Feeling under the weather? Don’t reduce your fever with pills.
Our superstar editor, Stephanie, had a fever from the flu the other night while outside her window sat 18 inches of Maryland snow. Her remedy? Baths and sleep.
The simplicity of her approach and my realization that I haven’t had a fever in a long, long time got me wondering and researching what causes fevers and how to naturally respond to them. I always want to be prepared in case one should arise.
Fevers are a symptom of an underlying condition. Far from being dangerous, they can actually be beneficial. From Wellnessmama.com:
Fever is a natural response to infection or illness. Many illnesses thrive at normal body temperature, and a fever (even a high one) is a good indication that the immune system is functioning to ward off the infection. In fact, a fever is a good sign as it means that the body is responding to fight the infection, and in most cases it is part of a natural bodily response that should be allowed to continue.
If we get sick due to a bacterial or viral infection, we want our body to produce a fever. Knocking it out too early with medications could prolong the illness.
In fact, new studies suggest that there’s another concern with taking medication to reduce fevers. From USA Today:
…those who take anti-fever medications release more influenza virus into the environment than people who forgo drugs. The impact isn’t negligible. Use of anti-fever drugs, technically known as anti-pyretics, raises the number of flu cases by roughly 5% a year, translating to more than 1,000 additional deaths in the USA annually for a garden-variety flu strain
That being said, a fever combined with the other symptoms of an infection can be uncomfortable and unpleasant. I’m constantly looking for natural remedies to replace over the counter medicine. I’ve posted about anti-inflammatory foods in lieu of Advil, for example. There are some options to help promote faster recovery.
The first one is fairly obvious.
“Let’s get the liquids in because if we are running a fever, typically we are dehydrating our body,” says Dr. Jeanne Galloway, N.D.
Stephanie had been downing fluids in the form of mostly water and the occasional tea and was STILL dehydrated! I asked her about her experience with this and her food intake.
“Consuming a bunch of water didn’t do much for the fever itself, but it helped minimize some of the misery it carried with it,” she told me. “I didn’t have much of an appetite. Since I wasn’t eating much, I wanted to make sure that whatever I did eat had plenty of nutrition. My go-to is homemade chicken broth with salt and garlic.”
She was certainly on the right track.
From various sources, I found the following suggestions.
Probiotics – foods like yogurt, kefir, fermented cabbage and kombucha tea.
Lots of bone broth and homemade soups to nourish and provide nutrients that aid in healing.
Coconut oil mixed in to food for its antibacterial and antiviral properties.
It turns out Stephanie was right on with the baths, but Dr. Galloway suggests a tepid bath rather than a hot or cold one. Adding a little lavender essential oil adds a cooling effect.
“Sometimes being sick is about tradeoffs,” Stephanie mentioned. “For me, a hot bath helped with the muscle aches, even if a tepid one might have worked better to bring the fever down.”
Even though our fevers serve a purpose, and the likelihood of it needing to run its course is high, I’m a fan of action. We should at least make an attempt to feel better and do so naturally. Applying effort and acquiring the experience of the attempt builds confidence, after all.
If you eat candy regularly, you may live longer than me. Welcome to today’s strange rendition of Sweet Thursday.
I’m taking this opportunity to focus on some peculiar studies. It’s a good reminder that you can make anything sound good in a vacuum. These studies don’t sit well with me or make much sense, so with tongue firmly in cheek, let’s get to it. From psychologytoday.com:
People who regularly eat candy live longer than those who don’t. A multi-decade study from the Harvard School of Public Health showed that modest candy consumption (one to three times a month) is associated with the greatest benefit, but even those with a daily habit lived longer than those who never indulged. This benefit could not be explained by other factors such as age, smoking, exercise, alcohol consumption, or weight.
Bitchin’. Throwing away the bell peppers, breaking out the sweet-tarts now.
In fact, let me pick up a six pack of coke while I’m at 7-11, too. Researchers have found Coca-Cola to be an effective first line of treatment for some stomach blockages. From livescience.com:
Researchers reviewed studies on the unconventional treatment that have been published over the past 10 years. In total, they looked at 24 papers covering 46 cases of patients with gastric phytobezoars, which are hard masses made up of indigestible parts of fruits and vegetables, like cellulose. These build-ups can cause pain and they tend to develop in people who have trouble moving food through their digestive tract, either because of a previous gastric surgery or some other condition.
