Healthy Spirits: New Arrivals

1. Grand Teton Wake Up Call Imperial Coffee Porter

2. Grand Teton Black Cauldron Imperial Stout

FRIDAY Q&A

Q:I have been practicing yoga regularly for 20 some years and am approaching my 55th birthday. While I know my asana practice has been immensely helpful with my aging process I have still had trouble with a few issues: blood pressure, glaucoma, heart rate, fatigue. Lately I have been working with my diet and specifically cutting back and nearly eliminating alcohol (I do miss the occasional glass of wine), dairy, and a few other foods that seem to aggravate joint pain, heart palpitations, and lethargy. Some but not all of these choices line up with my doshic make-up (pitta/vata). Most of the choices come from Alejandro Junger's book Clean. I am curious about diet and asana choices for particular conditions related to age.

A: As a scientist who also studies aging, I am especially intrigued about how diet can influence lifespan and health. However, that is not something I want to discuss here, as I am not a nutritionist or trained in this area. It is also something that is hugely complicated, and some of the better scientific controlled studies are not done in humans, but rather in mice or other animal models. For example, I recently attended a symposium in Cape Cod in March on Metabolism and Aging sponsored by Cell Symposia and Elsevier (see here). Data is clearly emerging about how diets high in fat and/or cholesterol are contributing to metabolic dysregulation. But defining the precise molecular pathways that regulate and control our basic metabolism and how diet can contribute to age-related diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension, is still in its infancy. At this point I would recommend only common sense. You know, the stuff your grandma was supposed to teach you: eat in moderation and eat your vegetables. --Brad

A: To be honest, I’ve been dreading this question, but, sigh, I knew it was coming. Unfortunately, although it is commonly acknowledged that a “healthy” diet is an important aspect of healthy aging, there is so much controversy about what that healthy diet entails (dairy, for example, is recommended in some diets and not in others) that we have decided not to address this issue on our blog because a) we don’t have the expertise and b) diet doesn’t fall under our topic of “yoga for healthy aging.” In addition, none of us are experts in Ayurvedic medicine and we do not follow its dietary recommendations, so we are going to refrain from commenting on that as well. (Personally I think that is important to listen to your body; if some type of food has a negative effect on you and eliminating it doesn’t compromise your ability to get complete nutrition, then go for it.)

For your high blood pressure, heart rate, and fatigue, you may find the practices Baxter and I mentioned this week (mindful meditation, yoga nidra, and breath awareness) useful. And we’ll be sure to recommend more poses for each of those conditions as time goes on. -- Nina

Q: Any suggestions for very sore shoulders/neck besides downward facing dog, twists and standing yoga mudra? 

There are two different approaches to relieving pain in your neck and shoulders. You can stretch them (as you have been doing) or you can relax them. A pose for stretching that shoulders and neck that can be particularly helpful if you’ve been sitting at a desk all day is a passive backbend over a rolled-up blanket or yoga mat.

Passive Backbend (from "Moving Toward Balance," Rodney Yee with Nina Zolotow)

If your head doesn't reach the floor in this pose, place a folded blanket or towel underneath it for support.

Baxter recommends dynamic movement to release the shoulders and neck, such as moving from Mountain Pose (Tadasana) with your arms at your sides to arms overhead (Urdva Hastanasa) with a slight backbend, following your breath.

A good pose for relaxing your shoulders and neck is Standing Forward Bend at the wall (sometimes called Wall Hang). This allows you to release your shoulders and neck with gravity. Here are two versions:

Wall Standing Forward Bend Version 1 (from "Moving Toward Balance")

Wall Standing Forward Bend Version 2 (from "Moving Toward Balance")

--Nina

Q: One of the major challenges for me is allowing myself time to do yoga practice at home. I feel so much better when I do, even a brief morning session, but I seem to find it very hard to give myself that space in my overly busy life. I realize this arises largely out of my own issues, but do you have any comments/suggestions besides trying to make it part of my usual routine, like brushing my teeth?

Congratulations on starting a home practice! Practicing at home is one of the best ways to do yoga for healthy aging because you can do what you need (rather than just hoping your teacher will be on the same wavelength that you are that day). Here are a few suggestions for motivating yourself to practice at home:

1.    Start with a very short routine, maybe even just a single pose, so it’s not too overwhelming to contemplate. Your practice will build over time.

2.     You don’t have to practice in the morning if that doesn’t work well for you. Some people like to get it over with first thing, but others like to wait until they’re really in the mood, like in the afternoon or early evening.

