Blog Archives

 Mar 17

I'm not shy about the professional crush I have on Finland for their epic disease reversal story which started in the 1970s, an 80+% reduction in cardiovascular disease risk. I figure if you can take a nation from "worst to first", from incredibly high likelihood to having life cut short due to preventable disease in the 70s to, according to the World Happiness Report, the happiest nation on earth in 2022 (and many of the years since the report was first published in 2012), you're doing many things right. Although we won't know until next week if they retain the title again in 2023, as the report is scheduled for release on Monday, it's fair to say that when I see a study on injury/illness/disease prevention coming from the labs and universities there, I pay attention; this time, it was related to Diabetes.

Thankfully, the US doesn't need a worst-to-first type performance in this case and by global standards. According to rankings built on data from the International Diabetes Foundation and the World Bank, we're somewhere around 50 on the list of countries and territories by prevalence (percentage of the population with the condition). Of course, given the size of our population, that still translates to 130+ million Americans who either manage the disease (38 M) or are in the pre-diabetes progression (96 M), the highest risk category of developing the disease, which negatively impacts every tissue in the body, very much including the moving parts like muscles, joints, and connective tissue where nearly 3 of every 5 also have musculoskeletal disorders. 

So what have they learned in Finland? In short, and when it comes to Diabetes, it may be that purple is the new blue...or at the very least "Purple for Prevention."

 One of the really cool details in the Finland health-turnaround story of the 70s was that they had the right conditions to grow berries - lots and lots of berries, with special emphasis on strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. For those that follow this blog, you know we hold those blueberries in high regard. They are packed with anthocyanin (a plant phenol that gives the berry its blue color) which has been shown to have positive impacts on inflammation and therefore, not surprisingly, conditions with a significant inflammation component including heart disease, arthritis, and, yes, even Diabetes.  

Early this year, and thanks to a research team about 2 hours West of the capital of Finland, our understanding has gotten even more nuanced. In a very detailed review, they showed that acylated anthocyanin (a slightly more stable kind that gets through the stomach and deep into the intestines/colon before its relative magic is unlocked by the gut bacteria there) which is found abundantly in purple grapes (concord) and purple sweet potatoes may have an even more impressive impact. The review cites countless studies that have shown this impact for a variety of reasons from blood sugar lowering to inflammation impact. Pretty impressive stuff and more evidence of how much we can do to lower the risks we face.

It's almost gardening season. If you've got a green thumb, save some space for purple.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Mar 3

If history is correct, as far back as the 5th Century BC, ancient Greek historian Herodutus wrote of a mysterious pool of water in Africa that was responsible for the extended lifespan of a nearby tribe. Since then and across many centuries, whether a river, pool, or fountain, similar legends about life-giving springs that restore youth have persisted. On the surface it seems like it'd be a worthy pursuit if nothing else, a means to provide more time to learn and benefit from the inevitable mistakes made in actual youth. Such a thing might even make the famous Shaw quote, "youth is wasted on the young," a lot less relevant than it often seems.

But is it even possible to delay aging? Could 90 become the new 50? Or is this more smoke and mirrors than science?

Not surprisingly, this is the source of both debates and some very serious science. The Methuselah Foundation for example (originally the Performance Prize Society and rebranded to share a name with the most well-known super-ager of all time) whose mission actually is "to make 90 the new 50 by 2030," gives a substantial monetary prize to research teams who break the record for longevity in lab-mice in hopes to learn from the work. Although no actual fountain of youth has been found, researchers have recently started to more convincingly show that biological aging, which considers how our cells function and markings on our DNA (rather than solely our chronological age in years) might actually be malleable - something that can be accelerated or decelerated.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the same habits that are known to prevent, delay, or reverse many diseases associated with age (MOVE, FUEL, RECOVER) also seem to slow biological aging. However, as these habits are hard to regulate and study in a lab, the results are often "promising but not definitive." This month, however, a team led by researchers at Columbia University made a major step. Published in Nature Aging, the results of a two-year randomized controlled trial (often regarded as the "gold standard" of interventional science) showed that markers of biological aging (DNA Methylation) could, in fact, be slowed.

What was the intervention? Simple calorie restriction.

The team recruited 130 participants who were placed on 25% fewer calories per day for two years as well as a control group who ate normally. Not surprisingly the restricted group lost some weight and had some other cardiometabolic health markers improve. However, the really impressive stuff was in their DNA, where the rate of aging slowed considerably...not unlike some of the earliest winners in the mouse-longevity contest years before or many other studies on worms, insects, and non-human primates which have shown similar results.

The idea is simple - burning FUEL (metabolism) is one of many stresses on our system and results in the signs of aging in our cells. Improving the quality or reducing the quantity can both lessen this burden.

There's certainly more to come.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Feb 17

Hormesis. Such a cool idea - something that is toxic, in small enough doses, can be beneficial; a challenge to come back better, a stimulus for growth. In a sense, this is the proper term for the well-known phrase "that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger" - which although not universally applicable, is something we can find evidence of all around us. The most obvious example might be handling heavy objects. If we choose something way too heavy we could be crushed. Yet, if we choose something heavy "enough" to represent a near maximum but still successful effort, we call it resistance training, something almost everyone should be doing multiple times per week. There are of course other, less obvious, examples as well. We don't typically think of the Oxygen we breathe as a "bad" thing, but ask any scuba diver if the concentration of O2 matters, and you might get a lecture on central nervous system toxicity, the result of violating that "sweet spot" for too high a concentration of this otherwise life-sustaining gas.

For a while we thought that alcohol consumption followed a similar pattern - a little (such as 1-2 drinks per day) seemed to provide benefit, something of a challenge to our system, even though a lot was well-known to be harmful. In 1997 for example, a study in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine showed a 30-40% benefit related to cardiovascular disease in men and women who consumed 1 drink per day. A similar study replicated in Japan in 2005 showed similar patterns of benefit, between 12-20% in those who consumed 1-2 drinks per day, which for a long time was synonymous with "moderation" and generally considered to be an otherwise "safe" limit.

In the last 10 years, though, the messaging has begun to change as evidence continues to mount. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now takes a more cautious tone noting that a growing body of research points to risk worthy of pause, especially as it relates to cancer, at far lower doses, including "less than one drink". For someone like me, who enjoys a good beer, a glass of red wine, or something mixed now and then, this has all come as mostly unwelcomed news; something I didn't want to believe, a stage of change labeled "pre-contemplation", that is, the very very early stage when we're not-yet-even thinking about making a change...or more commonly referred to as denial.

As a person who lives, eats, sleeps, and breathes "health research" and also strives to live a high quality of life, this month it got even harder to deny. New research from one of the worlds best in the field of gut-microbiome studies (the trillions of bacteria in our gut that have roles in everything from digestive health to social and emotional health) showed that the World Health Organization, in January put out a statement that "alcohol is toxic", is probably right.

The study followed college-aged individuals (18-25 years old) who had no significant health or dependency history but drank to a level of binge drinking (more than 60g of pure alcohol, the equivalent of 4+ drinks) at least once in the last 30 days. They then tested a variety of bodily fluids to determine the impact. The findings were stark. Even after one bout of heavy drinking, the gut microbiome was significantly harmed. Although this probably shouldn't surprise us, we often use other forms of alcohol for the sole purpose of killing bacteria, it does provide a strong clue to the likely link to gastric distress suffered more frequently in binge drinkers as reported here. It might even be a root cause of inflammation levels spiking and the significant deficits in emotional processing reported both historically and in this new study.  

So what can we do? 

Well, the simplest answer is "we can change" - although like any change, simple shouldn't be mistaken for easy. But, like in any change process, we might start by weighing the pros and cons and begin to explore whether the benefits of changing outweigh the consequences of not changing. We might also consider working very hard to protect our gut health and minimize the harm in the meantime. Eating more fiber (prebiotic) or possibly fermented foods as well as foods that are high in antioxidants before or after ingesting alcohol could help. Some animal studies have shown that concentrated "superfoods" like pomegranate can help the gut wall from "leaking", one of the early cellular level changes that start the gastric-distress ball rolling.

Change is hard. Maybe it's time. Reach out if we can help to make it easier.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Feb 3

If you're old enough to remember Popeye the Sailor you're also old enough to remember his magical source of strength. You might even feel old enough to need such a thing...well, fresh out of the lab at the University of Exeter, we bring you good news. If you're not old enough, not to worry, you can benefit too.

Let's set the scene:

Popeye was a generally good, but not-particularly-special, character that first appeared in the comics in 1929. A few years later, as his character evolved, he drew great power, mostly in the form of physical strength, by eating spinach. Of course, with great strength comes great responsibility and so, in addition to performing amazing feats for his less physically endowed friends (one of which went by the name "wimpy"), he also had brief stints fighting crime or solving mysteries. The key to his great strength of the course was the spinach...which up until last month, seemed more fiction than the truth.

That's not to say that spinach (and other powerful leafy greens like arugula or other plants like beetroot) didn't seem to confer special physical benefits. For example, we've known for more than a decade that beet-root juice and even whole beetroot can increase running performance in recreational runners and that consuming foods that naturally contain high concentrations of dietary nitrate & nitrite, the source of the benefit, can be beneficial for our cardiovascular, immune and even inflammatory systems. However we should be aware (or maybe beware!), that the source matters.

 While natural sources (veggies, leafy greens, etc) give us the positive effects mentioned above, these same compounds, when used as food additives (often in highly processed foods, especially processed meats) appear to be linked with increased health risk. In a 2022 French population study of more than 100,000 people over 7 years for example, the risk of cancer, in particular breast cancer and prostate cancer, was significantly higher in those individuals who consumed significant amounts of dietary nitrates from food additives; an important wrinkle that effectively makes dietary nitrates/nitrites a double-edged, nutritional sword.

