Red meat and type 2 diabetes

I’m still working my way through Undo It! by Dean Ornish MD and Anne Ornish. I just came across this interesting factoid:

A study of 37,000 men (the Harvard Health Professionals Follow-Up Study) and 83,000 women (the Harvard Nurses’ Health study) found that a daily serving of red meat no larger than a deck of cards increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 19%. Processed red meat was even worse: a daily serving half that size increased the risk of type 2 diabetes by 51%.

Very cool on-line free hearing test

This hearing test requires using headphones. They use a neat trick to calibrate volume:

Without wearing the headphones, rub your hands briskly and firmly together right in front of your nose. Then put on the headphones and click “next” to hear the same sound. Adjust the volume until the volume you hear in the headphones matches what you heard when you rubbed your hands together without wearing headphones.

The test is quick and simple, and it does seem fairly accurate, though not so accurate as the test you would get from an audiologist. It is, however, good enough to indicate whether such a test would be a good idea.

Hearing loss is not something that should be ignored. It is isolating and causes cognitive decline (aka dementia). I still recall the fixed smile my step-father adopted when he found himself in a group of people carrying on a conversation. The smile was a (poor) substitute for hearing what was said and joining in the conversation.

Now that hearing aids are available directly to consumers, people with hearing loss can more easily afford them. This site lists a variety of hearing aids for comparison; among them is a pair made by Bose (excellent review at the link) that’s sold directly to consumers. Within a few months, more direct-to-consumer hearing aids will become available and some price competition should develop.

Update

BTW, I highly recommend this YouTube channel, which offers helpful and informative videos on hearing aids, including detailed reviews of various makes and models.

Self-reflection questions

Greg Isenberg asked one billionaire, one math professor, and one 99-year-old person (three different people, I assume) what self-reflection questions they asked themselves, and posted their answers — that is, their questions — on Twitter. Here’s the list (with minor edits);

• If had $50M in the bank, how would my day-to-day change?
• How will being anxious about this serve me?
• Should I answer this text or email right now?
• Am I really happy? Or am I just really comfortable?
• Am I really trying my best or am I just telling myself I am?
• What is it that l can think of, read, watch, listen, and talk about for hours on end without tiring of it?
• If I had to describe who I wanted to be in 3 words, what would those words be?
• What would this look like if it were fun?
• What would it take to snap me out of my bad mood immediately?
• What’s the first thing I think of when I wake up most days?
• How do I want my life to be different in one year?
• Is this project making me a better person?
• Am doing this for myself or because someone else will benefit? required me to? is hoping I do? is unable to?
• Am I doing/not doing this out of fear?
• What am I in love with? Is that what/whom I want to be in love with?
• Would my 15 year old self think I’m the coolest?

One suggestion: Use FutureMe.org to write in detail your answer to “How do I want my life to be different in one year?” and have FutureMe send you that email in one year. Then set about making the necessary changes. In one year, you’ll get the email and can judge for yourself how you did.