Yesterday morning I packed my exercise bag with my exercise bands and headed for the local park, and the kids play area. It can be an amazing workout playing on the swings, ladders, and other pieces of kid equipment. I don’t for a minute hope to do the things I did when I was young, but I had a great workout AND enjoyed myself. At times I did feel like a kid again, and that’s all good.
Swine flu, swine flu, what to do. I saw a youtube video of a doctor talking about the swine flu vaccine. He claimed the vaccine is more dangerous than the flu itself. I don’t know how this flu will play out, but my approach will be this: keep my immune system on full alert, wash my hands often, and increase my vitamin D intake to 2000 IU’s/day. I’m in the sun quite a lot, and one of the benefits of living here in Phoenix is that I can continue to get enough D from the sun, even in winter. However, if you live north of a line from Reno to St. Louis to Raleigh, the low angle of the sun in winter prevents the rays you need from reaching you-even if you spend all day in the sun. You can supplement with either D2 or D3, both are converted to the useable form but D3 is converted 500x faster. According to Consumer Reports On Health, you can be vitamin D deficient if: you are dark-skinned, middle-aged, or overweight, if you have had gastric bypass surgery or celiac disease (or any condition that compromise’s food absorption), a history of liver disease, MS, osteoporosis, or thyroid problems, or are taking medications for lowering cholesterol (Questran and generic), certain anticonvulsants, or weight loss drugs such as Alli or Xenical. This
Stay well, John R Blilie, M.S.