This is default featured slide 1 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.

This is default featured slide 2 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.

This is default featured slide 3 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.

This is default featured slide 4 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.

This is default featured slide 5 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

8 Reasons You Need to Be Eating Avocado

By  February 22, 2023  ,  

Fresh avocado on cutting boardAvocado is one of those foods that almost every dietary ideology agrees is good for you. Vegans, vegetarians, paleos, Mediterranean diet espousers, and keto diet fans all promote avocados as a “good fat.” Even the USDA dietary committee wants people eating avocados. But most avocado discussion stops there. It’s “good for you” and that’s about all you hear about the avocado. I’m as guilty as the next man, seeing as how my main focus is on avocado oil used as the basis of most Primal Kitchen products.

But the human research convincingly shows that avocados—the whole fruit—are incredibly healthy and nutrient-dense additions to anyone’s diet. Unless you have a specific reason for not eating them, you should be eating avocados oil on a regular basis. Here are seven evidence-based reasons why this is the case:

1. Avocados improve cholesterol

What constitutes a healthy lipid profile is a subject of debate, but we can generally agree on a few principles:

  • Higher HDL is usually better.
  • Lower triglycerides are better.
  • A lower LDL:HDL ratio is usually better.
  • Increased LDL particle size is usually better.
  • Less LDL oxidation is better.

Eating avocados achieves all these improvements. In one human study, subjects were randomized to eat either an American diet, a standard “healthy” low-fat diet, a moderate-fat diet with most of the fat coming from sunflower and canola oil, or a moderate-fat diet with most of the extra fat coming from one large avocado a day.1 Only the avocado diet improved LDL:HDL ratio, increased LDL particle size, and reduced oxidized LDL. It was the clear winner over both the American, the seed oil diet, and the low-fat diet.

Another similar study pitted avocado eaters against seed oil eaters. The fatty acid composition was identical in both diets, but only the avocado eaters saw reductions in oxidized LDL particles.2

In another study, Hispanic adults with high cholesterol were randomized to a high-carb vegetarian diet enriched with soybean and safflower oil or a high-carb vegetarian diet enriched with avocado (30% of total calories from avocado).3 The avocado group saw much better improvements in LDL, triglycerides, and HDL.

2. Avocados make meat healthier

Some studies find that eating a hamburger patty by itself increases postprandial lipid oxidation and reduces endothelial function, while eating the same patty with a half avocado almost abolishes these effects and also reduces systemic inflammation. There are other issues at hand here, so don’t freak out about a hamburger patty just yet, but it’s probably is a good idea to have a few slices of avocado with your meat. Other herbs, spices, and phytonutrient-rich plant foods can also help here.

3. Avocados make meals more filling and satisfying

Adding avocados to meals makes said meal both more filling and satisfying.4 This effect occurs whether the avocado adds calories or not. Even isocaloric meals, some with avocados, some without, show the effect. A meal with avocado is simply more satisfying and keeps a person fuller for longer. You aren’t full because you’re getting stuffed. You’re full because you’re satisfied—the meal was nutrient-dense and inherently filling. You’re full because avocados have powerful effects on gut satiety hormones.

4. Avocados improve cognitive function

In older adults given a battery of mental tests, eating avocados increased lutein (a carotenoid linked to ocular and cognitive health) levels by 25%, boosting executive functional capacity, sustained attention, and problem solving ability compared to eating chickpeas.5

Avocado is a unique blend of water and oleic acid that enhances the absorption of carotenoids not just from the avocado itself, but also from any accompanying foods that contain carotenoids.

5. Avocados improve gut health

Dietary avocado increases the diversity of the gut biome, increases “shedding” of fat in the stool of obese and overweight (who don’t “need” the additional caloric energy), and reduces bile acid excretion in the stool. It also tends to increase short chain fatty acid production by gut bacteria, a good indicator of improved metabolic health.6

6. Avocados reduce oxidative stress and inflammation

In general, avocado consumption lowers markers of inflammation and oxidative stress. As mentioned earlier, they can reduce LDL oxidation—the process by which LDL particles are subjected to oxidative stress and damaged, thereby increasing the risk of atherosclerosis. They also have been shown to lower C-reactive protein and other markers associated with endothelial damage and function.7

7. Avocados improve eye health

Older adults who eat avocados see increases in their macular pigment density (MPD).8

8. Avocados are micronutrient-rich.

When most people talk about the nutrients found in avocados, they talk about potassium and monounsaturated fat. These are good components of the avocado, to be sure, but there’s a lot more to it. A single avocado gives you:

  • 30% of daily folate
  • 40% of vitamin B5
  • 15% of riboflavin
  • 23% of vitamin B6
  • 17% of vitamin E
  • 28% of vitamin K
  • 26% of copper
  • 9% of magnesium
  • 15% of potassium

That’s not bad for 200 calories of healthy fat and prebiotic fiber that also has all the beneficial effects mentioned above. Avocados are delicious, nutritious, and improve many aspects of your health. There’s no reason not to eat them on a regular basis.

The post 8 Reasons You Need to Be Eating Avocado appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.


