Health

Cardiopulmonary Physiology and The Year 2020

We’ve all heard the stats. It’s the old people dying of COVID-19 and not the young ones. In particular it’s old people with underlying health conditions which make them more susceptible. Let’s examine cardiopulmonary physiology briefly in the context of COVID.

The medical profession has been mute with respect to prevention other than recommending measures to prevent contact with the virus. In fairness, the WHO has come out and said inexactly “keep exercising”. Given the statistics which indicate young and healthy individual do better, I ask myself…in the context of COVID-19 attacking the lungs mostly….what is it that a person can do to improve their pulmonary health? You guessed it – exercise.

Edward L. Fox and Donald K. Mathews have written on the subject of exercise physiology in their book “The Physiological Basis of Physical Education and Athletics”. The 2020 question becomes, will physically trained individuals handle the COVID-19  virus better than sedentary individuals. Relevant topics covered by Fox and Mathews are “anatomical dead space and alveolar ventilation”, and “lung volume”. The authors proclaim that trained individuals possess higher lung volumes. We are left in 2020 to derive a correlation between increased lung volumes and better oxygenation upon viral threat. The alveoli becomes a key term in the context of oxygenation given that this anatomical structure has been described as an exchange port for transmitting oxygen to capillaries. Authors stop short of proclaiming an increase in oxygen transport efficiency from expanded alveolar capacity due to any training effect in spite of showcasing positively correlated statistics. This has been the question which has “plagued” me since the onset of COVID-19 harkening back to my coursework in exercising physiology as a university student.

In summary, I encourage readers to exercise. If you are a swimmer in Calgary right now you may not be aware that you are treated to your own lap lane at the Respol Centre with an advanced booking even in the context of the new November 23rd regulations. Cross country skiing season is right around the corner and I’ve prepped my skis in anticipation. 

If you work at your health, you’re most likely to be rewarded. If you are not among the risk groups and you regress into a protective cocoon through COVID-19 fear…..instead of being a “sitting duck” you could become a “sitting couch potato”.    

Health

COVID Conundrum

There are all these opinions, some credible action but then a lack of leadership. The puzzle pieces aren’t quite connecting. Governments have more power than they are really willing to deploy in the context of the problem. The underlying premise is not to overwhelm the health care system with patients who may come to need a respirator and hospital bed for survival. This seems like a worthy goal to me. New York experienced acute stress on their system in the early going and Governor Cuomo reacted with strong leadership with his lockdown. He sought federal help and did receive it. The matter was overt, vivid, and humbling for New Yorkers.  

In the state of Ohio today, there are 541 seriously ill patients from COVID-19 in intensive care as reported by the New York Times. The population of Alberta is about 37% that of Ohio. If you are in intensive care it means that you are poised to die without the intervention of continual care. People are dying of the virus and deaths are preventable in absence of transmission. It’s difficult to be argumentative with these facts. 

The economy needs to function and governments have power. Governments communicate with you and they are doing so regularly on the topic of COVID-19. Medical officers speaking on behalf of governments may not offer a powerful voice when communicating facts and therefore not drive a message with force. Medical people have intellect but not necessarily a powerful communication style to help reinforce words. This is certainly the case in Alberta.

If resources become very thin, doctors will make decisions with respect to who gets a ventilator. It will be their ethical duty. You may not be one of the lucky ones if you are gasping for a breath because of COVID-19. Therefore, you should do what’s asked of you. It’s not difficult and it will be temporary if we all comply. There is no conspiracy to strip you of your livelihood. There is no socialist agenda  – but there will be if the political pendulum keeps moving leftward (Canada).

What if things get really bad? You could lose your autonomy. The government could conclude that you lack the moral authority to make good decisions with your behaviour and consequently if you are tested positive for the virus be extracted from your family and warehoused with other COVID-19 positive people until you become symptom free. Your government actually does have this kind of power over you but has never during your lifetime needed to proclaim it.

