DO JOGGERS LIVE A LONGER HAPPIER LIFE?

IS JOGGING GOOD FOR YOU?

I remember visiting a group of Indians who lived along the Canon del Cobre or Copper Canyon who called themselves, Ra Ra Mu Ri. Meaning the Running People. With the help of my good friends, Dr Ian Berger and Dr Kavita Mistry, we were able to get some physical measurements on them. It was not surprising that NOT A SINGLE man or woman was overweight and in fact, none of them even reached the “normal” weight by the western standards.  True to their name, they run up and down the ravines and during one festival they may run up to 200-300 km in one week. Needless to say, the chronic diseases of western civilization, Diabetes, Hypertension and High Cholesterol were unheard of among the Running People of Copper Canyon.

One of things that I learned from my Raja Yoga Instructions in KL was that whatever you decide to do, you must do it consistently, whether it is Yoga, Meditation or Jogging…

On a recent visit to Bogor, one morning at 0630, thirteen employees of AsiaProtein were gathered to do a 10 km jog and I learned that many of the employees were regulars at the track that winds itself through some wonderful scenery in the shadow of Salak Mountain.

So it is to them, I want to send this information.

Jogging, if done on a regular basis, adds years to your life, says a study conducted over 35 years in Denmark. This study had begun in 1976 and had followed a very large number of men and women over the course of the years. The convincing finding, regardless of age or gender, was that the joggers did not drop off to the cemeteries as they aged. There were much fewer deaths among the Joggers, even among those who jogged only once a week! The overall sense of well-being was much higher among the Joggers as well.

I wanted to convey this information to my friend, Mr J in Bogor. I have never jogged in my life but this article and meeting with Mr J had sparked my interest, which happened within days of each other.

When I mentioned this to Mr J, he immediately wrote back, as is his custom:

What kind of shoes do we have to choose? Please try to find ASICS store in Paris, then ask their advise with your leg format, since every people has their own bottom shape of leg, and ASICS has every type of it. You also have to ask them to get the GEL one, since it will make less impact to our knees during jogging.

Please try to walk in the first week, then try to do jogging at lower pace for the week after, until the body is get used with the activity.

If you already make it regularly, then we can start to make a progress by running on interval basis, which means sprint for 10 seconds, and run normal pace and sprint again and normal pace again for ten times. Once you make it daily, it is like drugs, which will addict to our body for daily run.

Good luck to try it and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have further questions, as I do contact you for other issues

Thank you…

What else can we learn from our Mexican Indian friends, the Ra Ra Mu Ri…?

This is the lesson I learned:

If you eat like Americans, you will begin to look like Americans!

 (OBESITY...it has one of the highest rates of Overweight and Obesity in the WORLD.. have you ever wondered why English Speaking People are FATTER than the French, Spanish, Portugese and Italian Speaking People? Is it arrogance? is it the Protestant Religion? I dont know..)

Some one had the bright idea of bringing this canyon dwelling Indians to Phoenix, Arizona and give them American Food. On their fourth day on this diet, their cholesterol went up and never came down during their stay in the USA. At the end of just four weeks, they had put on nearly 4 kg or 8 lbs. in weight. It is a lot considering that they are very lean and muscular people on the average weighing only about 110-120 lbs. (50-55 kg)!

 LDL bad cholesterol HDL good cholesterol TG Triglycerides an indicator that something has gone wrong with your insulin metabolism