In the news last week, I came across a news story that may highlight the one positive note (other than the rock star parking) of having a spinal cord injury. Scientists at UW Madison announced they’ve discovered that primates (Rhesus monkeys to be exact), who’s daily calorie intake was cut by nearly a 1/3, not only lived longer (because scientists have long known this), but experienced 24% less occurrence of disease.
Pretty awesome, right? It is if you don’t like eating.
But here’s the awesome thing about this study. When you have a spinal cord injury, doctors recommend you restrict your caloric intake to prevent weight gain (since we’re not walking). For quadriplegics, they recommend you take about 500-600 calories off your daily calorie intake (depending on how active you are). And I’ve been sticking to this calorie intake method for 16 years (!!)
Does that mean I shall live to be a centurion, UW scientists? Most quads you know, don’t follow their diets, and sadly tend to die in their 50s and 60s. Do I have a shot at proving this statistic wrong because I‘m actually a good girl (or am I cursing myself by actually typing this out?)?
Oh, and for everyone out there wondering, if you do the math, a 1/3 of the calories removed from a 2,000 calories a day is 1300. Think you could do it??
In conclusion, this is great news for me, and I really hope the anorexics of the world aren’t secretly cheering “we told you so!” right now :/
- Weight gain and disability, on Disaboom
- One amputee resdiscovers her body through yoga, on Disaboom
- Staying fit after 50 (tips), on Disaboom
