Super Agers

Super Agers by Eric Topol

Today, many people are living longer, but are they thriving in these years? This book looks at how we can extend our lives while also living in a way that we can enjoy life. Not surprisingly some of the best treatments are simple - exercise, healthy heating and social activities. The author goes through various conditions and always seems to come back to those same basics. There are also various drug treatments discussed. Many are quite costly. Some seem like great cures. However, there are often consequences in other areas. A lot of coverage is given to obesity and possible drug treatments there. Analyzing genes and finding appropriate ways to customize treatments and use genetic techniques are also helpful. The author is very positive towards AI. We can utilize AI and other knowledge to provide more customized treatments and screening. There are many screening techniques that do not have solid evidence behind them. There are also some that would greatly benefit to appropriate tailoring to the individual. There are many people that live comfortably in their 90s. We can likely increase that further. However, there are also concerns about equity. The rich have access to more drugs and healthy lifestyles. What about the poor?

Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession

Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America's Exercise Obsession by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

Americans became fat and lazy when they moved to the suburbs and drove around in cars. Exercise was initially a fringe activity. Circus performers were most likely to have "big muscles". Later Santa Monica's muscle breach helped break exercise to a greater population. However, it still remained something done by a limited (mostly male and often gay) population. Intense exercise was deemed to be damaging to females. The government worried about the quality of soldiers and started to step in to increase physical instruction. Gyms started to sprout up. Exercise class, like Yoga, Pilates and Barre had different histories and came into the mainstream. Aerobics caught on. Women moved from "no-work" exercise in their own facilities to eventually being together with men. President's encouraged exercise - until we got to Trump who doesn't like it at all. Exercise is primarily provided by the private market, whether it be a club, class or exercise equipment. The poor do not have much access to work out, even as their work has become less grueling. 

The book is primarily narrative of the business of exercise. It has interesting descriptions of the origins of various exercise trends. The government involvement is given ample coverage, but it is clear that the government is not very much involved. PE is covered, but sports participation is most often mentioned in passing. (School and youth sports could be an entirely separate book.)

The Complete What's Your Poo Telling You

The Complete What's Your Poo Telling You (Funny Bathroom Books, Health Books, Humor Books) by Josh Richman (Author), Anish Sheth (Author)

This is a quick book about poo and pee. What do the different colors and consistencies mean? What causes odors? Why is some poo difficult to wipe, while others are clean? This book provides simple medical analysis of human excrement. There are also bits of history and comparison to different animals. The book is fairly short and could be a bathroom reader. (However, sitting on the throne could produce impacted hemorrhoids.) It is light and interesting, but there are some highlights with black on red that can be difficult to read due to poor contrast.

Nodding Off: The Science of Sleep from Cradle to Grave

Nodding Off: The Science of Sleep from Cradle to Grave by Alice Gregory

Sleep is important. It is also not well understood. At different ages, we need different amounts of sleep. We also have a circadian rhythm that does not quite match the length of the day. Luckily, we use cues, such as sunlight to help judge when to sleep. Unlikely, artificial lights messes with us. Learning and idea consolidation takes place in sleep. Sleep may help prevent aging. Teens tend to have their clock shifted later. Young adults then tend to have the clock shifted back. 

There are different stages of sleep and different types of sleep disorders. Bodily movements are usually shut down during sleep. However, there are some conditions that lead to it not being shut down properly. Sleep apnea can make it difficult to sleep. We can force ourselves to go without sleep, however, it is not good. Are reaction and mental acuity are greatly diminished. Some people have gone long periods without sleeping, though it is difficult to understand what the precise limit is. Sometimes people can't sleep well simply because they worry about not being able to sleep. 

The book is well organized by age range, however, it is a bit verbose.

Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic

Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic by Sandra Kahn and Paul R. Erhlich

People's jaws are not healthy these days. Food is soft, so we don't have to chew as much. Babies are weaned too early to soft food. People breathe with their mouth instead of their nose. This jaw health causes problems sleeping and breathing as well as other health issues. The authors propose the solution that involves their brand of orthodontic surgery to fix it. they also propose that we do simple things like chew more and breathe through our noses instead of mouths. There seems to be some reasonable items in here along with other bits that appear fairly self-serving.