Now that I have breakfast squared away and my digestion is on point, I can prep for lunch. But before I dive into my grilled halibut and veggies, let me dig into these chocolate chip cookies. After all, it’s better for my teeth. From Time magazine:
The youngster who wants to start his supper with ice cream and cookies, and leave the meat and potatoes until last, usually accomplishes nothing except upset his mother’s appetite. But the kid is right and his mother is wrong, says Dental Surgeon Howard R. Raper of Albuquerque. Sweets eaten at the beginning of the meal leave little sugar in the mouth, because later courses scour it away. And sugar remaining in mouth crevices promotes tooth decay.
I can see it now. Kaplifestyle.com promotes the three Cs. Candy, cookies and Coke.
Seriously, all this junk food ingestion has me feeling dirty, and I think I need a shower. Washing isn’t going to cut it, I need to exfoliate. I’ll need something coarse. Hmmmm. From Huffington Post:
Finally, sugar’s small particles make an excellent topical exfoliant, and are used in a number of body scrubs to exfoliate dead surface skin cells and reveal the glowing, healthy-looking skin underneath. Sugar scrubs also have a few benefits over salt scrubs. For one, small sugar granules are generally gentler than salt, which can cause microscopic tears in the skin; two, because of sugar’s natural humectants properties, these scrubs are more hydrating than salt scrubs, which can strip skin of natural oils.
All this time I’ve been trumpeting “fat doesn’t make you fat, sugar makes you fat.”
While I may have nailed it with my hypothesis in general, there are some uses of sugar worthy of consideration (conceptually, at least.) I’ll be over here, giggling, if you need me.
Wearing a wet suit to stay warm in frigid water, I get. Wearing this while working out? The idea of wrapping yourself in neoprene while working out makes me cringe. Apparently, the goal is to assist in long-term weight loss.
However, y’all know we don’t just go with an initial gut reaction here at Kaplifestyle. I could be wrong. What if the simple act of sweating more is advantageous for burning calories and/or fat? I suppose I had better challenge my own assumptions.
I’ve spent the last few days in the Dominican Republic. As you might imagine, it has been hot and humid. You remember my recent decision to rock a sport coat. Perhaps that course of action was a bit shortsighted, but at least I know what it’s like to don gear with the explicit purpose of sweating profusely. My time in the sun got me thinking. Was I burning calories more quickly? Should I grab a trash bag for my next sprint session? Hell no. From healthyliving.azcentral.com:
Wearing a plastic bag while you exercise makes you sweat more, and it may seem like the more you sweat, the more calories you’re burning. However, that theory isn’t true. Sweating removes water from the body, which can cause you to weigh less immediately after a workout, but it doesn’t burn more calories. Instead, it can lead to dangerous health problems by not allowing your body to cool itself appropriately.
That weight you’re “losing” will come back on as soon as you hit the water bottle. These ideas are popular amongst wrestlers or body builders who are looking to cut weight for a weigh-in, but you risk cramping, poor performance, diminished mental strength, and organ damage for a few minutes of weighing less. Yes, it’s common sense, but it’s astounding how much money folks pay for gimmicks like these and others without science behind them. The phrase “weight loss” alone can sell just about anything, from diet pills to magic clothing. From quora.com:
A quick review of the data suggests that Americans spend between 40 and 50 billion dollars annually on weight loss.
That’s billion, with a “B.” This illustrates three things about our society.
We are perpetually unhappy with our physiques.
We like shortcuts.
We think these shortcuts will lead to our desired scale readings, which will in turn make us happy.
Speaking of scales, you may remember how I feel about them. I spoke at length about the more appropriate goal of eating animals, veggies and fruit (no packaged or processed food) in an effort to feel better in your own skin. Take this mission for a test run. Your clothes will fit better, your outlook may be rosier, and you won’t need to purchase gimmicks (or a scale, for that matter).
Ironically, I’m headed back to Cali in a comfortably fitting sweat suit in the morning.
