Body on Fire – by Dr. Monica Aggarwal and Dr. Jyothi Rao
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There are times when you do really need a doctor, not a dietician. But there are also times when a doctor will prescribe something for the symptom, leaving the underlying issue untouched. If only there were a way to have the best of both worlds!
That’s where Drs. Rao and Aggarwal come in. They’re both medical doctors… with a keen interest in nutrition and healthy lifestyle changes to make us less sick such that we have less need to go to the doctor at all.
Best of all, they understand—while some things are true for everyone—there’s not a one-size-fits all diet or exercise regime or even sleep setup.
So instead, they take us hand-in-hand (chapter by chapter!) through the various parts of our life (including our diet) that might need tweaking. Each of these changes, if taken up, promise a net improvement that becomes synergistic with the other changes. There’s a degree of biofeedback involved, and listening to your body, to be sure of what’s really best for you, not what merely should be best for you on paper.
The writing style is accessible while science-heavy. They don’t assume prior knowledge, and/but they sure deliver a lot. The book is more text than images, but there are plenty of medical diagrams, explanations, charts, and the like. You will feed like a medical student! And it’s very much worth studying.
Bottom line: highly recommendable even if you don’t have inflammation issues, and worth its weight in gold if you do.
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10 Ways To Lower Blood Pressure Naturally
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Increasingly many people, especially over a certain age, are taking so many medications that it precipitates a train of other medications to deal with the side effects of the previous ones. This is neither fun nor healthy. Of course, sometimes it’s a necessity, but often it’s not, so if you’d like to avoid blood pressure meds, here are some good first-line things, as recommended by Dr. Siobhan Deshauer:
No-med options
Dr. Deshauer recommends:
- Diet: follow the DASH diet by eating whole foods, lean / plant-based proteins, and reducing salt and processed foods to lower blood pressure by 5–6 points.
- Sodium reduction: limit sodium intake to 2g/day, focusing on reducing processed foods, which account for 80% of sodium consumption.
- Increase potassium intake: eat potassium-rich foods (e.g. fruit, vegetables) to lower blood pressure by 5–7 points but consult a doctor if you have kidney issues or take certain medications.
- Exercise: engage in isometric exercises like wall squats or planks, which lower systolic pressure by up to 8 points; any exercise is beneficial.
- Weight loss: lose weight (specifically: fat) if (and only if!) carrying excess fat, as each 1 kg (2.2 lbs) excess adiposity reduction can decrease blood pressure by 1 point.
- Limit alcohol: avoid consuming more than two alcoholic drinks per day, as it raises blood pressure.
- Quit smoking: stop smoking to prevent increased blood pressure and long-term vessel damage caused by nicotine.
- Improve sleep: aim for at least 6 hours of sleep per night, ideally 7–9, and seek medical advice if you suspect sleep apnea.
- Manage stress: adopt healthy stress management strategies to avoid the indirect effects of stress on blood pressure.
- Adopt a pet: pet ownership, particularly dogs, can lower blood pressure more effectively than some medications.
For more on each of these, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
Ideal Blood Pressure Numbers Explained
Take care!
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Quit Drinking – by Rebecca Dolton
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Many “quit drinking” books focus on tips you’ve heard already—cut down like this, rearrange your habits like that, make yourself accountable like so, add a reward element this way, etc.
Dolton takes a different approach.
She focuses instead on the underlying processes of addiction, so as to not merely understand them to fight them, but also to use them against the addiction itself.
This is not just a social or behavioral analysis, by the way, and goes into some detail into the physiological factors of the addiction—including such things as the little-talked about relationship between addiction and gut flora. Candida albans, found in most if not all humans to some extent, gets really out of control when given certain kinds of sugars (including those from alcohol); it grows, eventually puts roots through the intestinal walls (ouch!) and the more it grows, the more it demands the sugars it craves, so the more you feed it.
Quite a motivator to not listen to such cravings! It’s not even you that wants it, it’s the Candida!
Anyway, that’s just one example; there are many. The point here is that this is a well-researched, well-written book that sets itself apart from many of its genre.
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Sauerkraut vs Pickled Cucumber – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing sauerkraut to pickled cucumber, we picked the sauerkraut.
Why?
Both of these fermented foods can give a gut-healthy microbiome boost, but how do they stack up otherwise?
