Podcasts about American Journal

Welcome to this week's Midlife Minute! Today, I examine partial and full hysterectomies and what we know about their potential long-term effects, clarifying what the research tells us about bone, brain, and cardiovascular health, and what women should discuss with their healthcare providers before and after surgery. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN: How a partial hysterectomy differs from a full hysterectomy, and the abrupt estrogen changes ovarian removal can produce  Why having a hysterectomy before ages 40-45 can have a greater impact than having surgery closer to natural menopausal age. How a hysterectomy can impact women's bone health What the research reveals about the connection between surgical menopause at a younger age, cognitive decline, and Alzheimer's pathology How a hysterectomy can affect women's cardiovascular health Why starting HRT early after an early-age hysterectomy could be important for your long-term health Why younger women who experience surgical menopause may require higher estradiol doses than the standard menopausal regimens The importance of advocating for yourself, understanding your personal risk, and talking with your clinician about estrogen and other hormone therapy before undergoing surgery Quotes: “Start those conversations early- before you ever have surgery.” “If you are having these surgeries done before 45, before 40, you need HRT!” “We have to manage our stress.” “We have to get enough sleep.” “We should be strength training.” “We should be physically active.” “We should be eating an anti-inflammatory diet.” Connect with Cynthia Thurlow   Follow on X, Instagram & LinkedIn Check out Cynthia's website. Submit your questions to support@cynthiathurlow.com  Join other like-minded women in a supportive, nurturing community: The Midlife Pause/Cynthia Thurlow.  Purchase Cynthia's book, The Menopause Gut. Cynthia's Intermittent Fasting Transformation Book The Midlife Pause Supplement Line Research: Increased Risk of Osteoporosis With Hysterectomy: A Longitudinal Follow-Up Study Using a National Sample Cohort. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2019. Choi HG, Jung YJ, Lee SW.  Menopause Transition and Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Implications for Timing of Early Prevention: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2020. El Khoudary SR, Aggarwal B, Beckie TM, et al. Cardiovascular Disease After Hysterectomy in the Nurses' Health Study and Nurses' Health Study II. Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2025. Thao V, Borah B, Stewart EA, et al. Treatment of Women After Bilateral Salpingo-oophorectomy Performed Prior to Natural Menopause. The Journal of the American Medical Association. 2021. Kaunitz AM, Kapoor E, Faubion S. Hysterectomy, Oophorectomy, and Bone Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. European Journal of Endocrinology. 2025. Shariful Islam M, Tuesley KM, Wilson LF, et al. Risk of Osteoporosis and Fracture After Hysterectomies Without Oophorectomies: A Systematic Review and Pooled Analysis. Osteoporosis International. 2022. Xu W, Wu W, Yang S, et al. Hysterectomies Are Associated With an Increased Risk of Osteoporosis and Bone Fracture: A Population-Based Cohort Study. PloS One. 2020. Yeh YT, Li PC, Wu KC, et al. Age at Surgical Menopause Influences Cognitive Decline and Alzheimer Pathology in Older Women. Neurology. 2014. Bove R, Secor E, Chibnik LB, et al. Reproductive Period and Risk of Dementia in a Diverse Cohort of Health Care Members. Neurology. 2019. Gilsanz P, Lee C, Corrada MM, et al.  Examining the Association of Hysterectomy With and Without Oophorectomy on Cardiovascular Disease and All-Cause, Cardiovascular or Cancer Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2024. Chen Y, Li F, Liang L, et al. Association of Premature Natural and Surgical Menopause With Incident Cardiovascular Disease. The Journal of the American Medical Association. 2019. Honigberg MC, Zekavat SM, Aragam K, et al Optimizing Health After Early Menopause. Lancet. 2024. Mishra GD, Davies MC, Hillman S, et al. Hormone Replacement Therapy for Women Previously Treated for Endometrial Cancer. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2018. Edey KA, Rundle S, Hickey M.

This week's Managed Care Cast episode features a conversation between The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®) and Grace Mackleby, PhD, a research scientist at the USC Schaeffer Center, about her study, "Plan Switching Among Medicare Advantage Enrollees Dually Eligible for Medicaid," published in the September 2026 issue of AJMC. The study examined how often beneficiaries switched from one Medicare Advantage (MA) plan to another or from MA to traditional Medicare (TM). It compared enrollees dually eligible for Medicaid with those eligible for Medicare only. Mackleby explained that dually eligible beneficiaries account for about one-fifth of the Medicare population and tend to have more chronic conditions, higher costs, and greater needs; they are also subject to different rules on when they can switch plans. Mackleby and coauthors Angela Liu, PhD, and Erin Trish, PhD, used administrative Medicare enrollment data to track switching from 2016 to 2022. She highlighted 3 main results. First, about 22% of fully dually eligible enrollees switched MA plans in 2022, up from about 12% in 2016. Second, these enrollees were roughly 6 times more likely to switch to another MA plan than TM. Third, dually eligible beneficiaries overall switched MA plans more often than those eligible for Medicare only. The study did not examine causes, but Mackleby pointed to 2 likely drivers: the growing number of available MA plans and the strong competition among insurers, which have heavily marketed supplemental benefits such as flex cards and dental coverage. For non–dually eligible beneficiaries, she added, it is difficult in most states to obtain Medigap coverage after enrolling in MA, which makes returning to TM financially unappealing. Switching also varied by race and ethnicity. Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native fully dually eligible enrollees switched MA plans more often than non-Hispanic White enrollees. Mackleby said geography may play a role. However, higher switching could also indicate lower satisfaction with available plans, which warrants further study, she noted. Looking ahead, Mackleby emphasized the need to understand whether switching helps or harms beneficiaries, including its effects on access to care and cost sharing. She also called for research on how switching shapes market performance. "I think looking at it from a beneficiary welfare perspective is going to be really important, and then also looking at it from a market perspective is going to be important too," Mackleby concluded.

Join us as Dr. Connie Weaver, Distinguished Research Professor at San Diego State University and National Academy of Medicine member, reveals the hidden science of bone loss, calcium bioavailability, and the gut-bone axis. Discover why fractures kill more people than most realize, why modern plant-forward diets are inadvertently blocking mineral absorption, how soluble corn fiber halts postmenopausal bone loss, and the strict 500mg calcium dosing rule you need to know.Osteoporotic fractures outnumber new diagnoses of heart disease and cancer combined, with 20% of hip fracture patients dying within 12 months. Yet bone health remains one of the most overlooked pillars of healthspan. In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Connie Weaver, one of the world's foremost authorities on mineral metabolism and bone remodeling. Dr. Weaver explains why nutrition plays a permissive role alongside resistance exercise, how the estrogen crash during menopause accelerates osteoclast bone resorption, and why high-dose Vitamin D trials have failed to stop fractures in the general population. She breaks down her landmark 3-decade research modeling calcium bioavailability across global diets (now integrated into Cronometer), revealing how high-oxalate and high-phytate plant diets are driving widespread calcium deficits. Finally, Dr. Weaver shares her groundbreaking discovery on the gut-bone axis - demonstrating how prebiotic soluble corn fiber feeds fiber-fermenting bacteria to stop postmenopausal bone loss - and clarifies the truth about calcium supplements and arterial plaque.

Once Pitocin is started, the approach has often been to keep it running through delivery. That protocol, has been built into standard induction and augmentation approaches over time. New research on Pitocin discontinuation once active labor is achieved complicates that approach. There are three major studies we can now look to on this topic. Depending on interpretation, they neither fully support nor fully refute it. This episode breaks down what an effective labor pattern actually looks like by research standards. Provides information on when and how to raise the possibility of Pitocin discontinuation once active labor is achieved with a client before labor starts. We also covers what to do with evidence that pulls in more than one direction at once. Join me as I walk through what three different studies found, where they disagree, and what that means for how you support a client through this conversation. Sources: Whitley J, Burd J, Doering M, Kelly J, Frolova A, Raghuraman N. "Reduced risk of cesarean delivery with oxytocin discontinuation in active labor: a systematic review and meta-analysis." American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2025;233(1):25-39.e11. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2025.03.015 Jiang D, Yang Y, Zhang X, Nie X. "Continued versus discontinued oxytocin after the active phase of labor: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis." PLOS ONE. 2022;17(5):e0267461. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267461 Boie S, Glavind J, Uldbjerg N, Steer PJ, Bor P, CONDISOX trial group. "Continued versus discontinued oxytocin stimulation in the active phase of labour (CONDISOX): double blind randomised controlled trial." BMJ. 2021;373:n716. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.n716

INTRODUCTION:Fever of Unknown Origin, or FUO: We have all had a fever at some point—maybe from seasonal flu or a brief stomach bug—where the body turns up the heat, fights off the bug, and recovers in a couple of days. Fever is a very efficient defense mechanism to fight microorganisms by making your body a hostile environment where they cannot survive. But what happens when a fever lasts for weeks, standard tests come back normal, and usual fever reducing medications do not seem to work?We will talk about the surprising root causes, the latest imaging technology like PET scans, and what to do when a fever refuses to break. Whether you are a medical student, a healthcare professional, or simply curious about how our body's defense mechanisms work, this episode is for you. Let us get into it!Definition of Fever of Unknown Origin.A standard fever is like a smoke alarm going off when you burn toast—you quickly spot the cause, fix it, and the alarm stops. FUO is like an alarm ringing continuously for weeks, but despite searching every room, you cannot find the source of the fire.Clinical Criteria (Classic FUO):1. Temperature >38.3 C measured on multiple occasions.2. Duration of at least 3 weeks.3.Unexplained after 1 week of intensive outpatient or inpatient evaluation (or three outpatient visits).Categories of FUO.1. Classic FUO: The traditional presentation described above.2. Nosocomial (Hospital-Acquired) FUO: Fevers in hospitalized patients without infection upon admission.3. Neutropenic FUO: Fevers in immunocompromised patients (e.g., undergoing chemotherapy) with low white blood cell counts.4. HIV-Associated FUO: Fevers lasting weeks in patients with HIV, often driven by opportunistic infections like Tuberculosis or CMV, that stands for cytomegalovirus. What a mouthful!The Big Four Causes are:Infections (~30–40%): Atypical presentations of common diseases (e.g., hidden abscesses, endocarditis, tuberculosis, or tick-borne illnesses). Our priority will be to determine if this patient is having an infection, unless we get clinical manifestations that would guide us in another direction.Autoimmune & Inflammatory Diseases (~20–30%): The immune system overreacting and attacking the body's tissues (e.g., Adult-onset Still's disease, Temporal Arteritis/Giant Cell Arteritis, Lupus).Malignancies / Cancers (~10–20%): Blood cancers (Lymphoma, Leukemia) or solid tumors (Renal cell carcinoma). Infections, autoimmune/inflammatory diseases, and malignancies cover 60-90% of the causes of FUO.Miscellaneous / Drug Fevers (~10–15%): "Drug fever" caused by adverse reactions to common medications (e.g., antibiotics, anti-seizure meds), thyroid storm, or deep vein thrombosis (DVT).Modern Medicine: Advanced imaging (CT, MRI, PET scans) which have helped us diagnose cancers and abscesses much earlier. As a result, modern FUOs are increasingly driven by autoimmune conditions, non-infectious inflammatory disorders. Sometimes it feels like we solve one problem and uncover another one!Important: Some cases remain undiagnosed (up to 30–50%) and resolve without a specific label.Diagnostic Approach:Step 1: The "Detective Work" (History & Physical):● Detailed History: Travel history, animal exposure (ticks, pets), occupational hazards, social history, medication review (to exclude drug fevers), and family history.● Potential Diagnostic Clues: Looking for subtle signals (e.g., a new heart murmur, temporal tenderness, hidden skin rashes, or swollen lymph nodes).Step 2: Basic Tiered Testing:● Blood Work: CBC (complete blood count), inflammatory markers (ESR, CRP, Ferritin), comprehensive metabolic panel, blood cultures.● Targeted Serologies: HIV, viral panels, autoimmune antibodies (ANA, Rheumatoid Factor).● Initial Imaging: Chest X-ray, abdominal ultrasound.Step 3: Advanced Diagnostic Workup:FDG-PET/CT Imaging: One of the most significant updates in recent guidelines. FDG-PET/CT uses a radioactive sugar tracer to highlight areas of high metabolic activity (inflammation, infection, tumor) throughout the entire body in a single scan. FDG-PET is a functional nuclear-imaging technique that uses ¹⁸F-fluoro-deoxy-glucose (FDG) — a radioactive glucose analog — to map tissue glucose metabolism.Targeted Biopsies: Biopsying tissues guided by PET scan findings (e.g., lymph node, liver, or temporal artery)."Refractory" Fevers:Fever vs. Hyperthermia: Standard fevers are driven by the brain's hypothalamus resetting the body's thermostat upward (often mediated by prostaglandins). ● Antipyretics (acetaminophen, NSAIDs) block prostaglandin synthesis.● If a fever does not respond to antipyretics, it may indicate non-prostaglandin-mediated inflammation (e.g., severe cytokine storm, drug-induced hyperthermia, or central nervous system dysregulation).Empiric Treatment vs. Observation:● The "Hold Your Horses" Principle: Current guidelines strongly advise against starting empirical antibiotics or steroids right away in stable patients. Antibiotics can mask infections and produce false-negative culture results, while steroids can hide inflammatory signs or exacerbate hidden infections.● When to Treat Empirically: Reserved for hemodynamically unstable patients, neutropenic patients, or specific high-suspicion conditions (e.g., suspected Temporal Arteritis to prevent blindness).Diagnostic Trial: Naproxen Test (Historical & Clinical Pearl): A brief trial of naproxen can sometimes distinguish tumor fevers (which often drop sharply in response to NSAIDs) from infectious fevers, though it is used cautiously as a supportive diagnostic clue rather than a rule. So, if a patient responds to a trial of naproxen, then we can suspect a tumor as a cause of the patient's fevers. But it is not a strong recommendation.A 2019 systematic review/meta-analysis (15 studies, 582 patients) found a 94.1% success rate for naproxen in treating confirmed neoplastic fever. The test is not specific and lacks validation, but I can see the importance of knowing this: Naproxen is effective against cancer fever.FUO evaluation is a marathon, not a sprint. Re-evaluating the patient daily in the hospital for new physical clues is often more valuable than ordering endless specialized tests. I would like to emphasize that modern tools PET/CT have transformed how quickly we locate hidden inflammation. Also, let us remember that a huge proportion of undiagnosed FUOs eventually resolve spontaneously with good long-term outcomes, provided serious conditions have been systematically ruled out.Take away messages:First, FUO is a diagnostic marathon, not a sprint. Finding the cause takes patient detective work, careful daily exams, and targeted testing rather than rushing into quick fixes.Second, modern imaging like FDG-PET scans has completely transformed how we spot hidden inflammation and infection long before standard blood work gives us an answer.And finally, 'refractory' fevers require caution. If a fever is not responding to standard antipyretics, starting antibiotics or steroids right away can hide the real culprit. In stable patients, holding off and continuing the search is often the safest path.__________________Even without trying, every night you go to bed a little wiser. Thanks for listening to Rio Bravo qWeek Podcast. We want to hear from you, send us an email at RioBravoqWeek@clinicasierravista.org, or visit our website riobravofmrp.org/qweek. See you next week!References:1) David AB, Quinlan JD. Fever of Unknown Origin in Adults. American Family Physician. 2022;105(2):137-143.2) Wright WF, Stelmash L, Betrains A, Mulders-Manders CM, Rovers CP, Vanderschueren S, Auwaerter PG; International Fever and Inflammation of Unknown Origin Research Working Group. Recommendations for Updating Fever and Inflammation of Unknown Origin From a Modified Delphi Consensus Panel. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 2024;11(7):ofae298.3) Wright WF, Durso SC, Forry C, Rovers CP. Fever of unknown origin. BMJ. 2025;388:e080847.4) Wright WF, Auwaerter PG. Fever and fever of unknown origin: review, recent advances, and lingering dogma. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 2020;7(5):ofaa132.5) Cunha BA, Lortholary O, Cunha CB. Fever of unknown origin: a clinical approach. The American Journal of Medicine. 2015;128(10):1138.e1-1138.e15.6) Nazar AH, Naswa N, Sharma P, et al. Spectrum of 18F-FDG PET/CT findings in patients presenting with fever of unknown origin. American Journal of Roentgenology. 2012;199(1):175-1851) Theme song, Works All The Time by Dominik Schwarzer, YouTube ID: CUBDNERZU8HXUHBS, purchased from https://www.premiumbeat.com/. Even without trying, every night you go to bed a little wiser. Thanks for listening to Rio Bravo qWeek Podcast. We want to hear from you, send us an email at RioBravoqWeek@clinicasierravista.org, or visit our website riobravofmrp.org/qweek. See you next week!

