health – Bilal Hafeez

How To Eat Your Way To 100 Years Old (3 min read)

There are so many books and articles about the right diet that it can be bewildering. There is the GI, Atkins, Paleo, Ketogenic, Dukan, Scandinavian LCHF, Banting, Bulletproof, South Beach and I’m sure many more diets.

All of these have there strong advocates and so it’s hard to decide which one to opt for. Thankfully, I came across the work of Professor Valter Longo,an expert on ageing, at USC Davis School of Gerontology. His work focuses on diets that can help you live longer and healthier, rather than diets that focus on weight loss and six-packs and is featured in his book , The Longevity Diet. His approach is based on five pillars: Continue reading “How To Eat Your Way To 100 Years Old (3 min read)”

Would You Trust “Doctor Artificial Intelligence”? (2 min read)

If you want to sound clever and entrepreneurial, just slip the words “machine learning”, “neural networks”, or “big data” into your conversations. Most people will pretend to know what you’re talking about and sound impressed. It makes it even easier, then, to simply re-label existing quantitative work as “machine learning” or “big data” and enjoy the halo effect. I should of course add that all my research is based on deep learning techniques using big data 🙂

Doctor AI

Given all of this I’ve been trying to find a good example where artificial intelligence (AI) has shown signs of making a difference Continue reading “Would You Trust “Doctor Artificial Intelligence”? (2 min read)”

4 Eating Hacks That Could Make You Live Longer ( 2 min read)

Dr Rhonda Patrick is a biochemist and expert on diet and ageing. I recently listened to a talk of hers. My ears perked up two hours into it, when she described 4 simple changes to one’s diet that could dramatically improve your health. Here they are: Continue reading “4 Eating Hacks That Could Make You Live Longer ( 2 min read)”

Enter the Way Of Bruce Lee (3 min read)

Growing up I loved Bruce Lee. His fighting skills, elegance and wit were unique. But beyond that, he showed that someone who looked different from the conventional superstar could become a global icon (a bit like Muhammad Ali). I wasn’t alone in thinking that. In a strange mash-up, the American rap scene took him up as an icon most notably with the American hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan. Continue reading “Enter the Way Of Bruce Lee (3 min read)”

The Statistics Of Our Death (2 min read)

Death. When we hear about it, usually on the news in the form of murders and wars, it is presented as shocking and rare events. The rest of the time, we take cues from our youth-centric culture to live in a cocoon of apparent immortality. Yet, we all know we will die. It is as inevitable as paying taxes. And it much more common than we think.

Guess how many people died in the United States last year? 5,000, 100,000, more? Continue reading “The Statistics Of Our Death (2 min read)”

Spring Cleaning For the Mind, Body and Soul (4 min read)

Spring is here, the sun is out and days are getting longer. There is something special about this time of year. Most cultures mark this time as the beginning of new things – we have Easter (Christian-influenced cultures), Nowruz (new year, Persian), Passover (Jewish), Holi (festival of colour, Hindu), Qingming (Tomb-sweeping, China), the spring equinox (usually March 20^th when day and night are of equal length) and of course the new fiscal year (!). So rather than using Jan 1^st as the time to make resolutions for the year ahead, I think spring is a much better time to begin afresh. The trick is to pick small changes that have outsized impacts on your life, and here would be mine: Continue reading “Spring Cleaning For the Mind, Body and Soul (4 min read)”

The Best Description Of Jet Lag…Ever

I’m reading the novel “Pattern Recognition” by William Gibson. Seth Godin recommended it. Loving the book, especially its description of jet lag, which unfortunately I often have to endure:

“Five hours’ New York jet lag and Cayce Pollard wakes in Camden Town to the dire and ever-circling wolves of disrupted circadian rhythm. Continue reading “The Best Description Of Jet Lag…Ever”

How To Reduce Stress and Anxiety? (2 min)

Benjamin Franklin said that the two certainties in life are death and taxes, but I would add another set: stress and anxiety. No matter what phase of life I’ve been in, what techniques I use, and what beliefs I have, I’ve always suffered from pangs of stress and anxiety. So recently I’ve decided to take a different tact, and rather than getting rid of them, I’m trying to accept them as part of who I am. Continue reading “How To Reduce Stress and Anxiety? (2 min)”

The Trippy Path To Connecting With Everyone

I’m always on the looking out for the non-conventional, so I was pleased to come across the work of Roland Griffiths. He is one of the world’s leading psychopharmacologists and works at Johns Hopkins hospital in the US. He’s done extensive work on mind-altering chemicals, notably psilocybin which is found in “magic mushrooms”.

Through giving varying dosages of this to subjects, he found that they developed more positive attitudes towards themselves Continue reading “The Trippy Path To Connecting With Everyone”

Are You Drunk While Working (Without Realising It)?!

(excerpt from my book…)

As for working all hours of the day or excess travel, this can seriously affect our sleep. This in turn has a major impact on our general health and decision-making abilities. Lack of sleep leads to greater pangs of hunger, more inclination to diabetes, higher blood pressure, poorer immune systems and higher stress levels. Not a great starting point for good decision making.

Then there is the startling similar effects of sleep deprivation and being drunk. Continue reading “Are You Drunk While Working (Without Realising It)?!”