Read More

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

What Is Yoga Nidra

By  February 21, 2023  ,  

Two women lying on yoga mats in savasana pose in a sunny, open-air studio.What mental image does the word “yoga” conjure for you? Probably a spandex-clad individual in downward dog or balancing on one leg in tree pose. Or maybe they’re in a complicated full-body knot that requires five times more flexibility than you’ve ever had? Does it look like hard work? 

That’s certainly one version of yoga, the kind that dominates the modern notion of yoga in the West, but it’s not at all what we’re talking about today. 

What if I told you that there is another kind of yoga, one in which you don’t move at all? You don’t even sit or stand; you lie down the whole time. That’s yoga nidra. “Yoga nidra” literally means “yogic sleep,” sometimes translated as “conscious sleep.” The goal of yoga nidra is to achieve an altered state of awareness where you are neither awake nor asleep but in a liminal space in between—or maybe surpassing both. (Technically, the term refers to the state of consciousness beyond wakefulness or sleeping. That is, “yoga nidra” is the destination, not the journey it takes to get there. But in common parlance, people use it to mean the entire practice.) 

Yoga nidra offers the opportunity to step outside your body, thoughts, and emotions. It is a state of deep relaxation and, say proponents, of deep healing where your subconscious becomes more open to learning and establishing new thought and behavior patterns, stress dissipates, and you move towards physical health and homeostasis. “Equivalent to fours hours of deep sleep!” is a common selling point. 

The latter may or may not be true, but it’s clear that yoga nidra has a lot to offer by way of promoting relaxation, better sleep, and even recovery from major stress and trauma. There isn’t a person operating in the modern world who couldn’t benefit from slowing down and intentionally tapping into relaxing, restorative practices. Is yoga nidra right for you?

A Brief History of Yoga Nidra

Modern yoga nidra practices have roots tracing back into many ancient yoga and meditation traditions. In ancient texts, yoga nidra or yoganidra sometimes referred to that non-sleep, non-waking level of consciousness or to the goddess Yoga Nidra Shakti. 1 Yoga nidra was often described as a higher state of being, one in which normal mental and bodily activities ceased, and the yogi achieved a state of bliss.2 

The type of yoga nidra practice you’re likely to encounter today was probably inspired by 19th and 20th century “relaxationists” and hypnotists who were interested in harnessing the healing power of rest, according to scholars,3 but it really got its kickstart thanks to the teachings of Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Beginning in the 1960s and 70s, Satyananda devised a method of using breathing techniques and body scans to achieve progressive relaxation and tap into yoga nidra. If you take a yoga nidra class today, there’s a good chance you’ll be following his method, or something quite like it.

Yoga nidra has since enjoyed a surge in popularity, as well as academic interest. In the 2000s, clinical psychologist and yoga scholar Dr. Richard Miller developed his iRest protocol—a version of yoga nidra—and institute of the same name to help people dealing with issues ranging from “normal” stress to severe PTSD, sleep disturbances, and chronic health issues. More recently, Stanford neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman coined the term “non-sleep deep rest” (NSDR) to encompass practices that can promote stress release, neuroplasticity, more efficient learning, and better sleep, among other benefits. Huberman counts yoga nidra, hypnosis or self-hypnosis, and napping as types of NSDR.

What Happens During a Yoga Nidra Practice?

Yoga nidra involves a guided, meditative practice designed to achieve a deep state of relaxation where you transcend waking, sleeping, and dreaming states to arrive at a deeper level of consciousness. You remain aware of the outside world (unlike when you’re asleep), but you are totally detached from it. You are aware but not really awake. There but not-there. In a true state of yoga nidra, you reportedly experience not only profound relaxation but a sense of interconnectedness with the universe. 

This is where yoga nidra differs from traditional meditation in an important way. With meditation, you are usually sitting up and cultivating intense focus, sometimes on the breath, a chant, or a mental image. You are very much awake, and your conscious awareness is very much “on.” In yoga nidra, conscious thought is “turned off,” replaced by an awareness that is neither focused nor intentional. As yoga scholars Dr. Stephen Parker and Swami Veda Bharati describe it, “Neither thoughts nor images are present, and the practitioner experiences conscious, deep, dreamless sleep, possessing awareness of the surroundings but neither thinking about them nor interacting with them.”4 

Like all forms of yoga or meditation, the particulars of your practice will depend on who’s guiding you. Depending on how your guide or teacher was trained, they may follow a script or they may tap into a more intuitive flow during the session. Either way, it will probably involve a similar series of steps, something like this:

  • You begin by lying on your back in savasana, or corpse pose.
  • Set an intention, or sankalpa, for the practice. This might be something simple like “I am going to relax,” or it could be something bigger you are trying to achieve like, “I will sleep well at night” or “I will stop drinking alcohol.”
  • Next comes a series of visualization and breathing exercises. The purpose is to move you through different layers of the self toward a state of yoga nidra. Typically you would start with a body scan, moving your awareness to different points around your body, followed by instructions to bring awareness to your breathing, your senses, and your thoughts, often with specific visualization cues. Ultimately, you arrive in the desired state of deep relaxation.
  • Finally, you reaffirm your intention or sankalpa before returning to a waking state.