Description Dov Baron opens Season 4 with the claim that the whole season rests on. Meaning is not a psychological thing that sits on top of your biology. Meaning is biology. What happened to you didn't just shape how you think. It shaped what you are made of. Dov grew up in a family that was wickedly funny, with humor that had an edge on it, a grandfather who could open you with a sentence and stroll off laughing. A small body learning to armor itself in a fraction of a second, over and over, until the vigilance was carved into his face.Then he hands you the research, before the framework, the way he always does. A 2009 study in Nature Neuroscience showing a childhood can flip a chemical switch on a single gene, for life. The Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944, and the children marked in the womb whose DNA still carried it sixty years later. The Adverse Childhood Experiences study: tens of thousands of adults, hardship then and disease now, on a straight line.From there, two bodies and one mechanism. Dov's face, trained to brace. His wife Ren's, trained to hold a smile over a violent house that could never look anything but perfect. The same childhood threat, opposite instructions to the face.And three scientists, arriving from the other side of the mountain, physics and medicine, who describe meaning living in the very material of the body. Convergence, honestly labeled, not oversold.This is the ground the rest of the season is built on. Your Emotional Source Code does not live only in your mind. It lives in your cells, your nervous system, and the muscles you are using to hold your face right now.Reach up. There is something written there. And for the first time, you get to read it.Episode highlights - The 2009 Nature Neuroscience finding that a childhood can switch a single gene, for life- A wartime famine that marked children still in the womb, and was measurable sixty years on- Why Dov's face and Ren's carry the same childhood threat in opposite ways- Three scientists, from physics and medicine, describing meaning held in the body itself- The one thing you can now do that those marked children never couldTopics covered Topics in this episode include: Epigenetics and childhood stress, the Dutch Hunger Winter, the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, the biology of emotion, the Emotional Source Code, Emotional Meaning Architecture, consciousness and the physics of living systems, and how early environment shapes the human face and nervous system.Further reading (Cited research sources)McGowan, P. O., et al. (2009). Epigenetic regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor in human brain associates with childhood abuse. Nature Neuroscience, 12(3), 342-348.Heijmans, B. T., et al. (2008). Persistent epigenetic differences associated with prenatal exposure to famine in humans. PNAS, 105(44), 17046-17049.Felitti, V. J., et al. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults (the ACE Study). American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245-258.Cavaglià, M., & Tuszynski, J. A. (2026). A Unified Holographic Framework for neural computation and consciousness. BioSystems, 259.Firaux, T., Tuszynski, J. A., & Cavaglià, M. (2026). EMI model: a scale-free biophysical framework for human consciousness, cognition and behaviour. BioSystems, 259.Accessible entry points: Candace Pert, Molecules of Emotion; Bruce Lipton, The Biology of Belief (popular works, noted as bridges, not primary evidence).About the showThe Polymathic Perspective is a documentary-style solo podcast where Dov Baron examines the emotional logic beneath power, culture, identity, and meaning, drawing on psychology, neuroscience, geopolitics, and philosophy. If your curiosity has been called a liability, this is the show that proves it is your greatest asset.Connect with DovWrite to Dov: dov@dovbaron.com (subject line: The Face)Website: https://DovBaron.comThe Dov Baron Show https://DovBaron.com/podcastsBook: The Art of BelongingSubscribe, rate, share If this episode moved you, the most useful thing you can do is send it to one person who will understand it. Word of mouth is how documentary podcasts grow. Follow the show so Season 4 finds you as it unfolds. Connect with Dov Baron:https://DovBaron.comdov@dovbaron.comRate, review, and send this episode to the most thoughtful builder you know. That is how the algorithm finds the people who still ask why. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Lindsay explains that protein recommendations swing widely and argues intake should be based on context: goals, resistance training, body composition, and whether someone is eating at maintenance or in a calorie deficit. She emphasizes that calorie restriction can suppress muscle protein synthesis, making higher protein and resistance training especially important during fat loss phases, citing recommendations for lean, trained individuals in aggressive cuts and explaining why protein targets may rise as deficits become more severe.Topics discussed:(00:00) - Protein Debate Begins (01:51) - RDA vs Training Goals (03:44) - Protein for Aging Strong (05:13) - ISSN Guidelines and Context (06:23) - Where 0.7 Comes From (07:44) - Why Some Need More (09:41) - High Protein at Maintenance (10:33) - Mindful Eating App Plug (12:54) - Deficit Changes Everything (14:43) - Muscle Biology in a Cut (17:33) - Higher Targets for Lean Lifters (21:03) - Practical Protein Examples (23:34) - Lifestyle and Cut Cycles (26:16) - Wrap Up and Takeaways Connect With LindsayInstagram: @liftinglindsayJoin the BeStrong Community for science based training, nutrition education, coaching, live calls, and a supportive community of women who want to get stronger, build muscle, and improve their health.Learn more at liftinglindsay.comReady To Train With Us?If this episode resonated with you and you're ready to experience this style of training for yourself, it's not too late to join us inside the BeStrong app.Our newest hypertrophy phase has already begun, but you're absolutely not behind.This training block focuses on:✔ Lengthened position training✔ Strategic pauses and isometrics✔ Improving muscle tension✔ Building strength and muscle with intentional execution✔ Learning how to make the target muscle do more of the workYou'll get access to the complete training program, exercise video demonstrations, nutrition guidance, live coaching calls, and a community of women committed to getting stronger together.Join us HEREStudies & ReferencesMorton RW, et al. (2018). A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. British Journal of Sports Medicine.This is the big meta-analysis behind the commonly cited ~1.6 g/kg or 0.73 g/lb protein target for resistance training. The estimated breakpoint was 1.62 g/kg/day, with a 95% CI extending to 2.20 g/kg/day. Read the studyJäger R, et al. (2017). International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Protein and Exercise. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.ISSN recommends approximately 1.4–2.0 g/kg/day (0.64–0.91 g/lb) for most exercising individuals, while noting that higher intakes may be useful during calorie restriction. Read the position standAreta JL, et al. (2014). Reduced resting skeletal muscle protein synthesis is rescued by resistance exercise and protein ingestion following short-term energy deficit. American Journal of Physiology.After only five days of energy restriction, resting muscle protein synthesis decreased. Resistance training restored MPS toward energy-balance levels, and protein ingestion after training stimulated it further. This is a great study for explaining why lifting + protein become so important during a deficit. Read the studyHelms ER, et al. (2014). A systematic review of dietary protein during caloric restriction in resistance trained lean athletes: a case for higher intakes. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.This review suggested 2.3–3.1 g/kg of fat-free mass during calorie restriction in lean resistance-trained athletes, with protein needs potentially increasing with greater leanness and more severe calorie restriction. Read the reviewLongland TM, et al. (2016). Higher compared with lower dietary protein during an energy deficit combined with intense exercise promotes greater lean mass gain and fat mass loss. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.Young men underwent an aggressive ~40% calorie deficit while training six days per week. Those consuming 2.4 g/kg protein gained more lean mass and lost more fat than those consuming 1.2 g/kg. Important study, but also a perfect example of why population and context matter. Read the studyPasiakos SM, et al. (2013). Effects of high-protein diets on fat-free mass and muscle protein synthesis following weight loss: a randomized controlled trial. FASEB Journal.Participants consumed 0.8, 1.6, or 2.4 g/kg/day during a 40% energy deficit. The groups consuming 1.6 and 2.4 g/kg lost a smaller proportion of weight from fat-free mass than the RDA group, supporting protein intakes above the RDA during substantial energy restriction. Read the study

Picture this common, late-gestation conundrum: You're reviewing a 34-week sono. The mid-pregnancy 24-to-28-week glucose screen was completely normal. But now, the sonogram pops up with an estimated fetal weight of over 90%, or maybe a MVP (or AFI) that's overtly elevated. The classic clinical dilemma hits: Do you order a repeat OGTT this late in the game? Is it actually worth poking the patient again, or are you just chasing shadows? Well, we now have new meta-analytic data. Today, we are reviewing fresh, high-yield data hot off the press from the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology (OCT 2026). We're breaking down this systematic review evaluating late-onset GDM- looking at precisely who may yield a positive diagnosis on a repeat third-trimester test, why LGA and polyhydramnios are not created equal when deciding to re-screen, and what these late numbers mean for neonatal hypoglycemia and cesarean delivery rates. AND, although these insights are helpful- some questions remain. Let's jump in!1. Dominsky O, Berkovitz-Shperling R, Rosenberg-Fridman M .Late-onset diagnosis of gestational diabetes after normal mid-pregnancy screening in women with large for gestational age or polyhydramnios: a systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2026; 235, 789-799

Episode SummaryA solo Mini-Mikkipedia. Mikki is often asked how to tell whether someone in the women's health space is worth following, and in this episode she answers it by working through two examples of what she thinks has gone wrong: practitioners who build large audiences on free information and then, in her view, monetise their followers' insecurities.The first half is physiology. Mikki takes two specific claims made about fasting — that it preserves muscle through growth hormone, and that it raises GLP-1 enough to make a medication unnecessary — and explains why she thinks both are wrong: the anabolic effect needs IGF-1, which needs protein and energy, and GLP-1 is a nutrient-sensing hormone that responds to food arriving in the gut. She is careful to separate that from where she thinks fasting genuinely earns its place, and to state the version of the GLP-1 claim that can be defended. The second half looks at a collagen supplement marketed for cellulite: what the one cellulite trial actually found, what a 2025 review found once industry-funded trials were separated out, and why she thinks cellulite is the wrong thing to be selling women anything for. She closes with the people she does think are worth following. Mikki is explicit that this is her opinion — "I'm just telling you what I think" — and equally explicit that she is not making a supplement of her own.Key TopicsHow to judge whether someone in the women's health space is worth following, and the pattern Mikki looks for: free information that turns out to be a funnelWhy Mikki fact-checked Fast Like a Girl and concluded the evidence base was mechanistic, preclinical or wrong, and what she has seen in clients who followed the protocolWhere fasting genuinely earns its place — severe insulin resistance, some gut issues, and as a researched adjunct in cancer treatment — and why 12 hours overnight is not really fastingThe growth hormone argument: why an increase in growth hormone without an increase in IGF-1 does not build or protect muscle, and why the reported percentage increases are inflated by a near-zero baselineWhy fasting cannot raise GLP-1, since GLP-1 is secreted by enteroendocrine L-cells in response to protein, fat and fermentable fibre arriving in the gut — and the one version of the claim that can be defendedThe collagen supplement marketed on the back of a story about cellulite, and Mikki's objection to the marketing rather than to collagen itselfWhat the cellulite trial actually found: 105 women, 2.5 g of collagen peptides daily for six months, a 9% reduction in cellulite score at normal BMI and 4% above BMI 25 — and nothing replicating it in the decade sinceThe 2025 review of 23 trials where collagen improved skin hydration, elasticity and wrinkles overall, but showed no effect in the trials without industry fundingWhy Mikki thinks cellulite is the wrong focus altogether, and her answer to the pushback that she talks about women's bodies herselfWho she suggests following instead, and why she has turned down several approaches to make her own supplementChapters00:00 Introduction and Fast Like a Girl03:15 Where fasting is genuinely useful05:33 Growth hormone, IGF-1 and the GLP-1 claim09:46 Mary Claire Haver's cellulite supplement13:20 Collagen, funding and the wrong focus16:55 Who to follow in women's healthGuest / ResourcesGuestNo guest — a solo Mini-Mikkipedia episode.People discussedDr Mindy Pelz — author of the Fast Like a Girl system, discussed critically throughout the first halfDr Mary Claire Haver — discussed in relation to a collagen supplement marketed for celluliteDom D'Agostino — referenced for his research on ketogenic diets and fasting, including fasting as an adjunct to cancer treatmentPeople Mikki recommends followingHailey Babcock — Hailey Happens Fitness, strength training and nutrition for women in midlifeDr Abbie Smith-Ryan — Professor of Exercise Physiology and Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillDr Stacy Sims — exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist, known for her work on female athletesJen Kirsch and Holly Nicholson — also named by Mikki as people worth followingStudies and research discussedSchunck M, Zague V, Oesser S, Proksch E. Dietary Supplementation with Specific Collagen Peptides Has a Body Mass Index-Dependent Beneficial Effect on Cellulite Morphology. Journal of Medicinal Food, 2015;18(12):1340–1348. The cellulite trial Mikki describes: 105 women aged 24–50 with moderate cellulite, randomised to 2.5 g bioactive collagen peptides or placebo daily for six monthsMyung S-K, Park Y. Effects of Collagen Supplements on Skin Aging: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. The American Journal of Medicine, 2025. 23 randomised controlled trials, 1,474 participants. Collagen improved skin hydration, elasticity and wrinkles overall, but trials without industry funding showed no effect on any of the threeCollagen peptides, pain and function in active adults — research from Michael Ormsbee's lab at Florida State University, in physically active adults aged 40–65, using 10 g of collagen peptides daily for six months. This is the pain and function work Mikki refers to, and the source of the 10 g comparison she drawsIngredients discussedFortibone — collagen peptide type discussed for bone and tendon healthVerisol — collagen peptide type studied for skin, and used in the cellulite trial aboveConcepts coveredGLP-1 and enteroendocrine L-cells · growth hormone and IGF-1 · insulin resistance · time-restricted eating · mechanistic and preclinical versus clinical evidence · industry funding and publication bias Contact Mikki:https://mikkiwilliden.com/https://www.facebook.com/mikkiwillidennutritionhttps://www.instagram.com/mikkiwilliden/https://linktr.ee/mikkiwillidenNZ listeners - save 10% off Calocurb by using the code Mikkipedia10 at www.calocurb.co.nzSave 20% on all Nuzest Products WORLDWIDE with the code MIKKI at www.nuzest.co.nz, www.nuzest.com.au or www.nuzest.comCurranz supplement: MIKKI saves you 25% at www.curranz.co.nz or www.curranz.co.uk off your first order

We're joined by Dan again to talk about Carnegie libraries, which expanded into a larger discussion of consensus, hegemony, and the future of philanthropy/public funding. We also introduce Maoist Dusty Rhodes. Media mentioned Stevenson, S. (2010). The Political Economy of Andrew Carnegie's Library Philanthropy, with a Reflection on its Relevance to the Philanthropic Work of Bill Gates. Library & Information History, 26(4), 237–257. https://doi.org/10.1179/175834910X12816060984359  Giesbrecht, H. (2025). Sense and Social Control in Vancouver's Carnegie Free Library, 1901–1910. Urban History Review 53(2), 111-129. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/970361 . Levine, M. (2016). Andrew Carnegie and Bill Gates: Philanthropy and oligarchy, then and now. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 86(1), 1–9. https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fort0000150  WEB Du Bois anecdote about Carnegie: https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/black/mcgillbh.htm (decades later, the Foundation refused to publish some Du Bois work on Reconstruction. Du Bois is an interesting foil to Carnegie, with his pitches for a People's University—which Andrew Douglas and Shannon Mattern both write about).  Raber, D. (2003). Librarians as organic intellectuals: a Gramscian approach to blind spots and tunnel vision. The Library Quarterly, 73(1), 33-53. (More of a riff but provocative and the most explicit engagement with Gramsci on libraries theoretically).  Muskism https://www.harpercollins.com/products/muskism-quinn-slobodianben-tarnoff?variant=43838135402530  Other Dan Greene recommendations Black, A., & Pepper, S. (2012). From civic place to digital space: the design of public libraries in Britain from past to present. Library trends, 61(2), 440-470. Harvey, C., Maclean, M., Gordon, J., & Shaw, E. (2011). Andrew Carnegie and the foundations of contemporary entrepreneurial philanthropy. Business History, 53(3), 425-450. Oehlerts (1991) Books and Blueprints: Building America's Public Libraries. (More about architecture but some business stuff) Mattern (2018) “Fugitive libraries.” Places Journal. (Shannon has a bunch of good stuff) Transcript: https://pastecode.io/s/6p8i4fby  Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/qWPTurTnkT

Aggression gehört zur psychischen Entwicklung – bei Männern wie bei Frauen. Doch sie zeigt sich nicht immer auf dieselbe Weise. Bei Aggression geht es dabei um mehr als Wut: um Selbstbehauptung, Abgrenzung, Konkurrenz und die Fähigkeit, das eigene Wollen zu vertreten. In dieser Folge fragen wir, warum weibliche Aggression häufig weniger offen erscheint und wie sie sich vielleicht stattdessen etwa im Sich-klein-Machen, in indirekter Konkurrenz, Selbstzweifeln oder gegen das eigene Selbst gerichteten Formen ausdrücken kann. Wir sprechen auch darüber, warum es für eine gelingende Entwicklung wichtig ist, die eigene Aggression nicht abzuspalten, sondern sie so zu integrieren, dass man sich behaupten, unterscheiden und seinen eigenen Weg gehen kann, ohne Beziehung als bedroht erleben zu müssen. Folge zu: "Die Pseudogemeinschaft": https://www.patreon.com/raetseldesubw/posts/lyman-wynne-die-159273459 Unser Hörbuch "Jetzt bin ich schon wie meine Eltern": https://www.patreon.com/collection/2029837 (Kollektion kaufen = Einmalkauf Hörbuch) Ausschnitt und Infos: https://www.patreon.com/posts/151955086?collection=2029837 Literaturempfehlung zur Folge: - Fredric N. Busch (2009): Anger and depression. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 15, S. 271–278. - Deanna Holtzman & Nancy Kulish (2003): The Feminization of the Female Oedipal Complex, Part II: Aggression Reconsidered. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 51(4), S. 1127–1151. - Harriet E. Lerner (1980): Internal Prohibitions against Female Anger. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 40(2), S. 137–148. Skript zur Folge: https://www.patreon.com/raetseldesubw/posts/tiefseeltauchen-169835326/edit Rätsel-des-Unbewussten-Abo als Geschenk: https://www.patreon.com/raetseldesubw/gift Beschreibung der Level-Inhalte: https://www.patreon.com/c/raetseldesubw/membership Wenn ihr alle bisher erschienenen handgebundenen Hefte bekommen wollt (12 Hefte) => Jahresabo auf dem Level "Liebhaber" - Vertiefungsfolge "Beendigung von Therapien" auf Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/127931630 - Folge zu Glenn Gabbard und den "liebeskranken" Analytiker: https://www.patreon.com/posts/121877727?collection=148939 Kontakt: lives@psy-cast.org Erziehungskonzepte psychoanalytisch betrachtet (5 Teile): https://www.patreon.com/collection/148943 Digitaler Lesekreis zum Thema "Wie die Digitalisierung unsere psychische Struktur verändert" (1. Folge ist frei zugänglich): https://www.patreon.com/posts/lesekreis-werner-94838102 - Bestellung unseres Buches über genialokal: https://www.genialokal.de/Produkt/Cecile-Loetz-Jakob-Mueller/Mein-groesstes-Raetsel-bin-ich-selbst_lid_50275662.html und überall, wo es Bücher gibt. Auch als Hörbuch! - Link zu unserer Website: www.psy-cast.de - **Wir freuen uns auch über eine Förderung unseres Projekts via Paypal**: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=VLYYKR3UXK4VE&source=url Hilfsmöglichkeiten bei psychischen Krisen: https://www.stiftung-gesundheitswissen.de/gesundes-leben/psyche-wohlbefinden/hilfe-bei-psychischen-problemen-diese-stellen-koennen-sie-sich In psychischen Krisen können auch Hausarzt/ärztin, Psychiater/in und Psychotherapeut/innen Ansprechpartner sein. In Notfällen kann man sich zudem an eine psychiatrische Klinik wenden - Anmeldung zum Newsletter: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/394929/87999492964484369/share Musik: Evergreen, Kintsugi (licenced via premiumbeat.com)