Fast forward to this year and the story gets even more compelling - fresh research produced (see what I did there? Fresh? Produce? anyway...) from The University of Exeter in England showed that these same compounds, when taken from healthy sources, can quickly get to the muscles AND can improve strength production, an average increase of 7%, especially in the early repetitions (the effect was most pronounced in the first 18 reps of 60), 1 hour after they were ingested.

So, while I'm not sure we can expect the kind of instant surge of grip strength needed to pop open a can of spinach in one squeeze, that big leafy salad at lunch might just be enough to keep us on the right side of injury risk. Score one for Popeye.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Jan 20

Not everyone likes to or is able to exercise. Although I hate to admit this fact, since there are many benefits across many areas (physical, mental, social, emotional, and more), it's no less true. For some, it's just too much. Maybe it takes too much time, too much planning, or maybe it feels boring and like a chore, or maybe the intensities in the gym or sports don't align well with their current abilities. Yet, as more and more of the world's population moves less and less, we also lose more of our resilience against the injury, illness, and disease risks we face - making the need to MOVE more both widespread and of critical importance.

But what if we could decouple "MOVE" or even "MOVE intensely" from "exercise"? After all, they're not really the same. Could it still give us what we're after? Could it possibly give us the reduction in risk (disease and even dying) that exercise does?  Well, according to new research, the answer seems to be "yes" and to understand it a bit better you have to rewind to 2020.

Without getting too deep into the weeds, in 2020 while the World Health Organization was busy trying to deal with a new widespread threat (pandemic), another wing of the organization was revising its physical activity guidelines to strike references to the idea that health benefits were only substantially gained by bouts of physical activity lasting at least 10 minutes. There are many reasons why they made this change, one of the most important was that as wearable devices that measure both physical activities (e.g. steps) and intensity (e.g. heart rate) were more commonly used and accurate, researchers could rely less on surveys and more on objective data...which was increasingly pointing to benefits of ALL physical activity, even incidental movement, especially if it was achieving exercise-like intensity - heart pumping and people huffing a puffing - something we and others started referring to as "fitness snacks".

As it turns out when they crunched the numbers over seven years of tracking, the risk of dying for those who got enough "VIPA" (vigorous-intensity physical activity) minutes, which was at least 2-3 bouts lasting 1-2 minutes, were significantly less likely to die during the study period, ranging from 25% to a staggering 50% less likely compared to those who did not get at least this "dose". The effect was seen across all causes, and when carved out, for cardiovascular disease and for cancer, the leading causes of death worldwide.

What does this mean for all of us? Well...

(1) if you love exercise, KEEP GOING - the benefits of doing so continue to be clear.

(2) If you don't share that love and find it hard to get going on a consistent exercise routine, you can still get a substantial portion of the benefit by working a few hard bouts of MOVE into your day.

(3) Dose matters - remember F.I.T.T.; The risk reduction came in around 2-3 bouts (frequency), hard enough to get the heart pumping at least 77% of max (estimate here) and/or becoming "breathy" when trying to talk during the activity, using short 1 or 2 word answers (intensity) for at least 1-2 minutes (time) doing any number of typical daily activities, like climbing stairs, carrying bags, walking fast, etc (type).

Generally speaking, this confirms that being sedentary comes with risk, but it also tells us there are ways to manage that risk at a lower investment of time and money than previously thought. 

To the stairwell!

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Jan 6

I do love the smell of a freshly brewed cup of coffee. Always have. For those of us who start our day with one, it can represent a range of experiences - both an energy jolt when we aren't quite ready to hit the ground running and a satisfying way to ease into the day when the schedule allows. Not only is it the delivery mechanism of choice for the most commonly used drug on the planet (caffeine), a good cup of coffee prepared in any number of ways, can represent the backdrop of a business meeting or an excuse to catch up with a friend. To say coffee has an important role in modern culture is a big understatement. 

And it's healthy for us right? Right? 

This of course is not nearly as simple a question as it sounds. Although no one likes "it depends", yes...and no...and maybe, under certain circumstances, is about as accurate an answer as we have.

Here's what a snapshot of the science says:

Observational studies, the kind which monitors groups of people and then applies statistical tests to see if consistent associations exist (such as "coffee consumption" and "health outcomes") have generally leaned toward the positive. This large umbrella review from a team based in the UK in 2017 for example showed that by and large, the health benefits appeared to outweigh the drawbacks except in specific groups and the greatest benefit came in around 3-4 cups per day. Certain groups (e.g. women at greater risk of fracture) however appeared to land on the opposite side of the risk-reward curve with the team concluding "Women at increased risk of fracture should possibly be excluded". 

Studies with a randomized design, including those which consider genetic predispositions help us to get closer to understanding cause and effect (rather than only association) seem to produce mixed results. For example, this 2016 study which looked more closely at the seeming benefit of coffee consumption on Type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and depression found that the effect, if any, was very small, while this 2020 randomized controlled trial suggested higher consumption may actually make risk factors like blood lipids (cholesterol, etc) worse.

Some randomized trials like this one which showed beneficial effects in adults after consumption of either caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee suggest some benefit at least in the short term, while prospective studies which instead of looking backward into the past to find observations, look from a point in time forward have found that a few caffeinated cups per day (3-4) can yield positive benefits somewhere in the 10% risk reduction range but the effect requires something of a "Goldilocks", not too little, not too much (nonlinear) dose.

And still yet, new research out last month and published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that when blood pressure was already high (greater than 160 systolic over greater than 100 diastolic), consuming more than 2 cups of coffee per day was linked with about twice the risk of dying due to cardiovascular disease as those consuming one cup or less per day; a risk that was NOT present with the consumption of green tea. 

Last, but certainly not least, there's enough caffeine in coffee to have a significant impact on our sleep which DEFINITELY DOES impact our health and ability to fight pain, injury, and disease (such as in this new study)...which showed that when individuals reached for more coffee they had both poorer sleep and more reports of pain.

Confused Yet? If so, you're not alone. The best we can say right now seems to be "it depends" which can be maddening, but is no less accurate. 

In plain English - although it may be a cure for "a case of the Mondays", and may indeed have some minor risk-lowering benefit, coffee is probably not a cure for actual disease. Then again, with the exception of burns, it's probably not the cause of disease either. For those who might fall into a special population (high risk of fracture, uncontrolled hypertension) caution is probably warranted, and learning as much as possible about the condition is likely a good thing. 

Wintertime can have us reaching for coffee more frequently. If we respect it for what it is and isn't, what it can and cannot do, we can stay within the healthy dose. For those looking to maximize current health or minimize the risk of decline, after a cup or two, switching to green tea (or similar) when we're feeling the desire for something warm probably makes good sense.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Dec 23

I was talking to a colleague who lives in the Midwest about his holiday plans. He was excited to be only a few days away from boarding a plane East. Not only was he going to see his daughter, son-in-law, and the first grandchild which was enough to foster the courage to brave holiday travel all by itself, but he was also pretty excited to be leaving plummeting temperatures and wind chills deep into the negative double-digits for highs in the comparatively balmy mid-Atlantic. Fully warranted excitement if you ask me.

And so here we are - the time of year when "Jack Frost starts nipping at our nose", our bodies stiffen (literally) in the face of colder temps and, as we age, our susceptibility to more serious injury/illness/disease goes up. Yes, as we march toward the end of the calendar year 2022, we also march toward the first risk peak in 2023 (winter), which officially started on Wednesday of this week and marks the beginning of a 13-week period when our bodies work a little harder to adapt to the seasonal-stress that cold brings.

If you work in an environment where surfaces freeze, slips/trips/falls may seem the obvious threat and for good reason, however, that's not the only risk we face. We are more likely to suffer from movement-related disorders during the winter and, due in part to rises in blood pressure that naturally occur in the cold, cardiovascular complications are more common in the early winter(December/January) and especially in the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day as our bodies both adapt to the colder temps and manage the bustle of the season.

So what can we do about it? How can we stay on the healthy side of the risks we face now and all winter long?

Respect the Cold and consider a face covering when appropriate: When body temperature drops things can go wrong in a hurry...and when there's moving air or water involved "cool" is plenty cold enough to cause problems. This is especially true at areas of the body where specialized blood vessels move a lot of blood from arteries to veins (anastomoses). For example, this new research showed that moderate cold exposure to the face caused a blood pressure increase similar to whole-body cold exposure.  

Take time to warm up: When done deliberately, "getting moving" prior to full activity is both simple and effective. By gradually bringing the heart rate up and stimulating blood flow to the working tissues, we can bring the body temperature up and at the same time prime the soft tissues for greater elasticity, all of which can enhance physical performance. A few minutes of MOVE can go a long way.

Warm Up before Bed: When we consider that a slightly cooler body temperature appears to induce sleep, this one may be a bit counterintuitive. Yet the results are fairly consistent - people who get warm before bedtime seem to do better from a health perspective. Take for example this sample of individuals who resoundingly reported better sleep after sauna exposure or this new study from Japan which showed better blood pressure in those who routinely bathed in hot springs later than 7 PM. No sauna or hot springs nearby? Not to worry, this study-of-studies showed that even a 10 min warm shower 1-2 hours before bed improved sleep markers.

The Winter is not coming, it's here. Plan accordingly and stay on the right side of risk.

Have a great weekend, great holidays, and for those who celebrate, a Merry Christmas.

Mike E.

Dec 9

At the time we thought we were on the dawning of a new era in medicine. Now that the human genome project had wrapped up (2003) and gotten us more than 90% of the way to full sequencing, the promise of personalized and precision medicine seemed right in our grasp. It would undoubtedly be a time when understanding, isolating and repairing or replacing high risk genes, was right around the corner. 