3.    Find a practice partner. (I used to think that no one would ever want to come over to my house and practice with me, but I turned out to be very, very wrong.)

4.    Listen to music while you practice, wear your favorite perfume, pet your dog between poses, or do anything else that makes it a little more fun.

--Nina

Healthy Spirits: New Arrivals

Now in stock.

ACCEPTING RECLINED LEG STRETCH

by Nina

An excellent time to combine acceptance with active engagement (as Baxter discussed in his post yesterday) is when you are doing yoga poses. By far, the healthiest and most effective way to do yoga poses is to cultivate an awareness of your body’s current state while at the same time actively working toward making changes to it, such as stretching or strengthening. This is one of the best ways to protect yourself from injury. And it also helps you reap the most benefits from your poses.

When I was trying to think of a pose that epitomized this need for both acceptance and active engagement, Reclined Leg Stretch pose (Supta Padangusthasana) sprang to mind. To be honest, that’s because every time I've taught the pose, I’ve seen people “cheat” (yes, I’m talking about you with the bent leg over there), a sure sign that the “acceptance” side of the equation is lacking.

Reclined Leg Stretch (Supta Padangusthasana) is a very beneficial pose because it revitalizes your legs while it eases tension in your lower back. It stretches your hamstring muscles and your hip joints, which is important for maintaining physical health if you sit at a desk or walk a lot. It is also helpful for lower back pain and maintaining a healthy back. And it’s a great way to begin a yoga practice or even to do as a “single pose practice.” Plus, you get to do it lying down!

  

Baxter prescribes it for:

• leg fatigue or weakness
• lower back conditions
• arthritis
• knee pain
• swelling of feet and ankles
• maintaining flexibility of the legs and hip joints as you age

However, most people are too tight in their hamstrings to do the pose like their teachers or the pictures they’ve seen, so some (not naming any names here) cheat by bending the knee of their top leg or by lifting their pelvis off the floor in order to bring their toe closer to their head.

,Can you do it like this? (From "Moving Toward Balance," Rodney Yee with Nina Zolotow)

But while cheating may make you feel more flexible, bending your top knee means that you won’t be getting the full hamstring stretch that’s so beneficial. So the next time you do this pose (and it’s a great one to practice at home), use a strap or belt around the arch your foot and hold the right side of the strap in your right hand, the left in your left hand. Now be honest with yourself. Is your upper leg truly straight? And is your pelvis resting evenly on the ground? If not, let your leg go until your knee is straight, your pelvis is even, and your leg reaches its natural angle (90 degrees or less, even much less). 

Using a strap. (From "Moving Toward Balance," Rodney Yee with Nina Zolotow)

That’s the acceptance part. The active engagement part is to stay in the pose for 45 to 90 seconds and to practice regularly. Although we can’t promise it, there’s a very good chance that over time this pose will increase your flexibility, making many other poses more comfortable and enhancing your physical health.

Some helpful variations:

1. If your head and shoulders aren’t resting comfortably on the floor, use a folded blanket under your head.
2. If you are so tight that it’s hard to hold your leg with a strap, do the pose with the bottom leg extending through a doorway and your top foot resting on the wall next to the doorway.
3. If you want to strengthen your bottom leg as your stretch the top one, you can practice with your bottom foot pressing against a wall.

Cautions: If you have lower back issues, you may need to keep your bottom leg bent. If you have wrist issues, you may need to change the way you hold the strap.

I Keep It Simple and Slow

Do You Like My Blog…Offer Me a Protein Shake

Life is really too short not to…I do not entertain drama, negativity, or anything that screams…NOT HEALTHY.  I enjoy the little things in life because they are truly the BIG things.  I have learned that rushing through a day at the speed of light is not a good thing and literally landed me flat on my backside in 2008…and besides…you miss out on a lot of life. For quite some time now, I have made sure to slow things down, enjoy the moment and build fabulous memories. I have this saying…nothing good happens fast…LOL.  I use this all the time when I am training clients…and I also put myself through slow methodical workouts where I concentrate on the muscle being worked, feel the muscle move through its motion, and really get the most out of the work.  Nothing good happens fast when an exercise is done so fast that the movement is out of form, without thinking, compromising the body, and before you know it…injury…and YUCK…what the heck is that all about.  Not for this girl and maintaining my 47 year young self…OK…yes I am talking about life and I am talking about my workouts…well, it goes hand in hand now doesn’t it?  Getting back to simplicity…I have learned to be content in all circumstances…in my book, life is not about having a million dollars, or the nicest car or house, but happiness with myself and getting up every morning looking forward to what I will do with my day. 

