Juggling Dynamite

“Dr. Dean Ornish has a solution for lowering the nation’s skyrocketing health care costs: Lifestyle medicine. Ornish’s 37 years of clinical research show that chronic diseases such as severe coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and early-stage prostate cancer can be reversed or prevented by changing one’s diet and daily lifestyle habits. The best-selling author of six books including “Eat More, Weigh Less” and “The Spectrum,” and founder of the nonprofit Preventative Medicine Research Institute, tells The Daily Ticker that “limitations to high-tech approaches are becoming clear.” Randomized studies have determined that traditional treatments do not prolong life or prevent heart attacks, he notes, and lowering blood sugar with drugs “doesn’t work nearly enough as it does by getting it down with lifestyle…

Three-quarters of the $2.8 trillion that we spent on health care costs last year were predominately ‘sick care’ costs,” says Ornish. “If we can treat the underlying causes, which to a large degree are the lifestyle choices we make each day, we can make better care available to more people at lower costs, and the only side effects are good ones.” Here is a direct video link.

I am always intrigued by the human story behind historical icons. The evolution of Ghandi from being an ineffective lawyer with all the prejudice of his upbringing, through 21 years of diversity training in South Africa, to becoming an influential writer, leader, conflicted individual, “disastrous father” and world changing force for peaceful resistance to oppression, is a fascinating study in humanity in all our strength and weakness.

Ramachandra Guha on his new book: “India Before Gandhi.” Here is a direct video link.

A good wide ranging discussion on some key issues facing the economy and investment capital today.

Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive officer of DoubleLine Capital, discusses investor activism, interest rates, Apple’s future, and high-yield bonds. Here is a direct video link.