Staying young

Olebiker said:

I have to wonder if my friends ride bikes because they are
intelligent, or if they remain intelligent because they ride bikes
and stay otherwise active. I am going to operate under the
assumption that riding keeps you young and interesting. That way I
can justify keeping up this hobby and postponing my dotage.

Well, I know stupid people who ride bikes, average people who ride
bikes and smart people who ride bikes. I seem to know a lot of the
latter, actually, but that may say more about how lucky I am in
finding friends than about bicycling.

There is a body of evidence suggesting that aerobic exercise is
actually good for the brain, promoting (for reasons no yet known) an
increase in capillaries and blood perfusion to the brain. Regular
exercise does seem to be protective of cognitive abilities in aging,
which also tends to be true of mental activitiy as well. People who
regularly do crossword puzzles, for example, appear less likely to
suffer deficits in language skills; indeed, in general the
longitudinal testing has suggested that as people age, they tend to
keep the skills they use and tend to lose the skills they don't.

There are many famous examples of people cycling well into their
golden years, including three over-70 men who finished the 1200 km
ride Paris-Brest-Paris in under 90 hours (Roger Baumann, Jean Toulis,
and arrgh, forget the third- all of them have completed 10 PBPs).
Paul de Vivie (a.k.a. Velocio) rode well into his later years, doing
epic rides across France, the Alps, etc. He did complain of a loss of
abilities in later years, though, and decided he could no longer ride
more than 40 hours at a time. Dr. James-Edward Ruffier, who would
probably be called an exercise physiologist nowadays, lived to be 99
and cycled strenuously (on a fixed gear) into his 80s. He wrote a
number of books and developed an exercise method focused on developing
fexible strength, combining stretching and resistance training. Ed
Delano rode across the US at age 72 or something like that.

Age may take away some of your speed, but it shouldn't take away any
of your fun! I think the key to successful aging is to avoid acting
old.

In article <[email hidden]>, "Olebiker"

Quoted message said:

That way I can justify keeping
up this hobby and postponing my dotage.

Current data suggests that regular exercise will do just that. Taking care of
yourself will, statisticly speaking, allow you to live 7 years longer than
those who don't and the period of incapacity at the end of your life will be
much shorter than that of those that die 7 years younger than you do.

I don't remember the name on the study but I think they followed a bunch of
graduates from the U of Pennsylvania.

Keep it up.

Tom Gibb <[email hidden]>

Your no-good brother-in-law likely won't be around much longer in this world,
and will bother you no more!

I am 65, and I ride and weight lift and walk because I like the feeling of
being in control of my body and the absolute joy of being in the fresh outside.

I just came back from a 2.5 mile walk in the sunny snow. Such a pleasure, and
2.5 miles to me walking in the snow is as easy as a 25 mile bike ride!

However, there are no guarantees. September 1st I started continuous atrial
fibrillation, and have been fighting it ever since. This is despite my years
of biking, walking, hiking and eating right. However, my heart is otherwise in
such great shape that I can still do extended walks and rides with no
difficulty.

censored Durbin said:

Quoted message said:

My no-good brother-in-law left this morning to go back to Indiana.

He's my wife's brother and I love him, but all the guy wanted to do was
sit on the couch, watch television, and drink beer.

http://members.aol.com/dnvrfox
(Family Web Page)

TBGibb said:

In article <[email hidden]>, "Olebiker"

Quoted message said:

That way I can justify keeping
up this hobby and postponing my dotage.

Current data suggests that regular exercise will do just that. Taking care of
yourself will, statisticly speaking, allow you to live 7 years longer than
those who don't and the period of incapacity at the end of your life will be
much shorter than that of those that die 7 years younger than you do.

I don't remember the name on the study but I think they followed a bunch of
graduates from the U of Pennsylvania.

Keep it up.

In a Scientific American Frontiers episode they explained how adult
mice, simply by running on running wheels, generate new brain cells.
They needed to run 4 -5 hours a night to do it, but .....

........ a mouse on a running wheel? Hours and miles on the bike? Think
about *that* the next time you're out riding.

