Join the Nan rap revolution
(No. 141) You are never too old to start climbing stairs
Do you like dumb jokes?
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Climb stairs to your heart’s content
Some days, when I’m feeling blue about the world, I’ll take a coffee break with a magazine called Atherosclerosis, to escape into articles like, Daily stair climbing, disease susceptibility, and risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: A prospective cohort study. Turns out, this article was a real mood booster for me. I happen to live on the fourth and fifth floor of a walkup building, and most days I climb up and down 25 floors, at minimum, just going about my business. According to Atherosclerosis, simply living on top is boosting my longevity.
In a survey of 450,000 people, researchers at Tulane University, in New Orleans, found that climbing more than five flight of stairs daily can reduce the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ACSVD) by 20 percent. ACSVD is one of the top causes of death worldwide. Who wouldn’t climb stairs to avoid it? (Many people, perhaps most people, won’t, I’m sure.)
“These findings highlight the potential advantages of stair climbing as a primary preventative measure for ASCVD,” said one of the study’s authors, Dr. Lu Qi, of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
Curiously, those people who were climbing stairs regularly during the study, but then stopped, showed a 32 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease than those who never climbed stairs. So get lazy at your peril.
Nana Rap
I’m not that big on cute stories about cute old people doing cute out-of-character things, yet I like this one. Joy Francis was a teacher in the UK who never in her life flexed her voice or showed off. Then, in an unexpected turn of events, she started writing poetry, which everyone knows is the gateway to battle rap, where two rhymers get together and eviscerate each other verbally in front of a crowd. I like people who take up new joys later in life.
Thank you for reading, thank you for being.
Stephen