Then, less than a decade later, which was about twice the speed that things were getting from the lab to medical practice back then and so, quite fast, a 2010 review in the New England Journal of Medicine pointed to data which showed, outside of very specific single-gene diseases, the direct conclusive evidence for whole system diseases like diabetes simply wasn't there. 

Around that same time, the concept of epigenetics, which is the study of how our behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way our genes work, was gaining importance. Simply put, and something we've covered as recently as September in the blog titled "Generational Health", our day-to-day actions and exposures have the ability to turn the "dimmer switch" of our genes up and down (up and down regulate) and maybe even on and off. Said another way, we may have been given the underlying nature for a disease (potential via genes), but how we nurture that nature (our actions/exposures) is critical to what actually happens; a fact that is particularly important in complex situations where it's not a single gene that matters but dozens like metabolic health and disease (diabetes, obesity, and related).

To test this theory even further, researchers from the medical school at Washington State University studied the impact of physical activity in identical twins (same genes), who were raised in the same household but had differing health behaviors and/or lived in significantly different environments from a "walkability" perspective as adults. Their findings, published this month provided further support for exactly how powerful our healthy actions are, in this case recommended physical activity minutes per week (150 moderate minutes). 

The bottom line was that at least 50 different gene-sites known to impact metabolic health were positively impacted from a habit of physical activity. 

Our actions and experiences impact our future health...all the way down to our genes. Make them count.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Nov 25

By now you MUST have heard the news. Gratitude is a powerful emotion for individuals, teams, families, and even corporations. While I'm certain the Thanksgiving story misses the historical mark on more than a few details - it seems the theme, that is, giving thanks, is bigger than most realize - and probably deserves moving from "a" day to every day.

For starters, let's touch on some of the physical health benefits - in a systematic review of the available research published in 2020, a team in New Zealand determined that those who practice gratitude are more likely to enjoy the following:

• Better Sleep Quality

• Better Blood Pressure

• Better Blood Sugar control

In addition, some (although inconclusive) effects on inflammation and physical symptoms appear. But that's not all. 

 Last year, a team looked at a dataset from a University of California at San Francisco study related to stress and blood pressure across nearly 5,000 participants and found that gratitude (and optimism) predicted lower heart rate and blood pressure, better sleep quality, more exercise, less stress, more positive expectations and reflections, and greater feelings of appreciation toward others. But that's still not all...and here's where it gets cool.

This year, another team investigated whether over a few weeks, either "taking a moment", that is, intentionally stepping back from one's day (decoupling) and practicing mindfulness (via a guided meditation) or journaling twice weekly could improve gratitude markers (measured by survey) and helpful behavior (measured by a survey of a coworker). Interestingly, both sub-studies pointed to a similar finding: Achieving a state of mindfulness, prompted greater levels of gratitude, motivation to help others, and, eventually signs of better teamwork. 

Thanksgiving may be a one-day endeavor that features big meals or sometimes entertaining football games. If we let it, it can also be the kickstart we may need to step back, "just be" for a few minutes every day, and, if the research is right, ultimately enjoy better health and more positive relationships with those around us.

We hope your Thanksgiving was a great one.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Nov 11

Boil us humans all the way down and it's really pretty simple, like any system, we are a series of inputs and outputs. On the input side of the equation are things we eat, things we do, things that we are exposed to (even without "doing"), and, at risk of getting too deep, even things we miss/lack or avoid. On the output side of the equation are thoughts, actions, emotions, sensations, and more. Pretty simple. 

Of course, in between the inputs and outputs lies an interwoven, hard to understand, and even mysterious at times "system of systems" - the very definition of complex. The upside is, this gives us plenty to write about each week and with any luck, each wrinkle we can smooth out gives us all a bit closer understanding of how best to care for and maintain it. This week, after an email tip from a reader* and the emergence of a cool new discovery about motivation, we decided to highlight a few cool input/output stories which impact the brain.

First, let's start with another healthy investment of time/effort (input) which has proven to improve our cognitive performance (output) as we age. It's not exercising, nor maintaining a low inflammatory diet, nor getting good sleep this time - although each of those is well proven - this is closer to "brain games", and specifically which have the greatest impact on future brain health. As it turns out (and published here in the prestigious journal NEJM), one and 1/2 years after starting either computerized games designed to challenge the brain or crossword puzzles, the crossword puzzle group outperformed the "games" group on a variety of measures and even saw less decline in the size of the brain in two areas measured (hippocampus volume and cortical thickness). Conclusion? Crossword puzzles were the superior "input" if maintaining healthy cognition is the "output" we're looking for. Open question? Where does wordle fit? Stay tuned, I'm sure someone is studying it.

But what if it's not a knowledge thing - we know what we "should" do - but a motivation thing; we just can't seem to get into gear and do it!? 

Well, according to new research from a team in Switzerland, it seems we are closer to a place to start. In a fascinating twist, the team found that a particular area deep in the brain which is known to play a major role in motivation including rewards/aversions/etc (called the nucleus accumbens), is sensitive to oxidative stress, which, way oversimplified, is the higher-than-ideal presence of toxic cellular waste molecules ("oxidative species"). This discovery led to a simple theory: if substances known to combat oxidative stress ("antioxidants") were more abundant, motivation might increase. 

The research team focused on a potent brain antioxidant, a protein known as glutathione (GSH) which the body outputs from a variety of inputs (spoiler alert, MOVE and FUEL and RECOVER among others). When GSH levels were low in that area of the brain, so was motivation. When they were high, so was motivation. Then, to tease out cause and effect (and this time in rats not humans) they either input a GSH blocker or booster and found that, right on cue, the output of motivation went down and up respectively.

If the outputs matter, so do the inputs. Now is as good a time as any to pick a good one.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

*special thanks to Mike W for sending the NEJM article

Oct 28

It's a bit like the financial planner who tells the story of the person who chose to "set it and forget it" - that is, automatically withdraw pretax money from their paycheck each week and let it use the power of compound interest over time. The conclusion is almost always an impressive nest egg by retirement. 

Or maybe it's the story the seasoned coach tells of the (rare) athlete who simply "trusted the process" and logged the training hours even when "base" training seemed too easy to do anything or "breakthrough" sessions seemed like punishment.

The moral of these stories are shockingly similar - slow and steady wins the race, the tortoise often beats the hare, consistency beats intensity, and the "tried and true" got that way for a reason.

With that in mind and in light of 3 new studies that came out this week which reinforced a few of those tried and true concepts, here's what you need to know:

(1) When it comes to MOVE - something is infinitely better than nothing. As shown in research from a group in Canada, "activity snacks", that is, short bursts of movement to break up an otherwise sedentary day, especially when timed after a meal, are surprisingly powerful. The team tracked a blood marker that signifies whether food is being used by the muscles in a healthy way under 3 conditions: sedentary (no activity snacks), air squats (do a sit-to-stand using only bodyweight 15 times every 30 minutes), and walking (brisk 2 min walks every 30 minutes). When it came to the results - squats were better than sitting and walking was the best. Headline? Less than 5 minutes of movement every hour significantly changes how our bodies use fuel.

(2) In the FUEL category - another tried and true message bubbled up to the top of the pile this week. Maybe you've heard us say (over and over and over) to "eat more plants". Of course, we are quick to point out that this is a general statement for "every person" and maybe too general for some. However, the concept is simple and holds true for the vast majority - when we put a little bit more of the inflammation-lowering, gut-health-promoting fiber, which comes from plants, and many diets lack, we get health benefits. As it turns out, for those who don't eat much fiber, "more" could be as small as 2 servings of almonds per day. Researchers from London asked study participants to try it using 56 grams of almonds, either whole or ground, and compared a key indicator of their gut health (butyrate) against a control group. The almond eaters fared significantly better. Of course, it's unlikely that almonds are the only food giving this result but there's certainly more to come. Headline this time? If you're not getting enough fiber, even a little effort can go a long way.

(3) In regards to RECOVER - duration matters. Once again research has confirmed that short sleep at midlife is linked with chronic disease as we age. A team in London confirmed that individuals who routinely slept 5 hours or less per night at 50 years old were 20% more likely to develop a single chronic disease in their retirement years AND up to 40% more likely to develop two or more (termed "multimorbidity") than those who routinely got at least 7 hours of sleep per night. Sleep is one of the most important health tactics we have - we should probably treat it like our (quality of) life depends on it; it does.

If you're already doing these things CONGRATS....keep going. If not, maybe it's a great time for an experiment to see if the tried and true can work for you. Good luck and let us know if we can help.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Oct 14

We've all heard it before - "If you want to stay healthy and lean, don't eat after 8 PM"  Or is it 9 PM? Or does it really matter at all? 

 The short answer is - Yes it matters - there are many studies that have shown this observation over the course of time - but until very recently we didn't know exactly why. Some evidence says eating late relates to changes in our core body temperature while other research says it relates to metabolic disorders. However new research out this week from a team based in both Boston and Spain has brought a deeper level of understanding than we've ever had before.

According to the research - eating late at night has three important and strikingly negative effects on our systems:

(1) Late eating increases waketime hunger and decreases levels of the fullness-hormone "leptin", which acts as the signal that tells our brain when we are no longer hungry, but that's not all. 

 (2) Late eating decreases the rate that our bodies burn calories while we are awake (waketime energy expenditure) as well as lowers our body temperature over the next 24 hours, but that's still not all.

(3) Late eating tells the genes that regulate our fat cells to store fat (rather than burning it).

Any one of these effects could be problematic, yet combined, the impact of all three could be very detrimental. 

This one is relatively short. There's simply no need to belabor the point - going to bed "empty" is not just for better sleep - it will protect our metabolic health as well. 

