Podcasts about uk biobank

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 8-27-2026: Preparing for extreme heat requires a few days of controlled hyperthermia to boost blood plasma volume and trigger heat shock protein production. Dr. Dawn cites research showing that daily 40-minute treadmill sessions in an 80-degree room followed by 40-minute hot baths for six days—or simply an hour daily in a 40°C bath for four days—produces 75-80% of full acclimatization before a heat-zone trip. Five red flags warrant an ER trip for abdominal pain: pain worsening with coughing or car bumps (peritonitis), lack of gas passage with nausea (bowel obstruction) especially with dark green bilious vomiting, yellowing whites of eyes (bile duct obstruction with sepsis risk), tarry black shiny stool (bleeding ulcer versus coffee-ground vomit), and dizziness with pain (possible leaking aortic aneurysm). Dr. Dawn urges any man who has smoked over 100 lifetime cigarettes to request the Medicare-covered abdominal ultrasound screening for aortic aneurysm, noting only 4% of eligible men currently receive it. Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) fill nearly half of disinfectants, surface sanitizers, and cleaning wipes, with use surging after 2016 FDA antimicrobial bans and the COVID pandemic. A 2023 Environmental Science and Technology review documented reproductive toxicity, hormone mimicking, dermal and respiratory irritation, and disruption of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. Dr. Dawn recommends apple cider vinegar and water as a safe household cleaner and directs listeners to EWG.org for QAC-free product listings. A UK Biobank study of 65,000 people born in the 1940s-50s exploited WWII sugar rationing (eight ounces weekly through 1953) as a natural experiment. Those exposed to less sugar before age two had 20% lower dementia risk with 2.5-year delayed onset, and protection held even for those whose low-sugar exposure was purely in utero—underscoring the importance of avoiding added sugars in baby foods during the first 1,000 days. A Coast Guard rescuer's suicide following years of headaches and mood swings prompted his teenage daughter's high school survey of 77 surfmen, most of whom described the same TBI symptoms. Repeated boat impacts hitting waves at 6G at the deck translate to roughly 60G at the sailor's head—more violent than car crashes—prompting the Coast Guard's first official acknowledgment of the wave-pounding brain injury problem. Anopheles stephensi, a hardy South Asian malaria vector that thrives in urban environments and survives dry seasons, has spread from Djibouti (2012) through Yemen, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Kenya. Genomic analysis reveals distinct genetic clusters as it advances, all largely resistant to standard mosquito-control chemicals used in netting and sprays. Dr. Dawn ties this to broader arthropod-borne disease expansion in the U.S. from climate warming, and defends deer culling as tick-vector reduction. Dr. Dawn recommends the PREVENT calculator (using blood pressure, cholesterol, age, sex) as the starting point for coronary risk assessment. Coronary calcium scores are most useful for those in the borderline/intermediate range (3-9% ten-year risk)—a score above age-normal warrants reconsidering statin therapy—but add little value at high risk (where zero calcium doesn't rule out non-calcified plaque) or in older patients. An update on shingles vaccination and dementia: Geldsinger's 2025 Welsh natural-experiment study (exploiting birthday-based Shingrix rollout cutoffs) showed a 20% dementia reduction, since replicated in Canada, Australia, and Scotland. New Hebrew University data suggests giving Shingrix four weeks apart (Dr. Dawn cautions against this shortened interval) may stabilize cognition in existing Alzheimer's patients. The proposed mechanism involves boosting regulatory T-cells that dampen chronic neuroinflammation—also explaining why BCG (400% dementia reduction in bladder cancer patients) and flu vaccines show similar protective effects. An oral KRAS-inhibiting drug, daraxonrasib, doubled median survival in 500 patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer from about six months to 13.2 months by blocking proteins produced by the historically undruggable KRAS gene—the first major advance for a cancer where metastatic diagnosis has meant near-immediate death sentence.

I have received a ton of requests to write about the paper “Are people with metabolically healthy ob*sity really healthy? A prospective cohort study of 381,363 UK Biobank participants” Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

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. 

PhenoNet Cleared By FDA To Begin Phase 3 Trial Of Inhaled Alzheimer's Drug PhenoNet has received FDA clearance to begin a Phase 3 trial of PHENOGENE-1A, an inhaled formulation of cromolyn sodium, an asthma drug with decades of safety data. Unlike most Alzheimer's therapies, which target only APOE4 gene carriers, this ~648-person trial stratifies both carriers and non-carriers by genotype, testing whether reducing amyloid aggregation, inflammation, and microglial dysfunction can benefit a broader Alzheimer's population than current treatments reach. Host Dave Asprey explains why this genotype-inclusive design challenges the field's narrow focus on APOE4 carriers, and what it means for families with Alzheimer's history who don't carry the gene. Sources: https://www.morningstar.com/news/business-wire/20260813649121/phenonet-cleared-by-fda-to-begin-phase-3-trial-of-inhaled-phenogene-1a-in-early-alzheimers-disease https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260813649121/en/ https://www.phenonet.us ~~~University Of Zurich Researchers Discover The Adult Brain Can Repair Itself Better Than Believed Researchers at the University of Zurich identified a population of "regenerative astrocytes" in living mouse brains that repair damaged tissue through a previously unknown mechanism: dividing cells send newly formed nuclei traveling across long cellular extensions to repopulate injured regions and rebuild the astrocyte network. The discovery overturns the long-standing assumption that adult brains have limited capacity to replace lost astrocytes after injury or autoimmune disease. Host Dave Asprey unpacks why this finding reframes brain injury recovery as something the body may already be equipped to handle, and what the newly identified genetic pathways could mean for future regenerative therapies. Sources: https://www.news.uzh.ch/en/articles/media/2026/regenerative-astrocytes.html https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260812015158.htm https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1139114 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02354-5 ~~~Sheep's Wool-Derived Keratin Outperforms Collagen In Bone Regeneration Study Researchers at King's College London developed a keratin scaffold from sheep's wool, a farming industry waste product, and tested it against collagen, the current gold standard, in rats with non-healing skull defects. While collagen produced more total bone volume, the keratin scaffold generated bone that was more structurally organized and closer to natural bone architecture, while remaining stable and integrating cleanly with surrounding tissue. Host Dave Asprey explains why bone quality, not just quantity, matters for weight-bearing repair, and why a cheaper, more sustainable material outperforming the standard is a bigger deal than it sounds. Sources: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-scientists-wool-bone-material.html https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260812015210.htm https://www.ivanhoe.com/news_flash/scientists-turn-sheeps-wool-into-a-material-that-helps-regrow-bone-click-here/ ~~~Oral GLP-1 Pill Aleniglipron Shows 12% Weight Loss In Phase 2b Trial Structure Therapeutics' oral small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist, aleniglipron, produced up to 12.1% weight loss at 36 weeks in a 230-person Phase 2b trial, with no apparent plateau and continued loss to 16% in the open-label extension, putting an oral pill in the same efficacy range as injectable GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic. Host Dave Asprey weighs the compliance advantage of an oral option against his ongoing concerns about muscle loss, rebound weight gain, and the fact that GLP-1 drugs treat a symptom rather than the underlying metabolic cause. Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42249138/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04476-6 https://ir.structuretx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/structure-therapeutics-announces-publication-nature-medicine/ https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/structure-touts-16-weight-loss-aleniglipron-highest-efficacy-oral-glp-1 ~~~Study Finds 150 Minutes Of Weekly Exercise Falls Far Short Of Real Heart Protection A Macao Polytechnic University analysis of over 17,000 UK Biobank participants found that the standard 150-minute weekly exercise guideline only reduces cardiovascular risk by 8-9%, while achieving a substantial risk reduction of over 30% requires 560-610 minutes a week, three to four times current recommendations. Only 12% of participants hit that higher threshold. Host Dave Asprey breaks down why public health minimums are a floor, not an optimization target, and what listeners serious about cardiovascular protection should actually be aiming for. Sources: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-real-heart-weekly-climbs-current.html https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/560-610-minutes-weekly-exercise-lower-cardiovascular-risk-heart-health https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2026/05/19/bjsports-2025-111351 ~~~New Research Clarifies The Mechanism Behind IV Vitamin C's Anti-Cancer Effect Decades after Linus Pauling's high-dose vitamin C claims were dismissed following failed oral-dose trials, researchers have clarified that Pauling had the mechanism right and the delivery method wrong: IV vitamin C bypasses gut absorption limits to reach plasma concentrations up to 100 times higher than oral dosing, generating hydrogen peroxide that is selectively toxic to cancer cells due to their lower catalase levels. A 2024 University of Iowa study found IV vitamin C combined with chemotherapy doubled overall survival in advanced pancreatic cancer patients. Host Dave Asprey reflects on how this vindicates a decades-old idea that was dismissed for the wrong reasons, and what it means for anyone facing a cancer diagnosis. Sources: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2018.01182/full https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/hp/vitamin-c-pdq https://medicine.uiowa.edu/news/2024/11/high-dose-iv-vitamin-c-plus-chemotherapy-doubles-survival-advanced-pancreatic-cancer This episode is designed for biohackers, longevity enthusiasts, and high-performance listeners who want the latest breakthroughs in neurodegenerative disease, regenerative medicine, metabolic health, and cancer therapeutics, translated into what actually matters for your biology right now. Host Dave Asprey connects clinical trial data, mechanistic research, and decades of context into practical frameworks for taking control of your own health decisions. New episodes every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Keywords: PhenoNet PHENOGENE-1A, inhaled cromolyn Alzheimer's, APOE4 genotype Alzheimer's trial, regenerative astrocytes brain repair, University of Zurich brain regeneration, adult neuroplasticity, keratin bone scaffold, sheep's wool regenerative medicine, collagen vs keratin bone repair, aleniglipron oral GLP-1, Structure Therapeutics weight loss drug, oral semaglutide alternative, exercise minutes cardiovascular risk, 150 minutes exercise guideline, Macao Polytechnic University heart study, IV vitamin C cancer, Linus Pauling vitamin C, ascorbate hydrogen peroxide cancer cells, integrative oncology, biohacking news 2026, Thank you to our sponsors! - Visit www.myvitalc.com/davesfav to unlock Dave's discount - Neuronic | Go to www.neuronic.online Code DAVE for $100 off - iRestore | Reverse hair loss at www.irestore.com/DAVE and get exclusive savings on the iRestore Elite, use code DAVE Resources: • Get My 2026 Clean Nicotine Roadmap | Enroll for free at https://daveasprey.com/2026-clean-nicotine-roadmap/ • Get My 2026 Biohacking Trends Report: https://daveasprey.com/2026-biohacking-trends-report/ • Dave Asprey's Latest News | Go to https://daveasprey.com/ to join Inside Track today. • Danger Coffee: https://dangercoffee.com/discount/dave15 • My Daily Supplements: SuppGrade Labs (15% Off) • Favorite Blue Light Blocking Glasses: TrueDark (15% Off) • Dave Asprey's BEYOND Conference: https://beyondconference.com • Dave Asprey's New Book – Heavily Meditated: https://daveasprey.com/heavily-meditated • Join My Substack (Live Access To Podcast Recordings): https://substack.daveasprey.com/ • Upgrade Labs: https://upgradelabs.com Timestamps: 00:00 – Alzheimer's Drug Trial 01:43 – Brain Repair Cells 03:07 – Keratin Bone Scaffolds 04:45 – Oral GLP-1 Pill 05:59 – Minimum Effective Exercise 07:26 – IV Vitamin C Revisited 08:12 – Vitamin C Cancer Trial 09:30 – Takeaway See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sarah Urbut is a physician-scientist at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Research Institute. She and her colleagues published a landmark paper in Nature on patient health journeys for 3 different cohorts—the Mass General Brigham patients, the UK Biobank, and the All of Us research program—with a cumulative 683,000 individuals, 348 diseases, and up to 52 years of follow-up. Integrating electronic medical records and polygenic risk scores (N=36). An AI model was developed and validated called ALADYNOULLI, with each individual represented latent disease signatures (N=21), mathematically and biologically driven. An example of a patient's dynamic life journey (health arc) is provided in the Figure below (adapted from the paper, made with NotebookLM). The longitudinal story for each individual is key here. Using a Gaussian process, the risk continually shifts like a GPS navigation when you make a wrong turn and you are re-routed. Considerable effort was dedicated to addressing selection bias with inverse probability weighting.Here are 20 temporal pattern signatures for the UK Biobank cohort, which help to provide the biologic mechanism of a person's disease, as shown for multiple conditions like heart attack, breast cancer, and depression. That is, the same disease phenotype can link to different genomic pathway underpinnings. An example for breast cancer could be related to signature 8 or signature 7; the latter tied to inflammation and metabolic abnormalities. This biological pattern could also be used to detect likely medication failure (such as SSRI treatment for depression) and predict rare diseases.In fact, the model was used to discover genomic signatures for different diseases, as shown below.This model predicted 1 and 10-year risk of diseases at the individual level and far surpassed routinely used clinical prediction calculators such as the pooled cohort equation (PCE) for coronary artery disease (0.89 vs 0.68, respectively, 1-year risk ) and the GAIL model for breast cancer (0.783 vs 0.54, respectively). ALADYNOULLI also surpassed accuracy for precision when compared with the recent Delphi-2M model that I wrote about hereThe ALADYNOULLI paper is packed with information and equations and is not easy to get through without a sophisticated math background. That's why the summary infographic below (made by Notebook LM) may be helpful to grasp its main findings Prediction of Your Health Trajectory in Context The new model substantively adds to many other recent reports that include Delphi 2M, APOLLO, and AURORA that predict future health events up to 20 years out. Each of these models were different with respect to inputs, how patient data were represented (tokens, embeddings, or latent states), and prediction outputs as briefly summarized in the Table I made below. Notably, the inputs are complementary and likely additive, such that the deeper and longer (longitudinally) the data re for each individual, the better predictive accuracy will be possible. Adding to these models are many specific disease prediction (e.g. cancer, asthma, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases) and sources of data (such as sleep lab, wearables, or high-throughput proteomics).We are now seeing intense efforts at medical forecasting which will continue to evolve and something that was not previously possible in patient care. What I mean is that we could provide a rough sense of a patient's risk for, let's say Alzhiemer's disease, but could not temporally place when it might occur. Age 65 or 95? It makes a huge difference. And so does the ability to apply counterfactuals, what-if scenarios for the individuals to reduce the risk, markedly defer a condition's appearance, or even fully prevent it. That's why ALADYNOULLI adds yet another dimension, different methodology, multiple patient cohorts, and novel findings that further add to a new prediction and prevention dimension of medical practice. It couldn't have been done with multimodal AI.Note to readers: I wrote this post entirely. There was no AI used except to generate 3 Figures by Notebook LM (Figure 1,3 and 4) as noted. Figure 2 above is from the Supplemental information of the paper. I have no COI related to this post.******************************A big thanks to Ground Truths subscribers from every US state and 212 countries. Your subscription to these free essays and podcasts makes my work in putting them together worthwhile. If you're not a subscriber, please join!If you found this interesting PLEASE share it!Paid subscriptions are voluntary and all proceeds from them go to support Scripps Research. They do allow for posting comments and questions, which I do my best to respond to. Please don't hesitate to post comments and give me feedback. Let me know topics that you would like to see covered.Many thanks to those who have contributed—they have greatly helped fund our summer internship programs for the past two years. It enabled us to accept and support a record number of 61 summer interns here with us now! These are high school, college and medical students selected from thousands of applicants. We couldn't do this expanded program without the funds coming in through Ground Truths.And thank you Harshi Peiris, Ph.D., DOCTOR KLOVER