What if the biggest improvements to your health aren't hiding inside another supplement, expensive biohack, or complicated protocol, but in the signals you're sending your body every single day? In this special episode of the SuperLife Podcast, Darin walks through his personal daily routine from the moment he wakes up, explaining not only what he does, but why he does it. From getting outside before touching his phone to morning light, hydration, meditation, breathwork, journaling, cacao, movement, food, and eventually shutting off the breaker to his bedroom at night, Darin breaks down the practices he has built into the rhythm of his life. But this isn't a prescription to copy Darin's routine. It's an invitation to understand the biological signals behind it and build your own. Darin's central idea is simple: food is information, light is information, breath is information. Every input you give your body becomes a set of instructions your cells have to respond to. Drawing from research on circadian biology, hydration, meditation, nervous system regulation, expressive writing, cacao flavanols, resistance training, cardiovascular health, and longevity, Darin explains how simple behaviors compound over decades. The healthiest and longest-lived people he has encountered around the world didn't necessarily follow elaborate protocols. Their health was embedded into a rhythm of light, movement, real food, darkness, and sleep. This is a practical look inside the habits Darin actually uses, and a reminder that your health isn't created by one massive intervention. It's built through the seemingly insignificant decisions you repeat every day. What You'll Learn What Darin does from the moment he wakes up each morning Why he goes outside before looking at his phone How morning light helps synchronize your circadian rhythm and nighttime sleep Why hydration comes before coffee or other stimulants How meditation and conscious breathing can change your relationship with stress Why Darin considers breath one of the fastest ways to influence your nervous system How journaling can help process emotions, gratitude, grief, and mental stress Why cacao has become part of Darin's morning ritual How resistance training and aerobic movement support long-term health Why Darin believes health is ultimately about creating a biological rhythm rather than blindly following someone else's protocol Chapters 00:00:03 – Welcome to SuperLife 00:00:34 – Sponsor: Bite 00:02:49 – What Darin does before touching his phone every morning 00:03:11 – Why your biology is waiting for the signal of morning light 00:03:44 – The purpose behind Darin's daily routine 00:04:12 – Why you shouldn't simply copy someone else's protocol 00:04:37 – Food, light, and breath are information 00:05:06 – How the modern day disrupts your natural biology 00:05:51 – The danger of stacking small "fatal conveniences" for decades 00:06:20 – Why Darin built his life around biological rhythm 00:06:47 – Darin's morning hydration routine 00:07:11 – Why Darin wakes up between 4 and 5 A.M. 00:07:38 – Morning sunlight, no sunglasses, and no screens 00:07:48 – Your body's master circadian clock 00:08:40 – What research says about morning sunlight and sleep 00:09:21 – The cheapest thing you can do tonight for better sleep 00:09:44 – Why Darin drinks water before anything else 00:10:22 – Darin's daily meditation practice 00:10:54 – What research shows about mindfulness, anxiety, depression, and pain 00:11:33 – Sponsor: Fatty15 00:15:14 – Training yourself not to be hijacked by the modern world 00:15:43 – Your breath is the steering wheel of your nervous system 00:16:33 – The five-minute breathing practice that changed mood and respiratory rate 00:17:13 – How conscious breathing can shift your nervous system 00:17:42 – Darin's journaling and gratitude practice 00:18:15 – Journaling through grief after losing his mother 00:18:44 – What expressive writing research reveals about mental health 00:19:17 – Why an unprocessed thought can become physiological stress 00:19:30 – The sequence Darin follows before consuming anything stimulating 00:19:39 – Why cacao is part of Darin's morning ritual 00:20:06 – Darin reveals the cacao project he's developing 00:20:32 – The massive COSMOS cacao study 00:21:36 – Cacao and potential cognitive benefits 00:22:13 – Flavanols, nitric oxide, theobromine, magnesium, and polyphenols 00:22:50 – What to avoid when choosing cacao 00:23:19 – Darin's approach to resistance training 00:23:43 – Why movement doesn't need to be complicated 00:24:19 – Resistance training and longevity 00:24:54 – The powerful combination of strength training and aerobic activity 00:25:17 – Why walking may be one of the simplest longevity tools 00:25:46 – Muscle, blood sugar, myokines, and grip strength 00:26:15 – How injury changed Darin's relationship with training 00:26:51 – Training to experience more of life 00:27:14 – The principle the entire episode builds toward: food is information 00:27:26 – What you've learned from Darin's morning routine 00:27:49 – What Darin eats every day and his nighttime routine 00:28:18 – Continue Darin's complete daily protocol on Patreon Thank You to Our Sponsors: Bite Toothpaste: Go to trybite.com/DARIN20 or use code DARIN20 for 20% off your first order. Fatty15: Get an additional 15% off their 90-day subscription Starter Kit by going to fatty15.com/DARIN and using code DARIN at checkout. Join the SuperLife Patreon: This is where Darin now shares the deeper work: - weekly voice notes - ingredient trackers - wellness challenges - extended conversations - community accountability - sovereignty practices Join now for only $7.49/month at https://patreon.com/darinolien Connect with Darin Olien: Website: darinolien.com Instagram: @darinolien Book: Fatal Conveniences Platform & Products: superlife.com New Show: Roadmap to Happiness Key Takeaway "Your health isn't built from one perfect supplement, workout, meal, or morning routine. It's built from the information you repeatedly give your body. Light is information. Breath is information. Food is information. Movement is information. Darkness is information. Every day, your cells are listening to the signals you send them, whether you're consciously choosing those signals or allowing the modern world to choose them for you. You don't need to copy my routine. Understand why these practices matter, listen to your own body, and build a rhythm that works for your life. Because the seemingly insignificant things you do every morning, every afternoon, and every night eventually become your biology." Bibliography/Sources Morning Light Anderson, et al. (2025). Does sunlight exposure predict next-night sleep? A daily diary study among U.S. adults. Journal of Health Psychology . https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39077837/ Silva, et al. (2025). The role of sunlight in sleep regulation: Analysis of morning, evening and late exposure. BMC Public Health . https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-025-24618-8 Meditation, Breath, Journaling Balban, et al. (2023). Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1), 100895 . https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(22)00474-8 Goyal, et al. (2014). Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine, 174(3), 357–368 . https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1809754 Pennebaker, J. W., & Beall, S. K. (1986). Confronting a traumatic event. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95(3), 274–281 . Smyth, et al. (2018). Online positive affect journaling… a preliminary randomized controlled trial. JMIR Mental Health, 5(4), e11290 . Cacao Sesso, et al. (2022). Effect of cocoa flavanol supplementation for the prevention of cardiovascular disease events: COSMOS. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 115(6), 1490–1500 . https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(22)00275-1/fulltext Vyas, et al. (2023). Cocoa extract and cognitive function: COSMOS clinic subcohort. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 117(1), 40–52 . https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(23)66275-6/fulltext Resistance Training Saeidifard, et al. (2019). The association of resistance training with mortality. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 26(15), 1647–1665 . https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31104484/ Shailendra, et al. (2022). Resistance training and mortality risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 63(2), 277–285 . https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35599175/ Fruit, Nuts, Plant Diversity Aune, et al. (2016). Nut consumption and risk of CVD, cancer, all-cause mortality. BMC Medicine, 14, 207 . Aune, et al. (2017). Fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of CVD, cancer and all-cause mortality. International Journal of Epidemiology, 46(3), 1029–1056 . McDonald, et al. (2018). American Gut. mSystems, 3(3), e00031-18 . Tempeh Effects of fermented soy on cognition in older adults: RCT. (2025). . https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12472887/ Stephanie, et al. (2018). Tempeh consumption enhanced beneficial bacteria in the human gut . https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328100975 Baru Nut Baru almond oil supplementation in hemodialysis patients: RCT. (2021). Clinical Nutrition . https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0965229920303575 de Souza, et al. (2019). Baru almonds increase the activity of glutathione peroxidase in overweight and obese women: RCT. Nutrients, 11(8), 1750 . https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/8/1750 Phenolic and flavonoid content, antioxidant capacity of baru almond. (2021). . https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8181485/ Pumpkin Seeds Dotto, J., & Chacha, J. (2020). Pumpkin seeds as a functional food ingredient. Scientific African, 10, e00575 . U.S. Department of Agriculture. (n.d.). FoodData Central: Pumpkin seed kernels, dried . Avocado HAT: Life's Essential 8 ancillary. (2025). Journal of the American Heart Association . https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.124.039130 Lichtenstein, et al. (2022). HAT: 1 avocado/day vs habitual diet on visceral adiposity. Journal of the American Heart Association . https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35861827/ Unlu, et al. (2005). Carotenoid absorption enhanced by avocado. The Journal of Nutrition, 135(3), 431–436 . Evening Light, Sleep Environment Gooley, et al. (2011). Room light before bedtime suppresses melatonin onset. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 96(3), E463–E472 . https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21193540/ Greco, et al. (2023). Eye mask during overnight sleep improves episodic learning and alertness. Sleep, 46(3) & Sleep, 46(8) . https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/46/3/zsac305/6912219 https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/46/8/zsad105/7143720 Hu, et al. (2010). Earplugs and eye masks on nocturnal sleep, melatonin and cortisol. Critical Care, 14(2), R66 . Mason, et al. (2022). Light exposure during sleep impairs cardiometabolic function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(12) . https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2113290119 World Health Organization. (2018). Environmental noise guidelines for the European region . RF-EMF and Sleep Does radiofrequency radiation impact sleep? Double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled crossover pilot. (2024). Frontiers in Public Health . https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1481537/full Loughran, et al. (2005). Mobile phone EMF and human sleep. NeuroReport, 16(17), 1973–1976 . Mohler, et al. (2012). RF-EMF exposure and sleep quality: Prospective cohort. PLOS One, 7(5), e37455 .

What if your hand pain, numbness, weakness, or grip problems aren't actually coming from your hand or wrist? Orthopedic hand surgeon William Ericson, MD, joins Dr. Linda Bluestein to explain why people with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and hypermobility may experience overlooked median nerve entrapment near the elbow, carpal tunnel-like symptoms, thumb arthritis, and thoracic outlet syndrome—even when standard imaging or nerve testing doesn't reveal the answer. Dr. Ericson, co-author of the 2017 American Journal of Medical Genetics article on orthopedic management of the Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, shares what he has learned from more than three decades of treating patients with complex upper-extremity symptoms. Why can someone have significant hand pain, weakness, numbness, tingling, or loss of grip strength even when imaging or standard nerve testing looks normal? Dr. Ericson describes a pattern of proximal median nerve entrapment near the elbow that he believes is extremely common in people with EDS and may frequently be mistaken for carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, or unexplained pain. He explains how median nerve dysfunction can change the way the hand pinches and grips, potentially placing excessive stress on the thumb and contributing to thumb arthritis over time. He also discusses whether identifying and treating the underlying nerve problem could help reduce that risk. The conversation expands beyond the hand and wrist to the relationship between hypermobility, shoulder instability, scapular protraction, and thoracic outlet syndrome. Dr. Ericson explains why improving shoulder and scapular mechanics may sometimes be more important than operating directly on the thoracic outlet. You'll also hear an important discussion about cortisone injections in EDS and hypermobility, including why injections may be appropriate for true tendon inflammation but potentially problematic when the underlying issue is joint instability. Just as importantly, Dr. Ericson explains why he evaluates the whole person before recommending surgery—including posture, shoulder mechanics, thoracic outlet involvement, stress, and mental health—and why persistent symptoms after surgery may sometimes reflect an unrecognized problem farther upstream. The episode closes with advice for anyone living with symptoms that have been difficult to explain: a good clinician does not have to know everything. Sometimes the most important words a healthcare professional can say are, “I don't know—but I believe you, and I'll help you figure out what comes next.” Want more of Dr. William Ericson? Website: https://www.williamericsonmd.com/ Ericson Hand and Nerve Center: https://ericsonhand.com/ Want more Dr. Linda Bluestein, MD?Website:  https://www.hypermobilitymd.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bendybodiespodcastInstagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/hypermobilitymd/⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/BendyBodiesPodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/BluesteinLinda⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/hypermobilitymd/⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hypermobilitymd.substack.com/Shop my Amazon store ⁠⁠⁠ https://www.amazon.com/shop/hypermobilitymdDr. Bluestein's Recommended Herbs, Supplements and Care Necessities: https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/hypermobilitymd/store-start Want to learn more about the UVA EDS Center? For Appointments and Questions: RUVAEDSCenter@uvahealth.orgUVA EDS: https://www.uvahealth.com/healthy-practice/advancing-care-through-ehlers-danlos-clinicUVA EDS FAQ: https://www.uvahealth.com/support/eds/faq UVA Pediatric Integrative Medicine: https://childrens.uvahealth.com/specialties/integrative-health Thank YOU so much for tuning in. We hope you found this episode informative, inspiring, useful, validating, and enjoyable. Join us on the next episode for YOUR time to level up your knowledge about hypermobility disorders and the people who have them. Join YOUR Bendy Bodies community at ⁠⁠https://www.bendybodiespodcast.com/⁠⁠. YOUR bendy body is our highest priority!⁠⁠ Learn more about Human Content at ⁠⁠⁠http://www.human-content.com⁠⁠⁠ Podcast Advertising/Business Inquiries: ⁠⁠⁠sales@human-content.com⁠⁠⁠ Part of the Human Content Podcast Network Go http://www.AquaTru.com now for 20% off (your purifier) using promo code BENDY. FTC: This video is not sponsored. Links are commissionable, meaning I may earn commission from purchases made through links Chapter: 00:00 Median Nerve Shocker00:29 Meet Dr Erickson01:47 Why He Focuses on EDS06:14 Listening Changed Everything13:52 Common Upper Extremity Complaints19:58 Median Nerve Elbow Explained25:06 Misdiagnosis and Thumb Arthritis28:16 Surgery Decision Protocol31:30 Ergonomics and Tool Hacks33:09 When Surgery Makes Sense33:57 Thoracic Outlet Surgery Risks35:29 Scapular Protraction Fix38:26 Red Flags Before Operating45:24 Activities That Trigger Symptoms47:30 Best Exercises for EDS50:05 Clinician Pitfalls and Wrap-Up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if your hand pain, numbness, weakness, or grip problems aren't actually coming from your hand or wrist? Orthopedic hand surgeon William Ericson, MD, joins Dr. Linda Bluestein to explain why people with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and hypermobility may experience overlooked median nerve entrapment near the elbow, carpal tunnel-like symptoms, thumb arthritis, and thoracic outlet syndrome—even when standard imaging or nerve testing doesn't reveal the answer. Dr. Ericson, co-author of the 2017 American Journal of Medical Genetics article on orthopedic management of the Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, shares what he has learned from more than three decades of treating patients with complex upper-extremity symptoms. Why can someone have significant hand pain, weakness, numbness, tingling, or loss of grip strength even when imaging or standard nerve testing looks normal? Dr. Ericson describes a pattern of proximal median nerve entrapment near the elbow that he believes is extremely common in people with EDS and may frequently be mistaken for carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, or unexplained pain. He explains how median nerve dysfunction can change the way the hand pinches and grips, potentially placing excessive stress on the thumb and contributing to thumb arthritis over time. He also discusses whether identifying and treating the underlying nerve problem could help reduce that risk. The conversation expands beyond the hand and wrist to the relationship between hypermobility, shoulder instability, scapular protraction, and thoracic outlet syndrome. Dr. Ericson explains why improving shoulder and scapular mechanics may sometimes be more important than operating directly on the thoracic outlet. You'll also hear an important discussion about cortisone injections in EDS and hypermobility, including why injections may be appropriate for true tendon inflammation but potentially problematic when the underlying issue is joint instability. Just as importantly, Dr. Ericson explains why he evaluates the whole person before recommending surgery—including posture, shoulder mechanics, thoracic outlet involvement, stress, and mental health—and why persistent symptoms after surgery may sometimes reflect an unrecognized problem farther upstream. The episode closes with advice for anyone living with symptoms that have been difficult to explain: a good clinician does not have to know everything. Sometimes the most important words a healthcare professional can say are, “I don't know—but I believe you, and I'll help you figure out what comes next.” Want more of Dr. William Ericson? Website: https://www.williamericsonmd.com/ Ericson Hand and Nerve Center: https://ericsonhand.com/ Want more Dr. Linda Bluestein, MD?Website:  https://www.hypermobilitymd.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bendybodiespodcastInstagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/hypermobilitymd/⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/BendyBodiesPodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/BluesteinLinda⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/hypermobilitymd/⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://hypermobilitymd.substack.com/Shop my Amazon store ⁠⁠⁠ https://www.amazon.com/shop/hypermobilitymdDr. Bluestein's Recommended Herbs, Supplements and Care Necessities: https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/hypermobilitymd/store-start Want to learn more about the UVA EDS Center? For Appointments and Questions: RUVAEDSCenter@uvahealth.orgUVA EDS: https://www.uvahealth.com/healthy-practice/advancing-care-through-ehlers-danlos-clinicUVA EDS FAQ: https://www.uvahealth.com/support/eds/faq UVA Pediatric Integrative Medicine: https://childrens.uvahealth.com/specialties/integrative-health Thank YOU so much for tuning in. We hope you found this episode informative, inspiring, useful, validating, and enjoyable. Join us on the next episode for YOUR time to level up your knowledge about hypermobility disorders and the people who have them. Join YOUR Bendy Bodies community at ⁠⁠https://www.bendybodiespodcast.com/⁠⁠. YOUR bendy body is our highest priority!⁠⁠ Learn more about Human Content at ⁠⁠⁠http://www.human-content.com⁠⁠⁠ Podcast Advertising/Business Inquiries: ⁠⁠⁠sales@human-content.com⁠⁠⁠ Part of the Human Content Podcast Network Go http://www.AquaTru.com now for 20% off (your purifier) using promo code BENDY. FTC: This video is not sponsored. Links are commissionable, meaning I may earn commission from purchases made through links Chapter: 00:00 Median Nerve Shocker00:29 Meet Dr Erickson01:47 Why He Focuses on EDS06:14 Listening Changed Everything13:52 Common Upper Extremity Complaints19:58 Median Nerve Elbow Explained25:06 Misdiagnosis and Thumb Arthritis28:16 Surgery Decision Protocol31:30 Ergonomics and Tool Hacks33:09 When Surgery Makes Sense33:57 Thoracic Outlet Surgery Risks35:29 Scapular Protraction Fix38:26 Red Flags Before Operating45:24 Activities That Trigger Symptoms47:30 Best Exercises for EDS50:05 Clinician Pitfalls and Wrap-Up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acute Appendicitis explained, including classic and atypical appendicitis symptoms, the pathophysiology of appendicitis, as well as causes, diagnosis (including scores like the Alvarado score) and treatment.PDFs available here: https://rhesusmedicine.com/products/general-surgeryConsider subscribing on YouTube (if you found any of the info useful!): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRks8wB6vgz0E7buP0L_5RQ?sub_confirmation=1Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rhesusmedicineBuy Us A Coffee!: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/rhesusmedicineTimestamps:0:00 What is Appendicitis?0:32 Appendicitis Pathophysiology2:00 Causes of Appendicitis2:59 Appendicitis Symptoms & Signs 5:29 Appendicitis Diagnosis8:44 Appendicitis Treatment / Appendectomy LINK TO SOCIAL MEDIA: https://www.instagram.com/rhesusmedicine/Please remember this podcast and all content from Rhesus Medicine is meant for educational purposes only and should not be used as a guide to diagnose or to treat. Please consult a healthcare professional for medical advice. ReferencesBMJ Best Practice (2026) Acute appendicitis. Available at: https://bestpractice.bmj.com/topics/en-gb/3000094Di Saverio, S., Podda, M., De Simone, B., et al. (2020) 'Diagnosis and treatment of acute appendicitis: 2020 update of the WSES Jerusalem guidelines', World Journal of Emergency Surgery, 15(1), p.27. Available at: https://wjes.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13017-020-00306-3Moris, D., Paulson, E.K. and Pappas, T.N. (2021) 'Diagnosis and management of acute appendicitis in adults: a review', JAMA, 326(22), pp.2299-2311. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34905026MSD Manual (2024) Appendicitis. Available at: https://www.msdmanuals.com/professional/gastrointestinal-disorders/acute-abdomen-and-surgical-gastroenterology/appendicitisStatPearls Publishing (2024) Appendicitis. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493193/Bhangu, A., Søreide, K., Di Saverio, S., Assarsson, J.H. and Drake, F.T. (2015) 'Acute appendicitis: modern understanding of pathogenesis, diagnosis, and management', The Lancet, 386(10000), pp.1278-1287. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26460662Flum, D.R., Davidson, G.H., Monsell, S.E., et al. (2020) 'A randomized trial comparing antibiotics with appendectomy for appendicitis', New England Journal of Medicine, 383(20), pp.1907-1919. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33017106Addiss, D.G., Shaffer, N., Fowler, B.S. and Tauxe, R.V. (1990) 'The epidemiology of appendicitis and appendectomy in the United States', American Journal of Epidemiology, 132(5), pp.910-925. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2239906