Grain of Truth: The Real Case For and Against Wheat

Grain of Truth: The Real Case For and Against Wheat by Stephen Yafa

Why did Gluten become public enemy number one. It has been trendy to adopt a gluten free diet. There are some people that suffer from celiac disease. Gluten produces significant negative consequences in their lives. Avoiding gluten is critical for their health. Tests can help identify their condition.

There are also many others that think the may be suffering from gluten intolerance. The only test here is self-reporting. These people are the trendy ones. They are willing to adopt the cardboard-like gluten substitutes because they think it makes them feel better. Does it? If so, why?

The author of this book is not a fan of those that declare a single item as the source of all our problems. There is a long history of those pointing to the evils of fats, carbs, gluten and many other substances. They typically have convincing arguments and stories. They then suggest their diet that leads to improvements. Many people follow them. Some achieve short term benefits. Very few people enjoy it or stick with it for the long term.

The problem with wheat ends up being complex. Gluten can be problematic. However, thee biggest problem is the way that we consume wheat. It is most often heavily processed white flour without the bran. Breads have also been fermented quickly. These factors together have helped to cause our modern wheat to be more problematic for our bodies. A whole wheat sourdough bread would not create as many issues with many people as a commodity white bread. Our nutrition research has been focussed on the single bullet, but our bodies and nutritional needs are much more complex than that. Our great ability to isolate and fortify may be our undoing. Attempts to solve problems by further isolation and banishment is a continuation of the same problem.

77 Questions for Skillful Living: A New Path to Extraordinary Health

Many of our chronic medical conditions are managed rather than cured. The treatment often involves consuming drugs to treat the symptoms, with the expectation that this will just need to be continued in perpetuity. This book advocates making the general changes to health to solve the chronic problems. This involves doing basic things like eating whole foods, exercising, having good relationships with others and the like. These are the things that cannot easily be sold or marketed and require work. The medical profession rarely suggests these long term fixes.

I like the approach advocated by the book. I do find it hard to find a doctor that tells me what I need to do to stay healthy long term. There is a propensity to prescribe medicine. I have to ask if this will actually help me long term or if it is just to mask symptoms.

This book is not against modern medicine. However, it does acknowledge the reductionist nature.  There are parts of modern medicine that have been very helpful. However, the reductionism has also encouraged a general attitude of miracle cures that is not helpful.

Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive

The human immune system is very complex and continues to evolve as the different invaders evolve. This book presents the science behind the immune system in an easy to understand format, mixing scientific terminology with analogies. For example, cancer is similar to rogue developers constructing skyscrapers in Brooklyn, plucking down il-constructed buildings wherever they see fit. At first it might be cute, but pretty soon they dominate and there is no other place for people to live. 

There are many layers in the immune response. The body also has the ability to respond to just about any invader. However, the response is usually not immediate. A "too good" immune system can be just as bad as a "too bad" one. Allergic reactions and anaphylactic shock are usually caused by the immune system working too hard when it does not need to.

Fevers and other "symptoms" of sickness are part of the body's way of fighting the invader. The skin provides a huge barrier that makes it difficult for different pathogens to enter the body. Once something is in, different cells attempt to fight it off, depending on the nature. Viruses use the body's cells to replicate themselves. The body's defences involve matching signatures and also killing off items that are not properly identifying themselves. There are many battles going on everyday as our immune system fights to keep us alive.

Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old

People get old. As they get older, they are susceptible to many ailments and eventually die. The science of aging explores ways to counteract those actions. The book explores the research into aging. It doesn't spend much time exploring the ethical impacts of aging. (What does happen if we have a lot more people living a lot longer?) However, it does note that the "unhealthy" typically consume a lot more medical resources for limited longevity.

