Hercules
And the Choices We Make Every Day that Influence Our Health
Physical health is a lot like the Greek tale of Hercules. When young, he meets 2 women at a crossroads, Vice and Virtue. Vice offers him an easy life of indulgence. Virtue offers a path of hardship, discipline, and glory! Every day, we face similar choices in our modern society that promotes the easy life, but is it really the good life? Take-out vs a home-cooked meal. Sleeping in versus exercise. Taking the elevator vs the stairs. Every day, we face these choices.
The San Fran 49er’s may have defeated our Philadelphia Eagles, but are they losing in the long run? A new, possibly wild theory is growing as yet another 49er went down on Sunday with an Achilles tendon rupture. Over the past decade, the team has been riddled with soft tissue injuries. Brock Purdy’s UCL, multiple ACL’s, the list goes on. The team lost $95 million in salary cap value to players on their injured lists in 2025 alone. The latest theory about why they are so injury prone… “low frequency electromagnetic fields’ from an electrical substation right next to the stadium/practice facility.
Are those fitness trackers really accurate? I’ve questioned that often, especially when I look at my Garmin Forerunner watch when it reminds me of my mortality and declining VO2Max. It is pretty amazing that such small devices (Garmin watches, Fitbits, Apple Watches) can tell so much about our health. Turns out, unless you are an Olympian, most of these devices are fairly accurate. Once you really hit the upper echelon, you have the right to question its accuracy, but for us mortal laypeople, it actually works, according to a recent study.
As a follow-up to fitness trackers, I never knew there was a market for these in the animal world. Somehow, I’m not surprised, but it turns out Garmin has a device for horses. Instead of placing a band around a leg, this device simply fits around the base of the tail. Apparently, a major artery is in the tail, and Garmin found a way to track a horse’s heart rate there. I’m curious what the heart rate of a racing horse is. Any guesses? Read all about it here.