Matthew Whitty is the former Director of Innovation, Research and Life Sciences at NHS England and now Director of Commercial Partnerships at MDClone, a global healthcare data platform. Combining senior NHS leadership with frontline experience in healthcare data and AI, he is an expert on NHS data strategy, safe AI adoption and how health systems can unlock the value of data while protecting patiWho actually owns your health data? Most people assume there's a single patient record sitting somewhere in the NHS. There isn't, and that gap sits at the heart of one of healthcare's most important and least understood debates.This week, Steve Roest is joined by Matthew Whitty, Director of Commercial Partnerships at MDClone and former Director of Innovation, Research and Life Sciences at NHS England. Drawing on a career that's spanned hospital pharmacy, commissioning, consultancy and national policy, Matt offers a rare view from the intersection of government, industry, academia and patient care.Together they unpack why the "privatisation" debate is really about trust and motivation, what the Federated Data Platform and the Palantir contract actually involve, and why de-identified data can still put patients at risk - including the recent UK Biobank breach. They also explore synthetic data, the case for sandbox environments that could make Britain the number one place to build healthtech, and why Matt believes there's far more reason for optimism about the NHS than the headlines suggest.In this episode:Why the NHS can't build everything itself, and what the private-sector "tension" is really aboutWho owns your health data, and why no single patient record existsThe Federated Data Platform and Palantir controversy, explainedHow de-identified data gets re-identified, and what happened with UK BiobankSynthetic data and the case for UK healthtech "sandboxes"Why the NHS may compare far better to other systems than people assume

In 2017, Matthew Walker's Why We Sleep became a huge bestseller. It said, among other things, that we are living through an epidemic of sleeplessness, that the less we sleep the sooner we die, and that sleeping less than six hours a night doubles your risk of cancer.But are its claims as robust as you might hope? Well, you've listened to this podcast before, so what do you think?This podcast is sponsored by Works in Progress magazine. Find endless fascinating pieces on human progress at worksinprogress.co.Show notes* Matthew Walker's TED Talk (”Sleep is your superpower”)* Bill Gates's glowing GatesNotes review of Why We Sleep* Alexey Guzey's 130-hour fact-check of the book's first chapter — the source for most of this episode* His appendix of reader emails on the anxiety the book caused* On “the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life span” — the two mortality meta-analyses Guzey cites: Cappuccio et al. 2010 and the 2016 dose-response one (both U-shaped, optimum ~7 hours)* On “more than doubling your risk of cancer” — Zhao et al.'s 2018 review in BMC Cancer (65 studies, ~1.55m participants, 86,201 cancers; central OR never above ~1.1)* On whether the West is sleeping less — the review with the table of nationally representative surveys (the table itself)* On the Alzheimer's claim — the paper suggesting reverse causation (early dementia symptoms include sleeplessness)* The alleged data manipulation:* Yngve Høiseth's misconduct complaint to UC Berkeley (the deleted graph bar as “falsification”)* Andrew Gelman on “institutional failure”* Scott Alexander's “If It's Worth Your Time to Lie, It's Worth My Time to Correct It”* The cheese wrap reel* What we actually know — the 2024 UK Biobank accelerometer study (~60,000 people; sleep regularity more predictive than duration)* Walker's 2020 Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization — awarded after Guzey's critiqueCreditsThe Science Fictions podcast is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.com/subscribe

Discover the profound impact of Vitamin K1 on respiratory health in this breakdown of a decade-long study involving over 179,000 adults. While Vitamin K2 often steals the spotlight for bone and heart health, new data suggests K1 is the "ruler of the realm" when it comes to protecting the lungs and reducing the risk of chronic lung disease (COPD).In this episode, we explore the science behind the "Matrix GLA Protein" (MGP), how leafy greens like kale and spinach act as "Green Power" for your lungs' elasticity, and why current daily recommendations for Vitamin K might be falling short of optimal levels.Key Takeaways:The K1 vs. K2 Difference: Why K1 is essential for lung function and fiber elasticity.COPD Risk Reduction: A 16% lower risk found in those with the highest K1 intake.The "Trampoline" Effect: Visualizing how K1 protects the elastic structures that help you breathe.Practical Serving Sizes: How much cooked kale or spinach is needed to reach optimal levels.Timestamps0:00 The Profound Impact of Vitamin K1 vs K2 on Lungs0:36 Analyzing the Study Data: Q1 vs Q5 Intakes 1:13 Is the 70mcg RDI Optimal or Just a Minimum? 1:44 Lung Function and the Difference in Breathing Depth 2:15 The Matrix GLA Protein (MGP): Protecting Lung Elasticity2:30 Green Power: Tracking 179,000 Adults Over a Decade 3:14 16% Reduction in COPD Risk Explained3:55 How K1 Activates Protective Elastic Fibers 4:36 Visual Comparison: Healthy vs. Stiff Lung Function5:01 Detailed Look at Matrix GLA Protein Activation 5:28 Raw vs. Cooked Kale: Maximizing Your K1 Intake 5:56 Study Validation: Hazard Ratios and Confidence Intervals 6:16 K1 for Lungs and Clotting vs. K2 for Bones and Arteries6:56 Addressing the "Healthy Volunteer Effect" in the UK Biobank 7:29 Terminology Glossary and Final Summary 8:10 Are Current RDI Guidelines Too Low for Respiratory Health?#VitaminK1 #COPD #LungHealth #MatrixGlaProtein #STEM #NutritionScience #RespiratoryWellness #HealthyAging #Emphysema #TheCatalystFormal Citation (AMA Style)Li C, Pokharel P, Sim M, et al. Dietary vitamin K intakes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, adult asthma, and lung function: a prospective cohort study in the UK Biobank. Am J Clin Nutr. 2026;123(101324):1-12. doi:10.1016/j.ajcnut.2026.101324Medical & Legal DisclaimerDisclaimer: The information provided here is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Dietary changes, particularly those involving vitamin K intake, can interact significantly with anticoagulant medications (blood thinners). Always consult with your physician or a qualified healthcare provider regarding a medical condition, diet, or treatment. The narrator and analysis team (The Catalyst) do not monetize this information and provide it as a public service.vitamin K1, K1 VS. COPD, lung blueprint, K1 lung health, COPD prevention, vitamin K-dependent proteins, Matrix Gla Protein, MGP, lung volume, pulmonary function, FEV1, FVC, spirometry, UK Biobank, dietary phylloquinone, green leafy vegetables, lung structure preservation, elastic fiber degradation, emphysema, nutritional epidemiology, chronic respiratory disease, respiratory wellness, Catalyst analysis, Ralph Turchiano, high-energy science, STEM education, non-monetized data.

In this episode the guys break down exactly how to be able to do pull ups in 30 days — covering the daily low intensity practice method, why you need to drop all other back work, why eating more and sleeping consistently will accelerate your results, and how to set up your test day for maximum performance. They also discuss whether chemical sunscreens are actually causing more cancer than they prevent, a large UK Biobank study showing frequent sunscreen users had up to 292% higher melanoma rates, why Crisp Power protein pretzels are outperforming traditional protein snacks on satiety, and the guys' Father's Day stories — Sal's son giving him a blank trophy, Adam's perfect day including coffee in bed and a drive with Katrina, and Justin getting a violent massage from a big Chinese dude at the mall. Then they answer questions from Instagram on doing CrossFit and strength training simultaneously, progressive overload after 63, building a chest with chronic shoulder pain, and getting hired as an inexperienced new personal trainer.   MAPS Upper Lower: https://mapsupperlower.com Code: LAUNCH for 40% off. Includes male and female programs, workout videos, exercise demos, coaching videos and live coaching with Cole.   SPONSORS   Paleo Valley (grass-fed fermented meat sticks): https://paleovalley.com/mindpump 15% off automatically applied at checkout, no code needed.   Crisp Power (protein pretzels): https://www.crisppower.com/mindpump Code: MINDPUMP for 10% off. Up to 28g protein per bag, zero added sugar.   Seed Daily Synbiotic: https://seed.com/mindpump Code: 25MINDPUMP for 25% off your first month.   LINKS   Mind Pump Store: https://mindpumpstore.com Maps Fitness Products: https://mapsfitnessproducts.com Instagram: @mindpumpmedia   0:00 - Intro 1:43 - How to do pull ups in 30 days — the exact method 4:53 - Step 1: Practice daily at low intensity — why this beats training them hard 13:33 - Step 2: Avoid all other back work for 30 days 15:30 - Step 3: Eat more — why a deficit kills this protocol 16:08 - Step 4: Sleep consistently every night 16:48 - Step 5: Set up your test day — take 4 to 5 days off first 25:17 - Chemical sunscreen study — 292% higher melanoma risk in frequent users 43:10 - Father's Day stories — trophies, cheese shops, massages and minivans 52:23 - Crisp Power on set — why Adam eats them almost every day 56:07 - Q&A: CrossFit 4 to 5 times a week plus a MAPS program — will it work? 1:01:53 - Q&A: Is there a limit to progressive overload training at 63? 1:04:33 - Q&A: How to build a chest when both shoulders have chronic pain 1:09:06 - Q&A: How to get hired as a new inexperienced personal trainer at Mind Pump  

The same glucosamine pill millions take for joint pain may protect a healthy brain — and accelerate Alzheimer's in a brain already in decline. Here's the science.In this episode of Health Longevity Secrets, Robert Lufkin MD breaks down the 2026 plot twist on glucosamine and dementia: why a supplement once hailed as a longevity hack now carries an Alzheimer's warning, and why the answer comes down to one thing — the state of your metabolism. The same molecule helped the metabolically healthy and may have harmed the metabolically broken. The supplement didn't change; the soil it landed on did.Chapters:00:00 — Introduction00:39 — The Supplement Everyone Trusted01:06 — UK Biobank: Glucosamine and 15% Lower Death Risk01:38 — Why Glucosamine Looked Like a Longevity Hack02:48 — The 2026 Plot Twist: Nature Metabolism Study03:53 — Alzheimer's Mice and the Glucosamine Pathway04:13 — How Sugar Tagging (Glycosylation) Explains Both04:57 — Hyperglycosylation in the Alzheimer's Brain05:34 — The Honest Caveat: Association vs Causation06:55 — The Takeaway: Metabolic Health Decides EverythingKey takeaways:In healthy, cognitively normal adults, regular glucosamine use has been tied to lower all-cause mortality and lower risk of dementia — especially vascular dementia.A June 2026 University of Florida study in Nature Metabolism found the opposite signal in sick brains: in people with mild cognitive impairment, glucosamine use was associated with a 25% higher likelihood of progressing to Alzheimer's, and a 25% higher death risk in those already diagnosed.In Alzheimer's mice, glucosamine made memory worse; blocking the same sugar-tagging pathway made it better.The mechanism is metabolic: glucosamine feeds glycosylation (sugar-tagging of proteins). A healthy brain handles it fine; an Alzheimer's brain is already hyperglycosylated, so adding more is "pouring gasoline on the fire."This is association, not proof of cause — and the literature is genuinely mixed. If you're healthy, it's not a fire alarm. If you or a loved one has MCI or dementia, talk to your physician before the next refill.Studies & sources:Hawkinson et al., "Hyperglycosylation is a metabolic driver of Alzheimer's disease," Nature Metabolism 2026 (University of Florida)University of Florida news release on the glucosamine–dementia findingZheng et al., "Association of regular glucosamine use with incident dementia," BMC Medicine 2023 (UK Biobank)Habitual glucosamine use, APOE genotypes, and cause-specific dementia in older adults (UK Biobank)Li et al., "Associations of regular glucosamine use with all-cause and cause-specific mortality," Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 2020 (UK Biobank)Read Dr. Lufkin's book "Lies I Taught in Medical School".⭐ Enjoying the show? Please leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts — it takes 30 seconds and helps more people discover the science of health and longevity. Thank you!New episodes every Tuesday & Thursday. Subscribe so you don't miss one.Continue this conversation on Substack: https://robertlufkinmd.substack.comLies I Taught In Medical School — Free sample chapter: https://www.robertlufkinmd.com/lies/Web: https://www.robertlufkinmd.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/robertlufkinmdX: https://x.com/robertlufkinmdInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/robertlufkinmd/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@robertlufkinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertlufkinmd/

Sleep duration has always been the headline number in sleep science, but mounting research is pushing the conversation toward something less obvious: how consistent your timing is from night to night. In this episode we dig into a debate that's far from settled, and into a statistical trap that may be quietly distorting it. WIn this episode we will:Break down the four separable pillars of sleep health: duration, consistency, continuity, and circadian alignmentWalk through the landmark UK Biobank study showing sleep regularity outpredicting duration for all-cause mortalityBring in brand-new data from SLEEP 2026 in Baltimore linking sleep consistency to long-term cardiovascular trajectoriesExpose the "range restriction trap," why duration looks less important in these studies largely because almost nobody in them was severely sleep-deprived for years on endStress-test the theory with five hypothetical sleepers, each excelling at one dimension and failing at another, to figure out which variable really wins when you push it to the extremeTo find out more about this week's podcast sponsor Welltory, please use the following link: https://welltory.com/Original intro music Vigilanteology by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026) Original outro music Vigilanteology (reprise) by Abhinav Singh (copyright 2026)Produced by: Maeve WinterMusic by: Dr. Abhinav Singh (@sleep_vigilante), all rights reservedMoreTwitter: @drchriswinterIG: @drchriwinterThreads: @drchriswinterBluesky: @drchriswinterThe Sleep Solution and The Rested ChildThanks for listening and sleep well!