During Our Honeymoon Last Year

I enjoy the simple pleasure of a cup of coffee in the morning with hubby, good conversation, time with family and friends…and I am talking quality time…giving my full attention to someone when they are sharing a story.  I can remember when my kids were small and the rush rush get things done was on overdrive for this actively involved parent…they are sharing something exciting that happened on the playground for example, and I would be washing the dishes with one ear on them, the other in the sink…I would definitely change that…put down the dish and sit down to look intently in their eyes and allow myself to feel their excitement.  You see, these are the important things that are learned in life…the lessons learned that I now apply and live by.  You better believe my children get my full attention when they are visiting…no cleaning, no dishes, but quality time. I use this same philosophy with my clients, and especially during an initial consultation.  I give all of me during a consultation, coaching, or training session…I am a deep person and need to feel what is being shared in that moment.  It is in that moment, I can see clearly to help.  OK…I am all over the board here…but I hope you understand what I am sharing…simplicity comes with slowing down, being a good listener, a good friend, wife, mother, daughter and taking in the moment. Slowing down also means taking care of my body using slow, methodical movements where my muscles get the most benefit for the time I give. 

Exploring a Ghost Town

I am a simple girl…I love the smell of the first rain on the pavement, hummingbirds flying around my orange tree in the morning, the sound of laughter around the dinner table, my cooking being enjoyed, and my list can go on and on.  I sit here as a 47 year young woman who has lived a lot of life, experienced quite the journey and realizing that simple and slow may not be a million dollars…but is sure feels like a million dollars.  So, next time you think about wanting things now, fast, rushed….think about so many things that would be missed along the way…because truly…nothing good ever happens fast. I will end with another favorite saying….Exercise is a journey NOT a destination….this applies to everything in my life. Stay Healthy!

I Slow Life Down and Enjoy the Moment

                                                                                                                                                                                       

Motivation of the Day: Nothing Good Ever Happens Fast

Me in my Studio

Workout of the Day

45 minute exercise of my choice workout

I started out on my ARC trainer and felt burnt after 10 minutes, so with my minute interval timer clipped on my sports bra, I began doing whatever exercise that popped into my mind for that minute…it became a game…and before I knew it, 45 minutes…DONE.  So, included in my fitness game were lunges, low rows, lunge backs, step ups, bicep curls, triceps kickbacks, squats, and pull downs just to name a few.  I also used my tubing.  YES…today was a tough motivation day and happy that I completed the game.

Meal 5

Nutrition of the day:

Coffee…so good this morning;)

1-Thin Bagel with 1 Tbsp peanut butter

2-Post work out shake

3-Spinach salad with grilled chicken

4-¼ cup Pumpkin Seeds and ½ cup Greek Yogurt

5-Egg white scramble with spinach & avocado

Personal Share:  Happy 87th Birthday to My Fabulous Father!!!

Love You Dad ~ Your Baby Girl

IF YOU ENJOYED MY BLOG, LIKE IT, LEAVE A COMMENT, AND IF INSPIRED, OFFER ME A PROTEIN SHAKE!

STAY HEALTHY!

Healthy Spirits: Beer of the Month Club October 2011

Now ready for pick-up!

cheers,

dave hauslein

beer manager

415-255-0610

WHAT WE NEED TO PRACTICE

by Baxter

As I was enjoying Brad’s post from last week (he really cracks me up—smart and funny!), one statement jumped off the computer screen as I read it. Regarding confronting the inevitable course of aging, Brad stated, “We probably need to practice both acceptance and active engagement as we confront our own aging....”

Cathedral in Process by Brad Gibson

As I thought about the acceptance part of that equation, it reminded me of an experience a friend of mine had while living for a while at an ashram in Northern California. In addition to the center’s own spiritual leader, there were often visiting teachers and gurus, and one visiting guru had a seemingly straightforward message that went something like this: “Everything is already okay!” Well, this message really seemed to resonate with the staff at the center, especially with the kitchen staff, who took it to heart, so much so that the dirty dishes started to pile up. After all, everything is already okay! Finally, the ashram’s main teacher had to remind everyone that, even though this idea was certainly true, especially as a concept found in many yoga lineages, we also have work to do in this lifetime.

