Anger - Emotional health - Andropause
I too become disproportionately angry over relatively small events/issues. I did not used to be this way. Irritability is listed as a male menopause (or andropause) phenomenon, but what I experience seems to be more than simple irritability. I get an immediate emotionally strong, visceral reaction. I would be curious to hear your thoughts. How pervasive is it? It feels like it could be quite common? I did start CBT and continue to struggle and work on it. Thank you.
Zone 2 pace. Heart rate/lactate relationship
I am trying to dial in the proper pace for my zone 2 without a lactate meter. At the moment I can run on a treadmill (and sometimes assault runner) at a 6.1 mph pace for 20-25 minutes without reaching my upper zone 2 HR limit. Every 5-10 min after, I have to slow the pace to keep my HR from going over even though most of the time I feel like I can still keep my starting pace while talking and nose breathing (with the occasional deep breath if talking). I eventually end up running at about 5.6 mph by the time I reach 1 hour. The question is: Am I better off starting off at the slower or slowest pace noted above? Or should I keep doing what I’m doing. I know Dr. Attia used to check lactate every 15 min, I’m curious to see where his lactate AND heart rate were at different times of his workout. I think this could be very helpful. Mahalo!!!!
Endurance Athlete Heart Damage
I am a former endurance athlete and I am concerned about the risk of endurance training and competition and heart health. Most recently Dave Scott is an example of a premier endurance athlete that associates his years of training with damage to his heart. Can you comment on this from a medical/epidemiological perspective?
Caffeine - More Harm Than Good?
Dr. Attia, After reading your book and learning from Dr. Matthew Walker about the utmost importance of sleep, I’m left wondering how caffeine is so widely advocated given its long half life and blatant disruption to our sleep. If one consumes 200mg of caffeine in the morning, and there’s still 50mg in one’s system 12 hours later, does this not cause long term health detriments given the deep sleep we’re missing out on? In this example, 200mg is on the lower end, let’s double it to 400mg, that’s 100mg roughly in someone’s system around bedtime. Now I love coffee, but is it possible that 90% of the population is stuck in this addiction cycle that nobody can see the bigger picture more clearly? By the way, I didn’t even touch on the increase in one’s blood pressure after consumption, the cortisol release, vasoconstriction, etc. which might have their own implications. To ensure one gets the antioxidants, polyphenols, and additional compounds from coffee, is decaf the way to go? How much would our sleep really improve if we never had caffeine in our system? Would love to know your thoughts.