In my last post, I talked about the importance of maintaining humility when promoting or dismissing lifestyle interventions for better health. Today I’m going to flesh that out a bit further.
There’s an old joke among epidemiologists that goes like this:
The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. The French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans. The Germans drink a lot of beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
Conclusion: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is what kills you.
I’d like to use this post to introduce a very simple, and important, concept that is a key idea to understanding metabolic health: the “personal fat threshold.”
In my last post I covered a new line of research about possible post-vaccine harms, and how it has been sensationalized and misrepresented in the media. Today I want to step back and more broadly share some personal thoughts on COVID and on the vaccines.
I haven’t commented on the vaccines nor on COVID before, and I have a lot to say on the topic. So I am going to split this into two posts. Today I’m going to deal with the above article only; in my next post I will give you my thoughts more broadly on COVID and on the vaccines, as somebody who worked on the “front lines” during the COVID pandemic and has experience treating thousands of COVID cases.
Emergency hospital during influenza epidemic, Camp Funston, Kansas (1918). Original image from National Museum of Health and Medicine. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.
I’ve seen a lot of viral illnesses the past six weeks or so: COVID. Bronchitis. Sinusitis. And of course, the flu. This is the time of year when people get sick with all kinds of sniffles, sore throats, coughs, chills, and aches. Understandably when people are sick, they want to get better as quickly as possible. Ergo, many patients who test positive for flu will ask me for Tamiflu.