--
*****************************
Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO
http://www.CycleTourist.com
Integrity is obvious.
The lack of it is common.
*****************************

Olebiker said:

My no-good brother-in-law left this morning to go back to Indiana.
He's my wife's brother and I love him, but all the guy wanted to do was
sit on the couch, watch television, and drink beer. The only time he
would get off the couch was to go outside to smoke since we wouldn't
let him smoke in the house. He's 50 years old and must weigh 300
pounds.

I tried my best to entertain him while he was here but, after he left I
was excited to get back on the bike and go for a ride.

My dad left on Sunday. He's 75 yo and has trouble walking to the car.
The reason we walked to the car was so we could go get donuts or eclairs
or eat, eat, eat, eat, eat. It wasnt even gluttonous but it still made
me itch.

Literally the minute he left I went for a 40 miler with a hell of a lot
of climbing. I cant describe the feeling, but those who know already know.

Whether its true or not, the only thing that keeps me going is the
thought that at 75, Ill still be able to get on a bike, if Im still alive.

k

(Denver C. Fox) said:

Your no-good brother-in-law likely won't be around much longer in
this world, and will bother you no more!

I am 65, and I ride and weight lift and walk because I like the
feeling of being in control of my body and the absolute joy of being
in the fresh outside.

I just came back from a 2.5 mile walk in the sunny snow. Such a
pleasure, and 2.5 miles to me walking in the snow is as easy as a 25
mile bike ride!

However, there are no guarantees. September 1st I started
continuous atrial fibrillation, and have been fighting it ever
since. This is despite my years of biking, walking, hiking and
eating right. However, my heart is otherwise in such great shape
that I can still do extended walks and rides with no difficulty.

There are indeed no guarantees, but staying fit and active really
improves your odds. You can't guarantee that you will have good
health, but you can pretty much guarantee bad health. The OP's
brother in law is on this second path.

Best wishes for a good plan of care by your cardiologist to get this
under control, and many more more years of happy activity!

Karstens Rage said:

My dad left on Sunday. He's 75 yo and has trouble walking to the
car. The reason we walked to the car was so we could go get donuts
or eclairs or eat, eat, eat, eat, eat. It wasnt even gluttonous but
it still made me itch.

Literally the minute he left I went for a 40 miler with a hell of a
lot of climbing. I cant describe the feeling, but those who know
already know.

Whether its true or not, the only thing that keeps me going is the
thought that at 75, Ill still be able to get on a bike, if Im still
alive.

The most recent "Vintage Bicycle Quarterly" featured an interview with
Paulette Porthault, who has been an enthusiastic cyclist for 70 years.
At 75, she rode up the Galibier just for fun and because she was in
the area. At 91, she can still ride 25 miles. That's what I'm
shooting for!

http://www.globalaging.org/elderrights/us/seniorolympics.htm

It's apparently never too late to have a happy childhood!

Denver C. Fox said:

I am 65, and I ride and weight lift and walk because I like the feeling of
being in control of my body and the absolute joy of being in the fresh outside.

I just came back from a 2.5 mile walk in the sunny snow. Such a pleasure, and
2.5 miles to me walking in the snow is as easy as a 25 mile bike ride!

However, there are no guarantees. September 1st I started continuous atrial
fibrillation, and have been fighting it ever since. This is despite my years
of biking, walking, hiking and eating right.

Just think where you'd might be if you didn't exercise and eat right.

Kenny

Yes, the thought has occurred to me!

Will be going another cardioversion (2 unsiccessful so far) after being on a
regimen of Paceron for three weeks.

If not successful, will consider an ablation where they out a catheter into
your pulmonary vein and use either RF or cryogenics to freezse the offencing
heart part. They cryo is brand new and is being trialed right now.

Last alternative is to learn to live with it!

Quoted message said:

Just think where you'd might be if you didn't exercise and eat right.

http://members.aol.com/dnvrfox
(Family Web Page)

What is most irritating about the atrial fibrillation is that at the time we
were with Kaiser Permanente, and I had sent two faxes directly to our supposed
doctor (internist) describing my symptoms in detail - pulse of 158, BP 80/54,
lack of energy, etc., etc.

