Heal Your Gut, Save Your Brain – by Dr. Partha Nandi
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The gut-brain axis is well-known, at least to those of us who care to learn about health science, which of course includes everyone reading this (because that’s why you’re here, after all). However, its importance cannot be overstated when it comes to the connection between gut health and brain health, both in terms of the good and the bad.
Dr. Nandi explores and explains this in terms of correct systemic functioning and pathology—in other words, what goes on and what can go wrong. As it happens, what goes on is a lot, and what can go wrong is also a lot, and it’s important to understand how, in order to prevent it and keep our brain healthy.
This is not just about general brain health, by the way. Not that that would be bad; general brain health is a great thing to have. But, the focus here is on the involvement of gut health (for better or for worse) in the specific contexts of stroke, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s, with several chapters dedicated to each of the aforementioned brain health threats, covering how gut health affects the risks, and how specifically to change course to avoid it in each case.
Oh, and three more chapters (i.e. one additional chapter for each of those diseases) with recipes optimized to improve your gut-brain health in the best of ways, to avoid stroke, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s, respectively. Of course, all are good against each; this isn’t a zero-sum game. But, some things have specialities that others don’t, and Dr. Nandi highlights such cases for us.
The style is (aside from the recipes) high-end pop-science, with scientific references at a rate of several per page (sometimes several per paragraph), yet very comprehensible, and while he explains everything as he goes, he also does provide a glossary at the back, so that’s good too.
Bottom line: if you have a gut and a brain and would like to keep both in the best possible working order, this book will help you to do so.
Click here to check out Heal Your Gut, Save Your Brain, and do exactly that!
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Online Reaction Tests & Women’s Cognitive Health (Test Yours!)
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A team of researchers looked into the use of online reaction tests (in which, for example, one clicks whenever a certain prompt is shown, or for more of a cognitive challenge, one presses a numerical key when the corresponding digit is shown) to cognitive health in women at different ages.
Why women? To quote the man who had the honor of being the first-listed author on the study (something that happens mysteriously often in science),
❝Women have long been under-represented in healthy aging research, despite making up more than half the population. We developed an easy way to measure cognitive function in the home, without the need for individuals to travel to clinics or receive home visits. Our research shows that testing of cognitive function in the home largely acceptable, easy and convenient❞
About that convenience: they used data from the UK Women’s Cohort Study, which involved over 35,000 British women, and then specifically focused on a follow-up study of 768 participants aged 48–85.
Of the two kinds of online reaction tests we described up top, they used the numerical kind. The participants also filled in a questionnaire about their personal traits (demographic data, mostly, though things like self-reported level of health literacy, and how they would rate their overall health).
What they found
The findings included:
- Younger women were more likely to participate, with participation rates dropping from 89% at age 45 to 44% at age 65.
- Each higher level of education increased the likelihood of volunteering by 7%.
- Women who rated themselves as having “high” intelligence were 19% more likely to participate than those who considered themselves of “average” intelligence.
- Women with lower self-reported health literacy made fewer errors, possibly due to taking longer to decide on answers—consistent with findings from older adults.
You can read the full paper itself here: Health literacy in relation to web-based measurement of cognitive function in the home: UK Women’s Cohort Study
Why this matters
We wrote, a little while ago, about the use of online games (of a specific kind) to improve cognitive function:
Synergistic Brain-Training: Let The Games Begin (But It Matters What Kind) ← the good news is, these are very accessible too
When it comes to rapid and/but correct reactions, this becomes really critical:
How (And Why) To Train Your Pre-Frontal Cortex ← Dr. Sandra Chapman advocates strongly for this, and it’s closely related to working memory and the ability to focus
Want to test yours?
Here are two ways to do it (now, for free, without needing to sign up for anything; the tests are right there on the page):
- HumanBenchmark.com’s Reaction Time Test ← this one’s just a “click when the red panel turns green” test, but the merit here is that it compares your scores to a very large dataset of other people
- Keypress Reaction Time Test ← this one’s the kind that was used in the study, and requires pressing the correct numerical key when the corresponding digit is shown on the screen. You can make it easier or harder by restricting or increasing the range of numbers it uses (default setting is to use the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6)
Enjoy!
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Unlock Your Air-Fryer’s Potential!
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Unlock Your Air-Fryer’s Potential!
You know what they say:
“you get out of it what you put in”
…and in the case of an air-fryer, that’s very true!
More seriously:
A lot of people buy an air fryer for its health benefits and convenience, make fries a couple of times, and then mostly let it gather dust. But for those who want to unlock its potential, there’s plenty more it can do!