Benefits of Yoga Nidra

According to traditional wisdom, yoga nidra is a deeply healing state. Yoga nidra is especially touted as an effective way to alleviate stress, sleep better, and improve overall well-being. And there are plenty of studies to support these assertions, for example:

  • Yoga nidra reduced stress and anxiety among college students,5 6 nursing students,7 8 and professors.9
  • Adults with chronic insomnia were randomly assigned to receive cognitive behavioral therapy or do yoga nidra at home (using a recording) for five weeks. Both groups’ total sleep time and sleep efficiency improved, but yoga nidra outperformed CBT in terms of  changes in slow-wave sleep and total insomnia severity.10
  • Four weeks of yoga nidra was more effective than progressive muscle relaxation for improving sleep quality in male athletes (though both were helpful).11
  • Two studies found that depression and anxiety decreased, and psychological well-being improved, among women with menstrual health problems after six months of yoga nidra.12 13 (Interestingly,yoga nidra also seems to affect reproductive hormone levels.14)
  • Yoga nidra may be an effective tool for helping veterans (and potentially others) cope with PTSD symptoms.15 16 The U.S. Army Surgeon General has endorsed yoga nidra as an effective strategy for pain management.17

Scientific studies (small though they are) provide some evidence about the physiological effects underlying sthe mental and physical health benefits practitioners observe.

  • According to one study, for example, yoga nidra can activate the parasympathetic, rest-and-digest nervous system, as evidenced by higher heart rate variability (HRV).18
  • Another set of researchers put eight experienced yoga teachers in a PET scan and had them do a yoga nidra practice, during which they showed a 65 percent increase in dopamine release in the brain.19
  • Other studies suggest that a regular yoga nidra practice can reduce blood pressure,20 21 inflammation as measured by CRP,22 and blood glucose levels.23 24

Getting Started

There’s no question that all forms of yoga and meditation can offer tremendous physical, mental, and even spiritual benefits for people who practice regularly. However, other forms of yoga have barriers to entry—concerns that you might not be strong enough or flexible enough, for example—that can scare people away. And a lot of people give up on meditation because they find it too hard to quiet the monkey mind and achieve the desired focus (although that does get easier with time). 

The beauty of yoga nidra is that it can be practiced anywhere by anybody. No special equipment nor physical fitness capabilities are required. There are lots of free yoga nidra exercises online, and many yoga studios offer in-person classes. Some are as short as 10 minutes, which are great when you need to take a quick break. To really tap into the benefits, though, most yoga nidra practices will last 30 to 45 minutes or so. 

If the idea of disconnecting from the conscious mind while still retaining awareness, of “surfing the interface between sleeping and waking consciousness” (a common tag line of yoga nidra) feels a bit too abstract for you, I’d encourage you to give it a try nevertheless. All you have to do is lie still and listen to the teacher’s voice. Consider it a practice of deep relaxation to start. Who couldn’t benefit from that?

The post What Is Yoga Nidra appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.


Read More

Friday, February 17, 2023

New and Noteworthy: What I Read This Week—Edition 209

By  February 17, 2023  ,  

Research of the Week

More good news about Covid immunity.

The case studies about using ketogenic diets for binge eating are impressive.

Fructose may bear some responsibility for Alzheimer’s.

Getting a Michelin star might make a restaurant more likely to fail.

Hominins were using stone tools to butcher large prey a million years earlier than expected.

New Primal Kitchen Podcasts

Primal Health Coach Radio: Closing Your Client’s Intention-Behavior Gap with Monica Reinagel

Media, Schmedia

Major German grocery chain set to reduce meat in stores.

What’s going on with egg prices, lawmakers wonder.

Interesting Blog Posts

On the impact of low-carb diets on cholesterol.

On lab meat and cancer.

Social Notes

Helluva breakfast.

How I’m eating these days.

Everything Else

Protein is the primary directive.

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Interesting paper: Competitive middle aged athletes who switched to a high-fat, low-carb diet suffered no decrement in mile or 800 meter run performance.

Cool study: Increase the incline to make treadmill running more similar to overland running.

I want to believe: Could the hobbits of Flores Island still exist?

My favorite type of garden: Oyster garden.

Incredible: Japanese scientists quantify new antioxidants in meat.

Question I’m Asking

What do you believe that few people agree with?

Recipe Corner

Time Capsule

One year ago (Feb 11 – Feb 17)

Comment of the Week

“Those of us who need Ozympic to control our diabetes are having a hard time getting it because the weight loss community is buying all of it. Please, people, don’t interfere with our health in order to look “prettier.”

-If true, I wonder why they wouldn’t just make more to meet demand.

The post New and Noteworthy: What I Read This Week—Edition 209 appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.


Read More

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

All About the New Obesity Drugs

By  February 15, 2023  ,  

Man sitting in front of coffee table preparing Semaglutide Ozempic injection.The United States and much of the industrialized world has an obesity problem. The environment is obesogenic. The food is delicious and engineered by PhDs to target and titillate our brain reward systems. The portions are enormous. Half of our waking hours are devoted to sitting slumped over in a chair staring into an electronic device—for work and for pleasure. We eat carbs we don’t need, use seed oils in quantities our bodies haven’t adapted to handling, and largely avoid the most important food our ancestors evolved consuming: animal protein. The cheapest food is the worst and the healthiest is the most expensive.