In terms of macros, sauerkraut has more protein, carbs, and fiber. They are both low glycemic index foods, so we’ll go with the one that has more fiber out of the two, and that’s the ‘kraut.
In the category of vitamins, sauerkraut has more of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, C, E, and choline, while pickled cucumbers have more of vitamins A and K. An easy win for sauerkraut.
When it comes to minerals, sauerkraut has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while pickled cucumbers are not higher in any mineral, except sodium (on average, pickled cucumbers have about 2x the sodium of sauerkraut). Another clear win for sauerkraut.
In short, enjoy either or both in moderation, but it’s clear which boasts the most nutritional benefits, and that’s the sauerkraut!
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Make Friends With Your Gut (You Can Thank Us Later)
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Health & Happiness From Outside & In
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A friend in need…
In a recent large (n=3,486) poll across the US:
- 90% of people aged 50 and older say they have at least one close friend
- 75% say they have enough close friends
- 70% of those with a close friend say they can definitely count on them to provide health-related support
However, those numbers shrink by half when it comes to people whose physical and/or mental health is not so great, resulting in a negative feedback loop of fewer close friends whom one sees less often, and progressively worse physical and/or mental health. In other words, the healthier you are, the more likely you are to have a friend who’ll support you in your health:
Read in full: Friendships promote healthier living in older adults, says new survey
Related: How To Beat Loneliness & Isolation
Kindness makes a difference to healthcare outcomes
Defining kindness as action-oriented, positively focused, and purposeful in nature, this sets kindness apart from compassion and empathy, when it’s otherwise often been conflated with those, and thus overlooked. This also means that kindness can still be effected when clinicians are too burned-out to be compassionate, and/or when patients are not in a state of mind where empathy is useful.
Furthermore, unkindness (again, as defined by this review) was found in large studies to be the root cause of ¾ of patient harm events in hospital settings. This means that far from being a wishy-washy abstraction, kindness/unkindness can be a very serious factor when it comes to healthcare outcomes:
Read in full: Review suggests kindness could make for better health care
Related: The Human Touch vs AI, The Doctor That Never Tires
The gift of health?
🎵 Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
Which turned out to be a silly idea
This year, to save me from tears
I’ll just get you a Fitbit or something🎵Health & happiness go hand in hand, so does that make health stuff a good gift? It can do! But there are also plenty of opportunities for misfires.
For example, getting someone a gym membership when they don’t have time for that may not help them at all, and sports equipment that they’ll use once and then leave to gather dust might not be great either. In contrast, the American Heart Association recommends to first consider what they enjoy doing, and work with that, and ideally make it something versatile and/or portable. Wearable gadgets are a fine option for many, but a gift doesn’t have to be fancy to be good—with a blood pressure monitoring cuff being a suggestion from Dr. Sperling (a professor of preventative cardiology):
Read in full: Oh, there’s no gift like health for the holidays
Related: Here’s Where Activity Trackers Help (And Also Where They Don’t)
How you use social media matters more than how much
A study commissioned by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre found that while the quantity of time one spends on social media is not associated (positively or negatively) with loneliness, they did find a correlation between passive (as opposed to engaged) use of social media, and loneliness. In other words, people who were chatting with friends less, were more lonely! Shocking news.
While the findings may seem obvious, it does present a call-to-action for anyone who is feeling lonely: to use social media not just to see what everyone else is up to, but also, to reach out to people.
Read in full: Unpacking the link between social media and loneliness
Related: Make Social Media Work For Your Mental Health Rather Than Against It
Gut-only antidepressants
Many antidepressants work by increasing serotonin levels in the brain; a new study suggests that targeting antidepressants to work only in the gut (which is where serotonin is made, not the brain) could not only be an effective treatment for mood disorders, but also cause fewer adverse side-effects:
Read in full: Antidepressants may act in gut to reduce depression and anxiety
Related: Antidepressants: Personalization Is Key!
Take care!
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Ricezempic: is there any evidence this TikTok trend will help you lose weight?
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If you spend any time looking at diet and lifestyle content on social media, you may well have encountered a variety of weight loss “hacks”.
One of the more recent trends is a home-made drink called ricezempic, made by soaking uncooked rice and then straining it to drink the leftover starchy water. Sounds delicious, right?
Its proponents claim it leads to weight loss by making you feel fuller for longer and suppressing your appetite, working in a similar way to the sought-after drug Ozempic – hence the name.
