1. Happy St. Patrick’s Day…
St. Patrick’s Day has always been a celebrated holiday in our family. My grandmother was half Irish and was proud of it. My mother used to take us out of school to attend the parade in downtown Cleveland. I have fond memories of getting together with my family, complete with lots of green, and celebrating the traditional corned beef meals. As I find myself doing more these days to learn more about specific holidays, I took a deeper dive into St. Patrick’s Day, and St. Patrick himself. Two things I learned… At age 16, St. Patrick was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken as a slave, where he spent six years as a shepherd. It was during this time that he found God. And… he used the three-leaved shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. March 17th is the traditional death date of Saint Patrick, and “the day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, and, by extension, celebrates the heritage and culture of the Irish in general.” (Wikipedia) For me, to be honest, this is a day that I think about my grandmother (Peggy Padavick), one of my all-time favorite people, who absolutely helped shape me to be who I am. I often think about a photo of her when she was younger, being held upside down, kissing the Blarney Stone (see it below…along with photos of my grandmother and grandfather dressed up, celebrating as they did, on St. Patrick’s Day). Fun and very fond memories!
2. A study I read about this week…
A new study shows that physical activity is 1.5 times more effective than counselling or the leading medications for managing depression. WOW!!! Not just as good as the meds, but BETTER. The review included 97 reviews, 1,039 trials and 128,119 participants, the largest to date, and was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. All types of physical activity were shown to be beneficial, and the most impactful were activities that were more intensive in short bursts rather than longer, less intensive exercises. And exercise interventions 12 weeks or less were the most effective. This review showed positive effects on depression, anxiety, and distress. The WHO found that 1 in 8 people worldwide live with a mental disorder, which is ALARMING (and unacceptable)! It is time for doctors (and the public) to embrace the fact that lifestyle choices need to be the first course of action, not dangerous, and often ineffective, drugs. There is a time and place for medications for these conditions, but too little emphasis is put on the benefits of diet and exercise. Again… PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IS 1.5 TIMES MORE EFFECTIVE THAN COUNSELLING OR THE LEADING MEDICATIONS!!! Click here to read the review of this study.
3. Fasting schedule I tried this week…
I saw a quick clip of Dr. David Sinclair, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and researcher on aging, on some podcast making the case for eating one meal a day. I’ve tried just about every fasting schedule you can think of, but this week I decided to try one meal per day. I did just dinner Monday and Tuesday, just lunch on Wednesday (because of my schedule), and then just dinner last night. It was not hard, I only had short periods of hunger, and I felt pretty good. There are SO MANY benefits to intermittent fasting. I will continue to experiment with number of meals and meal times to see where I feel, and my body performs, the best. The video clip below is Dr. Sinclair giving a quick 3-minute explanation of this type of fasting. Worth watching for sure!