Howie and Harlan are joined by Ingrid Katz, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, to discuss why HIV continues to spread despite the existence of cheap and effective treatment, what AIDS activism can teach us about tackling chronic diseases like hypertension, and what outbreaks like Ebola reveal about the consequences of fragile health systems. Harlan reports on a breach of UK Biobank data and what it means for the future of open science; Howie highlights two recent papers illustrating the importance of vitamin C and the danger of treating it as a cure-all. Show notes: The UK Biobank Data Breach UK Biobank NIH: All of Us Research Program "UK Biobank health data listed for sale in China, government confirms" "UK Biobank: Confidential patient health details still online three months after leaks, BMJ finds" Ingrid Katz HIV PEPFAR The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Differentiated Service Delivery Hypertension "Prevalence, Awareness, and Treatment of Hypertension in 37 African Countries: Trends From 2003 to 2022" Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) Treatment Action Campaign "Health & Veritas Episode 224: Nicholas Christakis: The Science of Human Connection" CDC: Ebola Outbreak: Current Situation" South African president Thabo Mbeki "More than Two Decades Since the Abuja Declaration: A Way Forward for Ending AIDS as a Public Health Threat by 2030" Vitamin C Linus Pauling "High-Dose Intravenous Vitamin C and Mortality and Organ Dysfunction in Severe Burn Injury: The VICTORY Randomized Clinical Trial" "High-Dose Vitamin C in Burns: Time to Stop" "A 7-Year-Old Girl with Limping and Leg Pain" In the Yale School of Management's MBA for Executives program, you'll get a full MBA education in 22 months while applying new skills to your organization in real time. Yale's Executive Master of Public Health offers a rigorous public health education for working professionals, with the flexibility of evening online classes alongside three on-campus trainings. Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

This week on Pulse: Hot Topics, Louise and George race through a very AI-heavy fortnight — from antibiotics and the menstrual cycle to whether "medical AI" is even a category worth defending.AI and Science. A Nature feature on AI accelerating antibiotic discovery (millions of molecules screened in silico, though only a tiny fraction can actually be synthesised), paired with a UK Biobank study mapping 198 proteins that fluctuate across the menstrual cycle — reframing it as a whole-body biological rhythm, not just a reproductive one.Do We Even Need Medical AI? A NYU study finds frontier general models outperforming purpose-built clinical tools like OpenEvidence and UpToDate — with an important caveat that no patient outcomes were measured. Paired with Apollo, Harvard's foundation model trained on 25 billion clinical events to forecast individual patient trajectories.What If AI Makes Healthcare More Expensive? David Brailer argues in Health Affairs that AI won't lower US health costs because it amplifies the incentives already baked into the payment system — accelerating both better care and billing extraction.The AI Equity Divide. A WHO-led initiative (GI-AI4H) and its RISE framework tackle the risk that AI widens global health inequities when governance lags behind deployment.Governing AI — Local and Professional. Victoria's Department of Health sets top-down standards for AI across public health services, while the American Medical Association champions "augmented intelligence" with clinicians at the centre — two very different models of governance.Plus: the robots now account for 57% of internet traffic, and a shout-out to Daniel McCabe's impact on Australian digital health.Resources:AI is taking on antibiotic resistance Link Plasma proteomic signature of the menstrual cycle LinkGeneralist vs clinical LLMs (OpenEvidence, UpToDate) — NYU study (Vishwanath, Oermann et al.) Link APOLLO healthcare foundation model LinkWhy AI Will Accelerate Health Care Inflation — David Brailer, Health Affairs LinkGlobal Initiative on AI for Health (GI-AI4H) and the RISE framework — npj Health Systems LinkAI guidance for Victorian Public Health Services — Pulse+IT LinkAugmented Intelligence in Medicine — American Medical Association LinkIda Tin — global challenge on continuous hormone monitoring LinkVisit Pulse+IT.news to subscribe to breaking digital news, weekly newsletters and a rich treasure trove of archival material.  People in the know, get their news from Pulse+IT – Your leading voice in digital health news.Follow us on LinkedIn  Louise  |  George  |  Pulse+ITFollow us on BlueSky   Louise  |  George  |  Pulse+ITSend us your questions pulsepod@pulseit.newsProduction by Octopod Productions | Ivan Juric

Howie and Harlan are joined by Ingrid Katz, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, to discuss why HIV continues to spread despite the existence of cheap and effective treatment, what AIDS activism can teach us about tackling chronic diseases like hypertension, and what outbreaks like Ebola reveal about the consequences of fragile health systems. Harlan reports on a breach of UK Biobank data and what it means for the future of open science; Howie highlights two recent papers illustrating the importance of vitamin C and the danger of treating it as a cure-all. Show notes: The UK Biobank Data Breach UK Biobank NIH: All of Us Research Program "UK Biobank health data listed for sale in China, government confirms" "UK Biobank: Confidential patient health details still online three months after leaks, BMJ finds" Ingrid Katz HIV PEPFAR The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Differentiated Service Delivery Hypertension "Prevalence, Awareness, and Treatment of Hypertension in 37 African Countries: Trends From 2003 to 2022" Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) Treatment Action Campaign "Health & Veritas Episode 224: Nicholas Christakis: The Science of Human Connection" CDC: Ebola Outbreak: Current Situation South African president Thabo Mbeki "More than Two Decades Since the Abuja Declaration: A Way Forward for Ending AIDS as a Public Health Threat by 2030" Vitamin C Linus Pauling "High-Dose Intravenous Vitamin C and Mortality and Organ Dysfunction in Severe Burn Injury: The VICTORY Randomized Clinical Trial" "High-Dose Vitamin C in Burns: Time to Stop" "A 7-Year-Old Girl with Limping and Leg Pain" In the Yale School of Management's MBA for Executives program, you'll get a full MBA education in 22 months while applying new skills to your organization in real time. Yale's Executive Master of Public Health offers a rigorous public health education for working professionals, with the flexibility of evening online classes alongside three on-campus trainings. Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

While we often think of sleep and diet as separate pillars of health, our internal biological clocks and gut microbiome intricately connect them both. In this episode, co-hosts Dr. Siobhan McCormack and Dr. Sheena Fraser dive into the fascinating, bidirectional relationship between circadian rhythms, sleep quality, and gut health.They discuss how our physiology adapts to 24-hour light and dark cycles, the metabolic havoc caused by social jet lag and shift work, and how our gut microbes actually operate on their own daily schedules. Plus, Siobhan and Sheena share practical, evidence-based chrononutrition strategies and explore how targeted dietary patterns, probiotics, and fermented foods can significantly boost your mood and sleep architecture.What We Cover:The Circadian Symphony: How light, dark, and our body's internal peripheral clocks orchestrate everything from hormone release (like cortisol and melatonin) to digestion.Sleep Architecture & Mental Health: The critical role of REM and deep sleep, and how just one night of sleep deprivation increases impulsivity and degrades mood.Chrononutrition: Why when you eat is just as important as what you eat, and how meal timing acts as a major environmental cue for your gut microbes.Social Jet Lag & Shift Work: The metabolic consequences of disrupted sleep cycles, including increased risks for Type 2 Diabetes, and actionable strategies to regain circadian balance.Nutrients & Microbes for Sleep: Exploring the science behind specific dietary protocols, the power of Lactobacillus, and how fermented foods support restorative rest.Scientific References & Further Reading:Conti, F. (2025). ‘Dietary protocols to promote and improve restful sleep: A narrative review'. Nutrition ReviewsDobielska, M. et al. (2025). ‘Association between fermented food consumption and sleep quality under psychological stress: Prospective cohort study'. Food Science & Nutrition.Scott, A.J., Webb, T.L., Martyn-St James, M., Rowse, G., & Weich, S. (2021). 'Improving sleep quality leads to better mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials'. Sleep Medicine ReviewsHepsomali, P., & Groeger, J.A. (2021). 'Diet, sleep and mental health: Insights from the Uk Biobank Study'. NutrientsReid, M., Omlin, X., Espie, C., Sharman, R., Tamm, S., & Kyle, S. (2022). 'The effect of sleep continuity disruption on multimodal emotion processing and regulation'. Journal of Sleep ResearchMarx, W., Manger, S.H., et al. (2023). 'Clinical guidelines for the use of lifestyle-based mental health care in major depressive disorder'. World Journal of Biological PsychiatryVetter, C. et al. (2018). 'Night Shift Work, Genetic Risk, and Type 2 Diabetes in the UK Biobank'. Diabetes CareThis podcast is brought to you in collaboration with the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine.Disclaimer:The content in this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or qualified healthcare provider. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast.

What happens when a company focused on drug discovery and life sciences encounters a data problem that nobody else seems able to solve? Recorded at the IT Press Tour in Boston, this episode explores the fascinating story behind Paradigm4 and how a challenge in large-scale biomedical research ultimately led to the creation of flexFS, a cloud-native filesystem designed to tackle some of today's biggest data infrastructure challenges. Joining me on the podcast is David Freund from Paradigm4, who shares how the company was originally founded to help scientists work with enormous datasets in fields such as genomics, bioinformatics, and precision medicine. As researchers began working with population-scale datasets such as the UK Biobank, the team discovered that existing storage technologies either couldn't deliver the performance they needed, lacked the functionality required, or became prohibitively expensive at scale. Our conversation explores the moment Paradigm4 realized it would need to build its own solution, why traditional approaches to cloud storage often struggle under modern analytics workloads, and how flexFS emerged from a real-world customer problem rather than a technology trend. David also explains why object storage has become such an attractive foundation for modern infrastructure, while discussing the challenges of latency, performance, and cost that still need to be addressed. We also discuss why many organizations investing heavily in AI infrastructure may be overlooking one of the biggest constraints on performance. While much of the industry conversation focuses on GPUs and compute power, David argues that data access, movement, and management are becoming equally important considerations as AI workloads continue to grow. Along the way, we touch on cloud independence, resilience, large-scale analytics, and why flexibility across cloud providers is becoming an increasingly important requirement for enterprise technology leaders. Whether you're working in AI, life sciences, cloud infrastructure, or enterprise data management, this episode offers an interesting perspective on how customer problems can sometimes lead to entirely new categories of technology. Could the next major AI bottleneck be data rather than compute? And are organizations paying enough attention to the infrastructure feeding their most important workloads? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

HEALTH NEWS   Study links low vitamin C levels in the blood plasma to reduced brain connectivity Study: Tart Cherry Supplementation Alters Muscle Protein Profile After Exercise Socioeconomic factors may leave more lasting imprint on children's brains than IQ or parenting style Fasting-mimicking diet reduces gum disease inflammation Low blood pressure shows strongest link to Alzheimer's disease   Study links low vitamin C levels in the blood plasma to reduced brain connectivity Hirosaki University (Japan), June 10 2026 (News-Medical) Previous research has uncovered associations between diets higher in vitamin C and lower risk of cognitive impairment in older adults. However, few studies have looked directly at vitamin C levels in blood plasma and potential associations with brain structure and connectivity within brain networks. To help fill that gap, Nagaya and colleagues analyzed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and plasma vitamin C levels of 2,044 adults over the age of 64. Specifically, they measured the volume of each participant's gray and white brain matter (accounting for individual differences in total brain volume between participants). They also evaluated connectivity within the default mode network, which is associated with several cognitive functions, such as attention and autobiographical memory. After statistically accounting for other factors the researchers found that participants with lower plasma vitamin C levels tended to have lower gray matter volume, as well as lower connectivity within the default mode network. These findings suggest the possibility that optimal levels of vitamin C in blood plasma could potentially support cognitive function and counteract cognitive decline. However, the findings do not confirm any such cause-effect relationship between vitamin C levels and brain health.   Study: Tart Cherry Supplementation Alters Muscle Protein Profile After Exercise University of Exeter (UK), June 11 2026 (Natural News) Researchers recruited 34 healthy, recreationally active young men and assigned them to receive either a placebo, a low-dose tart cherry concentrate, or a high-dose tart cherry supplement, according to the study report. Participants consumed their assigned supplement for seven days before completing a muscle-damaging workout and continued supplementation for three days afterward, for a total intervention of 10 days. The study found that tart cherry supplementation significantly altered the muscle's protein profile following exercise-induced damage. Changes were observed in proteins involved in muscle structure, contraction, cellular repair processes, and immune-cell activity within muscle tissue. These findings suggest that tart cherry polyphenols may influence the way muscles respond to and recover from the stress of exercise. Researchers also detected significant increases in hippuric acid, a compound produced when gut microbes break down polyphenols from tart cherries and other plant foods. Participants with higher levels of hippuric acid tended to maintain better muscle function following exercise-induced damage.   Socioeconomic factors may leave more lasting imprint on children's brains than IQ or parenting style Washington University in St. Louis, June 11 2026 (Medical Xpress) After analyzing hundreds of biological, psychological, social and environmental factors related to children's development, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that a family's financial situation and the resources and opportunities in a child's neighborhood had the strongest connection to brain development. Socioeconomic factors accounted for about 16% of the variability in measures of children's brain function—far more than IQ, parenting style and health history.  As part of the study, the researchers analyzed brain scans from nearly 12,000 children ages 9 to 10 to see how a child's environment, health and regular activities are related to brain development. Of the hundreds of factors examined, the team found that the socioeconomic status of a child's family had the strongest relationship with that child's brain structure and function. Further, the parts of the brain that reflect socioeconomic factors were the same areas most sensitive to sleep and stress, suggesting that socioeconomic disadvantage affects the brain indirectly through disrupted sleep and chronic stress. Of the top 40 variables linked to brain function, 37 were socioeconomic, and of the top 40 tied to structure, 35 were socioeconomic. These included the social and economic resources in the child's neighborhood, akin to the overall wealth of an area. Strong influences included family income, homeownership, poverty rates and access to transportation. The remaining top variables were related to sleep, screen time and stress.   Fasting-mimicking diet reduces gum disease inflammation Kings College London, June 11 2026 (Eurekalert) People who follow a short-term low-calorie diet may have reduced markers of inflammation associated with gum disease. A new study by King's College London highlights how lifestyle modifications could be important alongside plaque control in managing gum disease. The research included 28 patients from across hospitals in Spain, split into two groups – those who followed a five-day restrictive diet, versus a control group who continued their usual diet. Patients who fasted ate 1,100 calories for two days, then 750 calories for three days. The sixth day gently introduced more calories with soft foods – then their diets returned to normal by the seventh day. This was repeated three times in six months, with patients reporting the diet easy to stick to. After six months, samples were analysed from the patients' blood and gingival crevicular fluid – liquid that comes from the small space between your tooth and gum, which helps gums stay healthy and fight germs. Those who fasted had reduced markers of inflammation in samples from blood and gum tissue compared to those whose diets stayed the same, including lower levels of C-reactive protein, a general indicator of inflammation around the body. The fasting group also had reduced molecules linked to inflammation specifically in the gums, compared to controls.   Low blood pressure shows strongest link to Alzheimer's disease Michigan Technological University, Jun 10 2026 (News-Medical) Numerous types of cardiovascular disease and CVD risk factors were linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease, with low blood pressure showing the strongest connection, according to a new analysis published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association What are the key findings of the analysis? Adults with hypotension (low blood pressure) were about three times more likely to develop Alzheimer's and nearly twice as likely in the All of Us study when compared to individuals who did not have low blood pressure. Across both datasets, adults with high blood pressure (hypertension) were 1.6 times more likely to have Alzheimer's disease, compared to people without hypertension. Participants who had a previous stroke had a 1.5 times higher risk for Alzheimer's disease in the UK Biobank and 1.85 times in All of Us. Those with irregular heartbeat (or atrial fibrillation, also called AFib) were about 1.5 times more likely to have Alzheimer's disease compared to those without AFib.    

Nutritionist Leyla Muedin discusses research showing simple strength tests—grip strength and a five-rep sit-to-stand chair test—predict longevity in older women. In a University at Buffalo study of over 5,000 women ages 63–99 followed for eight years, stronger grip and faster chair-stand times were linked to lower mortality; every additional 7 kg of grip strength corresponded to a 12% reduction in death risk, and faster chair-stands were also associated with improved survival, even after adjusting for activity, cardiovascular fitness, and inflammation. She emphasizes prioritizing muscle-strengthening alongside aerobic exercise and suggests accessible resistance options (weights, bodyweight moves, or household items) with professional guidance as needed. She then cites UK Biobank data linking long-term statin use to declines in grip strength and appendicular lean mass, urging discussion with physicians and added vigilance, especially for those also using GLP-1 drugs that may reduce protein intake and muscle mass.