William B. Coley started using a bacterial infection to treat cancers in the late 19th century, one of the earliest uses of immunotherapy. Research: Ahuja, Sana and Sufian Zaheer. “The evolution of cancer immunotherapy: a comprehensive review of its history and current perspectives.” Korean Journal of Clinical Oncology 2024; 20(2): 51-73. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14216/kjco.24009 Atkins, Douglas. “Helen Coley Nauts: Advocate for Immunotherapy.” National Library of Medicine. 4/19/2016. https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2016/04/19/helen-coley-nauts-advocate-for-immunotherapy/ Cancer Research Institute. “The History of Cancer Immunotherapy.” Coley, William B. “Therapeutic Value of the Mixed Toxins of the Streptococcus of Erysipelas and Bacillus Prodigiosus in the Treatment of Inoperable Malignant Tumors. With a Report of 160 Cases.” American Journal of the Medical Sciences. September 1896. College of Physicians of Philadelphia. “Cancer Vaccines and Immunotherapy.” History of Vaccines. https://historyofvaccines.org/vaccines-101/future-immunization/cancer-vaccines-and-immunotherapy/ Colley, William B. “The Treatment of Inoperable Sarcoma by Bacterial Toxins (the Mixed Toxins of the Streptococcus erysipelas and the Bacillus prodigiosus).” Reprinted from the “ Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine,” November, 1909. London. John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, LTD. 1909. https://archive.org/details/b22425949/mode/1up Decker WK, da Silva RF, Sanabria MH, Angelo LS, Guimarães F, Burt BM, Kheradmand F and Paust S (2017) Cancer Immunotherapy: Historical Perspective of a Clinical Revolution and Emerging Preclinical Animal Models. Front. Immunol. 8:829. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.00829 Devaraja, K. et al. “Coley’s Toxin to First Approved Therapeutic Vaccine—A Brief Historical Account in the Progression of Immunobiology-Based Cancer Treatment.” Biomedicines 2024, 12, 2746. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines12122746 Dobosz, Paula and Tomasz Dzieciatkowski.” The Intriguing History of Cancer Immunotherapy. Frontiers in Immunology. 12/17/2019. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.02965 Hall, Stephen S. “A Commotion in the Blood: Life, Death, and the Immune System.” Henry Holt and Company. Excerpted at New York Times. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hall-commotion.html Harutyunyan, Mariam. “How William Coley Became The Father of Cancer Immunotherapy.” OncoDaily Magazine. 7/31/2026. https://oncodaily.com/magazine/william-coley-549446 Hiroaki Ikeda, Cancer immunotherapy in progress—an overview of the past 130 years, International Immunology, Volume 37, Issue 5, May 2025, Pages 253–260, https://doi.org/10.1093/intimm/dxaf002 Journal of the American Medical Association. “Erysipelas Toxins in the Treatment of Malignant Tumors.” 10/27/1894. Journal of the American Medical Association. “The Failure of the Erysipelas Toxins.” Vol 23 Iss 24. 12/15/1894. Kokolus, Katie. “The History of Immunotherapy: Toxins, Targets & T Cells.” LabRoots. 10/18/2021. https://www.labroots.com/trending/cancer/21449/history-immunotherapy-toxins-targets-cells?srsltid=AfmBOooP1eoVP2LbWKR5m-HLu1PSBFhOyPH1jSJWWcxvyK6EA4-hBu47 Levine, David B. “The Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled: William Bradley Coley, third Surgeon-in-Chief 1925-1933.” HSS journal : the musculoskeletal journal of Hospital for Special Surgery vol. 4,1 (2008): 1-9. doi:10.1007/s11420-007-9063-2 McCarthy, Edward F. “The Toxins of William B. Coley and the Treatment of Bone and Soft-tissue Sarcomas.” The Iowa Orthopaedic Journal. Vol. 26. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “MSK Immunotherapy — Timeline of Progress.” https://www.mskcc.org/timeline/immunotherapy-msk National Library of Medicine. “Harnessing the Power of You: The History of Immunotherapy.” https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/the-history-of-immunotherapy/index.html Nauts, Helen Coley. “Coley’s Toxins – The First Century.” Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients. June 2004. Nawrat, Allie. “Charting the history of immunotherapy, cancer treatment’s fourth pillar.” Pharmaceutical Technology. 7/28/2020. https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/features/charting-the-history-of-immunotherapy-cancer-treatments-fourth-pillar/?cf-view&cf-closed Oiseth SJ, Aziz MS. “Cancer immunotherapy: a brief review of the history, possibilities, and challenges ahead.” J Cancer Metastasis Treat. 2017;3:250-61. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2017.41 Tontonoz, Matthew. “What Ever Happened to Coley’s Toxins?.” Cancer Research Institute. 4/2/2015. https://www.cancerresearch.org/blog/what-ever-happened-to-coleys-toxins See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Prof. Dr Joseph Levitan discusses the impact of AI on human thinking, the importance of attention and awareness in education, and practical strategies to cultivate focus in an age of distraction. Discover how to harness information responsibly and develop reflexive, principled thinking.===Dr. Levitan has won multiple awards for his research and teaching, including the A. Noam Chomsky Global Connections Award as an Emerging Scholar from the Society of Transnational Academic Researchers; the Heather Reisman and Gerald Schwartz Award for Excellence in Teaching from the McGill Faculty of Education; and a Doctor Honoris Causa (Honorary Doctorate) from the national postdoctoral research society of Peru. His work has appeared in journals such as Teachers College Record, American Journal of Education, Compare, and Action Research. His 2022 co-authored book, Student Voice Research: Theory Methods and Innovations from the Field (TC Press), offers insights into how adults can do better research work with students to improve schools and social systems.===AI, attention, awareness, education, reflexive thinking, focus, information overload, decision making, mindfulness, human cognition===theykm.comthe-ykm.com#whyknowledgematters #theykm #livelearnlove #NOW

Conference on Practice & Quality Improvement Opening Session - Monday, August 31, 2026In this fireside chat with Dr Sachin Jain, he explores the intersection of leadership, equity, and innovation in health care delivery. This session examines how health care organizations can address disparities in access, quality, and outcomes while advancing patient-centered, community-responsive care.Learning Objectives:Upon completion of this session, participants should be able to:Describe key factors that contribute to inequities to health care access, quality and outcomes across diverse patient populations.Analyze how health care systems organizational culture and policy decisions influence disparities in care delivery and patient experience.Identify strategies that clinicians, educators and health care organizations can use to promote equitable patient centered and community responsive care.Copyright © Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, 2026Speaker Bio - Sachin (pronounced SUCH-in) H. Jain, MD, MBA is CEO of SCAN Group and SCAN Health Plan. SCAN is a nonprofit organization with annual revenues of $8B that serves nearly 500,000 people across Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington.Previously, Dr Jain was president and CEO of CareMore and Aspire Health. He also served as chief medical information & innovation officer at Merck & Co., was senior advisor to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and was the first deputy director for policy and programs at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. He was also special assistant to the national coordinator for Health Information Technology.Dr Jain graduated from Harvard where he earned his AB, MD, and MBA degrees. He is adjunct professor at the Stanford University and a member of the boards of Omada Health, Advantage Healthcare Services, The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. He is an advisor to LRV Ventures, Obvious Ventures, and Team8. He also serves on the editorial board of Health Affairs and the American Journal of Managed Care. He is a member of the Aspen Health Strategy Group (AHSG), an initiative of the Health, Medicine & Society Program of the Aspen Institute and elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Dr Jain is also the author of the forthcoming book, The Moral Alibi: How Healthcare Learned to Look Away—and How We See Again (themoralalibi.com). Website - https://stfm.org/stfmpodcastCPQI26opening 

A new study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry analyzed electronic health records from 2,086 individuals with bipolar disorder in Hong Kong treated between 2004 and 2023. While long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIAs) are already widely recognized for treating schizophrenia, robust comparative guidance for bipolar disorder has historically been limited. The researchers found that patients receiving LAIAs had a significantly lower risk of psychiatric hospitalization compared to those on traditional oral antipsychotics. In addition, the injectable treatments were tied to a reduced recurrence rate of manic and mixed episodes, offering compelling evidence for their expanded clinical role.

MS is a complex polygenic disease with over 200 associated genetic variants. The risk of an offspring developing MS if one parent is affected is relatively low at 2% to 3% (though maternal transmission shows slightly higher heritability), with some possible epigenetic influences. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society reports that up to 4 times as many women have MS as men. The average age at MS diagnosis is around 30 years. Studies show this ratio has grown over the past several decades; in the mid-20th century, the ratio was roughly 2:1, but the proportion of affected females has steadily increased due to a combination of environmental, hormonal, and diagnostic factors. MS does not impair natural fertility, so OB providers should be aware of the effect of pregnancy on MS and vice verse. In this episode, we will review a brand new (as of Aug 8, 2026) expert review on the subject which was published in the AJOG. Over the last decade, clinical guidance has shifted from advising women with MS to avoid pregnancy to a more active and permissive stance, largely due to the advent of new pharmacological and biologic therapies. Listen in for details. 1. Balshi A, et al. Management of Multiple Sclerosis During Pregnancy and the Reproductive Years in 2026: An Expert Clinical Review, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (2026), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2026.08.043.

Your football team keeps losing. The season is slipping away. One thing can be changed by Friday, and the crowd is already singing about it: sack the manager.Jan van Ours (Erasmus School of Economics, CEPR, Feyenoord fan) has looked at seven seasons of the Dutch top flight and 31 managers who were sacrificed mid-season. To work out whether any of them deserved it, he uses bookmaker odds and expected goals to distinguish bad play from bad luck. The new-manager bounce is real: results improve after a new manager walks in. But also, not real: clubs that don't sack the manager have an upturn too. The message for the boardroom, in football and business, is that not doing anything might often be the best course of action.The research behind this episode:van Ours, Jan C. 2026. "Dust in the Wind: Causes and Consequences of Managerial Replacements." CEPR Discussion Paper DP21850, Centre for Economic Policy Research. The paper is gated.To cite this episode:Phillips, Tim, and Jan van Ours. 2026. "Does sacking the manager work?" VoxTalks Economics (podcast).About the guestJan van Ours is Emeritus Professor of Applied Economics at Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and a core member of the Erasmus Centre for Applied Sports Economics. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Center for Health Economics, Monash Business School, and a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research. His research spans unemployment dynamics, labour market policy, health and well-being, and the economics of professional sport, where match data offer a rare chance to watch a labour market in the open.Research cited in this episodeThe Eredivisie sample. Seven seasons of the top league of Dutch professional football, from 2018/19 to 2024/25, covering 4,136 match observations and 126 club-seasons. In that period 31 managers were replaced during a season; about 15% had gone by mid-season and 25% by the end of it.Points surprise. The cumulative gap, from the first match of the season, between the points a club has won and the points the bookmakers implied it should have won. Bookmaker odds are used as the benchmark because they already contain everything the market knows about squad quality, home advantage and the opposition; van Ours confirms this in the data, finding that recent results add nothing to the odds as a predictor of the next match.Performance surprise. The same cumulative gap, but measured with expected points derived from expected goals rather than actual results. Points surprise catches a club that is losing. Performance surprise catches a club that is playing badly. A club can be one without being the other, which is how luck gets separated from ability.Expected goals. The probability that a given shot becomes a goal, estimated from thousands of comparable attempts and conditioned on the distance and angle of the shooter, the body part used, and the type of pass and attack. Van Ours converts expected goals scored and conceded into a distribution of match outcomes, and from that into expected points. His data come from fbref.com; the paper notes that match-level expected goals were discontinued in January 2026 after a dispute between fbref and Opta.The counterfactual replacement. The device that carries the paper. For each actual sacking, van Ours searches the same club in a different season for a moment when the sum of points surprise and performance surprise was almost identical, and the manager survived. Of the 31 replacements, 22 have a counterfactual, 19 of them unique. Clubs that sacked the manager gained 0.21 points per match afterwards. Clubs in the same trouble that did not sack the manager gained 0.38.Scapegoating. William Gamson and Norman Scotch set out the idea in "Scapegoating in baseball" in the American Journal of Sociology in 1964, describing the sacking of a manager as an anxiety-reducing ritual that participants treat as an improvement whether or not anything improves. Van Ours returns to it to explain why a decision with no measurable effect keeps being taken.Managers in regular firms. Stuart Gilson's 1989 study in the Journal of Financial Economics found that replaced executives were not employed by another firm for at least three years. Football managers are frequently back in work within weeks, which is one reason the job pays what it does. Hilger, Mankel and Richter reviewed 91 studies of top executive dismissals published between 1960 and 2010 and concluded that the effects of managerial turnover are not statistically different from zero.Related reading on VoxEU.orgWhat we can learn about economics from professional sport during COVID-19, a VoxEU column on why sport keeps producing clean natural experiments for economists.Racial bias in newspaper ratings of professional football players, a VoxEU column using match ratings to test for discrimination in a labour market where output is measured in public every week.

Are some of your "healthy" foods actually high-risk ultra-processed foods?  For decades, nutrition advice seemed relatively straightforward. Eat less sugar. Less salt. Less saturated fat. Then it all fell apart. In today's episode, we examine the research that has forced us to rethink what makes food harmful in the first place. Two of the world's leading nutrition scientists, Professor Tim Spector and Professor Sarah Berry, tell their own story of why they've changed their minds about it. We explore why sugar, salt and fat aren't the whole story, explain why ultra-processed foods are making us sick, and share groundbreaking insight that only a small portion of them are really harmful. By the end of the episode, you'll know what to watch out for and what to worry less about when you're food shopping. Next time you reach for a "healthy" yogurt or a quick pasta sauce, would you still choose it if you knew exactly how it was made?

