Friday, July 11, 2008

Exercise and sleep critical to brain health

My Chicago-based friend (and high-powered consultant to captains of industry) Jim McGee recently reviewed the book Brain Rules by John Medina. It's worth reading Jim's review here. You wouldn't normally see a post like this on a motorcycle blog, but one of my main interests is the fitness and health of the aging athlete (and athlete wannabes).

Medina is a molecular biologist and delves into how the biology of the brain affects our ability to function, and how many of the things we believe to be true about brain function really aren't...

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Saturday, May 17, 2008

Sittting on my butt, going nowhere fast, I can still get in shape.

I just picked up a Lemond Revmaster spinner bike for my exercise program. I got it from a fire sale - literally. They guy I bought it from had his house catch fire and the bike was damaged in the fire. It's pretty smoked up and some of the plastic is melted, but it seemed mechanically sound. Looks like it needs about $150 in parts and a thorough scrubbing and it should be good as new, though maybe not quite as pretty.

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Friday, May 16, 2008

Super Hunky Fighting Cancer. Don't You Be Next.

Reported on the Cousin Weedy Y! forum (and not independently confirmed,) moto-icon and super journalist Rick Sieman (aka Super Hunky) is undergoing radiation treatment for cancer. Almost everyone knows who Rick is from his years at the helm of Dirt Bike magazine. If you are among the tiny minority that don't know Rick, he's was probably the first real journalist to cover dirt biking and is credited with coining the term moto-journalist. Let's all wish Rick a full and speedy recovery.

As an aside, be sure to get your annual prostate exam. If you're VMX age you are old enough to need it. It's not pleasant, but it's not that bad and takes, literally, 5-10 seconds. Get "the finger" every year, whether you think you need it or not. Also, get your PSA (prostate specific antigen) blood test. This test is cheap ($30-$40) and is usually done as part of a routine physical exam for men. You may also want to consider having both a total PSA and free PSA blood test. The free PSA test is $70-$80.

PSA is a protein produced only by the prostate, but it is measured in two ways - total and free. Total is the normal test. But some PSA is always bound to other cells in the blood and only a limited amount is circulating free. The ratio of this "free" PSA to total may actually matter more than the total according to this video on WebMD. Prostate cancer is a pernicious scourge on men. It is said that sooner or later we all get it. Let's raise the odds in our favor with regular checkups and blood tests.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Don't Make My Mistake With Your Back Injury

I broke my lower back (T11, T12, L1) about 10 years ago in an auto accident. Thanks to a mis-diagnosis by the rent-a-doc at the local two-bit trauma center and my own stubborness and stupidity, I did not get proper medical treatment for more than six (6) months and was left with a permanently damaged lower spine that put me completely out of action for over three years. Given the incorrect healing and residual problems, I never did do the level of rehab and strengthening that such an injury requires and over the years the resulting muscle weakness has started causing other problems. Now that I'm nearing 50 I know it's "now or never" if I want to get things back in some semblance of working order.

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Thursday, May 8, 2008

Staying Healthy as an Aging MX Racer

Just got back from my first full physical in a number of years. By full, I mean I had a complete blood workup, a bone scan, body fat measurement, and VO2 max stress test. The good news is I've stayed pretty healthy despite my pathetic exercise regimen. I have good base fitness for a guy who hasn't exercised in five years, and most of my cardio risk factors are quite low. The bad news is that some unfortunate genetic tendencies are catching up with me.

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