In this conversation, Dr. Reza Ardalan sits down with Dr. Hugh Coyne, a London-based family medicine practitioner and the son of a pediatric dentist, who built Coyne Medical with his wife and clinical partner Dr. Lucy Coyne specifically to practice the kind of preventive medicine the NHS 10-minute appointment window does not allow. His training at Imperial College London and postgraduate work in obstetrics and gynecology, pediatric health, and sports medicine give him a panoramic view of the screening opportunities most dentists are sitting on without realizing it. Dr. Coyne walks through the short blood panel he would build into every dental practice: HbA1c for diabetes risk that directly changes wound healing and periodontal outcomes, highly sensitive CRP for the kind of cardiovascular inflammation a UK Biobank study of over 400,000 people linked to a 61% higher risk of cardiovascular death, vitamin D with the K2 pairing that keeps calcium out of arterial walls, renal function, and a full blood count. From there, Dr. Coyne and Dr. Ardalan move into the oral microbiome shift from pathogen elimination to ecosystem restoration, the role of P. gingivalis in rheumatoid arthritis through citrullinated protein antibodies, and the cardiometabolic markers most patients never get tested for, including apolipoprotein B and lipoprotein(a). The third act covers GLP-1 medications, the Gila monster origin story, the medieval cautionary tale of Sancho the Fat, and the dental-chair implications most patients will never volunteer on a health history form. In this Episode:  The short blood panel any dental practice can start with: HbA1c, highly sensitive CRP, vitamin D, renal function, and a full blood count Why vitamin D supplementation without vitamin K2 may direct calcium into the wrong tissues, including arterial walls How a UK Biobank study of more than 400,000 people linked elevated hs-CRP to a 61% higher risk of cardiovascular death in patients otherwise considered well What the 87% of patients open to in-chair screening tells you about how to introduce blood testing in your practice without losing trust The rule of halves for blood pressure, and why a 158 reading caught on a second visit can be profoundly consequential for a patient's long-term survival How the oral microbiome model has shifted from pathogen elimination to ecosystem restoration, and what that changes about prevention Why P. gingivalis turns up in rheumatoid arthritis tissue, and how oral pathogens correlate with colorectal, pancreatic, and esophageal cancers The bachelor-party analogy for apolipoprotein B and lipoprotein(a), and why every dentist should know their own Lp(a) number What every dental practice needs to know before sedating a patient on a GLP-1 medication   Dr. Hugh Coyne is a London-based GP and the co-founder, with his wife Dr. Lucy Coyne, of Coyne Medical, a family medicine practice focused on preventive care and the early detection of disease. Dr. Hugh Coyne trained at Imperial College London with postgraduate degrees in obstetrics and gynecology, pediatric health, and sports medicine, and is a featured speaker at the Wellness Dental Forum 2026. Find him on Instagram and TikTok at @drhughcoyne and the clinic at @coyne_medical. Want to go deeper on the oral–systemic connection? Dentistry & Whole-Body Health is a 3-part live CE series on reading the medical signals hiding in your patients' bloodwork — and knowing what to do with them. Session 1:  Hidden Signals · Saturday, November 7, 2026 The bloodwork your patients already have, read through a dentist's lens. HbA1c, hs-CRP, vitamin D, CBC — and when to monitor, pause, or refer. Session 2: Cardiovascular Clues · Saturday, November 21, 2026 The lipid markers most panels skip (ApoB, Lp(a)) and the oral–heart connection behind them. Yes — this is the bachelor-party one. Session 3: The New Weight Loss Era · Saturday, December 5, 2026 What GLP-1s are quietly doing to how your patients eat, metabolize, and heal — and the chairside adjustments that come with it. All 3-hour sessions run 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET / 4 PM UK, with 30-day recording access if you can't make it live. 9 AGD-PACE-approved CE credits across the series. Nothing here asks you to become a doctor — it gives you the medical layer that's already shaping your outcomes. Enrollment opens soon: $1,497 → Or try a single session — $625 More details coming soon!

Fresh Pressed Olive Oil Club (buy 2 bottles, get 1 free for Ben's community): https://freshpressolive.com/3RBPwdG  Pre-order Ben's new book KetoFlex Revised — Pre-order now and get free bonus chapters:  https://bit.ly/4wKG1sM  Kidney disease doesn't start with pain. It starts with nothing. By the time you feel it, you may have already lost half your kidney function. The National Kidney Foundation reports 90% of people with chronic kidney disease don't know they have it. In most cases, the damage begins 10 to 15 years before any diagnosis — while labs still look normal. THE 7 HABITS Blood Sugar Spikes. Post-meal glucose spikes damage the hair-thin filtration vessels inside the kidneys over time. A 2024 Nature Communications paper found cellular insulin resistance drives kidney damage before diabetes ever appears. Chronic Dehydration. Your kidneys filter 180 liters of plasma daily. Less water means concentrated waste and a higher workload. Coffee, soda, and energy drinks don't count. Drink clean spring water. Processed Food. Phosphate additives and industrial seed oils (soybean, corn, canola) create ongoing inflammation in the blood vessels kidneys depend on. Swap to butter, ghee, tallow, coconut oil, and high-quality olive oil.  Sugar and Fructose. Fructose overwhelms the liver, converts to uric acid, and lands on the kidneys. A 2024 UK Biobank study of 127,000+ adults found even one sugar-sweetened beverage daily significantly raises kidney disease risk. Diet soda is not a safe swap. Ignoring Blood Pressure. No symptoms doesn't mean no damage. Every heartbeat sends pressure through delicate kidney capillaries. Damaged kidneys then lose their ability to regulate pressure — creating a worsening feedback loop. Chronic Stress and Poor Sleep. Cortisol raises blood sugar, blood pressure, and insulin resistance. Sleeping under four hours raises kidney disease risk by 45%. Kidney repair happens at night. Ignoring Insulin Resistance. The root of everything. By the time labs flag it, you've likely been insulin resistant for 6 to 14 years. About 93% of American adults have some form of it. Find All The Ben Azadi Show Sponsorship Deals ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.ketokamp.com/sponsorship-deals Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us Fan MailHow omega-3 fats in human health, including dietary intake needs, supplements, & omega fat testing.TOPICS DISCUSSED:ω-3 chemistry: EPA and DHA differ from plant ALA in chain length and double-bond count, making them structurally and biologically distinct — and largely irreplaceable by ALA conversion.ALA-to-EPA/DHA conversion: A small percentage of dietary ALA converts to EPA, and conversion to DHA is even lower; vegans rely on this inefficient pathway for all long-chain omega-3s.Cardiovascular mechanisms: ω-3s lower triglycerides, reduce platelet stickiness, improve endothelial function, and slow resting heart rate, reducing cardiovascular risk.ω-3 Index: Defined as red blood cell EPA+DHA as a percent of total fatty acids; 8–12% is the target range, while most Americans sit around 4–5%.Brain & dementia risk: Higher DHA blood levels are associated with significantly lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer's in large cohorts including the UK Biobank and Framingham.Linoleic acid nuance: Higher blood levels of dietary linoleic acid (omega-6) associate with lower dementia and cardiovascular risk; downstream omega-6 metabolites — not linoleic acid itself — associate with adverse outcomes.Supplementation practicalities: Most people need 1–2 g/day of EPA+DHA to reach an ω-3 Index >8%; oxidation concerns with fish oil supplements may be overstated.ABOUT THE GUEST: Bill Harris, PhD is founder of both OmegaQuant Laboratory and the Fatty Acid Research Institute (Sioux Falls, SD), where his work centers on blood fatty acid biomarkers as predictors of disease risk in large population cohort studies.KNOW YOURSELF:OmegaQuant: At-home blood testing to see fatty acid profiles, including omega-3 fatty acids. Use link to see options and support M&M.RELATED EPISODE:M&M 134: Omega Fats, Vegetable & Seed Oils, Sugar, Processed Food, Metabolic Health & Dietary Origins of Chronic Inflammatory DiSupport the showHealth Products by M&M Partners:AquaTru: Water filtration devices that remove microplastics, metals, bacteria, and more from your drinking water. Through link, $100 off AquaTru Carafe, Classic & Under Sink Units; $300 off Freestanding models.OmegaQuant: At-home blood testing to see fatty acid profiles, including omega-3 fatty acids. Use link to see options and support M&M.SiPhox Health: Comprehensive, cost-effective bloodwork from the comfort of home. Use code TRIKOMES for 20% off.KetoCitra—Ketone body BHB + electrolytes formulated for kidney health. Use code MIND20 for 20% off any subscription (cancel anytime)Seed Oil Scout: Find restaurants with seed oil-free options, scan food products to see what they're hiding, with this easy-to-use mobile app.SporesMD: Premium mushrooms products (gourmet mushrooms, nootropics, research). Use code 'nickjikomes' for 20% off.For all the ways you can support my efforts

Your doctor orders a lipid panel every year — but 3 cheap blood tests predict heart disease, diabetes, and even dementia far better than cholesterol, and most doctors never order them. In this episode, Robert Lufkin MD walks through fasting insulin + HOMA-IR, homocysteine, and high-sensitivity CRP — three tests that together cost about $60, take one blood draw, and catch the metabolic dysfunction a standard lipid panel systematically misses. CHAPTERS: 00:00 — The 3 Blood Tests Your Doctor Isn't Ordering 00:40 — Part 1: Fasting Insulin and HOMA-IR 01:15 — How Insulin Resistance Hides for 10–15 Years 01:45 — HOMA-IR vs Glucose: What 516,000 People Revealed 02:05 — 59% Higher Cardiovascular Risk in the 2023 ATVB Study 02:45 — Optimal Fasting Insulin: Why 5–8 Beats the Lab's "25" 03:05 — Part 2: Homocysteine and the MTHFR Connection 03:35 — How Homocysteine Damages Your Arteries (6 Mechanisms) 03:50 — 60% Higher Stroke Risk and 48% Alzheimer's Risk 04:35 — The Oxford VITACOG Trial: 53% Less Brain Atrophy 05:05 — Part 3: High-Sensitivity CRP and Inflammatory Plaque 05:40 — The JUPITER Trial: 44% Drop in Cardiac Events 06:15 — UK Biobank: Why hs-CRP Beats LDL Cholesterol 06:50 — AHA Risk Categories for hs-CRP Since 2003 07:15 — Part 4: The Metabolic Picture (Why Cholesterol Is the Wrong Target) 07:50 — 3 Tests, $60, One Blood Draw — The Full Framework KEY TAKEAWAYS: Fasting insulin + HOMA-IR catches insulin resistance a decade before glucose goes abnormal — optimal is below 5–8, not the lab's reference range of 25 Every 5 µmol/L rise in homocysteine raises coronary artery disease risk 20–30% and stroke risk 60%, independent of cholesterol hs-CRP predicted cardiovascular events better than LDL in a 322,000-person UK Biobank analysis — yet fewer than 10% of cardiac panels order it Cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and dementia share the same upstream driver: metabolic dysfunction, not cholesterol All three tests together cost roughly $60 and come from a single blood draw LINKS:

An estimated 55 million people worldwide are living with dementia, of which Alzheimer's is the most common form. This number continues to rise as global populations age. Despite the scale of the problem and large amounts of funding, no one has been able to find a cure. Could it be that data science, rather than medicine, holds the answers to tackling this disease?In this episode of Tech Tomorrow, David Elliman speaks with Alejo Nevado-Holgado, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford and member of the Big Data Institute. He leads AI research within the Computational and Molecular Neuroscience Laboratory, an interdisciplinary team spanning AI, biochemistry, and bioinformatics.The conversation explores how advanced computational methods are using vast biological and clinical datasets, including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, stem cell imaging, brain scans, and electronic health records. This integrated approach aims to uncover disease mechanisms, identify new drug targets, and advance more personalized treatments, all supported by high-performance computing.A key challenge in Alzheimer's research is the difficulty of accessing and studying the brain. The blood-brain barrier limits treatment delivery, while the disease develops over decades before symptoms appear. The discussion also highlights ongoing scientific uncertainty about whether hallmark features such as amyloid plaques and tau tangles are causes of the disease or downstream effects.The episode examines how AI can support early detection through blood-based biomarkers and why it is particularly effective in analysing complex, high-dimensional data such as molecular structures and genomic information. The importance of combining diverse datasets, such as population-scale biobanks and drug discovery data, is emphasised as essential for progress.However, challenges remain, including the need for explainable AI systems and more complete longitudinal health data. The conversation also touches on emerging techniques like AI-driven molecular simulations, which may help predict how drugs interact within the brain.Episode Highlights01:07 – The background of Alejo's project.02:25 – Why are Alzheimer's and dementia so hard to treat?05:50 – How can neurodegenerative brain diseases be prevented?07:05 – Drug discovery and machine learning.09:43 – David's Thoughts: Multi-modal data.10:29 – Why high-quality data is so hard to access.14:55 – Why AI explainability remains an issue.17:06 – David's Thoughts: A black box within a black box.19:23 – The UK Biobank and rich medical data.23:54 – Wrap up.About Zühlke:Zühlke is a global transformation partner, with engineering and innovation at its core. We help clients envision and build their businesses for the future – running smarter today while adapting for tomorrow's markets, customers, and communities.Our multidisciplinary teams specialise in technology strategy and business innovation, digital solutions and applications, and device and systems engineering. We thrive in complex, regulated sectors such as healthcare and finance, connecting strategy, implementation, and operations to help clients build more effective and resilient businesses.Links:Zühlke WebsiteZühlke on LinkedInDavid Elliman on LinkedInProf. Alejo Nevado-Holgado BioDementia Research Oxford WebsiteUK Biobank Website

This week, Mikki breaks down a major 2025 study using UK Biobank wearable data to challenge one of the most widely accepted rules in exercise science. For decades, we've been told that one minute of vigorous activity equals two minutes of moderate activity. But the data tells a very different story. Drawing from over 73,000 participants, this episode unpacks how vigorous movement may be four to ten times more effective depending on the health outcome. Mikki explains what actually counts as “vigorous” (it's more accessible than you think), the physiological mechanisms driving these benefits, and how small bursts of effort throughout your day can meaningfully impact long-term health. This is a practical, evidence-based rethink of how to approach movement for metabolic health, cardiovascular fitness, and longevity.Key Highlights: Why the long-standing 1:2 activity ratio doesn't hold up  What “vigorous” really means in real-world terms  How short bursts of effort impact cardiovascular and metabolic health  The surprising limits of light activity for disease risk reduction  Practical ways to incorporate high-value movement into daily life 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

Indoor Epidemic: Prescribing Nature, Light, Air, and Movement with Dr. John La Puma, internist, chef, and regenerative farmer. His book, "Indoor Epidemic," argues that spending about 93% of life indoors undermines health through poor light timing, air quality, limited movement, and reduced nature exposure. La Puma cites data that outdoor morning light helps set circadian rhythms, while nighttime blue light can impair sleep quality and raise cardiovascular risks, referencing a large UK Biobank study. He discusses indoor pollutants and CO2 buildup affecting inflammation and cognition, recommends strategies like getting daylight early (even just a sky view), using circadian lighting, and taking brief outdoor breaks to reduce myopia risk. He describes measurable benefits of forest bathing and gardening (including immune and mood effects), notes hospital studies linking window views to shorter stays and less pain medication, and reviews his pioneering work in culinary medicine now taught widely in medical schools, emphasizing cooking and growing food as preventive and therapeutic tools.

Darshan H. Brahmbhatt, Podcast Editor of JACC: Advances, discusses a recently published original research paper on Associations of Socioeconomic Status With Cardiorenal Metabolic Multimorbidity: Evidence From the UK Biobank Cohort.

