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Want to live to a healthy 100? Longevity doctor Peter Attia has advice.

The Washington Post

Want to live to a healthy 100? Longevity doctor Peter Attia has advice.

Andrea Atkins – October 13, 2023

“If you improve your health span, so that when you’re 80, you actually function like a 65-year-old, it’s almost impossible to not also get five to 10 years of life-span extension,” says Peter Attia, author of “Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity.” (Dia Dipasupil via Getty Images)

Do you want to live to 100? Thanks to modern medicine, you have a decent chance of doing so.

But if you want to live well to 100, physician and best-selling author Peter Attia says you may have some work to do so that your last decade of life – your “marginal decade,” as he calls it – is healthful and rewarding, not limited by disease.

If we adopt new ways of looking at our health, we can do a better job of matching our life span (how long we live) to our “health span” (how long we live free from chronic disease or other health problems), says Attia, the author of “Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity.”

In a phone interview, Attia talked about “the Four Horsemen of Chronic Disease” – cardiovascular disease, cancer, cognitive diseases (such as Alzheimer’s) and metabolic diseases (such as Type 2 diabetes) – and new ways to plan for longevity. The following was edited for length and clarity.

Q: Many people fear living to be 100, imagining loneliness, poor health and solitude. Should living so long be our aim?

A: I don’t think it should, actually. A lot of those fears are really valid. I think a better goal is to maximize health span. When you do that, you will automatically get a longer life span. If you improve your health span, so that when you’re 80, you actually function like a 65-year-old, it’s almost impossible to not also get five to 10 years of life-span extension.

Q: One of the ways to improve health span is through something you call “the Centenarian Decathlon.” What is it, and how do we train for it?

A: It’s a mental model which says that the greater the specificity with which you train for your physical goals, the more likely you are to achieve them.

I think back to the very first goal I ever had, which was to run five five-minute miles. That’s a lot more specific than saying I want to be able to run five miles. If you want to achieve that, you have to train with far greater specificity than if you just want to able to run five miles. And this is true across the board. And it’s what’s necessary to achieve remarkable feats.

I ask patients to think specifically about what they want to be able to do when they are in their 80s or older, and to start training for that when they are in their 40s or 50s or 60s.

Q: You mean, for example, if you want to hike for two miles when you’re 80.

A: Yes.

Q: Why won’t just hiking every day in the years leading up to that prepare you to continue walking outdoors?

A: Because as you age, the degradation of strength, stamina, balance, lower leg variability is so profound that it is insufficient to just hike two miles when you’re in your 40s and 50s, and assume that’s going to get you doing the same thing when you’re 80. When you’re 80, you have to aim much higher. . . . The Centenarian Decathlon is asking, “What do you want to do in your marginal decade?” And the more specific you can make it, the better, because you’ll be able to train for it, and increase the odds that you will be ready for it.

Q: And if you want to lift your great-grandchild when you’re 80, you need to do what, exactly, when you’re 50, 60 and 70?

A: To safely pick up a 30-pound child from the floor, you need hip flexibility and abdominal and spinal stability to get into a low squat position, then you need to be able to pick up a 30-pound weight. It’s harder to do a squat with weight in front of you because it requires more core stabilization and more scapular stability [shoulder strength]. This essentially means you need to be able to do a 30-pound goblet squat at the age of 85. . . . By the time they’re 85, most can’t even do the goblet squat, without any additional weight. So just on that one metric of strength, we have something that we need to train for.

Q: You say exercise is the most important tactic for longevity, but more than 60 percent of Americans do not get enough exercise. Can sedentary people undertake the vigorous training that you recommend?

A: If you’re starting from zero, just getting to 90 minutes a week of exercise will result in a 15 percent reduction in all-cause mortality [including the Four Horsemen]. That’s dramatic. I mean, we don’t have drugs that can reduce 15 percent all-cause mortality across the board. And the good news is it’s not just like this abstract thing of “we’re adding a couple of years to your life.” No, no. You’re going to feel better in three months.

Every person who saves for retirement, in my view, is doing something slightly more difficult. Because in the short term, you get nothing out of saving for retirement. . . . And I would say with these other changes that we ask people to make, at least they’re getting a benefit today.

How is anybody supposed to find time for this? I would just say, if you’re not going to make time for this, what are you making time for?

Q: Most of us succumb to one of those Four Horsemen. What do these diseases have in common?

A: Cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurogenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s being the most common, are all exacerbated dramatically by metabolic disease. So, if you have Type 2 diabetes, your risk of those other diseases goes up dramatically.

Q: You suggest getting ahead of these diseases by screening, gene testing or digging deeply into bloodwork to uncover markers that, frankly, most insurance companies won’t pay for. What do you say to patients, and your critics, about why these things are worth doing?

