LiveLongAgeWell

My next blog will be about health and social networking on the internet, but today I suggest you check out this outrageously funny blog, (supposedly) written by two women in their 80s…it’s wild and raw and if you can imagine something written by the Golden Girls on steroids, this would be it.

These women—assuming it’s not a hoax blog, but I believe somehow two old ladies are writing—are definitely going to drop dead dancing in their 90s…at least dancing on their scooters (see their homepage). The best word I think to describe them—feisty; these are two feisty women, getting older and having a great time at it.

Warning: if you love Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney and/or don’t like to read strong language, probably best to avoid the blog, but otherwise, check it out:

http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/
I hope I’m not violating any copyright here, but here’s a sample of one of their posts, so you can see what I’m talking about:

Let me tell you a little story about my shit for brains nephew who actually does live in California. He was married ten years and had two children. Sadly, it didn’t work out. Honestly she was horrible, but you never really want to see a marriage end. So we were all a little sad when she left and he fell apart. Eventually he got his shit together, picked up the pieces and met another girl. I don’t like her much, but she makes him happy so what do I care if they want to get married? However, the Catholic church cared a great deal. You see, he was still married in the eyes of the church even though his moron of an ex-wife had been gone 4 years. And the new one is also divorced… and (oh my) a Baptist.

Problem? Not for long. Two annulments later and wallah – they were never married. Never mind the kids. Bastards all of them I guess. Funny but I didn’t know the Catholic church could annul a Baptist marriage, but you live and learn.

I’ve lived a long time and I have learned many things. For instance, I now know that even if the marriage is annulled, you don’t get your wedding gift back. I also learned that the previously married then divorced then never really married and now newly engaged couple can actually have the gall to print on their invitation where they are registered. As if that blender I purchased for the first wedding was annulled as well. But I digress…

Medical Bankruptcy

Health care costs have been one big reason we are in the Great Recession right now, and a majority of personal bankruptcies also have medical bills as a cause…. check out this New York Times blog post:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/medical-bills-cause-most-bankruptcies/

Something seriously needs to be done to fix the medical care system. Usually I love Paul Krugman’s op-ed pieces in the Times, and today’s is about the insurance industry and health care reform:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/opinion/05krugman.html?em

bottom line:

1) Don’t trust the insurance industry.

2) Don’t trust the insurance industry.

Finally, here is the single best article I have read that explains why the U.S. has been going bankrupt medically. (I am sure the same forces are taking shape in many other countries as well.) It’s long, but, in true New Yorker fashion, is a sample of writing perfection and well worth your time:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all

I will leave you with a quote from the article:

the damning question we have to ask is whether the doctor is set up to meet the needs of the patient, first and foremost, or to maximize revenue….

Today where I am in Brazil, nearing the end of Carnival, it’s like a ghost town. It doesn’t seem like its normal self. It’s cloudy, a little chilly…those were rain drops?

Few people are outside. Most all stores are shut. Good luck if your refrigerator is empty; maybe you’ll find a pastry shop open somewhere. Many people today seem more depressed than happy. Last night they were out late and relationships were tested. As in many cities and countries, walking around late at night here—depending on where you are—can be a little dicey. Elite police units were out in force and the streets swirled and danced with frenetic people; I saw no violence…

It was great that so many readers commented on the “Carnival begins” post. Comments tell me about you the audience, and help me write a better blog with the subjects you want. I encourage you to read the comments for views different from mine.

I am beta-testing a new widget application for LLAW, called QWIDGET, and it’s a way for people to leave comments more easily (I hope). Plus you can interact with others leaving feedback if you wish. Try it out by answering the question further along in this post. See what you think, and tell me if you’d like this QWIDGET to be part of the blog.

