...
On second thought, grab me another beer.
So it turns out that people that were drinking a tiny amount of alcohol, but not enough to start seeing the endless negative affects of alcohol, were healthier than those that drunk none, but only because of this bias. The right amount of alcohol, so far as health is concerned, is zero.
It's quite insightful to see how this error then spawned a whole new series of 'approved' explanations for why wine was supposed to be healthy for you, such as antioxidants or whatever. In many fields everything remains extremely ad hoc - from brain plaque to serotonin, and I'll even add in intentional partial reps!
> It's quite insightful to see how this error then spawned a whole new series of 'approved' explanations for why wine was supposed to be healthy for you, such as antioxidants or whatever.
Your analysis provides a very nice example of how science studies can be meaningless. And that this isn't a problem, as long as someone is making money. How many years did we see yet another study being rolled out about France, red wine, red wine extracts in pill form, etc. And yet all that literature is based on a pretty obvious false assumption. That no one was inclined to correct.
What is a good routine? Do I switch positions (right now I'm slav squatting) and maybe throw in some short bouts of exercise every 30 minutes?
I’d recommend trying it. This guy overanalyzed the whole topic, great resource: https://ocdevel.com/walk/guide#why_desk
Plus some days I burn something like 1,000 calories. That’s a pretty big bonus.
https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/02/seeking-the-prod... is the article that did it for me!
Wolfram even walks in the forest while working on his laptop. Haven't tried that one myself :D.
Don’t forget, even though desk work is relatively new to the last century/industrial revolution, humans have been sitting for a long time - traders and teachers, scholars and students (probably not a good example sample but you get the idea). You’ll be fine.
Diet? Moderation and variety.
Exercise? Moderation and variety.
Social interaction? Moderation and variety.
Etc.
The key is to make movement a regular part of your life. Mix up the movement like another commenter said.
For myself, I try to get outside and walk in the morning for about 30 minutes before work. It's a lot easier working from home than dealing with a commute, of course. I exercise 3-6 days a week also (with a mandatory rest day). I also have a walking pad treadmill thing that I pull out from time to time.
During the day I build in iron-clad breaks, including booking 30 minute out of office breaks in my schedule so I know I have protected time to get out and walk.
If I find myself with a spare moment, I do some squats. Sometimes with weights; I keep a pair of adjustable dumbbells in my office (they go up to 50 each). If I have even just 10 minutes between meetings, sometimes I will step outside for a 5 minute walk.
It's a lot of work for sure. And some days it really feels like work.
But over time if you keep it at you won't need as much discipline as you did in order to start. Think of brushing your teeth - that's a good habit most people manage to build and it's automatic for most.
Last thought - learn about yourself and your body. Try physical therapy before you need it from an injury. Try barbell lifts or other heavy weights. Try stuff you might think is "woo" like Alexander Technique or Feldenkrais. Try Crossfit. Try yoga. Try running. Try martial arts. Try dance. Try road biking. Keep trying stuff until you figure out what's for you.
Hydrate. Don't eat shit. DO NOT SMOKE! Watch your alcohol intake (or whatever else you're into). Get good sleep.
And especially if you're a man - don't kid yourself. You are not invincible and you are not immortal. You have to learn to take care of you and no-one else is going to do it for you. :)
Good luck. <3
I try and do my stand up meetings actually standing up, and .. most meetings (it's great for being more aware generally).
But the majority of the day is sitting, maybe I should get one those yoga balls to sit on.
1. Looking at the data, a linear regression is fit to data that looks anything but linear, calling into question the validity of the model
2. The units in some of the table are unclear, but overall it's not clear to me how much the brain shrinks in this data. As in, how significant of an effect is this? And I'm not talking about statistical significance.
3. This is correlation not causation. Maybe if your brain shrinks you can't focus long enough to move around.
- they didn’t control the effect of normal aging in older people. 7 years is a long period and by older people we can expect a decline in cognitive performance regardless of their life style. What we interest is however how much the sedentary live style contributes additionally to this decline.
- because the authors rely solely on the smartwatch data and put all kinds of movements together (sitting, walking around, laying down), we can not see whether changing posture and moving around can help.
- most importantly, they didn’t isolate and control for the amount of cognitive work. Doing cognitive demanding work is known to delaying worsening symptoms in AD and related diseases.
I usually feel more knowledgeable afterwards.
What are some good cognitive tests to take (a part from IQ tests)?
But since we have more fixes for physical degeneration than mental degeneration, we see most sedentary people kept alive through medication and constant surgeries well into their 80s and 90s while there is nothing much to reverse whats happening to the brain.
Having worked for a while at a hospital, I feel people who really haven't lead active lives or are just naturally less active or don't like too much activity fall into this trap, where the medical system will keep them physically alive for few decades longer than in the past. They need to be told this could be a trap. Instead we keep them alive, let their brains degenerate and study them like lab rats.
Basically, there's been an extension of life years, but there has also been an extension of the useless years at the end of people's lives. He makes a case that these useless years are a direct result of a lack of exercise.
Good book. Recommend.
[0] https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/loneliness-linked-dementia-risk...
inverted_flag•8h ago
readthenotes1•6h ago
electromech•6h ago
I'm too dumb to understand how that math works.
gonzo•6h ago
zxexz•6h ago
j_bum•5h ago
Would like to see the partial residuals plotted...
Are they over fitting their model? I cannot understand how we can look at a set of data like that, see that there are, perhaps, *maybe* some associations, and then make such serious conclusions from the stats.
DemocracyFTW2•3h ago