Most men will opt for coffee over tea, myself included. That doesn’t mean we have to choose. We can appreciate the many health benefits of tea, and we can pair it with music.
Today, a ballplayer came up to me, accompanied by several teammates, to inquire about tea. He asked very generally, “What are your thoughts on tea?” I fought the urge to talk about black coffee and instead focused on his query. I shared my initial, positive thoughts and promised to write him up something further.
There are four “true teas,” meaning they are derived from the tea plant (Camellia sinensis). Herbal and fruit “teas” are a different story, and we’ll save that for another post. Today, we’ll muse on the white, green, oolong and black varieties. Each conjures up a different image and soundtrack for me.
White tea is a solid choice if relaxing is your aim. I’m envisioning a SoCal summer evening, talking to my grandfather about his old furniture business in New York, 1940s saxophone playing in the background, a mug in each of our hands. From octaviatea.com:
White tea is considered to be the healthiest of all types of tea because it has the highest levels of antioxidants and theanine, a rare amino acid found only in high-quality tea. Antioxidants are believed to maintain health, combat aging and prevent disease. Theanine promotes mental and physical relaxation, improves mood, reduces anxiety, boosts the immune system and increases concentration. White tea also has the lowest caffeine content of all true teas.
Folks generally gravitate towards green tea for its perceived fat burning properties. I’ll set the mood. The world around you is silent. It’s 5:30am. All you see is stars and a stretch of road. Headphones on, you bang Rakim’s “Mahogany” and sync your breathing up with the steady, slow beat. You sip green tea from a paper cup. You hit your sprints. You’re done before the rest of the world begins to wake up. You win. From Penn State:
Clinical studies suggest that green tea extract may boost metabolism and help burn fat. One study found that the combination of green tea and caffeine improved weight loss and maintenance in people who were overweight and moderately obese. Some researchers think that substances in green tea known as catechins are responsible for the herb’s fat-burning effect.
Oolong tea is a bit of a nutritional mutt, a hybrid if you will. I imagine traveling the Mexican coast in a beat up black 1970s CJ7 holding a metal thermos of oolong. Music, Son House, blues. From organicfacts.net:
Health benefits of oolong tea include the reduction of chronic health conditions such as heart disease, inflammatory disorders, and high cholesterol levels, while providing vital antioxidants, promoting superior bone structure, robust skin and good dental health. Oolong tea is fragrant with a fruity flavor and a pleasant aroma. Despite its caffeine content, it can still be extremely relaxing to drink.
Black tea has the richest, deepest flavor of any of the four. Unlike the other varieties, black tea has been fermented, giving it a darker color and bolder flavor. Speaking of bold, an aggressive squat workout and System of a Down follows a hot mug stunningly. From organicfacts.net:
The health benefits of black tea include beneficial impacts for high cholesterol, diarrhea, tooth decay, low-concentration levels, digestive problems, poor blood circulation, high blood pressure, and asthma. Black tea is one of the most popular teas known to man, and is well known for its medicinal qualities and health benefits.
I won’t give up my morning ritual of black coffee, ever. Choosing tea, however, offers a plethora of health benefits. Either choice is the right choice.
For athletes, chili is an underappreciated meal. An all-encompassing, well balanced dish, chili features animal flesh for protein and fat, beans (a natural protein-carb combo), veggies and spices to cover all our needs in one savory, satisfying bowl. Heather Downey, our resident expert on nutritionally dense, powerful, flavorful meals designed for those of us with goals to be healthier and stronger, riffs below.
Fewer dishes smell better to me than a pot of hearty, homemade chili simmering on the stove. Although I don’t mind traditional chili, I definitely have a preference for chili packed with as many healthy and colorful ingredients as possible. Below I will share a few favorite ingredients from my chili recipe, and their countless benefits.
Beans
Beans are a healthy, nutrient dense food. Besides being full of protein, fiber and complex carbs, they are also low in fat and cholesterol free. Beans are rich in antioxidants, B vitamins, and minerals such as iron, magnesium, potassium, copper and zinc. Beans are also affordable and very satisfying as they leave you feeling full longer, due to the fact they are digested slowly (an added plus that helps stabilize blood sugar) Additionally, consuming beans can help maintain weight control, decrease the risk of diabetes, colorectal cancer, heart disease and support digestive health, just to name a few benefits.