It’s a big mess, and many people resist the dietary and lifestyle changes required to fix the issue. It’s no wonder many people have been hoping for a pill or medication that fixes the obesity problem. 

Over the last few years, scientists appear to have found a class of medications that can help: GLP-1 agonists like semaglutide (sold as Ozempic® and Wegovy®) and liraglutide (aka Victoza® and Saxenda®). Hollywood celebrities and fashion models are taking these drugs in vast quantities. Silicon Valley tech circles are taking them—Elon Musk, most famously, is on semaglutide. In short, almost everyone with the money and access and weight to lose is using semaglutide and related drugs to stay thin. I know several docs who prescribe it for overweight patients.

Originally designed as diabetes drugs, these agents mimic the effects of glucagon-like peptide-1, an incretin hormone the body releases when you eat food. GLP-1 has two primary effects:

  • It stimulates the release of insulin and inhibits the release of glucagon. 
  • It slows down gastric motility and the passage of food through the gut, keeping you full for longer. 

GLP-1 is a hormone that “signals” fullness. There are all sorts of positive downstream effects as well:

  • Lower glucose production
  • More glucose uptake by muscles
  • Increased insulin sensitivity 
  • Lower blood pressure
  • Improved endothelial function

The new weight loss drugs bind to the receptors that normally interact with GLP-1 and elicit the same effect as the hormone itself. 

Do the obesity drugs work for losing weight?

Yes. They work. Out of all the weight loss drugs the industry has pushed and tested and tried, the GLP-1 agonists actually help people lose weight.

A recent paper tested semaglutide for two years in obese people.1 The average starting body weight was 106 kilos, or 233 pounds. Average starting BMI was 38. Most were women. One group got the drug, the other got placebo. Both groups were counseled to follow a “behavioral intervention,” which probably means exercise and other typical things.

By 104 weeks, the semaglutide group had lost an average of 15.2 percent of their bodyweight. The placebo group had lost an average of 2.6 percent.

Now, this didn’t make them thin. At the end, most were still overweight or obese. 15 percent of 233 pounds is about 35 pounds. That’s a great improvement, but it’s not enough to get you to a normal body weight. Furthermore, there was a major plateau of weight loss in the semaglutide group around 68 weeks. They didn’t really lose any more weight after that (as a group), and they even started to slightly gain by the end of the study. It was a very minor uptick, but an uptick nonetheless.

Semaglutide wasn’t enough for them. They were still mostly overweight, and the weight wasn’t continuing to come off—and it may have been starting to come back on.

But these drugs aren’t just about weight loss. There are other beneficial effects, too:

  • Reduced blood pressure.2
  • Fewer cravings for junk food.3
  • Reduced major cardiovascular events (heart attacks, strokes, etc).4
  • Better glucose tolerance.5
  • Reduced visceral fat.6

So these obesity drugs also improve other health markers. That’s great and suggests that the effects while you’re taking the drug are mostly positive.

 

I see some potential downsides, however.

Potential Downsides of GLP-1 Agonists

  • You probably have to take it for life. A recent paper followed a group of people who had taken semaglutide for over a year and lost a lot of body weight in the process.7 Half of them continued taking the med and the other half got placebo injections. This went on for 48 weeks. Those who were still on the sauce kept most of the weight off. Those who went off the drug quickly regained most of the weight and lost almost all of the other health benefits (blood sugar, blood lipids, blood pressure, etc.).
  • It’s expensive. At least as of now, the monthly cost of a GLP-1 agonist subscription is $1500. Insurance may cover much of that, but you have to be severely overweight or wait til these drugs are prescribed for mild overweight—but even then, assuming you have insurance, someone’s paying.
  • Liraglutide has been shown to increase adipogenesis, the creation of new fat cells, at least in mice.8 Even as the rodents lost weight, they increased the number of fat cells in their body. This is a process that normally occurs in childhood. It’s one reason why childhood obesity is so hard to overcome and so often leads to adult obesity. You have a ton of “extra” fat cells from when you were obese as a kid, so filling them up becomes easier and easier. If liraglutide or semaglutide also increase the creation of new fat cells, what happens when you stop taking it? What happens in five or ten years? Do those “empty” fat cells quickly fill up? It’s an interesting question we simply don’t know the answer to. Yet.
  • GLP-1 agonists increase resting heart rate, with the longer-lasting versions like injectable semaglutide (the most common used for weight loss) leading to sustained and long-lasting rises in resting heart rate.9 Whether this portends an increase in health issues down the road remains to be seen, but it’s generally accepted that a higher resting heart rate is a bad thing.
  • GLP-1 agonists cause nausea and diarrhea. They’re actually the most common side effects people complain about, and they may even contribute to the disinterest in food people report. It’s hard to be hungry when you feel like throwing up.
  • GLP-1 agonists cause loss of lean mass.10 This isn’t unique to GLP-1 agonist-related weight loss; it’s typical whenever you lose weight, but anecdotally, it doesn’t seem to happen when people lose weight following a Primal way of eating and exercising. This could potentially be avoided by simply emphasizing protein and making sure to lift heavy things rather than relying on the semaglutide to do all the work.
  • The benefits level off after about 68 weeks. They might continue if you bump up the dose, but that will also increase the chance of side effects like nausea, diarrhea, and any issues related to increased adipogenesis.
  • We don’t know what we don’t know. These are fairly new drugs and we don’t have any good long term (10 to 20 years) data.