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Sept 30

We can learn a lot from worms; well, a Nematode (roundworm) to be exact. C. Elegans, a particular type of roundworm, is a model organism used to research a variety of biological functions in animals; its involvement leading to a variety of discoveries that have helped us better understand how the nervous system, metabolism, and even the way genes work (or don't). Not a bad contribution for a little animal most people have never heard of.

Earlier this week, the well-studied little critter made science headlines again as the subject of research at the University of California Santa Cruz which showed, with more clarity than ever, that our life experiences can imprint, encode, and can ultimately prove responsible for turning genes on and off, generations in the future. Formally known as "transgenerational epigenetic inheritance", which, admittedly sounds a little complex, the concept is not as hard to understand as it sounds.

In essence, our life's experience (environment, behaviors, etc) has an impact on which of our genes turn on, which turn off, and to what degree. This is called "epigenetics" and it has established a very clear link between our day-to-day health behaviors and the way our bodies adapt to those behaviors - all the way down to our genes. For example, epigenetics helps explain the genetic harm done by smoking or by routinely poor dietary choices and it has been a hotbed of study for the last 10 years or more.

This new research however adds a significant wrinkle - that those changes are NOT something that gets reset in the next generation, but that they are passed down to our children and grandchildren (at least) and possibly even further than that. Said more simply, the expression of OUR genes, at least in part, has been influenced by our grandparents' health choices and the same will be true for those of us who have children and grandchildren of our own. 

Not unlike the savvy saver who builds a financial nest-egg that can be handed down to children or grandchildren, the healthy mover (or fueler, recoverer, endurer, and connector - since all of these areas of health are known to influence epigenetics and some generationally) is building a critical asset with value well into the future.

There are very few investments that can give both instant and distant returns. Healthy actions are one.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Sept 16

My refrigerator has ratted me out. OK, that's probably a little sensational. In truth, it has "raised my awareness" of a nasty little habit I've developed. No, it's not some type of smart tech that is designed to keep me mindful...at least I don't think it is...but it seems to work that way for me. See, this 2-door refrigerator (a recent replacement), has a feature where it cannot dispense water when the opposite door is open. Now, this probably doesn't seem like that big of a deal; in truth, it's not. But it was a VERY effective way to point out that I had developed a mindless fridge-trolling habit every time I got up to fill a glass of water. And I do mean EVERY time. 

It used to be a simple loop of: start filling the glass (left hand), open the fridge (right hand), and mindlessly scan for a snack - whether hungry or not - at least until the glass was full. I didn't always find something, but I always looked. That is until the loop became: start filling a glass (left hand), open the fridge (right hand), notice the water had frustratingly shut off, close the fridge and get back to work, feeling like something was missing. It was literally a wake-up call. 

I wasn't really hungry nor was I craving anything in particular and yet my behavior (once it was made so glaringly obvious), suggested I was always open to the idea of eating. So where does this mindless snacking habit come from? If we could solve this riddle, we might better understand some of why most of us are at risk of steady weight gain by middle age, despite the ever-increasing certainty that over-consumption of particular foods, especially those that are sugar-sweetened or fatty, seem to add both pounds and risk for injury/illness/disease and even dying prematurely. Well, thanks to a team of researchers at Columbia University we have more clues and, as it turns out, it's NOT just as simple as "because they taste so good" (aka hyper-palatability).

This time they found, much like their 2020 work on sugar, fat consumption is driven not only by lighting up the brain by way of taste (i.e. receptors on the tongue) but ALSO by circuits that monitor nutrient absorption in the intestine. Said more simply, even when the subjects (mice) were unable to taste the food (bred without the ability to taste), they learned to prefer foods that were able to provide usable fuel (sugar and now fat) over tasty but unusable fuel (artificial sweetener) within 48 hours. The connection between their gut and their brain (aka the gut-brain axis), although much slower than taste receptors, which helped prove it wasn't the tongue driving the behavior, was still driving them to go back to the source of the sugar and fat....not that unlike my fridge habit.

It may even help us understand why individuals who habitually ingest artificial sweeteners (i.e. tasty but not usable nutrients) may actually have an increased risk of metabolic diseases like diabetes and decreasing consumption of diet sodas (even those with no calories) can improve weight and associated risks ...because we don't only forage for flavor...we forage for FUEL; and since one without the other won't satisfy our needs, we are left craving more.

This time next week it will officially be Fall. Here's to finding some recipes that are both flavorful AND satisfying; perhaps a little less pumpkin spice and a bit more pumpkin! Definitely let us know if you've got a good one.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Sept 2

Although we don't write about it nearly as often as tactics to stay healthy or ways to improve physiological variables like cardiorespiratory fitness, strength, recovery rates, etc, a big part of our team's work is looking at human movement during particular tasks and finding ways to improve efficiency; broadly, the use of ergonomic principles. Whenever possible, reducing wasted energy, such as finding, based on a person's movement patterns, the easiest way to get a task done, is a worthy pursuit.

In some cases, when the task is highly intense or commonly performed, we might research the tools, mechanisms or materials that contribute to fatigue (for example, glove materials that have less stiffness and reduce the risk of forearm fatigue in our utility clients). In other cases, we might explore mechanisms that make a task more "doable" or enjoyable by a larger population (such as the use of an E-bike to lower barriers to physical activity). In still other cases, such as with traditional athletes, we might be looking for ways to give a competitive edge, such as exploring research related to shoe choice, energy return and running economy in sports like running. 

In situations like these, even a "a little help" can go a long way: 

- A slightly less stiff glove may keep the wearer below the fatigue threshold and therefore out of harm's way. 

- A little bit of assistance from a lightweight motor might make cycling for transportation more enjoyable (and less sweaty) and encourage more people to do it. 

- Improved running economy of +/- 3% over the course of a marathon can make a real difference in performance.

So what if these assists were available all the time? Would there be less injuries? Would there be a greater likelihood that more people would engage in physically demanding efforts? Would performance improve overall? It looks like a team at Rice University is betting the answer to at least 1 (and maybe all three) is a strong "Yes". In a recent paper (with accompanying videos) they describe a method for embedding mini-assists into the clothing we wear. Can you imagine a shirt that interprets your movement as "intending to lift your arm" and then helps you do so? They did....and built it. 

Of course, it's very early on, and I'm not sure robot-clothes are higher on my list of cool gadgets than a Jetson Car just yet, but there are many possibilities that can make heavy tasks safer and more efficient here, so we'll definitely keep watching for ergo-clothes to hit the market.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Aug 19

If you want to improve strength and fitness, which is of course critical to our health now and into the future, it's not super complicated; "just" increasingly load the working tissues using a progression of movements that, when applied at the proper speed, produce the desired outcome. OK, that actually does seem a bit complicated. Now, in fairness, there IS a little more to it than the immortalized tactic of this Planet Fitness strongman, but for those of us who lean more toward "health and quality of life" than the "elite athlete" - it really can be a simple process and it may have just gotten even less time consuming.

First, let's start with a few critical concepts: 

"Volume" - which has long been considered the best way to quantify exercise, is made up of 3 key components. Similar to how length, width and height are multiplied to determine the volume of a rectangular container, we consider how often we load the body (Frequency), how much effort is required (Intensity) and how long we are exposed to the load (Time/duration). We use the acronym F.I.T. to make it easy to remember.

"Type" - which, in general, can be considered "how" we apply the loads to achieve the desired volume, includes things like the chosen resistance (body weight vs. external resistance such as weights vs. bands or medicine balls, etc), the particular movement patterns and the desired speed at which we move the resistance through space. When combined, this now updated acronym (F.I.T.T.) acts as the backbone of almost all traditional training plans and not surprisingly, there is a deep well of research that considers which combinations yield the best results for any given training goal.

But what about the "every person" - the human who understands that maintaining tissue strength and flexibility via movement practice is critical to future health - but desires to commit the least possible time in training (aka those of us who "don't have time to exercise") and therefore prize efficiency? Well, so says new research by a team in Japan and Australia, we are best to start at the beginning....and prioritize the "F"....to first, focus on frequency. 

In their study, in an effort to test the assumption that equal training volumes produce equal results regardless of how they are achieved, they compared different combinations of Frequency and Time, leaving Intensity and Type constant. One group of participants exercised a little (6 repetitions) on an infrequent basis (only 1 time per week). A second group exercised a little (the same 6 repetitions) on a more frequent basis (5 days per week, for a total volume of 30 max effort reps) and a third group achieved the full volume (30 max effort reps) on an infrequent basis (one time per week). The different combinations produced different results over a 4 week period.

Least surprisingly, the group who did a little bit on an infrequent basis didn't gain strength. HOWEVER, they didn't lose strength either - possibly adding to other research which says weekly efforts can prevent decline (i.e. maintain) certain aspects of fitness. So if nothing else, a little something at least weekly, can slow the effects of aging, sedentary lifestyle or periods of time when more regular efforts aren't possible.

What was surprising however, was the significant difference between the two higher volume groups, despite the fact that they performed identical volume per week. While the once-weekly (high rep) group showed some improvement in muscular thickness (i.e. how the muscle looked), they didn't experience any significant strength gains. On the other hand, the higher frequency (relatively low rep) group improved strength +/- 10% in all 3 critical muscle modes: while being elongated (eccentric), while contracting (concentric) and while holding steady (isometric). A little bit done regularly worked. 

To put this in perspective, using 4 exercises to achieve a "whole-body" workout (Squat, Overhead Press, Pull Up and Deadlift) and performing each x6 reps (for a total of 24 reps), in my very unscientific test (I timed myself), a "minimalist workout" took less than 1 minute per exercise and 1.5 minutes of setup time for a grand total of 5 min and 3 seconds.