Zucchini
Zucchini is a very underrated vegetable, in my opinion. Besides being extremely low in calories compared to other green vegetables, it’s high in phytonutrients, vitamin C, and other important vitamins and minerals such as manganese, which greatly benefits skin. Zucchini is also very easy to prepare, mild tasting and can easily take on the flavors of whatever spices are added. It’s pleasant green color is an added bonus in this dish.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are packed full of vitamins, minerals and nutrients which may prevent many forms of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis among others. Tomatoes also contain Beta-Carotene, which helps protect skin against sun damage, as well as lycopene, a natural antioxidant that actually helps to slow the growth of cancerous cells. Lycopene may also help in the treatment of infertility. Tests have shown that consuming tomatoes regularly can increase male fertility and boost sperm count by 70%!
Yellow bell pepper
For this recipe I like using yellow bell peppers. Although peppers of all colors are extremely healthy, I prefer to use the yellow ones for the amazing color contrast they provide in addition to the reds, greens and neutrals in this dish. Did you know that one large yellow pepper supplies a whopping 341.3 mg’s of vitamin C? This is a lot, considering we only require between 75-90 mg’s per day! Bell peppers are high in fiber, antioxidants and other vitamins and minerals as well. Carotenoids found in orange bell peppers actually help fight cell damage resulting from exposure to environmental toxins such as pollution, and cigarette smoke.
As you can see from just a few of the ingredients in this dish, there are innumerable health benefits derived from eating a warm, wholesome bowl of chili. Not to mention the delightful aroma that will float through your home. Enjoy!
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb ground turkey
1 cup zucchini, chopped
One yellow bell pepper, chopped
One sweet yellow onion, chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground oregano
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
3 garlic cloves, minced
28 ounce can diced tomatoes
3 15 ounce cans of beans of choice, drained (I use black, kidney and garbanzo)
1/2 cup prepared salsa (I use fire roasted tomato salsa)
1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke (I use Wright’s Hickory)
Place a Dutch oven or other large pot over medium heat. Add oil, bell pepper, zucchini and onion. Saute together for 2 minutes then add turkey. Add all spices. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until turkey is fully cooked. Add garlic, liquid smoke, tomatoes, beans, salsa. Mix thoroughly.
Cook on medium heat 20 minutes, then reduce heat to low and simmer for up to 1-2 hours. Add additional sea salt, liquid smoke to taste.
Serve with healthy tortilla chips (I prefer flax seed veggie chips or blue corn chips)
Garnish with your choice of fresh ingredients: cilantro, cheddar cheese, sliced avocado, raw onion, sour cream, etc…
Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live. Jim Rohn
If you dare to call yourself bullet proof, expect your Kevlar to be tested.
In this post, we’ll touch on Bulletproof’s base product, Upgraded Coffee, and the techniques they use to spread the word.
A friend hit me up months ago and mentioned that he knew somebody connected to the company. They wanted to send some product for me to try, no strings attached. “You’d really appreciate the coffee,” he told me.
I was never a big name, but I’m no stranger to this sort of interaction. As an MLB player, companies constantly sent gear, gum, magnets, protein, whatever to the clubhouse. There are a myriad of reasons they do this, but the bottom line is, if a celebrity likes the product, they may sell more. Just ask Paris Hilton.
Offer the product for nothing in return initially, and the star is unlikely to say no. I found that no matter how many zeroes their paychecks had, my teammates dug free shit. Personally, I found myself throwing or giving stuff away as I became more discerning about the products I was willing to ingest or cover my skin with. I don’t play golf, and I don’t dig collars. How many polos can I wear?
We often muse at Kaplifestyle on diets, cleanses and products. Most of these cleverly marketed products should be immediately removed from the earth due to lack of substance and merit. Upgraded coffee is not one of those products. In fact, it’s quite tasty, and the company deserves applause for its attempt to educate while it sells. These cats have the selling part down.
