4 ms·
My experiments with preventing heart disease
- cup 13y agoIts nice to see people spend more time thinking about their health and taking direct actions to improve it. This really stood out for me though: >During these two months I'd not been exercising at all. Working in the health field I can't begin to express how important it is to exercise frequently. The human body is designed to run, not to sit in an office for 8 hours a day punctuated by 2 minute walking breaks to the bathroom every few hours. Also, stop eating once in a while. Nearly every culture and religion has a historical link to fasting yet only recently are the benefits being explored in a scientific manner. Please fellow HN, take heed from the author and try to commit to a good diet and regular exercise, for the sake of you and your family. Great work Harj, keep it up. You're a source of inspiration for many.
- rzendacott 13y agoFor how long and how often would you recommend we 'stop eating once in a while'? Or do you have resources that recommend what would be a beneficial amount of fasting? Just wondering what steps I could take to be healthier, as I've never even considered fasting in the past. Thanks!
- Harj 13y agoThis is referring to Intermittent fasting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_fasting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_fasting). The best guide I've seen to getting started with this is here: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2013/08/06/a-beginners-guide-to-intermittent-fasting/ http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2013/08/06/a-beginners-guide...
- jw2013 13y agoThis is a great article. Not to take anything away from the OP (just upvoted the post actually), but just out of curiosity I wonder why it is posted on HN. Is there certain range of topic the HN expect?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- dang 13y agoSubstantive posts of intellectual interest are always welcome on Hacker News.
- tokenadult 13y agoHow substantive is an n=1 anecdote about some biomarker interventions with no hard endpoints?
- tptacek 13y agostatistically powerful stories ⊂ substantive stories
- tokenadult 13y agoThomas, in relation to my question and Daniel's answer, could you kindly explain the direction of the subset relation you are talking about there?
- dang 13y agoIt's not a peer-reviewed controlled study, of course, but HN isn't a scientific journal. In my view the post is clearly substantive enough for a general interest site. There's such a thing as a substantive anecdote, and self-observation and self-experimentation have a long and noble history. It's wrong, of course, to draw hard scientific conclusions from such a piece, but it's not wrong to read one, nor to write one, nor to do this kind of experimentation, nor to find it interesting. Plus there's a hacker angle in the DIY aspect. That's my take on it, anyway. I thought it was cool, and I hope that HN readers are smart enough not to draw the obvious bogus conclusions.
- lingben 13y agoyou're continuing to spread a myth there is no link whatsoever between cholestoral (ldl/hdl) and heart disease, this has been proven beyond a doubt heart disease is an inflammatory disorder
- drjesusphd 13y agoFirst of all, it's very difficult to prove a negative. Second, I always thought that the specious connection was between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol, not necessarily the latter with heart disease. Any comments/elaborations?
- Harj 13y agoI think there are two issues: 1) The link between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol. 2) The link between cholesterol and heart disease risk. The former exists because research has shown that a large number of people don't seem to see an increase in blood cholesterol when they increase their dietary cholesterol, as I mentioned in the article. The latter exists because people with seemingly healthy cholesterol levels, still develop heart disease, which has led to looking for alternative risk indications e.g. number of cholesterol particles vs total amount of cholesterol - the theory being that smaller, denser cholesterol particles may carry less total cholesterol but are more likely to cause plaque build up in the arteries.
- abbasmehdi 13y agoA few years ago I saw a story on BBC suggesting a despairing outlook for people of the Indian subcontinent origin (Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi - IPB); it was titled "Asian heart disease gene found". It reported that a significant percentage of IPBs have a gene that regardless of lifestyle and/or dietary choices, will kill them rather early [1]. I have not read the actual, grim study. For non UK audience: Asian == UK term for people of the Indian subcontinent origin [1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7833753.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7833753.stm
- 13y ago
- mightybrenden 13y agoThis article addresses a huge problem that Eating Academy and https://www.plantdietlife.com/ https://www.plantdietlife.com/ is attempting to address. This issue should be especially important to a community who does a majority of their work sitting at a desk for long hours at a time.
- dfc 13y agoFull Disclosure: It seems that Brenden is the owner and creator of plantdietlife. Five of the nine comments mightybrenden has made on HN are links to PDL.
- dfc 13y agoThis is the second or third time I have seen {endo|ecto|meso}morph come up on HN in the past week. I thought that the {endo|ecto|meso}morph theory was rejected by modern science and medicine. Has something changed or was I wrong to begin with? Is there any explanation for the recent occurrences: new fad diet or prominent blogger appropriating the term?
- Harj 13y agoI wasn't aware the terms had been rejected. The terms aren't important though. The general concept that some people put on weight quicker than others, when lifestyle factors are controlled for, has been shown to be true by research.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]