So does this drink actually mimic the weight loss effects of Ozempic? Spoiler alert – probably not. But let’s look at what the evidence tells us.
New Africa/Shutterstock How do you make ricezempic?
While the recipe can vary slightly depending on who you ask, the most common steps to make ricezempic are:
- soak half a cup of white rice (unrinsed) in one cup of warm or hot water up to overnight
- drain the rice mixture into a fresh glass using a strainer
- discard the rice (but keep the starchy water)
- add the juice of half a lime or lemon to the starchy water and drink.
TikTokers advise that best results will happen if you drink this concoction once a day, first thing in the morning, before eating.
The idea is that the longer you consume ricezempic for, the more weight you’ll lose. Some claim introducing the drink into your diet can lead to a weight loss of up to 27 kilograms in two months.
Resistant starch
Those touting ricezempic argue it leads to weight loss because of the resistant starch rice contains. Resistant starch is a type of dietary fibre (also classified as a prebiotic). There’s no strong evidence it makes you feel fuller for longer, but it does have proven health benefits.
Studies have shown consuming resistant starch may help regulate blood sugar, aid weight loss and improve gut health.
Research has also shown eating resistant starch reduces the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other chronic diseases.
Ricezempic is made by soaking rice in water. Kristi Blokhin/Shutterstock Resistant starch is found in many foods. These include beans, lentils, wholegrains (oats, barley, and rice – particularly brown rice), bananas (especially when they’re under-ripe or green), potatoes, and nuts and seeds (particularly chia seeds, flaxseeds and almonds).
Half a cup of uncooked white rice (as per the ricezempic recipe) contains around 0.6 grams of resistant starch. For optimal health benefits, a daily intake of 15–20 grams of resistant starch is recommended. Although there is no concrete evidence on the amount of resistant starch that leaches from rice into water, it’s likely to be significantly less than 0.6 grams as the whole rice grain is not being consumed.
Ricezempic vs Ozempic
Ozempic was originally developed to help people with diabetes manage their blood sugar levels but is now commonly used for weight loss.
Ozempic, along with similar medications such as Wegovy and Trulicity, is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist. These drugs mimic the GLP-1 hormone the body naturally produces. By doing so, they slow down the digestive process, which helps people feel fuller for longer, and curbs their appetite.
While the resistant starch in rice could induce some similar benefits to Ozempic (such as feeling full and therefore reducing energy intake), no scientific studies have trialled ricezempic using the recipes promoted on social media.
Ozempic has a long half-life, remaining active in the body for about seven days. In contrast, consuming one cup of rice provides a feeling of fullness for only a few hours. And simply soaking rice in water and drinking the starchy water will not provide the same level of satiety as eating the rice itself.
Other ways to get resistant starch in your diet
There are several ways to consume more resistant starch while also gaining additional nutrients and vitamins compared to what you get from ricezempic.
1. Cooked and cooled rice
Letting cooked rice cool over time increases its resistant starch content. Reheating the rice does not significantly reduce the amount of resistant starch that forms during cooling. Brown rice is preferable to white rice due to its higher fibre content and additional micronutrients such as phosphorus and magnesium.
2. More legumes
These are high in resistant starch and have been shown to promote weight management when eaten regularly. Why not try a recipe that has pinto beans, chickpeas, black beans or peas for dinner tonight?
3. Cooked and cooled potatoes
Cooking potatoes and allowing them to cool for at least a few hours increases their resistant starch content. Fully cooled potatoes are a rich source of resistant starch and also provide essential nutrients like potassium and vitamin C. Making a potato salad as a side dish is a great way to get these benefits.
In a nutshell
Although many people on social media have reported benefits, there’s no scientific evidence drinking rice water or “ricezempic” is effective for weight loss. You probably won’t see any significant changes in your weight by drinking ricezempic and making no other adjustments to your diet or lifestyle.
While the drink may provide a small amount of resistant starch residue from the rice, and some hydration from the water, consuming foods that contain resistant starch in their full form would offer significantly more nutritional benefits.
More broadly, be wary of the weight loss hacks you see on social media. Achieving lasting weight loss boils down to gradually adopting healthy eating habits and regular exercise, ensuring these changes become lifelong habits.
