Simple Wall Pilates for Seniors – by Grace Clark
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While the cover illustration makes this look a little too simple, in fact there’s a lot of value in this book, with exercises ranging from things like that on the cover, to the “wall downward dog”. But the actual exercises (of which there are 29) themselves are only a part of the book (taking about 70 pages of it with clear illustrations).
There’s also a lot about important Pilates principles to apply, such as breathing, correct body alignment (if you don’t already do Pilates, you will not have this, as Pilates alignment is quite specific), flexibility, balance, stability, coordination, range of motion, isometric exercise considerations, endurance, and more.
Unlike a lot of “…for seniors” books, this is not a watered down barely-does-anything version of the “real” exercises, but rather, would present most the same challenges to a 20-year-old reader; it’s just that the focus here is more on matters that tend to concern an older rather than younger demographic. That 20-something may be busy building their butt, for instance, while the 80-year-old is building their bones. No reason both shouldn’t do both, of course, but the focus is age-specific.
The author guides us through working up from easy things to hard, breaking stuff down so that we can progress at our own pace, such that even the most cautious or enthusiastic reader can start at an appropriate point and proceed accordingly.
She also talks us through a 28-day program (as promised by the subtitle), and advice on how to keep it going without plateauing, how to set realistic goals, how to tailor it to our abilities as we go, track our progress, and so forth.
The style is clear and instructional, and one thing that sets this apart from a lot of Pilates books is that the education comes from an angle not of “trust me”, but rather from well-sourced claims with bibliography whose list spans 5 pages at the end.
Bottom line: if you’d like to progressively increase your strength, stability, and more—with no gym equipment, just a wall—then this book will have you see improvements in the 28 days it promises, and thereafter.
Click here to check out Simple Wall Pilates For Seniors, and experience the difference!
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Beetroot vs Eggplant – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing beetroot to eggplant, we picked the beetroot.
Why?
It’s close!
In terms of macros, they’re equal on fiber, while beetroot has slightly more protein and carbs. In both cases, despite being quite firm vegetables when raw, they are nevertheless both mostly water. We’re calling this category a tie.
In the category of vitamins, beetroot has more of vitamins A, B2, B9, and C, while eggplant has more of vitamins B3, B5, B6, E, and K. That’s a marginal victory for eggplant.
When it comes to minerals, however, beetroot has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while eggplant is not higher in any minerals. A clear and easy win for beetroot this time.
In terms of polyphenols, both have good-but-different health-giving polyphenols to share, including the quercetin in beetroot and caffeic acid in eggplant—nothing that would tip one ahead of the other, though.
All in all, the categories added up are balanced, but beetroot won the minerals category much more convincingly than eggplant won the vitamins category, so we’re giving this one to beetroot, even if only on tie-breakers!
Of course, enjoy either or both; diversity is good 😎
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Beetroot For More Than Just Your Blood Pressure ← more beetroot benefits
Take care!
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Is Ant Oil Just “Snake Oil”?
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We Tested Out “Ant Egg Oil”
Did you know?! There’s a special protein found only in the eggs of a particular species of ant found in Turkey, that can painlessly and permanently stop (not just slow!) hair regrowth in places you’d rather not have hair.
Neither did we, and when we heard about it, we did our usual research, and discovered a startling secret.
…there probably isn’t.
We decided to dig deeper, and the plot (unlike the hair in question) thickens:
We could not find any science for or against (or even generally about) the use of ant egg oil to prevent hair regrowth. Not a peep. What we did find though was a cosmetic chemist who did an analysis of the oil as sold, and found its main ingredient appears to be furan-2-carbaldehyde, or Furfural, to its friends.
Surprise! There’s also no science that we could find about the effect of Furfural (we love the name, though! Fur for all!) on hair, except that it’s bad for rodents (and their hair) if they eat a lot of it. So please don’t eat it. Especially if you’re a mouse.
And yet, many ostensibly real reviews out in the wild claim it works wonders. So, we took the investigative reporting approach and tried it ourselves.
That’s right, a plucky member of our team tried it, and she reports:
❝ At first glance, it seems like olive oil. There’s something else though, adding a darker colour and a slight bitterness to the smell.
After waxing, I applied a little every few days. When the hair eventually regrew (and it did), it grew back thinner, and removing the new hairs was a strangely easy experience, like pulling hairs out of soft soap instead of out of skin. It didn’t hurt at all, either.
I had more of the oil, so I kept going with the treatment, and twelve weeks later there are very few hairs regrowing at all; probably there will be none left soon. Whatever’s in this, be it from ant eggs or wheat bran or something else entirely, it worked for me!❞
So in short: it remains a mystery for now! If you try it, let us know how it went for you.
Here’s the “interesting” website that sells it, though you may find it for less on eBay or similar. (Note, we aren’t earning any commissions from these links. We just wanted to make it easier for you to dive deeper).
