Longevity | Silver Magazine

Fitness

Why is Grip Strength Important?

While grip strength is typically associated with having a strong handshake (which we don’t seem to need following the introduction of the elbow bump during 2020), science has shown grip strength to be what’s called a biomarker.1 By definition, a biomarker is a broad term which indicates an “objective indication of (a) medical state, observed outside of the patient.”2 Basically, it’s an indicator of some health condition or state of one’s health that isn’t necessarily something the patient is aware of. For example, when one goes to the doctor, they typically explain their symptoms. The symptoms are what a patient is feeling and aware of. When the doctor does lab work, the doctor may discover some biomarkers, in the form of a high white blood cell count, for example, which indicates a certain illness. The biomarker is the indicator that something is going on or expected to occur. According to

Dr. Katie Landier January 25, 2023

Health

Baby, it’s cold outside – and inside too!

I’m kayaking on the Bay of Fundy in late October. The air is cool. The water is cold — about 12 degrees C at this time of year. The massive tides mean that even in summer the bay is cold. After pulling the boat up on shore, I walk out into the salt water up to my knees, go back to shore, then walk back into the water and start swimming. A practiced, even clinical approach. Still, it’s a shock. I’ve been doing this for a few weeks since the nights cooled off, so I am starting to adapt. Lately, I’ve learned, by trial and error, that if you keep your head out of the water at least for the first few strokes it’s less of a shock. But it’s still friggin’ cold. Back on shore, I soak up the sun. That wasn’t so bad, says one part of my

David Holt October 31, 2022

Fitness

Core strength: Embrace the wobble

At one time, a strong core was associated with six-pack abs but an updated view is that there is much more to them. Having defined abdominals is an aesthetic consideration, while a strong core relates to functionality. Anatomically, the core is the body’s midsection, a three-dimensional space that includes the muscles of the front, sides, and back. One can further distinguish between the inner and outer core. The outer core consists of the more superficial muscles that surround the midsection of the torso, while the inner core comprises the deep internal muscles creating an inner cylinder framed by the pelvic floor, diaphragm, obliques and spinal muscles. Pick up any fitness or running magazine and you will likely come across an article about the core and how to strengthen it. A strong core is essential for all types of athletes. It is key to generate force as in a golf swing

Christine Felstead September 9, 2022

Longevity

Go Fish

My father told me if I wanted to catch fish I had to think like a fish except he said it with an r like frish and an extra s and h like frisshh and maybe a third h if you can stand it. We were floating in a barely curved boat. I sat on a six pack and he sat on a bigger box of beer which eventually collapsed. I noticed, among other things, that his bladder had the same capacity as a bottle of beer, and I imagined it was also the approximate shape. I was surprised how clear his pee was, nearly invisible like the fishing line, the tint likely stuck somewhere in the vicinity of his liver. He smoked cigarettes, one after the other, and spewed nonsense the rest of the time, kept offering me beer when he knew I was only eleven. When he pressed

Sherry Cassells July 4, 2022

Longevity

Learning from each other

“The counts of the indictment are luxury, bad manners, contempt for authority, disrespect to elders, and a love for chatter in place of exercise. … Children began to be the tyrants, not the slaves, of their households. They no longer rose from their seats when an elder entered the room; they contradicted their parents, chattered before company, gobbled up the dainties at table, and committed various offences against Hellenic tastes, such as crossing their legs. They tyrannised over the paidagogoi and schoolmasters.” –Kenneth John Freeman summarizing the thoughts of elders in ancient Greece towards the youth. (Schools of Hellas, 1907). It seems that each generation hears the same thing from the ones before them. For as long as humans have documented, we have failed to live up to the expectations of the generations before us. We’re often defined by our generations, and the farther apart we are from one generation,

Kayley Addis June 27, 2022

Longevity

Three A.M.

When I wake up at three in the morning it’s all I can do to not phone Harry. Hello, he’d say as if he were trying to fog up the screen. I wouldn’t say, it’s me or guess who right away like before. I’d say, it’s Sherry – a glitch between the Rs then silence like I’d put the phone in my mouth – then I’d say, it’s me as if I’d swallowed it. At three in the morning I think he would prefer to go back to sleep. Harry used to tell me his dreams and I know listening to people’s dreams can be like listening to a tap drip but not Harry’s. He’d go slow and start with something you’d latch onto almost involuntarily and he’d place a picture in your head like a paint-by-number, all white and portioned out. Then he’d say something like a tiger was in my

Sherry Cassells June 22, 2022

Longevity

Olde English Words We Should Bring Back

Over time, languages change. Especially words that take on meaning in a cultural context and are usually relevant to a period in time. As trends change and time goes on, words fall out of favour. You may remember for example, back in the 1980’s when “freaky” was a popular word for all things “cool” which was from the 70’s. Remember that brief but oh so painful period in the early 1980’s when it was all Valley Girls lingo from California? Like “grody to the max” or “gag me with a spoon”? So in light of all that, we found some old English words that maybe we should bring back today. Fudgel (v): Basically, this means pretending to work when we’re really not doing any work at all…like maybe when we’re on video meeting calls…playing solitaire and no one can see us? Quomodocunquize (v): That’s a tongue twister! Simply put, it

Alex Hurst June 15, 2022

Longevity

Paul (A Difficult Character)

Paul was game for anything – we played hide-and-seek in front of everybody – on the ferry, subways, and in the forbidden downtown streets.

Sherry Cassells April 21, 2022

Longevity

Guide to surviving revolution and war: the life of Theodor Abrahamsen

My father’s family survived – barely — both the Russian Revolution and the Nazi occupation of Norway. This included potential execution, a Nazi concentration camp, lack of food, brutal winters, and the constant threat of disease. As Russian tanks stream into the Ukraine, the crazy-quilt pattern of history repeats. Politics aside, until recent decades epidemics of smallpox, H1N1 (including the Spanish flu of 1918), diphtheria, typhus, cholera, malaria and the like left a trail of devastation wherever they went. Improved personal hygiene and public health measures like sanitation, vaccines and antibiotics are also recent phenomena. Case in point: Theodor Abrahamsen, my Uncle Teddy. Even after his hundredth birthday, he lived alone, doing his daily exercises and solving the Rubik’s Cube. He took regular boat trips to the northern tip of Norway and returned once a year to his old school in England. A multi-sport varsity athlete in his youth, he

David Holt April 13, 2022