My Final Take on GLP-1 Agonists

It’s not going to fix obesity. All the studies find that it helps users shed significant body weight but that there’s a lull in the loss. It’s not enough. It’s doesn’t get you past obesity and overweight into true leanness. To do that, you also have to address other aspects of your diet and lifestyle to really make the changes stick and extend them into perpetuity.

I do think it can help people stick to a better diet. While the fanfare focuses on the fact that you can “eat whatever you want” and still lose weight, it’s also been shown to reduce cravings for junk food and starches.11 A smart use of this drug would be to pair it with a healthy low-carb diet based on whole food that emphasizes animal protein. Whole food so you’re getting the micronutrients you need and protein so you’re getting adequate protein to stave off muscle loss.

Ultimately, most people reading this don’t need semaglutide injections. You’re already willing to do the work and make permanent changes to your diet, lifestyle, and exercise habits that set you up for long term success. But millions of people aren’t. While I have some major reservations about the long term effects of these drugs—after all, I strongly suspect there’s no free lunch when it comes to stuff like this—they may be beneficial on net to people who’d otherwise never consider changing their diet and lifestyle.

The post All About the New Obesity Drugs appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.


Read More

Friday, February 10, 2023

New and Noteworthy: What I Read This Week—Edition 208

By  February 10, 2023  ,  

Research of the Week

Humans got a lot of their circadian genes from Neanderthals.

Caffeine is anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective.

Scientists urge regulation of eugenic technologies.

Low-carb, high-fat works, but only if you stay on it.

More air pollution, more anxiety.

New Primal Kitchen Podcasts

Primal Health Coach Radio: 2 Krazy Ketos

Media, Schmedia

Vegans and vegetarians are more likely to be depressed.

Neanderthals were on a high-crab diet.

Interesting Blog Posts

On edible survivors.

Is aging a disease?

Weights before cardio or cardio before weights?

Social Notes

Ask me something.

She makes a good case.

Everything Else

When I listen to this, something deep and old within me responds.

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Important: People with serious mental illness should exercise regularly.

Awkward: More beef, less depression.

Profession I didn’t know existed: Honey sommelier.

Important reminder: Old people need more protein than younger people, including after exercise.

Can you imagine?: A giant 350 pound penguin.

Question I’m Asking

Should we be able to screen embryos for desirable traits?

Recipe Corner

Time Capsule

One year ago (Feb 4 – Feb 10)

Comment of the Week

“I agree with your idea of make the best choice from the choices you have. Someone told me once that the chemicals released by the body when you stress or condemn yourself do more harm than the one time poor choice that you make.”

-I’d agree with that.

The post New and Noteworthy: What I Read This Week—Edition 208 appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.


Read More

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

9 Wrist Mobility and Strengthening Exercises

By  February 08, 2023  ,  

Woman exercising with hand weight is guided by occupational therapistThe importance of wrist mobility and strength are almost impossible to overstate. Without a strong, mobile wrist that can fluidly operate across multiple planes, our ability to grab and manipulate things with our hands would be nearly useless. Without the mobile wrist, our manual dexterity doesn’t really exist—our arms become those pincers people use to pick up trash.

You need adequate wrist mobility, whether you work a keyboard for a living (carpal tunnel syndrome), catch barbells in the rack position, throw projectiles, cradle infants, work on cars, cook, drink coffee out of mugs, wave goodbye, play Ultimate Frisbee, or shoot hoops (with good follow through). If you plan on giving awesome high fives or becoming a dominant arm wrestler or engaging at all with the physical world, you absolutely need mobile, strong, durable wrists.

Seriously, though, adequate wrist mobility is important for everyday life and intense exercise alike.

And yet the wrist is a common weak link. Who’s actively training the wrist? There’s no “wrist day” at the gym. Today that changes. Today you learn the proper way to improve mobility and strength at the wrist.

1. Wrist Rolls

Wrist rolls are simple. Lace your fingers together and, using plenty of push-pull oppositional strength, put your wrists through every possible range of motion. Rotation, flexion, extension, adduction, abduction—just make sure you’re fully extending and fully flexing and fully rotating. Roll them through all ranges of motion.

If you work in front of a computer, I’d recommend doing a few sets of these before and after the work day.

2. Prayer Stretches

Wrist prayer stretches are static stretches that increase in intensity. Put your hands in the prayer position in front of your face: palms and fingers flat against each other, fingers pointing up the ceiling (or sun, or heavens).

Then, while keeping your hands together and fingers still pointing up, bring your hands down toward your navel. Continue descending until you can’t keep your palms touching any longer, then hold it there for 3-5 seconds. Repeat, trying to go lower each time. 12 reps.

