines reflect our diet and our lack of exercise.
In the Golf Digest article, there was a single quote on eating: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Michael Pollan, a “food activist,” recommended a “mostly” plant-based diet. But that was it – a solitary reference to one of the most important factors in longevity. Pollan, a professor of
journalism at Berkeley, writes books on food but has missed the target on a long, healthy life when he advocates fats. All centenarian studies, and there are now many of them, show that these populations eat a plant-based diet – for one reason or another. Research studies confirm this. For a more in-depth look at this, listen to a DVD, called Forks Over Knives, featuring one of America’s most brilliant medical researchers, Dr. Neal Barnard.
http://www.forksoverknives.com/
To complete this blog, I’ll mention benefits of running (or any intense aerobic activity), taken from the May issue of Runners World, which I read yesterday while waiting for my wife as she shopped for shoes and dresses, a true act of love on my part. She said that having me with her for this two-hour session was her best mother’s day present ever. So what can running do for you?
1. Burn calories and lose pounds.
2. Live longer. Even 30 minutes of aerobic running a day, five days a week, is significant.
3. Avoid cancer.
4. Feel happier. You’ll sleep better and have better concentration.
5. Beat senility. Yes, running increases circulation in the brain and prevents brain shrinkage, proven by Scottish scientists who took MRIs of 700 people they’ve been tracking since the 1940s. They’ll repeat the MRIs and publish again. Journal of Neurology.
6. Protect knees and bones. Oh yeah, studies show that serious runners have less joint dysfunction than minimal runners or walkers. Sorry to disappoint all of you who think runners will wind up on crutches when they’re old.
LifeNuts advocates six days a week of intense aerobic exercise. But, if you’re obese, you must proceed slowly and, especially if you’re taking medications, be monitored by a physician. If you’re in the 80 percent of overweight or obese Americans, you should realize that your arteries contain
dangerous plaques, which exercise and a plant-based diet can reverse. Nothing else works. If pills worked, you wouldn’t see any fat doctors. If diets worked, people would stay on them. The only thing that works is a complete lifestyle change. Start now before you wind up like Mr. MacGregor.
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