Why does the South hate cyclists?
Walk Score has published its list of the Most Bikeable Large U.S. cities, based on a methodology that includes infrastructure, hills, connectivity and “mode share”—meaning how many fellow bikers are on the road. No surprises here. You know who wins this: Portland, San Francisco, Denver. But dig a little deeper into the site’s...
A third of Minnesota’s lakes have cocaine in them
Minnesota—a relatively unpolluted state if you don’t count the iron mine tailings and farm run-off—today released Pharmaceutical and Endocrine Active Chemicals in Minnesota Lakes. This study of 50 lakes looked at the presence of 125 chemicals, including DEET (found in 76 percent of the lakes, making it the most frequently discovered chemical), bisphenol A (second...
Boomers are all about the couch
A post earlier this week contained a startling public health nugget: most Baby Boomers—52 percent—report zero physical activity. No jogging, no biking, no backpacking. No walking the dog. No wading in shallow water. No golf with a cart. This is head-swiveling because (one) it’s an intellectual challenge to conceive of zero physical activity and...
Failure to crunch
It might not be your fault. If you don’t like to exercise, or if the exercise you do doesn’t seem to count for much, there are reasons that have nothing to do with your discipline, your will, or your moral fiber. You are not a puss. It’s your DNA. The Wall Street Journal recently...
More noise and chatter on retirement
A wintery mix of news about retirement savings over the past few weeks. There’s some variation in the details but a consistent underlying message, which is that you will die poor, Boomer. And your generation will likely impoverish the generations coming after it. (Here’s the upside: we are told by a study of cheery Germans...
Looking for SWF with DRD4 7R allele?
Let’s say you are single. You’re reading over the entries on Match.com and thinking about a partner for life’s Second or Third Act. Are you looking for a profile that says, “Get with me. I’m likely to die quick, but our time together will feel long because I am dull”? No, you are not. You...
Afternoon workouts work best. Maybe.
The popular press has a wealth of information on fitness. But if you are over 50, your reading will often leave you feeling confused or unsure. This is because so many studies focus on younger people and you know better than to generalize. Good health and fitness guidance for a 12-year-old might not true for...
Go fight cancer tomorrow night
The past year has brought hope that the thing that kills you won’t be cancer. Your demise might come from something even more hideous and protracted, but there’s a better chance that it won’t be cancer. More important to everyone but you, kids are getting more cancer-fighting tools. As the New York Times reported earlier...
Nature shower with a friend in 2013
Here’s a New Year’s resolution you’ll want to follow through on: take more nature showers, ideally with a friend. Or friends. As is usually the case with good ideas, there’s nothing new about this except the way we talk about it. “Taking a nature shower” is just another way of saying you should walk in...
Merry Christmas: Four more years, half of them pretty good
The Lancet just published a report—actually, a series of seven papers—known as the Global Burden of Disease. It’s a kraken, a beast, a megillah of data, with contributions from experts in more than 300 institutions in 50 countries. The good news: you’re living longer. The bad news: only about half of those new years will...
Can seniors run barefoot? (Redux.)
If you’ve lived long enough, you’ve learned to be skeptical. Maybe cynical. You may even have crafted a few homemade conspiracy theories that you’re reluctant to divulge because everyone knows what conspiracy theories mean. (They mean you’ve taken the first step on the meandering trail to someone’s-been-sneaking-into-my-apartment-and-moving-my-reading-glasses-and-car-keys.) You might even think that Nike’s huge advertising...
Fitness can compress your inevitable debility. Yay.
If you turned 65 in the middle of the last century—in 1950—you could expect 13.1 years more of life if you were a man and 16.2 years if you were a woman. If you turned 65 in 2007, your remaining life expectancy was 17.2 (male) and 19.9 (female) years. So, in theory, that’s about four...
