Chinese New Year - OX (my year)

 It wasn’t a year for the faint-hearted.  The unimagined alignment of COVID pandemic, BLM protests and electoral turmoil stripped the façade off American exceptionalism to expose the underbelly of structural racism and the third who are one paycheck away from disaster.  From cabin solitary to virtual huglessness to stir crazy depression.  Yet an opportunity to tap into the ‘adaptation and resilience’ lessons (oral histories) by nonagenarian Mémée (pediatrician mentor) and octogenarian Margaret (avant garde ink painter) gained from through the interminable WWII bombings in Hague/London and Chongqing respectively.

 

Family

I visited Rachel, John, Jack and Naomi and new addition Memee twice, including this past December courtesy multiple negative tests. Rachel placed a lot of energy into rendering virtual schooling home friendly, family-wide recesses outdoor fun, and amazingly, Jack and Naomi resumed 4.5 days of in-class this fall masked behind Plexiglass – with no transmitted cases!  Football and soccer persisted, virtual piano lessons played, and great hikes taken. 

Mendham crew with Memee

I was not able visit in person as planned in November, but FaceTimed Ben, Theresa, Flora and newbie Juna’s – Flora readily calls me Yeye.  Theresa has fashioned their home into a mini Montessori classroom.  Ben in his final year of fellowship was invited to remain as a physician-scientist.  Flora thrives in Montessori project mode and Juna though not crazy about the bottle is an avid on solids.  

The Denver crew

Halloweenies

Newbie foodie

Naturally I traveled and ate out one-fifth of that previously.  Yet, I was so fortunate to have extended family nearby – Steve, Mary, Becca/Josh/Korben/Garrett, Kat/Steph (wedding on Leap Day) – inside my bubble and after May 21^st saw them weekly.  We travelled together to Door County and their upper Michigan camp together.  After quarantining, I spent two weeks with a friend in Brooklyn and walked the Brooklyn Bridge … Coney Island, visited many

stunningly empty (appointment only) NYC museums and galleries, and ate in outdoors-only  heated curbside shelters.  

My highlight was the video birthday card for which Rachel gathered many of you.  Thank you! 

 

Keeping busy

It has been a healthy interlude for me despite the disruption, in part because of complete control over diet and absence of travel.  Instead of intermittent fasting begun in December 2015, in March I converted to 2 meals a day plan and trimmed 5 pounds.  As gyms closed, I began hiking in nearby Pheasant Branch conservancy – saw osprey, eagles, owls, wild turkey pheasants.  Sifu (master) Tam began telestrating Chen Tai Chi by Facebook and Zoom, resumed Zen (scoreless) tennis with Steve and took lessons, and rode the hilly county roads with Steve and new friend Jeff, a total 1656 miles, my most ever.  

I continued to do ‘fun’ academics of editing, mentoring, teaching, guidelines and organizing a 6-hour Telehealth Webinar with 23 energetic young faculty from NYC to SF.  

I read fewer pages but more than overcompensated by binge watching 400% (whoa) more non-sports movies/series episodes than ever – see below) and unexpectedly enjoyed internecine dynastic struggles among Crown Princes.  I became unaddicted to WordJam after completing all 6070 games to the very last word. Finally, it was a belated revelation to be able to connect the dots of structural racisim between housing segregation (in polluted environs), access to only unhealthy foods and lack of fresh foods, vast income/wealth disparity, eduational disadvantage, differential police enforcement/profiling/mass incarceration and finally as we so vividly saw resulting disparities in health and COVID mortality. We have to do better!   

Zoom provided the needed segue to the outside world of social activity, celebrations, planning meetings, courses, conferences, Theater, and my favorite ‘Old Farts’ group AKA ‘Grumpy old gastroenterologists’.

 

It was daily déjà vu, life interrupted, a year to remember (including those needlessly lost) and not to forget … 

 

Get your vaccine and see you when.

