Thursday, October 22, 2015
Friday, October 2, 2015
A very small rant.
The
Washington Post recently ran a short news item about the health benefits of fidgeting. This
subject always interests me because I am, or at least I was, a very fidgety person.
The headline ("Fidgeting might be good for your health, new study suggests") didn't exactly match the conclusions of the study; that didn't
surprise me -- news, especially online news, frequently has bait-and-switch headlines. What did surprise and irritate me a bit was that the quote from the co-lead author of the study makes absolutely no sense to me. Maybe one of my readers can
explain it to me. Here's the quote:
"While further
research is needed, the findings raise questions about whether the negative
associations with fidgeting, such as rudeness or lack of concentration, should
persist if such simple movements are beneficial for our health," study
co-lead Janet Cade of the University of Leeds said in
a statement.
What? I get the
part about "negative associations," and it's probably true that all
these years while I've been fidgeting I've been distracted and, more important, I've been rude to anyone nearby (sorry). But
what does "...raise questions about whether the negative
associations...should persist if such simple movements are beneficial for our health" mean? Is Dr. Cade saying that if fidgeting
leads to better health, and therefore longer life, it should also lead to
reduced rudeness and better concentration? That's the best I can do. Opinions?
Oh, one more thing.
The Post article links to the study and gets the name of the journal wrong.
They call it the American Journal of Preventative Medicine while the real name
is the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. I've long hated the word
"preventative" and I always edit out that errant "ta."
I guess I'm done. I'm
going to stand up now and go fidget since that seems to be the only exercise I get
these days. Unless complaining counts as exercise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)

