Giving Thanks

It is time to give thanks.  Yes, I realize it is Christmas Eve and not Thanksgiving but what better "reason for the season" can we have than to give thanks?  So here goes.

I'm thankful for Coaches everywhere. Coaches give so much to the growth and development of our children, gifts that don't always get acknowledged.  The hours are awful.  The pay is not enough to register.  Good coaches do it for the kids.

I don't know a single coach that puts winning above the welfare of their young charges.  Maybe in days of old, before we knew better, but not now.  Oh, they're probably out there.  But they don't live or work in this backyard.

And teachers.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  What an underappreciated group of people.  They sometimes are trying to teach young folks things that they don't want to learn.  Imagine how difficult that might be.

Maybe if all the classes were about video games, texting, smart phones, and social media, they could get 100% attention.  Yet, the learning of things that we don't find interesting teaches us HOW to learn.  And that is a life skill that is essential. 

So thank you to all teachers and especially all the teachers that put up with my shenanigans (except for maybe that English teacher that insisted that I learn to properly diagram sentences).  And God bless those teachers that teach things like Physics and Chemistry that few students find compelling.  They may someday realize how important that stuff is.

Thank you to preachers everywhere.  We rarely think to tell them thank you for doing all they do.  We need the moral compass that comes from someone spiritually connected, who is willing to share that connection with us.  They're not perfect and once you realize that, you will probably be able to learn more from them.

A big thank you to those in health care.  Yeah, I know that's a bit self-serving but it's true.  Thank you to physicians in particular.   It used to be that they were the best paid people around.  Not so true these days.  Most of them could make more doing something else. 

Most of the doctors that I know do it because the work is rewarding.  Because they want to make a difference in the world.  Because they have a skillset that can help people be healthier.  And the difficulty in getting paid for what they do (paperwork, insurance regulations, people making reimbursement decisions that have no idea what the patient needs) be darned (this is a family newspaper, after all), they do it anyway.

Thanks to the farmers.  Without them, we wouldn't survive.  I don't know too many of them that are in it for the money either.  And the hours?  Ridiculous.  There basically aren't any hours--there is always something to do.  A friend that was getting her chickens to the market recently worked 30 straight hours.  And then the price she got for those chickens wasn't what it should be. 

It doesn't deter her. She probably dismissed it as the price for the lifestyle she chooses to lead.  Working on a farm, raising her own food and enough to sell to help pay the bills.  I often brag that I "live on a farm" when all I do is raise a few vegetables and some berries.  Real farmers allow the rest of us to live the life we want to.

I'm thankful for good bicycles, Benton's bacon, a truck that starts in the morning, good restaurants, and the fact that I don't live in Atlanta.  

And a big thank you to the kids that I work with that keep me young, grandchildren that remind me what life is all about, and a wife that tolerates the roller coaster that living with me must surely be.

Yes, Tennessee, we have a problem

Did you know that Tennessee is the second most medicated state in America?  I'm not talking about illegal drug use (although we're pretty darn high in that category too).  I'm talking about medications for legitimate medical problems.

Part of that is because over 65% of Tennessee adults are classified as obese or overweight.  There are a lot of health issues that are the result of obesity.  Heart disease.  Stroke.  Some cancers.  Gallbladder disease.  Joint problems.  High blood pressure.  Sleep apnea.  Diabetes.

Oh, and about diabetes--did you know that over 10% of Tennessee adults have diabetes?   And that over half of those could be eliminated with weight control and lifestyle changes?

So before I get started on the mother-of-all prescription drug problem in Tennessee (Opioids), let me admit that I am on three prescription drugs, which place me in the top 23% of American prescription medication usage.

I take two blood pressure pills and a Statin.  More on that in a minute. 

If you read this space regularly, you know that my lifestyle is good.  I exercise pretty much every day, ride a bicycle 3-4 days per week, eat mostly healthy, and visit my primary care physician, my gastroenterologist, and my dermatologist regularly.  I do most of the things that we know to do to stay healthy.

But as for the blood pressure thing, you can only run so far from your genetics.  High blood pressure runs in my family.  Broadly and deeply.  I have very few relatives that aren't affected.  My mom and dad for sure.  My grandparents, probably.

In my 40's, my blood pressure was already running in the range of 140/90.  Not terribly high but I guess I just couldn't believe it was happening to me.  I have always been hot pursuit of good health, beginning as a child of five when my dad had his first heart attack. 

So I ignored it.  After too many visits to my primary care physician where my blood pressure was too high but I scoffed at that because surely it must be a fluke, he insisted I get medicated for it.