Last post I introduced the idea of cosmetic procedures and how Brazilians—seemingly more than U.S. Americans—seem more attuned to looking good (I enjoyed the one comment that Brazilians are more appearance-oriented because they go to the beach more, need to show skin, and want to avoid “visual pollution”…haha.) But beyond that, from the phone calls and emails I received, I know that cosmetic surgery is probably a more explosive topic than even cultural comparisons. Everyone seems to have a pretty strong opinion one way or the other, and here are some comments I have heard over the years:

1.    It’s great, I want it as soon as I need it, or before.
2.    No way, never. I’m happy the way I am.
3.    Do you know any good surgeons?
4.    It’s just wrong. We have so many bigger problems, plus the economy. There are many more important things to worry about.
5.    People who resort to plastic surgery are sad people. Just accept yourself the way you are.
6.    If someone wants plastic surgery, it’s fine, but it’s not for me.
7.    You can spend money on a trip or a piece of art or an expensive watch so why not this if you want?
8.    Too many people everywhere lack access to basic healthcare so why are we even considering this?
9.    Maybe if things get really bad, I’ll do something.

[qwidget question="173"]

My opinion, and this philosophy is incorporated into my book, is that you have the right to cosmetic surgery if you want, but consider other simpler measures first. Many people get good results from treatments like facial peeling or lasers or botox and sometimes even a different hairstyle or better posture will do more good than surgery, and with those you don’t run the risk, downtime, and expense of plastic surgery. Sometimes you just need more exercise and a better diet and six months.

The Brazilian attitudes about plastic surgery are more casual than in the United States. Friends and acquaintances here freely admit if they had some procedure. There is no shame here really, and there shouldn’t be. If you want it, maybe do it, and if you don’t like the idea, that’s great too. Just don’t be too quick to judge other people about plastic surgery, whatever their choice or belief….ok, some thoughts about cosmetic surgery:
1.    Don’t try to do too much (many complications occur because some patients push for multiple or excessive procedures all at the same time).
2.    Know the risks and that not everyone is happy afterwards, but most people get good results if they do the procedure they “need” and find a good surgeon.
3.    Find the best plastic surgeon you can.
4.    Research the various procedures and options.
5.    Be in good physical and mental shape before any surgery to decrease risks and maximize good healing. If you are depressed, surgery won’t cure your depression—better to see a psychologist or a doctor you trust first. If you smoke, don’t get plastic surgery.
6.    Ask lots of questions.

Next: follow-up “botox emergency”.

Today where I am, in Brazil, Carnival begins, and there is nothing that compares in the United States. Even New Orleans is more like a small-town street fair in comparison. In Brazil, the whole country stops most its business, and people turn to having a good time, trying to forget for five days all that’s bad. That seems especially true for the poorest people here, of which there are many.

So from today and for the next five days when Carnival ends, the banks will all close and even if you have a bill due during this period, you don’t have to pay until after Carnival. Brazilians really know how to enjoy themselves (and not only during these five days). My opinion is that U.S. Americans, generally, seem to spend much more time in a competitive pursuit of money, and…where has that gotten our country now?

The life expectancy in the U.S. is about 78 years and in the south of Brazil where I am now, it’s 75 years. My observation is that down here, their 75 years are much less stressful and happier due to the easier-going attitude. I think it’s something North Americans can learn somewhat. If you do, I think you’ll live longer and age better.

I’m interested to hear my readers’ reactions to my cross-cultural observations.  Am I off-base? And what about this: despite being a more laid-back country, Brazilians seem much more appearance-conscious than North Americans. They spend a lot of time, and money, on making sure their skin and hair and bodies look good, and the cosmetic surgery rate is likely the highest in the world. What do you think about that? Is it “wrong”? More about cosmetic surgery here next week (in honor of Carnival, I’m combining the usual Monday and Wednesday posts into Tuesday).

Have a good weekend. And I hope you consider if—despite the tough economic times everywhere—you want to “loosen up” your life a bit, and if so, how you might do it.