Season 5, episode 6 of Just Us: Before, Birth, and Beyond features two members of the Project CARA team who implement and operationalize the contingency management (CM) program at MAHEC in a perinatal setting. This is an effective, evidence-based treatment for substance use disorder that is based on positive reinforcement throughout recovery. Despite its proven efficacy, implementing CM can come with logistical challenges and barriers. Listen in to learn how Project CARA navigated these in designing their own CM program to provide optimal, patient-centered care. Key ResourcesJones, H. E., et al. (2012). Voucher-based contingency management improves outcomes in substance use treatment. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 43(3), 267–274.Festinger, D. S., Dugosh, K. L., Kirby, K. C., & Seymour, B. L. (2014). Contingency management for cocaine treatment: Cash vs. vouchers. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 47(2), 168–174. SAMHSA. (2025). Contingency management for the treatment of substance use disorders: Advisory. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Rash, C. J. (2023). Implementing an evidence-based prize contingency management protocol for stimulant use disorders. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. (2024, November 7). Contingency management for the treatment of substance use disorders: Enhancing access, quality, and program integrity for an evidence-based intervention (Report to Congress). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2018). Principles of drug addiction treatment: A research-based guide (3rd ed.). National Institutes of Health.Major, E., Blake, E., Bass, R., Galvin, A., Crowder, T., & Ramage, M. (2023). Contingency management in a perinatal substance exposure clinic. The American Journal of Accountable Care, 11(2), 16-21. https://doi.org/10.37765/ajac.2023.89380We would love your feedback on our podcast!  Please take our listener survey to provide your comments.Music credit: "Carefree" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Please provide feedback here:https://redcap.mahec.net/redcap/surveys/?s=XTM8T3RPNK 

Growing up, many of us were taught to just stay calm and carry on - as if stress was all in the mind, with no real effect on the body. But chronic stress can change your brain, raise your risk of heart disease, and even shorten your life.  In this episode, we ask: what happens when a stress response built to last minutes never switches off? Today, Professor Carmine Pariante, one of the world's leading researchers on stress, helps us understand what's happening in your body during a stressful moment and why chronic stress disrupts sleep, appetite, and energy levels. Carmine also explains how worried you should be about cortisol, and whether "cortisol face" and "cortisol belly" are backed by evidence. By the end, you'll understand why stress can be so powerful, when it becomes harmful, and have some evidence-based ways to manage it. Next time you reach for wine, your phone, or something sweet after a hard day, ask yourself: is this helping you cope, or helping you avoid how you feel?

Today we are diving into a topic that is incredibly close to my heart—one that has the potential to fundamentally change how we approach prenatal care and protect pregnant patients. We're talking about low-dose aspirin for the prevention of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Now, if you follow current formal guidelines, you probably know the standard protocol: 81 milligrams a day, prescribed based on specific risk factors. But there's a growing body of evidence suggesting we might be underdosing—and under-prescribing. What if 162 milligrams taken universally across the board is actually far more effective?In today's episode, we're unpacking a brand-new, groundbreaking study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. And I'm especially excited to cover this one because it comes straight out of my alma mater, Parkland Hospital! This study takes a bold look at real-world outcomes by comparing a period of universal 162-milligram aspirin use directly against a historical period when aspirin wasn't recommended at all. Did a higher, universal dose significantly cut down on hypertensive disorders? And just as importantly …were there any adverse safety events we need to be aware of? Grab your coffee, settle in, and let's get into the details.1. Duryea E, Ambia A, Pruszynski J. et al. Universal Aspirin Dispensation for Prevention of Preeclampsia in a High-Risk Population. AJOG, 2026; ePub 8/27/282. Hypertension in pregnancy. Report of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' Task Force on Hypertension in Pregnancy. Obstet Gynecol. 2013 Nov;122(5):1122-1131. 3. ACOG Issues Updated Hypertension Guidance, Discusses New ACC/AHA Criteria (2018): https://www.acog.org/news/news-releases/2018/12/acog-issues-updated-hypertension-guidance4. Low-Dose Aspirin Use During Pregnancy, ACOG Committee Opinion Number 743 (2018)5. Low-Dose Aspirin Use for the Prevention of Preeclampsia and Related Morbidity and Mortality. ACOG Practice Advisory; December 2021

In this Supplement Ingredients Series episode, Nurse Doza breaks down phosphatidylcholine—the phospholipid that makes up much of every cell membrane you have. He explains why your liver and brain hold the biggest stores of it, how the liver uses phosphatidylcholine to package and move fat, and why choline is the precursor your brain needs for acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter behind focus and memory. He also shares the simple two-capsule morning routine he's used for years. FEATURED PARTNER BodyBio PC is a phospholipid complex—not a choline salt—which means it delivers phosphatidylcholine in the form your cell membranes are actually built from. That's exactly the distinction Nurse Doza draws in this episode: after cycling through different sources and forms over the years, this is the one that stuck. It's stimulant-free, and his routine is two capsules in the morning on an empty stomach.

AJT September 2026 Editors' Picks Description:  Hosts Roz and Dr. Sanchez-Fueyo discuss the key articles of the September issue of the American Journal of Transplantation. [2:55] A remote intervention to improve medication nonadherence guided by a marker of risk derived from the electronic health records of adolescent transplant recipients [15:02] On the relative relevance of donor-derived cell-free DNA and urinary chemokines as noninvasive biomarkers for the diagnosis of kidney allograft rejection [28:49] Pre- and post-kidney transplant gnathostomiasis: Clinical manifestations, treatment, and outcomes [34:50] Metabolomic atlas of ischemia-reperfusion injury in human lung transplants: Mitochondrial stress and primary graft dysfunction

Today, we are tackling a massive grey area in obstetrics/maternal-fetal medicine: What happens after early fetal growth restriction resolves? When a baby bounces back on the growth chart during the second or third trimester, are they completely out of the woods? Or is there a hidden, lingering risk we aren't talking about enough? To find out, we're doing a deep dive into two major publications that dropped just this month, in August 2026 in sister journals (AJOG and AJOG MFM). Both are retrospective, both ask the exact same burning question…and get this: they arrive at completely opposing conclusions. How is that possible? Listen in for details. 1. Melamed B, Mei-Dan E, Aviram A. Sonographic fetal weight estimation percentiles should be interpreted with caution in the second trimester. Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2026 May;173(2):930-939. doi: 10.1002/ijgo.70693. Epub 2025 Nov 25. PMID: 41288086.2. Ramos SZ, Has P, Gimovsky AC, Danilack VA, Savitz DA, Lewkowitz AK. Outcomes among Neonates after a Diagnosis of Persistent or Transient Fetal Growth Restriction Delivered at Term. Am J Perinatol. 2024 May;41(S 01):e1470-e1477. doi: 10.1055/a-2051-3859. Epub 2023 Mar 9. Erratum in: Am J Perinatol. 2024 May;41(S 01):e1478. doi: 10.1055/s-0044-1786526. PMID: 36894159; PMCID: PMC10562520.3. Keller N, Jackson F, Abelman S .Neonatal morbidity following resolution of fetal growth restriction diagnosed at second-trimester anatomy ultrasound. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology MFM, 2026; Aug 8. 4. Cenac LA, Wodoslawsky S, Patel V, McLaren Jr. R, Aghai ZH, Makhamreh MM, Al-Kouatly HB, Persistent, Resolved, and Absent Fetal Growth Restriction: A Comparison of Neonatal Outcomes, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (2026), doi: https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2026. Aug 19

A reading of articles and features from the August/September 2026 Issue of the Polish American Journal

About this episode:   As electric scooters and bikes explode in popularity in cities across the globe, concerns about safety abound. Early data shows that injuries from collisions and falls on these devices can include severe head trauma and injuries to internal organs, culminating in increased visits to the hospital. In this episode: Road safety expert Johnathon Ehsani provides an epidemiological overview of the safety data and offers advice for parents and policymakers to prevent injuries. Guest:  Johnathon Ehsani, PhD, MPH, is an internationally recognized road safety researcher and an associate professor in Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Host:  Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Show links and related content:  E-Scooters and Micromobility Are Potential Public Health Game Changers for Transportation and Equity—Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Injuries From Electric Bikes and Scooters: Illinois, U.S., 2021–2023—American Journal of Preventive Medicine Crash-Related Protective and Risky Behaviors Among Micromobility Riders: A Nationally Representative Survey—American Journal of Public Health Riding an electric scooter: the rules—gov.uk Should Cities Be Welcoming Autonomous Vehicles?—Public Health On Call (July 2026) Transcript information: Looking for episode transcripts? Open our podcast on the Apple Podcasts app (desktop or mobile) or the Spotify mobile app to access an auto-generated transcript of any episode. Closed captioning is also available for every episode on our YouTube channel. Contact us: Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website. Follow us: @‌PublicHealthPod on Bluesky @‌PublicHealthPod on Instagram @‌JohnsHopkinsSPH on Facebook @‌PublicHealthOnCall on YouTube Here's our RSS feed Note: These podcasts are a conversation between the participants, and do not represent the position of Johns Hopkins University.

Send us Fan MailProject Weight Loss, LLC  ·  @fina.projectweightloss  ·  projectweightloss.org Ever finish dinner, close the kitchen, and somehow still end up back at the fridge an hour later? In this episode, we get honest about night eating — starting with a surprisingly personal family story about where this habit actually began, before digging into five gentle, research-backed strategies (pulled from real peer-reviewed studies, not influencer hacks) to help you feel steady in your evenings, no shame required. Plus, a little fun on the side: the new hobby keeping this host moving on busy weeks — teaching herself line dancing. Quote of the week: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” — James Clear, Atomic HabitsLeidy, H.J. et al. Higher-protein breakfast reduces appetite and evening cravings in breakfast-skipping teens. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition / Obesity. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000291652305462XImpact of breakfast skipping compared with dinner skipping on energy balance and metabolic risk. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916522049085Unfavorable mealtime and meal skipping linked to circadian syndrome, NHANES 2005–2016. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11173982/An updated review of night eating syndrome, including irregular daytime eating as a contributing pattern. Current Obesity Reports. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9713091/Randomized trial of planning tools to reduce unhealthy snacking. PLOS ONE. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0209863Randomized controlled trial of implementation intentions for changing snacking behavior and BMI. Appetite. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666325003629Vujović, N. et al. (2022). Late eating increases hunger and lowers the fullness hormone leptin. Cell Metabolism. https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(22)00397-7Newman, E., O'Connor, D.B. & Conner, M. Cortisol reactivity and distress-induced emotional eating. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22999262/Between- and within-person effects of stress on emotional eating in women: a 49-day longitudinal study. Psychological Medicine. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/between-and-withinperson-effects-of-stress-on-emotional-eating-in-women-a-longitudinal-study-over-49-days/209D0BC668D45472D4612838FF68D706Perceived stress and sleep quality associated with emotional eating in university students. Nutrients (2024). https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/18/15/2434The time-stamped effects of screen exposure on food intake in adults: a meta-analysis. Appetite (2024). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195666324006500Eating while distracted: a systematic review and meta-analysis of concurrent and later energy intake. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41999952/Eating while watching TV linked to higher intake of ultra-processed food in adolescents: a longitudinal study. Frontiers in Public Health (2024). https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1423383/fullTwo decades of mindfulness-based interventions for binge eating: a systematic review and meta-analysis. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34399197/Sala, M. et al. (2020). Mindfulness and eating disorder psychopathology: a meta-analysis. International Journal of Eating Disorders. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/eat.23247Let's go, let's get it done.Get more information at: http://projectweightloss.org

HEALTH NEWS   Purslane Extract Tied to Improved Mood and Reduced Liver Stiffness in Trials, Researchers Say Natural Compound in Broccoli Could Help Treat a Rare, Incurable Neurological Disease Intermittent fasting reveals gut-brain pathway that may reduce chronic pain Microalga extract shows promise for fatigue through mitochondrial function Vitamin D Supplementation Tied to Slower Biological Aging, Studies Find         Purslane Extract Tied to Improved Mood and Reduced Liver Stiffness in Trials, Researchers Say Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (Iran), August 21 2026 (Natural News)     Purslane, a weed commonly found in garden beds and sidewalk cracks, has been linked in two clinical trials to improved mood and reduced liver stiffness. Purslane is an herbaceous succulent valued in many cultures for its vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.   A trial published in the journal Health Science Reports enrolled adults with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Participants received either purslane extract or a placebo in addition to regular care. The report said those who received purslane showed reductions in stress and low mood compared with the placebo group, and researchers said the results warrant further investigation. In 2024, the same research team published a trial of patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease received 700 milligrams of purslane extract daily for eight weeks. According to the study, liver stiffness decreased significantly compared with placebo, and the hepatorenal ultrasound index, a direct measure of fat buildup in the liver, also improved.   Natural Compound in Broccoli Could Help Treat a Rare, Incurable Neurological Disease Swinburne University of Technology (Australia), August 21, 2026 (SciTech Daily)   A naturally occurring compound in broccoli is being investigated as a possible treatment for Friedreich ataxia, a rare nervous system disease. Research from Swinburne suggests the compound can act on biological processes involved in the condition. Friedreich ataxia develops as neurons in the brain and spinal cord deteriorate, progressively affecting movement, speech, and survival. The research found that sulforaphane, a natural compound present in broccoli, can raise levels of frataxin, the protein that is deficient in people with Friedreich ataxia. It also helped protect vulnerable nerve cells from damage. Sulforaphane has also been found to affect several disease-related processes, including cellular stress and inflammation.   Intermittent fasting reveals gut-brain pathway that may reduce chronic pain Zhengzhou University & First Affiliated Hospital (China) August 24 2026 (Medical Xpress) Chronic pain, pain that persists or returns for more than three months, can affect people's emotional well-being and is often accompanied by difficulty concentrating or remembering things.  Researchers at Zhengzhou University and its First Affiliated Hospital conducted a study investigating the effects of intermittent fasting on chronic pain in mice. Their findings, published in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, suggest that fasting for set hours can alter gut bacteria and influence the connection between the digestive tract and the brain, which may in turn reduce pain sensitivity and improve mental function. The researchers observed that mice with chronic pain who followed the intermittent fasting regimen appeared to exhibit reduced sensitivity to normally harmless touch and heat. In addition, fasting appeared to improve their performance on simple tasks and reduce anxiety-like behaviors. Collected data suggested that fasting had strengthened the mice's intestinal barrier, reduced neuroinflammation and altered the composition of their gut microbiota. A species of gut bacteria that appeared to consistently increase with intermittent fasting was Alistipes finegoldii. This study suggests that intermittent fasting can change the composition of the gut microbiota, particularly in mouse models of chronic pain. Interestingly, the team also found that supplementing mice with Alistipes finegoldii, the bacterial species that increased with fasting, reproduced the pain-relieving effects and cognitive improvements observed in fasting mice.   Microalga extract shows promise for fatigue through mitochondrial function Jeonbuk National University & Yuhan Care Co (South Korea), August 11 2026 (Nutrition) Algae have long been used for nutritional and health-promoting purposes in several cultures. Haematococcus pluvialis, a fresh water green algae widely recognized as containing high levels of astaxanthin, has attracted growing interest as a functional bioresource with potential to improve physical performance and alleviate fatigue; however, its underlying mechanisms remain unclear.  This study aimed to evaluate the anti-fatigue effects of H. pluvialis extract (YHC-T-2414) and its underlying mechanisms. Its antioxidant effect was assessed by measuring reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation.  Mice were administered YHC-T-2414 for 3 weeks and subjected to an exhaustive swimming test. Subsequently, fatigue-related biochemical parameters, including lactate, LDH, creatine, malondialdehyde (MDA), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were measured in serum and muscle tissues. YHC-T-2414 attenuated H2O2-induced reductions in cell viability, and reduced LDH and CK activities and ROS generation in H2O2-treated C2C12 myoblasts.  Furthermore, it significantly increased swimming time in the forced swimming mouse model while reducing lactate, LDH, CK, MDA, TNF-α, and IL-6.   Vitamin D Supplementation Tied to Slower Biological Aging, Studies Find Yale University, August 23 2026 (Natural News)     Recent analyses of clinical trial data have linked daily vitamin D3 supplementation to slower biological aging, according to researchers.   A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that 2,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D3 daily significantly reduced telomere shortening over four years among participants.   Researchers followed 1,036 adults with vitamin D deficiency in the Berlin Aging Study II and GendAge study for an average of 7.4 years. According to the report, participants who began taking vitamin D supplements after the initial assessment had lower epigenetic age acceleration at follow-up than deficient participants who did not supplement. The difference was about 2.6 years on one epigenetic clock and 1.3 years on another.   The report also stated that participants whose deficiency was successfully treated had epigenetic aging measures that were not significantly different from those of vitamin D-sufficient participants. These findings suggest that correcting a vitamin D deficiency may move some markers of biological aging in a more favorable direction.    

