Eating Healthy Is Overrated

by | Jun 12, 2021 | Health, Life

Let me make several points very clear before we get into the heart of this article. I am not saying eating healthy is a bad thing, because it’s obvious that everyone should do such. But for many people, such as myself, that’s never going to happen. I want people to know there are other factors, which in my opinion, are every bit as important as one’s diet, possibly more important. Don’t beat yourself up if you have poor eating habits, try to make up for it in other ways.

Next, this article is not based on science, it’s nothing more than my personal opinion. So please don’t refer me to scientific data proving a certain type of diet is better or healthier for you. That’s a given, nobody’s disagreeing with that premise. From my perspective, lifestyle choices are every bit as important as what you eat. I’m talking about regular exercise, which everyone in the field of medical science agrees pays huge dividends. Did you know that most surveys reveal approximately only one out of four Americans participates in a regular exercise program? That’s hard to believe.

But there’s a lot more than exercise, such as avoiding alcohol, cigarettes, and prescription drugs. Yes I said prescription drugs. Americans are like junkies, strung out on array of prescription drugs. All one has to do is listen to those never-ending drug commercials on TV when they get to the disclaimer. This drug can cause strokes, tumors, heart attacks, and on rare occasions, even death. Why would anyone voluntarily choose to take a prescription drug with so many negative possibilities? Yes, I realize that for people with certain health conditions, they must take some prescription drugs. However, I am talking about the millions of Americans who see a drug commercial and ask or demand that their doctor orders a prescription for the drug they saw on TV. Why do you think drug companies spend millions of dollars on this type of advertising? If you watch those commercials, the message is very clear. Take this drug and your life will become better in so many ways.

Before I leave this subject, allow me to summarize an article I read a few years go. It was written by physician who talked about the perils of prescription drugs. He described the following scenario for many of his patients. He said I prescribe prescription A for one of my patients. About 3 months later, I have to prescribe prescription B to treat the side effects of prescription A. Fast forward another 3 months, and then I have to prescribe prescription C for her, which counters the side effects of taking the combination of prescriptions A & B. He said it’s a never-ending cycle, which I’m sure which enriches America’s drug companies, but it probably creates more health issues than it resolves.

We all know that breathing in cigarette smoke is extremely harmful, but let’s talk briefly about alcohol, something most Americans regularly consume. Multiple studies revealed the kind of damage alcohol does to your body and possibly your brain. The type of alcohol (beer, wine, whiskey) is irrelevant. All forms are harmful when regularly consuming alcohol. By the way, I don’t believe the claims that a certain level of alcohol consumption is actually good for you.

Let’s move on to the subject of one’s diet. As for me, I’m the role model for everything doctors tell you to avoid. My lifetime diet primarily consists of burgers, fries, steaks, chicken, Italian food, ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, and cake. Hmmmmmm, I’m getting hungry just thinking about the above. I know, you’re probably thinking I’m 50 pounds overweight, can barely buckle up my belt, and I’m burdened with an array of medical issues. You would be wrong. I’m about 5 to 6 pounds overweight, which isn’t too bad for a guy my age. But here’s the good news. With exception of allergy medicine, I do NOT take any prescription drugs!

I never smoked, I never drank any form of alcohol, and I’ve been physically fit my entire life. I try to make it to the gym every morning. Five days a week, I do cardio, and twice a week, even though I hate it, I do circuit weights. No, I’m not training for the Olympics, I do just enough to maintain a decent level of fitness. When my father was my age, he could barely walk up a flight of stairs, while I take them two at a time. I have yet to meet a woman who can outlast me on the dance floor. I’m LOL. I can still go to a dance club and dance the night away. If disco would somehow make a comeback, I would be so happy.

Every year I go for my annual physical. Last year, my blood pressure was almost the same as it was 25 years ago. My cholesterol is slightly elevated, and my triglycerides are way too high. That’s the price I pay for eating so many cookies and lots of ice cream and cake. Yesterday I went to the Cheesecake Factory and couldn’t decide between Chocolate Oriole or Hershey’s chocolate cheesecake. But have no fear, I knew whatever I chose would be delicious. I just had to work a little harder in the gym this morning.

