Ideas For Strengthening Immunity...

And so the rollout of the three vaccines to combat Covid-19 begins in earnest here in the UK from the start of January, and so a priority system based on age and vulnerability was set up, with the more elderly the first to receive the jab. High priority also includes the vulnerable, such as my wife who is a cancer patient. At the time of writing, she had her first of the two jabs two weeks ago.

Therefore it came as a bit of a shock to read on Facebook that one of my friends, a former college mate whom I knew since 1969, had also received his jab. Good for him. Indeed, despite feeling a pang of jealousy, I am still glad for him. Except that not only is he two weeks younger than I am but as far as I'm aware, he's in good health with no known disabilities or having previous health issues. The last time we were together was in 2019 when we visited the Science Museum in South Kensington - only for all of us to be evacuated from the building whilst in the middle of a meal at the museum's buffet restaurant, due to the siren sounding a false bomb alert!

Then my doctor friend, Andrew Milnthorpe, who is young enough to be my son, also received his jab earlier in the week. I'm beginning to wonder whether this age-priority system has really been put into practice, or was there a chance that I, at 68 years old, had slipped through the net. Fortunately, I had to visit the surgery myself to submit to an INR test to monitor my blood coagulation rate. It allowed me to ask the nurse whether it's possible to slip through the net whilst waiting for my turn to receive the jab.

She was adamant. She explained that the codification system would not allow me to slip through the net. At least that was reassuring. All I need is to exercise patience, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

There are other exercises I can put into practice whilst waiting. Unfortunately, with the closure of all leisure facilities during the lockdown, I'm no longer able to swim, as I used to swim regularly twice a week. As for the gym, between the years 2015 and 2018, I attended up to three times a week for cardiac-related exercises, rowing on the modern version of the indoor rowing machine was the favourite, with the ability to endure for more than an hour. However, a couple of muscle injuries, including an ambulance trip to the hospital, was the reason to eventually wrap my gym schedule completely, the last rowing exercise was performed during Summer of 2020, after the easing of the first wave of the pandemic.

 Rowing machine I used frequently. Stock photo.

Therefore, there are two types of outdoor exercises I now normally carry out. These are cycling and walking, and the advantages are that they are free, and there are no time restrictions attached.

Here I will first look into cycling. 

I have always used the bicycle as a form of transportation since I was a teenager, and I used it primarily for riding to school. As an exercise, it's so beneficial that at one particular meeting which took place between three Hawaiian athletes back in the seventies, a discussion about which of the three disciplines resulted in greater fitness and health benefactor - Swimming, Cycling or Running? Unable to come to any agreement, it was decided to string all three together to form a new sport - the Triathlon. And that was the sport which dominated my leisure hours, particularly between the years 1986-1990. It was also during that era when, during the summer, early Sunday morning cycling "burn-ups" on clear, traffic-free roads leading out into the countryside were carried out before church at weekends when I didn't compete. Great stuff!  

Cycling to church as a means of regular transportation goes back to 1975 when I cycled to Bracknell Baptist Church. But when I started attending what was then Ascot Baptist Church (now Ascot Life Church) the 9-10 mile round trip became the weekly norm since 1990. With the first lockdown ushered in during March of 2020 and the complete closure of all churches throughout the last ten months, a "fitness gap" was formed which I had to find a way to fill in. Thus, the "ride to nowhere," very similar to the 1980s fast rides, was thought up, and such rides are purely for exercise.

One feature of interest became apparent when riding. How far am I cycling? What is the length of the chosen circuit? Fortunately for me, there are several routes near to where I live which has been accurately measured by the officials of Bracknell Athletic Club for staging road foot-races. One was the Bracknell 5, which was run on Boxing Day as a means to shed the pounds accumulated on Christmas Day. Not having a milometer fixed to the bike but already knowing the distance, it remains down to timekeeping.

This means by cycling four laps of the 2.5-mile 4 km circuit, I would cover 10 miles 16 km. Using my digital wristwatch, I timed the ride as almost exactly one hour. Thus my average riding speed is 10 mph 16 kph - only it's a lot faster on downhills and a lot slower going up! Thus, by using the wristwatch as a timekeeper, I'm able to calculate any distance covered.