Emily Burch, Accredited Practising Dietitian and Lecturer, Southern Cross University and Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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What you need to know about the new weight loss drug Zepbound
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In a recent poll, KFF found that nearly half of U.S. adults were interested in taking a weight management drug like the increasingly popular Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro.
“I can understand why there would be widespread interest in these medications,” says Dr. Alyssa Lampe Dominguez, an endocrinologist and clinical assistant professor at the University of Southern California. “Obesity is a chronic disease that is very difficult to treat. And a lot of the medications that we previously used weren’t as effective.”
Now, there’s a new option available: In November 2023, the FDA approved Zepbound, another weight management medication, developed by the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. Zepbound is different from other drugs in many ways, including the fact that it’s proven to be the most effective option so far.
Keep reading to find out more about Zepbound, including who can take it, its side effects, and more.
What is Zepbound?
Zepbound, one of the brand names for tirzepatide, is an injectable drug with a maximum dosage of 15 mg per week. It’s based on incretin, a hormone that’s naturally released in the gut after a meal. (Mounjaro is another brand name for tirzepatide.)
Tirzepatide is considered a dual agonist because it activates the two primary incretin hormones: the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and gastric inhibitory peptide (GIP) hormones.
According to Dr. Katherine H. Saunders, an obesity medicine physician at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-founder of Intellihealth, tirzepatide is involved with several processes that regulate blood sugar, slow the removal of food from the stomach, and affect brain areas involved in appetite.
This means that people taking the medication feel less hungry and get fuller faster, leading to less food intake and, ultimately, weight loss.
How is Zepbound different from Ozempic?
The medications are different in many ways. Ozempic and Wegovy, which are both brand names for semaglutide, only target the GLP-1 hormone. Studies have shown that Zepbound can lead to a higher percentage of total body weight loss than semaglutide medications. In addition to being more effective, there is some evidence that Zepbound is overall more tolerable than Ozempic or Wegovy.
“I have seen overall lower rates in severity of side effects with the tirzepatide medications. Mounjaro [tirzepatide] in particular is the one that I’ve used up until this point, but there’s a thought that the GIP component of the medication actually decreases nausea,” adds Lampe Dominguez. “Anecdotally, patients that I have switched from semaglutide or Ozempic to Mounjaro say that they have less side effects with Mounjaro.”
How is Zepbound different from Mounjaro?
Zepbound and Mounjaro are the same medication—tirzepatide—but they’re approved for different conditions. Zepbound is FDA-approved for weight loss, while Mounjaro is approved for type 2 diabetes. (However, Mounjaro is also at times prescribed off-label for weight loss.)
What are some of Zepbound’s side effects?
According to the FDA, side effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, stomach discomfort and pain, fatigue, and burping. See a more comprehensive list of side effects here.
Who can take Zepbound?
Zepbound is FDA-approved for adults with obesity (a BMI of 30 or greater) or who have a BMI of 27 or greater with at least one weight-related condition, like high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, or high cholesterol.
“I tend to advise patients who don’t meet those criteria to not take these medications because we really don’t know what the risks are,” says Lampe Dominguez, adding that people with lower BMI weren’t included in the medication’s studies. “We don’t know if there are specific risks to using this medication at a lower body mass index [or] if there might be some negative outcomes.”
Both doctors agree that it’s important for people who are interested in starting any weight loss medication to talk to their doctors about the potential risks and benefits. For instance, the FDA notes that Zepbound has caused thyroid tumors in rats, and while it’s unknown if this could also happen to humans, the agency said the medication shouldn’t be used in patients with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer.
“Zepbound is a powerful medication that can lead to severe side effects, vitamin deficiencies, a complete lack of appetite, or too much weight loss if prescribed without the appropriate personalization, education, and close monitoring,” says Saunders.
“With all of these medications, and particularly with Zepbound, we would want to make sure that [patients] don’t have a family history of a specific type of thyroid cancer called medullary thyroid cancer,” says Lampe Dominguez.
How long should people take Zepbound for?
“Anti-obesity medications like Zepbound are not meant for short-term weight loss, but long-term treatment of obesity, which is a chronic disease,” explains Saunders. “We prepare our patients to be on the medication (or some type of medical obesity treatment) long term for their chronic disease, which is only controlled for the duration of time they’re being treated.”
For more information, talk to your health care provider.
This article first appeared on Public Good News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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