If we boil it all the way down, maybe Will Durant's famous quote (summarizing Aristotle) with a little substitution applies here too - "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence Strength, then, is not an act, but a habit." - I'll let you know in 4 weeks how it turns out.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Aug 5

Patient: "It hurts when I do this (moves arm) doc"

Doctor: "don't do that then"

It's the classic doctor-patient meme, a one-liner originally attributed to comedian Henny Youngman, but the more we learn, the more it seems to capture how a critical component of common and long-lasting aches and pains might go astray; the complex two way street of the nervous system and its many brain-body connections that produce human movement.

In the last 100 years our understanding of human movement has progressed by leaps and bounds. We have moved from the purely mechanical components - the levers and pulleys of muscles pulling on bones to move them at joints - to the contributions of living tissue and the many "little things" that help them to stay healthy, perform near their best and recover well enough to repeat the feat each next day for a lifetime. In the last 10 years another major contribution has come to light; the wider lens of the whole-person and how their unique interactions with their environment, including their perceptions, beliefs and previous experiences (context) impacts their movement, pain and recovery.

It sounds super complex and at some level it is but it's not uncommon. Say for example we over-do some weekend-warrior chores or have gotten to an age as an athlete where our mind thinks we still "can" but our body is less sure (so I'm told ) and we enter into the somewhat grey area of something that "hurts" but is not "harmed", that is, we experience some level of discomfort or pain, but no signs of injury so we try to ignore it, maybe with a little hitch in our movement patterns to minimize the irritation until things get back to normal. Not only is this a natural instinct, but it usually serves us well by giving the area a relative break and allowing it to calm down so we can get back to normal movement and life-as-usual. 

But what if we've had this discomfort once or twice in the past and it was intense enough that it left us a little scared to go through it again? What if  someone we cared about had something similar that turned out to be longer-lasting and it worried us? Could our unique context and history cause us to respond differently, maybe in a more exaggerated way? If so, could this have more pronounced effects on how we move and therefore (in an ironic twist) actually INCREASE our odds for future and worse episodes of the exact discomfort we're trying to avoid? If so, it would seem that deliberate efforts to restore normal movement patterns and the brain-body connections in the central nervous system that produce them, might actually improve things more fully than an isolated approach to reduce local discomfort. That is, when we retrain a body to move like it "should", we might also retrain the brain's expectations and baseline "settings"...and, so says some new research out of Australia, when it comes to chronic lower back pain, improve healing.

Specifically, the new approach focuses on helping people who suffer with chronic lower back pain (typically defined as lasting >90 days) to achieve 3 goals:

(1) to understand the latest and best information about the causes of chronic lower back pain (and debunk a bunch of outdated and disproven scary stories)

(2) reintegrate the way the brain and back communicate with each other

(3) gradually retrain the brain to reset its "pain radar" and the body to resume normal movement.

Of course, as a first-of-its-kind study, this is just the beginning of a conversation, but, based on everything we know about the impact of movement on health and quality of life, it makes total sense - the way we move plays a major role in how we experience the world. Maintaining, protecting, strengthening and occasionally restoring it when needed is critical to making sure it's a great experience. 

If you've had back pain that has lasted for a while and maybe even has you moving differently than you think you should, feel free to reply back and we'll start a conversation to sort it out. Keep moving...well.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

July 22

4 things to do (or avoid), 4 things to monitor. 8 essential components of cardiovascular health. It's simple but not necessarily easy.

Starting a few weeks back we decided to dive into the American Heart Association's (AHA) "Essential 8", those simple but not easy 8 things that if we do/avoid and monitor/control can increase our odds of good cardiovascular health dramatically.

We talked about the 4 behaviors: maintaining a healthy diet (they place the components of the Mediterranean diet at the top), getting adequate physical activity, avoiding nicotine and getting enough sleep and we talked about the first two of 4 health indicators, body mass index as a proxy for obesity and "non-HDL cholesterol" as an indicator of excess fat in the blood. The remaining 2 indicators or "health factors" as they refer to them include "Blood Glucose" (blood sugar) and "Blood Pressure" - which, like the first two are likely to have reasonable familiarity for most people - seem simple enough.

When it comes to blood sugar, give yourself 100 points if you have no history of diabetes AND are less than 100 mg/dL on a fasting fingerstick test. Give yourself 60 if you have no diabetes history but have elevated sugar (100-125), which is considered "prediabetes", 40 points if you have diabetes but it's well controlled (HbA1c 5.7-6.4), and fewer and fewer points as HbA1c (a marker of longer term blood sugar) goes up.

For blood pressure, give yourself 100 points if you are consistently less than 120 mmHg systolic (top number) AND less than 80 mmHg diastolic (bottom number), 75 points if you have elevated systolic only (120-129 over less than 80), 50 points if you have stage 1 hypertension (130-139 over 80-89), 25 points if you are 140-159 over 90-99 and 0 if you are 160 or higher mmHg systolic or 100 or higher mmHg diastolic. Subtract 20 points from your score if you are on medication.

As we mentioned last week, that last sentence above ("subtract 20 if you are on medication") is important as it subtly acknowledges that in most cases the second 4 act as a "dashboard" or "scorecard" of how well we are doing with the first 4 and that although achieving good numbers via medication IS positive, it's not as powerful for our health as doing so through healthy lifestyle whenever possible.

So where does this leave us? Hopefully curious of what our 0 to 100 score is. It really is a simple and powerful way to know where any of us stand. If so, but manually scoring each item seems tricky, there's good news - the AHA has made a surprisingly fast and simple survey/calculator available for free. 

Go to "my life check" at THIS WEBSITE, create an account and password (so you can trend your results over time), answer a few questions, and voila, your 0-100 score will be calculated, along with some suggested areas for improvement if you come up "human" (less than a perfect 100 that is). You'll want recent blood work and/or physical results handy to get the most out of it (to answer the last questions). 

We hope you give it a try...and then keep working to MOVE-FUEL-RECOVER-ENDURE and CONNECT your way to the best health and highest possible quality of life.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

July 8

It's the kind of thing that we think we know when we see it (or feel it). If you ask people to rate the most important things in their life it's often near the top of the list. There are timeless quotes that suggest it is the most important asset we have or can accrue and according to Merriam-Webster it is defined as "a condition in which someone or something is thriving or doing well : WELL-BEING" - but when it comes to the details, the level that allows for measuring it, we are faced with a tricky endeavor because it has physical, mental, social, financial and even metaphysical (or perhaps spiritual) component parts. It is influenced not only by our present actions and personal experiences, but like the formation of a riverbed, grooved and etched by the choices made and circumstances lived by family members from generations past; people we have never met. In something that resembles a "mushy middle", enjoying good "health" is simple to understand when we zoom way out (we know it when we see it) or way in (the formula to achieve it, if consistently applied is pretty straight forward), it gets complex as we get toward the "gooey center" of what it actually means. 

The American Heart Association, over the course of its nearly 100 years, has tried. With an expected emphasis on Cardiovascular Health (CVH) it has helped to decipher many specifics on what it means to be healthy. Although never perfect and always evolving, they have contributed heaps and continue to do so. This month, the group published newly refined guidance on how to define CVH and, tucked into an article in their scientific journal, explained how to score our own health. They call it "Life's Essential 8", which refers to the 8 measurable factors that they suggest lie at the roots, and provide a reasonably easy to follow 0-100 scoring system for each. 

With that in mind, over the next 3 weeks we will break down the "Essential 8" and provide both the scoring mechanism and some insights that you might not otherwise get if you only read the headline. This week we'll cover the first 2: FUEL and MOVE...or as the AHA calls them Diet and Physical Activity respectively.

Take a look at the descriptions below and start to estimate your score.

Essential number 1 is Diet. On near-continuous and ever-detailed review of the literature, the AHA agrees with US News & World Report who ranks the DASH and Mediterranean diets as the top diets for health. AHA believes that at the individual level, the modified Mediterranean Eating Pattern for Americans (MEPA) scoring, where a 1 point is given for each of 16 areas and a higher score is better, is the best way to assess diet quality. 

Generally speaking, the MEPA gives points for including/increasing the consumption of olive oil, leafy greens, other veggies, berries, fruit, nuts/seeds, beans and fish (as the preferred animal-based protein source). It also gives points for (as compared to the standard American diet) reduced consumption of red-meat, chicken, sweets and processed foods while moderate consumption of dairy products (cheese/butter) and alcohol as depicted on a Mediterranean Diet food pyramid here is acceptable. Those who score the max points on the MEPA (15-16) get the full 100 points on the AHA Essential 8 with reductions in points as MEPA scores fall (12-14 on MEPA = 80 on AHA8, 8-11 = 50, 4-7 = 25, <3 = 0 points).

Category 2 is Physical Activity; specifically the number of moderate (or greater) intensity minutes of physical activity per week, where 150 or more minutes at a heart rate of >50% of maximum (loosely defined as 220-age) gets the full 100 AHA8 points. As moderate-minutes fall, so do points: 120-149 minutes = 90 points, 90-119 = 80, 60-89 = 60, 30-59 = 40, 1-29 = 20 and 0 minutes = 0 points. 

One insight worth noting is that even ONE MINUTE of physical activity gives 20% of the benefit (20 points). This is one way that the AHA speaks to something we point out whenever we can - some physical activity (any!) is WAY better than nothing.

There's more to come on this story. We'll outline the remaining 6 over the next 2 weeks. But for now, the takeaway should be pretty clear: According to the latest guidance from the American Heart Association, ELEMENTS 1 and 2 (MOVE & FUEL) account for as much as 25% of cardiovascular health and are critical ways to combat the risks of the number one killer in America. Big rocks.

Get out there and break a sweat today. Even better if it's while picking fresh stuff from the garden for eating later!

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

June 24

It was roughly 10 AM and I had to get "across town". It sounds so simple - travel 4 to 6 miles (depending on your route) in roughly a straight line. For a decently large portion of the world, it could probably be done in 35 minutes or less depending on which form of human power was employed (on foot, by bike, etc). Yet, for those of us who've had the pleasure, we know that on most days of the week, getting across Manhattan takes about the same amount of time by car. Why?