I crack off ten miles 16 km at least once a week, sometimes even twice a week. During the winter, I tend to stay within the built-up area of the town, choosing a figure-of-eight route which is relatively free of traffic lights. Cycleways passing under rotaries regulated by traffic lights is a great asset here in Bracknell, which means I can ride the whole circuit almost entirely non-stop, and there have been non-stop riding done in recent weeks. By timing the ride, I was able to calculate the circuit as a little more than ten miles.

My mount is very similar to this one.

In the summer, as with last year, longer routes were enjoyed. We have roads leading through the countryside where open fields, bordered by hedgerows, grace the gently undulating landscape as the roads criss-cross to link neighbouring towns. I find riding alone in the sunshine so enthralling. Of course, it helps if I have instant availability of a drinks bottle at hand. My type of mount, a touring bike, is fitted with thick tyres, therefore flats are far less likely than with fast sport-racers. But carrying a puncture repair kit and appropriate tools is wise. Also ensuring that the tyres are inflated hard will make riding less energy-draining. I have found that inflating to 40-45 psi is ideal, but other cyclists often inflate up to 60 psi. Furthermore, moving parts such as the chain and sprockets should be well lubricated. I have found that the WD-40 oil spray is excellent for this.

As for walking, I can do this anytime, but it's usually on the days I'm not cycling. These can vary from thirty to ninety minutes. Fortunately, I'm blessed to be surrounded with nearby playing fields, woods and lakes. In the spring, Rhododendrons, for example, bloom with bright magenta flowers, and I find it so amazing such a splendid display announcing the ushering of spring, with summer to follow. As a Christian, I find prayer-walking does wonders to the spirit. I often start by thanking God for his wonderful creation.

By observing the rate of infection and how it correlates with the seasons, I have seen that the rise of infections began at late winter into the early spring of 2020, then fell as the warm weather of summer took hold. Then the rate of infections began to rise again as the weather cooled during the autumn and peaked again during the coldest part of winter to a level much higher than in the first wave. Several doctors on YouTube independently agree that lacking the sunshine Vitamin D weakens the immune system and thus more fall victim to the infection. With this realisation, we began to take more positive action, especially in what we consume.

As what to eat, having concern for our immune systems ranks high. From the start of January, both Alex and I take a vitamin supplement each day. This consist of a capsule of fish body oil which contains 300 milligrams (mg) of Omega-3. 

With the capsule, a tablet containing the following is taken, both with a glass of water:

Vitamin D - 25 micrograms.

Vitamin C - 250 mg.

Also, minerals such as:

Zinc - 10 mg

Selenium - 100 micrograms

Copper - 1,000 micrograms

Other ingredients include Ginger Root extract - 34.25 mg. 

This is quite a package in just one tablet but all the ingredients are specified to strengthen the immune system and to make the whole body more resistant to any pathogen infection. But other food contains nutrition which, together with other benefits, include eggs, another source of Vitamin D, along with milk (semi-skimmed) and fortified cereals (muesli is nice.) Also, I have a fondness for canned sardines. They contain goodness such as Protein, Vitamin B, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, and a trace of Vitamin K. As for fruit, we tend to have these fresh, such as oranges - rich in Vitamin C - apples and pears.

As for vegetables, because I'm on blood-thinning medicines (in the UK it's Warfarin) limits my consumption of green vegetables which contains a high level of Vitamin K, such as lettuce and cabbage, I find both cooked potatoes and raw carrots to be succulent. However, Brussel Sprouts on Christmas Day is a real treat. Rare treats also include chocolate, and if I'm with another person or group, then I would say "yes" to a McDonalds. But as for meals, pasta always remain tops, but risotto with sardines bathed in bolognese sauce - mm - waters my mouth anytime!

