FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

Ponce De Leon. The fountain of youth. Why have I been searching for it, since my teenage days? I wanted to discover the fountain of youth. The real fountain of youth. I can see where someone might think sunshine and warm weather are more conducive to longer life than bitter winters.

But the humidity of swamps and the sandstorms of arid deserts? All are harsh climates. People die of heat stroke and dehydration. Not many die of cold. Cold shocks the system, supposedly good for longevity. Ask the Swedes and Fins about those hot to cold, hot to cold…saunas. Whew nice, though I don’t know about longevity. It feels like it’s frying my eyeballs.

If feeling good after deprivation is a precursor to longevity, then a shot in the arm which usually leads to death would lead instead to longevity.

Never liked the cold myself, preferring balmy, breezy, hands-down no matter the occasion. Nothing makes me feel more attached to the universe than balmy. Rare though, can’t remember the last time, maybe Florida on one of those night blooming jasmine nights where night turns to day and the stars remain in my eyes, maybe on waking up in North Carolina with a breeze coming through the window brushing past my skin to get up and on the road again.

If I could replicate balmy in a room, I’d pay for it, as long as the air was certified clean – difficult to do with others in the mix with me, or before me. Never thought so much about clean air until in the middle of this pandemic when all around me are potential coronaCOVID spies looking for an easy entry point. Do I carry these suckers with me or what?

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A long while back I wrote about the difference in my weight between drinking alcohol and not drinking alcohol – for me it’s beer or wine or hard seltzer now that hard seltzer is all the thing and it suits me better than beer or wine, which only made me bloated with one and sleepy with the other. I went through periods when I drank liquor when out to eat, with the appetizer. Never shots though, maybe once fifty years ago and then a few years back just to prove I could. I’m not a chugger or throw my head back, open my throat and shove a shot down it type of drinker. Never ordered a shot and a beer. I don’t know how people do that, and frankly I don’t want to know.

A lot of non-drinkers are overweight. I think what I discovered way back was that when I abstained from any type of alcohol, I tended to make up the calories that I normally drank with food instead. My calorie intake seems to want to stay put – like the Law of Inertia.

Spirit drinkers of whom I know a few too many actually, are mostly thinner than beer or wine drinkers. They’re not so much into food, until they’re done drinking for the day/night. I always had to eat when I drank, otherwise I’d get weak. That’s just me, and probably why there’s not much weight difference, considering I’m making up the calories I drank with food.

Spirit drinkers however, when they quit drinking gain a lot of weight if they stay non-drinkers. I’ve seen a lot of skinny drinkers where I live and they’re all spirit drinkers. When they quit, they all gain weight. But that’s because they didn’t eat much food while they were drinking. Alcohol was their primary food then, now it’s all food.

They say alcohol is alcohol but one couldn’t prove it by me. There are differences; even if the alcohol content is equal in beer, wine, spirits, when served in proper ratio, the effects are not.

I’ve read more than a few partial articles on the good effects drinking has on the elder brain. One though is the limit. I don’t know of anyone who drinks one drink every night. Or two if it’s four instead of the traditional six ounces of wine. I don’t know how they came up with that. How ten years ago six ounces of standard wine equalled twelve ounces of standard beer. Now it’s four ounces of wine equals twelve ounces of beer. Somebody threw in other variables to take off two whole ounces. How could they have been so wrong with the calculations? It wasn’t that long ago.

That all being said to catch you up, I’ve gone another four weeks with no alcohol and I feel younger, with more stamina, both physical and mental, than I felt since contracting coronaCOVID virus. The virus took me on a journey I didn’t ask to go on. The fatigue however, when it comes in and it comes in quickly, makes me have to stop doing whatever I’m doing putting me back in that wide awake coma-state again.

I had long COVID too, but didn’t get treated for it. What could they do that I couldn’t do myself? I don’t mind the sudden fatigue so much, since by the time that happens, I’ve usually worked twelve hours non-stop. Up and down, up and down, office, kitchen, housework, over and over. Till I’m done. Spent. Outta gas. But it’s not the normal type tired.

Steve, is in long COVID, still recovering from heart and kidney failure. He’s not supposed to drink with all the meds he takes. In fact, I often noted that his meds make him act like he’s drinking when he’s not, so any addition would be redundant. But to make it easier for him, so that we’re both on the same page, I went alcohol-free along with him. We’re better together when our habits are relatively the same. We’re just that kind of couple.

I do seem to have picked up on some of his eating habits, mostly all the time or working up to it, then doing it, then resting, then starting the eating cycle all over again. But I really think it’s the virus, rather than the example, since his over-eating example never affected me before. And to be fair, he never ate as much or as often as he eats since contracting the original virus over a year ago.