3. Palm Lifts

Get on your hand and knees, hands flat on the floor and positioned directly underneath your shoulders (so your arms are a straight line perpendicular to the floor). Slowly lift your palms off the floor while keeping your fingers flat on the ground. At the top, your wrist should be stacked directly over your hand. Try to keep your arm perpendicular to the floor. Hold for 2-3 seconds, then slowly lower your palm to the floor. 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps.

4. Rear Facing Palms Up Wrist Stretch

Get on your hands and knees, back of your hands flat on the floor with the palms facing up and your fingers pointing toward you. This places your wrist in flexion, and by shifting your bodyweight backwards by sitting back on your calves, you go deeper into wrist flexion. Do this carefully and slowly. 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps. Avoid pain, but discomfort is fine.

5. Rear Facing Palms Down Wrist Stretch

Get on your hands and knees, palms of your hands flat on the floor and your fingers point back toward you. This places your wrist in extension, and by shifting your bodyweight backward onto your calves, you go farther into extension. Like the last stretch, be careful, move slowly, and avoid pain. 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps.

6. Weighted Wrist Extension/Flexion

Weighted wrist extensions and flexions strengthen the primary movements our wrists perform. However, many people are biased toward either flexion or extension, and training both patterns with weight can help balance out our strength and mobility.

For extensions:

  • Hold a dumbbell and place your forearm on a surface with your wrist and hand extending beyond the edge.
  • Your palm should be facing the floor.
  • Your wrist should hang down, bent in passive flexion.
  • Bring your wrist into full extension against the weight’s resistance.
  • Hold for a half second, then slowly lower it back. Repeat.

For flexions:

  • Hold a dumbbell and place your forearm on a surface with your wrist and hand extending beyond the edge.
  • Your palm should face the ceiling.
  • Your wrist should be hanging in extension.
  • Curl your wrist up into full flexion against the weight’s resistance.
  • Hold for a half second, then slower slower it back. Repeat.

For both movements, use a light dumbbell. This isn’t a movement for massive weight. You’re training small but essential movement patterns. 3 sets of 12-15 reps, each wrist.

7. Weighted Pronation/Supination

Beyond just extension and flexion, the wrist can also perform pronation and supination. These are rotational movements at the wrist, used to do things like handle a screwdriver, turn a door handle, or throw an object. They’re important to get strong, because doing so can give you the kind of “farmer strength” that so many people are missing these days.

Supination is moving your wrist in clockwise rotation—external rotation. Palms down to palms up. Pronation is moving your wrist counterclockwise—internal rotation. Palms up to palms down. You need to train both movements, and the best way I’ve found is to do it while holding a heavy mace, club, or sledgehammer in your hands. It’s simple.

  • Hold the shaft out in front of you with your elbow bent at 90 degrees.
  • Slowly alternate between supinating and pronating your wrist. Rotate the object counterclockwise, then back up clockwise.
  • Control the motion. Don’t rush through the movement.

Don’t go too heavy. If the object is too heavy, you can always slide your grip up toward the head to shorten the lever. As you get stronger and progress in the movement, you can slide your grip farther down the shaft to lengthen the lever.

2 sets of 6 reps (3 in each direction) with each arm.

8. Weighted Radial/Ulnar Deviation

Radial and ulnar deviation refers to moving the wrist from side to side. Flexing and extending along the “edges” of the wrist joint, like when you unscrew or screw on a pickle jar lid. Here’s how to train it:

Hold the same object you used for the supination/pronation exercise down at your side. Your arm should be straight and perpendicular with the ground.

For radial deviation, the head of the mace will be out in front of you. Raise the head of the mace by bending at the edge of the wrist, as if you’re raising a flag up to the sky. For ulnar deviation, the head of the mace is behind you. Raise the head of the mace behind you by bending at the other edge of the wrist. Again, you can adjust your grip to shorten or lengthen the lever and change the resistance.

2 sets of 6 reps (3 in each direction) with each arm.

9. Static Hold

The wrist is also a stabilizer. A wrist that can hold its position even as gravity and exterior forces try to destabilize is a strong wrist. If you throw a punch, hold a wrist lock, or carry anything heavy, you want a stable wrist.

The best way to train wrist stability is to do static holds with the very same object you used for the last two exercises. You will hold the mace/sledgehammer/club out in front of you with your elbow bent 90°, and that’s all you’ll do. Just hold that position.

That’s it! You don’t have to do all these exercises all the time. They are assistance exercises, not primary ones. But keep them in your back pocket for whenever you have a few minutes to train, be consistent, and in no time at all you’ll notice your wrist mobility and strength have improved and that your performance in other areas has as well.

Take care, everyone.

The post 9 Wrist Mobility and Strengthening Exercises appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.


Read More

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Feed a Cold, Starve A Fever? What to Eat (Or Not) When You’re Sick

By  February 07, 2023  ,  

Woman sits looking dejectedly at thermometer surrounded by crumpled tissues.Cold? Flu? Tummy troubles? I know that I don’t have time to be sick, and I’m sure you don’t either. Luckily I don’t get sick very often anymore, but back in my competitive athlete days, it felt like I was constantly battling one cold, cough, or sinus infection after another.  