Only today I read in the Daily Mail that many pathogens in the past arose as they mutated and transferred from animals to humans. Ebola was one example. Also, the AIDS virus HIV was another example. Far deadlier than Covid-19, the Ebola virus started to mutate and transmit after an African tribal family caught and killed a chimpanzee to prepare for food, with the result that several members of that family became ill and died. Also, it is said that the HIV virus had first arisen when another chimpanzee was caught for food.*

When comparing this with the supposed wet market in Wuhan, China where bats were sold for food, then I am aware of the rustling of the pages in the Bible. In Leviticus 11, various animals were banned from human consumption, which includes chimpanzee and bat. Although the NIV and other newer translations add the words ritual, ritually unclean, etc, the KJV does not have such wording. Instead, the instruction was to be taken literally, Meat such as cattle, which are cloven-hooved and chew the cud, was okay to eat, along with poultry as we know it today. As with fish, only those with fins and scales were allowed to be eaten, according to the ancient Hebrews. Sardines are nice.

Risotto dish. I have mine with Sardines.

Although cooking techniques have greatly advanced since those ancient days, making pork, for example, safe to eat, nevertheless, by making use of God's Dietary Guidebook, the chance of spreading a virus and bringing on an epidemic, if not a pandemic, is greatly reduced. Certainly, a direction worth taking, especially when combined with plenty of exercises, will strengthen the immune system and go a fair way against infection.

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*Daily Mail Newspaper, Saturday, February 6, 2021, pp 22-23.

Science of Weight Loss

I felt like popping a champagne bottle while visiting the nurse who had been monitoring me for the past two years. This monthly weigh-in revealed my lowest weight ever, just over 14 stone or 200lbs. This was quite a contrast to the 19+ stone (270lbs) I was at when I first walked into her office in May, 2009. That is a loss of a little more than 70lb.
If you compare the differences between these two photos, you'll see what I mean.

In the first photo, taken with my wife and daughter, was how I looked in Spring, 2009. Because of my obesity, I was close to becoming diabetic, not to mention the high risk of heart attack. Climbing a flight of stairs always left me puffing, gasping for air.
The second shows how I look at present:

For a clearer comparison, I have included this snapshot too, taken at the same time as the one above:

I shall leave it for the reader to decide whether two years of a changed lifestyle had made an impact on my physical appearance, and maybe how vain I had became!

According to the latest statistics, obesity is one of our major health problems. Of the latest world data available, the country with the highest rate of obesity among its population is the United States, with 30.6% being overweight. That is nearly one third of the entire U.S. population. Next is Mexico, with 24.2%. Third - yes, it has to be the United Kingdom, with 23% of its population, or nearly a quarter, being overweight. So the UK lies in the top three for highest obesity rates.
On the other hand, the much-maligned Italians (of whom I am one) are often stereotyped as being the chubby, opera singing and spaghetti-scoffing Venetian gondola paddler who pinch Cornetto ice cream cones from his customers. Yet the Italians scored a modest 8.5% of its population for obesity, which places Italy in 25th position. In fact, according to these available statistics, Italy came third from bottom, which is shared by both Japan and South Korea in joint 28th position, each having just 3.2% obese. The average obesity rate is 14.1%, the closest coming to this being Canada, in 11th place with 14.3% obese.
The above statistics apply for both genders. The UK comes 1st among the men being obese with 22.1% of the British male population being overweight. Japanese males are the least obese, with just 3.4%.
Among women, the UK comes second after Slovakia, with 22.8% British women being overweight, down on Slovakia's 25.4%. Again, Japan scores only 3.8% of its female population as being overweight.
So according to the given statistics, the ratio between male and female obesity in all cases are roughly equal.
In my personal weight loss experience, constant monitoring has indicated a more rapid weight loss during the summer months, while during winter I tend to put on weight. January of 2011 was particular bad, gaining six pounds between Christmas and the start of February. Those pounds were shed by March which made me relieved to be back on track.
Personal weight loss and gain seem to correlate with outside temperatures, but the above statistics seem to indicate that temperature has little to do with it. For example, Canada has colder winters than both the UK and the USA. But it's obesity rate is less than half of that of the USA and 8.7% less than the UK.
So my conclusion, endorsed by the nurse, is that lifestyle is what determines a persons's weight.
While visiting the Kerith Centre (a local church) a couple of weeks ago, a longstanding friend gasped at my weight loss appearance, having not seen me for a period of time. Chubby in physique, he complained that he goes out for a five-mile run twice a week, but his appearance remains stubbornly chubby. He is not the only one.
After all, I believe it's the British way of life, particularly at the dining table, that has much to do with either weight loss or retention. If our restaurant trade reflect our culinary habits, it would not be that surprising. Looking at the desserts menu, one can pick out lashings of ice cream, chocolate gateau and cream, apple pie and custard, or cheesecake. These desserts have a sky-high calorie count, and they are consumed each day in a typical home, along with packets of sugary biscuits (cookies). Little wonder Britain comes third in the obesity chart.
In Italy, which came a modest 25th, ice cream (gelato) is an occasional treat, not a dessert following a meal. Yet the Italians are famed for pasta consumption.
In fact pasta, whether it be Spaghetti Bolognese, Ravioli, diverse shapes or Macaroni, it's a starter at the Italian table. Pasta is then followed by the main course, often steak or fish with salad. Then the meal is finished with fresh fruit. Desserts are virtually unknown.
Pasta (without the Bolognese) actually has very little fat content. A typical meal has about 1.5 grammes of fat, while it has a much higher carbohydrate quota of nearly 66 grammes. Even protein in it is higher than fat, with just over 11 grammes.
Part of my new lifestyle is the consumption of cottage cheese. This is most likely the "Curds and Whey" of nursery rhyme fame. I normally have it in brown bread, often toasted. Two of its nutritional values are the protein casein which is recommended by both dietitians and body builders alike. The other is a high level of Calcium, which is not only responsible for strong teeth and bones, but combined with a healthy level of Vitamin D, it slows down fat storage in the body.

