Freedom:

• Today we celebrate freedom, which can mean different things. So called negative freedom refers to “freedom from” interference with your liberties. The Bill of Rights (first 10 amendments to the constitution) are all essentially about this freedom. But with the Civil War and the preposterous institution of slavery, it was necessary to incorporate laws establishing positive freedom, “freedom to.” Amendments 13 (abolished slavery), 14 (made all people born in the US citizens), 15 (made everyone [male] citizen able to vote) gave a “new birth of freedom.” Finally, in 1920, the 19th Amendment gave ALL US citizens the right to vote. 
• Lets celebrate both types of freedom today, together as Americans.

Healing Back Pain:

• Dr. John Sarno was a practicing PMR / Pediatrician / Primary Care doctor who lived into his 90s, dying just last year. His major contribution to medicine is the diagnosis of Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS). He was writing in the 1980s that medicine had gone too far in looking for structural, objective sources of pain, ignoring the complex interplay of the brain and pain. This was when fibromyalgia was first being described. He noted many medical conditions that could result from anxiety, stress, and anger.
• However, he focused on the common ailment of chronic back pain. He described the literature showing pain-free patients with abnormal MRIs, and chronic pain patients with no abnormalities. Though he worked early on with a multidisciplinary approach, he later stopped sending patients to the various treatment modalities, obtaining strikingly successful pain alleviation simply by educating patients that many of them (not all) are feeling somatic pain due to something emotional. “Therapeutic eclecticism is a sign of diagnostic incompetence.” Check out his book on back pain and then move on to his newest book about the mind-body connection.

First thing in the morning:

• New book called Own the Day by Aubrey Marcus. I didn’t collect much information from this book simply because it covers a lot of material that shows up in many other sources. Low carb, whole food, sleep a lot, meditate, etc. But the trajectory of the author’s day looks similar to an ideal day. A new practice I adopted from the book is starting the day with a big glass of either mineral water, or water with a pinch sea salt +/- lemon juice. 

Who to Follow:

• Ted Naiman on Twitter (@tednaiman) and Instagram (tednaiman). A practicing physician in Seattle area with simple, effective advice on nutrition and exercise. He practices what he preaches. He posts brief instructional exercise videos but also geeks out when making infographics depicting complex nutritional biochemistry.  Get a

Grip:

• Fascinating meta-analysis on association of grip strength with all-cause mortality. In the 500,000+ subjects in this study, grip strength predicted mortality better than blood pressure or exercise level. They even saw less cancer. Results did not differ by gender. Now going out and buying these (I like these generic ones) probably isn’t a bad idea. But I think the grip strength is more a marker of overall muscle mass and health. 

Quotes:
“Sitting is such a benign activity that one is mystified by the fact that it initiates pain.”

“America is convinced that the back is a fragile structure, easily injured and perpetually vulnerable.” 
Dr. Sarno