What Makes Olga Run?: The Mystery of the 90-Something Track Star and What She Can Teach Us About Living Longer, Happier Lives Author: Bruce Grierson | Language: English | ISBN:
B00EMTG0O0 | Format: EPUB
What Makes Olga Run?: The Mystery of the 90-Something Track Star and What She Can Teach Us About Living Longer, Happier Lives Description
A fascinating look at the way we age today and the extent to which we can shape the process
In What Makes Olga Run? Bruce Grierson explores what the wild success of a ninety-four-year-old track star can tell us about how our bodies and minds age. Olga Kotelko is not your average ninety-four-year-old. She not only looks and acts like a much younger woman, she holds over twenty-three world records in track and field, seventeen in her current ninety to ninety-five category. Convinced that this remarkable woman could help unlock many of the mysteries of aging, Grierson set out to uncover what it is that’s driving Olga. He considers every piece of the puzzle, from her diet and sleep habits to how she scores on various personality traits, from what she does in her spare time to her family history. Olga participates in tests administered by some of the world’s leading scientists and offers her DNA to groundbreaking research trials. What emerges is not only a tremendously uplifting personal story but a look at the extent to which our health and longevity are determined by the DNA we inherit at birth, and the extent to which we can shape that inheritance. It examines the sum of our genes, opportunities, and choices, and the factors that forge the course of any life, especially during our golden years.
- File Size: 506 KB
- Print Length: 257 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0805097201
- Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (January 14, 2014)
- Sold by: Macmillan
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00EMTG0O0
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,919 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Gerontology - #3
in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Gerontology - #3
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Personal Health > Aging
- #1
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Gerontology - #3
in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Gerontology - #3
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Personal Health > Aging
Bruce Grierson's book What Makes Olga Run? presents an intriguing picture of Olga Kotelko, a Canadian who carries a ton of energy on her tiny frame. She is an athlete who has won a huge amount of medals in competitive track and field events. Those accomplishments are mentioned in such clarity as to provide inspiration to get moving. Add to Olga's athletic prowess the fact that she was born in 1919, and you have the stuff that makes for a fascinating narrative.
The thought occurs that Mr. Grierson's book title could have ended with a period instead of a question mark. Various reasons are offered for what is behind the energy that has kept Olga going. For instance, there is the hereditary factor. Some people carry in their genetic makeup a likelihood for longevity. There is the choice factor. Olga chooses to constantly keep moving. She chooses to drink enormous amounts of water. The book digs deep into those kinds of things.
Only recently have some things happened to indicate the possibility that it might not be much longer before there's an end to Olga's incredible story. As the book nears the end, Grierson briefly touches on a potentially serious health issue. And he writes of a fall down a flight of stairs not long ago. But on March 2, 2014, she will be 97. And if health adversities can be overcome by anyone, the person who is capable of survival is surely Olga. She is not a quitter. She made a wise choice to make the most of her life, regardless of her age. She does not want to roll over and play dead, yet is ready to accept the inevitable whenever it comes.
This can be viewed as an unconventional self-improvement book. If everyone followed Olga's daily regimen, certainly there would be many more nonagenarians among us.
Using the story of a 90-year old athlete (narrated with a devotional/affectionate tone) as a powerful context, Grierson provides an excellent discussion on various topics related to aging and perseverance.
A narration that starts off as a biographical investigation quickly provides an excellent cover to discuss "adversity hypothesis" and how resilience in learnt. Some of the core concepts in this chapter are expanded in the more theoretical The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease. The author then builds on the topic of physical resilience to introduce neuroplasticity, the role of exercise in mind performance, and the power of any exercise. The discussion of the types of experiments conducted to assess such hypotheses in itself is a worthy read. (In fact, the discussion is so lucid, it may even force a committed couch potato to amp up their activity levels).
The chapter on the role of evolution in fitness (its ten dimensions) and the framing of "endurance v/s performance" is probably the best-written. It provides a reader not only an excellent context to think about how our views of exercise and use of body, in general - has changed and challenges to think what activity types should be encouraged.
Of course, any discussion on seniors/aging, will be incomplete without addressing "nature v/s nurture". Grierson provides a realistic assessment of where genomics is in terms of able to understand aging.
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