In my last post I described how “belly fat” (medically known as visceral fat) is especially bad for health. It’s fat deep in our abdomen, wrapped around our internal organs—more dangerous than fat deposits elsewhere in our bodies. After that unappetizing thought… the holiday season is arriving, and so is the inevitable parade of diet books. Let’s look at the new bestseller Flat Belly Diet by Liz Vaccariello and Cynthia Sass from Prevention magazine.

The authors base their book principally on some Spanish research from 2007 presented in the journal Diabetes Care, which suggested that people who ate more MUFAs (Monosaturated Fatty Acids) lost more belly fat than people who ate the same number of calories but more saturated fats or carbohydrates.

MUFAs are an integral part of the excellent Mediterranean Diet. Common MUFAs include: olive oil; nuts and peanut butter; nut oils such as peanut and sesame oil; seeds such as sunflower and pumpkin; avocado; and perhaps dark chocolate.

I summarize the Flat Belly Diet book:

1.    Eat four— 400 calorie meals per day, 1600 calories total (for a woman); meals spaced 4 hours apart
2.    Eat a MUFA with each meal

They describe a four-day “Jumpstart” followed by a four-week “Eating Plan”, and claim you don’t really have to exercise to slim your belly. The online program at FlatBellyDiet.com screams: “91% Success Rate! Target Belly Fat….NO exercise required!”. It’s interesting the book and website overwhelmingly targets women, but it’s the men who generally need more help with belly fat problems. But many more women than men buy diet books…

Flat Belly Diet is strong on marketing hype, though it scores good points emphasizing MUFAs. However the research on MUFAs leading to a special loss of abdominal fat is preliminary, controversial, and based on relatively few subjects (there were only 11 “volunteers” in the main study). Nevertheless, some people only attempt a dietary change with a glitzy book filled with recipes and a “plan”, so if that’s you, maybe this book is worth looking at.

But if you are really serious about affecting a more long-term change in your diet, and don’t care about glitz and bling, I would recommend a more thoughtful and scientific book: Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. It’s cheaper and a much better value than the flashy Belly book. I love how Pollan puts forward three basic laws of a good diet: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” He emphasizes avoiding processed foods and sticking to foods “your grandmother would recognize”. Simple advice—lacking the high production value in many diet books today—is often the best.

In 1845, Congress voted to make the first Tuesday in November “election day”. Why Tuesday? It seems Sunday was out because it was a holy day, and most farmers needed a day to travel by horse to their county seat to cast ballots, so if they left on Monday, then Tuesday was the natural choice. They could then be back home by Wednesday, which was “market day”. Here’s another reason we might consider somehow improving on this older-than-slavery Tuesday tradition…

Unless you voted early, hopefully tomorrow if you’re in the U.S. you will be going out to vote. But before you go out on election day—either as a pedestrian or a driver —consider this new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It showed that your chances of being killed in a car, or by a car, on an election day is 18% greater than on a typical Tuesday.

These researchers studied crash data from all U.S. presidential elections from 1976 through 2004 and found a consistent pattern that it was significantly more dangerous to be out on election day. On a typical day (shocking enough to realize), an average 134 people are killed in car accidents, but on an election day the number rises to 158. And of course, many more are injured.

The researchers didn’t have any sure answers as to why this occurred, but suspected that more people were driving those days, maybe more were distracted, or taking new routes to find their polling places. Perhaps there was a bad combination of more older drivers on the roads mixed with impatient younger drivers trying to squeeze in voting to and from work. If people had more time to vote—and working people didn’t have to rush to vote—not only might more people vote, but it might be more relaxed and safer.

So this Tuesday, be extra alert on the road for slower drivers, or people jaywalking to and from their polling places. In the future, it’s another good reason to vote early if you can, or by mail, and perhaps we in the U.S. need to consider changing our Tuesday tradition and move to weekend voting, as it is practiced by most advanced countries. If interested, read about this non-profit organization Why Tuesday?