Men Working on La Sagrada Familia by Brad Gibson

Yoga posits an intriguing paradox that we each have a perfect, eternal quality already within us, sometimes referred to as the purusha or atman, and at the same time, we have a personal dharma or path to follow that requires active engagement in this lifetime. As a way of supporting the notion of healthy aging, I am able to “actively engage” in my life’s work as well as beneficial practices, such as yoga asana (poses) and pranayama (yogic breathing), that support the overall health and well being of my mind and body. And at the same time, I can access other yoga practices, such as mindful meditation and yoga nidra, where I am more involved in accessing the state of “being” as opposed to the state of “doing.” In these practices, I am able to tap into the acceptance part of the challenge of aging, and also this alluring concept that everything is already okay. We have come to discover through observation and research that this second set of practices (the acceptance practices), has very tangible benefits as well, including, to name a few, quieting the nervous system, lowering blood pressure, and supporting healthy digestion and immune function. For those of you not familiar with these practices, I would recommend the following books as an introduction:

Full Catastrophe Living, by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., for information about mindful meditation.

Yoga Nidra, by Richard Miller, Ph.D., for information about yoga nidra (an audio CD with practice for you is included)

More on active engagement next time!

STRESS TEST

by Nina

“You did great,” my oral surgeon said. “In fact, you were the most relaxed patient I’ve ever worked on. You even fell asleep there for a while.”

“Wasn’t asleep,” I mumbled through my numb and swollen lips. “Was doing yogic breathing.”

He looked at me with fascination, then quickly handed me a piece of paper and a pen. “Could you write down what you did for me?”

“Uh, email you later?”

Of course I didn’t become so good at yogic breathing just so I could stay, uh, relatively relaxed during gum surgery (though it was certainly an interesting test of my skills). As someone who once suffered from agitated depression, I’ve been using yogic breathing, along with many yoga techniques, for many years to manage my stress levels for my emotional wellbeing.

Under the Beach Umbrella by Joan Webster

Now it turns out that I’ve been practicing yoga for healthy aging while I was at it. Because I can tell you right now that along with exercise and diet, stress management is one of the most important keys to healthy aging. Chronic stress contributes to many common age-related diseases, such as high blood pressure and heart disease, and can cause a weakened immune system overall. It also affects the quality of your life. Possible effects of chronic stress include: chronic anxiety or depression, insomnia and/or fatigue, headaches, and digestive disorders.

And how does yoga help you manage your stress? Let me count the ways:

1. breath practices and meditation trigger the relaxation response 

2. inverted poses (and semi-inverted poses) physically reduce your stress levels

3. restorative yoga poses relax your body and quiet your nervous sytem 

4. active yoga poses (such as standing poses, twists, and backbends) release stress from your body and create a focus for your mind

5. yoga philosophy teaches you to cultivate equanimity in the face of difficulty

Over time, I’ll be providing detailed information and instructions for techniques in each of these different categories. And I hope very much that you’ll find one or more that’s useful.

And in case you’re wondering, yes, I did eventually email my oral surgeon. Next time you’re in a dentist chair (or are lying sleepless in bed, need a break after a stressful day, or just want to experiment), maybe you can try:

Breath awareness. Focus your attention on your natural breath, observing how your abdomen or chest rises with your inhalation and falls with your exhalation. When your mind wanders from your breath (to the dental procedure or any other topic), simply, and without judgment, return your attention to your breath. It is natural to be distracted from this practice, but it seems to work even if your attention wanders repeatedly.

Focusing on your breath will enable you to keep your mind of neutral topics rather than stressful ones, and after 10 or 20 minutes, the relaxation response (identified by Dr. Herbert Bensen of Harvard Medical School in the 1970s) will be triggered.

Extending the exhalation. The heart slows during the exhalation (and speeds up during the inhalation) so extending your exhalation is a relaxing breath practice (and also provides the benefits of breath awareness above). Take a deep soft inhalation followed by a deep soft exhalation. At the end of the exhalation, instead of inhaling again, retain your exhalation for one or two beats. Repeat through the procedure. Keep it easy. At no time should there be strain. If needed, return to your natural breath at any time.

During my procedure I did the second breath practice (extending the exhalation). But I’m very experienced with yogic breathing, and we generally recommend that beginners to start with simple breath awareness.