We often use the example of an overflowing bucket to explain the same phenomenon - getting beyond the threshold capacity of a given system - or in our case, a system of systems (aka the working body). We use the analogy of a bucket, a finite container that can only handle so much, with a hole in the bottom that acts as a drain. Although slightly oversimplified, if we put too much in and overflow before the drain can clear the contents, we experience illness, injury and the difficulty or lack of ease (i.e. dis-ease) that goes with it. Like a sponge that can't absorb any more without dripping everywhere or a road system that simply has no additional room and begins to back up, each human has a threshold which, once it is surpassed, results in problems until it can recover (drain) on the short term and hopefully adapt (grow the capacity) on the longer term.

This week researchers from the University of Southern California confirmed this concept and showed, as it relates to accelerated aging, that is, getting age-related diseases earlier than expected, our immune system may be paying the price when the bucket overflows. They found that social stressors which occurred in adulthood, defined as "difficult or challenging circumstances that arise from social position and experience that are expected to be stressful" (e.g., daily hassles, life events, and chronic stressors) were connected to a decline of the immune system, even after they statistically controlled for race, age and sex. More specifically they found that those with "overflowing buckets" tended to have a higher percentage of "old immune cells" and lower percentage of "new immune cells". 

However, for those of us who feel a little saturated, stuck in traffic or overflowing at times, all hope is not lost. Tucked away in the fine print was the silver lining - "Lifestyle factors [...] partially reduced these effects." - those who put time into exercise, eating well and being deliberate with recovery had better immune function, longer.

Although another promising mouse-study says we're closer to putting exercise into a pill than ever before, until then it's probably best to keep building the bucket through "MOVE, FUEL and RECOVER," so we don't have to mop up messes earlier than we should.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

June 10

It's not the most common question we get but it's up there. "What do you think of _____?"...where the blank is filled in with the name of a particular supplement or vitamin; sometimes one that has recently made the news as being used by a famous athlete or performing artist. It's never an easy question to answer because given the space between regulations and oversight where vitamins and supplements "live" (i.e. not foods per se and not medications), there is a fair amount that can go wrong. Complicating it even further is the fact that history has several high profile scenarios when things have gone wrong enough to be noticed, tested and eventually recalled. The FDA currently lists 48 dietary supplements on their recall website, many containing undisclosed substances. In a study published in 2019 researchers linked nearly 1,000 adverse events to supplement use with the highest risk found in those which claimed to have muscle building and/or fat burning qualities (as much as 3 times the risk of more commonly used supplements like vitamins). With that in mind, we often find ourselves answering with caution, somewhere between trying to not discourage the intent of getting healthier, stronger, fitter, etc but also reiterating that given the relative ease to market and history of negative consequences, there is an almost automatic "warning" flag that goes up in our minds.

This week, unfortunately, the warning reaction gets even more support as a both naturally occurring (high fat diet) and synthetically derived (supplements such as Cardarine) substance sometimes touted as a "metabolism booster" has been linked to a particularly lethal form of cancer. In plain English - the substance worked; it did, in fact, boost energy utilization (metabolism). However, and this is where it gets more nuanced, it not only had the positive benefit of helping healthy cells to use energy, it also had the negative drawback of helping cancer cells in the pancreas use energy...and grow and replicate and become more serious, building on the same findings for other forms of cancer. Buyer Beware.

For me, the standard answer is usually something along the lines of: "I personally love the latitude to make my own choices when it comes to what I eat and what supplements I choose. However, knowing a bit about how easy it is to put something that hasn't been well-studied or quality-tested into my system, I look for either a long history of success with limited negative consequences or I stay away until enough time has passed for that history to be clear".

This is one of the reasons we steer clear of fad diets and promote simple and well established nutritional principles (like "eat more plants"). This is why, when it comes to getting a "metabolism boost" we recommend putting the "big rocks" in first like: 

- adding some MOVE to daily life which gets the results at almost any dosage and has only positive side effects if done so thoughtfully, or:

- focusing on sleep at night and exploring a better scheme for rest between sets before taking potentially harmful substances for those trying to get an edge in the gym.

If it sounds too good to be true, it might actually be. This time the science says beware.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

May 27

I recently saw a video clip of my Dad. He was doing what he loved. It didn't look exactly like the many times I had seen him do something similar, it was a little slower and a touch less steady maybe, but it was no less his joy - crossing the finish line in a running event. It's been almost a year since I said goodbye to the guy who taught me a ton about endurance (in both a running-related and non-running related sense) and it still seems unfair that a guy who so loved to run would find himself up against a condition which severely limits the brain-body motor pathways required to do so. 

Not ironically, now on the days I get out for a jog or a run alongside the youth-athletes I coach, I have found myself feeling especially good. In addition to benefitting from any of the well known effects of physical activity, I try to keep in mind what a gift the ability to MOVE freely really is. From the simplest dynamic warm-up to any number of more regimented training plans, the long-known "irrefutable evidence of the effectiveness of regular physical activity in the primary and secondary prevention of several chronic diseases" is something worth putting on our side. Of course, the quick and reliable mood lift and the more recent but no less clear links to academic achievement (examples here and here) for our kids are no less important; truly, there's a lot to like about any regular movement habit we can build into our day.

However, it seems there might be something particularly special about running. Late last year a research team noted significant results in brain and nervous system function in only 10 minutes when they tested moderate intensity running (50% intensity) against a variety of the same brain function tests of the sedentary controls. Then, only a few weeks ago another team reported impressive increases in brain-chemicals related not only to happiness and good mood but also brain and nervous system repair when they studied running in non-human (mice) subjects as compared to their sedentary counterparts. 

The benefits are impressive and seem to just keep getting better. With any luck we will see proof-positive of the same effects in people as were recently reported in mice which would add another important lever available as we try to stay on the right side of the risks we face. It'd be great if was as simple as putting one foot in front of the other over and over again...seems like it could be.

Get out and test the theory soon. 

Have a great, long weekend,

Mike E.

May 13

They call it the "silent killer" for a reason. Despite common beliefs related to symptoms like headache, blurred vision, etc (which might but doesn't always happen even in severe cases), most of the time the slow and steady harm is asymptomatic; we simply cannot feel it.

For as much as we might hear about high blood pressure (aka hypertension) given how common it is, affecting as many as 50% of American adults, most folks only partially understand what "it" is, why and when we should care and what we can do to stay on the right side of risk or get back there if need be.

First, the basics, admittedly oversimplified - we are made of soft/flexible pipes.

The human body is under constant pressure. Not of the "stress" variety (although that could be), but rather physical forces acting on us. Gravity is of course the most obvious, but since we are essentially built to be a mostly closed canister, every time we move, cough, strain or sneeze - the force on our tissues and organs changes. Since this is the case, we are built with a pressurized system to make sure blood and nutrients get where we want it to go uninterrupted under various conditions; that is, hoses don't get easily crimped.

According to American College of Cardiology guidelines, the pressure required at complete rest is less than 80 millimeters of Mercury (abbreviated mmHg, the common unit of pressure) to keep the pipes open - this happens during "diastole" when the heart is refilling with blood and is the second (typically lower) of the 2 numbers we get in a blood pressure number. Since this happens during "diastole", we call it "diastolic" blood pressure. The "top number" (usually larger), called "systolic" and best if less than 120 mmHg, refers to the temporary spike in pressure that happens when the heart forcefully contracts to push blood all the way through the pipes to the end reaches of our system (fingers and toes).

But what happens if we need more pressure to keep the pipes open and blood flowing than is healthy? This is where "hypertension" (abbreviated HTN and referring to higher than normal pressure) comes in. Since our vessels are soft & flexible, when the pressure on the inside gets too high it can damage the inner lining, causing our bodies to attempt a repair before more serious harm is done. If this is a one time small event, like many things that challenge us, the repair is made and we go about our business. If, however, we get a micro-injury 60-80 times per minute (every time the heart beats and spikes a pressure), it doesn't take long before we are in a constant state of inflammation and doing irreparable harm.

This is oversimplifying very complex physiology, but, with any luck, these basics can give us a nudge to answer the following questions - and keep us on a healthy track:

1 - What is my blood pressure? This can be read at any number of free kiosks in many pharmacies. HOWEVER, if the numbers seem odd, it's best to rest a full 3-5 minutes and retake. Even if they come up higher than seems right, it's also best to NOT just write it off as inaccurate (they sometimes are) but rather find someone who can get you a better (more accurate) reading. This can include our team! Reply back to this email and we can get the convo going ANY TIME.

2 - What specifically drives high blood pressure? As many people know and have felt, physical/mental/social/emotional loads (aka "stress") can rev us up, tire us out and increase our blood pressure as a result. This of course is not the only thing, but it's real. Other important drivers include inadequate sleep (quality, quantity or both), high-inflammatory diets and/or low fiber diets and, on the other end of the spectrum from over-stressing our system, under-stressing our systems by not getting enough physical activity or having poor fitness.

3. How can I make it better? In addition to more medically oriented treatment (medication), a variety of more conservative approaches can yield good results. Although high-level it's probably reasonable to simply say "the opposite of what was listed above", more specifically - achieving a standard sleep/wake cycle, consuming more plants and the healthy compounds they are packed with (fiber, antioxidants, poly-phenols, etc) and getting out there and breaking a sweat with leisure time physical activity (considered a "first line treatment" in an American Heart Association scientific statement, a benefit that has also been seen in children), these get even better when combined. For example, eating 7 servings of fruit/veggies a day and getting adequate physical activity can cut the risk of high blood pressure IN HALF.

