Closest thing to the elixir of life is...WALKING?

There is no substitute for sunlight

So go for a jog in a park or play a game of basketball/soccer/tennis

Avoid sedentary lifestyle

Have 1 to 2 min of vigorous activity periodically in the day

Lift weights, eat meat. Muscle grip matters more than obesity

marees said:

There is no substitute for sunlight

So go for a jog in a park or play a game of basketball/soccer/tennis

Avoid sedentary lifestyle

Have 1 to 2 min of vigorous activity periodically in the day

Lift weights, eat meat. Muscle grip matters more than obesity

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I pick my trails so there's always a shady canopy. Or -- I know where every tree in the park near the trail is going to cast a shadow at this or that time of day.

igor_kavinski said:

The crappy thing about the A1C is, it can only be done after three months since the old red blood cells die after 90 days. So whatever dietary changes you want to make, you gotta stick to them for 3 whole months to see a difference in your A1C.

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Also the HbA1c test can be wrong if you have a condition that changes the lifespan of your red blood cells. Or if you have one of the variant red-blood-cell types (of which the most well-known is the one associated with sickle-cell disease - but there are a few others, some of them really rare).

Got bothered about that at one point because my ethnic ancestry involves a region that has the highest incidence of one of those variant red-blood cell types, that causes the A1c test to come out wrong, and I started getting anxious that maybe my results were giving me a false sense of security! (Many people in my extended family have diabetes, so I get anxious and get tested every now and then).

I really don't trust the health system to take into account ethnic variations, particularly minority ones.

igor_kavinski said:

Very true. There have been serious consequences of white doctors misdiagnosing serious emergency conditions coz of the skin tone changes related to flushing, hypoxia and other blood flow related color changes that are not readily apparent to the untrained eye when looking at the faces of African American patients.

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Yeah, as I understand it, the thing about this variant red-blood-cell thing, is if you inherit genes for the variant from both parents, it's obvious, because it causes a form of anemia (sickle-cell being the most well-known one), but if you only inherit from one parent you end up with _slightly_ wonky red blood cells, that don't cause illness, but apparently _can_ make the HbA1c test come out wrong.
(Which makes me question, slightly, the way they've changed the diagnostic criteria for diabetes to be based on the HbA1c test rather than fasting glucose tests - I hope they know what they are doing and that won't lead to certain ethnic groups being misdiagnosed)

Also, I gather that they recently (in the course of the pandemic, I think) concluded that those finger-worn oxymeters don't always work reliably for black people.

The only time I've had an experience with medical professionals that caused me to doubt their pronouncements was an incident with a dentist. I had temporarily switched from my family dentist of some 17 years, over a remark he made in connection with the 2016 election after the inauguration. This second dentist began to harvest my teeth and my wallet, and I was at least vigilant enough to notice the change in number of dental repairs and the annual expense. My previous and current dentist told me she might have been guilty of malpractice if she'd gone through with her recommendation about a tooth and its filling.

I suppose I've been lucky with all my other doctors and my medical clinic.

I didn't do my walk today, because I've been working in my garden digging holes. Sometimes a person has experiences that throw off their entire day's agenda. I went to the post-office to mail a letter, and had a "tail-light lens" episode with another car in the parking lot -- both of us backing out of the parking spaces at the same time. No damage to my vehicle.

I hate when things like this happen. No -- I don't feel like walking. I feel upset. I don't think it was my fault, but I won't go into the details. I drew a diagram and drafted a narrative for the eventual contact by the claims adjuster.

It's bad enough being old. It's worse when you behave in a more confused manner than is actually the case. We exchanged information and went our separate ways. The driver's boyfriend seemed impatient and had to help me with my cellphone to snap pictures of the driver license and proof-of-insurance card.

I HATE this s***. Life is moving forward. I shall walk tomorrow. Tail-light damage or no, being old sucks.