On ketones, why volunteer and why we worry
Here are some stories from last week that I found inspiring:
• Lately, the keto diet has become a fad as a weight-loss aid. While the research on the front is yet not conclusive, there are other potential tracks that are being researched. These studies relate to molecules that aid increase in production of ketones by the liver, which may help fight cancer and epilepsy. ‘Naturally made ketones make it possible to fuel the brain when glucose is running low, a trick designed by evolution to allow our ancestors to survive for long stretches with little or no food’ says this long-form story that appeared in the Atlantic. I got interested in ketogenic diet some time back but my interest was limited to bulletproof coffee, a body hack created by Dave Asprey. However, I found this story interesting not for the elementary education it provides on ketones and potential role to treating deadly diseases, but for the profile of Patrick Arnold that it includes. Arnold is better known to baseball fans, for he was the shadowy chemist related to the BALCO doping scandal. He went to the jail for his role in the scandal. However, Arnold is out of jail now and is turning out to be a key figure behind the ketone research. It’s Arnold who helped another scientist, a pioneer in ketone research, synthesize a key diester molecule necessary to create synthetic ketones. So here is a guy who admits he did wrong. But he is also a brilliant chemist. Now, he is helping on research that could be remarkably valuable. Would you trust him?
• On the face of it, volunteering seems like a wasteful proposition — you give a lot of time and energy for a cause, and you don’t get a tangible reward in return. Why do some people still do it? Are they just good, or they simply don’t have anything else to do? I have had a chequered history with volunteering - mostly inspired attempts to follow my wife’s committed volunteering. But I realize that I dissected volunteering with a logical, yet superficial, intellect. Only when you start digging deeper — and this short story from 2017 scratches the surface — you realize the returns are intangible, but incredible. The story cites that benefits resulting from volunteering, such as stress reduction, could be as high as that achieved from meditation. I also stumbled across this opinion piece about ‘waging the war on loneliness’. This one paragraph alone from the story sounded a wake-up alarm: ‘Loneliness affects physical health in two ways. First, it produces stress hormones that can lead to inflammation and other health problems. Second, people who are alone are less likely to go to doctor appointments, to take medicines or exercise and eat a healthy diet. We may resent nagging from loved ones, but it can keep us alive.’ Maybe I am living under a rock, but it’s only through this piece that I discovered that Britain has a minister for loneliness. Her task is to eliminate social isolation. And guess what’s the best way to do so? By promoting more volunteering opportunities where people can come together and use their gifts to connect with others.
• Finally, I end with this short piece that is almost a psychoanalysis of why some of us search for something to worry about constantly. We should worry when we absolutely need to, otherwise, why waste all that energy on something that may not even materialize. Easy to say, but difficult to implement. This piece postulates that ‘before our adult faculties were adequately in place, we suffered a traumatic set of events that jammed our inner alarms into their ‘on’ modes and we haven’t been able to quieten them, or soothe ourselves, since.’ The article doesn’t provide a remedy though, but calls for better understanding from those of us who surround the manic worriers. On the remedy front, some breathing techniques and meditation are researched to be helpful.
A quote that I came across last week:
Your audacious life goals are fabulous. We're proud of you for having them. But it's possible that those goals are designed to distract you from the thing that's really frightening you—the shift in daily habits that would mean a re–invention of how you see yourself.
— Seth Godin