None of this makes blood pressure management easy. Preventing Hypertension takes a good plan and effort. But in many (and perhaps even most) cases, it can be done.

As we draw nearer and nearer to the Summer, now is a fantastic time to pause, get a reading and have a plan. We can help.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Apr 29

I saw it again this past weekend. A big yellow school bus pulled into the parking lot next to the lush green athletic field and 30 or so high-schoolers from New York City piled off. The 35 mile bus ride westward doesn't sound that far really, but most people who've made the trip would probably agree that when starting from the Lincoln tunnel, it's far enough to see the transition from the city to the suburbs. 

We have a "friendly-rivalry" with the team that piled off the bus. That is, my daughter's rugby club plays them often enough that (despite everyone on both sides definitely playing to win), it feels like more than that, like we've gotten to know each other beyond athletic attributes (fast, strong, aggressive, etc) and consider it a friendship. As is the culture of the sport, the athletes and parents often mingle after the game and this time, with the combination of a nearly perfect Spring day and in celebration of the graduating seniors, we hosted a barbecue, so most everyone lingered and enjoyed the day.

Open green spaces and room to run. Genuine connections with the people around you. A good meal and something to celebrate. We may not know all the details of how exactly, but we're learning, and it's pretty powerful. In fact, if you go to Google Scholar and search for "Forest Bathing" (the term often used for studying the effects of simply being in nature) there are more than 17,000 references...since 2018. One review suggests a wide variety of validated benefits including "remarkably improving cardiovascular function, hemodynamic indexes, neuroendocrine indexes, metabolic indexes, immunity and inflammatory indexes, antioxidant indexes, and electrophysiological indexes; significantly enhancing people’s emotional state, attitude, and feelings towards things, physical and psychological recovery, and adaptive behaviors; and obvious alleviation of anxiety and depression." Not bad. But it doesn't seem to end there. Earlier this month, from a team in Philadelphia, new research suggests that it may even help us improve our eating habits - nudging us toward healthier choices like "dietary diversity" and "greater fruit and vegetable intake".

It would be a bit of a leap to say that the post-match barbecue would qualify as dietarily diverse, heavy on fruits and veggies or even healthy. However, the smiles on the faces, athletes and supporters alike, are definitely proof-positive that getting "out there" with people you enjoy being with has the power to do good things. Whether it is something formal like a hike of mapped trails of the National Parks Service or some green space near home, it's a great time of year to pack some healthy snacks, get outside and take a little nature in.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Apr 15

You don't have to be a plumber, pipefitter or water-system engineer to know that flow matters. Any kid who has ever performed the age-old rubber band around the finger "trick" or the once-popular "hold my breath until I get what I want" tactic knows that flow, whether it be something through a pipe, blood to a fingertip or breath to the body, is an important concept in daily life.

Of course, in today's data-centric world where we rely heavily on real-time data to make decisions we have a wide variety of flow sensors that help us out. Maybe you've had that annoying moment when an indicator on your car's dashboard turned out to be an "O2 sensor" or one of my personal favorites, the tripping of the sensor tucked into our fire-alarms that tells us that the flow of back up electricity is not keeping up...you know, the one which seems to know it's the middle of the night and a loud beep will really get your attention. It can't be only me :)

Humans also have flow sensors. In fact, one group of proteins called Piezo1 exists in our lungs, skin and in our capillaries, the tiniest blood vessels in the body. They are sensitive to changes in mechanical load (stretch/strain, etc) and they supply critical information as our bodies try to prepare and react to the challenges of the day. But what if the sensor stops working correctly? Do we have a warning light? Will the "engine" perform less efficiently?

Well, about one month ago, with an important contribution from researchers from the University of Leeds, we learned more. The team limited this protein in mice and then observed their activities and behaviors. What they found was very interesting - the mice couldn't run as long or as fast on their wheel. It wasn't a motivation thing, the mice attempted to run, they just didn't have the same capacity, as if moving was just harder. 

According to the authors, the take home message is clear - if it feels harder to exercise after you've been sedentary for a while, it's likely because it IS. Without regular stimulation of these protein flow sensors (such as blood rushing with hard physical exertion and exercise), the blood vessels adapt and ultimately restrict the flow rate, the amount of blood that can easily pass through per minute...think of the slow pipe and/or rubber band trick at a much smaller scale.

Here's the good news - although a bit harder to get started than to keep going - the adaptation does happen in reverse. Moving regularly and hard enough to be slightly out of breath (but probably not gasping for air) can change flow dynamics temporarily, stimulate the sensors in the process and ultimately start the remodeling needed to allow blood to more easily flow on the longer term.

Now is a great time of year to make a MOVE to improve blood flow. It'll be hot before we know it if it's not already getting there. One of the most effective ways to get heat off the system relies on healthy vessels. A few weeks of effort now will go a very long way later. More to come for sure.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Apr 1

Humans are diurnal - the "up and moving" part of the 24 hour day is counterbalanced by a "rest" stage. For most, the sunlight of dawn is the natural cue to get going, while dusk signals our bodies to slow toward sleep. It doesn't always follow this pattern perfectly. For example, "Night owls" do exist; some by nature (genetic predisposition) and others by physiological-training, such as years of working at night and sleeping during the day. For most of us however, it is the rise and fall of the sun that we set our internal clocks by....natural light, in technical terms is our "zeitgeber". 

But what if you can't follow the sun? What if your internal clock and the world around you are on different schedules?

This topic has been a source of debate for a long time. Daylight savings time, when the natural rhythm is thrown off to conserve hours of light, has often been referred to as one of largest and longest standing social experiments in US history. It has been linked with a variety of injury and health risks. However the debate has more recently heated up as congress considers making Daylight Savings Time permanent. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine disagrees with some of the approach, citing a variety of concerns and phenomena associated with these changes. 

But what is really going on? Why, for one of the most adaptable creatures on the planet (us), is an hour here or there such a big deal? 2 new studies this week give us clues.

The "eyes" have it.

The human eye is amazing. Not only does it provide the large majority of the information we use to make the day to day decisions, it is a window directly into our central nervous system via the "hardwired" optic nerve. This means that when the sensors of the eye are turned "on" (stimulated), the brain revs up to deal with the information pouring in. Of course, it also stands to reason then that all of the systems that support the brain, including the energy management system known as "metabolism" must also be on. Although this may in part explain why sunlight is such a great cue to set our internal clocks by, it also says in places where some level of light is always on, such as more and more of the earth, the eye, brain and therefore entire human system has a hard time shutting down for rest.

In fact, as the first of two independent research papers pointed to this week, stimulating the sensors of the eye with even partial/low light for 1 night revs up the nervous system enough to reduce the body's ability to process blood sugar the next morning. Unfortunately if a pattern of interrupted sleep and subsequent metabolic changes is extended over the course of 2 weeks , as was the case in study 2, we will not only begin to crave significantly more protein and fat (as might be expected to keep the "machine running"), we will store it around the vital organs in the middle (visceral fat), the least healthy place to do so.

Protecting our future health includes but is not limited to eating right and exercising. One of the most straight forward ways to do so might just be to protect our bedtime and buy some blackout shades.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

March 11

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

It is one of three examples of unalienable Rights, so says the US Declaration of Independence. Initially written by Jefferson and then edited by a committee of 5 (of which he was one), this paragraph is one of the most widely recognized sections of one of the most prominent documents in our history as a nation. But what does it mean to actually "pursue happiness"? This is a much deeper question, something that is still to this day emerging and is most definitely not as self-evident as the truths the declaration spoke of.

Pursuing happiness starts with the idea of happiness itself - defining its features, component parts and actual definition. Like most complex human experiences, even though we know it when we feel it, the experience can be incredibly difficult to put into words. Try it sometime. Ask someone of almost any age “do you know what it means to be happy?" and they will likely answer "yes". Then follow up by asking them to put it into words and they may struggle. 

Some research suggests that this is because we literally have more words to describe threats and negative emotions that we keep top of mind than we have to describe positives. This of course could be some deeply ingrained mechanism handed down from our most distant ancestors that keeps us vigilant enough to outrun the modern-day saber-tooth tigers in our life at a moment's notice. On the other hand, it’s equally possible that happiness is the combination of multiple positive threads at the same time and so putting a simple label on a complex experience just doesn’t do it justice. 

In 2019 a group of authors tried to unpack this a little by reviewing the connection of happiness and health. It turns out happiness is the intersection of 3 unique components and not merely bliss or pleasure, which can only account for 1 of the 3 components. Yep, another 3 legged stool. 

This first leg, which includes moments of joy & pleasure is called "Affective Well-being" is the sensation we get when we find ourselves in a moment of bliss. Eat a great meal with loved ones or friends? You get some of this (see the idea of “bliss point” mentioned in previous blogs). Watch your team win the big game? You get some of this. Have a young child hit an important milestone (e.g. baby's first steps)? You get some of this. And although not a bad thing, it can be relatively easy to find and so a little overemphasized in our pursuit. For example a high sugar drink can give us a quick hit of bliss without fulfillment just as a funny Instagram Reel or TikTok can leave us laughing out loud (clear bliss) without the satisfaction of being "content", another word used to describe happiness, which gets us to the next type.

Type 2 is called "evaluative happiness" and this is the kind which gives us a sense of satisfaction with the quality of our lives. Instead of answering the question of "are we experiencing bliss, pleasure or joy?", this type of happiness asks whether we are feeling content. Achieving this kind of happiness is like leveling up. Where getting a little bliss or joy can be found with the literal swipe on a smartphone, feeling content requires us to think about what really matters to us and probably let go of a lot. Many cultures, in one way or another, suggest that the pursuit of this kind of happiness requires a "less is more" mindset, walking away from the "keeping up with the Jones' (or Kardashians)" mentality and reflecting on all the positives in our lives until that's what we see first.