Broccoli Stalks Salad with Wasabi Sauce

Broccoli stalks are tender and flavourful. Shredded and dressed with a piquant wasabi sauce, they create a tasty base for an interesting Broccoli Stalks salad. It makes a nice light lunch, or accompanies sushi with panache. Sweet red pepper, freshly-grated ginger root, plump raw pumpkin seeds, arugula sprouts and black sesame seeds add crunch while boosting the nutritional profile of this easy-to-prepare recipe.

You'll need:

4-5 broccoli stalks; 1 sweet red pepper; 1 tablespoon grated ginger root; 1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds, soaked for 2 hours; 1/2 cup arugula sprouts; 2 tablespoons black sesame seeds.

For wasabi sauce: 

1 teaspoon wasabi powder; 1 tablespoon tamari; 1 tablespoon water.

Method: Soak pumpkin seeds in fresh water for 2 hours, drain and set aside.

Put wasabi powder in a large serving bowl, add tamari and water. Whisk until blended. Set aside for 5 minutes to rehydrate wasabi and develop flavour. Then add drained pumpkin seeds to wasabi sauce, and mix to coat well.

Peel broccoli stalks, and  finely shred with food processor or hand grater. Add to pumpkin seed-wasabi sauce coating well with liquid.

Chop red pepper into small pieces, and grate ginger root. Add to salad, and mix ingredients together using a large spoon, or hands to massage sauce lightly into vegetables. Toss in arugula sprouts and black sesame seeds. 

 Serve as a side-dish with sushi, or Japanese noodles. Or, simply serve this tangy wasabi- broccoli dish with rice crackers for an energizing lunch. Enjoy!

For thoughts about what happens in the kitchen, click here to visit zen-cuisine

CLARIFICATION: AGING, YOGA, AND SCIENCE

by Brad

Today’s post is largely in response to the question: How would one go about investigating the effects of yoga on aging scientifically? Before tackling this question—which I will get to in the next week or two—I will first attempt to define or at least discuss a few key terms and assumptions. The reasons for this will hopefully become clear.

In the broadest the terms, “aging” applies to how systems or entities change with time. To inanimate objects, such as your new car or jacket, this begins right after it’s manufactured or, more relevantly, after you bought it.  This process of aging can be rapid or slow (weeks, months, or years), and depends a lot on what the object is and what it was designed for.  In biological systems (including us), we typically think of aging as starting after development, or post-puberty in our case.  We also tend to associate aging with a decline and/or loss of functions, both physical and mental.  However, aging can include more positive properties or phenotypes, such as increased knowledge and skill sets, and it isn’t all that hard to name a few that fit into this category. But in most biological scientific studies of aging, we refer to aging mostly in the former sense, i.e., an accumulation of mostly pathological properties, such memory loss, frailty, neurodegenerative diseases, bone loss, muscle loss, and so on. Surprisingly there are quite a few competing theories of basic aging, such as error accumulation, telomere shortening, antagonistic pleiotrophy, free-radical theory, and entropy, just to name a few. What all (or most) of these theories seek to address is the underlying molecular and physiological event that drives these largely negative processes. 

Winter Trees by Brad Gibson

The term “successful aging” is more recent, having come into wide use in the last few decades. If you want to read more about this concept, I found the first chapter in the book Successful Aging: Perspectives from the Behavioral Sciences by Paul and Margaret Baltes quite useful (for information see Cambridge ebooks). 

Even last week as I read the science section of the New York Times (see NY Times), I came across a short review of a just-published study on “Alcohol Consumption at Midlife and Successful Ageing in Women: A Prospective Cohort Analysis in the Nurses Health Study” (see PLOS).  In this prospective correlative study, researchers at Harvard demonstrated that a modest increase in successful aging for women who consumed small, but regular amount of alcohol at mid-life. (Maybe a glass of wine after yoga class isn’t such a bad idea after all?). Here they defined "successful aging" in a more precise manner: "as being free of 11 major chronic diseases and having no major cognitive impairment, physical impairment, or mental health limitations." Of course, this more operational definition to successful aging made it easier to make clear and objective distinctions among the woman in this group, typical of population based epidemiological studies. 