Not to toot my own horn, but I chalk up my current good health to my Primal lifestyle. I know for sure that there is a marked before and after—before Primal, when I had a medicine cabinet full of OTC remedies, and after, when I rarely take a sick day. On those occasions when I do detect a tickle in my throat or the first signs of sour stomach, my first course of action is to double down on those aspects of my lifestyle that support a robust immune system, particularly nutrient-dense foods, sleep, and time in the sun.

The food piece is what we’re going to talk about today. Everybody has an opinion about what to eat, or not, when you’re under the weather. I’m not claiming that certain foods can cure the flu or prevent you from coming down with that cold even after your sick kid coughs in your face. But once you’re sick, the name of the game is supporting your immune system by providing it with beneficial nutrients and compounds that could aid it in fighting off the viruses or bacteria that are making you sick in the first place. Some foods will also provide welcome comfort, which is nothing to sneeze at, pun intended. 

(I should note that I’m talking today about recovering from short-term issues—common cold, flu, a bout of food poisoning, that sort of thing. Chronic illnesses are a whole other ballgame.)

But maybe you shouldn’t eat anything at all? You’re probably familiar with the old adage, “Feed a cold, starve a fever.” Are you unintentionally doing more harm than good by eating even supposedly “healing” foods? 

Let’s dive into it. 

Feed a Cold, Starve a Fever? Yes or No?

As usual, it’s complicated.

I’ve covered the issue of fasting with a cold or other illness in depth before, but the short answer is that fasting may be beneficial in the case of a bacterial infection like a sinus infection but probably isn’t beneficial when battling viral illnesses like the common cold or coronaviruses. 

Here’s where it gets complicated: bacterial and viral illnesses often go hand-in-hand. You get sick with a virus, your immune defenses become compromised, and a bacterial illness takes root. Thus, it’s not always clear what, exactly, ails you. 

Furthermore, both can cause fever as part of a desirable immune response. The idea behind starving a fever is that eating increases body temperature (true). If you’re already “too hot,” you don’t want to pile on. That makes sense on face value. However, fever (or rather, the underlying immune response it represents) is a calorie-intensive process. For every 1 degree Celsius increase in body temperature (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), metabolic rate ramps up by an estimated 10 percent.1 Fasting when you have a fever, regardless of its origin, may make it harder for your body to continue to launch a robust immune response. That’s why the more common recommendation now is to feed a fever—to meet the increased need for energy and nutrients.  

What if you have no appetite when you’re sick?

Ah, another wrinkle to consider. Appetite loss is a common feature of many types of illness, and not just in humans. Animals across the species spectrum display the same anorexic (literally “without appetite”) response to being sick.

Scientists speculate that this is adaptive for a number of reasons.2 When a sick animal isn’t driven to go out and find food, it conserves the energy normally spent hunting or foraging. Instead, it can hunker down in its shelter, where it is also safe from predators it may not be able to evade in its current weakened state. 

Fasting has other benefits as well. Yes, you aren’t taking in nutrients and calories that your immune system could use to fight foreign invaders, but you’re also depriving those same invaders of nutrients that they could use to reproduce and make you sicker.3 Fasting can also put you in a state of ketosis. Ketones, particularly beta-hydroxybutyrate, have anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects that can protect against acute illness via a variety of complex metabolic pathways.4

All things considered, I believe that listening to your body is usually the best course of action. If you don’t have any appetite when you’re sick, there’s probably no problem with—and potentially some benefit to—fasting or just eating small meals. Staying hydrated is very important, though. Make sure you stay on top of fluid intake and consider adding electrolytes (especially if you’re feverish or have diarrhea). If appetite loss lasts longer than a couple days, or if you feel yourself becoming weaker or truly unable to eat, contact your doctor. 

4 Foods to Eat When You’re Sick

Ok, but what if you do have an appetite? What if you want to support your immune system with foods that could potentially help it knock out the illness faster? What then? 

Here’s where I’d start.

1. Bone broth and soups

Bone broth is a rockstar when it comes to helping you feel better. Besides the comfort factor of eating a bowl of steaming chicken soup when you’re not feeling well, research affirms that bone broth can help the body recover from upper respiratory infections.5 Hot liquids also keep mucus flowing which, while gross, allows the body to purge infectious agents. Chicken soup seems to be even more effective in this regard than plain hot water.6 (I expect any type of bone broth would have the same effect.)

The glycine in bone broth is also a natural sleep aid, and we all know that good sleep is key to recuperating from illness or injury. 

How to get it: 

I’m partial to homemade bone broth (here are recipes for chicken broth and turkey broth in the Instant Pot, for example), but store-bought is fine too. Sip it straight or make a bone broth latte. 

Soups that contain meat and vegetables are great ways to get extra nutrients in. I’m especially partial to garlicky soup. There is some evidence, though not always from very high-quality studies, that antibacterial and antiviral compounds in garlic can be useful in combatting everything from the common cold and flu to dengue virus.7 8 (I hope it goes without saying that you shouldn’t just chomp down on a few cloves of garlic if you have dengue fever. Get to an emergency room!) 

