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Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

cnn.com

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Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#61

Post by blueprint »

Jill_the_Pill wrote: post #22
ilovecaching wrote: post #9

My work provides a gym, and I go there for at least an hour every weekday. I'd rather do poorly at work then skip exercising to be honest. I see some of the older employees coming in trying to reverse the effects of a sedentary lifestyle and I do not envy that position. It's crazy how people will deprioritze their health. It should always be a person's #1 priority to live as long as possible. Of course, diet is also…

"It should always be a person's #1 priority to live as long as possible." Living as well and as beneficently as possible might be higher priorities. The older folks with the desk jobs are often quite literally sacrificing their own well-being for their family's, "deprioritizing their health" for another priority. "You could not do more with your money than get professional help in steering your body" You could donate…

I was with you up until "donating to the poor". Does that include feeding those who dont want to work but could and should? Unless we're talking about donating time to guide and counsel, to awaken them, and if they're on the right track, supporting them.

How does donating encourage justice? What is the definition of justice? It's the light which reveals 'what is' in a society. That is not accomplished by donation alone, and in fact, generally it's easier for the opposite to occur. One can draw the conclusion that to donate without confirming how it's used is equivalent to a misdeed.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#62

Post by WalterSear »

howlgram wrote: post #31
ilovecaching wrote: post #9

My work provides a gym, and I go there for at least an hour every weekday. I'd rather do poorly at work then skip exercising to be honest. I see some of the older employees coming in trying to reverse the effects of a sedentary lifestyle and I do not envy that position. It's crazy how people will deprioritze their health. It should always be a person's #1 priority to live as long as possible. Of course, diet is also…

reminder that getting a professional trainer and a nutritionist is a luxury, you can easily learn how to diet and exercise off the internet the way that people learn programming

How many articles on programming techniques have you seen that were written by non-programmers, by people who are just writing about coding in order to try to sell you hardware, or by kept spouses, programming to justifying their existence, and to have a 'job' to tell people about at cocktail parties?

Fitness and nutrition information is drowning online in a sea of woo.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#63

Post by collyw »

dsajames wrote: post #23
JimDabell wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's crazy how people will deprioritze their health. > Also, if you're struggling with getting fit, GET A PERSONAL TRAINER AND NUTRITIONIST. There are tonnes of people out there who are just scraping by, who have to work two exhausting jobs, who have to spend all of their free time looking after kids, etc., who can't afford the gym, let alone a personal trainer and nutritionist. If you have the time and money to do…

This doesn't describe the fast majority of out of shape people. Poverty has always been an issue, but obesity and poor health from a sedentary lifestyle is a very new issue.

I see you are down voted, but there must be some truth to this. In my group at work there are a couple of other guys the same age as me - mid 40s. I cycle to work and am in decent shape for my age (resting pulse around 60). The other two are overweight and look a lot older than me. They must be paid well enough and they clock off at 6pm. As for poverty - most of my exercise is cycling to work. The bike saves me money - I have had it for 7 years and it originally cost less than a years worth of public transport.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#64

Post by foobarian »

ilovecaching wrote: post #38
Jill_the_Pill wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It should always be a person's #1 priority to live as long as possible." Living as well and as beneficently as possible might be higher priorities. The older folks with the desk jobs are often quite literally sacrificing their own well-being for their family's, "deprioritizing their health" for another priority. "You could not do more with your money than get professional help in steering your body" You could donate…

Your first priority should be taking care of yourself. Remember the plane safety demonstration? You always put your own mask on first, even if it seems selfish. You're in the best position to help others and make good decisions when you feel stability in your own life. Making sure you'll be around a long time also makes you last longer as a resource to society, and to your family. You can't do any of those things you…

I don't buy that 100%. At some point you will get old and sick enough that you risk becoming a huge resource drain. It may sound heartless but I am saying it imagining myself in that position and saying no to millions of dollars in medical treatment for a few more months/years of misery and pulling the plug instead. The benefit for my kids/family would be huge.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#65

Post by collyw »

doombolt wrote: post #53
manmal wrote: post #10

Put bluntly, exercising creates new mitochondria in your cells. Since disease is often due to low cell energy (making cells underperform or malfunction), it makes sense that adding mitochondria (=adding ability to convert cellular energy) is very beneficial. Here is a quite technical paper on exercise and mitochondrial biogenesis: http://m.jbc.org/content/282/1/194.full

I wonder if we can have a pill to maintain high level of mitochondria in all our cells in background. It seems that modern humans have a lot of power-saving traits which are active deterrent as of now when food is abundant, since they lead to obesity, muscle loss and mitochondria problems here. Other mammals don't seem to have such problems en masse.