When we chose the term ‘healthy aging’ for this blog, the purpose was to provide information not on just how practicing yoga might help to avoid or reduce your chances of acquiring one or more of these age-related losses, but also to better manage and minimize their impact when they occur. Indeed, this is the position most of us are in, whether is through the vagaries of our genetic background, chance, past behavior, or whatever. (This reminds me of the joke: Q: What’s the best thing you can do to insure a long life? A: Choose your parents well.) So as I go back and reconsider the original question on how science can study the relationship of yoga and aging, I will reframe this question a bit: How can science study the effects of yoga on our overall physical and mental health as we age? I’ll tackle this question next time….  But as a preview, there are few good places to start, including the 2009 pilot study in Lancet on comprehensive lifestyle changes and telomere length (a biomarker of aging and cellular senescence) and several recently funded NIH studies examining yoga’s effects on depression, fatigue, and menopause. 

And please leave any questions for the Friday Q&A in the comments.

Calling self-experimentation N=1 is incorrect and misleading

This is not a post about semantics. Using “N=1” to refer to self-experimentation is okay, as long as one understands that self-experimentation is one of the most powerful ways to improve one’s health. Typically the term “N=1” is used in a demeaning way, as in: “It is just my N=1 experience, so it’s not worth much, but …” This is the reason behind this post. Using the “N=1” term to refer to self-experimentation in this way is both incorrect and misleading.

Calling self-experimentation N=1 is incorrect

The table below shows a dataset that is discussed in this YouTube video on HealthCorrelator for Excel (HCE). It refers to one single individual. Nearly all health-related datasets will look somewhat like this, with columns referring to health variables and rows referring to multiple measurements for the health variables. (This actually applies to datasets in general, including datasets about non-health-related phenomena.)

Often each individual measurement, or row, will be associated with a particular point in time, such as a date. This will characterize the measurement approach used as longitudinal, as opposed to cross-sectional. One example of the latter would be a dataset where each row referred to a different individual, with the data on all rows collected at the same point in time. Longitudinal health-related measurement is frequently considered superior to cross-sectional measurement in terms of the insights that it can provide.

As you can see, the dataset has 10 rows, with the top row containing the names of the variables. So this dataset contains nine rows of data, which means that in this dataset “N=9”, even though the data is for one single individual. To call this an “N=1” experiment is incorrect.

As a side note, an empty cell, like that on the top row for HDL cholesterol, essentially means that a measurement for that variable was not taken on that date, or that it was left out because of obvious measurement error (e.g., the value received from the lab was “-10”, which would be a mistake since nobody has a negative HDL cholesterol level). The N of the dataset as a whole would still be technically 9 in a situation like this, with only one missing cell on the row in question. But the software would typically calculate associations for that variable (HDL cholesterol) based on a sample of 8.

Calling self-experimentation N=1 is misleading

Calling self-experimentation “N=1”, meaning that the results of self-experimentation are not a good basis for generalization, is very misleading. But there is a twist. Those results may indeed not be a good basis for generalization to other people, but they provide a particularly good basis for generalization for you. It is often much safer to generalize based on self-experimentation, even with small samples (e.g., N=9).

The reason, as I pointed out in this interview with Jimmy Moore, is that data about oneself only tends to be much more uniform than data about a sample of individuals. When multiple individuals are included in an analysis, the number of sources of error (e.g., confounding variables, measurement problems) is much higher than when the analysis is based on one single individual. Thus analyses based on data from one single individual yield results that are more uniform and stable across the sample.

Moreover, analyses of data about a sample of individuals are typically summarized through averages, and those averages tend to be biased by outliers. There are always outliers in any dataset; you might possibly be one of them if you were part of a dataset, which would render the average results at best misleading, and at worst meaningless, to you. This is a point that has also been made by Richard Nikoley, who has been discussing self-experimentation for quite some time, in this very interesting video.

Another person who has been talking about self-experimentation, and showing how it can be useful in personal health management, is Seth Roberts. He and the idea of self-experimentation were prominently portrayed in this article on the New York Times. Check this video where Dr. Roberts talks about how he found out through self-experimentation that, among other things, consuming butter reduced his arterial plaque deposits. Plaque reduction is something that only rarely happens, at least in folks who follow the traditional American diet.

HCE generates coefficients of association and graphs at the click of a button, making it relatively easy for anybody to understand how his or her health variables are associated with one another, and thus what modifiable health factors (e.g., consumption of certain foods) could be causing health effects (e.g., body fact accumulation). It may also help you identify other, more counter-intuitive, links; such as between certain thought and behavior patterns (e.g., wealth accumulation thoughts, looking at the mirror multiple times a day) and undesirable mental states (e.g., depression, panic attacks).

Just keep in mind that you need to have at least some variation in all the variables involved. Without variation there is no correlation, and thus causation may remain hidden from view.