All posts filed under: Health

Marije Kruis, founder of the "Spot the Dot" initiative, captured in black and white.

«A simple act can save your life»

Published by Trotzendorff

Skin can­cer is an under­rat­ed but life-threat­en­ing dan­ger that can hit anyone—no mat­ter your age, gen­der, or skin col­or. As some­one at risk, I’m espe­cial­ly com­mit­ted to rais­ing aware­ness about this dis­ease. That’s why I’ve been sup­port­ing the «Spot the Dot» ini­tia­tive for a while now. It shines a light on skin can­cer through events, col­lab­o­ra­tions, or exhi­bi­tions. I recent­ly talked with Mar­i­je, the founder of Spot the Dot, about her per­son­al expe­ri­ence with skin can­cer, the chal­lenges she faced start­ing the ini­tia­tive, cul­tur­al dif­fer­ences in how skin can­cer is per­ceived, and the cre­ative ways she’s bring­ing atten­tion to the issue. Our con­ver­sa­tion high­lights just how cru­cial it is to take skin can­cer seri­ous­ly and how we can all play a part in prevention.

Beyond Resolutions: Why I Have no Idea Where This Progress is Coming From

Published by Trotzendorff

New Year’s res­o­lu­tions are a curi­ous thing. Lucky for me, I don’t real­ly need them to aim for more or less in my life. For instance, I don’t have to push myself to exer­cise; it’s such a nat­ur­al part of my dai­ly rou­tine that it’s not even nec­es­sary. But of course, I have goals and desires too. Like run­ning pain-free – after near­ly two years of a nag­ging Achilles ten­don. Or build­ing strength – after tear­ing my bicep ten­don last fall, it’s not just a wish, but a necessity. 

A man is sitting in a grainfield practicing breathing techniques.

A method worth exploring?

Published by Trotzendorff

It’s been a strange irony that I, lying in my bed, should stum­ble upon a book that deals so inti­mate­ly with the very thing that had brought me low. Covid had robbed me of my strength and left me short of breath, and yet it was in the midst of this strug­gle that I found dis­trac­tion and, yes, a tune up.

A woman seen from behind is running in a park.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on runners around the world

Published by Trotzendorff

You prob­a­bly have expe­ri­enced it your­self, or you may have read head­lines like this one: «Run­ning is enjoy­ing a boom because of the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic». And yes, it’s true. Gyms were closed. Spin class­es and boot camps had been can­celed. Peo­ple were stuck at home for most of the day for a long time. So run­ning has seen a boom dur­ing the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic. But what about the over­all sta­tis­tics? Did peo­ple run more dur­ing the pandemic?

Woman eating french fries.

The Palatability Theory

Published by Trotzendorff

There are clear and unan­i­mous fig­ures that obe­si­ty has increased over time, espe­cial­ly in rich nations like the Unit­ed States. On aver­age peo­ple today weigh more and have high­er body fat per­cent­ages than their recent ances­tors at sim­i­lar ages. But why is that the case? One wide­spread assump­tion is the palata­bil­i­ty the­o­ry. It posits that the pri­ma­ry cause is an increase in reward sig­nals in the mod­ern envi­ron­ment from processed food, medi­at­ed by the moti­va­tion sys­tem in the brain, caus­ing us to overeat.