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The Smartest Way To Get To 20% Body Fat (Or 10% For Men)
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20% body fat for women, or 10% for men, are suggested in this video as ideal levels of adiposity for most people. While we certainly do have wiggle-room in either direction, going much higher than that can create a metabolic strain, and going much lower than that can cause immune dysfunction, organ damage, brittle bones, and more.
This video assumes you want to get down to those figures. If you want to go up to those figures because you are currently underweight, check out: How To Gain Weight (Healthily!)
Look at the small picture
The main trick, we are told, is to focus on small, incremental changes rather than obsessing over long-term weight loss goals (e.g. 20% body fat for women, 10% for men).
Next, throw out what science shows doesn’t work, such as restrictive or extreme dieting:
- Restrictive dieting doesn’t work as the body will try to save you from starvation by storing extra fat and slowing your metabolism to make your fat reserves last longer
- Extreme dieting doesn’t work because no matter how compelling it is to believe “I’ll just lose it in this extreme way, then maintain my new lower weight”, the vast body of research shows that weight loss in this way will be regained quickly afterwards, and for a significant minority, may even end up putting more back on than was originally lost. In either case, you’ll have put your mind and body through the wringer for no long-term gain.
The recommendation comes in three parts:
- Shift your mindset: detach motivation from timelines and vanity goals; focus instead on lifelong health and sustainable habits.
- Use an analytical approach: apply engineering principles: collect honest data and identify bottlenecks. Track food intake consistently, even during slip-ups, to identify areas for improvement. You remember the whole “it doesn’t count if it’s from someone else’s plate” thing? These days with food trackers, a lot of people fall into “it doesn’t count if I don’t record it”, but a head-in-the-sand approach will not get you where you want to be.
- Tackle bottlenecks incrementally: focus on one small, impactful change at a time (e.g. reducing soda intake). This way, you can build habits gradually to prevent willpower burnout and sustain your progress.
As an example of how this looked for Viva (in the video):
- > 30% body fat stage: she focused on reducing processed foods and portion sizes.
- 29–25% body fat stage: she prioritized nutrient-dense foods and reduced dining out.
- 24–20% body fat stage: she added strength training, improved sleep, and addressed her cravings and energy levels.
In short: look at the small picture; adjust your habits mindfully, keep a track of things, see what needs improvement and improve it, and don’t try to speedrun weight loss; just focus on what you are tangibly doing to keep things heading in the right direction, and you’ll get there 1% at a time.
For more on all of this, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
Lose Weight, But Healthily ← our own guide, which is also consistent with the advice above, and talks about some specific things to pay attention to that weren’t mentioned in the video
Take care!
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5 Ways To Beat Cancer (And Other Diseases)
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A Systematic Approach To Healthy Eating
This is Dr. William Li. He’s a physician, cancer researcher, and educator. He also founded the Angiogenesis Foundation back in 1994.
We recently reviewed one of his books, “Eat To Beat Disease”.
He has another book that we haven’t reviewed at time of writing, “Eat To Beat Your Diet“, which you might like to check out.
What does he want us to know?
He wants us to know how to eat to beat cancer and other diseases, by means of five specific angles:
Angiogenesis
This is about replacing blood vessels, which of course happens all the time, but it becomes a problem when it is feeding a cancer in the process.
Here, based on Dr. Li’s work, is what can be done about it:
A List of Anti-Angiogenic Foods for a Cancer-Fighting Diet
Regeneration
Generally speaking, we want to replace healthy cells early, because if we wait until they get damaged, then that damage will be copied forwards. As well as intermittent fasting, there are other things we can do to promote this—even, Dr. Li’s research shows, for stem cells:
Doctor’s Tip: Regeneration (stem cells)—one of your body’s five defense systems
Microbiome health
Healthy gut, healthy rest of the body. We’ve written about this before:
Making Friends With Your Gut (You Can Thank Us Later)
DNA protection
DNA gets unravelled and damaged with age, the telomere caps get shorter, and mistakes get copied forward. So there more we can protect our DNA, the longer we can live healthily. There are many ways to do this, but Dr. Li was one of the first to bring to light the DNA-protecting benefits of kiwi fruit:
Immunity
Paradoxically, what’s good for your immune system (making it stronger) also helps to protect against autoimmune diseases (for most people, for the most part).
In short: it’s good to have an immune system that’s powerful not just in its counterattacks, but also in its discerning nature. There are dietary and other lifestyle approaches to both, and they’re mostly the same things:
Beyond Supplements: The Real Immune-Boosters!
and thus see also:
Want to know more?
You might enjoy his blog or podcast, and here’s his TED talk:
Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later
Enjoy!