Despite being the most studied supplement of all time, creatine is making a big resurgence. That's why we decided to rebroadcast this highly informative episode, that is more relevant now, than when it was originally posted. It's been the hot topic in the health podcast space, as new scientific evidence is showing creatine is about more than looking big, but has big and important effects on brain health and overall longevity. But, like all things, creatine needs to be handled with care. It needs to be the right type, at the right dose, at the right times, with the right movement and for the right person. That's why it was fundamentally important for me to get a true creatine expert on the show, Dr Darren Candow.Dr. Darren Candow is a professor specializing in exercise physiology, nutrition, and aging. He supervises the Aging Muscle and Bone Health Laboratory, where the primary research focus is to develop effective lifestyle interventions involving nutrition—primarily creatine monohydrate—and physical activity, particularly resistance training. These interventions aim to improve muscle, bone, and brain health and function, with both practical and clinical relevance. To date, Dr. Candow has published over 120 peer-reviewed journal articles, supervised more than 20 MSc/PhD students, and secured research funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Nutricia Research Foundation.Join us as we explore:Everything about creatine! What it is, is it right for you, the safest form, dosage, its most important (and surprising) effects, why it's the most studied supplement ever and some risks and side effects.Creatine's incredible effects on a sleep deprived and exhausted brain!Creatine's relationship to caffeine, hyperbaric chambers/hypoxia and TRT.Dr Candow's recommended morning exercise and creatine protocol.Does creatine cause you to gain weight, retain water, and is the loading phase a real thing?Veganism and creatine.Mention:Study - Creatine and anti-depressants, Roitman, S., Green, T., Osher, Y., Karni, N., Levine, J., & Levine, S. (2012). Creatine monohydrate in resistant depression: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. American Journal of Psychiatry, 169(7), 779-784. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.11091452Study - Creatine and pregnancy, Ellery, S. J., LaRosa, D. A., Kett, M. M., Della Gatta, P. A., Snow, R. J., Walker, D. W., & Dickinson, H. (2016). Dietary creatine supplementation during pregnancy: A study on the effects of creatine supplementation on creatine homeostasis and renal excretory function in spiny mice. Amino Acids, 48(8), 1819–1830. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-015-2150-7Study - Creatine and sleep deprivation, Gordji-Nejad, A., Matusch, A., Kleedörfer, S., Patel, H. J., Drzezga, A., Elmenhorst, D., Binkofski, F., & Bauer, A. (2024). Single dose creatine improves cognitive performance and induces changes in cerebral high energy phosphates during sleep deprivation. Scientific Reports, 14, 4937. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-54249-9Person - Stuart Phillips, https://experts.mcmaster.ca/display/phillisSupport the showFollow Steve's socials: Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube | Facebook | Twitter | TikTokSupport the show on Patreon:As much as we love doing it, there are costs involved and any contribution will allow us to keep going and keep finding the best guests in the world to share their health expertise with you. I'd be grateful and feel so blessed by your support: https://www.patreon.com/MadeToThriveShowSend me a WhatsApp to +27 64 871 0308. Disclaimer: Please see the link for our disclaimer policy for all of our content: https://madetothrive.co.za/terms-and-conditions-and-privacy-policy/

This week's Managed Care Cast episode features a conversation between The American Journal of Managed Care® and August 2026 authors Jeff Romine, PhD, and Kofi Essel, MD, MPH, about their study, "Insurance-Provided Grocery Assistance and Health Care Outcomes Among Patients With Diabetes." It examined the association between a commercial health plan's grocery assistance benefit and health care use and outcomes among members with type 2 diabetes, offering evidence in a space where prior food-as-medicine research has centered largely on Medicare and Medicaid populations. The benefit provided members between $1200 and $3000 annually, distributed across pay periods on a card usable at a range of grocery chains. Purchases excluded alcohol, tobacco, and preprepared foods, with an emphasis on fruits, vegetables, and other healthy items. Essel noted the design was a deliberate light touch, requiring no dietitian or health coach support, which he said made it more scalable than medically tailored meal programs that have driven much of the existing food as medicine literature. Romine, an economist by training, added that the appeal of studying a lighter intervention was the chance to observe how members made decisions about food and health without the more rigid structure of prior research. To evaluate the benefit, the team used a difference-in-differences design, comparing changes in utilization and clinical outcomes over time for members receiving the benefit against a control group of members with type 2 diabetes who were not eligible. Romine highlighted 3 main results: a 3.1% decrease in diabetes complications, no significant change in overall health care utilization, and improved medication adherence. He said the utilization finding was a positive surprise, since it suggested members retained access to needed care even within a narrower network. Essel pointed to a secondary finding as especially notable: the largest reduction in diabetes complications occurred among members living in lower socioeconomic areas, indicating a potential role for grocery assistance in narrowing health disparities. He emphasized that Elevance Health's approach to food as medicine considers both diet-related chronic conditions and social drivers of health such as food and nutrition insecurity, rather than treating them as separate levers. Looking ahead, Essel said future iterations of the benefit could be strengthened by tailoring groceries to individual cultural and dietary needs, adding nutrition education such as medical nutrition therapy or culinary counseling, and integrating the benefit more closely with primary care and specialist providers. "We are incredibly excited to see what we've seen here, and we can continue to build off of these learnings across the board," Essel concluded.

The main question this episode answers is: What is the LESS (Landing Error Scoring System) test, and how can fitness professionals use its research-based assessment to reduce ACL injury risk in clients, especially when considering anticipated versus unanticipated movement? The LESS test is a movement assessment that helps identify lower extremity dysfunction and ACL injury risk by evaluating how clients land from a jump, whether they know what to expect (anticipated) or are reacting to new stimuli (unanticipated). NASM experts Wendy Batts and Marty Miller break down recent, peer-reviewed NASM research from the open-access Journal of Fitness, Wellness, and Human Performance to demonstrate how to accurately use the LESS test with athletes and everyday clients. This “Master Instructor Roundtable” guides listeners through the test's setup, scoring system, practical applications, and the science supporting both anticipated and unanticipated testing situations. Listeners will learn how to integrate this assessment safely, score it correctly using video, and interpret results to inform program design that decreases ACL and other lower limb injury risks. By the end of the episode, fitness professionals will be equipped to decide when and how to use the LESS test and adapt their programs for better, safer movement performance. Chapters: 00:00:05 What is the LESS test and why is it important for injury risk?00:01:43 How does the LESS assess lower extremity function for athletes and non-athletes? 00:03:12 Why is power training and assessment needed for all clients?00:05:18 How is the LESS test set up and what exactly does it measure?00:08:13 What are the preconditions for using the LESS safely and effectively? 00:09:05 Who developed and validated the LESS and what is its research foundation? 00:14:55 What is the difference between anticipated and unanticipated LESS testing? 00:16:30 How does the LESS test scoring system work and what do scores mean? 00:22:31 Why does unanticipated movement increase ACL injury risk according to the research? 00:26:38 How can trainers use LESS results to design better injury-prevention programs? 00:33:59 What practical strategies can I use to apply LESS research in my client sessions? 00:34:16 What types of unanticipated reactive training can reduce real-life injury risk? Show References: Hewett, T. E., Myer, G. D., Ford, K. R., Heidt, R. S., Jr, Colosimo, A. J., McLean, S. G., van den Bogert, A. J., Paterno, M. V., & Succop, P. (2005). Biomechanical measures of neuromuscular control and valgus loading of the knee predict anterior cruciate ligament injury risk in female athletes: a prospective study. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 33(4), 492–501. https://doi.org/10.1177/0363546504269591 Padua D.A, DiStefano L.J, Beutler A.I, de la Motte S.J, DiStefano M.J, Marshall S.W. (2015). The Landing error scoring system as a screening tool for an anterior cruciate ligament injury-prevention program in elite-youth soccer athletes. Journal of Athletic Training, 50(6), 589-595. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-50.1.10 Silvers-Granelli, H. J., Bizzini, M., Arundale, A., Mandelbaum, B. R., & Snyder-Mackler, L. (2017). Does the FIFA 11+ injury prevention program reduce the incidence of acl injury in male soccer players? Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 475(10), 2447-2455. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-017-5342-5 If you like what you just consumed, leave us a 5-star review, and share this episode with a friend to help grow our NASM health and wellness community!  The content shared in this podcast is solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek out the guidance of your healthcare provider or other qualified professional. Any opinions expressed by guests and hosts are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASM.  Introducing NASM One, the membership for trainers and coaches. For just $35/mo, get unlimited access to over 300 continuing education courses, 50% off additional certifications and specializations, EDGE Trainer Pro all-in-one coaching app to grow your business, unlimited exam attempts and select waived fees. Stay on top of your game and ahead of the curve as a fitness professional with NASM One. Click here to learn more. https://bit.ly/4ddsgrm

Links For The Occult Rejectshttps://linktr.ee/theoccultrejectsOccult Research Institutehttps://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/Substackhttps://substack.com/@theoccultrejects?r=7auau0&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-pageCash Apphttps://cash.app/$theoccultrejectsVenmo@TheOccultRejectsBuy Me A Coffeebuymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejectsPatreonhttps://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejectsBibliographyRepetition, Fluency, and BeliefBacon, Frederick T. “Credibility of Repeated Statements: Memory for Trivia.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 5, no. 3 (1979): 241–252.Begg, Ian Maynard, Ann Anas, and Suzanne Farinacci. “Dissociation of Processes in Belief: Source Recollection, Statement Familiarity, and the Illusion of Truth.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 121, no. 4 (1992): 446–458.Dechêne, Alice, Christoph Stahl, Jochim Hansen, and Michaela Wänke. “The Truth About the Truth: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Truth Effect.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 14, no. 2 (2010): 238–257.Fazio, Lisa K., Nadia M. 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Ginsberg. “An Overview of Heart Rate Variability Metrics and Norms.” Frontiers in Public Health 5 (2017): 258.Zaccaro, Andrea, Andrea Piarulli, Marco Laurino, Erika Garbella, Danilo Menicucci, Bruno Neri, and Angelo Gemignani. “How Breath-Control Can Change Your Life: A Systematic Review on Psycho-Physiological Correlates of Slow Breathing.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 12 (2018): 353.Meditation, Chanting, and NeuroscienceFox, Kieran C. R., Matthew L. Dixon, Savannah Nijeboer, Manesh Girn, James L. Floman, Michael Lifshitz, Melissa Ellamil, Peter Sedlmeier, and Kalina Christoff. “Functional Neuroanatomy of Meditation: A Review and Meta-Analysis of 78 Functional Neuroimaging Investigations.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 65 (2016): 208–228.Kalyani, B. G., G. Venkatasubramanian, R. Arasappa, N. P. Rao, S. V. Kalmady, R. Behere, H. Rao, M. Vasudev, and B. N. Gangadhar. “Neurohemodynamic Correlates of ‘OM' Chanting: A Pilot Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.” International Journal of Yoga 4, no. 1 (2011): 3–6.Travis, Fred, and Jonathan Shear. “Focused Attention, Open Monitoring and Automatic Self-Transcending: Categories to Organize Meditations from Vedic, Buddhist and Chinese Traditions.” Consciousness and Cognition 19, no. 4 (2010): 1110–1118.Ritual, Attention, and Embodied PracticeBell, Catherine. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.Hobson, Nicholas M., Juliana Schroeder, Jane L. Risen, Dimitris Xygalatas, and Michael Inzlicht. “The Psychology of Rituals: An Integrative Review and Process-Based Framework.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 22, no. 3 (2018): 260–284.McCauley, Robert N., and E. Thomas Lawson. Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.Rappaport, Roy A. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.Xygalatas, Dimitris. Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living. New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2022.Also want to remind people about the website, if you're into reading we have tons of information by multiple contributors, and we got t-shirts up on the site if you're interested. Fun fact, the art is all based on the eyeball. 

Ep 373: Women & Crime: Reconsidered is where we revisit our episode catalog and bring new insights, behind the scenes or updates. Brand new episodes are STILL every Tuesday! Original Airdate: 05/17/22 A nurse's deadly mistake during a routine procedure; could set a dangerous precedent for all healthcare workers. But was this tragedy the result of criminal incompetence or the product of a systemic failure? This is the RaDonda Vaught story Sources for Today's Episode: The Tennessean NPR The Independent ABC News USA Today FOX 17 Nashville Insider.com American Journal of Nursing Credits: Written and Hosted by Amy Shlosberg and Meghan Sacks Produced & Edited by James Varga Music by Dessert Media Help is Available: If you or someone you know is in a crisis situation, or a victim of domestic, or other violence, there are many organizations that can offer support or help you in your specific situation. For direct links to these organizations please visit https://womenandcrimepodcast.com/resources/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hosts: Ed Jones (Owner – Nutrition World) & Clint Powell A variety of topics all related to living a healthy life Presented by: Nutrition World www.nutritionw.com Broadcasting from the Nooga Dentistry Studio www.noogadentistry.com Production of: Whitfield Media Group www.vitalhealthradio.com Title: Post-COVID Gut Health and Rethinking Blood Pressure Targets   [0:04:24] – Nutrition World Health Fair & Upcoming Lectures Ed announces Nutrition World's Health Fair on October 24 (described as one of the biggest in the region). Emphasis on two “types of people”: learners vs. non‑learners; audience is framed as “learners.” Preview of free 30–40 minute lectures during the fair: Dave from Tonal Spine – energy systems and spinal health (non-traditional, beyond standard chiropractic). Laura Chastain – Optimize You – especially women's hormones; described as very skilled and experienced. Dr. Shalay (Chicago) – integrative healthcare, helping the body heal itself vs. “band-aid” approaches. Charles – Scenic City Neurotherapy – IV ketamine for: Chronic anxiety and depression PTSD Some applications in joint pain/arthritis (Ed notes his own experience for hip pain). Strong emphasis on root-cause medicine vs. symptom masking. [0:08:25] – Butter Wrappers & “Forever Chemicals” Ed raises a niche but practical topic: chemicals in butter wrappers. Refers to testing reported by Mammovation: Higher concern (more fluorine / “forever chemicals”): Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter Land O' Lakes salted butter Better / lower concern options: Kirkland (Costco) – lower levels Best butter wrappers listed: Whole Foods Market butter Horizon Kate's Salted Kirkland Organic Salted Butter Takeaway: Shop with knowledge; packaging/liners can be a hidden health variable. [0:12:50] – Nurse Practitioner Meredith Mason (Brio Functional Medicine) Introduction: Guest: Meredith Mason, NP, founder of Brio Functional Medicine (opened in 2018). Ed recalls having her on roughly seven years ago. COVID & long-COVID context: Meredith had two years of practice before COVID; she values that pre-COVID baseline. Notes a “triad” she sees repeatedly since COVID: Chronic fatigue Mast cell / high-histamine symptoms Digestive complaints / gut issues Clinic intake includes a 20-page questionnaire; many patients answer “When did you last feel well?” with: “2019” “Before I had COVID” “Before COVID vaccination” Meredith's personal health journey: At ~18–19, she had a mysterious illness with severe throat infection, ER visit, fatigue, and eventual chronic pain and fatigue. This pushed her toward integrative and root-cause medicine. COVID leading to apparent Epstein–Barr reactivation: After an infection in late 2021, she develops: Marked fatigue Mast-cell-type histamine issues Digestive symptoms Suspects Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) reactivation, not just mitochondrial dysfunction. Meredith's own approach: Used a Kasia Kines‑style nutritional protocol plus antivirals with a Florida physician. Her Early Antigen D normalized, with improved fatigue. EBV & herpesvirus family: Clarifies: Epstein–Barr is a herpesvirus, in the same family as: CMV (cytomegalovirus) HSV-1/HSV-2 Varicella (chickenpox) High-dose lysine known to slow replication of herpes viruses. [0:23:14] – H. pylori, Histamine Intolerance & Post-COVID Gut Changes Meredith's own mast-cell / histamine journey: Developed severe histamine symptoms post-COVID. Conventional H1 and H2 blockers (Claritin, Zyrtec, Pepcid/Famotidine) did not resolve issues. She also tried quercetin, luteolin, and evaluated genetics (DAO and HNMT) but didn't find a complete explanation. Turning to the gut: Ordered a GI-MAP functional stool test and found: Citrobacter freundii and Klebsiella pneumoniae – both high histamine‑producing bacteria. Hypothesis: COVID changes the gut microbiome (e.g., lowering beneficial Bifidobacteria), creating an environment for histamine­‑producing species to overgrow. Widespread H. pylori findings: In recent stool tests, >90% of her patients are now positive for H. pylori. H. pylori: Is a mast-cell activator Classically associated with stomach ulcers, but also with pancreatic cancer Meredith notes a personal family loss to pancreatic cancer in someone with prior H. pylori. Testing approaches: Functional medicine: GI-MAP (DNA-based) often picks up H. pylori even when: Breath tests, Endoscopic biopsies, or Traditional antibody tests come back negative. Distinguishes: Blood antibodies – tell you if you've ever had H. pylori, not necessarily current infection. Stool antigen/DNA – better for current infection. When to treat: She monitors elastase-1 (pancreatic enzyme output) on stool testing: Low elastase suggests H. pylori may be impairing stomach acid and downstream digestion. Treatment approach: Main tool: Mastic gum (a Mediterranean shrub extract) twice daily. Sometimes bismuth/Pepto‑style support depending on symptoms. Ed notes he often feels better whenever he uses mastic gum and now wants to test himself for H. pylori. Secretory IgA & post-COVID gut immunity: She's seeing dramatic reductions in secretory IgA (sIgA) on stool results—even in people in their 20s. sIgA = the primary immune antibody at the gut lining. Her working view: COVID appears to suppress gut immune function, making people more vulnerable to pathogens like H. pylori and histamine-producing bacteria. Core goal at Brio: heal leaky gut, rebuild sIgA, and restore gut-driven immunity. Clinic details: Brio Functional Medicine (Lee Highway “wellness corner” next to Nutrition World). Offers in‑person and telemedicine consultations. Contact: briomedicine.com and info@briomedicine.com. [0:35:42] – Dr. Curt Dearing on Blood Pressure & Conventional Medicine Historical BP Targets & Over-Lowering Risks Dr. Curt Dearing outlines four major issues with conventional blood pressure management. Evolving guidelines: 1977 Joint National Committee (JNC): Acceptable up to 160/95; treatment mainly when diastolic ≥105. JNC 5 and 7: 140/90 becomes standard; 130/80 suggested for high-risk (diabetes, CKD). 2017 ACC/AHA: 130/80 becomes diagnostic threshold. Some now push for “optimal” ~110/70. Curt's view: For older adults, the vascular system changes; some rise in BP is normal and necessary. Aggressively pushing older patients into 110s/60s can be harmful. J-curve phenomenon: As BP is lowered, risk decreases until a threshold, after which lower BP increases risk again. Key data he cites: 2018 Lancet (1+ million patients): No increased mortality at 150/100. American Journal of Hypertension: All-cause mortality increases at ~110/70 range. Practical implication: Very low BP (especially diastolic

Have you been struggling with gut issues for years, or suddenly have bloating, weird pain or digestive problems now that menopause is here? Are you one of those who cut out gluten hoping for relief, only to feel just as lousy (or worse)? We cover: Why your gut goes a little haywire in menopause, and why it has nothing to do with "just getting older" The gluten truth that made me rethink everything I put in my mouth (most of us get this completely backwards) How simply believing a food will hurt you can physically make it hurt you, and what that means for your power to change it A free international study you can join from your couch if you're dealing with IBS The one simple shift that beats probiotics and cutting out foods for a calmer gut   Associate Professor Jessica Biesiekierski is Head of Human Nutrition at the University of Melbourne and one of Australia's leading researchers in gut health, diet, and gut–brain interaction. Jess leads large international randomised controlled trials investigating how dietary and psychological interventions can improve gut conditions like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Her work has been published in top journals including The Lancet, Gastroenterology, and The American Journal of Gastroenterology. She is internationally recognised for her research on non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, the low FODMAP diet, and how gut–brain mechanisms shape food-related symptoms. She currently leads the world-first head-to-head study comparing the low FODMAP diet with exposure-based cognitive behavioural therapy in people with IBS, recruiting across Australia and the USA.   Clinical trial — the Exclude or Expose Study in IBS — which is actively recruiting adults with IBS in both Australia and the USA. The trial compares two leading, evidence-based IBS treatments head-to-head for the first time: the low FODMAP diet (an exclusion-based dietary approach) versus exposure-based cognitive behavioural therapy (which works by helping the brain respond differently to gut symptoms and feared foods). Both are delivered entirely online over 12 weeks, free of charge, with one-on-one support from a dietitian or psychologist throughout. Many women experiencing gut symptoms around menopause may qualify. Trial website: www.gutresearchstudy.com NERVA app (gut-directed hypnotherapy): https://www.nervahealth.com/eu   Contact Jess Biesiekierskie: Email: gut-research@unimelb.edu.au University of Melbourne staff profile: https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/827643-jessica-biesiekierski Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-biesiekierski-78b61730/ Instagram: @human_nutrition_research Facebook: Human Nutrition Research Twitter: @jrbiesiekierski Give thanks to our sponsors: Try Vitali skincare. 20% off with code ZORA here - https://vitaliskincare.com Get Primeadine spermidine by Oxford Healthspan. 15% discount with code ZORA ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - https://www.oxfordhealthspan.com/ZORA Get Mitopure Urolithin A by Timeline. 20% discount with code ZORA at https://timeline.com/zora Try MitoQ for optimal mitochondrial health. Code ZORA for 20% off https://mitoq.com/zora   Join the Hack My Age community on: YouTube: https://youtube.com/@hackmyage Facebook Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠Hack My Age⁠     Facebook Group: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠Biohacking Menopause⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠   Biohacking Menopause Private Women's Only Support Group: https://membership.hackmyage.com/sales-page  Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠HackMyAge⁠    Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HackMyAge.com⁠    For partnership inquiries: https://www.category3.ca/  Some episodes of Hack My Age are supported by partners whose products or services may be discussed during the show. The host may receive compensation or earn a minor commission if you purchase through affiliate links at no extra cost to you. All opinions shared are those of the host and guests, based on personal experience and research, and do not necessarily represent the views of any sponsor. Sponsorships do not imply medical endorsement or approval by any healthcare provider featured on this podcast.

