Magazine Monday: Vitamin D and Iran

Interesting article in Smithsonian Magazine about the Vitamin D & MS connection in relation to some interesting statistics. During the time after the Iranian Revolution in 1979 - when the mandate for modest dress and head coverings was instated - the rates of MS in Iran skyrocketed. The rates of MS increased by almost 7-fold over a 16-year period, and tripled during the just 4-year period of 2005-2009! Better diagnoses is likely explanation for part of this jump, but certainly can't be enough to fully explain this huge increase. In the article, one Iranian research speculates that an Iranian genetic tendency for MS is exacerbated by the severe lack of vitamin D caused by the clothing mandate.

The full article can be read online here.

Magazine Monday: admirable motivation

I featured Ann Romney from last year's Fierce List from More Magazine. This year, I'm featuring another fierce lady from this list: Misty May-Treanor. The beach volleyball superstar has a pretty cool motto. Play for all those who can't, the sick, the disabled.

As I've talked about a few times on this blog, my experience with losing the ability to walk and otherwise use my legs appropriately, had a big impact on me. I think the human body and what it can do when it is functioning properly is pretty darn amazing. As in, miraculous and very much worth celebrating. I try to keep this mindset present as much as possible, now that my legs do basically work. And I've been trying to use this as a motivation for using them - for walking, for working out, for pushing myself. I am planning to crystallize these thoughts into something more concrete, but I love the idea of exercise and physical mastery over tasks like sports and endurance challenges being done because they can be done. Running a race because you can run, and so forth. This is the spirit of May-Treanor's motto and I really admire and appreciate it. Thoughts?