The science of aging explores a number of corollaries in other lifeforms. Some beings live much longer than humans. Others live much shorter. We can look at the aspects of the long-lived organisms for insight. We can study short-lived organisms over multiple generations to quickly get feedback.

Many aspects of aging are the resultant of accumulative defects. Cells divide. DNA gets repaired. Various ailments are fought. Eventually, systems are overwhelmed. There is a reason why many ailments primarily impact the elderly. Their bodies are no longer able to "fight back" as well as when they were younger. Research has explored different therapies and approaches to help preserve the ability to maintain the body, even in old age. There are challenges. Cancer is a disease in which cell growth goes amuck. We need to be able to still have the "good" going, while prevent the bad. We want to be able to continue to have an active life, rather than merely just extend years.

There is both a genetic and an individual component to aging. Certain genes can help in different aspects of aging. Different conditions can also help. For instance, castrated eunuchs have had longer lifespans than non-sterilized individuals

While there are possibilities of great treatments for aging, for now it is mostly the simple things that can help reduce the impacts of aging. A nutritious diet helps. (Though supplements don't.) Exercise helps. Keeping a healthy weight helps. Caloric restriction is also beneficial. However, the appropriate balance must be found. (People typically eat too much. However, too little can be harmful. )

Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding

Humans were never meant to exercise. They do, however, get great benefit from physical activity. This conundrum is explained by the advances in human society. Hunter gatherers require a large amount of energy to obtain their food. (Sometimes, a hunter might run dozens of miles to chase prey.) It is beneficial to minimize this expenditure whenever possible. Yet because the expenditures are so great, the body has used this forms of physical activity to help optimize provide benefits systems. Today, we have managed to eliminate almost all need for physical activity. However, are bodies are still configured to require this physical activity to carry out some of its "repair" mechanisms. Thus, the need for voluntary exercise has been born.

What does exercise help? The general answer is "a lot". There have been numerous scientific studies performed. Moderate levels of exercise seem to be beneficial in preventing various diseases and increasing overall health. More exercise seems to add even more benefits. Extreme levels of exercise (like ultra-marathons) may show some decrease in immune response. Aerobic exercise and strength training both seem to be beneficial, though for different things. A mixture of both is optimal, though if just doing one, aerobic exercise seems to get a greater bang for the buck.

One challenge with exercise studies in general is that they don't easily fit in the paradigm of scientific studies. The short term studies may rely on people reporting activity or are narrowly focused on a single outcome for a level of physical activity. Long term studies can be useful, but also require a lot of self reporting to be done. It is also important to look at the numbers behind studies (as there may be groups with very small sample sizes.) There are some interesting studies out there, including one that shows taking antioxidants may reduce the positive antioxidant impacts of exercise. Our bodies can do interesting things.

Exercise can be helpful in weight loss as long as increased calories are not consumed to compensate. One of the challenges is the body itself. It responds to needs by managing the number of calories that are burned. Thus, diet is often more beneficial for losing weight and keeping it off. 

Prescribing a healthy diet, enough sleep and regular exercise would probably do more to improve human health than any medication that could be prescribed. Alas, getting people to exercise can be a challenge. We often mandate physical activity for young children, but feel we can't do it for adults. Some people enjoy individual activity, while many others thrive on the comradery of group fitness. Fat-shaming is seen as something bad. There are many data points that are parroted out there that don't necessarily have scientific validation. (10,000 steps a day was a standard set by a pedometer maker.) Different people respond better to different physical activities. How do we help people to improve their health?