I know several people who eat a very healthy diet, but they still suffer form an array of health issues. It could be genetics, or maybe it’s a combination of a lack of exercise, too much alcohol, and/or a reliance upon prescription drugs. From my perspective, the good eaters I referred to are proof that a healthy diet isn’t enough. I’m sure everyone will probably think my next comment is nothing more than wishful thinking, and you’re probably right. Eating healthy is a good thing, but it may be overrated. Despite what so many scientists tell us, I think one can make up for a poor diet with an array of lifestyle choices which I described above. I want to believe those lifestyle choices may be more important than a healthy diet, but who am I to counter what the world of science tells us.

The Democrats HR1 Bill is Another Idiotic Bill from a Party Which Often Demonstrates Stupidity

by | Jun 7, 2021 | Life, Politics

America is in big trouble. We need two strong political parties which act as a counterbalance to the other. That would hopefully result in common sense compromises to solve problems and/or resolve issues. This is what the majority of Americans want from their representatives in Washington, DC. At this point in time, the Republican Party has numerous bigots, racists, people who are anti-science, and those who have no interest in facts or the truth. To compound matters, they are a Trump CULT, worshipping an egomaniac, a pathological liar, a criminal, and an imbecile. They will do everything Trump wants, even if it is suicidal for the party.

On the other side of the ledger are the Democrats, who mean well, but can’t think their way out of a paper bag. They come up with one dumb policy after another. They are the party which came up with the idiotic slogan to “Defund the Police”. Are you serious? They also impeached Trump over one phone call, while never utilizing the 10 accusations of Trump Obstructing Justice, provided by the Mueller Report. How stupid can one party be?

The other problem with the Democrats is their inability to come up with focused legislation, which deals directly with a specific issue. Unfortunately, they try to change the world with every bill they craft. A good example is the infrastructure bill, which America needs badly. Instead of concentrating solely on roads, bridges, rail, and the Internet, they threw in the “kitchen sink”. Guess what? They did it again with HR1, the bill they crafted to counter the Republican Party’s attempt to thwart democracy by imposing numerous voter restrictions.  The Republicans enacted a series of laws which did serious damage to voter rights. But the biggest threat to our democracy are their laws which give a state legislature the ability to overturn the results of an election. Every American should be terrified of that dangerous component of the Republican Party’s pathetic attempt to stay in power and thwart our democracy.

Back to the idiots in the Democratic Party. Instead of crafting a bill, with a laser like focus on the most important issue, they once again tried to change everything which is wrong in the world with their HR1 bill. They should instead focus primarily on blocking the ability of a state legislature to overturn an election.  Thank you Joe Manchin for voting against it.

Here are some of the idiotic components of the Democratic bill.

  • H.R 1 would prevent election officials from maintaining accurate voter lists and make it harder for them to determine if voters are registered in multiple jurisdictions. This increases the likelihood that voter rolls are outdated, inaccurate, or contain ineligible voters.
  • The bill would dramatically expand automatic voter registration.  People who never give their consent could be added to voter rolls. H.R. 1 goes so far as designating colleges as automatic voter registration agencies. Are they crazy?
  • The bill would prohibit some commonsense voter ID rules and allow convicted felons to vote.
  • It enables same day registration during early voting and on election day.
  • Provisional ballots cast outside a voter’s precinct must be counted. What are they thinking?

In sum, what the Democrats are doing with this proposed bill, is trying to take the voting process and verification protocols away from the states, thereby giving it to the federal government. I understand why they want to do that, but it’s a mistake. Even if it passes, which is unlikely, I’m confident the Supreme Court would vote it down. They should instead concentrate on a very focused bill, which doesn’t allow state legislatures to overturn an election, or in any way, prohibit citizens from registering and voting. They need to incorporate some commonsense oversight which most people will agree with, as well as the Supreme Court.