Let’s go over the basics first…
Isn’t it just a tiny convection oven?
Mechanically, yes. But the reason that it can be used to “air-fry” food rather than merely bake or roast the food is because of its tiny size allowing for much more rapid cooking at high temperatures.
On which note… If you’re shopping for an air-fryer:
- First of all, congratulations! You’re going to love it.
- Secondly: bigger is not better. If you go over more than about 4 liters capacity, then you don’t have an air-fryer; you have a convection oven. Which is great and all, but probably not what you wanted.
Are there health benefits beyond using less oil?
It also creates much less acrylamide than deep-frying starchy foods does. The jury is out on the health risks of acrylamide, but we can say with confidence: it’s not exactly a health food.
I tried it, but the food doesn’t cook or just burns!
The usual reason for this is either over-packing the fryer compartment (air needs to be able to circulate!), or not coating the contents in oil. The oil only needs to be a super-thin layer, but it does need to be there, or else again, you’re just baking things.
Two ways to get a super thin layer of oil on your food:
- (works for anything you can air-fry) spray the food with oil. You can buy spray-on oils at the grocery store (Fry-light and similar brands are great), or put oil in little spray bottle (of the kind that you might buy for haircare) yourself.
- (works with anything that can be shaken vigorously without harming it, e.g. root vegetables) chop the food, and put it in a tub (or a pan with a lid) with about a tablespoon of olive oil. Don’t worry if that looks like it’s not nearly enough—it will be! Now’s a great time to add your seasonings* too, by the way. Put the lid on, and holding the lid firmly in place, shake the tub/pan/whatever vigorously. Open it, and you’ll find the oil has now distributed itself into a very thin layer all over the food.
*About those seasonings…
Obviously not everything will go with everything, but some very healthful seasonings to consider adding are:
- Garlic minced/granules/powder (great for the heart and immune health)
- Black pepper (boosts absorption of other nutrients, and provides more benefits of its own than we can list here)
- Turmeric (slows aging and has anti-cancer properties)
- Cinnamon (great for the heart and has anti-inflammatory properties)
Garlic and black pepper can go with almost anything (and in this writer’s house, they usually do!)
Turmeric has a sweet nutty taste, and will add its color anything it touches. So if you want beautiful golden fries, perfect! If you don’t want yellow eggplant, maybe skip it.
Cinnamon is, of course, great as part of breakfast and dessert dishes
On which note, things most people don’t think of air-frying:
- Breakfast frittata—the healthy way!
- Omelets—no more accidental scrambled egg and you don’t have to babysit it! Just take out the tray that things normally sit on, and build it directly onto the (spray-oiled) bottom of the air-fryer pan. If you’re worried it’ll burn: a) it won’t, because the heat is coming from above, not below b) you can always use greaseproof paper or even a small heatproof plate
- French toast—again with no cooking skills required
- Fish cakes—make the patties as normal, spray-oil and lightly bread them
- Cauliflower bites—spray oil or do the pan-jiggle we described; for seasonings, we recommend adding smoked paprika and, if you like heat, your preferred kind of hot pepper! These are delicious, and an amazing healthy snack that feels like junk food.
- Falafel—make the balls as usual, spray-oil (do not jiggle violently; they won’t have the structural integrity for that) and air-fry!
- Calamari (vegan option: onion rings!)—cut the squid (or onions) into rings, and lightly coat in batter and refrigerate for about an hour before air-frying at the highest heat your fryer does. This is critical, because air-fryers don’t like wet things, and if you don’t refrigerate it and then use a high heat, the batter will just drip, and you don’t want that. But with those two tips, it’ll work just great.
Want more ideas?
Check out EatingWell’s 65+ Healthy Air-Fryer Recipes ← the recipes are right there, no need to fight one’s way to them in any fashion!
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5 Ways Your Pets Can Make You Sick
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Having a pet often improves one’s health, due to such things as the pleasant company and increased exercise (depending on the pet, of course).
But it’s not always so:
Watch out for…
None of these are fun:
- Cat scratch disease: infection with Bartonella bacteria transmitted through a bite or scratch from a cat—especially kittens carrying infected fleas—causing a bump at the wound followed weeks later by fever and swollen lymph nodes.
- Salmonella from reptiles: infection with Salmonella bacteria carried on the skin or shell of turtles, frogs, and other reptiles or amphibians, which can spread through contaminated surfaces like sinks or bathtubs used to clean their habitats.