1 in 4 people have insulin resistance, which quietly raises your risk of heart disease and cancer, often without any change in your blood sugar. And most of those who have it have no idea. It can remain completely hidden for years, with no obvious symptoms and no warning signs… But it can be reversed. Today, Professor Rob Semple, a world-leading expert on insulin resistance, explains what insulin does in your body, why you need it to live, and what happens when it stops working properly. By the end of this episode, you will understand how to spot the warning signs and have practical steps you can take to protect yourself. If your last blood test came back "normal," how confident are you that it tells the whole story? Are you overlooking one of the biggest drivers of chronic disease?

HEALTH NEWS   Chamomile Rinse Matches Chlorhexidine in Reducing Plaque and Gum Inflammation, Trial Finds A few minutes of sprinting could make a bigger impact than 90 minutes of moderate running Ultra-processed foods linked to higher prostate cancer risk in men Cinnamon Supplementation Associated With Lower Blood Sugar and Cholesterol in Review of 21 Meta-Analyses Healthy lifestyle cuts hearing impairment risk by 14%, metabolism is key driver     Chamomile Rinse Matches Chlorhexidine in Reducing Plaque and Gum Inflammation, Trial Finds Western University of Arad (Romania), August 12 2026  (Natural News)   A chamomile herbal rinse reduced plaque buildup and gum inflammation on par with chlorhexidine. Researchers enrolled 175 healthy adults and divided them into five groups: chamomile, sage, ginger, placebo, or chlorhexidine rinses, the report stated.   Over twelve weeks, researchers tracked plaque accumulation and gingival inflammation using standardized dental indexes. Participants rinsed daily with their assigned solution, and measurements were recorded at intervals across the study period.    Chamomile's effect relies on plant compounds including apigenin and chamazulene, which act through anti-inflammatory pathways, while chlorhexidine works through strong antimicrobial action, researchers said. Chamomile flower material contains acylated derivatives of apigenin 7-O-glucoside. Every active rinse, including chamomile, produced significant reductions compared to placebo. Chamomile performed statistically on par with chlorhexidine, the rinse most dentists reach for first.  Chlorhexidine is a prescription-strength antiseptic that dentists consider the gold standard for controlling plaque. Long-term chlorhexidine use commonly causes tooth staining, taste changes, and irritation of soft tissue inside the mouth.   A few minutes of sprinting could make a bigger impact than 90 minutes of moderate running Rockefeller University, August 13 2026 (Eurekalert) Three minutes of sprinting can do something that 90 minutes of moderate exercise apparently cannot: dramatically reshape the molecular contents of the bloodstream. Rockefeller researchers comparing different intensities of exercise found that six sets of 30-second, all-out sprints altered nearly a quarter of the proteins measured immediately afterward. Moderate, continuous cycling for 90 minutes altered fewer than one-quarter of one percent. And while moderate running on a treadmill changed more proteins than cycling, it still altered far fewer than a quick sprint. Sprinting triggered changes in more than 200 metabolites. It also caused an immediate surge of proteins involved in blood-vessel growth, tissue remodeling, and hormonal signaling. Some of these proteins appear to enter the bloodstream through an expedited cell signaling process known as ectodomain shedding—rather than being newly made and secreted, portions of proteins already sitting on the cell surface were cleaved off and rapidly released into circulation. The researchers also found that human fat cells exposed to blood collected after sprinting underwent extensive changes in gene activity, shifting how the cells process fuel, respond to hormones, and sense nutrient availability. Not so with moderate exercise which produced a more modest response. It was not until three hours after completing that exercise that a meaningful wave of the fatty acids and liver-derived proteins that typically appear in response to the demands of endurance exercise were found in the bloodstream.    Ultra-processed foods linked to higher prostate cancer risk in men Florida Atlantic University, August 12 2026 (News-Medical)     Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) account for nearly 60% of adults' and 70% of children's energy intake in the United States.  New research from Florida Atlantic University provides evidence that men with higher consumption of UPFs have increased risks of prostate cancer.  Published in The American Journal of Medicine, the study provides analyses from a large and nationally representative data from 17,024 U.S. men ages 18 and older. Researchers used two 24-hour dietary recalls to calculate the percentage of daily calories participants consumed from UPFs.  Men in the three higher-consumption groups of UPFs had a 29% greater risk of prostate cancer, while those in the two highest-consumption groups had a 30% greater risk, compared to those in the lowest consumption group. After adjustments, the increased risk remained significant, ranging from 24% to 31%. Men with the highest UPF intake alone had a possible 34% higher risk, although the finding did not reach statistical significance, potentially reflecting the smaller number of prostate cancer cases in that group.     Cinnamon Supplementation Associated With Lower Blood Sugar and Cholesterol in Review of 21 Meta-Analyses Lanzhou University Second Clinical Medical College (China), August 11 2026 (Natural News) A pooled analysis of 21 meta-analyses, including 139 placebo-controlled comparisons, found cinnamon supplementation associated with lower HbA1c, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and blood pressure, according to a report published in Frontiers in Nutrition. The report stated that the strongest effects occurred at daily amounts above 1.5 grams, or roughly three-quarters of a teaspoon, for periods of two months or less. Compared with placebo, cinnamon supplementation was tied to a measurable reduction in HbA1c, the blood test doctors use to track blood sugar control over the previous several months, the article stated. Total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol also declined, and blood pressure readings improved, according to the analysis. Ceylon cinnamon, sometimes labeled 'true cinnamon,' contains only trace amounts of coumarin, while Cassia cinnamon, the variety commonly found on supermarket shelves, contains higher levels, according to the article. For daily use, experts cited in the report recommend limiting Cassia cinnamon to about one teaspoon or less, with occasional larger amounts considered unlikely to cause harm.   Healthy lifestyle cuts hearing impairment risk by 14%, metabolism is key driver Fudan University (Japan), August 12 2026 (News-Medical)     Hearing impairment ranks as the third largest contributor to global disability among sensory disorders, with prevalence rising across younger and middle-aged populations alongside older adults.  The Fudan University team conducted an analysis of 441,844 UK Biobank participants aged 40 to 69 at baseline, with a median follow-up of 14.22 years. The researchers constructed a comprehensive lifestyle score spanning seven behaviors: smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity, sleep duration, sedentary time, social engagement, and dietary supplement use. Over the study period, 20,743 incident cases of hearing impairment were documented.  Participants with an ideal lifestyle had a 14% lower risk of developing hearing impairment than those with a poor lifestyle. Among individual factors, smoking cessation offered the greatest preventive benefit, followed by reduced sedentary time; dietary supplement use showed no protective effect, and social contact frequency was not significantly associated with hearing risk. The study's core insight emerges from its quantitative mediation analysis, which revealed metabolic dysfunction as the dominant biological pathway linking lifestyle to auditory health. Metabolic biomarkers–most notably BMI and HDL-c–mediated approximately 16.5% and 14.0% of the total lifestyle–hearing association respectively. In contrast, each inflammatory marker contributed less than 6% of the effect, playing only a secondary role. 

Rotator cuff repair continues to evolve—not only in how surgeons fix the tendon, but in how we think about healing, biomechanics, tissue quality, and augmentation.In this episode of The Sports Docs Podcast LIVE from the AOSSM Annual Meeting in Seattle, Dr. Albert Lin and Dr. JT Tokish join Dr. Ashley Bassett and Dr. Catherine Logan to discuss strategies for optimizing rotator cuff repair outcomes.The conversation begins with the evolution of the SpeedBridge repair construct and the emergence of the FiberTak SpeedBridge, including the potential advantages of smaller all-suture medial anchors, bone preservation, independent tensioning, and rip-stop techniques.The discussion then moves into one of the most rapidly evolving areas in rotator cuff surgery: biologic and structural augmentation. The group explores how surgeons identify patients at increased risk for failed healing, the role of the Rotator Cuff Healing Index, and the expanding options for augmentation—including the use of the long head of the biceps as an autograft and dermal allograft augmentation with CuffMend.In This EpisodeEvolving the SpeedBridgeThe SpeedBridge technique has become one of the most established approaches to arthroscopic rotator cuff repair, with more than 15 years of clinical experience supporting its durability.The group discusses:How SpeedBridge has changed arthroscopic rotator cuff repairFootprint restoration and broad tendon-to-bone compressionLoad distribution across the repair constructLong-term clinical outcomes and survivorshipWhy reproducibility may be one of the technique's greatest advantagesFiberTak SpeedBridge: The Next EvolutionThe conversation then turns to the FiberTak SpeedBridge, which incorporates smaller all-suture anchors in the medial row.There are several potential advantages:Smaller drill holes and reduced bone removalPreservation of greater tuberosity bone stockPotential advantages in revision surgeryAdditional fixation points with less disruption of the footprintStrong fixation and straightforward tensioningIncreased flexibility when treating complex tear patternsThe smaller 2.6-mm FiberTak RC anchor may allow surgeons to maximize fixation while minimizing disruption of the tuberosity footprint.Tensionable Knotless Anchors and Delaminated TearsOne of the challenges in rotator cuff surgery is that many tears are not simply a single layer of retracted tendon.In delaminated tears, the articular and bursal layers may retract differently.The team discuss how independently tensionable knotless medial-row anchors allow surgeons to:Evaluate the entire repair before final tensioningIndependently tension individual limbsBetter reduce different layers of the tendonImprove control of tissue reductionAvoid simply forcing multiple layers into one fixed positionThe conversation also explores the role of a medial pulley rip-stop, which can distribute forces across a larger area of tendon and potentially decrease suture cut-through in compromised tissue.Who Should Have an Augmented Repair?Not every rotator cuff repair requires augmentation.The group discusses how surgeons can identify patients at increased risk for failed healing based patient, tear and surgical factors. The Rotator Cuff Healing IndexThe discussion includes the Rotator Cuff Healing Index (RoHI), a scoring system designed to predict the likelihood of healing following rotator cuff repair.The guests discuss how risk stratification can help surgeons determine when the additional cost and complexity of augmentation may be justified.Biceps Smash: Turning the Long Head of the Biceps Into an AutograftOne of the most fascinating concepts discussed is the use of the long head of the biceps tendon as an autologous scaffold for rotator cuff augmentation.Dr. Tokish discusses the development of the Biceps Smash, in which the harvested proximal long head of the biceps tendon is compressed into a flattened graft that can be incorporated into the rotator cuff repair.Potential advantages include:Readily available autologous tissueNo additional donor-site morbidityNo immunologic concerns associated with allograft tissueHighly organized parallel collagen architecturePotential biologic activity from viable tenocytesAbility to potentially serve as a carrier for additional biologic therapiesThe group also discusses emerging clinical data examining healing and patient-reported outcomes following biceps autograft augmentation.Dermal Allograft and Other Scaffold OptionsThe conversation then expands to other augmentation strategies, including:Dermal allograftXenograftSynthetic scaffoldsAutograft tissueThe guests discuss the differences between structural support and biologic integration, as well as the importance of understanding how different scaffold materials interact with the host tissue.Dermal allograft has accumulated substantial clinical evidence supporting its use in selected rotator cuff repairs, particularly larger and higher-risk tears.The discussion also addresses concerns surrounding xenograft and synthetic materials, including inflammatory and foreign-body responses.CuffMend: Simplifying Dermal Allograft AugmentationFor surgeons who elect to augment a repair with dermal allograft, the procedure itself can add complexity and operative time.Dr. Tokish discusses how the CuffMend system is designed to streamline graft handling and delivery.The conversation focuses on how improvements in instrumentation and graft preparation can potentially:Reduce operative timeSimplify graft handlingImprove procedural efficiencyReduce technical variabilityMake augmentation more accessible to surgeonsSpeedFlex and Graft PreparationThe guests also discuss SpeedFlex, which uses pre-sized and pre-sutured ArthroFlex grafts.Available graft configurations include:20 × 25 mm and 25 × 30 mm1-mm and 2-mm thicknessesRather than requiring surgeons to prepare and load the graft intraoperatively, the pre-sutured configuration is designed to streamline preparation and reduce variability.FiberStitch RC SimpleAnother innovation discussed is the FiberStitch RC Simple implant for medial graft fixation.Dr. Tokish explains how the system can facilitate a "sandwich stitch," allowing the graft to be compressed between fixation points on the superior and inferior surfaces.Available straight and reverse-curved options provide additional flexibility for medial graft fixation.Key Takeaways1. The repair construct matters.SpeedBridge has established a strong clinical track record, while FiberTak SpeedBridge builds on that foundation with smaller all-suture medial anchors and additional flexibility.2. Bone preservation may be particularly important in complex and revision cases.Smaller all-suture anchors can minimize bone removal and preserve the greater tuberosity footprint.3. Not every rotator cuff repair needs augmentation.Patient characteristics, tear morphology, tissue quality, and repair mechanics should all factor into the decision.4. The biceps may be more than a pain generator.The long head of the biceps can potentially serve as a readily available autologous scaffold for rotator cuff augmentation.5. Dermal allograft remains an important augmentation option.Clinical evidence supports its use in selected higher-risk repairs, particularly larger or compromised tears.6. Making augmentation easier may increase adoption.Streamlined graft preparation, delivery, and fixation can reduce operative complexity while maintaining the principles of sound repair.7. The ultimate goal is healing—not simply repair.Modern rotator cuff surgery increasingly focuses on creating the biologic and biomechanical environment necessary for durable tendon-to-bone healing.Featured ResearchMillett PJ, et al. Long-term outcomes following arthroscopic rotator cuff repair using the SpeedBridge technique. The study demonstrated approximately 94% survivorship at 10 years, highlighting the durability of the construct.Colbath G, Murray A, Siatkowski S, et al. Autograft long head biceps tendon can be used as a scaffold for biologically augmenting rotator cuff repairs. Arthroscopy. 2022.Kwon J, et al. The Rotator Cuff Healing Index: A New Scoring System to Predict Rotator Cuff Healing After Surgical Repair. American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2019.Tokish JM, et al. Recent clinical work evaluating the use of a compressed long-head-of-biceps autograft for rotator cuff augmentation demonstrated promising healing rates and clinical outcomes at early follow-up.This episode of The Sports Docs Podcast was sponsored by Arthrex.