America’s Insane Drug Laws

by | Jun 4, 2021 | Law Enforcement

I was told that Einstein’s definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over while expecting a different outcome. We’ve been repeatedly trying, for over a half century, to stem the tide of illegal drugs using the same failed approach. Yet we probably have more illegal drugs available today, than at any time in recent history. I remember when the head of DEA was on national television a few years ago explaining that on their best days, DEA keeps about 5% of the drugs from coming into our country. Why does America persist in following a strategy which always proves to be a failure? Let me take a moment to point out that I detest those illegal drugs, but I’m smart enough to realize we can’t stop people from using them.

How many times have you seen a press conference where DEA or the FBI announces the arrest of a drug kingpin? The formula is almost always the same. It took them 2-3 years, sometimes longer, to gather enough evidence for a conviction. What they usually leave out of the equation are the millions of dollars the investigation cost the taxpayers. And sometimes, it’s more than money, as lives are often lost during their pursuit of the cartel leader. But in the end, DEA, the FBI, or a local law enforcement agency, makes an effort to proudly tell us the time, money, and/or lives was worth the effort. Really? Only foolish people should believe that BS.

What happens after a drug kingpin is arrested? It’s usually one of two things. Someone in the cartel takes the place of the leader who was arrested, and after a brief period of adjustment, they continue to smuggle drugs into American cities as if nothing happened.

But occasionally the arrest does enough damage to an organization, that they can no longer function at the same level of efficiency. But guess what? If that happens, one of their competitors will take over and we’re right back where we started. However, before that competing gang takes over, there’s usually an extended period of extreme violence, as both gangs compete for the right to earn huge amounts of money, selling drugs in America.

This is a cycle which America has repeated endlessly for the past 50 years or so. Yet, for whatever reason, we keep on doing the same thing over and over. We never learned our lesson from Prohibition, when the Christian right tried to impose their version of morality on America. That was way back in the 1920s and it quickly became a fiasco. It didn’t change our moral values, and it certainly didn’t stop the flow of alcohol into the hands of our citizens. But it did succeed in transforming the Mafia from a group of small, local gangs, into a national powerhouse. The government gave criminals a golden opportunity and they seized that moment in time to change American culture, in a negative manner for many decades. Ironically, Prohibition not only failed in its goal to change morality, it set us on a path which led to the deaths of countless thousands, at the hands of what became much more powerful organized crime syndicates.

Fast forward to the creation of our drug laws and it became a huge opportunity for gangs in every major city, as well as newly developed Drug Cartels in countries outside of America. Much of the violent crime and murders in our cities are gangs fighting turf wars over the profits from the sale of illegal drugs. Chicago is a prime example of a city where the lives of many are extinguished in part because of foolish, futile drug laws. The drug laws have created problems which are far worse than the use of narcotics. The biggest achievement of our drug laws is making the production and sale of illegal drugs a financial bonanza for violent criminals. It sounds just like prohibition, doesn’t it?

Those who watch Fox are obsessed with illegal immigration at the Mexican Border. Many of those people are fleeing countries which are run by violent gangs, fueled by drug trafficking profits. Eliminating the drug laws will almost certainly reduce the level of illegal immigration at our southern border.

Please understand that our drug laws took an addiction/health issue and turned it into a massive criminal problem. More than half of all crimes committed in America are drug related. Imagine what would happen if we changed that equation. I have no sympathy for drug users, but we should understand that drug addicts have the same addiction problem which heavy smokers and drinkers have. Why do we single out drug users and turn them into criminals? Why don’t we treat them as people who need help, just as we do with heavy smokers and alcoholics?

I think you can guess what my approach would be, but how would you change our failed drug laws? It’s obvious that law enforcement has proven to be a total failure over the past half century. Therefore, we need a brand-new  approach, which enables people to get help with their addiction, without becoming criminals and/or dealing with drug dealers. What solutions do you believe would work better? Please keep in mind that whatever you come up with, it couldn’t be any worse than what we’ve experienced throughout our lifetime.

