Walk with a Doc - Polaris Only
This Saturday - 8:00 a.m. start time - this week only

Polaris Fashion Place is once again predicted to be around 72 degrees at start time with less than 5% chance of precipitation.  Not bad for late January.  Due to the Stroll for Epilepsy starting at 10:00 (separate event from WWAD), our group will go a half-hour early - at 8:00 a.m.

We will be joined by Christina Christian, of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank.  She will be providing information regarding their great Pound for Pound challenge and our joint effort on February 27th at their amazing new facility.

Just to clear the air - many have asked me about last week's incident. For those not present, one of our walkers pulled a stuffed giraffe out of the toy store and jokingly, she walked behind the giraffe pursuing a fellow participant.  Unfortunately, the pursued walker is near-sighted and had the impression they were under attack from a live giraffe.  They were stricken with fear.

The victim proceeded to "escape" by running away in a zig-zag pattern.  The offended, in his fleeing of the stuffed animal, did not see the glass window at Spencer Gifts.  He "zagged" into the glass wall and went down - losing partial consciousness and a cap off one of his upper molars, which has since been recovered.  Our walker made a drastic mistake, and this is why I bring it up.

I cannot overstate the importance of what I am about to say.  If you ever feel that you are under attack by a large zoo animal, stuffed or otherwise, at Polaris Fashion Place, we want you to run away in a straight line.  The zig-zag pattern of escape is an old wive's tale.  It doesn't work.  I repeat, it doesn't work. You will lose precious seconds that could mean the difference in life or death.

If you suffer stress or anxiety daily, you are not alone. Seven out of ten adults say they experience stress or anxiety daily, and most people say it interferes at least somewhat with their lives. 

 
Anxiety has been linked to excessive oxidative stress - which actually kills cells - even in the brain.  Moderate exercise will dampen the effects of oxidative stress.

A cool experiment from the University of Houston helped proved this.  They injected rats with chemicals that drove up their oxidative stress levels when they were faced with unfamiliar terrain.  The rats that had exercised (and received the mean chemicals) were relatively unfazed by the unfamiliar terrain.  They didn't run and hide like the sedentary rats.  They explored their new territory in a relaxed, nonchalant fashion. 

There are so many studies that can support exercise treating this disease.  Our message is that when life gets crazy, take at least 10 minutes to do something aerobic like walking.  Many studies show it is just as, or more effective than most drugs.

Understandably, we see a lot of anxiety and depression with cardiac disease.   I'm convinced this is one of the reasons the cardiac rehab patients do so much better long term.  They are treating that anxiety and depression that is so rampant with the diagnosis of coronary artery disease.

That's it for today. Thank you for your time.

 Have a great Thursday and Friday and stay warm.

My best,
David

*Our Columbus friends, please check out this Sunday's Dispatch - might be interesting.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.  Epictetus (55-135 A.D.) via Jeremy Piven's character, Serendipity