Cottage Cheese

Earlier this year, an experiment was carried out by Professor Ame Astrup of the Nutrition Department of the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University at Coperhagan. A group of men were put on a carefully prepared diet which included consumption of cottage cheese, with calcium levels peaking at 2,000 mg for a week. Results showed a higher level of fat in the stools. When the candidates had the cheese withdrawn and the calcium level reduced to 500 mg, there was significantly less fat in the stools.
A healthy level of cholecalciferol, or Vitamin D, is essential for the Calcium to block the absorption of fatty matter into the bloodstream. Because the main source of Vitamin D is from sunlight, we Brits suffer a disadvantage with our climate, particularly in the winter.
Therefore, food with a level of this vitamin include egg yolk, oily fish (sardines, herring, tuna, salmon), liver, margarine and fortified breakfast cereals, the latter normally have five micro-grammes of the vitamin.
So by personal experience and its end result would be:
Breakfast - Cereal fortified with vitamins, especially cholecalciferol, toast with cottage cheese, tea or coffee without sugar or just one teaspoon.
Lunch: double toasted cottage cheese sandwich with fresh fruit, tea or coffee.
Evening: Pasta with bolognese made with half-fat sausages or similar. Fresh fruit. A mug of tea without sugar.
Snack at other times. Cottage cheese or marmite toasted sandwich I find delicious. Low-fat fruit yogurt is good, so is an apple. I tend not to buy oranges or other citrus fruits because, to tell the truth, I find peeling off the rind irritating to the finger nails, and the size of the fruit is much smaller than it was when first spotted at the supermarket shelf!
Therefore, in addition to cottage cheese, I drink every morning a glass of pure grapefruit juice. Not from concentrates, but straight from the crushed fruit. The advantage with this is that it comes with the original fruit bits in the juice.
But whichever diet style one may find most suitable, one should never go for hours without eating. Hunger will turn someone to raid the larder and find the foods with the highest calorie content most appealing. Also hunger causes the body to go into emergency mode, and would more likely store up fat to preserve its resources.

But regulating what I eat is only one half of the story. The other is intense exercise. Visits to the gym at Coral Reef Waterworld in my home town of Bracknell has become a regular habit, along with going out for a run, normally with a partner. Here we both agree that talking while running help take our minds off the exercise.
But for me it's the gym that I find more beneficial. There I use the arc cross trainer, a rather new-fangled gadget related to the elliptical cross trainer, but gives a more challenging workout.