Alcohol Damages Brain Cells (Gray Matter)

by | May 21, 2021 | Health

No Amount of Alcohol is Good For You

Scientists have known for decades that drinking alcohol destroys brain cells (the gray matter used for thinking and logic). Here are the results of major study in the UK. Virtually all of the information below comes from the NPR and CNN websites. There is no such thing as a “safe” level of drinking, with increased consumption of alcohol associated with poorer brain health, according to a new study.

In an observational study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, researchers from the University of Oxford studied the relationship between the self-reported alcohol intake of some 25,000 people in the UK, and their brain scans. The researchers noted that drinking had an effect on the brain’s gray matter, regions in the brain that make up “important bits where information is processed,” according to lead author Anya Topiwala, a senior clinical researcher at Oxford. “The more people drank, the less the volume of their gray matter,” Topiwala said via email. “Brain volume reduces with age and more severely with dementia. Smaller brain volume also predicts worse performance on memory testing,” she explained.

“While alcohol only made a small contribution to this (0.8%), it was a greater contribution than other ‘modifiable’ risk factors,” she said, explaining that modifiable risk factors are “ones you can do something about, in contrast to aging,” Type of alcohol doesn’t matter”. The team also investigated whether certain drinking patterns, beverage types and other health conditions made a difference to the impact of alcohol on brain health. They found that there was no “safe” level of drinking. meaning that consuming any amount of alcohol was worse than not drinking it. They also found no evidence that the type of drink, such as wine, spirits or beer, affected the harm done to the brain. 

Keep in mind that certain characteristics, such as high blood pressure, obesity, or binge-drinking, could put people at higher risk, researchers added. “So many people drink ‘moderately,’ and think this is either harmless or even protective,” Topiwala told CNN via email. “As we have yet to find a ‘cure’ for neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, knowing about factors that can prevent brain harm is important for public health,” she added.

No safe limit
The risks of alcohol have long been known: Previous studies have found there’s no amount of liquor, wine, or beer that is safe for your overall health.  Alcohol was the leading risk factor for disease and premature death in men and women between the ages of 15 and 49 worldwide in 2016, accounting for nearly one in 10 deaths, according to a study published in the Lancet in 2018. “While we can’t yet say for sure whether there is ‘no safe level’ of alcohol regarding brain health at the moment, it has been known for decades that heavy drinking is bad for brain health,“ Sadie Boniface, head of research at the UK’s Institute of Alcohol Studies, told CNN via email. “We also shouldn’t forget alcohol affects all parts of the body and there are multiple health risks,” said Boniface, who was not associated with the University of Oxford study.

Tony Rao, a visiting clinical fellow in Old Age Psychiatry at King’s College London, told CNN that given the large sample size, it was unlikely the study’s findings could have arisen by chance. Rao said the study replicates previous research that has shown there is no safe limit in the level of alcohol consumption for its role in damage to the structure and function of the human brain. “Previous research revealed subtle changes, which demonstrate damage to the brain, can present in ways that are not immediately detectable on routine testing of intellectual function and can progress unchecked until they present with more noticeable changes in memory,” he said. “Even at levels of low-risk drinking,” he said, “there is evidence that alcohol consumption plays a larger role in damage to the brain than previously thought. The (Oxford) study found that this role was greater than many other modifiable risk factors, such as smoking.”

“The interaction with high blood pressure and obesity on increasing the damage done by alcohol to the brain emphasizes the wider role of diet and lifestyle in maintaining brain health,” he added. “Our results show that the safest level of drinking is none,” the report states. “This level is in conflict with most health guidelines, which espouse health benefits associated with consuming up to two drinks per day.”

The study looked at a broad range of risks posed by alcohol consumption, including diseases, driving accidents and self-harm. According to the report, alcohol led to 2.8 million deaths in 2016. It was the leading risk factor for disease worldwide, the study found, accounting for almost 10 percent of deaths among those ages 15 to 49.

Obviously, people will not stop drinking because it’s a lifelong habit. But hopefully, studies like this will motivate them to reduce the amount of alcohol they consume.