 

Addendum – some entertaining and thought-provoking mind candy:

Topical:  Second mountain David Brooks, The system Robert Reich

Health:  Lifespan (body) David Sinclair, Successful Aging (mind) Daniel Levitin, Breath James Nestor

Biographies:  Obama: a promised land, Van Gogh, Splendid and Vile Erik Larson

Biopics:  Be water: Bruce Lee, Michael Jordan, Tiger

Movies:  Bong Joon-ho: Parasite (Academy Award), Snowpiercer, Okja, Mother

Dynastic intrigue:  Rookie Historian (Korean heroine) – 20 episodes, Princess Wei Young (Chinese heroine) – 54, Rising Phoenix (Chinese) – 70, Longest Day in Chang ‘An (Tang dynasty) – 48 episodes

Mysteries:  Bosch (AP), Endeavour (PBS)

Asian American:  Minor Feelings Cathy Hong Park, Interior Chinatown Charles Yu, 

First Vote (movie):  niece Jennifer Ho as one of four main interviewees

Breath, the book

Another book recommendation for the Lunar New Year.  Question:  what do Yogis, Buddhist monks, functional oral surgeons and orthodontists, Stanford ENTs, opera coaches and deep (sea) divers have in common?  As James Nestor tells in his bestseller ‘Breath: the new science of a lost art,’ they are all ‘pulmonauts’ seeking health benefits through practice, study, and science of breathing.  This is a very readable, intriguing and life-provoking account of his journey of self-healing from skull-full catacombs of Paris to pulmonaut practitioners and scientists around the globe – many initially considered to be outside the mainstream.

 

Here are some fun facts:

-       We take 670,000,000 breaths during our lifetime and breathe 30 lbs of air per day.

-       85% of our weight loss occurs through the weight of expired CO₂ in the breath!

-       CO₂ maybe more important than O₂!  CO₂ enhances oxygen release from hemoglobin.

-       In a study of 1000+, the healthiest individuals had CO₂s of 6.5-7.5% whereas normal is considered 5%.  Conversely, the unhealthiest with multiple health problems were at 4%. Hypoventilate!

-       The perfect breathing rhythm – used by yogis, Buddhist chanters, Hindu khechari, Latin rosary, Native Americans, Taoists – was measured to be 5.5 sec inhales, 5.5 sec exhales or 5.5 breaths a minute!

-       Mouth breathing is very detrimental to health – within 10 days it can lead to sinus infections, increased stress (cortisols), snoring, sleep apnea as well as fatigue, anxiety and irritability.

-       Panic anxiety may be induced by CO₂ chemoreceptors in the amygdala – this is for my neuroscience friends.

-       Prolonged exhalation (Andrew Weil’s 4-7-8 inhale-hold-exhale count) increases heart rate variability and enhances the calming effect of the parasympathetic nervous system to counterbalance the sympathetic fight-or-flight system.

-       Today’s breathing problems (sleep apnea, snoring) and crooked teeth go lung-in-mouth, the cumulative effect of lack of mastication from our soft food diet – early man had and all other mammals have perfectly aligned teeth!  We are the humanoid exceptions.

-       Our diet and consequent lack of chewing induces a narrowed jaw and air passages – this can be reversed using gum chewing and palate expanders within a short period even past the age of 70 (documented by CT scans)!

 

So how about a summary:

Breathing/energy may be the unheralded missing pillar of health.  Improved breathing addresses many functional disorders of civilization including stress, anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome, sleep disorders, presumably through calming effects on the autonomic nervous system.  Although it cannot cure cancer, optimal breathing appears to have a beneficial effect on some diseases such as asthma, emphysema and ADHD.

 

Action points:

-       Shut your mouth and breathe through your nose – following 10 days of forced mouth breathing, resumption of nasal breathing resolved sinus congestion, high blood pressure, elevated stress/cortisol levels, snoring, sleep apnea etc.   

-       Exhale longer – Andrew Weil’s 4-7-8 inhale-hold-exhale practice can help one sleep and enhance the calming parasympathetic nervous system.  

-       Hold your breath – it retools your CO₂ chemoreceptors to help deliver oxygen to tissues more efficiently, a technique widely used by elite athletes.

-       Just breathe slower using the 5.5 sec inhale and 5.5 sec exhale (synchronizing apps are available) – 10 to 15 minutes of practice a day has been shown to reduce high blood pressure …

-       For crooked teeth, instead of braces, consider tongue exercises, gum chewing and palate expanders.

 

All in all, a breathtaking tome (couldn’t resist),