A: I guess the question is, what’s the alternative? The alternative is continuing to do what we’re doing. How is that working out? Not so well. So, if herculean preventive measurements are too expensive, treating them is costlier.

Is it expensive to get a $1,000 CT angiogram when you’re 40? Yes, it is. Do you know what it costs to get a stent placed? Or to get a bypass when you’re 65? Unfortunately, if you really want to take prevention seriously, you’re on the hook for the cost.

Q: Does this mean that only rich people can live healthfully to 100?

A: Screening is simply one small part of this. Far more relevant to increasing your health span is not whether or not you’re getting a CT angiogram, it’s whether you’re doing all of the other things that we talked about vis-à-vis sleep, nutrition and exercise. You don’t have to be wealthy to do those things.

Q: Isn’t it true that even if you do all of this, the Horsemen could still come for you?

A: Isn’t there a chance that if you save for retirement, your investments will sour before you need to draw the money out? Yeah, of course, there is. But if you don’t do these things, you dramatically increase the odds of things not going well.

3 Beginner-Friendly, At-Home Exercises To Blast Fat Over 40

She Finds

3 Beginner-Friendly, At-Home Exercises To Blast Fat Over 40

Mariam Qayum – October 6, 2023

As we age, staying fit and maintaining a healthy weight becomes increasingly important. Fat accumulation, especially around the midsection, can be a common concern for individuals over 40. Fortunately, there are effective ways to combat this issue. Whether you’re just starting your fitness journey or looking for new ways to stay active, these exercises can be a valuable addition to your routine, promoting not only fat loss but also overall well-being.

We spoke with Andrew White, certified personal trainer, who shared his insights on the three easy exercises that can be seamlessly incorporated into your home workout routine to help individuals over the age of 40 effectively tackle fat loss. According to White’s expertise, these workouts comprise squats, push-ups, and standing leg lifts. Read on to learn more.

Squats

Squats are a fantastic exercise that can be a powerful tool in your journey to blast fat. This simple yet highly effective movement engages multiple muscle groups, including your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and even your core. By incorporating squats into your routine, you not only strengthen these essential muscle groups but also boost your metabolism, which is crucial for fat loss.

“Squats target the large muscle groups of the lower body, like the quads and glutes. As you engage these major muscles, your body burns more calories, aiding in fat loss. As we age, maintaining muscle mass becomes crucial, and squats help in preserving and building that essential muscle,” White says.

How to perform squats: White says to begin by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart. Keeping your chest up and back straight, bend your knees and push your hips back as if you are sitting in a chair. Lower down until your thighs are parallel with the ground, then push through your heels to return to the starting position.

Push-ups

Push-ups are a fantastic beginner-friendly, at-home exercise for individuals over 40 aiming to blast fat and enhance their overall fitness. This classic bodyweight exercise primarily targets the chest, shoulders, and triceps while engaging your core and stabilizing muscles.

White notes that “push-ups are fantastic for engaging the upper body and core muscles simultaneously. They target the chest, shoulders, and triceps while also challenging the abdominal muscles. This compound exercise promotes calorie burn and muscle strengthening, essential for metabolic health as we age.”

In order to effectively perform push-ups, White says to start in a plank position with your hands placed slightly wider than shoulder-width. Engage your core and keep a straight line from head to heels. Bend your elbows and lower your body towards the ground. Once your chest is just above the floor, push yourself back up to the starting position. If traditional push-ups are challenging initially, begin with knee push-ups.

Standing Leg Lifts

Standing leg lifts are a beginner-friendly, at-home exercise that can be a game-changer for those over 40. These simple yet effective leg lifts target your lower body, specifically the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. They also engage your core muscles for stability, which is crucial for balance, especially as we age.

“This exercise targets the outer thighs and hips, strengthening and toning these areas. As a low-impact exercise, it’s excellent for those over 40 as it reduces strain on the joints while effectively engaging the muscles,” White states.

Follow these simple steps to effectively perform standing leg lifts: Stand straight next to a wall or chair for support. Keeping your leg straight, lift it out to the side as high as comfortably possible. Lower it back down slowly. Repeat on the other leg.

These exercises are easy to perform without any special equipment, making them an accessible choice for those looking to maintain or improve their fitness level from the comfort of their own home.

Forget squats and lunges—strengthen your body with this 20-minute knee-friendly workout

Fit & Well

Forget squats and lunges—strengthen your body with this 20-minute knee-friendly workout

Lois Mackenzie – October 6, 2023

Squats and lunges are a staple of many great workouts, but they aren’t gentle on the knees. If you’re looking to take some strain away from your lower-body joints, try this low-impact full-body routine instead. There’s not a squat or lunge in sight.

Certified personal trainer Roxanne Russell (Workout With Roxanne) leads you through each exercise via the follow-along video below. All you need to get started is a kettlebell and 20 minutes of free time.

You’ll be working for 60 seconds on a strength-based exercise, which is followed by 30 seconds of cardio and a 15-second break.

