Health & Fitness Digest - 10 March
/In today’s digest:
- An amazing new stem cell procedure promises massive potential for anti-aging and reversing disease
- This daily habit is causing you to destroy your sleep, memory, learning ability, and hormones - you have to stop!
- Low Vitamin D during pregnancy increases child risk of Multiple Sclerosis by 90%
- Yet another study showing that increasing protein while dropping carbs is the key to fat loss
- Higher intake of Vitamin B6 (in women) and B12 (in men) associated with lower risk of depression
An amazing new stem cell procedure promises massive potential for anti-aging and reversing disease
This is one of the best pieces of news I’ve read in recent times about stem cell science. A team of doctors and scientists in China were able to reverse degenerative loss of eyesight in children suffering from cataracts (a degeneration of the lens in the eyes responsible for half of cases of blindness).
The scientists were able to trigger the person’s own stem cells (basically the master cells that give birth to all other cells in the body) to regenerate new “lens cells” and rebuild the lens in the eye (link to the less “sciency” article describing the procedure and implications).
This is amazing news not just for the eyes: triggering stem cells to regenerate critical other cells in the body is the ultimate key to anti-aging and healing people from degenerative diseases, where different parts of the body start to decay away from disease or old age.
Guess what else triggers stem cell activation: fasting. My personal practice is to fast for 24 hours at least once or twice a week. In addition to the wide array of health benefits fasting bestows upon you, studies have shown that fasting also triggers stem cell activation, along with accompanying benefits (anti-aging, reversing degenerative conditions, etc.).
This daily habit is causing you to destroy your sleep, memory, learning ability, and hormones - you have to stop!
I’ve talked about this in the past numerous times.
The blue light emitted by your iPhone, Android, ipad, laptop (etc) wrecks havoc on your body at night, severely affecting your health and quality of life.
As this simple article explains, exposure to “blue light” from these screens in the evening tricks your brain into thinking that it’s day-time (blue-light is similar to light emitted by the sun). This causes your body to increase cortisol (stress hormone), switch off melatonin (sleep hormone), increase insulin (causing weight gain and risk of diabetes) and triggers damage to the retina of the eye.
When I “must” use such devices, I wear “blue-light blocking glasses”, as nerdy as they make me look (I’m a nerd at heart anyway, so…).
Follow these tips on improving sleep quality.
Low Vitamin D during pregnancy increases child risk of Multiple Sclerosis by 90%
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an auto-immune disease causing a degeneration of the nervous system. It severely impacts the brain and spinal cord, causing damage to the Myelin Sheath.
A simple way to understand this is as follows: the Myelin Sheath is like the plastic covering around electrical wires. If that plastic covering is gone, the electric wires touch each other, causing short circuits and eventually burn. That’s what MS does.
As of today, MS affects 30/100k people worldwide. But some people are at higher risk, especially those living in northern climates (80/100k in Europe, 200/100k in Northern Europe).
This new study shows that vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of MS for the baby by 90%. This matches the risks I mentioned above, since people in Northern countries get less sun exposure and thus have lower Vitamin D levels).
I’ve written extensively about Vitamin D in the past:
Fixing low vitamin D levels without supplements
1 billion people on our planet are deficient in Vitamin D
Yet another study showing that increasing protein while dropping carbs is the key to fat loss
I’ve lost count of how many studies I referred to showing that the key to increasing lean mass (muscle) and dropping body fat is through a combination of an increase in protein & fat intake and dropping carbs (of course in conjunction with exercise, stress management and sleep).
This new study took 3 groups of people and put them on the “same exercise routine” but “3 different diets” for a period of several weeks.
Diet 1: High Protein (30% of total calories), high carb (55%) and low fat (15%).
Diet 2: High Protein (30%), moderate carb (40%), moderate fat (30%).
Diet 3: Control (typical) diet: Moderate Protein (15%), high carb 55%, moderate fat (30%).
While all 3 diets results in “weight loss” because of calorie restrictions, both Diets 1 and 2 resulted in “lower body fat and higher lean mass”, while Diet 2 resulted came out the winner, with the trend showing that if the study was continued, the differences would have become even more clear over time.
I’ve written numerous articles on weight loss. You can find most of them here.
Higher intake of Vitamin B6 (in women) and B12 (in men) associated with lower risk of depression
I’ll keep this one quick and light: this study looked at the relationship between intake of Vitamins B6 and B12 from food and risk of depression.
Higher levels of B6 was associated with lower depression in women. The same was seen in men but for B12.
Foods rich in B6: tuna, turkey, beef, chicken, salmon, sweet potato (full list here).
Foods rich in B12: sardines, salmon, tuna, cod, lamb, scallops (full list here).
Vegans beware: while the media and supplement industry like to talk about B12 from spirulina or other sea vegetable sources, the form of B12 from such sources cannot be readily utilised by the human body, so you would still have to supplement.
As usual, any questions / comments please reply / comment below.
Tony
#neversettle