When I received the package in the mail from Bulletproof, I was jazzed to find a branded silver coffee thermos, which turned out to be exceptional. I like my coffee to stay hot, and this bad boy was gold (stainless steel, actually). More importantly, the box also contained a sample of their “upgraded” coffee beans. From the company’s website:
Upgraded™ Coffee is the result of an obsessive pursuit to find the absolute highest performance coffee beans on earth. It’s taken me more than 10 years to identify every step of performance-robbing toxin formation in coffee and to find a reliable, perfect source of beans that always make me feel great – even though “normal” coffee gives me a headache and jitters and makes me cranky. This coffee makes you feel noticeably better than anything else you’ll find. You’ll never go back to your corner coffeehouse chain again. These beans are meant for drinking black or best of all, for making Bulletproof® Coffee with grass fed butter.
The term “Upgraded” immediately makes me nervous. I can’t help but think about a bean being altered from its natural state. What if a company told you their chicken was upgraded? My mind leaps to genetically modified, but my review of the product title is less important than the product itself. Here’s how they define upgraded:
Upgraded™ Coffee beans are mechanically processed right after picking using only clean cold water. This more expensive process is safer because it dramatically reduces harmful molds or bacteria from impacting your health.
There is a pretty substantial debate happening about these “harmful molds.” Evidencebasedfitness.net says:
Aflatoxin is indeed a toxin. It’s produced by a mold called Aspergillus flavus. Aspergillis is a mold that grows naturally in soil and cereal and plant crops. It’s everywhere. You’ve been living with it practically all of your life, just not in disease-causing quantities.
Aspergillis can cause disease in humans–it’s called aspergillosis. Aspergillosis usually affects people who are immunocompromised and can cause what is called embolic disease (the Bulletproof folks link it to heart attacks and aortic infarctions). However, aspergillosis is caused by an overgrowth of the Aspergillis mold, not the toxin. If your coffee is causing aspergillosis, you have a totally different set of problems and no amount of coffee, bulletproof or not, is going to help that.
So that appears to be a lot of marketing nonsense. Let’s get to the important stuff and the reason why I agreed to try the beans in the first place – the flavor and experience.
The makers claim “this coffee makes you feel noticeably better than anything else you’ll find.” This declaration was unequivocally untrue for me. Upgraded coffee made me feel the same way my organic, black, sensibly sourced coffee does. I noticed no tangible difference. It just wasn’t unique or terribly memorable. It was, however, tasty, and I was incredibly thankful for the gift. I reached out to the contact at bulletproof to display gratitude. Happy to have now experienced the brand, I moved on.
Later I the day, I received this response via email:
Great! Would you be interested in our ambassador program? (Product stipend/discount in exchange for spreading the BP word)
Now we come to the crux of their pitch. Put simply, if I tell you how great the product is, I get money and free stuff. Now it makes sense. Frankly, it’s a solid product with a ridiculously powerful buzz. Couple that with strong marketing and hustling employees and you can see why there’s so much discussion about it.
What they don’t know about is my relationship with you, my readers. I’ve promised to deliver authentic content. Translated – I’m not going to accept compensation in exchange for offering up a favorable review of a product. When I receive product samples to try, I will disclose that to you. Everything you read is going to be my unbiased opinion.
Hustle, to me, is to be celebrated, not demeaned. Bulletproof has done a nice job delivering and selling a solid, if not spectacular, product. I’d drink it again, but I won’t tell you that you should.
Stay tuned for a discussion on their other major “innovation” – adding butter to your coffee.
Now, instead of having free coffee delivered to me, I’m headed out with my credit card to grab some beans. Damn.
You don’t need fancy exercises to build core strength. If your desire is to inspire the muscles around your spine and midsection to fire, squat.
A Kaplifestyle reader reached out to me to ask about a good core routine for beginners. Waltz into any fitness center and you’ll find folks twisting with cables, doing various forms of crunches with medicine balls, leg lifts and scissor kicks, and holding these all in the name of developing core strength. Whether you’re looking to develop these stabilizing muscles in the name of obtaining a 6 pack or looking to prevent injury, maintain flexibility, and increase your power, everyone is interested in a stronger core.
