Smokylies.org

Continued..

–Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to affect 13 percent of those over the age of 65, and between 1999 and 2000, there’s been an alarming increase in the number of patients under 40. Although the cause(s) continue to elude researchers in neurodegeneration, autopsy and rat model studies show that with or without drugs, the propensity towards AD is lessened with continued brain activity that require at least six higher brain functions.

Only when 85 to 90 percent of the brain tissue is destroyed do AD symptoms such as tremor, ataxic gait and progressive memory loss, appear. Currently, researchers believe that the brain can compensate for the damage over time if and only if there is continued brain activity. Geeks, especially those designing systems which have user interface as a foremost concern, meet the criteria of using at least six different higher functions on a regular basis, and continued relay and recategorization of information over most of the neural tissue.

–The tendency to sit in front of a monitor and keyboard, and concentrate on that, is a critical aspect of geeking. If our attention breaks, having to spend hours debugging something as simple as Java can be hell. But this tendency also produces men who are more likely to be aware of health concerns such as prostate cancer and the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome compared to the non-geeking male population. We navigate around the web well-enough to find the health information we need, and we can discriminate between promo-pushes and actual useful information.

Sure, male geeks are just as unlikely to visit a doctor as other guys, but we ARE more likely to ask peers, under a username or pseudonym, about the details wenotice about our health. Geeks have the same qualities doctors need to make diagnoses. While consulting a professional is recommended, geeks can recognize and diagnose objectively given a set of indications.

Today’s medical profession is based almost entirely on probabilistic medicine. Two out of three symptoms; five out of six chance for exposure to a virus, and so on. That’s something geeks can do, and as we’re about to discuss, we’re more willing to change our habits for health reasons than the average male and female population combined.

The NIH (National Institutes of Health) reports that the male volunteers for clinical studies of new drugs, treatments and medical or exercise equipment are primarily tech-improvement and design careers. The survey included men who volunteered between 1997 and 2000. This willingness to try new methods and test possibilities is inherently geeky, and bodes well for improving medical care for the general population as well as our own. We’re big contributors to medicine these days in many ways, with data mining, discovery and telehealth medicine in the works.

–Geeks have the highest compliance to prescriptions compared to the average adult population. Whether it’s because we put a reminder in our PDAs or have confidence in a prescription based on logical diagnosis, geeks follow through on antibiotics, antiviral drugs, pain medication as well as vitamin supplements two orders of magnitude over the average American population. A Weight Watchers survey also found that New Year’s Resolutions to lose weight and stick to an exercise regiment were carried out by more men in technical fields than non-technical fields of work. See, we can concentrate on something other than kernel coding.

–The only major concern our study brought to light was the stress placed on geeks in their work environments. Not only are we given more work and stressful deadlines, geeks are also ‘expected’ to be able to handle the pressure without cracking because many employers and co-workers think we think and dream in binary. That what people who don’t understand opensource think, anyways.

There is very little stress management and psychological support in the workplace for most geeks, which can, in part, account for the high job-hopping rates seen in the high tech sector. If your company has perks like an exercise room, free trips to a spa or yoga or stress management seminars, take advantage of them.

Often a combination of stress at work and at home push geeks over the edge to retaliate in the only way they know how: by shutting down entire networks with viruses and so on. Geeks are actually not unemotional or unsociable, we’re more sensitive to the responses of people to who we are, and the whole idea behind open platforms and Napster-like creations is to share, be nice, and create communities and friends. Check out our quirky insights on a male geek’s social life.

There are only a few minor changes our study suggests geeks should make in their lives and eating habits. Being a geek is a lifestyle and a choice we all love. For maximum health in our life over the long term we have just two suggestions:

–Have you taken a look at our suggestions for yummy but healthy snacks? Remember, experiment and see what appeals to you. The snack suggestions you choose are useless if you won’t like eathing them. If you feel you absolutely must go on a diet to manage your weight, check out our tips.

–If you walk so that your heart rate gets up for just 20 to 30 minutes a day, you’re doing lots of exercise. So it’s sort of negating the convenience tech has given us, but park your car and walk a short distance to your destination. Take a flight of stairs instead of the escalator or elevator. And find a buddy to walk with. You can talk about that software you’d like to patent while you’re walking instead of a sitting in a posh restaurant or whispering at your cubicle. Instead of having your printer right beside you, try putting it a few feet away, so that you have an excuse to get up, walk around and stretch.

–We’ve said that geeks have the qualities that make great chefs. And we meant it. If you’re thinking about trying something new, how about a cooking class or two?

Uncategorized age of 65, Alzheimer’s disease, brain functions, memory loss