We think of range maps as static representations of where plants and animals belong. It doesn't often occur to us that maps are just snapshots of a constantly changing world. In the Mojave Desert, two sister species of desert ground squirrel coexist nearly side by side. A field guide's range maps will tell you where those species live right now. But those maps also convey hints out of Deep Time, and those hints can explain not only why the squirrels live where they do, but also how the two species evolved in their own directions. Host Chris Clarke shares the story of those sister species: the Mohave and Round-tailed ground squirrels. One is doing well and is abundant. The other has been designated as a threatened species. Each of them is a library of history... if we know how to read them. Chris also announces the launch of our Fellowship for Desert Reporting: prospective Fellows can start by filling out the application form at https://thedamn.org/fellowship-application. Resources Mohave ground squirrels California Department of Fish and Wildlife: Mohave Ground SquirrelSpecies overview, conservation status, recordings and access to the state conservation strategy.CDFW Mohave Ground Squirrel Philip Leitner, “Current Status of the Mohave Ground Squirrel: An Update Covering the Period 2013–2020”Reviews the animal’s current distribution, apparent losses from portions of its historical range and continuing conservation concerns.Status update PDF Mohave Ground Squirrel Technical Advisory GroupCDFW’s archive of technical documents and meeting materials from researchers, agencies and other specialists.Technical Advisory Group Mohave Ground Squirrel Conservation Council: PublicationsA bibliography covering the species’ taxonomy, ecology, genetics, distribution and conservation.Publications list Separation, contact and hybridization Kayce C. Bell and Marjorie D. Matocq, “Regional Genetic Subdivision in the Mohave Ground Squirrel: Evidence of Historic Isolation and Ongoing Connectivity in a Mojave Desert Endemic”Animal Conservation 14 (2011): 371–381. Examines genetic structure and historical isolation within Mohave ground squirrel populations.Article and abstract Philip Leitner, Jennifer S. Rippert and Marjorie D. Matocq, “Genetic Structure Across a Contact Zone Between Xerospermophilus Ground Squirrels in Southern California”Western North American Naturalist 77 (2017): 152–161. Documents both species and genetically admixed animals near Hinkley. It also reports expansion across the former barrier of no more than approximately 30 kilometers—an average of no more than five meters per year.Full article “Distribution and Genetic Status of Xerospermophilus Ground Squirrels in the Barstow Region”Includes useful maps of trapping records and genetically identified Mohave, round-tailed and hybrid or backcrossed animals around Barstow and Hinkley.CDFW-hosted report Mojave River and vanished lakes Marith C. Reheis et al., “Geomorphic History of Lake Manix, Mojave Desert, California: Evolution of a Complex Terminal Lake Basin”Geomorphology 392 (2021). A detailed modern synthesis of the lake basin’s development, changing river routes, tectonics and climate history.USGS publication page USGS: Surficial Geology and Stratigraphy of Pleistocene Lake ManixDetailed geologic mapping of Lake Manix, its component basins and the deposits exposed by the Mojave River and Afton Canyon.USGS Lake Manix map and report Marith Reheis and Joanna Redwine, “Lake Manix Shorelines and Afton Canyon Terraces: Implications for Incision of Afton Canyon”Discusses the overflow of Lake Manix and relatively rapid initial incision of Afton Canyon at approximately 25,000 calibrated years ago.USGS publication record USGS: Mojave River and Associated LakesAn accessible introduction to the Mojave River, Lake Manix, Lake Mojave and the modern Soda and Silver Lake playas.Mojave River and Associated Lakes Range maps and Joshua trees USGS: High-resolution distribution maps for western and eastern Joshua treesDescribes empirical and modeled range maps for Yucca brevifolia and Yucca jaegeriana across four states.USGS Joshua tree distribution study Smith et al., “Genome-Scale Data Resolves the Timing of Divergence in Joshua Trees”American Journal of Botany 108 (2021). Estimates that the two Joshua tree species diverged approximately 100,000–200,000 years ago.Journal article Become a desert defender!: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

『真正的獨立，是心靈的自由。』  「你不花我的錢，跟我在一起要幹嘛？」 一篇放閃文引發全網「27項拜金清單」大亂鬥！明明是小倆口甜甜蜜蜜，為什麼陌生網友會集體大崩潰？ 這集海苔熊帶大家從心理學看透愛情與金錢裡的集體焦慮，送上 5 個金錢與被愛的精華剖析： 【矛盾的金錢心理】 8成人嘴上喊男女平等，行為卻高度傾向男方買單？看懂想法與大腦劇本的落差。 【拜金清單的焦慮】 為什麼酸民非要證明別人很糟？從「向下比較」看懂那些刺耳留言背後的脆弱自尊。 【金錢是蜜糖或控制】 「你不花我的錢要幹嘛」是愛還是控制？從「投資模型」辨識金錢背後的附帶條件。 【坦然被愛的能力】 被請客就代表不獨立？依附理論告訴你：能安心收下對方的照顧，需要極大的安全感。 【解套金錢老劇本】 別被網路清單綁架！用 3 個提問檢視關係，與另一半建立專屬於你們的金錢默契。

Sign up for my free newsletter/1 page action plansIn this episode of Live Long and Well, Dr. Bobby looks at the evidence behind breakfast—not as a slogan, but as a real-life question: what problem is breakfast solving?For some people, breakfast may help with blood sugar, protein intake, morning exercise, or avoiding late-day overeating. For others, skipping breakfast may work perfectly well. And for many adults, “breakfast” may really mean coffee—which can improve alertness and exercise performance, but is not the same as food, protein, fiber, or fuel.Dr. Bobby also explores where the breakfast slogan came from, including its ties to cereal companies, health reformers, and early public relations campaigns. The episode then compares breakfast, lunch, and dinner through three practical questions:Does this meal help my body and health?Weight, blood sugar, disease risk, protein, and muscle.Does this meal help me perform today?Exercise, energy, focus, cognition, and school performance.Does this meal help me live well?Family rhythm, connection, and the social meaning of meals.The conclusion: there is probably no single “most important meal” for everyone. The best meal is the one that helps you live the day you are actually trying to live.In this episodeWhy “breakfast is the most important meal” may be more marketing than medical factWhat observational studies suggest about breakfast skipping and heart disease riskWhy healthy-user bias makes breakfast research trickyWhat randomized trials show about breakfast, skipping breakfast, weight loss, and metabolismHow chrononutrition raises a better question: are we eating too much too late?Why coffee may help you skip breakfast—but does not replace breakfast nutritionallyWhen eating before morning exercise mattersWhat we know about breakfast, cognition, and school performance in childrenWhy “hangry” may be realHow breakfast, lunch, and dinner each serve different rolesHow to decide whether breakfast matters for youKey takeawaysBreakfast does not magically turn on your metabolism.Randomized trials do not show that simply adding breakfast leads to meaningful weight loss.Skipping breakfast is not automatically harmful.It may work well for some people, especially if it reduces total calories without causing overeating later.The observational data are complicated.Breakfast skippers often look less healthy in long-term studies, but they may also smoke more, sleep less, exercise less, work irregular schedules, or eat more late at night.Chrononutrition gives breakfast its strongest argument.The body may handle calories better earlier in the day than late at night. The issue may be less “everyone must eat breakfast” and more “be careful about pushing most calories to the evening.”Coffee is not breakfast.Coffee may improve alertness and exercise performance, and it may reduce appetite for a while. But it is not protein, fiber, or fuel.Kids are different.For a hungry child, breakfast may matter for learning readiness, behavior, and attention.Exercise changes the answer.For a short, easy workout, coffee and water may be enough. For a long run, long ride, intervals, or race-like effort, food or carbohydrate may help.Dinner may win the connection argument.Shared meals are strongly linked with well-being. Dinner may not be best for blood sugar, but it may be powerful for family, friendship, and decompression.Lunch deserves more respect.Lunch may be the underrated meal that prevents the 3 p.m. slump and the 9 p.m. snack attack.A practical experimentRather than adopting a slogan, try a personal experiment.For two weeks, eat a real breakfast with protein, fiber, and minimal added sugar. Track your hunger, mood, exercise quality, afternoon energy, evening snacking, and sleep.Then, if it is safe for you, try two weeks of delaying or skipping breakfast while keeping your coffee/caffeine routine consistent.Ask yourself:Do I feel better or worse?Do I eat less overall—or make it up later?Are my workouts better or worse?Am I sharper or more irritable?Does skipping breakfast lead to a chaotic dinner?Am I still getting enough protein?The question is not whether breakfast works in theory. The question is whether breakfast works for you.Who should be more cautious about skipping breakfast?Be more careful with breakfast skipping if you are a child or adolescent, pregnant, diabetic, prone to low blood sugar, have a history of eating disorders, do long or intense morning workouts, or struggle to get enough protein—especially as an older adult.Dr. Bobby's bottom lineFor me, breakfast is not the most important meal most days.If I have a long workout ahead, I eat breakfast. Coffee alone is not enough.If I am just writing, reading, or working in the morning, coffee may be enough until I am actually hungry.And if I am eating with family or friends, breakfast matters for a different reason. Sometimes the table matters more than the eggs.Maybe breakfast is not the most important meal of the day.Maybe it is the most marketed.The most important meal is the one that helps you live the day you are actually trying to live.

Why can't you lose weight, and why do modern diets fail? Today, Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman explains how evolution shapes hunger, body fat, food cravings, and modern food mistakes. You will learn why eating well can feel so hard in today's food world. Using themes from Daniel's new book, Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals about Food, Diet and Eating Well, we explore how our modern food environment explains weight gain, failed diets, and confusion about what to eat. We discuss calorie counting, ultra-processed food, hunger, and why there may be no single “best” diet for everyone. By the end of the episode, you'll have some simple ways to make better food choices and will know how to make healthy choices easier. If your body evolved for a world where food was scarce, what does that mean for how you eat today?

In this School of Doza episode, Nurse Doza opens the Metabolic Series with the adrenal glands — and why you may feel tired all day, crash between 2 and 4 PM, and wake up unrested. He explains how chronic stress can keep the body stuck in fight-or-flight, why that pattern is hard to shift, and the daily levers he leans on: belly breathing, less screen time at night, and morning sunlight. Then he breaks down Zen by MSW Nutrition — adrenal glandular plus four adaptogens — for stress support. FEATURED PARTNER Zen by MSW Nutrition is built in three layers rather than a single botanical: **125 mg of adrenal glandular tissue** (bovine, sourced from Argentina), **four standardized adaptogens** — Asian ginseng, rhodiola, eleuthero, and schisandra — plus **cofactor nutrients** (vitamin C, B6 as P5P, and pantothenic acid). Licorice rounds out the 9-ingredient formula. It's the supplement Nurse Doza reaches for when the goal is supporting the adrenal glands and the body's stress response, instead of layering more caffeine on top of a depleted system.

Today, I want to tell you a story that sounds like it was completely made up for a movie script, but it's 100% real. Imagine an automotive mechanic in Argentina. He has zero medical training, no background in obstetrics, and no clinical degree. One night, he sees a simple party trick on YouTube: how to get a lost cork out of the inside of an empty wine bottle using nothing more than an inflated plastic bag. Most people would laugh, finish their glass of wine, and move on. But this mechanic, Jorge Odón, looked at that plastic bag and had a radical thought: Could this same basic physics principle be used to safely deliver a trapped baby during second-stage labor? Fast forward through years of engineering refinements, global partnerships, and early clinical pilots, and we get the Odón device- or OdonAssist™. It is, without a doubt, one of the most creative and innovative mechanical concepts to hit the field of operative vaginal delivery in generations. Instead of rigid metal blades applying direct compression, or high-pressure suction cups on the scalp, it uses an inflatable pneumatic cuff wrapped inside a lubricated, double-layered polyethylene sleeve. The inner layer grips the fetal vertex, while the outer layer glides smoothly against the vaginal walls, replacing high friction with plastic-on-plastic sliding action. But, and this is a big "but", as clinicians, we don't practice medicine based on good ideas or clever engineering alone. We practice based on rigorous, reproducible evidence on efficacy and safety. And that's where the narrative gets complicated. Although the device recently secured CE mark approval in Europe, it is not FDA approved in the United States. Why? Because despite nearly two decades of development, it is still facing a major shortage of large-scale Phase 3 comparative data (non-inferiority data). And the data it does have is not quite as impressive as its design would imply. Listen in for details. 1. Mottet N, et al. Safety and efficacy of the OdonAssist inflatable device for assisted vaginal birth: the BESANCON ASSIST study. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2023; 230, S947-S9582. Hotton EJ, Lenguerrand E, Wade J, et al. The OdonAssist inflatable device for assisted vaginal birth—the ASSIST II study (United Kingdom). Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2024;230(3S):S932-S946.e3.3. https://www.mnhi.com/odonassist (CE approval)4. ACOG PB 219; 2020.

#044 Rebroadcast You know what we're talking about. That spectacular fizzy geyser. This week, Melissa and Jam explore what makes diet coke and mentos go crazy together. Is it love? Is it hate? Is it chemistry? Why diet coke specifically? Or more importantly, why mentos? Let's get into it. Support this podcast on Patreon Buy Podcast Merch and Apparel Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com Watch our episodes on YouTube Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife References from this episode Diet Coke and Mentos: What is really behind this physical reaction? - American Journal of Physics 76, 551 (2008) Diet Coke and Mentos: What is really behind this physical reaction? - Tonya Coffey Spurting Science: Erupting Diet Coke with Mentos - Scientific American - Science Buddies   Thanks to our monthly supporters Sara Hull Dog Day Dan Bri . Summer Alden Amanda Raymond Kyle McCray Justine Ash Vince W Julie S. Heather Ragusa Autoclave Dorien VD Scott Beyer Jessie Reder J0HNTR0Y Cullyn R Erica Bee Elizabeth P Rachel Reina Letila Katrina Barnum-Huckins Suzanne Phillips Venus Rebholz Jacob Taber Brian Kimball Kristina Gotfredsen Timothy Parker Steven Boyles Chris Skupien Chelsea B Avishai Barnoy Hunter Reardon Support this podcast on Patreon Buy Podcast Merch and Apparel Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com Watch our episodes on YouTube Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What if some of the most powerful ways to improve your health didn't require expensive gadgets, complicated routines, or the latest supplement trend? In this rapid-fire solo episode, Darin shares 15 unusual, science-backed habits that can dramatically improve longevity, mobility, brain function, nervous system regulation, digestion, and overall vitality. From dead hangs and deep squats to humming, sunlight, boredom, and chewing your food more thoroughly, each practice is grounded in published research, not internet biohacking hype. These are simple, practical habits you can start today that may have an outsized impact on your health over time. If you're looking for evidence-based ways to optimize your body without spending a fortune, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways. What You'll Learn Why grip strength may be one of the strongest predictors of longevity How deep squats improve mobility and joint health The surprising connection between balance and lifespan Why humming boosts nitric oxide production The science behind mouth taping and nasal breathing How cold water can instantly calm your nervous system Why boredom fuels creativity and brain function The health benefits of intentional silence How awe can reduce inflammation Why soil microbes strengthen your immune system The importance of chewing for nutrient absorption Why sunlight is one of the most powerful daily health tools Chapters 00:00:00 – Welcome to SuperLife 00:00:32 – Sponsor: Tru Niagen 00:02:35 – 15 science-backed health habits you probably aren't doing 00:04:18 – #1 Grip strength and longevity 00:06:40 – #2 The deep squat rest 00:08:16 – #3 Single-leg balance 00:09:36 – #4 Why humming boosts nitric oxide 00:11:01 – #5 Mouth taping and nasal breathing 00:12:41 – #6 Cold water face immersion 00:14:05 – #7 Ice on the back of your neck 00:14:59 – Sponsor: Manna Vitality 00:16:55 – #8 Getting bored on purpose 00:18:34 – #9 Scheduling daily silence 00:20:01 – #10 Chasing awe instead of scrolling 00:21:20 – #11 Why getting your hands dirty boosts immunity 00:23:00 – #12 Chewing your food more thoroughly 00:24:20 – #13 Squatting while using the bathroom 00:25:41 – #14 Get sunlight before your phone 00:26:59 – #15 Sunlight on your skin 00:28:28 – The complete 15-step daily protocol 00:29:05 – Start with one habit today 00:29:26 – Final thoughts and closing message Thank You to Our Sponsors Tru Niagen: Boost NAD+ levels for cellular health and longevity. Get 20% off with code DARINOLIEN20 at truniagen.com. Manna Vitality: Go to mannavitality.com/ and use code DARIN for 20% off your order. Join the SuperLife Community Get Darin's deeper wellness breakdowns — beyond social media restrictions: Weekly voice notes Ingredient deep dives Wellness challenges Energy + consciousness tools Community accountability Extended episodes Join for $7.49/month → https://patreon.com/darinolien Connect with Darin Olien: Website: darinolien.com Instagram: @darinolien Book: Fatal Conveniences Platform & Products: superlife.com New Show: Roadmap to Happiness Key Takeaway "Better health doesn't always come from doing more—it often comes from returning to the simple things humans have done for thousands of years. Move your body naturally. Breathe through your nose. Spend time in silence. Get into the sun. Touch the earth. Challenge your balance. Strengthen your grip. These aren't expensive biohacks—they're timeless biological signals that remind your body how to thrive. Small daily actions, repeated consistently, can create extraordinary long-term health." Bibliography/Sources Physical Function & Biomechanics Araujo, C. G., et al. (2022). Successful 10-second one-legged stance performance predicts survival in middle-aged and older individuals. British Journal of Sports Medicine https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sports-and-active-living/articles/10.3389/fspor.2022.1066913/full Deep squat / ankle dorsiflexion as clinical mobility assessment. (n.d.). PubMed Central. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7276781/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12358486/ Leong, D. P., et al. (2015). Prognostic value of grip strength: Findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. The Lancet, 386(9990), 266–273. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)62000-6 Sikirov, D. (2003). Comparison of straining during defecation in three positions: Results and implications for human health. Digestive Diseases and Sciences, 48(7), 1201–1205. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024180319005 Respiratory & Nervous System Effects of cold stimulation on cardiac-vagal activation in healthy participants: A randomized controlled trial. (n.d.). PubMed Central. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6334714/ Systematic review of mouth taping for sleep-disordered breathing. (2024). PLOS One. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0323643 Trigeminocardiac / mammalian dive reflex response to cold facial immersion. (2023). PubMed Central. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10295257/ Weitzberg, E., & Lundberg, J. O. N. (2002). Humming greatly increases nasal nitric oxide. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 166(2), 144–145. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12119224/ Brain, Silence & Emotion Bartoli, E., et al. (2024). Default mode network electrical stimulation effects on creativity. Brain, 147(10), 3409+. Bernardi, L., Porta, C., & Sleight, P. (2006). Cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and respiratory changes induced by different types of music in musicians and non-musicians: The importance of silence. Heart, 92, 445–452. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16199412/ Mann, S., & Cadman, R. (2014). Does being bored make us more creative? Creativity Research Journal, 26(2), 165–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2014.901073 Münzel, T., et al. (2024). Noise causes cardiovascular disease: It's time to act. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11876066/ Stellar, J. E., John-Henderson, N., Anderson, C. L., Gordon, A. M., McNeil, G. D., & Keltner, D. (2015). Positive affect and markers of inflammation: Discrete positive emotions predict lower levels of inflammatory cytokines. Emotion, 15(2), 129–133. Immune, Digestion & Environmental Light Cassady, B. A., Hollis, J. H., Fulford, A. D., Considine, R. V., & Mattes, R. D. (2009). Mastication of almonds: Effects of lipid bioaccessibility, appetite, and hormone response. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 89(3), 794–800. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19144727/ Liu, D., Fernandez, B. O., Hamilton, A., et al. (2014). Isolated UVA irradiation of human skin generates dermal nitric oxide and lowers blood pressure independent of vitamin D. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 134(7), 1839–1846. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24445737/ Morning light exposure and circadian phase-shifting / dim-light melatonin onset. (n.d.). PubMed Central. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10594521/ Rook, G. A. W., et al. (2023). The old friends hypothesis: Evolution, immunoregulation and essential microbial inputs. Frontiers in Allergy. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10524266/ Strachan, D. P. (1989). Hay fever, hygiene, and household size. BMJ, 299(6710), 1259–1260. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.299.6710.1259