This week's stories: *Bartonella Hides in Cat Scratches — and It Might Be Why You Feel Like Garbage A stealth bacterial infection transmitted by everyday cat scratches and flea dirt has been quietly linked to chronic fatigue, brain fog, and neurological symptoms for decades. Dave breaks down how Bartonella slips past standard testing, why it's almost never on a conventional doctor's radar, and the specific PCR protocol you need to actually find it. Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ *High Tyrosine Levels May Be Cutting Years Off Men's Lives A Mendelian randomization study of 270,000 UK Biobank participants found that elevated tyrosine is causally linked to nearly a full year of lost lifespan in men — with zero effect in women. The culprit appears to be an inflammatory oxidation pathway that men metabolize very differently. Dave examines what this means for every guy stacking L-tyrosine nootropics or eating high-protein keto. Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41045493/ https://www.aging-us.com/news-room/high-tyrosine-levels-linked-to-shorter-lifespan-in-men https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2026-02-27/study-suggests-one-common-amino-acid-may-affect-how-long-men-live *Blue Light Blocking Contact Lenses Are a Legitimate Vision Upgrade ALTIUS Vision's tinted contact lenses aren't just blue light filters — they cut chromatic aberration by 53% and improve motion tracking and contrast sensitivity in ways that software filters simply can't replicate. Dave covers the mechanism, who benefits most (screen workers, TBI recovery, gamers), and how to find a provider. Sources: https://altiusvision.com/chromatic-aberration/ https://altiusvision.com/science-of-altius/ https://www.westvalleyvision.com/-altius--performance-tinted-contact-lenses *Taurine Plus B Vitamins Actually Moves the Needle on Motivation A randomized crossover trial found that a daily stack of taurine, B6, folate, and B12 sustained effort-reward motivation and cut cognitive lapses significantly compared to placebo — and the mechanism runs through glutathione production in brain astrocytes. Dave breaks down why this combo works when either ingredient alone doesn't. Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41889717/ https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2026.1711478/full https://www.nutraingredients.com/Article/2026/03/23/taurine-and-b-vitamins-bost-motivation-and-focus/ *30 Seconds of Smelling Flowers Resets Your Nervous System Research out of the Monell Chemical Senses Center confirms what your grandmother knew: a slow, deep floral inhale measurably lowers heart rate and activates the parasympathetic nervous system — and it works because olfaction bypasses the cortex entirely and hits the limbic system directly. Dave makes the case for building a daily scent ritual. Sources: https://time.com/ https://www.southtabor.com/healthy-living-tip-stop-and-smell-the-flowers/ This episode is designed for biohackers, longevity seekers, and high-performance listeners who want mechanism-level clarity on infection-driven cognitive decline, amino acid optimization, sensory performance, and evidence-based supplementation. Host Dave Asprey connects emerging clinical research, Mendelian randomization data, and real-world protocols into actionable frameworks for extending healthspan and sharpening performance. New episodes every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Keywords: Bartonella cat scratch infection, Bartonella brain fog chronic fatigue, stealth bacterial infection biohacking, tyrosine lifespan men, L-tyrosine risk men longevity, Mendelian randomization amino acid aging, blue light blocking contacts, ALTIUS vision chromatic aberration, performance contact lenses TBI, taurine B vitamins motivation RCT, taurine folate brain health, glutathione astrocytes focus, smelling flowers heart rate stress, olfaction parasympathetic nervous system, floral scent limbic system, biohacking news, longevity research 2026 Thank you to our sponsors! - GOT MOLD? | Go to http://gotmold.com/shop and use DAVE10 to save 10% and see what's in your air. - MASA Chips | Go to https://www.masachips.com/DAVEASPREY and use code DAVEASPREY for 25% off your first order. - iRestore | Grow thicker, healthier hair back naturally. Use code DAVE at irestore.com. Resources: • Get My 2026 Clean Nicotine Roadmap | Enroll for free at https://daveasprey.com/2026-clean-nicotine-roadmap/ • Get My 2026 Biohacking Trends Report: https://daveasprey.com/2026-biohacking-trends-report/ • Dave Asprey's Latest News | Go to https://daveasprey.com/ to join Inside Track today. • Danger Coffee: https://dangercoffee.com/discount/dave15 • My Daily Supplements: SuppGrade Labs (15% Off) • Favorite Blue Light Blocking Glasses: TrueDark (15% Off) • Dave Asprey's BEYOND Conference: https://beyondconference.com • Dave Asprey's New Book – Heavily Meditated: https://daveasprey.com/heavily-meditated • Join My Substack (Live Access To Podcast Recordings): https://substack.daveasprey.com/ • Upgrade Labs: https://upgradelabs.com Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 00:37 – Bartonella & Cat Scratch Disease 02:06 – Tyrosine & Lifespan in Men 03:37 – Tinted Contacts & Visual Processing 05:56 – Taurine & Motivation 07:25 – Floral Scent & Nervous System Reset See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Your nose knows more than you think. Professor Leslie M. Kay joins Vasant Dhar to reveal how smell is wired directly into the brain's emotional core — and how every breath you take is quietly synchronising your mind. Useful Resources: 1. Leslie Kay2. GenBank3. National Library of Medicine4. Walter Jackson Freeman III5. Dynamical Systems6. Linda B. Buck and Richard Axel7. Dmitry Rinberg, Rinberg Lab8. S. Murray Sherman9. John Hopfield10. Christof Koch11. Joy Milne12. Aromha test13. Lucia F. Jacobs14. From chemotaxis to the cognitive map: The function of olfaction - Lucia F Jacobs 15. Patricia Churchland16. Andrew Sheriff, Northwestern Human Olfaction Lab17. Long-Range Respiratory and Theta Oscillation Networks Depend on Spatial Sensory Context - Andrew Sheriff, Guinevere Pandolfi,  Vivian S Nguyen and Leslie M. Kay18. Evidence for a Chromatographic Model of Olfaction - Maxwell Mozell 19. COVID-19 and olfactory dysfunction: a looming wave of dementia? - Leslie M. Kay 20. SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure - UK Biobank 21. Asifa Majid22. Human Olfaction at the Intersection of Language, Culture, and Biology - Asifa Majid Check out Vasant Dhar's newsletter on Substack. The subscription is free! Order Vasant Dhar's new book, Thinking With Machines

Leyla Muedin, a registered dietitian nutritionist, discusses a UK Biobank analysis published in the Journal of Cachexia, “Sarcopenia and Muscle” (Nov 2025) linking continuous long-term statin use (e.g., Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor) to accelerated declines in grip strength and appendicular lean mass compared with never-users. Among 35,557 with follow-up data, grip strength declined by a mean 0.315 kg/year and appendicular lean mass by 0.057 kg/year in statin users; findings persisted after adjustment for age, sex, BMI, comorbidities, and a pharmacogenomic statin-response score. Leyla notes possible mechanisms (CoQ10/mevalonate pathway effects, mitochondrial dysfunction, apoptosis, calcium disruption, insulin resistance) and advises monitoring musculoskeletal health, supporting diet and regular physical activity, while not interpreting results as a reason to stop prescribing statins.

Send us Fan MailSunlight has been framed as a problem to avoid, but the data keeps pointing in the opposite direction: people who get more natural light tend to live longer and carry a lower risk of chronic disease. We take a hard look at why this topic still feels controversial, and how fear based messaging can flatten a complex risk-benefit reality into a single command: stay out of the sun.We walk through a powerful new UK Biobank analysis on habitual ultraviolet exposure and mortality, using a detailed exposure model that captures real-world behavior, not just a lab estimate. The headline is difficult to ignore: higher UV exposure tracks with lower cardiovascular and non-skin cancer mortality, without a clear increase in skin cancer mortality in the findings. That forces a more balanced conversation about sunlight, all-cause mortality, and what “safe” actually means when heart disease and cancer remain the biggest killers.Then we go deeper than vitamin D. We talk nitric oxide, vascular function, clotting biology, inflammation markers, proteomic signals, circadian rhythm, and why morning light is one of the most underused tools for better sleep and mood. We also revisit the forgotten history of heliotherapy and how modern indoor living, artificial light, and aggressive sun avoidance can create a kind of paleo deficit disorder.If this changes how you think about sunlight and health, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review. What belief about sun exposure do you want to recheck this spring?For video, slides and open-source references: www.thehealthedgepodcast.com

Join Digital Education Committee member and podcast host Melissa E. Middeldorp, MPH, PhD, along with this week's guest contributors, Joshua Silverstein MD, FHRS from Allegheny Health Network and Jonathan Ariyaratnam, BChir, MA, MB, CCDS, CEPS-A from the University of Adelaidefor this week's episode. This study by Vad and colleagues examined markers of atrial cardiomyopathy (AtCM) in 26,467 UK Biobank participants without prior atrial fibrillation (AF), heart failure (HF), or stroke, integrating cardiac MRI, ECG, clinical risk factors, and genetic data. AtCM was defined using four markers: left atrial dilation, reduced left atrial emptying fraction (120 ms), and abnormal P-wave terminal force and 15.7% of individuals had at least one marker, while 2.3% had two or more. Over a median follow-up of nearly five years, the presence of AtCM markers showed a dose–response relationship with incident AF, with a HR: 4.59 in those with ≥2 markers and was also strongly associated with HF and ischemic stroke. Adding AtCM markers to clinical and genetic risk models improved AF risk prediction, supporting the concept that atrial cardiomyopathy may represent a common substrate linking AF, HF, and stroke and may help refine future risk stratification strategies. Article for Discussion Learning Objectives Understand how imaging- and ECG-based markers of atrial cardiomyopathy are defined and how they relate to the risk of incident AF, heart failure, and stroke. Evaluate how integrating atrial cardiomyopathy markers with clinical and genetic risk scores may improve risk stratification for AF and related cardiovascular outcomes. Article Authors Oliver B Vad, Nick van Vreeswijk, Ahmed S Yassin, Yuri Blaauw, Christian Paludan-Müller, Jørgen K Kanters, Claus Graff, Ulrich Schotten, Emelia J Benjamin, Jesper H Svendsen, Michiel Rienstra Podcast Contributors Melissa E. Middeldorp, MPH, PhD Joshua R. Silverstein, MD, FHRS Jonathan Ariyaratnam, BChir, MA, MB, CCDS, CEPS-A Host and Contributor Disclosure(s): M. Middeldorp Nothing to disclose. J. Ariyaratnam  Nothing to disclose.   J. Silverstein Honoraria/Speaking/Consulting: Medical Device Business Services, Biosense Webster, Inc., Medtronic Stocks, Privately Held: Heart Rhythm Clinical Solutions/3PH Alliance Staff Disclosure(s) (note: HRS staff are NOT in control of educational content. Disclosures are provided solely for full transparency to the learner): S. Sailor: No relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.

You may have seen headlines or social media posts claiming that ketones increase the risk of heart attacks and that this proves ketogenic diets are dangerous for heart health. But when you actually examine the study behind those claims, the data tell a very different story.In this video, Dr. Bret Scher takes a closer look at a recent paper published in the Journal of the American Heart Association that analyzed circulating ketone levels in participants from the UK Biobank. The study has been widely shared online as evidence against ketogenic diets. The issue? The participants weren't following a ketogenic diet at all.Instead, researchers measured very small baseline ketone levels in a general population that was consuming around 250 grams of carbohydrates per day, that's far from the levels associated with nutritional ketosis.In this video, you'll learn:Why this study was not a ketogenic diet studyThe difference between association and causation in epidemiologyWhy the measured ketone levels were far below nutritional ketosisHow metabolic stress, illness, or diabetes can raise ketone levels independently of dietWhy these findings don't tell us anything about ketogenic dietsUnderstanding the context behind nutrition research is critical. Misinterpreting observational data can easily lead to misleading headlines and unnecessary confusion about diet and health.

This week's stories: Healthy Diets That Offset "Bad Genes" A major UK Biobank study of over 100,000 people found that following any one of five healthy dietary patterns was associated with up to 3 extra years of life — and the benefit held regardless of genetic predisposition to longevity. Your DNA is not an excuse. The macro pattern matters more than the perfect protocol. • Sources: -https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads7559 -https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12904179 -https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/eat-well-live-longer-study-5-healthy-diet-plans-longevity Micro-Habits in Sleep, Activity, and Diet That Extend Life Researchers built a composite "SPAN" score combining sleep, movement, sedentary time, and diet quality and found that small improvements across all four — we're talking minutes per day — cut mortality risk by up to 64% when stacked together. The gains only showed up when behaviors improved in combination, not in isolation. • Sources: -https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11863424 -https://theconversation.com/small-improvements-in-sleep-physical-activity-and-diet-are-linked-with-a-longer-life-273502 -https://www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/news/2026/january/small-improvements-in-health-linked-to-longer-life Methionine and Cysteine Restriction: The Diet That Mimics Cold Exposure New research shows that reducing sulfur amino acids — methionine and cysteine, found heavily in certain animal proteins — triggers fat browning and thermogenesis in mice, mimicking the metabolic effects of cold exposure without the cold. Supporting human data from Nature Metabolism suggests this lever works in people too • Sources: -https://elifesciences.org/reviewed-preprints/108825v2 -https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-025-01297-8 -https://topics.consensus.app/news/research-finds-low-methionine-and-cysteine-diet-increases-caloric-burn-in-mice-evidence-review Tyrosine and Lifespan: What the Data Says for Men A Mendelian randomization analysis of over 270,000 UK Biobank participants found that genetically higher tyrosine levels were associated with nearly one year shorter lifespan in men — with no significant effect in women. This reflects lifelong endogenous levels, not short-term supplementation, but it's a signal worth understanding if you're using tyrosine strategically • Sources: -https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260301/Higher-tyrosine-levels-linked-to-shorter-lifespan-in-major-UK-Biobank-analysis.aspx -https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1105915 -https://www.aging-us.com/news-room/high-tyrosine-levels-linked-to-shorter-lifespan-in-men War Doomscrolling and WW3 Anxiety as a Stealth Aging Accelerator Compulsive consumption of conflict and war news is linked to PTSD-like symptoms, existential anxiety, and chronic stress — even in civilians far from any battlefield. Layered on top of cardiology data connecting chronic stress to heart disease and stroke, your news diet is now a legitimate healthspan variable. Subtractive biohacking is still biohacking. • Sources: -https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/07/240718124709.htm -https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jul/19/doomscrolling-linked-to-existential-anxiety-distrust-suspicion-and-despair-study-finds -https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/doomscrolling-dangers -https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9517387 All source links are provided for direct access to the original reporting and research. This episode is designed for biohackers, longevity seekers, and high-performance listeners who want mechanism-level clarity on circadian biology, neurodegeneration signals, cognitive training, caffeine strategy, and supplement regulation. Host Dave Asprey connects emerging science, behavioral data, and policy shifts into practical frameworks you can use to build a resilient, adaptable health stack. New episodes every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Keywords: healthy diet longevity genes, UK Biobank diet study, Mediterranean diet lifespan, DASH diet mortality, SPAN score sleep activity diet, micro habits longevity, mortality risk reduction, methionine restriction thermogenesis, cysteine restriction fat loss, sulfur amino acids metabolism, FGF21 fat browning, tyrosine lifespan men, Mendelian randomization amino acids, tyrosine supplement risk, doomscrolling aging, war news anxiety stress, chronic stress heart disease, psychosocial stress healthspan, biohacking news, longevity research 2026 Thank you to our sponsors! -AquaTru | Go to https://aquatruwater.com/daveasprey and save $100 on all AquaTru water purifiers.-BEYOND Biohacking Conference 2026 | Register with code DAVE300 for $300 off https://beyondconference.comResources: • Get My 2026 Clean Nicotine Roadmap | Enroll for free at https://daveasprey.com/2026-clean-nicotine-roadmap/ • Get My 2026 Biohacking Trends Report: https://daveasprey.com/2026-biohacking-trends-report/ • Dave Asprey's Latest News | Go to https://daveasprey.com/ to join Inside Track today. • Danger Coffee: https://dangercoffee.com/discount/dave15 • My Daily Supplements: SuppGrade Labs (15% Off) • Favorite Blue Light Blocking Glasses: TrueDark (15% Off) • Dave Asprey's BEYOND Conference: https://beyondconference.com • Dave Asprey's New Book – Heavily Meditated: https://daveasprey.com/heavily-meditated • Join My Substack (Live Access To Podcast Recordings): https://substack.daveasprey.com/ • Upgrade Labs: https://upgradelabs.com Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:18 - Story #1: Diet vs. Genetics 2:14 - Story #2: 1% Better Every Day 4:26 - Story #3: Sulfur Amino Acids & Fat Loss 5:55 - Story #4: Tyrosine & Longevity 7:58 - Story #5: Doomscrolling & Aging 10:00 - Weekly Roundup See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

 This episode's guests:Remi Bouche, Science Coordinator at Mont-Megantic.Jeremey Evans, Photographer - Filmmaker.Dashiell Leeds, Conservation Coordinator for the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter.Bill's News Picks:Let there be light — but not in Maine, GREG WALCHER, The Daily Sentinel.Our state is the best place in the country to bring dreams to life: A second Sphere venue is coming to the US, Fraser Lewry, Louder.LED lighting undermines visual performance unless supplemented by wider spectra, Nature. Exposure to outdoor artificial light at night is associated with a higher risk of ulcerative colitis: a prospective cohort study from the UK Biobank, Frontiers in Public Health.Are You Afraid of the Dark? This Oregon Retreat Locks You in Total Darkness. For Days. On Purpose, Danielle Denham, That Oregon Life. Send Feedback Text to the Show!Support the showA hearty thank you to all of our paid supporters out there. You make this show possible. For only the cost of one coffee each month you can help us to continue to grow. That's $3 a month. If you like what we're doing, if you think this adds value in any way, why not say thank you by becoming a supporter! Why Support Light Pollution News? Receive quarterly invite to join as live audience member for recordings with special Q&A session post recording with guests. Receive all of the news for that month via a special Supporter monthly mailer. Satisfaction that your support helps further critical discourse on this topic. About Light Pollution News: Ever wonder why migrating birds crash into buildings? Or why you can't sleep at night? What about where you can still see the Milky Way? Light Pollution News explores how our 24/7 lit world affects everything from wildlife and human health to our understanding of the stars, travel, and the future of our cities. Host Bill McGeeney brings on rotating guests to help dig into the latest research, policy activity, and real-world solutions - from how irresponsible lighting degrades our health to the best dark sky destinations for your next trip. Whether you're a birder, conservationist, astrophotographer, or just someone who misses sleeping in darkness, this is the show that connects the dots between your...