My answer isn’t going to come as a surprise. I’m an advocate of performing any training techniques consistently, so you won’t catch me slamming any form of exercise. However, if you mine true power and strength between your thighs and chest, the properly executed squat is the perfect exercise. From strong-athlete.com:
“One of the best ways to activate the core muscles is during squatting. When you squat, your bodies own natural weight belt kicks in, stabilizing and strengthening your core so that it doesn’t collapse into a pile of muscle and bone.”
Think about what occurs when you drop your hips and ass towards the floor while maintaining strong posture with hundreds of pounds resting on your shoulders. Your stabilizing muscles have no choice but to fire and contract. Our bodies are computers and remember what we just asked of them. The input is, “get strong and powerful, because I’m going to demand you support lots of weight.” Your system complies.
This is true independent of your goals.
Suppose your mission is to acquire abs. Maybe you simply want the muscles in your back to recover faster. In either scenario, hormones can help.
Squatting is a compound movement, meaning you use multiple joints and tons of different muscles to perform the action. Research shows that the more muscles you engage during training, the more hormones will be released in the body to stimulate growth and recovery. Your body naturally releases hormones such as testosterone and Human Growth Hormone during hard squatting sessions. These hormones will help the muscle fibers in your legs rebuild, recover, and grow bigger. However, the large release of hormones can also help to improve the recovery and growth of other muscles in your body that have been broken down from training.
Faster recovery often means less pain. It also means your body will be primed to train sooner meaning you’ll be ready to input more commands. You’ll feel better and get back into the gym. As a beginner, creating the consistent habit is more important than anything else. It’s a beautiful cycle.
If squats truly won’t work for you, and variety is your bag for core work, I won’t judge. You might like this product. If you need me, I’ll be in the corner under the bar.
Remember when there were no immunization shots and folks prevented disease with whole foods and exercise? Me neither. There has never been a moment in our lives when that statement was totally true.
Yesterday, we touched on colds. Today, we’ll take a look at some of the more serious diseases out there. This post will take a deep dive into the world of vaccinations and their necessity. At our close, you can decide if you should sprint over to CVS to get poked.
I was prepared to write a tongue in cheek post on this topic and sent a few photos over to Kaplifestyle’s editor extraordinaire, Stephanie. Apparently, she didn’t think riffing carelessly about the topic was responsible. She hit me back with a note:
Wading into a minefield, huh?
Translation: “What are you, an imbecile? You don’t want to mess around with a topic folks feel so passionately about. “ Plus, and I should have known this would be the case, Steph knows a thing or two about the topic.
Slightly more accurate translation: I’m okay with diving into controversial topics, but I think it should be done knowingly. More importantly, I think whenever there’s a topic that has potential life-threatening implications, we should treat it seriously.
Flu shots, shingles, mumps, measles, whatever. Are we protecting ourselves or causing harm? The Mayo Clinic weighs in:
“Vaccines for adults are recommended based on your age, prior vaccinations, health, lifestyle, occupation and where you travel.
The schedule is updated every year, and changes range from the addition of a new vaccine to tweaks of current recommendations. To determine exactly which vaccines you need now and which vaccines are coming up, check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website.”
I must be living in the dark because I’m not on any vaccine schedule and I’ll be 40 in July.
Luckily for you, that vaccine schedule isn’t quite as intense as it sounds. The CDC recommends, for a 40 year old male, a flu vaccine once per year, a tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine or tetanus booster once every 10 years, a measles/mumps/rubella vaccine (once, if you weren’t vaccinated as a child), and possibly a vaccine for varicella (shingles), if you’ve never had chicken pox.
If you took all of them, that’s 2- 4 vaccines right now, then one per year after.
I think, in order to properly evaluate vaccines, we should first do a quick overview.
We often speak of the immune system on Kaplifestyle, discussing ways to boost the body’s natural defenses. It’s beyond clear that eating healthy, whole foods will promote a more robust immune system and enhance your ability to fight off diseases and illnesses.
I thought we’d never get here, Steph. This was my intended plan all along. We can help folks lean on natural….wait a second, I feel a “but” coming.
However (see, not a “but”), the body relies on being able to successfully identify pathogens in order to spur the immune system to deal with them. To put it (possibly overly) simply, if your body doesn’t know what it’s fighting, it can’t bring effective weapons quickly enough, and you get sick. Vaccines, in essence, “teach” your body about what it may encounter. They’re the messenger telling the army how to prepare.