I sent one on September 8th after one week of this, asking her to call me "If
she had any concerns" and followed up one week later with the same repeated
info, again asking her to call me if she had any concerns. The next week, she
was on the phone to Nora, and I picked up the line and asked her about the
situation - she said she "Was not impressed" but said I could see her if I
wanted to discuss it. I told her I had tried, and the first available
appointment was October 29th. She said that was not her concern, and that I
should not be communicating with a fax.

The next week, with every symprom continuing, I was urged by a couple of MD's
in my bicycling newsgroup to see a MD pronto. So, I made an appointment that
day, but when I fot to Kaiser was told that it was the next day! So I got to
see another MD, and he did an EKG and a rhythm strip, and bundled me up in an
ambulance and sent me 20 miles to the emergency room of the local Kaiser
hospital, where I spent overnight with diagnostic tests.

Anyway, I blame that I did not get to see a MD earlier on some of the
difficulty I am having getting into normal sinus rhythm. But, what to do?

We did write a letter to Kaiser's local clinic asking for a change of MD's.
When I got no response, I was able to get the, evidently secret, fax number of
the President of KP Colorado and faxed the faxes and my letter to the local
clinic to him.

We got a change of MD's, but in the meantime were told by the allergy clnic
that they could not see my wife on an ongoing basis for her severe allergies
because they were too busy with new referral evaluations.

We "escaped" from Kaiser on November 1st. Never again.

Denver Fox said:

However, there are no guarantees. September 1st I started continuous atrial

fibrillation, and have been fighting it ever since. This is despite my years
of biking, walking, hiking and eating right. However, my heart is otherwise in
such great shape that I can still do extended walks and rides with no
difficulty.

http://members.aol.com/dnvrfox
(Family Web Page)

[email hidden] (Denver C. Fox) writes:

<typical for-profit HMO horror story snipped>

This is where you start writing complaints to the Department of Health
and your rude internist's supervisor. A complaint to the Department of
Commerce in your state (this is the usual regulatory agency for
insurance companies) would be advised. FWIW, a fax is an excellent
way to communicate with your physician as it provides a written
document for your records and theirs. What she was telling you was
that she didn't bother to actually read it, and she wants you to
think that's your fault. [censored]!

Here in Minnesota, we have relatively little of this [censored] happening.
HMOs are required by law to be non-profits, and are directly overseen
by the Attorney General. Perhaps more states should consider this
option.

Quoted message said:

This is where you start writing complaints to the Department of Health
and your rude internist's supervisor.

Supervisor already notified by lette, and she called me. I didn't have the
energy to pursue that route any further. Unfortunately, folks complaining
about poor medical care are generally not in good enough shape to have the
psychic energy to pursue. The most likely route would be the Medical Exam
Board regarding a complaint against the MD. Right at this stage of my life and
condition, I don't think I can take that task on, and that the results on my
health would be negative. I have had mucho stress in my life, and don't want
to be interviewed by the Board and all the rest of the Bureaucratic [censored]
inherent in a complaint right now.

FWIW, Kaiser Permanente IS a non-profit. However, that doesn't mean they don't
have lucrative "management contracts" with some other Kaiser-related
organization, which is where the real money can be made.

Quoted message said:

What she was telling you was
that she didn't bother to actually read it, and she wants you to
think that's your fault. [censored]!

That may be true, but what I think she was REALLY telling me was that she did
not want to have a paper trail of her mis actions.

Quoted message said:

Here in Minnesota, we have relatively little of this [censored] happening.
HMOs are required by law to be non-profits, and are directly overseen
by the Attorney General. Perhaps more states should consider this
option.

Colorado has very poor laws regarding HMO's. They are not even considered as
insurance, and do not come under the insurance commissioner, who is
hand-in-hand with the insurance agencies anyways, so it wouldn't do much good
if they were!

http://members.aol.com/dnvrfox
(Family Web Page)

Thomas Reynolds said:

I don't really think there is a cause-and-effect relationship between
activity and intelligence. I think it is just two characteristics of
a certain type of person.

