Low hanging fruiticles.

Trying to understand aging and health in terms of micronutrient basics – what is the ‘low hanging fruit’

As of this month I can officially classify myself as being an older person as I have just got to the age when I can claim both my state pension and a bus pass : the downside is that I know, from my former professional life that this is also the time when things are more likely to go awry healthwise – this winter’s chest infection for example was a bit of a shot across the bow.

As I write (mid March) I am somewhere between 70 and 80 exercise sessions completed out of my planned 100 and all that happens at the end is that I plan to step things up a little given what today’s commentators (Drs Attia and Patrick) say about the value of exercise to an older person. It is true, at least in my own opinion, that I have to be a bit more careful and accept lower fitness goals than even fifteen years ago, when in terms of body composition and fitness, I was at my best but only because I committed so much time and money in going to the gym. Now, I simply don’t have the time especially when I live at distance from any gym at all although I do see the value in shorter and more productive sessions less times per week.

Walk exercise session no 79. So, iv’e just come in from walk no 79 and it was a bad one – well, not exactly bad….although it had some bad elements but I did feel better when I came in than when I went out : it’s just a very dull and grey day here – the valley is full of could and it’s been drizzly raining all day…..just as it has been for most of the last week. Today though I came across a new problem which seems to be specific to where we live – the problem being that the upper part of the village seems to have become a rat run for the local taxi drivers who are now using my regular hiking routes to bypass the speed cameras in the next village over. It was particularly bad today as they’re not only bad drivers but they drive faster than they seem capable of and they seem to feel that they have an immediate right to take priority on the road and when say I move over and squeeze in against the wall or hedge all I get is an angry glare just for being there and actually breathing and walking. For walk no 80 i’m going to get off road as soon as I can.

It’s clear from both Dr Attia’s work on longevity and Dr Rhonda Patrick’s comments on the ‘low hanging fruit’ (what we can achieve more simply) that there is much to be gained from certain habits and practices, some of which we should avoid and then some that we really should commit the time for. For simple examples it does seem that smoking is still definitely one to avoid (iv’e never been a smoker so that’s fine), that a basic exercise routine of as little as 15 minutes a day can take us from baseline sedentary decline to a much greater likelihood of health years but is also dose related (more of it at higher intensity does seem to have a better outcome) – thus my new average of an hour every day seems to be appropriate as a starting strategy.

On the dietary side many health writers agree that dietary sugar is still a really bad idea for long term health – it drives cancer and dementia for example but then many health writers get either very tribal or incredibly vague and nonsensical when it comes to promoting which dietary routine to follow……I find the Vegans particularly bad as they don’t seem to be talking about nutrition at all, instead focusing on moralistic and pseudo religious beliefs. There is some useful evidence that maybe our protein intake should be higher to help preserve muscle mass in older age, increasing evidence that anything based on seed oils (vegetable oils) could be drivers of inflammatory diseases – my brush with early arthritis in my hands comes to mind and so on and so forth.

As I write we seem to be coming out of a winter that has been long, grey (dark) and very wet : the days are usefully longer and my garden is filling out with spring color. Thus far I seem to have avoided my usual late winter problem of SAD (seasonal affective disorder or winter blues) maybe because of my daily exercise since early January and maybe because of a daily dose of Vitamin D : I did though have a nasty chest infection in late December – in fact we both did. The only other supplement that I take regularly – regularly as being whenever I think about it is half a teaspoon of Vitamin C powder in some fruit juice and only then because I know that I don’t usually have a source of Vitamin C in my diet.

A lot of the basics – what Dr Rhonda Patrick calls the low hanging fruit is about regular adherence to basic routines : simple exercise done several times a week, basic good dietary habits (mixed but not containing added sugar ,HFCS and seed oils) and then perhaps a simple stack of supplementary micro-nutrients. Given that I live in a usually grey and overcast county, am both an older and fatter person that I ever have been the addition of Vitamin’s C and D does seem like a sound approach (I would really like to get my Vitamin D levels checked) but after that I get a bit vague. Dr Patrick suggests that there is some benefit in supplementing with Omega 3 oils although it does seem difficult to find a ‘clean’ source (not degraded/oxidized and not contaminated with toxins such as Mercury) and then Magnesium and Zinc are out there as possible maybes and again are simple and cheap supplements.

Much of this is about what I might be short of as an older and fatter person…..brain cells would be a good start, low Vitamin D is almost a certainty but I think I have that one covered. My diet has had a huge kick up the bum because I am clearly overweight and the useful outcome of my chest infection is that I lost my usual taste for sweet stuff – now I just have the occasional drug habit cravings……sugar is my version of sex and cocaine combined except a bit cheaper perhaps !