We discuss three pivotal studies showing how natural light wavelengths positively influence health from all-cause mortality to visual perfomance to blood glucose control in Type II diabetics.Jonathan Jarecki is a biomedical science sophomore with an interest in light and health, and host of Whole Health Podcast. SUPPORT MY WORK

Roger Seheult, MD of MedCram examines a new UK BioBank study on sunlight comparing melanoma mortality risk with all cause mortality benefit. See all Dr. Seheult's videos at: https://www.medcram.com/ (This video was recorded on January 24th 2026) Roger Seheult, MD is the co-founder and lead professor at: www.medcram.com He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine and an Associate Professor at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine. MEDCRAM WORKS WITH MEDICAL PROGRAMS AND HOSPITALS: MedCram offers group discounts for students and medical programs, hospitals, and other institutions. Contact us at customers@medcram.com if you are interested. MEDIA CONTACT:  Media Contact: customers@medcram.com Media contact info: https://www.medcram.com/pages/media-contact Video Produced by Kyle Allred Edited by Daphne Sprinkle of Sprinkle Media Consulting, LLC FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook:  www.facebook.com/MedCram Twitter/X: www.twitter.com/MedCramVideos Instagram: www.instagram.com/medcram DISCLAIMER: MedCram medical videos are for medical education and exam preparation, and NOT intended to replace recommendations from your doctor. #sunlight #melanoma #infrared

Sleep: we all know it's essential for function in everyday life, and plays an important role in recovery and managing musculoskeletal pain. How much did you learn about assessing and managing sleep dysfunction in your musculoskeletal degree program? Today, Dr Mark Shepherd (Bellin College) shares practical tips to help you assess sleep, identify common sleep disorders, and incorporate behavioural strategies into your musculoskeletal rehabilitation practice. ------------------------------ RESOURCES Clinician's guide to assessing and addressing sleep dysfunction in people with musculoskeletal pain: https://www.jospt.org/doi/10.2519/josptopen.2025.0198 Spine pain and sleep study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35642567/ UK Biobank study on predictors of persistent pain: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37414898/ Systematic review on lack of sleep measures: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37259893/ APTA position paper on the PT's role in sleep health: https://www.apta.org/apta-and-you/leadership-and-governance/policies/role-pt-apta-sleep-health DPT students and sleep behaviours: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39425093/

Nutritionist Leyla Muedin discusses the crucial importance of Omega-3 fats, particularly emphasizing their role in mental and heart health. She highlights a recent UK Biobank study demonstrating that higher Omega-3 levels are linked to a significantly lower risk of self-harm and suicidal ideation. Additionally, another study in the Journal of the American Heart Association reveals that elevated Omega-3 levels correlate with a reduced risk of atrial fibrillation (AFib). Leyla underscores the necessity of a balanced diet rich in Omega-3 sources like fatty fish and grass-fed meats, arguing that these nutrients are crucial for optimal mental and heart health.

Popular media leverage weak study to criticize RFK Jr.'s rethink of standard recommendations for saturated fat avoidance; Poor quality plant-based diets hike cardio risk; A listener complains his lp(a) is going up with age despite his healthy diet, lifestyle; Scientists pinpoint cocoa ingredient that slows aging; Berry proanthocyanidins preserve brain power; Tattooing may promote inflammation, undermine immunity.

Send us a textA minute that leaves you breathless can rival eight minutes of comfortable effort. That's the eye-opening takeaway we unpack as we dive into fresh UK Biobank data showing how vigorous activity dramatically outperforms moderate and light movement for reducing all-cause mortality, cardiovascular events, diabetes, and even cancer risk. We strip away jargon and use the talk test—can you sing, speak, or barely get a sentence out?—so anyone can gauge intensity without a lab or a smartwatch.We explore why intensity pays off under the hood: stronger left ventricular function, bigger stroke volume, better oxygen delivery, improved lactate recycling, greater capillary and mitochondrial density, and faster glycogen turnover. Then we get practical. No fancy gear required—try telephone-pole intervals on a walk, short hill surges, a flight of stairs at speed, or breathless bursts during yardwork and shoveling. Keep light movement threaded through your day to counter the stress signals of sitting, but add slim, safe slices of intensity to unlock outsized benefits when time is tight.We also lay out a sane progression. Find a steady state before nudging harder, start with tiny intervals, and build toward an 80 percent moderate base with 10 to 20 percent vigorous effort. Fold in resistance training to protect muscle, strength, and glucose control. The goal isn't punishment; it's leverage—using a few honest minutes to gain more health per unit of time. If you've ever wondered how to make movement matter more, this conversation offers a clear path you can start today. If it helps, share it with a friend, subscribe for more science-backed self-care, and leave a review to tell us your first vigorous minute.For video, PowerPoint slide deck and reference studies go to www.thehealthedgepodcast.com

Text Dr. Lenz any feedback or questions New Breakthrough: The Neurobiological Basis of Fibromyalgia Pain RevealedAre you or a loved one struggling with widespread pain often dismissed as stress-induced? Dr. Michael Lenz uncovers groundbreaking data showing that such pain is linked to measurable changes in the brain's structure. This episode delves into a massive study involving over 40,000 participants from the UK Biobank, validating the fibromyalgia index (FMI) as a reliable marker for nociplastic pain, especially seen in fibromyalgia. Key findings spotlight the altered structural connectivity within brain regions like the periaqueductal gray and amygdala, elucidating the link between chronic pain and symptoms such as fatigue and depression. Tune in to grasp a deeper understanding of the biological underpinnings of nociplastic pain and its ramifications for targeted treatments.Watch on Youtube Here00:00 Introduction to Nociplastic Pain01:32 Groundbreaking Study on Fibromyalgia Index01:52 Understanding Nociplastic Pain and Fibromyalgia02:52 Brain Networks and Pain Modulation04:08 Key Findings on Structural Connectivity04:53 Specific Brain Circuits and Symptoms06:10 Mediation Models and Symptom Domains07:10 Specificity of the Fibromyalgia Index07:48 Conclusion and Key Takeaways08:16  Final Thoughts Support the showWhen I started this podcast and YouTube Channel—and the book that came before it—I had my patients in mind. Office visits are short, but understanding complex, often misunderstood conditions like fibromyalgia takes time. That's why I created this space: to offer education, validation, and hope. If you've been told fibromyalgia “isn't real” or that it's “all in your head,” know this—I see you. I believe you. This podcast aims to affirm your experience and explain the science behind it. Whether you live with fibromyalgia, care for someone who does, or are a healthcare professional looking to better support patients, you'll find trusted, evidence-based insights here, drawn from my 29+ years as an MD. Please remember to talk with your doctor about your symptoms and care. This content doesn't replace per...