- Fish tank infection: skin infection with Mycobacterium marinum can be acquired while cleaning a fish tank, producing a slowly spreading rash along the arm.
- Bird fancier’s lung: a form of hypersensitivity pneumonitis caused by inhaling proteins from bird feathers or droppings, leading to chronic cough, lung inflammation, and shortness of breath in people exposed to birds.
- cutaneous larva migrans (hookworm infection): parasitic larvae from dog or cat hookworms burrow into your skin after contact with contaminated soil or sand, producing an intensely itchy (and migrating) rash.
For more on each of these, plus illustrative case studies of how bad it gets with each, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
If you have a pet as a kid, does this lower your risk of asthma and eczema?
Take care!
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Women’s Strength Training Anatomy Workouts – by Frédéric Delavier
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We’ve previously reviewed another book of Delavier’s, “Women’s Strength Training Anatomy“, which itself is great. This book adds a lot of practical advice to that one’s more informational format, but to gain full benefit of this one does not require having read that one.
A common reason that many women avoid strength-training is because they do not want to look muscular. Largely this is based on a faulty assumption, since you will never look like a bodybuilder unless you also eat like a bodybuilder, for example.
However, for those for whom the concern remains, today’s book is an excellent guide to strength-training with aesthetics in mind as well as functionality.
The exercises are divided into sections, thus: round your glutes / tone your quadriceps / shape your hamstrings / trim your calves / flatten your abs / curve your shoulders / develop a pain-free upper back / protect your lower back / enhance your chest / firm up your arms.
As you can see, a lot of these are mindful of aesthetics, but there’s nothing here that’s antithetical to function, and some (especially for example “develop a pain-free upper back” and “protect your lower back“) are very functional indeed.
Bottom line: Delavier’s anatomy and exercise books are top-tier, and this one is no exception. If you are a woman and would like to strength-train (or perhaps you already do, and would like to refine your training), then this book is an excellent choice.
Click here to check out Women’s Strength Training Anatomy Workouts, and have the body you want!
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The Whole Heart Solution – by Dr. Joel Kahn
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If there’s a single central focus here is on the evidence for including a lot of plants in our diet, and in particular, certain ones that are particularly impactful (positively) for our health. However, it’s not all about diet; Dr. Kahn also discusses (as the subtitle suggests) making the most of every safe, useful tool available for us for good heart health. Including, where appropriate, drugs and surgery, but definitely with a preference to avoid their necessity with lifestyle adjustments and regular pre-emptive testing of various kinds.
Indeed, the promised “75 low-cost things you can do right away” are mostly lifestyle adjustments, and as well as the dietary tips, they include non-dietary things such as opening your windows and walking barefoot, for example—we’ll learn tips relating to all areas of life, in fact.
An interesting note on diet, though: he also talks about how all requests for reimbursement for Medicare and Medicaid services are evaluated with regard to whether they are appropriate, and of all the programs for intensive cardiac rehabilitation that have been requested, only two have been approved (at time of going to press, at least). Both are plan-based programs, of which, one is the dietary approach described in this book. Bearing in mind that Medicare and Medicate have a mandate to save money, they will only approve a program that results in costing them less in hospital care and prescriptions. Which means that their interests are aligned with yours, in this case!
The style is enthusiastic pop science, that is to say, it is written with extreme conviction—there is plenty of science cited to back it up, of course, but certainly this is not an indifferent book.
Bottom line: if you’d like to improve your heart health, this book is a top-tier one-stop solution (if you implement its contents, anyway!)
Click here to check out the Whole Heart Solution, and live wholeheartedly!
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Mango vs Peach – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing mango to peach, we picked the mango.
Why?
Both have their merits:
In terms of macros, mango has slightly more carbs, and the other macros are too close to call. Since the carbs difference also isn’t very big, we’re calling this round a tie, but you could call it a small nominal win if you like.
In the category of vitamins, mango has more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, C, E, K, and choline, while peaches are not higher in any vitamins. An easy win for mangos.
Looking at minerals, mango has more calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese, and selenium, while peaches have more iron, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. A marginal 5:4 win for mangos, though it’s worth noting that mango did also have the wider margins of difference (thus setting it a little further ahead if we want to count that).
In other considerations, peaches do have more polyphenols, as well as some anticancer properties that aren’t known of mangos. So that’s a point in peaches’ favor.
Adding up the sections makes for an overall win for mangos, but it’s close, since as we say, both have their merits.
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Top 8 Fruits That Prevent & Kill Cancer
Enjoy!
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