The Arc Cross Trainer

I must admit, working out on this machine is very tedious, especially if it's for a full 60 minutes. But with the wall television playing the music of Magic Radio, this greatly helps the time go by.
So what is the benefit I achieve in such an exercise? Generally it is mainly an aerobic, fat and carbohydrate consuming exercise which resembles a skiing motion with which I can burn up to 1,030 Kilo-calories on a good day.
To get an idea of this exercise, I would like to look at the science this workout involves, and how it relates to weight loss. It involves three energy creating systems which kick in as soon as I start riding the machine.
When I mount the machine and begin riding, I set the resistance to cardio level, which means much energy is spent keeping the machine in motion. For the first few seconds, my body remains in the "at rest" condition. This is the anaerobic stage, the first of the three systems, which means that the energy source on which the muscles need to contract in exercise must be immediately available. The energy is gotten by the breakdown of Adonesine Triphosphate (ATP) to Adonesine Diphosphate (ADP). The availability of ATP is absolutely necessary for the release of energy to enable the muscle to move in the first place. When at rest, the ATP resource remains constant, allowing us to move about and carry on with our businesses as usual.
But after about 15-20 seconds of intense exercise on the cross-trainer, I begin to gasp for air, the heartbeat accelerates, and this stage is the same as when I sprinted as a child, I'll get puffed out, often with a burning sensation at the throat. It is at this stage that the ATP resource runs out, and the remaining ADP is reconverted to ATP to conserve supply, else the muscles would freeze up.
At this stage the second of the three systems in the body kicks in. This is known as the anaerobic glycolysis system with its by-product, lactic acid. What happens here is that ATP is produced with a fast-action call on the sugar reserve, or glucose. Up to the present the exercise was anaerobic, which means that above-level requirements of oxygen was not needed.
But the reserve of ATP in the muscles is very small, and after a few seconds of exercise, I start gasping, as this source of energy for muscle contraction is exhausted. This is when the main fat and carbohydrate burning system starts to kick in, the aerobic system which demands extra oxygen. After a further few seconds my breathing settles, the heart beats fast to get this extra oxygen to the muscles to created the energy needed to continue with the exercise.
Why have I gone into this detail, even if much simplified, science of physiology?
I believe, according to my own experience, that after sprinting as a child in the school playground, the "puffed out" stage meant the end of the exercise, when actually I could have carried on. I guess the throat burning sensation was what I found demoralising. If only I knew something about aerobics back then!
I have seen other people use the machine, or the elliptical that was at the gym before the arc was installed, and I wonder whether the gentler, less resistant use of the machine was the "cautious" attempt to keep the aerobic energy creating system as minimal as possible in fear of "hitting the wall" long before the duration of the exercise had been met.
But as I found by experience, one can keep on exercising under heavy resistance for what believe to be a heck of a long time, but not feel to worse for wear as the extra oxygen supply, along with fat and carbohydrate resources keep the energy supply burning up those calories.
But this does not come overnight. One must train by starting short and light and gradually work up in both duration and resistance. It takes time and patience. No one can just get on this trainer and knock up a full hour on a high resistance. It took me over a year to get to the stage I'm now at.
But once this stage in training has been achieved, it is a joy to see these excess pounds come off.

Weight loss, Triathlons and such...

For the last couple of years I have been on a weight loss program with the loss of  up to seventy pounds (32 kilos) which included a change of eating habits. This would include a smaller breakfast and supper, along with cutting down on sugar intake, cakes, biscuits, ice cream and (worse of all) chocolate, and eating more fresh fruit and yogurt, along with replacing hard cheddar cheese with low-fat cottage cheese, in addition to taking a snack of double toasted cheese sandwich and an apple to work every day.
But all this alone would not be enough. After all, as a domestic window cleaner, it would be considered rude to refuse an offer of a biscuit or two, as keeping good relations with the customer is a necessity for the health of the business. But I did ask them to cut down with the sugar.
Along with the dieting, exercise is the key to weight loss, as strenuous activity burn calories. Excess of these calories being the cause of that unsightly roll of fat bulging from the waist. So a set of floor exercises were prescribed for me by the nurse who is monitoring me on a monthly basis. These floor exercises, such as sit-ups which workout the waistline, I do before breakfast at home.
In addition to the floor exercises, I visit the gym at Coral Reef Water World in my hometown of Bracknell once or twice a week. Here I concentrate on the elliptical cross-trainer, which has the advantage of exercising the whole body, including the arms, shoulders and chest, as well as the waist and legs.