I understand the desire to live and eat clean, relying on natural sources heavily. That shouldn’t relieve us of our obligation to be informed consumers, researching and discovering how we can maximize our health and well-being. Sometimes, that involves taking a hard look at the science. Vaccines are some of the most heavily studied developments in modern medicine, in part because they are so critical to health across the globe. These vaccines aren’t doing anything “unnatural” to your body; they’re stimulating your own immune system.
Pushback time. The act of poking oneself with a sharp needle and injecting a manmade substance carrying a virus or bacteria is unequivocally unnatural. Proceed.
Let me be explicit here – vaccines work. Smallpox killed between 300-500 million people in the 20th century. It was a nasty disease. The last person to be infected naturally was in 1977, because vaccines wiped it out. Vaccines are the reason why we don’t hear about polio anymore, although due to low vaccination rates in some countries (Syria, for instance), it’s not completely eradicated.
Now, it’s easy to understand how important the vaccines for smallpox and polio were. Those diseases are known for having high mortality rates and crippling impacts for the survivors. Measles and influenza don’t quite have the same deadly fear. They probably should. Measles kills .3% of the people it infects in the US, but can have a 25-30% fatality rate outside the US or for immunocompromised people. Influenza (the flu) kills millions, particularly children, the elderly, or other at-risk populations.
Of course, you’re not in those positions. Most folks reading this blog are healthy adults, with a strong immune system after eating berries, living with easy access to first rate medical care. You may be thinking to roll the dice, and if you do get the flu, it’s not such a big deal – a miserable few days and you’ll be back to normal. It’s not that simple.
Bigger picture injection (ooooh): Everyone should be obligated by law to build healthier immune systems. Widespread flu-shots may wipe out the flu but there will be another disease that follows. Immunizations may be huge, effective band-aids, but I wonder if they are another shortcut. I’m still listening.
By getting vaccinated, you protect other people, and particularly those people who are most vulnerable. Not everyone can be vaccinated – allergies, a compromised immune system, some people with cancer or organ transplant recipients, all of these may mean someone can’t receive standard immunizations. However, we don’t rely on every single individual being vaccinated to prevent the spread of disease. Most diseases have a threshold – the number of people who need to be vaccinated to prevent most transmission. If 85% of a population is inoculated against smallpox, it can’t survive in that population.
Just as we should be skeptical of marketing claims from mega-corporations, so too should we be skeptical of people claiming the “natural” and “holistic” position. Religious objections aside, the modern anti-vaccine movement was driven in large part by one individual, Andrew Wakefield. He claimed, in 1998, to have a study of 12 children who developed autism after receiving the MMR vaccine. Not only was he funded by people suing vaccine manufacturers (a clear, and undisclosed, conflict of interest), it later was discovered that he had falsified data and manipulated his results. He was stripped of his license for fraud.
Unfortunately, the impacts of his fraud have been huge. The US had actually come very close to eradicating measles, mumps, and whooping cough. Measles was thought to be entirely eradicated in 2000, in fact. However, due in large part to declining childhood vaccination rates, we’ve seen outbreaks of all three. This isn’t an abstract problem – the child whose parents decided not to vaccinate may not even get sick, but their classmate who just finished chemotherapy for leukemia may die.CBSNews:
So far this year, 159 cases of measles were reported in 16 states, with three outbreaks accounting for most of cases: outbreaks in New York City (58 cases), North Carolina (23 cases) and Texas (21 cases). That’s on track for the most cases since measles was considered eliminated.
Fortunately, said Schuchat, nobody has died.
Eighty-two percent of cases were in unvaccinated persons, and 9 percent were in people who weren’t sure if they’d been vaccinated. Seventy-nine percent of those the unvaccinated cited philosophical differences with the measles mumps and rubella (MMR) shot.
In 2012, at least 18 people died from whooping cough in the largest outbreak of the disease in the last 50 years.
This isn’t simply just a personal choice. This decision, in a very fundamental way, affects the lives of others.
We’ve got our work cut out, my friends. Y’all know that I don’t aim to make decisions for you. I always encourage freedom and flexibility of thought. Despite Stephanie’s breakdown, I’m not on my way to the doctor to get vaccinated. I am, however, ready to take a look at my previously uneducated paradigm and have an internal conversation.