Pay close attention to Russell’s form during the workout, to help you hone your own technique (kettlebell swings can be hard to perfect) and don’t even think about skipping her thorough warm up.

Watch Roxanne Russell’s knee-friendly workout

Low-impact sessions place less strain on your joints, improving your fitness and strengthening your body without subjecting your knees, hips and ankles to the stresses of running and jumping.

This particular low-impact routine uses supersets, which means you perform one exercise straight after another with no rest in between. Russell has twinned strength-building exercises with cardio moves, which will help you build muscle and burn calories at the same time.

Burning calories with a sweaty cardio session is one way to create a calorie deficit for weight loss, if that’s your goal. But it’s worth bearing in mind that strength training can help with weight loss, too.

That’s because strength training helps you build muscle, which is a metabolically active tissue. This means that muscle (unlike fat) takes energy to maintain, so it burns more calories even when you’re resting.

How hot is too hot for humans? Local physician tells how climate change affects us

The Oak Ridger

How hot is too hot for humans? Local physician tells how climate change affects us

Carolyn Krause – October 6, 2023

As the Earth heats up owing to increased fossil fuel use and deforestation, Americans should be aware that heat waves are the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the country and that certain high temperature ranges can endanger our health and even the ability of our cellphones to work.

That was the message presented by Elaine Bunick, a retired endocrinologist who has traveled to Ghana, Haiti and other countries on medical mission trips. In her recent talk to Altrusa International of Oak Ridge, she presented extensive information on the effects of climate change on the environment, human health and healthcare facilities.

She provided advice on how to protect yourself from excessive heat. And she relayed predictions on impending health care worker shortages that likely made some audience members hot and bothered.

Physician Elaine Bunick, center, signed a book to be donated to the Oak Ridge Preschool.The title is National Geographic Kids’ “Little Kids First Big Book of Weather” by Karen de Seve. With her are Altrusa members Kari Iwanski, left, and Mary Jellison, right.

This summer in Oak Ridge, she said, residents experienced 33 days with temperatures greater than 90 degrees Fahrenheit. July was the hottest month. Bunick said people can expect to have to endure 20 to 30 more days a year of sizzling heat with peak temperatures over 90.

A check with Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge indicated that the emergency room reported more cardiac issues and interventions this year than in the past, but an increased death rate was not observed. Heat waves and air pollution from burning forests can cause heart problems.

Heat is greater risk for some

Bunick said people with chronic medical conditions, such as heart disease, respiratory disorders, diabetes, obesity and kidney ailments, have a greater risk for succumbing to heat illnesses.

“Medications such as antidepressants, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, diuretics, antipsychotics and opioids alter your ability to handle the heat,” she added.

The increased heat, she said, will especially endanger the health of outdoor workers, such as farmers, police officers, firefighters, road workers, power line maintenance workers and transporters of supplies to stores and homes. The loss of labor hours, she added, will hurt the economy.

Others who are most susceptible to falling ill from excessive heat are persons older than 65, infants, children, pregnant women, people with pre-existing medical conditions and disabilities, athletes and people living in lower-income households or those who are homeless.

Take care of each other

“We have to be adaptable and protect each other to survive,” Bunick said. She cited statistics on the future of health care in the nation.

“The U.S. is predicted to have a shortage of 129,000 doctors and 200,000 nurse practitioners, physician assistants and technical personnel by 2034,” she said. “That’s scary. Our population has an increasing number of seniors – we’re almost 25% of the population. Who is going to care for us? We’re going to have to care for each other.”

Physician Elaine Bunick speaks on climate change and health to Altrusa International of Oak Ridge.

She noted that “in the early 2000s, the U.S. government put a cap on the number of doctors, nurses and physician assistants that can be trained. To this day they have not rescinded that order, so we have a growing shortage of trained medical staff. It takes 15 years to train a specialist like me and six years to train a nurse.”

The average temperature of the earth’s surface has been around 58 degrees Fahrenheit. This year, Bunick said, “the earth’s average surface temperature rose to 62.9 degrees and the oceans reached a peak of 69 degrees, almost the temperature of bath water. That was hottest ocean temperature ever recorded.”

Heat indexes, heat exhaustion and more

So, how hot is too hot? What are the dangerous temperatures and heat indexes for humans?

A normal adult body temperature, when taken orally, can range from 97.6 to 99.6 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Bunick, “The hottest air temperature for human survival is 123.8 degrees; beyond that you’re unlikely to survive. A body temperature over 108.14 degrees causes the body to become scrambled because the heat fries the proteins, denaturing them and causing dysfunction of enzymes and harm to the brain. Death can occur within six hours. Building heat tolerance and acclimatization takes about six weeks.”

