Speakers' Corner

The original and most noted Speakers' Corner is located in the north- east corner of Hyde Park in London, England. It is, simply, where public speaking is allowed. In our reformatted WELL newsletter, we want to give you, our readers, the opportunity to contribute to the body of knowledge concerning health. We want people to share our newsletter with friends and we want you and your friends to share with us, thereby, sharing with each other. Please keep your thoughts under 750 words, if at all possible, include your name and city and email it all to peter@speakwell.com.

Do Things Really Go Better With Coke?

 by Dr. Martin Collis

Ifirst read about the partnership between Coca-Cola and the reborn ParticipACTION in a wonderful blog titled, "Weighty Matters", which is put out by a physician named Yoni Freedhoff. In Freedhoff's words, as a family physician he became "frustrated prescribing medications for conditions that could be controlled with lifestyle changes". In 2004, Freedhoff opened the Bariatric Medical Institute, which uses a multi-disciplinary approach to lifestyle improvement and weight loss. Freedhoff is upset to see Coca-Cola developing a health halo by being associated with ParticipACTION.

Being critical of ParticipACTION doesn't come easily to me, as I've been a long-time admirer of their social marketing to promote physical activity and wellness in Canada. In past issues of 'Well' I've expressed my anger when the Federal Government withdrew its modest funding for ParticipACTION and rejoiced when the funding was restored. In the previous issue I wrote about the death of my long time friend Russ Kisby, who was the driving force behind ParticipACTION for nearly 30 years. I've always considered ParticipACTION to be 'the good guys' and not only good, but smart.

The partnership between Coca-Cola and ParticipACTION is an outgrowth of Coca-Cola's $5 million plus sponsorship as a 'Presenting Partner' of the Olympic Torch Relay. With the help of ParticipACTION they are creating the Torch Leadership Program "designed to inspire Canadian youth to celebrate the possible by committing to live a more active lifestyle." Out of this program up to 1000 people will be chosen to carry the Olympic flame.
[The Torch Leadership Program]

I'm an old friend of John Furlong, who is the CEO of VANOC and I know that he is dedicated to having the 2010 Olympics leave a positive fitness legacy for Canadian youth. Indeed, working with 2010 Legacies Now, Speakwell has been a major participant in developing walking programs in British Columbia.

I reluctantly accept that a modern Olympics cannot exist without commercial sponsorship, but I do feel that ParticipACTION should be very careful in linking its name to the biggest purveyor of carbonated, sugary liquid in the world.

So we now have an improbable partnership between Coca-Cola and ParticipACTION. (I know Coca-Cola also sells Dasani water and fruity beverages.) But it goes further, ParticipACTION is also partnering with Weston Bakeries, maker of Wonder� Bread. Like Coca-Cola, Weston appears to be saying and doing the right things, and you might like to look at their Wonder Fresh Fitness Challenge. However, there has to be a suspicion that Big Food and Drink are cleverly diverting the public perception from caloric intake to caloric output. How can companies that run physical activity programs and support the Olympics have any role in childhood obesity? It's rather like Weyerhaeuser marketing themselves as a tree planting company. ParticipACTION are good people, but I don't want to see their logo on Wonder^™ Bread and have them associated with a beverage we've tried so hard to remove from our schools. They'd do well to remember the old Arab saying that, "He who lies down with dogs, wakes up with fleas". Coca-Cola have hit the jackpot, for the price of about 2 minutes of advertising at the Super Bowl they've now tied their product line, not only to the Olympics, but to the premier wellness voice in Canada.

Dad's Heart, My Life

 My Father Died; I Vowed to Live the Life He Didn't

  by Steve McKee

About two years before the heart attack that killed him, I told Dad that if he didn't clean up his act, he'd be dead in five years. Quit the smoking, get some exercise, stop nailing himself to the cross of his job. We were sitting at the kitchen table, he and Mom and I. Dad had already had one heart attack, in 1963, when he was 44. It had been such an obvious warning shot. How could he not have heard it?

He looked straight at me and said, "You're right."

I was just 14 at the time, but I wanted to reach across the table, grab him by the collar of the white dress shirt he always wore to work, and shake him.

All these years later, I still do.

Shake him for proving me right. Shake him for the cigarette cough my sister, Kathy, and I woke up to every morning of our lives. For missing my high school and college graduations, my wedding in 1978. For not being here for me and my wife, Noreen, to share with him the baby, Patrick, that we adopted in 1990. And for Mom, for being his widow for 37 years – 15 years longer than she was his wife.

The truth? I think Dad gave up. I do. His father, my grandfather, Jack McKee, died on July 6, 1941, at the age of 53, of a "Probable Coronary Occlusion," according to the death certificate. Probable is wholly unnecessary here; we're talking McKee family history. My great-grandfather Frank McKee died on Nov. 26, 1913. "Apoplexy," says the death certificate. It was most likely a stroke, in keeping with the McKees' cardiovascular conundrum. He was 53 years old.

If Dad gave up, when I was still a teenager, I vowed I never would. If Dad wouldn't get in shape, I'd do it for him – and I have ever since. College basketball, rec-league hoops and volleyball. I ran until well past 40, then turned to a rowing machine. When Patrick came to us, my past, present and future collided. I was now the father Dad never was, staying in shape for his son.

