If the risk is that I'll have an upset stomach for two days like a toddler coming down from a sugar rush and my knees will also hurt for some reason, then yes, the WHO is right.
Other than that, keep an eye on your health - eat well and move because there’s a reckoning coming and it may only be a decade away (I’ve just been through it with friends and it’s rough). Getting your body in order now is better than trying to fix it later when it’s already going wrong - it’s doable but it gets harder the longer you leave it.
There’s a lot of great advice in here, so here’s something a little more obscure - Get. The. Shingles. Vaccine.
Most insurance won’t cover it until you’re 50. Pay for it out of pocket.
I had the shingles at 40. It’s a close 2nd for the most pain I’ve ever been in. (For comparison, 1st place goes to the time I took a training sword to the eye. It squished my eye down and smacked into the back of the socket. Nearly lost that eye.)
It’s the same virus as chickenpox. A herpes variant like cold sores, once you’ve caught it, it’s with you forever.
You’ll get huge, burning blisters all along the pathway of whichever nerve the virus has taken residence on. And some nerves go to quite sensitive places indeed. The pain is akin to a hot iron pressed unceasingly to your skin. For weeks.
For me, it was the right side of my face and neck. I developed Bell’s Palsy and couldn’t move the right side of my face at all. Though my facial control eventually came back, I’ve lost some hearing in my right ear.
invest in health life-process practices, like find YOUR healing yogas, YOUR healing practices, etc:
habits, once formed, take little effort, but form those now.
Frawley’s “Ayurvedic Healing” is the ONLY book whose ingredients-lists ( for the 3 fundamental metabolisms/doshas ) tests out, correct all the way through, & Frawley & Kozak’s “Yoga For Your TYPE” book should be read by anybody considering any yoga practice, before going to consider an instructor, or buying any DVDs on it.
As for the Western Medicing gaslighting that the existence of charlatains in Ayurveda “proves that Ayurveda, itself, is charlatainism/quackery”, well, they don’t tolerate that same logic being applied to Western Medicine, do they?
Do the existence of Western Medicine charlatains “prove that Western Medicine, itself, is charlatainism/quackery”??
Of course they don’t:
The existence of charlatains doesn’t prove that the system they are faking is either fake or valid.
it’s 1-sided only, and that ISN’T evidence-based medicine, that is prejudice.
Dad was a medical-researcher & doctor: I grew-up with scientism as his/my religion, & later graduated to seeing its systematic prejudices, & choosing objectivity, rejecting the scientism of medicine.
Yeah she’s safe, she ran straight into a dead end, that’s how I’m able to catch up. She’s fulltime indoor cat so she doesn’t quite figured out “evasive maneuver” and “fence hopping” yet (lucky me LOL). She’s surprisingly fast for a 3Kg cat, I mean she’s a tiny little cat with 4 tiny little legs and she put a 90Kg grown man to shame. I’ll start hitting the gym next weekend (for real this time) 😀
I play in a pickup soccer game once a week. Most guys are over 40. Whenever we finish a night without sole getting hurt we hail it as a full success. Lol
Our healthcare isn’t horrible, it’s actually quite good, if you can afford it. The problem with our system is that it fucks poor people, not that the health care itself is bad.
The point would have been better served without the the unnecessary and inaccurate slamming of America.
I’m well old enough to be your daddy. Here are some things you should pay attention to.
Have a reason to get up every day you can breathe. Because if you have no reason to, you will wither and die. I’ve seen it happen and it ain’t pretty.
Time will seem to accelerate. You will slowly start to notice that the “past” gets farther behind you quicker and the “now” flies by to become that “past” and the “future” gets here far too soon.
Like it or not, you are getting closer every day to dying rather than living no matter what you do. Make your peace with that concept because no one gets out alive.
Buy a nice suit. You will probably be going to the weddings of the children of your friends or your own children. And far more sadly, the funerals of family and friends. And at some point in time, the funerals will out number the weddings.
Start doing things for society. Get involved in your community. Help build a park or two or three, teach kids something - I spent 4 years tutoring/teaching math to kids in a small rural school during COVID. It did cost me some health, (Thanks! long COVID), but it was worth everything it cost and I would do it all over again. Those kids did more for me than I could do for them.
Physical exercise is great but don’t forget to exercise the mind also. Because if you don’t, you will lose cognition and the ability to think perhaps faster than your physical health - and this is my greatest fear. Cultivate hobbies that stimulate mental challenges. And a diet of video games ain’t it. Go fishing, bird watching, gardening, do art. Something, anything, that challenges the mind to solve problems and be creative. I design and build metal model steam engines and 3D printed items to try and keep my mind sharp. I try to learn new skills every chance I get.
As much as it might be fun to travel the world and see new places and people, there is a whole world to explore right outside your door. Go explore it and really learn the details of it. It will surprise you with it’s beauty and complexity. You don’t need to be rich to explore the world.
Teach something to someone. You know things - pass it on to others. Do not let the knowledge die with you.
Learn to laugh at yourself - do not fear looking silly. It can help make people feel more comfortable with you and with themselves.
And finally, live a good life. Be kind and be there for the world when it needs you. Leave a legacy for others to remember you by - even if it was only a kind word at the right time. The memory of you is all the world will have - leave your mark on it.
Pretty good advice, except the bit about eschewing video games. Bird watching is more mentally stimulating than piloting a T28 in extreme battle conditions? You’re out of your fucking element, Donny.
Cultivating multiple disparate hobbies is good though imo. Let’s you experience new problems and new people and new things. Video games are great though, in moderation like all things.
I say this after binging palworld for the last couple weeks 😃
I did not say you shouldn’t play video games at all. But you miss the total picture of an activity like bird watching. Bird watching involves actually getting up, getting dressed, getting you gear and camera ready, and getting out into the “real world” to do. Often with groups of other like minded people enjoying the hobby. And not sitting on your ass in a room alone for hours on end.
It’s about being involved with the outside world and the physical effort interacting with other real in-person humans that matters. As a medic I was paged out at times to people who were lonely and just wanted someone - anyone - to actually be with and talk to. Sometimes they would even have a suitcase packed and ready for the trip to a hospital. Playing a video game online won’t give you the same social interaction as someone actually being there with you.
And now being old myself, I understand even more just how important it is to have regular physical social interaction for good mental health. And just like sitting alone on a bench in a shopping mall, a video game lobby or team match isn’t quite the same thing.
As someone who birdwatches and plays video games, I do not agree with most of what you’ve said here. You’ve oversimplified video gaming in the most small minded way (i.e. just sitting on your ass in a room), while glorifying birdwatching which I could easily simplify as just sitting on your ass on a bench.
That said, I appreciate you taking the time to reply. You needn’t do so again for my benefit.
My super secret tip: for every little ache and pain - get a doc to give you an Rx to a physical therapist. It might turn out to be nothing, might turn into something worse - either way PTs are awesome magic workers. I will elaborate:
Drs are mostly limited to two things, surgery or an Rx (ok maybe a few other things).
PTs can’t do those, but they can use stretching, massage, electro stimulation, exercise, and all sorts of practical, cheap methods to make you feel better.
(In the US at least) medical plan PT allocations are designed for the elderly when they break a hip. So there are usually a ton of free (or very subsidized) sessions in your plan. Way more than you’d need in a year, even if you do break something at 40.
They know the mechanics of the human body in a practical way that no doc has ever learned at school. I call it PT magic. Hey, your shoulder hurts, do this leg hammy stretch, voila and your shoulder feels better.
I can also share some of my other personal training goals (don’t be fat, don’t die early) and it’s like having a subsidized personal trainer. And one better than any you could get at the gym.
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