One must wonder if a virus can be altered to make people hungry all the time, or make them eat all the time, because since this virus even the thin people gained weight – across the board. So what’s going on?

The virus affects so many other bodily systems, why not appetite? One can’t measure appetite, except through journalling and scales. Researchers would be quick to point out several other variables that could have caused the weight gain.

Pharmaceuticals however are quick to add that ‘may cause weight gain’ on their prescription leaflets, even though researchers could make the same claim that other variables could have been in play, but it doesn’t stop them from noting the weight gain when taking a particular drug and not giving other possible reasons for it.

If the virus was altered to increase its infectiousness, does that mean increased appetite along with it?

SUPER-CHARGED they call it

Since the virus affects every cell, does that mean every cell gets super-charged?

Even though I read the research, it wasn’t clear that coronavirus was not one of those viruses that was altered to increase contagiousness. It only stated that one entity didn’t do it. It didn’t address all the other entities that do research on viruses. It was sort of like removing body parts on fetuses while still attached to the umbilical cord. Democrats claimed no federally funded programs engaged in that type of procurement of body parts. That did not mean however, that non-federally funded programs did not engage in it. They gave a limited answer that may have been accurate, but it did not address the immoral and horrendous practice of procuring body parts while the fetus was still alive and conscious.

• https://happywhitehorse.com/2022/01/26/should-scientists-super-charge-viruses-to-make-them-more-contagious/

The way that OMICRON virus spread like wildfire around the globe out of Africa suggests that it wasn’t a naturally occurring mutation.

If asked to answer that question regarding OMICRON, the answer most assuredly will be measured, parsed, ambiguous, indignant, all markers that tell you something is amiss and they either don’t have the answer or don’t want to pursue an answer that might be made available to the public and get a lot of people, labs and institutes into trouble. Or, they know the answer and are avoiding giving any more information on it to the public. They did a partial reporting, citing one company/institution that didn’t do it, making one believe that nobody did it, when that last part just wasn’t true. They leave it up to the reader to figure it out.

I’ve never eaten as much as I have since contracting this virus. Now I’m thinking that normal weight reduction measures may not be what it takes to lose the weight I want to lose and keep it off.

Before the virus it was more about motivation. Now it seems to be more about having to have it for survival sake – the food – any kind of food.

So how do I trip-wire that thing, whatever it is that’s making me automatically, as if on cue, eat? Even food I haven’t eaten in decades. More sugar. Boxed cereal? Really? Me? The equivalent of three meals in succession?

When I find that trip-wire you’ll be the first to know.

In the meanwhile, if you know you are over-eating, then try harder to focus on eating more healthy foods.

You probably guessed it if you read my last few posts and then this one: I gained back that six pound loss in six days, but I did keep it off a while, until I got that OMICRON disguised as a cold, from Africa they say. Lots of people in the public housing building where I live died. Shocking! A cold can kill.Yes, I diagnosed myself. I seem to be better at it than most doctors who see me.

• The good news is I kept it off long enough to fit into that dress for that special event – yey yey.

My increased sugar intake could be the result of eliminating hard seltzer from my beverage selections, along with any other alcohol based drinks. I’m expecting that to ease off. It’s been four weeks which is long enough, so I have to exert some pressure on staying away from sweet stuff. After three days I didn’t have that knee-jerk thought to go out to the local tavern, where I socialize, drink hard seltzer, and eat a platter of Greek green beans.

But I’ve been gaining and losing the same twenty pounds before I turned to sugar. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I only have twenty pounds to lose. I must be doing something right.

I checked my blood sugar after consuming a lot of food including liquids, about twenty minutes later and it was 111. That’s good, especially after eating. Doctors would say it’s too high when compared to averages for the entire world, but much lower and I get weak. It’s normal for me. Treating me like a statistic isn’t accurate enough for my seek-to-know-details mind-set. Saying my blood sugar should be the same as a guy in Pakistan is not relevant. We’re two different people. My range is different than his range.

• Best of health to the guy in Pakistan; don’t eat too many Chapati and stay clear of the lambs. Camels too. The lambs won’t remember you, but the camels will. ~ just kidding, almost.

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Hey,

Later Gators,

Sharon

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back to fountain of youth:

I believe alcohol ages a person, in a lot of ways, it effects the total organism.

Abstaining from alcohol probably contributes to longevity, and that one or two glasses of wine per day, that researchers claim responsible for longevity, is biased in favor of the alcohol industries.

Nobody ever put on a death certificate as the cause of death – abstained from alcohol.

So, I’m going to include in my pursuit of the fountain of youth, abstention from alcohol as a contributing factor. It doesn’t mean you won’t live to a hundred if you indulge. For me that fountain of youth is about how I feel all the time, not just after a couple or few drinks.

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