But keep riding.

Tom

There was a study in the headlines within the last month to this effect
IIRC: Physical activity keeps alzheimers at bay.

--
--
Lynn Wallace http://www.xmission.com/~lawall
"We should not march into Baghdad. ... Assigning young soldiers to
a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning
them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerilla war, it
could only plunge that part of the world into ever greater
instability." George Bush Sr. in his 1998 book "A World Transformed"

"Olebiker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

My no-good brother-in-law ......

I have one of those also.

Quoted message said:

.....
I have to wonder if my friends ride bikes because they are intelligent,
or if they remain intelligent because they ride bikes and stay
otherwise active. I am going to operate under the assumption that
riding keeps you young and interesting. That way I can justify keeping
up this hobby and postponing my dotage.

I don't really think there is a cause-and-effect relationship between
activity and intelligence. I think it is just two characteristics of
a certain type of person.

But keep riding.

Tom

Thomas Reynolds said:

"Olebiker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

My no-good brother-in-law ......

I have one of those also.

Quoted message said:

.....
I have to wonder if my friends ride bikes because they are intelligent,
or if they remain intelligent because they ride bikes and stay
otherwise active. I am going to operate under the assumption that
riding keeps you young and interesting. That way I can justify keeping
up this hobby and postponing my dotage.

I don't really think there is a cause-and-effect relationship between
activity and intelligence.

See my previous post.

--
*****************************
Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO
http://www.CycleTourist.com
Integrity is obvious.
The lack of it is common.
*****************************

Raptor said:

There was a study in the headlines within the last month to this
effect IIRC: Physical activity keeps alzheimers at bay.

Finding good information understandable to people who aren't medical
professionals on this is a little difficult, but the research does
suggest that exercise may have a protective effect on the brain. For
that matter, so does controlling one's blood pressure, keeping one's
cholesterol low, and regular mental activity that challenges memory
and thinking. There is some evidence suggesting that NSAIDs, Vitamin
E etc can also have a protective effect.

There was a pretty good discussion on this on a "Scientific American
Frontiers" a year or two ago, which could probably be found through
the PBS Web site.

Tim McNamara said:

Raptor said:

There was a study in the headlines within the last month to this
effect IIRC: Physical activity keeps alzheimers at bay.

Finding good information understandable to people who aren't medical
professionals on this is a little difficult, but the research does
suggest that exercise may have a protective effect on the brain. For
that matter, so does controlling one's blood pressure, keeping one's
cholesterol low, and regular mental activity that challenges memory
and thinking. There is some evidence suggesting that NSAIDs, Vitamin
E etc can also have a protective effect.

There was a pretty good discussion on this on a "Scientific American
Frontiers" a year or two ago, which could probably be found through
the PBS Web site.

http://www.pbs.org/saf/1101/resources/transcript.htm#3

Scroll down a few paragraphs. - adult mice - running wheel - new brain cells

--
*****************************
Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO
http://www.CycleTourist.com
Integrity is obvious.
The lack of it is common.
*****************************

[email hidden] (Denver C. Fox) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

We did write a letter to Kaiser's local clinic asking for a change of MD's.
When I got no response, I was able to get the, evidently secret, fax number of
the President of KP Colorado and faxed the faxes and my letter to the local
clinic to him.

Sounds to me like this warrants a letter to the state medical board.
Even if a physician doesn't want you using their FAX line, there is no
way they should simply ignore your input, especially if your symptoms
are obviously abnormal.

JR

I would except that would be only the beginning of a "She said, he said"
hopeless exchange, and there would be an examiner who would come to my house,
and affidavits and likely a hearing. Just not worth it. It isn't worthwhile
sending a letter if you don't plan on following up (or just don't have the
energy)..

I've been through things like this before, and they rapidly snowball out of
control.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Sounds to me like this warrants a letter to the state medical board.

Even if a physician doesn't want you using their FAX line, there is no
way they should simply ignore your input, especially if your symptoms
are obviously abnormal.

JR

http://members.aol.com/dnvrfox
(Family Web Page)