LIVE FOREVER!

This great book, 'Fantastic Voyage' by Kurzweil and Grossman (see the website on http://www.fantastic-voyage.net/#) has really changed my life. I'll review the book in detail on the 'Think Fit' page (see link) but I want to tell what an impact the book has had on how I look at myself - near age 60 and thinking I was doing OK fitness-wise. Boy, did the book make me change that point of view! I've always concetrated on simple physical fitness (especially through resistance training) and neglected the real objective - keeping the entire biological machine running at optimum levels so I can live long and fruitfully. So reading this was a shock to discover that there was a wealth of things I neglected, especially in my case diet. Equally, I guess I didn't understand or bother with enough of the basic mechanics of how the machine works and the battery of tests you should do to ensure that you are getting the right picture of what's happening to you. I've changed: cut the coffee, switched to green tea, focused on low glycemic load foods (to name only a few changes) and plugged in other tests (e.g. homocysteine level - check out the book) to my regular check up. This team have written another book 'Transcend' which I haven't got to yet, but it's on my priority reading list.

CHOLESTROL RATIO

CHECK OUT 'SAVVY HEALTH AND FITNESS' - the image is from this excellent site (savvyhealthfitness.com/) and the site has a wealth of useful info on what you must know about cholestrol. The one thing I've learned from a number of sources is that the key indicator is the CHOLESTROL RATIO - the ratio of 'good' HDL to total cholestrol.

My total cholestrol level is 122, divided by my HDL level of 35, gives a ratio of 3.5 - which is about the higheest level you want to have and not be at risk of a heart attack. (NB: the 'extremists', Kurzweil and Grossman say 2.5 is the highest level you should have). But my total cholestrol level is very low (some would say too low) so I think I'm OK. Check out these metrics, they can save your life.

INFECTIOUS ARTHRITIS

OUCH!!! Those who know me know that I'm no wimp or hypochondriac (well, not much of one!)........ But I'm here to say that my recent bout of virus, allergy or whatever the hell it was REALLY HURT!!!! Not just the cough and dripping nose, but that fact that concurrently my knees swelled up like ballons so I could hardly walk. The left went back to normal quite quickly, but the right turned into chronic pain I believe as a result of walking with a limp and then straining a tendon. What ever this was bore some investigation. My family has a genetic predisposition to arthritis, so this was something to worry about.

A search of the Net found there is such a thing as "Infectious Septic Arthritis" . The link is http://arthritis.about.com/od/infectious/Infectious_Septic_Arthritis. To quote, "Infectious arthritis is caused by a germ that travels through the body to a joint. The germ can be a bacterium, virus, or fungus. The germ can enter the body though the skin, nose, throat, ears, or through an open wound. Most often, infectious arthritis develops after an existing infection anywhere in the body travels through the bloodstream to a joint.".

What's the treatment? In my case anti-biotic (Ciporoxyl) and anti-allergy drugs, bed rest and lots of stretching and massage to try and get the right leg back in play. The good news? I suppose that this was a result of an infection and not some longer term disease.