Which indirectly leads to that Statin thing (a recent addition).  You see, I have a rather significant level of atherosclerosis.  Plaque lines my arteries.  We used to call it "hardening of the arteries."

Part of that is probably due to ignoring high blood pressure for too long.  The other part is that darn gene pool of mine.  Either way, Statins have been shown to help with that.  And a cholesterol level that has creeped up as I've gotten older.

So here I am.  Testimony to the fact that even the most vigorous, seemingly healthy among us needs to pay attention to medical care, not just the healthy part that is exercise and diet but doing what we should do medically.

As for those Opioids--Tennessee is among the country's worst in Opioid use.  The statistics are hard to track down because it is such a widespread epidemic.  I'm going to write more about this later but let me just add a couple of scary statistics.

Oxycodone prescriptions would have supplied every adult in Tennessee with 21 pills in 2016.  And Hydrocodone prescriptions would have provided every person over 12 in Tennessee with 51 pills. 

Yes, we have a problem.

And The Survey Said...

A group of college athletes were asked the question "what's your worst memory from youth sports?" The most common answer was "the ride home from a game with my parents."

Those same athletes were asked what it was that they wanted to hear.  Overwhelmingly they said "I love to watch you play."

Are you that parent?  I was.  Until the day when I was sitting with my son, probably telling him what he did wrong at football practice that day or at least telling him what he should be doing. 

I played football.  I coached football.  At one time in college I was trying to decide if I wanted to be a doctor or a football coach.  I've been around the game in one fashion or another since I was in the 3rd grade.  That's...well, let's see...naught from naught is...well, that's a long, long time. 

But when my son said "I've got 10 coaches and one dad" I changed forever.  Forever.

 I spoke to a group of parents just before the just ended football season.  They were expecting me to talk  about injuries and how our sports medicine system worked and all that but the best advice that I had for them was "be their parent.  Be their mom and dad."

Just think about it.  If you remember those days of travel ball and Little League and gyms and games galore, what do you think might be your child's best memory?

The travel?  The friends?  The uniforms?  Probably those and more.  The ice cream after a game.  Being part of a team.  And yeah, winning a big game or a championship or something like that. 

It probably won't be the day they finally started finding the strike zone because of their pitching coach or the hours of practice or the time in the weight room.  Those are sometimes necessary ingredients but aren't likely to be anybody's best memory. 

Now think about what might be their worst memory.  Maybe it was you telling them everything they did wrong on the way home from the game?  Or you talking about what an idiot that the coach was for (A) not playing you more or (B) not calling the right plays.  Or maybe it was (C) complaining that the referees stole the game from you, (D) criticizing your teammates, (E) how the other team cheated.  That list could go on forever.

What they want to hear is "I'm proud of you."  Or maybe "you did well."  Or like the #1 answer on the survey said "I love to watch you play."

Because what YOU will remember is not how well they played or what play the coach did or didn't call.  You will remember the experience of sports with your child in it.  Maybe it is simply watching your child do something that you wish you had done or wish that you had the ability to do.  That's OK.

You will enjoy watching your child grow and change and learn to play on a team and be a good teammate.  If you let yourself, you might be amazed that the child that can't find the clothes hamper at home listens intently to a coach and does all that they ask.

If you just enjoy the games and not see them as the ticket to a free college education or a professional career, you might find that your son or daughter gets tons more joy out of playing those games.  And becomes better, happier adults because of it.

Should My Son Play Football?

A lady stopped me this week and asked me "should I let me son play football?"  She went on to add "with all the injuries and concussions, I just don't know if I should let him."  Her son is really, really wanting to play football.  Flag football just isn't enough.  He wants to play "real" football.

Now, I happen to think that flag football is a great game and a great place for kids to start. It teaches fundamentals and gets kids out and moving in an activity that is downright fun.  I know.  I had two grandsons that just completed their second season.

But this little guy wants to put on the uniform and tackle somebody.  I faced a similar dilemma when my own son was growing up.  He had played T-ball and soccer but he wanted to play football.

I really wanted to hold him out until Middle School.  It wasn't that I didn't like the game available to 9 and 10 year olds, it was more about what I thought might be in store for him.  You see, he was always a big kid.  And football was a big part of our family's life and history.

I sort of knew he would play football (he did).  My hesitation to let him play wasn't about injuries but about burnout.  I was afraid that if he started so young, by the time he got to high school, he would be tired of playing football.  My game.  The game I loved.  The game that had given me so much.

So when he turned 9, I agreed to let him play.  From that point on until an injury ended his college career, he played the game that I loved.  Did he burnout?