How can you write science-based fiction without info-dumping your research? How can you use AI tools in a creative way, while still focusing on a human-first approach? Why is adapting to the fast pace of change so difficult and how can we make the most of this time? Jamie Metzl talks about Superconvergence and more. In the intro, How to avoid author scams [Written Word Media]; Spotify vs Audible audiobook strategy [The New Publishing Standard]; Thoughts on Author Nation and why constraints are important in your author life [Self-Publishing with ALLi]; Alchemical History And Beautiful Architecture: Prague with Lisa M Lilly on my Books and Travel Podcast. Today's show is sponsored by Draft2Digital, self-publishing with support, where you can get free formatting, free distribution to multiple stores, and a host of other benefits. Just go to www.draft2digital.com to get started. This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Jamie Metzl is a technology futurist, professional speaker, entrepreneur, and the author of sci-fi thrillers and futurist nonfiction books, including the revised and updated edition of Superconvergence: How the Genetics, Biotech, and AI Revolutions Will Transform Our Lives, Work, and World. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes How personal history shaped Jamie's fiction writing Writing science-based fiction without info-dumping The super convergence of three revolutions (genetics, biotech, AI) and why we need to understand them holistically Using fiction to explore the human side of genetic engineering, life extension, and robotics Collaborating with GPT-5 as a named co-author How to be a first-rate human rather than a second-rate machine You can find Jamie at JamieMetzl.com. Transcript of interview with Jamie Metzl Jo: Jamie Metzl is a technology futurist, professional speaker, entrepreneur, and the author of sci-fi thrillers and futurist nonfiction books, including the revised and updated edition of Superconvergence: How the Genetics, Biotech, and AI Revolutions Will Transform Our Lives, Work, and World. So welcome, Jamie. Jamie: Thank you so much, Jo. Very happy to be here with you. Jo: There is so much we could talk about, but let's start with you telling us a bit more about you and how you got into writing. From History PhD to First Novel Jamie: Well, I think like a lot of writers, I didn't know I was a writer. I was just a kid who loved writing. Actually, just last week I was going through a bunch of boxes from my parents' house and I found my autobiography, which I wrote when I was nine years old. So I've been writing my whole life and loving it. It was always something that was very important to me. When I finished my DPhil, my PhD at Oxford, and my dissertation came out, it just got scooped up by Macmillan in like two minutes. And I thought, “God, that was easy.” That got me started thinking about writing books. I wanted to write a novel based on the same historical period – my PhD was in Southeast Asian history – and I wanted to write a historical novel set in the same period as my dissertation, because I felt like the dissertation had missed the human element of the story I was telling, which was related to the Cambodian genocide and its aftermath. So I wrote what became my first novel, and I thought, “Wow, now I'm a writer.” I thought, “All right, I've already published one book. I'm gonna get this other book out into the world.” And then I ran into the brick wall of: it's really hard to be a writer. It's almost easier to write something than to get it published. I had to learn a ton, and it took nine years from when I started writing that first novel, The Depths of the Sea, to when it finally came out. But it was such a positive experience, especially to have something so personal to me as that story. I'd lived in Cambodia for two years, I'd worked on the Thai-Cambodian border, and I'm the child of a Holocaust survivor. So there was a whole lot that was very emotional for me. That set a pattern for the rest of my life as a writer, at least where, in my nonfiction books, I'm thinking about whatever the issues are that are most important to me. Whether it was that historical book, which was my first book, or Hacking Darwin on the future of human genetic engineering, which was my last book, or Superconvergence, which, as you mentioned in the intro, is my current book. But in every one of those stories, the human element is so deep and so profound. You can get at some of that in nonfiction, but I've also loved exploring those issues in deeper ways in my fiction. So in my more recent novels, Genesis Code and Eternal Sonata, I've looked at the human side of the story of genetic engineering and human life extension. And now my agent has just submitted my new novel, Virtuoso, about the intersection of AI, robotics, and classical music. With all of this, who knows what's the real difference between fiction and nonfiction? We're all humans trying to figure things out on many different levels. Shifting from History to Future Tech Jo: I knew that you were a polymath, someone who's interested in so many things, but the music angle with robotics and AI is fascinating. I do just want to ask you, because I was also at Oxford – what college were you at? Jamie: I was in St. Antony's. Jo: I was at Mansfield, so we were in that slightly smaller, less famous college group, if people don't know. Jamie: You know, but we're small but proud. Jo: Exactly. That's fantastic. You mentioned that you were on the historical side of things at the beginning and now you've moved into technology and also science, because this book Superconvergence has a lot of science. So how did you go from history and the past into science and the future? Biology and Seeing the Future Coming Jamie: It's a great question. I'll start at the end and then back up. A few years ago I was speaking at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which is one of the big scientific labs here in the United States. I was a guest of the director and I was speaking to their 300 top scientists. I said to them, “I'm here to speak with you about the future of biology at the invitation of your director, and I'm really excited. But if you hear something wrong, please raise your hand and let me know, because I'm entirely self-taught. The last biology course I took was in 11th grade of high school in Kansas City.” Of course I wouldn't say that if I didn't have a lot of confidence in my process. But in many ways I'm self-taught in the sciences. As you know, Jo, and as all of your listeners know, the foundation of everything is curiosity and then a disciplined process for learning. Even our greatest super-specialists in the world now – whatever their background – the world is changing so fast that if anyone says, “Oh, I have a PhD in physics/chemistry/biology from 30 years ago,” the exact topic they learned 30 years ago is less significant than their process for continuous learning. More specifically, in the 1990s I was working on the National Security Council for President Clinton, which is the president's foreign policy staff. My then boss and now close friend, Richard Clarke – who became famous as the guy who had tragically predicted 9/11 – used to say that the key to efficacy in Washington and in life is to try to solve problems that other people can't see. For me, almost 30 years ago, I felt to my bones that this intersection of what we now call AI and the nascent genetics revolution and the nascent biotechnology revolution was going to have profound implications for humanity. So I just started obsessively educating myself. When I was ready, I started writing obscure national security articles. Those got a decent amount of attention, so I was invited to testify before the United States Congress. I was speaking out a lot, saying, “Hey, this is a really important story. A lot of people are missing it. Here are the things we should be thinking about for the future.” I wasn't getting the kind of traction that I wanted. I mentioned before that my first book had been this dry Oxford PhD dissertation, and that had led to my first novel. So I thought, why don't I try the same approach again – writing novels to tell this story about the genetics, biotech, and what later became known popularly as the AI revolution? That led to my two near-term sci-fi novels, Genesis Code and Eternal Sonata. On my book tours for those novels, when I explained the underlying science to people in my way, as someone who taught myself, I could see in their eyes that they were recognizing not just that something big was happening, but that they could understand it and feel like they were part of that story. That's what led me to write Hacking Darwin, as I mentioned. That book really unlocked a lot of things. I had essentially predicted the CRISPR babies that were born in China before it happened – down to the specific gene I thought would be targeted, which in fact was the case. After that book was published, Dr. Tedros, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, invited me to join the WHO Expert Advisory Committee on Human Genome Editing, which I did. It was a really great experience and got me thinking a lot about the upside of this revolution and the downside. The Birth of Superconvergence Jamie: I get a lot of wonderful invitations to speak, and I have two basic rules for speaking: Never use notes. Never ever. Never stand behind a podium. Never ever. Because of that, when I speak, my talks tend to migrate. I'd be speaking with people about the genetics revolution as it applied to humans, and I'd say, “Well, this is just a little piece of a much bigger story.” The bigger story is that after nearly four billion years of life on Earth, our one species has the increasing ability to engineer novel intelligence and re-engineer life. The big question for us, and frankly for the world, is whether we're going to be able to use that almost godlike superpower wisely. As that idea got bigger and bigger, it became this inevitable force. You write so many books, Jo, that I think it's second nature for you. Every time I finish a book, I think, “Wow, that was really hard. I'm never doing that again.” And then the books creep up on you. They call to you. At some point you say, “All right, now I'm going to do it.” So that was my current book, Superconvergence. Like everything, every journey you take a step, and that step inspires another step and another. That's why writing and living creatively is such a wonderfully exciting thing – there's always more to learn and always great opportunities to push ourselves in new ways. Balancing Deep Research with Good Storytelling Jo: Yeah, absolutely. I love that you've followed your curiosity and then done this disciplined process for learning. I completely understand that. But one of the big issues with people like us who love the research – and having read your Superconvergence, I know how deeply you go into this and how deeply you care that it's correct – is that with fiction, one of the big problems with too much research is the danger of brain-dumping. Readers go to fiction for escapism. They want the interesting side of it, but they want a story first. What are your tips for authors who might feel like, “Where's the line between putting in my research so that it's interesting for readers, but not going too far and turning it into a textbook?” How do you find that balance? Jamie: It's such a great question. I live in New York now, but I used to live in Washington when I was working for the U.S. government, and there were a number of people I served with who later wrote novels. Some of those novels felt like policy memos with a few sex scenes – and that's not what to do. To write something that's informed by science or really by anything, everything needs to be subservient to the story and the characters. The question is: what is the essential piece of information that can convey something that's both important to your story and your character development, and is also an accurate representation of the world as you want it to be? I certainly write novels that are set in the future – although some of them were a future that's now already happened because I wrote them a long time ago. You can make stuff up, but as an author you have to decide what your connection to existing science and existing technology and the existing world is going to be. I come at it from two angles. One: I read a huge number of scientific papers and think, “What does this mean for now, and if you extrapolate into the future, where might that go?” Two: I think about how to condense things. We've all read books where you're humming along because people read fiction for story and emotional connection, and then you hit a bit like: “I sat down in front of the president, and the president said, ‘Tell me what I need to know about the nuclear threat.'” And then it's like: insert memo. That's a deal-killer. It's like all things – how do you have a meaningful relationship with another person? It's not by just telling them your story. Even when you're telling them something about you, you need to be imagining yourself sitting in their shoes, hearing you. These are very different disciplines, fiction and nonfiction. But for the speculative nonfiction I write – “here's where things are now, and here's where the world is heading” – there's a lot of imagination that goes into that too. It feels in many ways like we're living in a sci-fi world because the rate of technological change has been accelerating continuously, certainly for the last 12,000 years since the dawn of agriculture. It's a balance. For me, I feel like I'm a better fiction writer because I write nonfiction, and I'm a better nonfiction writer because I write fiction. When I'm writing nonfiction, I don't want it to be boring either – I want people to feel like there's a story and characters and that they can feel themselves inside that story. Jo: Yeah, definitely. I think having some distance helps as well. If you're really deep into your topics, as you are, you have to leave that manuscript a little bit so you can go back with the eyes of the reader as opposed to your eyes as the expert. Then you can get their experience, which is great. Looking Beyond Author-Focused AI Fears Jo: I want to come to your technical knowledge, because AI is a big thing in the author and creative community, like everywhere else. One of the issues is that creators are focusing on just this tiny part of the impact of AI, and there's a much bigger picture. For example, in 2024, Demis Hassabis from Google DeepMind and his collaborative partner John Jumper won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry with AlphaFold. It feels to me like there's this massive world of what's happening with AI in health, climate, and other areas, and yet we are so focused on a lot of the negative stuff. Maybe you could give us a couple of things about what there is to be excited and optimistic about in terms of AI-powered science? Jamie: Sure. I'm so excited about all of the new opportunities that AI creates. But I also think there's a reason why evolution has preserved this very human feeling of anxiety: because there are real dangers. Anybody who's Pollyanna-ish and says, “Oh, the AI story is inevitably positive,” I'd be distrustful. And anyone who says, “We're absolutely doomed, this is the end of humanity,” I'd also be distrustful. So let me tell you the positives and the negatives, and maybe some thoughts about how we navigate toward the former and away from the latter. AI as the New Electricity Jamie: When people think of AI right now, they're thinking very narrowly about these AI tools and ChatGPT. But we don't think of electricity that way. Nobody says, “I know electricity – electricity is what happens at the power station.” We've internalised the idea that electricity is woven into not just our communication systems or our houses, but into our clothes, our glasses – it's woven into everything and has super-empowered almost everything in our modern lives. That's what AI is. In Superconvergence, the majority of the book is about positive opportunities: In healthcare, moving from generalised healthcare based on population averages to personalised or precision healthcare based on a molecular understanding of each person's individual biology. As we build these massive datasets like the UK Biobank, we can take a next jump toward predictive and preventive healthcare, where we're able to address health issues far earlier in the process, when interventions can be far more benign. I'm really excited about that, not to mention the incredible new kinds of treatments – gene therapies, or pharmaceuticals based on genetics and systems-biology analyses of patients. Then there's agriculture. Over the last hundred years, because of the technologies of the Green Revolution and synthetic fertilisers, we've had an incredible increase in agricultural productivity. That's what's allowed us to quadruple the global population. But if we just continue agriculture as it is, as we get towards ten billion wealthier, more empowered people wanting to eat like we eat, we're going to have to wipe out all the wild spaces on Earth to feed them. These technologies help provide different paths toward increasing agricultural productivity with fewer inputs of land, water, fertiliser, insecticides, and pesticides. That's really positive. I could go on and on about these positives – and I do – but there are very real negatives. I was a member of the WHO Expert Advisory Committee on Human Genome Editing after the first CRISPR babies were very unethically created in China. I'm extremely aware that these same capabilities have potentially incredible upsides and very real downsides. That's the same as every technology in the past, but this is happening so quickly that it's triggering a lot of anxieties. Governance, Responsibility, and Why Everyone Has a Role Jamie: The question now is: how do we optimise the benefits and minimise the harms? The short, unsexy word for that is governance. Governance is not just what governments do; it's what all of us do. That's why I try to write books, both fiction and nonfiction, to bring people into this story. If people “other” this story – if they say, “There's a technology revolution, it has nothing to do with me, I'm going to keep my head down” – I think that's dangerous. The way we're going to handle this as responsibly as possible is if everybody says, “I have some role. Maybe it's small, maybe it's big. The first step is I need to educate myself. Then I need to have conversations with people around me. I need to express my desires, wishes, and thoughts – with political leaders, organisations I'm part of, businesses.” That has to happen at every level. You're in the UK – you know the anti-slavery movement started with a handful of people in Cambridge and grew into a global movement. I really believe in the power of ideas, but ideas don't spread on their own. These are very human networks, and that's why writing, speaking, communicating – probably for every single person listening to this podcast – is so important. Jo: Mm, yeah. Fiction Like AI 2041 and Thinking Through the Issues Jo: Have you read AI 2041 by Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan? Jamie: No. I heard a bunch of their interviews when the book came out, but I haven't read it. Jo: I think that's another good one because it's fiction – a whole load of short stories. It came out a few years ago now, but the issues they cover in the stories, about different people in different countries – I remember one about deepfakes – make you think more about the topics and help you figure out where you stand. I think that's the issue right now: it's so complex, there are so many things. I'm generally positive about AI, but of course I don't want autonomous drone weapons, you know? The Messy Reality of “Bad” Technologies Jamie: Can I ask you about that? Because this is why it's so complicated. Like you, I think nobody wants autonomous killer drones anywhere in the world. But if you right now were the defence minister of Ukraine, and your children are being kidnapped, your country is being destroyed, you're fighting for your survival, you're getting attacked every night – and you're getting attacked by the Russians, who are investing more and more in autonomous killer robots – you kind of have two choices. You can say, “I'm going to surrender,” or, “I'm going to use what technology I have available to defend myself, and hopefully fight to either victory or some kind of stand-off.” That's what our societies did with nuclear weapons. Maybe not every American recognises that Churchill gave Britain's nuclear secrets to America as a way of greasing the wheels of the Anglo-American alliance during the Second World War – but that was our programme: we couldn't afford to lose that war, and we couldn't afford to let the Nazis get nuclear weapons before we did. So there's the abstract feeling of, “I'm against all war in the abstract. I'm against autonomous killer robots in the abstract.” But if I were the defence minister of Ukraine, I would say, “What will it take for us to build the weapons we can use to defend ourselves?” That's why all this stuff gets so complicated. And frankly, it's why the relationship between fiction and nonfiction is so important. If every novel had a situation where every character said, “Oh, I know exactly the right answer,” and then they just did the right answer and it was obviously right, it wouldn't make for great fiction. We're dealing with really complex humans. We have conflicting impulses. We're not perfect. Maybe there are no perfect answers – but how do we strive toward better rather than worse? That's the question. Jo: Absolutely. I don't want to get too political on things. How AI Is Changing the Writing Life Jo: Let's come back to authors. In terms of the creative process, the writing process, the research process, and the business of being an author – what are some of the ways that you already use AI tools, and some of the ways, given your futurist brain, that you think things are going to change for us? Jamie: Great question. I'll start with a little middle piece. I found you, Jo, through GPT-5. I asked ChatGPT, “I'm coming out with this book and I want to connect with podcasters who are a little different from the ones I've done in the past. I've been a guest on Joe Rogan twice and some of the bigger podcasts. Make me a list of really interesting people I can have great conversations with.” That's how I found you. So this is one reward of that process. Let me say that in the last year I've worked on three books, and I'll explain how my relationship with AI has changed over those books. Cleaning Up Citations (and Getting Burned) Jamie: First is the highly revised paperback edition of Superconvergence. When the hardback came out, I had – I don't normally work with research assistants because I like to dig into everything myself – but the one thing I do use a research assistant for is that I can't be bothered, when I'm writing something, to do the full Chicago-style footnote if I'm already referencing an academic paper. So I'd just put the URL as the footnote and then hire a research assistant and say, “Go to this URL and change it into a Chicago-style citation. That's it.” Unfortunately, my research assistant on the hardback used early-days ChatGPT for that work. He did the whole thing, came back, everything looked perfect. I said, “Wow, amazing job.” It was only later, as I was going through them, that I realised something like 50% of them were invented footnotes. It was very painful to go back and fix, and it took ten times more time. With the paperback edition, I didn't use AI that much, but I did say things like, “Here's all the information – generate a Chicago-style citation.” That was better. I noticed there were a few things where I stopped using the thesaurus function on Microsoft Word because I'd just put the whole paragraph into the AI and say, “Give me ten other options for this one word,” and it would be like a contextual thesaurus. That was pretty good. Talking to a Robot Pianist Character Jamie: Then, for my new novel Virtuoso, I was writing a character who is a futurist robot that plays the piano very beautifully – not just humanly, but almost finding new things in the music we've written and composing music that resonates with us. I described the actions of that robot in the novel, but I didn't describe the inner workings of the robot's mind. In thinking about that character, I realised I was the first science-fiction writer in history who could interrogate a machine about what it was “thinking” in a particular context. I had the most beautiful conversations with ChatGPT, where I would give scenarios and ask, “What are you thinking? What are you feeling in this context?” It was all background for that character, but it was truly profound. Co-Authoring The AI Ten Commandments with GPT-5 Jamie: Third, I have another book coming out in May in the United States. I gave a talk this summer at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York about AI and spirituality. I talked about the history of our human relationship with our technology, about how all our religious and spiritual traditions have deep technological underpinnings – certainly our Abrahamic religions are deeply connected to farming, and Protestantism to the printing press. Then I had a section about the role of AI in generating moral codes that would resonate with humans. Everybody went nuts for this talk, and I thought, “I think I'm going to write a book.” I decided to write it differently, with GPT-5 as my named co-author. The first thing I did was outline the entire book based on the talk, which I'd already spent a huge amount of time thinking about and organising. Then I did a full outline of the arguments and structures. Then I trained GPT-5 on my writing style. The way I did it – which I fully describe in the introduction to the book – was that I'd handle all the framing: the full introduction, the argument, the structure. But if there was a section where, for a few paragraphs, I was summarising a huge field of data, even something I knew well, I'd give GPT-5 the intro sentence and say, “In my writing style, prepare four paragraphs on this.” For example, I might write: “AI has the potential to see us humans like we humans see ant colonies.” Then I'd say, “Give me four paragraphs on the relationship between the individual and the collective in ant colonies.” I could have written those four paragraphs myself, but it would've taken a month to read the life's work of E.O. Wilson and then write them. GPT-5 wrote them in seconds or minutes, in its thinking mode. I'd then say, “It's not quite right – change this, change that,” and we'd go back and forth three or four times. Then I'd edit the whole thing and put it into the text. So this book that I could have written on my own in a year, I wrote a first draft of with GPT-5 as my named co-author in two days. The whole project will take about six months from start to finish, and I'm having massive human editing – multiple edits from me, plus a professional editor. It's not a magic AI button. But I feel strongly about listing GPT-5 as a co-author because I've written it differently than previous books. I'm a huge believer in the old-fashioned lone author struggling and suffering – that's in my novels, and in Virtuoso I explore that. But other forms are going to emerge, just like video games are a creative, artistic form deeply connected to technology. The novel hasn't been around forever – the current format is only a few centuries old – and forms are always changing. There are real opportunities for authors, and there will be so much crap flooding the market because everybody can write something and put it up on Amazon. But I think there will be a very special place for thoughtful human authors who have an idea of what humans do at our best, and who translate that into content other humans can enjoy. Traditional vs Indie: Why This Book Will Be Self-Published Jo: I'm interested – you mentioned that it's your named co-author. Is this book going through a traditional publisher, and what do they think about that? Or are you going to publish it yourself? Jamie: It's such a smart question. What I found quickly is that when you get to be an author later in your career, you have all the infrastructure – a track record, a fantastic agent, all of that. But there were two things that were really important to me here: I wanted to get this book out really fast – six months instead of a year and a half. It was essential to me to have GPT-5 listed as my co-author, because if it were just my name, I feel like it would be dishonest. Readers who are used to reading my books – I didn't want to present something different than what it was. I spoke with my agent, who I absolutely love, and she said that for this particular project it was going to be really hard in traditional publishing. So I did a huge amount of research, because I'd never done anything in the self-publishing world before. I looked at different models. There was one hybrid model that's basically the same as traditional, but you pay for the things the publisher would normally pay for. I ended up not doing that. Instead, I decided on a self-publishing route where I disaggregated the publishing process. I found three teams: one for producing the book, one for getting the book out into the world, and a smaller one for the audiobook. I still believe in traditional publishing – there's a lot of wonderful human value-add. But some works just don't lend themselves to traditional publishing. For this book, which is called The AI Ten Commandments, that's the path I've chosen. Jo: And when's that out? I think people will be interested. Jamie: April 26th. Those of us used to traditional publishing think, “I've finished the book, sold the proposal, it'll be out any day now,” and then it can be a year and a half. It's frustrating. With this, the process can be much faster because it's possible to control more of the variables. But the key – as I was saying – is to make sure it's as good a book as everything else you've written. It's great to speed up, but you don't want to compromise on quality. The Coming Flood of Excellent AI-Generated Work Jo: Yeah, absolutely. We're almost out of time, but I want to come back to your “flood of crap” and the “AI slop” idea that's going around. Because you are working with GPT-5 – and I do as well, and I work with Claude and Gemini – and right now there are still issues. Like you said about referencing, there are still hallucinations, though fewer. But fast-forward two, five years: it's not a flood of crap. It's a flood of excellent. It's a flood of stuff that's better than us. Jamie: We're humans. It's better than us in certain ways. If you have farm machinery, it's better than us at certain aspects of farming. I'm a true humanist. I think there will be lots of things machines do better than us, but there will be tons of things we do better than them. There's a reason humans still care about chess, even though machines can beat humans at chess. Some people are saying things I fully disagree with, like this concept of AGI – artificial general intelligence – where machines do everything better than humans. I've summarised my position in seven letters: “AGI is BS.” The only way you can believe in AGI in that sense is if your concept of what a human is and what a human mind is is so narrow that you think it's just a narrow range of analytical skills. We are so much more than that. Humans represent almost four billion years of embodied evolution. There's so much about ourselves that we don't know. As incredible as these machines are and will become, there will always be wonderful things humans can do that are different from machines. What I always tell people is: whatever you're doing, don't be a second-rate machine. Be a first-rate human. If you're doing something and a machine is doing that thing much better than you, then shift to something where your unique capacities as a human give you the opportunity to do something better. So yes, I totally agree that the quality of AI-generated stuff will get better. But I think the most creative and successful humans will be the ones who say, “I recognise that this is creating new opportunities, and I'm going to insert my core humanity to do something magical and new.” People are “othering” these technologies, but the technologies themselves are magnificent human-generated artefacts. They're not alien UFOs that landed here. It's a scary moment for creatives, no doubt, because there are things all of us did in the past that machines can now do really well. But this is the moment where the most creative people ask themselves, “What does it mean for me to be a great human?” The pat answers won't apply. In my Virtuoso novel I explore that a lot. The idea that “machines don't do creativity” – they will do incredible creativity; it just won't be exactly human creativity. We will be potentially huge beneficiaries of these capabilities, but we really have to believe in and invest in the magic of our core humanity. Where to Find Jamie and His Books Jo: Brilliant. So where can people find you and your books online? Jamie: Thank you so much for asking. My website is jamiemetzl.com – and my books are available everywhere. Jo: Fantastic. Thanks so much for your time, Jamie. That was great. Jamie: Thank you, Joanna.The post Writing The Future, And Being More Human In An Age of AI With Jamie Metzl first appeared on The Creative Penn.