Over a course of a year I gradually built workout intensity from the basic 20 minutes on low resistance to the present 50 minute workout (including the final five minute cool-down) which burns up to 1,130 calories in a single session. This approximates to roughly half of a full day's calorie intake. The exercise can be tedious, I think being at the same spot all the time is the cause of it. One remedy is setting the wall-fixed TV to Magic Radio, a channel delivering near non-stop music appropriate to my age range. Who could ever think of the idea of music while you work(out). To you, Coral Reef management, I could give you a hug for being so thoughtful...!
Then there is the running. No, not on the treadmill - those horrible, noisy, supermarket checkout belts, but out in the open country. Running through the woods early on a Saturday morning while listening to the birds sing was quite exhilarating. But for this workout I needed strong motivation. It is much easier to come home from work and crash out on the sofa than it was rubbing my legs with Deep Heat in preparation for a run. Therefore having a running partner calling weekly at my home, and having a slap-up meal afterward created the ideal atmosphere for such a workout. Like on the elliptical, we started with a short mile-and -a-half, which at the end of I slumped on the armchair gasping for air and soaking half a dozen bath towels with sweat. This developed into an hour's run (distance uncertain) with little more than slight shortage of breath.
Running. There is nothing new about this exercise. Back in 1968, at age 16, I was running the 880 yards (800 metres) in the summer, and splashing through mud at cross-country fixtures in the winter. After temporal retirement, in 1983 I began to train and run the Bracknell half-marathon. This was done to raise sponsored funds to save a hospital radio station from insolvency and to keep the station on an even keel until the hospital itself was re-developed, including the introduction of modern in-patient entertainment technology.
It was during the 1985 event that I met a fellow runner who introduced to me the idea of Triathlon, an American sport of swimming, cycling and running in that order, all in one race. So I joined a club, Reading based Thames Valley Triathletes, at that time the UK's largest triathlon club with well over a hundred members. After investing in a brand new racing bicycle along with crash hat (compulsory), the Tri-suit, a one piece outfit compatible for all three disciplines, along with a new pair of running shoes, I began to compete in Triathlons around the country.

About to complete the run at the Winchester Triathlon in 1987 and just began the cycle section of the Farnham Triathlon in the same year. In both events I wore the tri-suit, which was compatible for swimming, cycling and running without the need to change at the transitions.

Triathlon was, and is, an expensive pastime. For venues further away from home necessitated the need for an overnight stay at a hotel. This was due to the early morning start of the race, at times as early as 7.00 AM, as on a Sunday morning the roads are generally free of traffic. Winchester, Swanage, Bournemouth, Romford, East Grinstead and Eastbourne were places where I had to spend the night at a hotel. This was not needed for Wokingham, Reading, Hampton Court or Farnham. I guess this was the consequence of not having a drivers licence, one of a minority who never mastered the steering wheel. So I see it as a toss up which was more expensive, train travel at weekends or owning and driving a car 24/7 all year around.
As for cycling, long distance burn-ups to the coast from Bracknell, roughly 60 miles (97 km) coincided with my Triathlon days when not competing, and for some years afterwards. Of the three, this was my strongest discipline, at one event at Arborfield, I came second or third in this discipline, out of a field of more than a hundred. It was both swimming and running which had set me further back in the overall position. But that's what's exciting about triathlons. It's a multi-discipline sport.
Would I have another go at the sport in the future? Well, as I'm now nearing 60 years of age, how would my body take it? Then expense is another factor, but it's unlikely these days that I'll be booking hotels. Perhaps with a second hand racer, a new crash hat and (if they still exist) a new tri-suit...
There is always an event not far from home. Who knows, it would certainly do my weight loss a lot of good.