Huh-uh.  Didn't happen.  He loved the game.  And despite a career cut short by a catastrophic injury, he still loves the game.  I asked him one time, the way his last season ended, if he would still play football.  He would prefer that it not have ended the way it did (a badly broken leg) but he has no regrets.

And I happen to believe that the good man that he has become is in no small part due to his experiences in football.  He took away all the things that team sports offer you.  He learned from the physical demands of the game.

 He was around some great men in the game.  David Ellis.  Tommy Bowden.  Tim Hammontree.  Men who demanded more of him.  Men who were more concerned with who he was as a young man than who he was as a football player.

But let me get back to this lady's question.  Would I be concerned about my grandsons playing football?  Sure.  Injuries can be devastating.  Concussions are serious business.  I've dealt with them way too much this fall.

I also know that we are much better at dealing with injuries and concussions.  Not that many years ago, if you "got your bell rung," once you seemed OK and knew where you were, back in the game you would go. 

Not now.  No way.  You are done until we can prove that you are OK.  I believe that in the long run, the way we do things now is going to result in far fewer incidences of the terrible and long term manifestations of injury.  I believe that modern sports medicine is going to mean that you recover more fully when those injuries occur. 

I believe that in a lot of aspects, football is safer.  We have athletic trainers and trained professionals at many of those games and available to most everybody.  Smarter decisions are being made.

But would I still worry if one of those grandsons plays football? Yes.  For sure.  I can't lie.  But I won't stand in the way.  How could I deny them the opportunities that I have had?  That my son has had? 

Take Care of Your Skin

I already know what my wife is going to say when she reads this.  "It's time for you to write about something besides yourself."

Just last week, I wrote about the strength training and fitness program that works for me in "Enough is Enough."  Not long ago, I bragged about my grandchildren, which are the best ever (just like yours).

But today really isn't about me.  It's about you.  It's about cancer and taking care of yourself and living long and well.  And this isn't about older people either.  It's about everybody.  More on that later.

So here's the story.  I went to the dermatologist this week.  I try and go every year.  I had a couple of places that needed to come off.  I also scheduled this blue light thing where more accurate mapping and diagnosis can be made.

I'm out in the sun a lot.  I keep a pretty good tan year round.  This time of year, I'm outside from 3 until dark-thirty all week, covering football practice.  Toss in time on the bicycle, yardwork/farmwork, and all the other outdoor stuff I do...well, you can see that I get a lot of sun exposure.

I use sunscreen all the time.  Check the desk in my training room in the MHS football stadium.  I guarantee you will find several different sunscreen containers.  During all this outdoor stuff, you will usually see a hat on my head.  I also like to wear a bandana around my neck.

Skin cancer is bad.  Melanoma is aggressive and can be fatal.  Other types of skin cancers that are untreated can become Melanoma.    It is likely that a lot of other cancers started with skin cancer and then moved elsewhere. 

Identified early and treated, most skin cancer is completely treatable.  Early identification means regular visits to the dermatologist.  I signed up quickly for that blue light thing because I have a lot of moles and dark places and because mapping of those things is a pretty inexact science.

But a whole lot better idea is prevention.  Protect your skin and it is far less likely that you will develop skin cancer.   Prevention starts at birth.  There is no age too young to be concerned about skin health.  There is no such thing as a healthy tan.  It's just unavoidable with a lot of people.  People who work outside.  People who play outside. 

And goodness gracious, don't you burn!   The trauma to your skin from that can and will come back to haunt you years later.  Just don't let it happen.

Wear sunscreen when you're outdoors.  Always.  Winter and summer.  Winter sun reflecting off of snow is just about as bad as summer sun reflecting off the beach. 

Wear a hat.  Cover yourself up.   Especially protect areas that seem to get more exposure, like your nose, the tops of your ears, and (especially for the follicly-challenged) the top of your head.

The old saying "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is so true when it comes protecting your skin.  And be sure and make that annual visit to your dermatologist. 

Enough is Enough

I may be something of an anomaly.  OK...I guess I am for sure.  I get credit for a lot of things that I'm not but I am doggedly persistent in the pursuit of good health.   

I got an interesting  question this week.  It wasn't a rhetorical question either.  A fellow stopped me in our gym and asked me "when is enough enough?"

In the context of strength training, when do you quit adding weight?  When do you stop aspiring to lift more and more weight?   Do you exercise 3 days a week?  5 days a week?

When is enough (weight, exercise, dieting, healthy living...and on and on) enough?  I'll go ahead and tell you now that for me it is 7 days a week.  The pursuit of good health doesn't take a rest day.

