I ‘ve lost somebody I knew these days because of COVID , she was 45. Wife of a friend’s of mine, mother of 2 guys , 14 and 19 years old.
She was obese, definitely.
Since I knew her (since we were in our 20’s), she always carryed on 15-20 kg more than average , but in the last years she took several kg more..developing some general health diseases…
So I started reading between the relation between COVID and obesity, learning interesting things.
I discovered that the countries where overweight prevalence exceeded 50% of the population was 10 times more than countries where people is leaner.
And this is not true just for COVID , data show that also for other similar flu viruses like H1NB or H3N2 the rate of hospitalization for overweight /obese people is between 6-7 up to 30-40 times more.
And I started thinking that we are fighting the wrong enemy ….
Population all over the world is becoming a weak unhealthy population , that is the real problem we have to address.
We are becoming a weak population , physically…..but there is a worst thing..
We are becoming weak in our approach to problems.
We undervalue our body and its possibilities , escaping from any form of discomfort and pain.
Human body is the best definition of Antifragility.
Antifragility is a wonderful concept covered in Nassim Taleb ’s book.
Being Antifragile doesn’t mean being robust or resilient ,As Taleb explains in his book, antifragility is fundamentally different from the concepts of resiliency (i.e. the ability to recover from failure) and robustness (that is, the ability to resist failure).
If we expose our body to physical exercise , our body doesn’t simply resist , it will improve growing muscles, changing hormones , reinforcing tendons and joints .
If we stress our body fasting for a while , it will become tougher . Fasting doesn’t weaken the body , quite the opposite….fasting improves the immune system , a reduction of cancer’s risk , a reduction of inflammatory markers, an improvement of the ability to control glicemia and many more…
We have developed for millions of years strengthening our immune system fighting with viruses and bacteria.
We have an amazing possibility to get stronger exposing ourselves to the outer world .
Instead with the upcoming century we have learnt to escape…
Do you feel hot ? switch on air conditioning ..
Do you feel cold ? put on something or warm up the room…
Do you feel hunger? Eat something…
Do you have headache? take a pill..
In the desperate attempt to avoid discomfort we did weak choices becoming weaker and weaker …
And even now , during this pandemia period , what do we do ?
Weak choices …put mask , use disinfectants , avoid people , social distancing , manage anxiety with some antidepressants, frighten children about playing in clean safe environment..
and what is the final outcome? weak get weaker…
The root of our problem is not really covid , that is the last drop on a full jar..
It’s Our style of life and our culture…
we have to embrace discomfort , to expose ourself , in our work we have to risk , to fail
Failure itself is the bitter medicine to professional improvement ….the real one , beyond books and universities and face myths.
We are stronger than we think , yet most of the people don’t believe this…and this is the real disease we are affected from.
A mixture of hubris in our ability to master the world and weak choices.
Antifragility is a part of our nature.
But our choices are fragile.
Do yours.Now.
Ps. I routinely train 4/week , fast 24 hours every week , expose to ice cold water , eat responsibly and avoid any kind of pills.
< 16.5 |
SEVERE SLIMLESS |
16-18,49 |
UNDERWEIGHT |
18.5-24,99 |
STANDARD WEIGHT |
25-29,99 |
OVERWEIGHT ex 90-100 |
30-34,99 |
CLASS I OBESITY (mild) ex 100kg |
35-39,99 |
CLASS II OBESITY (average)es 115+ |
> 40 |
CLASS III OBESITY (severe) example 175 , 125+kg |
It is obtained by dividing the weight in kg of the subject with the square of the height expressed in meters.