Missing Microbes

Microbes have existed long before we have and make up a greater share of living biomass than their "larger" counterparts. Two bacteria may be much more genetically different than a human and a tree. These organisms occupy just about every possible environment, including within the human body. The microbes are responsible for a great deal of human functionality, both good and bad. Alas, widespread use of antibiotics has pushed things out of whack. These drugs indiscriminately attack microbes, killing off the bad and the good. However, microbes evolve rapidly, thus allowing antibiotic resistant microbes to dominate. Widespread use of antibiotics helps "favor" the antibiotic-resistant strains, making our miracle cures less viable. There is a widespread tendency for doctors to prescribe antibiotics even when an infection would likely not respond to antibiotics. After all, if there is only a 1% chance of this drug helping, they should use it, right? Unfortunately, this logic leads to over-prescription and makes it more likely that the resistant strains develop, making the drugs useless for the people that really need it.
In addition to killing of the bad, the microbes also kill the good. This may be leading to a large number of different maladies, from asthma to allergies to obesity. Research is only in its early stage. However there are some connections visible now. Other practices have lead to a decreased amount of micro-biota present. C-section bearths reduce the pickup of microbes through the birth canal. Antibiotics fed to animals enter our food supply. Microbes cause ulcers. However, the absence of them may also be a contributing factor in other conditions. Many digestive issues seem to have a close relationship with microbes. (Alas "probiotics" are totally unregulated, so it is difficult to know what is good or bad.) Autism may also be related to microbes.
We have a synergistic relationship with our personal microbes. We should think twice before randomly killing them off.

Faster, Higher, Stronger: How Sports Science Is Creating a New Generation of Superathletes - and What We Can Learn from Them

Sports has become a huge part of society today. A century ago, excellence in sports could be accomplished individually. Today, there is a whole team involved. Scientists optimize the best training and recovery regime. They mine data for minute improvements. Some bits are only applicable to the most elite athletes. Others are applicable to everyone.
The author also discusses doping and the line between allowed and not allowed substances. In one survey done earlier, many athletes said they would be willing to take a substance that would kill them in order to win at their event. Alas, that has happened, with the case of a rider dying in a grueling tour de france ride after taking amphetamines to improve his performance. Some substances, like steroids can also provide benefit that persists even after the substance has left. Other substances, like EPO can be naturally produced by training at appropriate altitudes. East Germany had a mandatory doping program - and still owns many of the female records.
Athletes can use cameras to analyze minute differences in their activities. Large amounts of data can be crunched to optimize performance of individuals and teams. A pitcher can be told the best way to pitch a player. A basketball team can identify the best way to defend a certain player. Cameras can analyze minute details of a runner's stride.
Gear also plays a role. There is a huge industry that attempts to produce better equipment. However, the governing bodies of sports also have a say so, limiting the equipment (and benefiting and hurting certain participants.) Athletes end up training towards the certain goal.
The science behind athletic performance is also filled with interesting common substances that seem to provide benefit. Baking soda, caffeine and beet juice all help in various ways. Extra sleep has shown to be one of the most effective ways of improving performance. However, much depends on the individual person. The base level of fitness for an athlete and their train-ability help define their maximum success. Time in an individual sport often doesn't matter as much as finding the "right" sport. People with earlier growth sports may get an initial jolt in a sport, but the overall suitableness of their adult body form will be most important for long term success.
The subject of maximum performance. Lactic acid had been seen as a limitation. However, that may have been a side effect. The limit may be simply controlled by the brain. (This can help explain the boost that athletes can produce at the end of a race.) One theory states that this may be based on a body's desire to not kill itself. Somebody that has a stronger desire to "win" may be able to best succeed by using their brain to overpower the pain.
Faster, Higher, Stronger was written by a journalist that has an interest in the topic. As such it is a great read loaded with interesting discussion.

Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition

The American "Health Care" system tends to be more of a "disease management system". Most of the focus is on treating adverse symptoms. This works great in responding to acute issues (such as a broken arm or a heart attack.) However, it does a horrible job of preventing chronic conditions (including those that lead up to heart attacks.) There is plenty of information "out there", but much of it tends to be misleading or contradictory. (Some chemical in one food reduces heart attack risk, but another in the same food increases risk of diabetes.)

The processed food industry simply retools their recipes in response to the latest research. Coconut oil is bad? Ok, lets add partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Trans fats are bads? Ok, lets retool with another fat and add some new chemicals to maintain the taste and stability. The product appears healthier in the day, but people do not seem to do much better. Luckily, the pharmaceutical industry is here to offer us a pill to help counter our new chronic condition. Unfortunately, the pill comes with some side effects. Luckily there is a pill that can treat that. And now we are committed.