Our bodies evolved to be a lot more active than the average person today. I would be surprised if it's the only thing that exercise helps and as such I would be skeptical about how beneficial a pill would be.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#66

Post by shin_lao »

ddebernardy wrote: post #42
Boxxed wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a little pedantic, even for HN, don't you think? "Oh, it's not the exercise that's important, it's the stuff that happens BECAUSE you exercise."

It's not pedantic at all. I'm ~40 and don't exercise at all, yet I'm still perfectly fit. I presume it's due to doing groceries by foot several times per week, having a standup desk, and carrying the kid around. Perhaps genes help too. But the point I'd like to get across is: going to the gym isn't the sine qua non of making you fit. You can get enough "exercise" by simply living without a car, standing, and walking.

I think you need to define perfectly fit. Can you do 10 pullups?

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#67

Post by 8draco8 »

wild_preference wrote: post #4
js2 wrote: post #2

There's a gentleman who spends an hour or so every night walking around the neighborhood. He's usually watching something on his phone as he walks, and he always smokes a cigar at some point. I've always wondered if he'd be better off not exercising and not smoking that cigar. I guess now I know.

Well, cigars surely cannot be in the same category as something you inhale.

Of course they inhale. If not trough cigar then trough second hand smoking which is proven to be even more harmful.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#68

Post by shafyy »

themagician wrote: post #24
ilovecaching wrote: post #9

My work provides a gym, and I go there for at least an hour every weekday. I'd rather do poorly at work then skip exercising to be honest. I see some of the older employees coming in trying to reverse the effects of a sedentary lifestyle and I do not envy that position. It's crazy how people will deprioritze their health. It should always be a person's #1 priority to live as long as possible. Of course, diet is also…

> “It should always be a person's #1 priority to live as long as possible.” Why? I personally don’t want to live as long as possible, definitely not if I develop some kind of neurodegerative disorder. I’d honestly be happy with 65. I don’t see too many people over the age 65 who I envy. Diet and exercise are big contributors to preventing heart disease, but when it comes to things like the vast array of cancers it’s…

That's a very shortsighted statement, but I can see where you're coming from.

I thought the same way when I was in my late teens/early twenties. Was a way for me to justify unhealthy food, smoking and alcohol.

Now I'm 30 and slowly realized it's not true. Living healthy when you're young doesn't have short-term reward. But I'm pretty sure when you're 50+ you'll be happy that you ate healthy, exercised and had a way to deal with stress (e.g. meditation).

If you're mentally and physically fit, you can do as much with 65 as you do with 20 today.

Also, I believe that our understanding of how sicknesses work and tech advances, we'll be able to live much longer. So, in 40 years from now, 65 might just be "middle-aged". Heck, it's even possible that you'll never have to die if you don't want to.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#69

Post by raffael-vogler »

So the study measures relative fitness on the treadmill and associates that with cardio respiratory health - but isn't this pretty much just the two sides of the same coin? If you measure 1000 people's performance in some fitness exercise - isn't it obvious that the result will correlate with the observable health?

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#70

Post by EamonnMR »

foobarian wrote: post #64
ilovecaching wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your first priority should be taking care of yourself. Remember the plane safety demonstration? You always put your own mask on first, even if it seems selfish. You're in the best position to help others and make good decisions when you feel stability in your own life. Making sure you'll be around a long time also makes you last longer as a resource to society, and to your family. You can't do any of those things you…

I don't buy that 100%. At some point you will get old and sick enough that you risk becoming a huge resource drain. It may sound heartless but I am saying it imagining myself in that position and saying no to millions of dollars in medical treatment for a few more months/years of misery and pulling the plug instead. The benefit for my kids/family would be huge.

Then look at it like this: the better you take care of yourself, the less likely you are to have a severely degraded quality of life before your luck (or health) runs out.
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