Type 3 happiness is called "Eudaimonic Well-being" and it relates to purpose, meaning-making, personal growth and mastery. This is the kind of happiness we get when we work really hard and achieve something, especially if we weren't sure we could. This is also the kind of happiness that puts the "love" in the "labor of love" projects we all have in life. Going to raise a veggie garden this year? It's hard and often dirty work. Yet, ask anyone who does it, and they will often feel a sense of happiness when they show-off and share the fruits (or veggies) of their labor.

So what's the call to action on this one? 

Well, take a minute to think about the 3 types of happiness. Ask yourself which you have, which you're a little light on and how you might achieve a more balanced pursuit. You may find you over-pursue type 1 and under-pursue the others (or some other combo). The goal is not necessarily to achieve perfect balance, but a distribution that works for you. What we know is that it relates back to health and therefore injury/illness/disease prevention, something we can all benefit from.

It's our unalienable Right and it might be as simple as getting out those gardening tools and, quite literally, cultivating it.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Mar 4

Non-linear. That's the official way to describe things that sometimes, but not always, go "hand in hand". Seem confusing? It can be, but we see it everyday - something that gets a little worse before it gets better. If we were to graph it out, it would look like a "U" and health often fits in this pattern. Let's say a "Standard American Dieter" (aka western diet heavy on meat and processed foods but light on fruits and veggies), after the topic is pounded on over and over and over in a weekly blog (let's say every Friday) decides they are ready to try more fruits and veggies to improve health (hypothetically of course). In the first few days, as his/her gut bacteria makeup changes and body begins to adapt, they might feel less than ideal. A little worse. But slowly and steadily they stick with it and after a week or two as their body is getting into the rhythm, they notice they feel less sluggish, less hungry for sweets and when they think about it their joints haven't hurt as much. A little better. This is often how it goes and the same is true for exercise. "DOMS" (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) is so common after someone starts a new exercise regimen (a little worse) that we could probably make Jan. 3rd an unofficial holiday (DOMS Day) for many people who started their New Year's resolution a bit aggressively. Yet, those who brave it out and stick with it for a few weeks will benefit greatly with greater strength, freedom of movement and lessened disease risk (a little better). 

The list goes on. If you look closely enough, which is what a Dartmouth College researcher showed the world in 2021, even human happiness makes the list. You'd have to scroll down to the 33rd page of his fairly exhaustive report - but it's there and it's pretty clear - across hundreds of countries and billions of bits of data, humans get a little less happy in our early working years (15-40-ish) and then progressively more happy as we inch toward retirement (50-70-ish years old). Sadly, we don't really know "why" this happens. There are many possibilities.

Some suggest that the pace of life is more exhausting in the first half and that by the second half we are learning to pace ourselves better and might even have something to show for the hard work, which is satisfying. Others think that in those same years we are searching for and maybe settling into who are really "are" in the first half, deciding what our purpose really is while in the second half, we begin putting more resources (time, money, energy) into living out that purpose which is fulfilling. Still others argue (as we are not the only species that seems to experience the "U") that there may even be a genetic encoding that predisposes us to this pattern. Whew! Heavy stuff.

So what do we do about it?

Well, in the moment, a great first step is get good at recognizing and acknowledging how we're feeling. That is, to literally practice labeling how we are feeling in our mind ("I'm feeling _____"), which just like a workout, gets better the more we do it. This of course, is at the heart of "mindfulness", which not only is a meditative practice known to help us organize our thoughts, but also, if getting older is stressing us out, a very specific and impressively powerful technique which relies on the idea that there are only so many nervous-system resources to go around and has proven to reduce stress, even in the workplace. Thinking about very specific and accurate words forces our brain to turn down the emotional part of the brain, and therefore the stress center, by turning up the logical part of the brain (the language center). It's a bit like controlling our breathing to control our heart rate. 

Next, find a few minutes to do the fun stuff of envisioning what 70 years old could be like or about. Will there be travel? Perhaps grandkids? Maybe it'll involve doing all those hobbies you haven't had time for. If you're less than 30 years old and this seems like an eternity - don't worry if it's blurry - it gets a whole lot more vivid as time speeds along.

Then, after feeling both relaxed and (hopefully) energized about what "could be", take a look at where things currently stand. Not at the global level like the World Happiness Report will in a few weeks, but at the personal risk assessment level. This could be as simple as rating on a scale of 1-10 where we're at when it comes to the 3 legs of the stool (energy & motivation, health, finance) or it could be going a bit deeper and taking the annual Pro-Activity survey.  The concept is pretty simple overall -  when we know where we're going and where we're at can we find the best path forward.

It's a great time of year to start thinking about and planning projects. We can almost see home-improvement ads that will be flooding our content feeds any day now. What could possibly be a better than a little "project investment" into ourselves toward a happier healthier future?

Here's to flattening the "U" by strengthening the "you".

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Feb 18

The term "Body Mass Index" or "BMI" as it is often abbreviated, is one of the most universally understood health-markers today. The idea that having a body weight that is not proportional to our height (usually in kilograms per meter-squared) poses a health risk and that many Americans fall into this range has become widespread. It hasn't always been this way. 

Although the very first "diet book", a pamphlet which describes the first ever low-carb diet, written by William Banting dates as far back as the 1860s, it really wasn't until much later that elevated body-mass became central to conversations on health risk. There are very few references to BMI in research prior to the 1980s, but in the fifteen years that followed the number of studies which discussed this height-to-weight ratio grew exponentially. By 1995 there were hundreds if not thousands of studies which tried to explain a wide variety of connections between excess body weight and poorer health. Dieting, as both a concept and an industry, exploded with growth. Since that time we've learned a ton about what to do and unfortunately what not to do. 

We've learned that it's not just "overweight" that matters for health. Underweight can be just as (and sometimes MORE) risky.

We've learned that body-weight (and therefore BMI) is important but it is not the only and often NOT the most important predictor of future health.

We've learned that just as the topic is not about genetics alone, it's most definitely also NOT about willpower alone either. 

And critically, we've learned that dieting - the hope that a temporary approach might give permanent results - is often not as effective as making longer-term changes even if they start small and seem insignificant at first.

But then this week something really cool happened. Someone published a study which explored the topic with first-hand experts; more than 6,000 individuals who have lost weight AND kept it off for an extended period. What they found, using a machine learning approach, was enlightening. Not because it was surprising, but because it paints a clearer picture about the mindset needed to not only make a change, but to help make it stick.

In their words, the three big take-aways were:

Long-game Focus - the "maintainers" (as they were referred to in the study) did not see setbacks as failures, but rather as "temporary interruptions", a part of the journey and a time to reset, which they did as quickly as the next meal or next day.

Good info helps consistency - the maintainers were consistent in trying to understand consumption patterns as fully as possible. They understood how easily extra calories or low quality foods could sneak in and erode success so they tracked their patterns, in one way or another.

Reflect Back and Go Forward -  to stay motivated when it got tough, they often reflected on the past, comparing how they felt then to the improvements in energy, mobility and health risk they've experienced since.

None of this makes it easy. We live in a world where low quality foods can be both inexpensive (compared to more wholesome options) and a hyper-palatable sensory experience (see "bliss point"). Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight is, however, possible. With any luck we will continue learning exactly how those who pull it off are doing so. More to come for sure.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.

Feb 4

Everyone has felt it. Maybe it was the energy drag after being called into work when we expected to be sleeping or that phase of parenthood when sleeping-through-the-night is the gold standard. Maybe it was that time we thought it'd be a good idea to pull an "all nighter" in college or the fog in functioning we felt after taking the "red eye" home on a trip. We all know the feeling of fatigue and, whether it be from news headlines or safety talks, personal close calls or tragic stories, we know what a destructive force it can be to our health and a frustrating force for our performance.

But do we ever think about the other side...the upside of rest and the performance enhancing power of a good night's sleep? New research says we probably should.

Here's the summary we feel everyone should know and how we got here:

Disrupted sleep impairs performance: Chronically shortened sleep is a well-documented health risk. 7-9 hours is generally considered adequate, with 7.5 to 8 the usual "sweetspot" for adults. Getting much below 6 hours per night will almost always come with negative health consequences. There are too many studies to list here, but this review is a reasonable starting point.

Exercise can help: Exercise seems to have some ability to counteract the negative effects of poor sleep. In this (non-human) study for example, exercise significantly blunted the negative impacts of sleep deprivation and in this (also non-human) study, memory and other cognitive functions were less impacted in the exercise group. Small human studies like this one have shown similar "protective effects" of exercise, even when subjects are over-tired.

Exercise + Sleep = Best: The latest research used measures of heart stress to determine the impact of hard physical exertion with and without disrupted sleep. In the small study, they subjected otherwise healthy individuals with no history of heart disease to high-intensity exercise after normal sleep conditions and again after disrupted sleep. Troponin, a heart muscle-protein measured in the blood to determine acute heart stress (including diagnosis of heart attack when levels are very high) was, as expected, somewhat elevated after high intensity exercise in both scenarios. However, in the group that got good sleep, it was nearly 40% LESS elevated than after disrupted sleep, a powerful combination. 

In regards to this finding, the study's author had the following to say in a press release:

"Today there is no evidence to suggest that it would be harmful to the heart if you exercise regularly when you have slept too little. One can instead turn the argument around: by ensuring that one gets enough sleep, one may further increase the positive impact of physical exercise. While we know that high-intensity training generally has benefits in the long run, our results may be worth considering and exploring in specific groups of individuals. Examples include athletes and the military. These groups may be required to perform at extreme physical levels even under conditions of curtailed sleep. It may be good to further consider the importance of sleep in these contexts, especially as we also know that improving sleep can also improve one's performance, both cognitively and physically."

MOVE + RECOVER = Achieve More.

Have a great weekend,

Mike E.