The pinnacle of health.

Steven Despard -

Achieving peak health - some thoughts:

"Everything in moderation" doesn't enable optimal health. As Drs. Lisle and Goldhamer of the TrueNorth Health Center wrote, strictly adhering to optimally healthy behaviors is essential. I align with their thinking. I'm uncompromising in making the healthiest diet and lifestyle choices possible.

Optimal health demands commitment. I abstain from animal products, salt, oils, added sugars, alcohol and tobacco, even dining out. I'd decline a steak dinner accompanied by wine and cigars, even in the company of Elon Musk.

"He who has health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything." – Thomas Carlyle

A consistently healthy lifestyle is out of reach for many. Addictions, social and cultural pressures, emotional triggers, conflicting nutritional advice, socio-economic status, and lack of knowledge or even motivation pose barriers.

Strong goals can motivate superior decisions. An attainable yet often overlooked goal for many men: preserving sexual function with age. Urologist Dr. Mohit Khera in an interview shared that he has healthy patients in their 70s and 80s with no erectile issues, even sans pharmaceuticals.

References:

  1. The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force that Undermines Health & Happiness. By Doug Lisle and Alan Goldhamer. Published March 30, 2006: "Your optimal health, the maximum health possible to your body given your genetics and your life history, is obtainable only through optimally healthy behavior."
  2. Early Contributors to Healthy Arterial Aging Versus Premature Atherosclerosis in Young Adults: The Bogalusa Heart Study. Journal of the American Heart Association. June 5, 2021: "Although nearly all participants had a low 10‐year ASCVD risk, approximately one third experienced premature atherosclerosis before middle‐age. Beyond younger age and a total cholesterol/HDL‐C ratio <3.5, normal values of traditional risk factors were not associated with the persistent absence of plaque. Contrastingly, people with lower calcium‐phosphate homeostasis and low sodium intake were more likely to have long‐term absence of carotid plaque, independent of traditional risk factors. These results suggest that both dietary and intrinsic minerals are early contributors to the development of arterial aging phenotypes."
  3. Smoking and erectile dysfunction: findings from a representative sample of Australian men. Tobacco Control. April 2006: "Current smoking is significantly associated with erectile dysfunction in Australian males. This association was strengthened as the number of cigarettes smoked increased."
  4. Health promotion by social cognitive means. Health Education & Behavior. April 2004: "Educational efforts to promote the health of youths usually produce weak results. They provide factual information about health. But they usually do little to equip children with the skills and efficacy beliefs that enable them to manage the emotional and social pressures to adopt detrimental health habits."
  5. Eating ourselves to death: How food is a drug and what food abuse costs. Drug Science, Policy and Law. July 18, 2022: "The author finds evidence that some food consumption is consistent with drug use and drug abuse, and that food addiction is real. Further, the harms caused by the unhealthy foods we eat dwarf those caused by crime and illegal drugs combined."
  6. Factors Influencing Health Knowledge and Behaviors among the Elderly in Rural China. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. September 30, 2016: "Lack of health knowledge and poor health behaviors are common among the elderly in the sample areas of rural China. This deficiency poses a serious threat on the promotion of health conditions and the improvement of the level of health quality among the elderly."
  7. Influence of Dietary Salt Knowledge, Perceptions and Beliefs on Consumption Choices after Stroke in Uganda. Journal of Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases. August 12, 2017: "Multiple factors including culture, patient age, educational level and income contribute to dietary behaviors (10). In Uganda, knowledge of the impact of diet on stroke risk as well as perceptions of stroke prevention are generally poor (4); however, even the limited dietary salt knowledge that exists is not associated with either healthy consumption choices or BP control (9)."
  8. Awareness of hazards due to tobacco among people aged 15 years and older in Chongqing, China, in 2020: A cross-sectional analysis. Tobacco Induced Diseases. December 12, 2022: "In 2020, the awareness rates of people aged ≥15 years in Chongqing, China, about a specific disease caused by smoking were lung cancer (77.1%), heart disease (45.1%), stroke (40.1%), and penile erectile dysfunction (24.2%). However, only 22.1% of the respondents knew that smoking could simultaneously lead to all four diseases mentioned above. Adult lung cancer was the disease with the highest awareness rating (72.5%), followed by children’s lung disease (54.2%) and adult heart disease (46.1%). A total of 42.0% of respondents knew that secondhand smoke could cause the three diseases simultaneously. Only 22.0% of those correctly understood the harm of low-tar cigarettes. The logistic regression results showed that education level and occupation were risk factors for lack of awareness of hazards due to tobacco."
  9. Adverse Outcomes Associated With Media Exposure to Contradictory Nutrition Messages. Journal of Health Communication. October 11, 2013: "Using data from the Annenberg National Health Communication Survey, this study finds that exposure to conflicting information on the health benefits and risks of, for example, wine, fish, and coffee consumption is associated with confusion about what foods are best to eat and the belief that nutrition scientists keep changing their minds. There is evidence that these beliefs, in turn, may lead people to doubt nutrition and health recommendations more generally—including those that are not rife with contradictory information (e.g., fruit/vegetable consumption, exercise)."
  10. Episode 260 ‒ Men’s Sexual Health: why it matters, what can go wrong, and how to fix it | Mohit Khera, M.D., M.B.A., M.P.H. June 26, 2023. Peter Attia, MD.