The BJJ Cavewife received a call on her day off to see if she could go into work to cover her colleague who called in sick. Since she is a wonderful and thoughtful and considerate person she dropped all of her plans and went into work.
She only found out later that her colleague, a gentleman in his early 60s, suddenly developed chest pain the day before at work. He tried to ignore it and work through the pain, but he looked so terrible that the staff forced him to go to the hospital.
Luckily they did because when he was evaluated, he was found to have over 90% blockages in 3 of his coronary vessels. These are the vessels that provide blood to the heart. When these vessels become blocked, that’s when you get a heart attack.
He was on the cusp of having an all out heart attack. Luckily the doctors were able to place stents across the blockages to prevent any long term damage.
Close call if you ask me.
Now I’ve never met this person, but from what I can gather from what the BJJ Cavewife says, he’s a workaholic. While he’s doing well financially, he’s obese and his health does not seem to be one of his priorities.
I see this happen a lot, even with my own colleagues. It’s so easy to get focused on the next paycheck, next house, next car, next job, and next widget, that you lose track of the most important thing: your health.
The moment your health goes, nothing else matters.
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This is the trap I try so hard to avoid.
Tim Ferriss likes to say something to the effect of: “if you’re taking your car in for servicing more often than you are getting a check up on your health, your priorities are drastically out of alignment.”
This always stuck with me.
Hence my regular blood tests. I’m doing what I can to stay on top of any issues and nip them in the bud before they become irreversible.
High cholesterol? Ok, now it’s on my radar and I can try various things to get it under control. I can even experiment with which factors play the biggest role.
High hemoglobin A1c? Ok, now I can test my blood sugar regularly to see if it’s due to a high blood sugar or something else… and I now I know it’s due to my red blood cells living long and healthy lives.
Low Vitamin D? Ok, now I know it’s time go get outside more and start supplementing.
Our hectic schedules make it too easy to fall into the trap of neglecting your health. Just don’t do it. The moment your health goes, you’ll realize all of the things that were keeping you busy and taking up your time are meaningless.
Don’t fall into the same trap that the BJJ Cavewife’s colleague did and so many other people continue to fall in.
Be vigilant and proactive about what’s going on with your body. Nip things in the bud when you can.
An ounce of prevention and all that…
You know what else Benjamin Franklin said, I think: “To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.” Ahead of his time in a lot of ways.
No kidding. Sounds like he was into caloric restriction before it became mainstream!
By far the most important variable in terms of health is how well and deeply you sleep, imo.
I swear if you combine these tools you’ll fall asleep in under 5 minutes and feel better than you ever have the next morning! So the tools are:
1. Blue lights blocking glasses – http://amzn.to/2ifDMeY Wear these when you go to sleep or are working on the computer in the evening.
2. Taurine – http://amzn.to/2hZcc5 Use 5g before bed. Besides being GABAergic Taurine has some other nice benefits: Increases Testosterone levels before sleep by 180% (almost triples your T) – http://suppversity.blogspot.com/2012/07/up-to-180-increase-in-testosterone-w.html So not only are you going to fall asleep faster, you’ll be burning fat AND building muscle while asleep! Increases T4 to T3 conversion 2-fold – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3133948/ – again, higher T3=more fat burning. Increased thyroid activity (Higher T4/T3 conversion) is also often a marker for metabolic health.
3. Glycine – http://amzn.to/2ijGc8z – 5g before bed. Being, again, a close GABA analog glycine also seems to be an antiinflammatory, immunomodulatory, and cytoprotective agent – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12589194 , as well as protecting against ischemic (reduced blow flow) injuries – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22044190 . 4. Niacinamide – http://amzn.to/2ijDvUa – in human doses of 1500mg – 3000mg daily is potent anti-anxiety drug similar in action to the benzodiazepine class of drugs like Diazepam, Valium, and Xanax.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6101294
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6125374
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7913840
I can personally attest to the fact that anything above 1500mg dosage at once makes me the mellowest, nicest…and sleepiest person Combine all these tools and there’s no way you’re not going to fall asleep!
Pregnenolone enhances learning, memory, stamina and reduces stress
One of the most interesting substances I’ve been studying and experimenting with lately has been pregnenolone. The hormone seems to have a wide range of beneficial effects, which I’ve definitely noticed for myself:
Pregnenolone improves mental function, affects working, short-term and long-term memory, increases motivation to learn new information, and an improvement in the ability to acquire new knowledge: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8528708
Pregnenolone increases the level of other neurosteroids such as pregnenolone sulfate and allopregnanolone. Allopregnenalone is shown to increase the growth of neurons, as well as decreases cell death and inflammation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21756978
Seems to relieve depression and anxiety: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3008321/
Improves mood, anti-depressant activity:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20493557
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20070787
Recommended dosage: 2x100mg (morning/afternoon), may cause sleeplessness, if taken in the evening from personal experience.
Trusted brands of pregnenolone I recommend:
http://amzn.to/2i0jdlN
http://amzn.to/2iwx3gX
Recommended books/further reading:
http://amzn.to/2ibnZgF
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/three-hormones.shtml
From personal experience, I’d say it’s well worth the money. Induced confidence, ability to focus on top of being a mood brightener in me at higher dosages as well. Will be a permanent in my supplement stack.
Thought your readers might find this interesting. Stay tuned for more posts.