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Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

derekthompson.org

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Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#111

Post by alexjplant »

nemothekid wrote: post #92
bad_username wrote: post #76

> That I was born in the capital of the world’s richest country is one of the greatest strokes of luck in my life—a pure accident of timing and gametes. There is no way to pay back this good fortune, and wallowing in guilt over it would do nothing, either. Why in the world does the author have to feel so bad about beibg lucky in some way? How does luck deserve the feeling of guilt? This has to be as unhealthy as exer…

Noblesse oblige used to be a virtue among the noble but it seems now people consider it "Absurd and corrosive"

OP said of the author:

> Why in the world does the author have to feel so bad about beibg lucky in some way? How does luck deserve the feeling of guilt?

The author themselves said:

> That I was born in the capital of the world’s richest country is one of the greatest strokes of luck in my life—a pure accident of timing and gametes. There is no way to pay back this good fortune, and wallowing in guilt over it would do nothing, either.

You mentioned "noblesse oblige" which is

> a French expression that means that nobility extends beyond mere entitlement, requiring people who hold such status to fulfill social responsibilities

It seems that everybody is talking past one another in this exchange. The author acknowledges that guilt over this is unproductive and implicitly admonishes readers of means to help those less fortunate in the same paragraph:

> The quiet miracle of charity and global aid is that the uneven distribution of global wealth creates an asymmetry by which relatively trivial amounts of money from the rich can prevent immense suffering and death among the poor.

One can simultaneously shed feelings of guilt over their fortunate socioeconomic position and give to those less fortunate. These two things are not mutually exclusive. To say that somebody should feel bad over something over which they had no control is nothing more than a secular version of original sin. I know I'd prefer to have a privileged class that pays it forward out of an intrinsic motivation to do good instead of a negative one like guilt... seems more stable and less prone to class warfare, but then again I'm no historian or anthropologist.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#112

Post by Bnjoroge »

sctb wrote: post #8
voat wrote: post #2

Maybe not a drug. But if the improvements in health come from bio chemical signals, it should be possible to activate those signals without engaging in exercise. Eventually?

Strictly speaking, any intervention other than exercise is going to give you a subset of the total stimulation. A drug acting on the tissues directly would bypass the neurological component, for example. If the idea is to avoid the effort of exercise, perhaps it would be worth considering the possibility that the effort itself is essential.

not entirely true. you can have drugs that directly act on the respective receptors, either inhibit or excite them.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#113

Post by thrance »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #71
thrance wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because our ancestors did something doesn't mean it's automatically good for your health. After all, prehistoric men weren't known for their long life expectancy.

What data are you basing this on? My understanding is that historical life expectancy is only as low as it is because of the immense infant mortality rates. People who survived through childhood tended to live long.

Longer than is generally thought, but not as long as we do today either.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#114

Post by andrepd »

bad_username wrote: post #76

> That I was born in the capital of the world’s richest country is one of the greatest strokes of luck in my life—a pure accident of timing and gametes. There is no way to pay back this good fortune, and wallowing in guilt over it would do nothing, either. Why in the world does the author have to feel so bad about beibg lucky in some way? How does luck deserve the feeling of guilt? This has to be as unhealthy as exer…

What on earth are you talking about? The text you quote says literally "wallowing in guilt over it would do nothing" and you're asking "How does luck deserve the feeling of guilt?"???

Surely I'm missing something.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#115

Post by thefaux »

kstrauser wrote: post #54
pmarreck wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Our bodies are mechanically optimized for running at every level My flat feet (and those of my mom, and those of one of her parents, ad infinitum) would beg to differ lol Also, most of the energy our bodies burn to run just turns into heat, it's all very inefficient... even if sweating itself works pretty well, and even if our heat tolerance is high assuming we have a source of fresh water

My wife's a podiatrist. I can conjure what I've heard her tell a thousand people over the years: invest in arch supports. Shoot for the ones that run about $50 and are rigid. Don't start with the $500 custom ones, and skip the $10 soft ones you see at the pharmacy. Go to REI or a running shop or a sporting goods store and get those instead. My knees freaking killed me when I was running. I started using the supports…

Counterpoint: I am personally skeptical about the long term value of arch supports. The reason is that while they can undoubtably help with short term pain, they also inhibit strength development and introduce an unnecessary dependency (kind of like a software library). I am not disagreeing with your experience or discouraging people from using supports to deal with injuries. I am just questioning making yourself reliant upon them.

About 20 years ago, I was riding my bike everywhere and hardly walking. I went on a trip to NYC and was walking 10+ miles a day. I developed severe shooting pains in my feet. Getting some supports helped dramatically and so I started wearing them whenever I wore shoes.

I did this for about 15 years and completely swore by arch supporting shoes. Then, one day I was playing basketball and landed on someone's foot going for a layup. My foot basically folded in half in the opposite direction of the arch. This was a major injury and I could not walk at all for a week and it took multiple years before I stopped feeling pain regularly in that foot.

After the injury, I completely stopped wearing arch supports. I had a theory that my feet had been weakened by using them and that this weakness was the underlying reason for the severity of my injury. For the last few years, I have averaged about eight miles of walking a day and mostly wear zero drop minimal shoes. I have developed the ability to run on concrete with them, though I do not particularly enjoy this (primarily because my running efficiency is poor).

If I were running a marathon, I would certainly wear shoes with padding, but I don't find much padding or support necessary or even desirable for brisk walking for hours at a time. And for almost 15 years, I never left the house without bulky supports.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#117

Post by deadbabe »

tomalaci wrote: post #21
voat wrote: post #2

Maybe not a drug. But if the improvements in health come from bio chemical signals, it should be possible to activate those signals without engaging in exercise. Eventually?

Steroids. You will be growing muscle while sitting on a couch, even better than someone that naturally trains. However, you very likely will develop asymetries or other weird complications because you didnt properly work out. My point is that, even though we might find even more ways to improve/modify our bodies, they will come with slew of risks that are just not worth it if you can achieve it naturally. On another…

That's not how steroids work. Muscles need stimulus to grow even with steroids. What steroids do is make your body recover faster so you can train more often and build muscle right away.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#118

Post by antoniuschan99 »

Otek wrote: post #99
socalgal2 wrote: post #12

I find it interesting that the article is about exercise and the title picture is yoga. In fact near the top > To a best approximation, aerobic fitness and weight-training seem to increase our metabolism, improve mitochondrial function, fortify our immune system, reduce inflammation, improve tissue-specific adaptations, and protect against disease. Yoga is neither aerobic fitness nor weight training note: I do yoga p…

There are different yoga styles - there is Yin Yoga which is more still, there is Ashtanga Yoga which is more Strength-Based. Something like a Hot Vinyasa or Bikram will definitely be a great cardio workout. So telling us that you are doing yoga is like telling you've eaten pizza. There is lot of different toppings mate :P

Hiit yoga too. Also in a hot room too.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#119

Post by lykablue »

nemothekid wrote: post #92
bad_username wrote: post #76

> That I was born in the capital of the world’s richest country is one of the greatest strokes of luck in my life—a pure accident of timing and gametes. There is no way to pay back this good fortune, and wallowing in guilt over it would do nothing, either. Why in the world does the author have to feel so bad about beibg lucky in some way? How does luck deserve the feeling of guilt? This has to be as unhealthy as exer…

Noblesse oblige used to be a virtue among the noble but it seems now people consider it "Absurd and corrosive"

Good old colonial times, free of workplace regulations
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