I eat smart.  I ride my bike.  I do yoga.   I do strength training for my health and my performance (more on that in a minute).  I lift weights because as we age, we lose muscle mass rapidly unless we do something about it.

I still live an active lifestyle.  I hike, ride, paddle, and work on my small farm.  I work long hours and chase grandchildren around.   I don't see myself slowing down any time soon.  The rocking chair is definitely not calling my name.

I am determined to stay active.  65?  Yep, that's my next one.  Medicare eligible.  Doesn't mean a thing.  75?  Surely I'll still be riding my bike, maybe even whipping around these hills on my mountain bike.

I want to be one of those old guys that are described as "robust," defying their age.  I hope to prove that age is still just a number.  So I do a lot of stuff now that helps me reach that goal.   And I've been doing that stuff for most of my life.

So back to lifting weights.  Twice a week, as regular as rain, I'm in the gym.  My particular choice of strength training is CrossFit, mostly because it works for me.  It is also incredibly efficient so it fits my busy lifestyle.  But CrossFit is just a form of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) that has lots of names and faces. It works for me. 

I do lifts now that at 40 I never thought I would do again.  Like deadlifts.  And squats.  Lots of pushups and pullups.  And that's where this thing started.  I simply do not aspire to lift heavier and heavier weights.  On days that I'm feeling really good, I might add 10 or 20 pounds but my weight amounts stay essentially the same. 

I'm not interested in building muscle mass.  Because of my time on the bicycle, I have to be real concerned with strength-to-weight ratio.  These little 120 pounders can zoom up hills while I drag 60 more pounds up the same hills, usually far behind.  And there is no doubt that the fitness level that I get from CrossFit training helps me perform on the bike. 

I'm pretty happy with where I am right now.  Bigger biceps won't do a thing for me.  It's not exactly a "maintenance" program.  As I said before, age brings muscle loss.  And yes, maybe you have to fight harder to keep what you have.  But I'm a firm believer that persistence is the key.

You can't see-saw up and down, exercising regularly for a few months then taking a few months off.  That doesn't work for anything--exercise, diet, health habits.  Not if you want to live long and stay healthy. 

As for me, I want to be healthy, happy, and riding my bicycle well into my 90's.  Stay tuned.

Thank you, Mrs. Upton

More bad news this week.  I received word that Mrs. Geraldine Upton was gone.  I've written about Mrs. Upton here a couple of times through these many years.   I actually sort of wrote the same story twice.

I was a big fan of Mrs. Upton--I considered her a friend and a guide.  I appreciated Mrs. Upton not only for what she meant to the many, many students that she impacted in her role as teacher and guidance counselor but for the impact she had on me.

She changed my attitude on race relations and role models.  To put it most simply, she taught me the importance of being able to find a place where you weren't always in the minority.  Whether it be your church, your school, your friends, your neighbors, anywhere--she taught me that everyone needs to have a place where they look around and see people that are more like them.

Now this can be about how you think, how you look, what your interests are...many different things.  Minorities can be found in lots of different places.

Maybe it's how someone dresses or the purple in their hair or simply that they talk with an accent not found much around here. 

Take the kid (or the adult) that is into computer games.  If that is all that they are interested in, on some level that has to be OK.   But others might see them as different and as such they become a bit of a minority.  If they have a place to go where others have the same interests, they often find a home.

Who knows, they may go on to invent all sorts of things and become a billionaire and all. 

Now before you jump on me for minimizing the concept of being a minority, let me tell you that I know with absolute certainty that racial minorities are the most discriminated against segment of our population.  And that inequities and prejudice are still around us.

But what Mrs. Upton taught me was that we need to put ourselves in the shoes of others, to see the world from someone else's perspective.  Too often, when you look around and everyone around you is different from you, you feel you have nowhere to go.

A community, a group where you aren't in the minority becomes a safe haven, a comfort zone if you will.  I'm certainly not advocating  that anyone isolate themselves in that zone.  We have to live in the real world.  We have to deal with the world on its terms.  But isn't it nice to be home every once in a while?

The other thing Mrs. Upton taught me was the importance of role models.  Everyone needs someone to look up to, someone to admire and emulate.  Not long ago I talked about looking next door for your heroes.  Same thing for your role models.

But when those role models don't exist, what do you do?   We all have a responsibility to be THAT role model, to be THAT person.   You never know who might be looking at you wishing "I want to be just like him."

Know what it is like to live in a world where everyone seems different from you.  And BE the role model that you might not have had. 

Thank you Mrs. Upton.