Thursday, September 3, 2020

Exercise... Please be wise

A new patient in her early 60s came to me with an issue concerning dry skin. She is an avid exercise freak who cycles and runs at least one hundred miles a week. I advised her that I believed she was overworking her body ending up with a "net negative result". Then she showed me what appeared at first to be an ingrown hair on her forearm but beside this white pustule there was a very dark and evil looking spot adjoining it. She advised me that this is exactly where she wears her activity monitor multiple hours a day. She asked me to treat it bc she didn’t want to go to a dermatologist. I told her "no" and referred her to a dermatologist so I would know exactly what it was, one week later she advised me that it had been diagnosed as a squamous cell carcinoma, skin cancer.

I shared this to make a couple of points. First, that over exercise at any time of life is unwise. If we look at nature we find the exercise that was taken in the past came from daily activity. Now I know because of our sedentary lifestyles most would find it impossible to meet their fitness goals without doing something intentional. I understand, but I also know that most people's fitness goals are unrealistic and in reality unnecessary. We don’t all need to look like an athlete. Most athletes are doing more harm than good, although receiving short term benefits. Secondly, exposing ourselves to unnatural radio frequencies and to expose ourselves at close proximity (even attached to our bodies) is insanity. I’ve been warning about this for years and now someone comes to me for help who is the perfect example of what these devices are capable of doing.