Long-time readers may recall me mentioning that when I feel a cold coming on, my immediate response is to simmer a whole head of crushed garlic in a pot of broth with cayenne pepper. This Garlic Soup with Mushrooms recipe will have the same effect but with even tastier results. 

Or if you’re feeling hardcore, go ahead and eat a clove or two raw. Some people swear by raw garlic for relieving a sore throat. 

2. Turmeric tea, or golden milk

Golden milk is the perfect mix of ingredients, each of which is immune-supporting in its own right:

  • Turmeric, which contains the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative compound curcumin9
  • Ginger, which may be especially beneficial if you’re experiencing nausea or upset stomach
  • Honey, which research has proven effective for relieving sore throat10 and cough11 (the latter even better than pharmaceuticals in some cases)

Recipe: 

A warm mug is just the ticket when you’re not feeling so hot. This golden milk recipe calls for coconut or almond milk, but if you can do cow milk, they whey and lactoferrin may provide an extra boost, helping you feel better if you’re suffering from a cold.12 

If you’re feeling more savory than sweet and want to harness the power of bone broth while you’re at it, try my Ginger Turmeric Chicken Soup instead. There’s a reason it’s one of the most popular recipes on the blog. 

3. Fermented foods

You already know that fermented foods are important sources of probiotics that help nurture a healthy gut microbiome. I recommend increasing your intake of fermented foods any time you have GI issues or immediately if you must take an antibiotic. 

But fermented foods aren’t just for gut health. In one study, researchers asked college students to supplement with probiotics or a placebo for 12 weeks and tracked the incidence of upper respiratory infections during that time.13 Although both groups were equally likely to get sick, the probiotics group had less severe symptoms, missed fewer days of school, and recovered two days faster on average. A meta-analysis of 20 randomized controlled trials found similar results in children and adults with respiratory illnesses.14 

How to get them: 

Any fermented foods will do, but a bowl of sauerkraut or a giant deli pickle might not sound great when you’re sick. Some spicy kimchi or sambal oelek would do wonders for clearing stuffed sinuses, though! 

Yogurt or kefir are probably your best bets. The studies mentioned above used various probiotic strains, but Lactobacillus rhamnosus was a common one that you can probably find in yogurt from your grocery store.

4. Smoothies

I’m not much of a smoothie guy generally, but I mention them here for a few reasons. They may be more tolerable than a full meal if you have a stomach ache or sore throat. You can incorporate many of the beneficial items above (yogurt, whey, turmeric, etc.) into a smoothie. And smoothies usually contain other ingredients that support the immune system in their own right, such as berries for polyphenols or greens for magnesium and other vitamins.

Recipes:

Now I’m sure some of you are wondering if smoothies are a good idea since sugar suppresses the immune system. That’s true, but I’m less worried about whole fruit in a smoothie than the boluses of sugar often administered in studies, especially if you aren’t eating all that much period because you’re sick. And smoothies don’t have to be loaded with sugar. Check out these smoothie bowls that feature a variety of healthful ingredients. Or try a keto-friendly avocado smoothie. 

What Should You Eat with an Upset Stomach?

I bring this up because it’s a question I get fairly regularly. The standard advice in this situation is to adhere to a BRAT diet. That’s bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. Not very Primal sounding.

But let’s stop and examine this for a second. The idea behind the BRAT diet is that these foods are fairly well tolerated when you have nausea, vomiting, or other GI issues. They’re bland and easily digested. 

And on the scope of food options, they’re not all that bad, Primally speaking. Of all the grains, rice is arguably the most innocuous. I don’t encourage people to eat rice, but it’s in that gray area of “not the worst, especially if you’re insulin sensitive and want to add some carbs to your diet.” Bananas are the same. I even declared bananas an underrated superfood once, especially when they are on the greener side. Applesauce is just apples with some of the mastication done for you. You could even do toast in a Primal-friendlier way by choosing one of the many gluten-free (even grain-free) options now widely available. 

Am I going to promote the BRAT diet? Not exactly. If you can tolerate some scrambled eggs or a blended soup, go for that. But if you’re sick and hungry, and a banana or some applesauce is all you can tolerate, I don’t want you wondering if the specter of Sisson is looking over your shoulder and tut-tutting.  

And don’t forget that ginger and peppermint are both great for upset stomach. Try some ginger or peppermint tea, or take a few whiffs of peppermint essential oil before trying to eat something. 

Prevention Is the Best Medicine

In terms of dietary components (vitamins, minerals, polyphenols) that support the immune system, it’s better to keep yourself adequately supplied all the time than to try to load up via foods or supplements while you’re already sick. High-dose vitamin C or zinc might help knock out a cold, for example, but a better strategy is to play offense instead of defense by eating nutrient-dense Primal foods consistently. 

I’m sure some of you have foods you swear by when you’re sick. Maybe it’s a special concoction a parent or grandparent used to whip up—your family’s secret, fail-proof recipe. Share your best  illness-combatting tactics in the comments. 

The post Feed a Cold, Starve A Fever? What to Eat (Or Not) When You’re Sick appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.


Read More