Wearing a wet suit to stay warm in frigid water, I get. Wearing this while working out? The idea of wrapping yourself in neoprene while working out makes me cringe. Apparently, the goal is to assist in long-term weight loss.
However, y’all know we don’t just go with an initial gut reaction here at Kaplifestyle. I could be wrong. What if the simple act of sweating more is advantageous for burning calories and/or fat? I suppose I had better challenge my own assumptions.
I’ve spent the last few days in the Dominican Republic. As you might imagine, it has been hot and humid. You remember my recent decision to rock a sport coat. Perhaps that course of action was a bit shortsighted, but at least I know what it’s like to don gear with the explicit purpose of sweating profusely. My time in the sun got me thinking. Was I burning calories more quickly? Should I grab a trash bag for my next sprint session? Hell no. From healthyliving.azcentral.com:
Wearing a plastic bag while you exercise makes you sweat more, and it may seem like the more you sweat, the more calories you’re burning. However, that theory isn’t true. Sweating removes water from the body, which can cause you to weigh less immediately after a workout, but it doesn’t burn more calories. Instead, it can lead to dangerous health problems by not allowing your body to cool itself appropriately.
That weight you’re “losing” will come back on as soon as you hit the water bottle. These ideas are popular amongst wrestlers or body builders who are looking to cut weight for a weigh-in, but you risk cramping, poor performance, diminished mental strength, and organ damage for a few minutes of weighing less. Yes, it’s common sense, but it’s astounding how much money folks pay for gimmicks like these and others without science behind them. The phrase “weight loss” alone can sell just about anything, from diet pills to magic clothing. From quora.com:
A quick review of the data suggests that Americans spend between 40 and 50 billion dollars annually on weight loss.
That’s billion, with a “B.” This illustrates three things about our society.
We are perpetually unhappy with our physiques.
We like shortcuts.
We think these shortcuts will lead to our desired scale readings, which will in turn make us happy.
Speaking of scales, you may remember how I feel about them. I spoke at length about the more appropriate goal of eating animals, veggies and fruit (no packaged or processed food) in an effort to feel better in your own skin. Take this mission for a test run. Your clothes will fit better, your outlook may be rosier, and you won’t need to purchase gimmicks (or a scale, for that matter).
Ironically, I’m headed back to Cali in a comfortably fitting sweat suit in the morning.
If you’ve known me at all over the years, you know I frequently talk about how vital it is to have a strong mind. This post offers no advice. It’s simply an ode to the characteristic I respect most in human beings.
During my MLB career, I paid close attention to the psyche of the men with whom I stood shoulder to shoulder. I watched as they fell and stayed down, or picked themselves back up. Baseball is a game of failure, and, of all the major team sports, none demand a more powerful mind. It is required simply for survival.
As I sat back and watched these men take their swings, it occurred to me having the game come easily was not indicative of owning a strong mind. It was the men who had something going on upstairs to overcome who were the toughest mentally.
Bill Mueller, my teammate in 2003 and 2004, had thoughts percolating constantly and wrestled vigorously with demons at the plate. Bill stepped out, told said demons to fuck off, took a deep breath, got back in the box and lined a double off the Green Monster on his way to winning a batting title. Tell me that he’s not a mental warrior.
Of course, having both is ideal, but if given the choice, I’ll select the strong mind over the strong body without blinking.
In our workouts, it enables us to gather the wherewithal to take down another set or rep. At the grocery store, it inspires us to make decisions conducive to a healthy lifestyle. It’s the backbone of confidence, the core of character. At every turn, we are challenged at work and in relationships. We either react emotionally or allow our rational, sound deliberation to guide how we navigate our various interactions.
The more robust our mindset, the better equipped we are to handle the world’s hecklers, trolls and slugs.
From Martin Farquhar Tuppe:
Ridicule is a weak weapon when pointed at a strong mind; but common people are cowards and dread an empty laugh.
So that appears to be a lot of marketing nonsense. Let’s get to the important stuff and the reason why I agreed to try the beans in the first place – the flavor and experience.