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Younger Next Year: The Exercise Program – by Chris Crowley & Dr. Henry Lodge
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We previously reviewed the same authors’ original “Younger Next Year”, and now here’s the more specific book about exercise for increasing healthspan and reversing markers of biological aging, going into much more detail in that regard.
How much more? Well, it’s a very hand-holding book in the sense that it walks the reader through everything step-by-step, tells not only what kind of exercise and how much, but also how to do, what things to do to prepare, how to avoid not erring in various ways, what metrics to keep an eye on to ensure you are making progress, and more.
There are also whole sections on specific common age-related issues including osteoporosis and arthritis, as well as how to train around injuries (especially of the kind that basically aren’t likely to ever fully go away).
As with the previous book, there’s a blend of motivational pep talk and science—this book is heavily weighted towards the former. It has, however, enough science to keep it on the right track throughout. Hence the two authors! Crowley for motivational pep and training tips, and Dr. Lodge for the science.
Bottom line: if you’d like to be biologically younger next year, that exercise will be an important component of that, and this book is really quite comprehensive for its relative brevity (weighing in at 176 pages).
Click here to check out Younger Next Year: The Exercise Program, and make that progress!
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Eggcellent News Against Dementia?
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It’s that time of the week again… We hope all our readers have had a great and healthy week! Here are some selections from health news from around the world:
Moderation remains key
Eggs have come under the spotlight for their protective potential against dementia, largely due to their content of omega-3 fatty acids, choline, and other nutrients.
Nevertheless, the study had some limitations (including not measuring the quantity of eggs consumed, just the frequency), and while eating eggs daily showed the lowest rates of dementia, not eating them at all did not significantly alter the risk.
Eating more than 2 eggs per day is still not recommended, however, for reasons of increasing the risk of other health issues, such as heart disease.
Read in full: Could eating eggs prevent dementia?
Related: Eggs: Nutritional Powerhouse or Heart-Health Timebomb?
More than suitable
It’s common for a lot of things to come with the warning “not suitable for those who are pregnant or nursing”, with such frequency that it can be hard to know what one can safely do/take while pregnant or nursing.
In the case of COVID vaccines, though, nearly 90% of babies who had to be hospitalized with COVID-19 had mothers who didn’t get the vaccine while they were pregnant.
And as for how common that is: babies too young to be vaccinated (so, under 6 months) had the highest covid hospitalization rate of any age group except people over 75.
Read in full: Here’s why getting a covid shot during pregnancy is important
Related: The Truth About Vaccines
Positive dieting
Adding things into one’s diet is a lot more fun than taking things out, is generally easier to sustain, and (as a general rule of thumb; there are exceptions of course) give the greatest differences in health outcomes.
This is perhaps most true of beans and pulses, which add many valuable vitamins, minerals, protein, and perhaps most importantly of all (single biggest factor in reducing heart disease risk), fiber.
Read in full: Adding beans and pulses can lead to improved shortfall nutrient intakes and a higher diet quality in American adults
Related: Intuitive Eating Might Not Be What You Think
Clearing out disordered thinking
Hoarding is largely driven by fear of loss, and this radical therapy tackles that at the root, by such means as rehearsing alternative outcomes of discarding through imagery rescripting, and examining the barriers to throwing things away—to break down those barriers one at a time.
Read in full: Hoarding disorder: sensory CBT treatment strategy shows promise
Related: When You Know What You “Should” Do (But Knowing Isn’t The Problem)
Superfluous
Fluoridated water may not be as helpful for the teeth as it used to be prior to about 1975. Not because it became any less effective per se, but because of the modern prevalence of fluoride-containing toothpastes, mouthwashes, etc rendering it redundant in more recent decades.
Read in full: Dental health benefits of fluoride in water may have declined, study finds
Related: Water Fluoridation, Atheroma, & More
Off-label?
With rising costs of living including rising healthcare costs, and increasing barriers to accessing in-person healthcare, it’s little wonder that many are turning to the gray market online to get their medications.
These websites typically use legal loopholes to sell prescription drugs to the public, by employing morally flexible doctors who are content to expediently rubber-stamp prescriptions upon request, on the basis of the patient having filled out a web form and checked boxes for their symptoms (and of course also having waived all rights of complaint or legal recourse).
However, some less scrupulous sorts are exploiting this market, to sell outright fake medications, using a setup that looks like a “legitimate” gray market website. Caveat emptor indeed.
Read in full: CDC warns of fake drug dangers from online pharmacies
Related: Are You Taking PIMs? Getting Off The Overmedication Train
A rising threat
In 2021 (we promise the paper was published only a few days ago!), the leading causes of death were:
- COVID-19
- Heart disease
- Stroke
…which latter represented a rising threat, likely in part due to the increase in the aging population.
Read in full: Stroke remains a leading cause of death globally, with increased risk linked to lifestyle factors
Related: 6 Signs Of Stroke (One Month In Advance)
Take care!
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