I brought all of this with me to an "executive physical" at the Princeton Longevity Center in Princeton, N.J., on tax day 2005. This eight hours of treadmill test, nutritional assessment and full body scan wasn't my idea. I was 52 years old. I was in great shape. I ate right. What was the point? But Noreen insisted.

The stress test put me in the 86th percentile for men my age. I had the aerobic capacity of a man eight years younger, the recovery rate of a man 20 years younger. In the diet analysis I was just a few points shy of an "excellent" score. The body scan rounded out the day, and then all that remained was the consult with the doctor.

I was ready for my lifetime achievement award.

Dad's Legacy


In his office at the Princeton Longevity Center, David Fein, a specialist in preventive medicine, turned my attention to the computer screen and its digital slides, in shades of black and gray. Then suddenly, there it was, a line of white, a bony old man's finger clutching at my heart. The blockage was in about 20 percent of my left anterior descending artery. There was about the same in my right coronary artery. My risk of having a heart attack in the next 12 months: 10 percent or more, according to the data. Left untreated, the risk would only compound, the doctor said, making a heart attack a near certainty.

When I left the center I was worried that I would never set foot inside a gym again, never get on the rowing machine, lift weights, anything. What was the point? I had failed. I was utterly devastated. It wasn't just that I had heart disease. No, what stung (the way I saw it) was the fact that I had become that part of Dad I had worked so hard never to be.

It was Noreen who dragged me through that first weekend, mainly by saying almost nothing. "You're still here, Steve," she said. To her it was that straightforward.

Fein had said as much. "There is basically no end to the ways that having kept yourself fit has improved your situation," he said. I'd lowered my insulin levels, improved my blood lipids, built collateral arteries in my heart around any blockages, to name just a few. The list, he said, was endless. I would probably already have had a heart attack by now – at best. More likely, I probably wouldn't be alive to be getting this news. I was even paying forward, banking reserves on any heart attack that I might someday have. "The odds that you'll do well if you ever do have a heart attack are very high," he said – the most left-handed compliment I have ever heard.

He talked of death. "It can be difficult to accept one's mortality," he said. But I didn't think then, and I don't think now, that this was about death. I faced my mortality on Sept. 30, 1969. The night I watched Dad die I watched me die, too.

My life began the night his ended. Learn from me, he said.

And so I did. I have become who I am because of him. I can't imagine my life without all that running and rowing and biking and all the rest. Day after day. It's who I am, because of him.

And I am alive.

Steve McKee
is the author of "My Father's Heart: A Son's Journey" (Da Capo Lifelong),
from which this article is adapted.

Are You Fated to be Fat?

 by Yoni Freedhoff, MD

A study was published last week
to a great deal of media fanfare.

The study Evidence for a strong genetic influence on childhood adiposity despite the force of the obesogenic environment, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, details twin analyses whereby 5,092 twin pairs (some identical, some fraternal) were monitored for weight change. Comparing the weight change over time of identical twins versus those of fraternal twins was used to help determine the degree of nature vs. nurture on weight gain.

The researchers concluded that the vast majority of weight was heritable, or genetic in nature and in their discussion they make a point of noting, "What is important is this finding means that "blaming" parents is wrong" I'll come back to that in a moment.

First let's look at North America where roughly 70% of the population is now overweight or obese.

Clearly our genes haven't changed in the past hundred years or so, something the authors of the paper readily agree to.

So if our genes haven't changed yet the study is blaming obesity on our genes, why is it that obesity has become such a concern now?

George Bray perhaps said it best, "Genes load the gun and the environment pulls the trigger" So does that mean parents aren't to blame? Their kids have these fat genes and there's nothing we can do about it? They and worse yet their kids are fated to be fat?

No, though blame is a very strong word.

While certainly it's true that the interactions of genes with our obesogenic environment are what's responsible for the rapidly rising weight of the world, given the percentage of folks gaining weight, clearly those genes are pretty darn common. Therefore if you're a parent with however many kids and one or more of them are overweight or obese, at the end of the day does that mean there's nothing you can do about it?

Of course not.

While you can't change the outside environment, certainly your home's foodscape is within your explicit control. You're responsible for the foods in your cupboards, you're responsible for how much viewing time or internet time your children are allowed, and most importantly, you're responsible for both the example you set in terms of eating behaviours and also you're responsible for learning about nutrition, caloric intake and expenditure and healthy living as a whole and you alone are responsible for trying to pass that knowledge on to your kids.

Again, blame is a sharp word and if I'm going to wield it, I like to blame our government and public health systems for not providing parents with the necessary tools to properly understand the impact of the environment on weight nor the skills to maintain a healthy weight within our environment.

Long post short – 100 years ago obesity wasn't a problem; our lifestyles were different, which is why a time machine would serve as a fabulous weight loss aid. Certainly the environment is responsible for changing our lifestyles, however we can certainly still live responsibly within that environment, it just takes education, planning and organization.

The only thing your children are absolutely, for better or for worse predestined to be is related to you. Everything else is modifiable.

:: Yoni Freedhoff, MD