Why do we have to take so much effort to make the chronic symptoms go away? Why can't we just find a cure that makes the condition go away? The authors of Whole argue that we can find the natural solution - and it involves nothing more than eating a balanced diet based on whole, planted-based foods. The volume of of "chemical compounds" consumed in our food far outweighs that in pills. Why can't it help us? The book argues that it does. However, "reductionist science" tends to looks for isolated chemicals, rather than consider the impact of everything together. As an example, a food like an apple has many nutrients that work together. While it has a small amount of vitamin C, consuming an apple make more available than a supplement with much more of the vitamin. The many other components of the apple work together to provide the overall nutritive benefit. Our current science paradigm focuses on isolating individual components and using these as supplements or drugs. While this does have some value. A much better solution would be to look at the whole. (But, alas, an apple a day may just keep the doctor away.)

I agree whole-heatedly with the anti-reductionist argument. Science is stuck is this "evidence-based" reductionist paradigm that makes it difficult to understand the "entire human". Food produces love to give us quick, tasty food without really caring about the long term impact. There are billions of dollars in the industry. Stopping it all would wreck havoc on the economy. But, is the alternative better? Avoiding heavily processed foods would almost certainly improve health. But what about convenience? Our current society does not assign culpability for diseases, thus further encouraging the bad behavior. Why not get the cheap, easy food and drive our car and watch TV. The diseases we get our just "natural accidents". Medicine will help find a cure. What if instead we really focused on health. Don't waste the money researching pills to cure the lazy, when all they really need is broccoli and a bicycle. Instead focus the efforts on better understanding what people need to do to improve their overall health and identifying the true toxins that can be eliminated from the environment.

As for the diet suggested, more holistic research would be useful. Here, a low fat, vegetarian diet seems healthy. In Big Fat Surprise, a high protein, high fat diet was found better. In both cases, however, the foods tended to be "whole", with minimal processed food. It seems clear that processed food is the bad guy. Listings of "micro-nutrients" and and fortified foods only seem to mislead us. The good guys may come in many forms. Alas, they don't have a huge lobby.

Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Chese belong in a healthy diet

This is a "diet" book without being a diet book. It dives deep to understand the science (or the lack thereof) in many of the dietary recommendations today. Many of the heavily pushed recommendations (such as the low-fat diet) were created with flimsy dietary underpinning. However, once the establishment started running with these ideas, the burden of proof was on all challengers to "prove" that their option should even be listened to. (Even more amazing was that these recommendations seemed to go against very well entrenched industries such as beef packers.) This history shows how little you can truly take "government standards" at face value. Science is often very political, with the "best campaigner" often winning out over the "truth".

The author advocates a "high fat, high protein diet". Cholesterol and saturated fat are not the enemies. Bacon and eggs are more filling and provide plenty of nutrients, providing a better path towards weight-loss than low fat candy. (I love how sugary candy advertises that it is "low fat") Snack food producers have gone out of their way to substitute different "fats" because one is deemed healthier at the moment. (Coconut oil? Margarine? Butter?) In the end, the snack is the snack, and the changes are made more for marketing than for our benefit. I like to go with the simple test: 1. Do I enjoy eating it? 2. Do I feel good afterwards. (Now if I would just focus a little more on #2 than #1...)

The Sugar Fix

[November 2009] If we all stopped eating fruit, the obesity problem would go away and we'd all be healthier. At least according to this author. He pins fructose (aka fruit sugar) as public enemy number one. He cites many studies to prove the evil of fructose. Some appear quite convincing. However, the few studies that I was familiar with actually came up with different conclusions than this book's author.
That being said, we probably do consume excessive amounts of 'high-fructose corn syrup' and other sweeteners, and some of the advice is probably worthwhile. However, don't throw the apples out with thhe twinkies.