Responsible citizens are quietly complying with ordinances and going about their business with a duty to their fellow man in the context of being part of a large solution.  I bet you are one of these people and I acknowledge you.      

Lifestyle

Benefits of Running

So, it’s a pandemic and you’re not going to the gym eh. Running is so simple and convenient but odds are those who are reading this are not doing it.  What do you think the probability is of catching COVID-19 in the open air far from people?  What are your chances of recovering from COVID-19 should you catch it after having achieved a particular level of fitness from running?

Benefits:

  1. You need to be enriched by subtle radiation from the sun
  2. You excite neurotransmitters thereby increasing receptive capacity of target tissue
  3. Increased rate of blood flow exercises elasticity of arteries and veins potentially reducing plaque
  4. Increase caloric output effectively prohibiting weight gain
  5. Potential for increasing mental acuity

Things to consider:

a. Start slow…walk at first . Consider getting a medical consult first.

b. Pace yourself.

c. Distance doesn’t matter. It’s not a competition. Your chance at Olympic fame is over.

d. Bring a piece of I.D. with you.

e. Dress for the conditions.

Uncategorized

A Culture Void of Dance

You remember junior high school gym class when social dance was introduced. As boys you were too cool and as girls you were mystified by what might transpire (presumptuous of me I know). I suggest that the curriculum was good for you. I went to all the school dances and left my friends behind. It wasn’t easy getting rejected by girls at that age.   

On an academic level, I had taken dance to another “step” because as a fundamental core component of Physical Education, kinesiology class in first year university and the modern dance module was a requirement for men and women. You either found open mindedness or you failed. It was that simple. There was jazz element in which I actually took an interest because one could actually incorporate popular music with coordinated group steps. In second year having decided that I found enjoyment from the class, I actually paid for a jazz evening class on campus.

I danced in the clubs during the ‘80s and 90’s while I circulated solo. At times, when the crowds were sparse, I was a spectator checking out the moves wondering how to incorporate them at some later date. Imagining swing moves without a partner was difficult. I looked upon it as part of the challenge.

The best part of my accounting practice has been seasonal slowness every fall. It’s a time when I challenge myself to learn something new. Dancing classes have been perfect in this regard. I’ve taken classes at Alberta Dancesport, Ceroc Calgary, and some salsa privately. The moves get forgotten without practice and reinforcement.   

Now here we are in this pandemic and I wonder how people are doing. I mean really doing….. from a spiritual sense. The thing about dance is that there is connectedness while the body moves to music. There is much life force in this.

At some point whether it was TV, the movies, or National Geographic, you’ve seen the serenity among people engaged in ethnic dance forms. Tribal cultures have ascribed spiritual meaning toward dancing while accompanied with their primitive instruments. Unfortunately, advanced cultures have been distracted from a committed temporal form of being perhaps without an understanding of the value.    

We evolve and some will return invigorated through a yearning to express our humanity through body and music. Others may still be anxious or insecure but curious.    

Philosophy, Politics

Macklem’s Word On Over-Leveraged Canadians

Canadians really do face some challenges with their debt. I see it in my practice. There’s plenty of blame to go around and I find the headline today over at BNN quite interesting – “Macklem Puts Dangerously Over-Leveraged Canadians on Notice”.

During the “pandemic” (let’s not be reticent in using the term despite your interpretation of COVID-19) governments have intervened to restrict commerce. There have been consequences and responses. Bankers have been forced to the table with an accommodating disposition. However; they have not been burdened by any new government regulation to restrict interest charged on debt through usury legislation. The federal liberal government has been slap happy at burdening industry with regulation but when it comes to the banking industry they’ve been absent. I should not be processing credit card transactions for my clients right now which have listed interest rates of 19.90 per cent when the Bank of Canada rate is 0.25 per cent irrespective of the credit rating of such taxpayer. Your federal liberal government has been burdening your grandchildren with excessive poorly managed public debt through this pandemic. Canadians want to pay their debt and expect banking sector shareholders to share in the financial pain elicited through economic contraction.