In this solo episode, Darin reframes one of the most misunderstood forces in life — stress. Instead of seeing it as the enemy, he explores how stress is actually a messenger, guiding you back to alignment, safety, and awareness. Through science, spirituality, and lived experience, Darin breaks down how stress shows us where we're trying to control, where we're disconnected, and where our nervous system is calling for attention. He unpacks the layers of modern stress — from trauma and environment to community and purpose — and offers practical, embodied tools to restore calm, clarity, and resilience.     What You'll Learn 00:00:00 – Welcome to Super Life: Solutions for a Healthier Life and Better World 00:00:32 – Sponsor Spotlight: TheraSauna - Natural Healing Technologies (15% off with code Darrandai) 00:02:10 – The Super Life Podcast: Finding Contentment, Happiness, and Purpose 00:02:51 – Today's Topic: Stress - Reframing Stress as an Ally and Dashboard Light 00:04:54 – The "No Choice" Universe: Reconnecting to Infinite Possibilities 00:05:16 – The Reality of Stress: Statistics and the Impact of Chronic Stress 00:06:21 – Stress is Layered: Beyond a Single Cause, Addressing Chronic Stress 00:08:29 – Solutions for a Super Life: Safety over Calm and the Vagal Response 00:09:38 – The Inner Dialogue Layer: Trauma, Unconsciousness, and Spiritual Bypassing 00:11:47 – The Social Field Layer: Relationships, Community, and Finding Your Way Home 00:14:20 – Sponsor Spotlight: Bite Toothpaste - Sustainable, Non-Toxic Tabs (20% off with code Darin20) 00:16:35 – Creating Your Own Vision: Setting Boundaries with Media and Social Algorithms 00:17:29 – Finding Your Purpose: From Raising Children to Healing Injuries 00:18:35 – Environmental and Existential Stress Layers: Clutter, Noise, and Service 00:19:26 – Stress Load and Resiliency: Why Small Triggers Cause Blow-Ups 00:20:02 – Understanding the Dashboard Light: Acknowledging Unwillingness 00:20:35 – Safety as the Signal: Body Relaxation and Providing Inner Security 00:23:44 – Reframing Trauma: Was it the Protector You Needed at the Time? 00:25:00 – Releasing Trauma: Techniques, The Healing Code, and Waking the Tiger 00:26:06 – Finishing the Survival Response: Shaking, Crying, Screaming, and Stretching 00:26:38 – Stress as a Multiplier: Impact on Immune System, Heart, and Aging 00:28:10 – Stress Slows Repair: Inflammation, Cardiovascular Risk, and Cellular Aging 00:29:48 – The Integrative Approach: Changing Your Environments to Support Anti-Stress 00:30:07 – Actionable Stress Solutions: Circadian Rhythm, Nature, and Noise Reduction 00:30:44 – Actionable Stress Solutions: Gratitude, Conscious Breath, and Movement 00:31:32 – Energy Drains to Eliminate: Conflict, Clutter, Scrolling, and Late Caffeine 00:32:17 – Connecting to Greater Purpose: The Super Life Patreon Platform 00:32:54 – Morning/Night Questions: Letting Go, Creating, and Contributing 00:33:17 – Final Toolkit: Slow Breathing, Movement, Nature, Sauna, and Sleep 00:34:25 – The Invitation: Digging into all Layers of a Super Life on Patreon   Thank You to Our Sponsors Therasage: Go to www.therasage.com and use code DARIN at checkout for 15% off Bite Toothpaste: Go to trybite.com/DARIN20 or use code DARIN20 for 20% off your first order. Find More from Darin Olien: Instagram: @darinolien Podcast: SuperLife Podcast Website: superlife.com Book: Fatal Conveniences   Key Takeaway "Stress isn't your enemy — it's your compass. Every wave of tension points you back to what's asking for care, attention, and love. When you stop fighting stress and start listening to it, you don't just survive — you evolve."       Bibliography (selected, peer-reviewed) Sources: Gallup Global Emotions (2024); Gallup U.S. polling (2024); APA Stress in America (2023); Natarajan et al., Lancet Digital Health (2020); Orini et al., UK Biobank (2023); Martinez et al. (2022); Leiden University (2025). Cohen S, Tyrrell DA, Smith AP. Psychological stress and susceptibility to the common cold. N Engl J Med.1991;325(9):606–612. New England Journal of Medicine Cohen S, et al. Chronic stress, glucocorticoid receptor resistance, inflammation, and disease risk. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2012;109(16):5995–5999. PNAS Kiecolt-Glaser JK, et al. Slowing of wound healing by psychological stress. Lancet. 1995;346(8984):1194–1196. The Lancet Kiecolt-Glaser JK, et al. Hostile marital interactions, proinflammatory cytokine production, and wound healing.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62(12):1377–1384. JAMA Network Tawakol A, et al. Relation between resting amygdalar activity and cardiovascular events. Lancet.2017;389(10071):834–845. The Lancet Epel ES, et al. Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA.2004;101(49):17312–17315. PNAS McEwen BS, Stellar E. Stress and the individual: mechanisms leading to disease. Arch Intern Med.1993;153(18):2093–2101. PubMed McEwen BS, Wingfield JC. Allostasis and allostatic load. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1998;840:33–44. PubMed Felitti VJ, et al. Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many leading causes of death in adults (ACE Study). Am J Prev Med. 1998;14(4):245–258. AJP Mon Online Edmondson D, et al. PTSD and cardiovascular disease. Ann Behav Med. 2017;51(3):316–327. PMC Afari N, et al. Psychological trauma and functional somatic syndromes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychosom Med. 2014;76(1):2–11. PMC Goyal M, et al. Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med. 2014;174(3):357–368. PMC Qiu Q, et al. Forest therapy: effects on blood pressure and salivary cortisol—a meta-analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;20(1):458. PMC Laukkanen T, et al. Sauna bathing and reduced fatal CVD and all-cause mortality. JAMA Intern Med.2015;175(4):542–548. JAMA Network Zureigat H, et al. Physical activity lowers CVD risk by reducing stress-related neural activity. J Am Coll Cardiol.2024;83(16):1532–1546. PMC Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB. Social relationships and mortality risk: a meta-analytic review. PLoS Med.2010;7(7):e1000316. PMC Chen Y-R, Hung K-W. EMDR for PTSD: meta-analysis of RCTs. PLoS One. 2014;9(8):e103676. PLOS Hoppen TH, et al. Network/pairwise meta-analysis of PTSD psychotherapies—TF-CBT highest efficacy overall.Psychol Med. 2023;53(14):6360–6374. PubMed van der Kolk BA, et al. Yoga as an adjunctive treatment for PTSD: RCT. J Clin Psychiatry. 2014;75(6):e559–e565. PubMed Kelly U, et al. Trauma-center trauma-sensitive yoga vs CPT in women veterans: RCT. JAMA Netw Open.2023;6(11):e2342214. JAMA Network Bentley TGK, et al. Breathing practices for stress and anxiety reduction: components that matter. Behav Sci (Basel). 2023;13(9):756. 

Are children's IQs going down?An overview of medical reversalsCan you comment on the melatonin and heart failure study?Result of a prostate artery embolization

I have hypothyroidism.  Do I need to be concerned about low ferritin levels?What are the benefits of lower-dose fish oil?Is there a connection between melatonin supplementation and depression?Can I take melatonin while on warfarin?What to do about the state of our healthcare system?

Stress isn't just something to “manage” — it's a signal, a teacher, and often, an invitation to look deeper at our health, our choices, and our lives. In this solo episode, Darin reframes stress not as an enemy, but as a dashboard light pointing toward misalignments in our nervous system, environment, relationships, and purpose. Drawing on science, practical tools, and personal insight, Darin reveals how layered stress silently drains our vitality — and how to transform it into an ally for growth, healing, and deeper contentment. Whether it's hidden trauma, toxic environments, unresolved conflict, or the modern distractions constantly pulling at our attention, Darin lays out a roadmap to stop the leaks and reclaim the energy already within you. This episode is a powerful reminder: stress isn't the end of the story — it's the beginning of awareness, safety, and a super life.     What You'll Learn in This Episode [00:00] Introduction to the Super Life podcast [03:27] Why stress might not be your enemy [04:17] Stress as an ally: the signals it gives us about misalignment [04:32] The dashboard light metaphor: how stress reveals hidden issues [05:28] The illusion of “no choice” and the infinite possibilities always available [06:12] Global stress statistics and why most people underestimate their stress load [07:23] Hidden stress revealed through heart rate variability and physiology [08:23] Layered stress: how sleep, exercise, and poor choices compound each other [09:25] Safety vs. calm — why your nervous system craves safety first [10:15] Trauma and the unconscious mind: how old wounds drive our stress response [11:54] Inner narratives and negative self-talk as hidden stress multipliers [12:22] The role of community and your social field in stress and resilience [13:53] Relationships, honesty, and how your circle shapes your energy [14:55] Why boundaries around media and politics are vital for mental clarity [17:42] Finding micro-purpose when life feels overwhelming [18:52] Environmental layers of stress — light, air, and clutter [19:15] The existential layer: stress from living without service or purpose [20:12] Stress as a risk amplifier — how it undermines healing and health [20:55] The deeper truth of safety, connection, and higher power [23:00] Practical tools: breathing, grounding, nature, and conscious choices [24:01] Trauma reframed: not a problem, but a protector at the time [25:25] Lessons from Peter Levine and wild animals: releasing trauma physically [26:04] Questions to ask trauma: “What are you protecting me from?” [26:56] Stress as a multiplier of aging, disease, and poor outcomes [29:20] Why stress isn't a single cause — it's layered and chronic [30:18] Anti-stress strategies: circadian rhythm, nature, and gratitude [31:49] Energy leaks to avoid: clutter, poor food, scrolling, bad boundaries [32:22] What matters most: service, contribution, and alignment [33:28] Final toolkit: breathwork, movement, nature, sleep, and gratitude [34:38] The deeper invitation: step into sovereignty and live your SuperLife     Thank You to Our Sponsors: Manna Vitality: Go to mannavitality.com/  or use code DARIN20 for 20% off your order. Bite Toothpaste: Go to trybite.com/DARIN20 or use code DARIN20 for 20% off your first order.     Find More from Darin Olien: Instagram: @darinolien Podcast: SuperLife Podcast Website: superlife.com Book: Fatal Conveniences Check out my podcast with Dr. Amy Abbington     Key Takeaway “Stress is not the enemy. It's a dashboard light — a teacher showing you where you're out of alignment. When you reframe stress, you reclaim your energy and create space for healing, safety, and the joy of living a super life.”     Bibliography (selected, peer-reviewed) Sources: Gallup Global Emotions (2024); Gallup U.S. polling (2024); APA Stress in America (2023); Natarajan et al., Lancet Digital Health (2020); Orini et al., UK Biobank (2023); Martinez et al. (2022); Leiden University (2025). Cohen S, Tyrrell DA, Smith AP. Psychological stress and susceptibility to the common cold. N Engl J Med.1991;325(9):606–612. New England Journal of Medicine Cohen S, et al. Chronic stress, glucocorticoid receptor resistance, inflammation, and disease risk. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2012;109(16):5995–5999. PNAS Kiecolt-Glaser JK, et al. Slowing of wound healing by psychological stress. Lancet. 1995;346(8984):1194–1196. The Lancet Kiecolt-Glaser JK, et al. Hostile marital interactions, proinflammatory cytokine production, and wound healing.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62(12):1377–1384. JAMA Network Tawakol A, et al. Relation between resting amygdalar activity and cardiovascular events. Lancet.2017;389(10071):834–845. The Lancet Epel ES, et al. Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA.2004;101(49):17312–17315. PNAS McEwen BS, Stellar E. Stress and the individual: mechanisms leading to disease. Arch Intern Med.1993;153(18):2093–2101. PubMed McEwen BS, Wingfield JC. Allostasis and allostatic load. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1998;840:33–44. PubMed Felitti VJ, et al. Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many leading causes of death in adults (ACE Study). Am J Prev Med. 1998;14(4):245–258. AJP Mon Online Edmondson D, et al. PTSD and cardiovascular disease. Ann Behav Med. 2017;51(3):316–327. PMC Afari N, et al. Psychological trauma and functional somatic syndromes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychosom Med. 2014;76(1):2–11. PMC Goyal M, et al. Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med. 2014;174(3):357–368. PMC Qiu Q, et al. Forest therapy: effects on blood pressure and salivary cortisol—a meta-analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;20(1):458. PMC Laukkanen T, et al. Sauna bathing and reduced fatal CVD and all-cause mortality. JAMA Intern Med.2015;175(4):542–548. JAMA Network Zureigat H, et al. Physical activity lowers CVD risk by reducing stress-related neural activity. J Am Coll Cardiol.2024;83(16):1532–1546. PMC Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB. Social relationships and mortality risk: a meta-analytic review. PLoS Med.2010;7(7):e1000316. PMC Chen Y-R, Hung K-W. EMDR for PTSD: meta-analysis of RCTs. PLoS One. 2014;9(8):e103676. PLOS Hoppen TH, et al. Network/pairwise meta-analysis of PTSD psychotherapies—TF-CBT highest efficacy overall.Psychol Med. 2023;53(14):6360–6374. PubMed van der Kolk BA, et al. Yoga as an adjunctive treatment for PTSD: RCT. J Clin Psychiatry. 2014;75(6):e559–e565. PubMed Kelly U, et al. Trauma-center trauma-sensitive yoga vs CPT in women veterans: RCT. JAMA Netw Open.2023;6(11):e2342214. JAMA Network Bentley TGK, et al. Breathing practices for stress and anxiety reduction: components that matter. Behav Sci (Basel). 2023;13(9):756.