I am very excited about the series we are starting today. In every episode, I state my goal: to live a long, healthy, happy, active life right up to the end. I want to focus more on these simple topics this year, and we're starting with the "long" part. Living a long life has been a common desire as long as humans have inhabited Earth. Though its origins are much earlier, since the 16th century and the travels of Juan Ponce de Leon, the legend of the Fountain of Youth has been a symbol of this longing for immortality. And though no one we know of has found the legendary waters, modern medicine is still looking for its metaphorical equivalent. Many questions need to be asked when considering this topic, such as:

- How do we define life?
- Why do I want a longer life?
- What is the price I will pay, financially, physically, or physically?
- What are the moral effects?
- What is the procedure? Will it hurt?
- What would I do with all the extra time I would have?

Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/388

Last episode, you got the list of the 10 longest-lived people, and a new person was on the list. Unfortunately, she died in August of 2024, so there are no living people on the list for now. But she made it, nonetheless. What did she do that got her to the ripe age of 117? Are there any clues that might help some of us get there? This episode aims to determine that by looking at the life of Maria Branyas, the 8th oldest-lived person ever.

Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/387

Photo byy Arxiu de la família Branyas Morera - Own work, Public Domain:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=146061719

And now it's time for the perennial favorite top 10 list of the oldest people ever. I'm a little surprised to realize that I didn't actually do one of these in 2024. So I'm sure anticipation for this episode is running high. Living to be 100 is still very rare, but according to a 2024 estimate by the United Nations, there are 722,000 centenarians around the world (a centenarian is a person who lives to be 100 years ole), and that number is growing fast. It is a huge 22% increase from 2023.

Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/386

Photo by shy sol:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/100-road-sigange-102094/

First of all, I want to say to all you podcast listeners that an unboxing video is included in the video version of this episode. You can see it on the blog page at http://RunningAFEVER.com/385 if you want to watch it.

Well, since there was an unboxing, I guess you can figure out that I got my own pulse oximeter. It's pretty simple to use; you turn it on and clamp it on your finger, and the display shows a percentage number. But what does it mean, and why is it important? It must be important in some way because every time I get my vitals taken at a medical provider's office, they use it on me. I had no idea until I started researching this episode, so now I can share that info with you, and you'll know, too.

Read the full post at: http://RunningAFEVER.com/385

Image by ai subarasiki:
https://pixabay.com/users/subarasikiai-21956773/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=6582524

First of all, back problems are not new to me. I've had my share for sure. I know that going back to episode 53, that was when I started having pain in my arm and pain in my back. I went to a neurosurgeon, and that was when my Forestier's was diagnosed. Recently, in the past few months, I guess, when I have gone out on the Lake Fayetteville trail, where I have been hundreds of times, I would go out, and before I was halfway through, my back would start hurting, and I would have to rest, sometimes making it all the way through. I was in some back pain there. And it was soreness, and I thought it was all muscular because I was overweight and out of shape. I thought I should keep on exercising and I would work through it.

Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/384

The topic I am addressing today is near and dear to my heart because I have been obese for most of my adult life. It is also such a large topic with a volume of information that makes it impossible to address in a single episode. Perhaps a short series may be a better way to address it at some point in the future. But for now, I want to give an overview of the situation as best I can, and I hope to hear some feedback from you on what areas you would like to hear more about. Please comment on this video and I promise to read every one.

Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/383

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/fast-food-in-close-up-shot-4109256/

As I mentioned in the last episode, these topics have been a long time coming. They were first brought up in Episode 220. Check that out at http://RunningAFEVER.com/220. That episode also mentioned a study that had just started called the CORAL study.

Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/382

I've wanted to do an episode on Long COVID since way back in July of 2020. It was actually episode 220 when I first mentioned it. At that time there was essentially no knowledge of the long-term effects. Which makes sense, because the episode was recorded only 8 months after the first appearance of COVID-19 in November of 2019.

Now it's been almost five years, and there is now a wealth of data. In episode 220 I also mentioned a study called the CORAL study that had just been up and running for a month at that time. There are actually several of these studies, and I will devote the next episode to them.

Read the full post at http://RunningAFEVER.com/381