Taking brain pills a waste of time

Posted by on

“Memory supplements” have become big business: in the US, a quarter of people over 50 are thought to take them, often believing that they help ward off dementia. But according to a new report, these people are wasting their money. Researchers from the Global Council on Brain Health looked at evidence across a range of supplements, including those containing B vitamins, vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, caffeine, coenzyme Q10 and ginkgo biloba. Few, they found, had been tested for their impact on brain health, and where tests had taken place, there was little clear evidence that they improve brain function or prevent dementia. The researchers said that if people are concerned about maintaining their brain health, there are far better ways, including eating healthily, taking exercise and getting enough sleep.  (The Week 13 July 2019)

Yes, eating healthily, taking exercise and getting enough sleep. These are all activities that would have been approved of by Epicurus and his disciples.  They would probably add to the diet part “strictly in moderation”.   (P.S: Epicurus famously lived on bread and water.  I think we can expand a bit on that, but moderately)

The Epicurean good life; a quotation:

”The good life for the Epicurean involves disciplining of the appetites, curtailment of desires and needs  to the absolute minimum necessary for healthy living, detachment from most of the goals and values that are most highly regarded, and withdrawal from active participation in the life of the community, in the company of a few select friends – in a word, plain living and high thinking”.  ( page 62, “Epicurus: The Art of Happiness” George K.Strodach, pub. by Penguin)

Wealth never brings you peace of mind

Posted by on

“It is better for you to be free of fear and lying on a bed of straw than to own a couch of gold and a lavish table, and yet have no peace of mind”.   (Quote from “The Essential Epicurus”, by Eugene O’Connor, Great Books in Philosophy series)

The wide gulf between what companies pay their CEOs and what they pay their median worker has skyrocketed in recent years. The average CEO took home about 20 times what average workers did in 1970, compared to a ratio of 287 last year. And many corporations have gaps much larger than that.

Taking on inequality means tackling those gaps. 

The teachings of Epicurus are full of references to his disdain for those whose greed for money consumes them.  It is taken as a given that huge wealth leaves a man with no peace of mind .  A recent bill introduced in the US Congress addressing inequality will, of course, never be agreed by both political parties, but Epicurus assures us that large stores of cash seldom bring happiness.

 

Eating all your meals before 3 p.m could be good for your health

Posted by on

A study suggests that eating all of your meals in a 6-hour window may prevent diabetes.

A research team at the University of Alabama tested a time-restricted diet in eight overweight men who were all on the threshold of developing type 2 diabetes.

For five weeks in the Spring of 2018 the volunteers ate identical breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Half were assigned to eat all three meals within a 6-hour period ending no later than 3pm, while the other four ate within a more typical 12-hour time frame. After five weeks, the groups swapped for a further five weeks.

The time limit led to improved sugar control. The team also saw drops in overall appetite and blood pressure (Cell Metabolism, doi.org/cpmh). These effects were not due to weight loss, since everyone ate enough to maintain their weight. Instead, eating earlier in the day may align better with circadian rhythms.

 The basic premise is that we have  evolved to be active during the day, so it makes sense for our metabolism to rev up at the beginning of the day and rev down at night to be as efficient as possible.   (New Scientist, May 2018).

Peace of mind gets a sad jolt if you are told you are pre-diabetic.  In America, if the blood test shows an A1C of 6.5 you are officially a diabetic.  So you are pre-diabetic at about 5.8.  A lot of Americans fall into this category.  But the good news is that you can reverse the A1C reading; I know, because I have done it myself ( with careful diet).  The above may be another approach.

 

Flying and vapor trails

Posted by on

According to a new study, a huge amount of atmospheric warming is caused by the cloud-like vapor trails – or “contrails” – that planes leave in their wake when flying at high altitude. These are created when vaporised water condenses or freezes around sooty exhaust particles to create cirrus-type clouds. These can persist for hours, but are too thin to reflect warmth. Instead, ice crystals within them trap heat, warming the planet. Researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Germany estimate that aircraft vapor trails typically have twice the warming impact of CO2 emissions. And as air traffic increases, the problem will only get worse. In a paper published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, they argue that the industry cannot solely focus on aircraft fuel efficiency; they must also acknowledge and address the currently overlooked problem of contrails.  (The Week, 13 July 2019)

This raises the questions of hypocrisy, in this case my own.  I happen to live between America and Britain.  In the old days one would go by passenger ship .  The last time I did that it took 7 days and the funnel smoke belched out non-stop.  But I was young .  It was fun. Now I fly.  Every time I book a flight I am roiled in guilt and misgivings.  Here I am bemoaning climate change, which is heavily affected by planes flying in all directions, and I am very well aware of what the plane is doing every mile of its journey.   I tell myself that, were my wife and I no longer flying, it would make not the a slightest difference – the airlines would happily continue fouling the air.  But I am not practicing what I preach.  There! It is out in the open.

Do you do things you didn’t ought to?   Do you eat beef or go on fancy foreign holidays, or drive a car every day of your life?  If so, drop me a line on this blog – I need to feel better about it all.

 

The dodgy people who run people power

Posted by on

There’s much talk these days about the threat to democracy posed by Kremlin-backed troll factories spreading disinformation online.   But maybe we should pay more attention to our own homegrown “astroturfers” – political operators who concoct a following to give the appearance of spontaneous grass roots support.

Looking at Facebook, for instance, you’d think frustrated pro-Brexit activism was springing up everywhere. But dig deeper and you find that seven of the most active pro-Brexit groups – including the Jacob Rees-Mogg Appreciation Group – share the same administrator: a suspended Tory councillor called David Abbott. The same applies to avowedly non-political groups, Nuneaton Community Forum, a Facebook group supposedly catering for people in the marginal seat who want to have “a good old moan” about local matters, now appears to be run by the husband of a local Tory councillor who deletes criticism of the Tories.

People power is a powerful force in the age of digital democracy. Trouble is, it often has little to do with “the people”.  ( Xavier Greenwood,  The Week 14 Sept 2019).

How to find one’s way through the modern thicket of lies and misinformation?  Depressing.  But don’t opt out.  Use your judgment based on recent history. To opt out is irresponsible and ultimately, if everyone did it, would be deeply damaging to the country and would play into the hands of the ruthless people with autocratic tendencies and shady intentions.