Health Noise

First published in Daily Maverick Life Fans believe cold water swimming is the elixir of wellbeing. The first claims of the benefits of cold water swimming date back to 400BC. Since then  numerous studies and anecdotal evidence suggest that it has a wide variety of benefits.  Cold water swimming describes swimming outdoors in cold or icy water. This form of endurance sport is becoming increasingly popular. It can be used as a general umbrella term for swimming in cold to ice-cold water. There is no strict definition of what the temperature should be,  but the general consensus is that it be 15 degrees Celsius or less.  Ram Barkai,  retired CEO of a financial planning company, is the founder of the International Ice Swimming Association. He set it up in 2009. Barkai, a celebrated cold water swimmer was determined to establish swimming in icy waters as a recognised sport . Today its growing membership includes swimmers from 73 countries. Barkai describes cold wate...

  (First published on Maverick Life/Daily Maverick)   “A good night’s sleep is the best health insurance policy anyone can invest in.” So says Professor Matthew Walker, neuroscientist and author of the recent best seller, Why We Sleep. Regular, quality sleep is a non-negotiable for good mental and physical health.    This is especially relevant for South Africa today, where anxiety and insomnia caused by our tumultuous socio-economic conditions are epidemic. In April 2020, an online survey by the S.A. Depression and Anxiety Group showed that 55% of the respondents, a predominant number of them women, suffer from anxiety [1] . Such anxiety can cause chronic sleep deprivation and is the major cause of insomnia.   Anxiety causes a continuous release of adrenaline in the body, which triggers the fight or flight response that causes you to be unable to fall asleep or stay asleep.    The profound health benefits of a good night’s sleep have been scientifical...

Do you practice health rituals that work for you even though there is very little evidence of their efficacy? For years I was told that eating carrots would improve my night vision, chocolates cause pimples and cold weather triggers a cold. Several friends are adamant that the flu shot causes flu. Although these beliefs are unproven, those who follow them are convinced they make sense.   If I sprain an ankle, the first thing I do is grab a packet of frozen peas to ice the injury. This, was the so called golden rule to speed up recovery. Experts claimed that ice reduces pain and swelling, and stops inflammation. According to them, preventing inflammation was key to fast healing. Icing was an essential part of this theory. In 1978 Dr Mirkin created the acronym  RICE.  It promotes rest, ice, compression and elevation. These principles were regarded as the optimum treatment for a soft tissue injury.    Recently icing has become a hot topic of discussion. The latest ...

  (First published on Maverick Life/Daily Maverick)   “A good night’s sleep is the best health insurance policy anyone can invest in.” So says Professor Matthew Walker, neuroscientist and author of the recent best seller, Why We Sleep. Regular, quality sleep is a non-negotiable for good mental and physical health.    This is especially relevant for South Africa today, where anxiety and insomnia caused by our tumultuous socio-economic conditions are epidemic. In April 2020, an online survey by the S.A. Depression and Anxiety Group showed that 55% of the respondents, a predominant number of them women, suffer from anxiety [1] . Such anxiety can cause chronic sleep deprivation and is the major cause of insomnia.   Anxiety causes a continuous release of adrenaline in the body, which triggers the fight or flight response that causes you to be unable to fall asleep or stay asleep.    The profound health benefits of a good night’s sleep have been scientifical...

    (First published on Maverick Life/DM)   Ultra-marathons are fast gaining popularity. The more brutal and extreme the race the better. Any distance longer than 42.2 km is now the benchmark, whether it is trail running or road running.    Two of South Africa’s most popular ultras, the iconic road running 90km Comrades  Marathon and the K-way SkyRun100 trail run have recently experienced a huge increase in participants.   According to Comrades race director Ronwyn James, numbers have increased by 60% in the last five years. In 2015, 16630 runners participated and in 2020 this number went up to 27626. James says media coverage has helped make the 90 km Comrades marathon a race to aspire to. Its  regarded as a bucket list event. The majority of runners do it because they want to prove that they are capable of completing South Africa’s most prestigious ultra-race also known as the ultimate human race. Recently the number of female runners ...

(First published on Maverick Life/DM)  In this Covid-era, social distancing and wearing of masks have made communication more complicated, even frustrating. Not being able to lip read or see facial expressions makes it tricky to understand what is being said.  If you frequently ask friends to repeat themselves you could be suffering from hearing loss, and you would not be alone. Research shows that hearing loss is prevalent among a third of all adults over age 65, and nearly half of those aged 75 and above.  Hearing loss is often ignored, even though there is a growing body of scientific evidence that shows that untreated hearing loss can play a significant role in the onset of dementia in older adults. Back in 2012 already, a study called ‘Hearing Loss and Incident Dementia’ and published in the US National Library of Medicine pointed out that “Hearing loss is independently associated with incident all-cause dementia. Whether hearing loss is a marker for early stage deme...