According to one of her slides, a human body temperature of 103 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit can cause confusion and impaired judgment, and a temperature of 109 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit can cause brain damage, seizures, cardio-respiratory collapse, shock and death. The highest temperature recorded of a person surviving a heat stroke was 115.7 degrees Fahrenheit.

The heat index is a measure of the interaction of temperature and humidity. “Sweat cools the body by evaporation but if it’s too humid, you can’t add any more moisture to the air,” she said. A heat index of 95 degrees is considered the absolute limit of human tolerance above which the body cannot lose heat efficiently enough to maintain core temperature and avoid brain and organ damage within about six hours.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke are headache, nausea, dizziness, weakness, irritability, thirst, heavy sweating, elevated body temperature, confusion, altered mental status, slurred speech, loss of consciousness, profuse sweating, and seizures. Under these conditions, the body temperature is higher than 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

To protect yourself from heat exhaustion or heat stroke when you’re outdoors on hot days, the CDC recommends that you wear lightweight, light-colored, loose-fitting clothing and a sun hat; take breaks to drink water and cool down in an air-conditioned or shady place; wear sunscreen and sunglasses when you’re outside; drink Gatorade or other drinks with electrolytes; avoid alcoholic beverages, splash yourself with water or use a cold, wet cloth to cool down and check your body temperature periodically.

To treat someone with heat exhaustion, move them to a cool area, give frequent sips of cool water, apply cold and wet compresses, remove unnecessary clothing, call 911 or take the individual to the ER for medical evaluation and treatment. If you and others are on a hike on a hot day, she warned, be sure you keep your cellphone cool and out of direct sunlight or a hot car (120 degrees). Between 96 and 109 degrees the battery will be so damaged that your phone will no longer allow you to make emergency calls.

Bunick noted that weather-related and climate-related events can threaten human health and safety in other ways. Wildfires and house fires can release cancer-causing and other irritating particles to the air, causing respiratory disease and heart issues. She advised checking on the EPA Air Quality Index (stay inside when the air is labeled Code Orange, Red, Purple or Maroon) and wearing N95 or KN95 masks if you must be outside when the air is unhealthy.

Wear insect repellant because ticks and mosquitoes migrating north as the climate warms carry Lyme disease, West Nile virus, dengue fever and malaria, according to one of her slides. Climate change can increase the probability that people get sick from disease-carrying organisms entering drinking water and from harmful algal blooms caused by algae and bacteria present in waters where people swim, causing eye irritation and respiratory illness especially in people with asthma.

“In 2022 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced there were 18 weather-related disasters costing over $1 billion each,” Bunick said.

Some of these disasters caused flooding, leading to drownings and homes destroyed by unhealthy mold. The disasters included heat waves, drought, flooding, hailstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes and winter storms. The death and destruction from these disasters cause mental health problems in victims.

Hospitals are preparing

Bunick said that administrators of hospitals, which use lots of electricity and produce 10% of U.S. greenhouse gases, as well as their healthcare workforce, are preparing for climate-related emergencies and extreme weather events that can disrupt operations, including hurricanes, floods and wildfires. Medicines in hospital pharmacies may be damaged by floods or by the heat, causing them to lose their potency. She gave an example close to home.

“Many hospitals keep their computers, medicines and other important supplies in the basement,” she said. “Recently, there was a water main break at Fort Sanders hospital in Knoxville. My son-in-law, who’s in charge of home infusion therapy at Fort Sanders, had to rush to save the medication in the hospital basement pharmacy from six inches of water!”

Leanne Hainsby Commemorates a Year Since Chemo Started: ‘I Was So Frightened’

People

Leanne Hainsby Commemorates a Year Since Chemo Started: ‘I Was So Frightened’

Cara Lynn Shultz – September 25, 2023

The Peloton instructor looks back one year after beginning chemotherapy for breast cancer

<p>Leanne Hainsby/Instagram</p> Leanne Hainsby. — Leanne Hainsby/InstagramLeanne Hainsby.

Leanne Hainsby celebrates the one-year anniversary of when she started chemotherapy
The Peloton instructor was “trying my best to be brave” during breast cancer struggle
She’s turning her attention to charity work, and says she wants to ”make a difference”

A year after starting the chemotherapy treatments that saved her life, Leanne Hainsby is looking back and feeling “lucky.”

“On this day last year, I started chemotherapy,” the popular British Peloton instructor wrote on Instagram. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer when she was just 35 years old last August.

“I was so frightened, unsure of it all, totally overwhelmed and trying my best to be brave, and accepting,” Hainsby, now 36, wrote.

Hainsby — who continued to teach continued to teach 3-4 Peloton classes a week to unknowing members while undergoing 12 weeks of chemo — announced that she’s teamed up with a charity initiative aimed at early diagnosis of breast cancer.

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“Today, I had the privilege of announcing an event I am hosting (that sold out within minutes 🥹), which is aimed at raising awareness and money for @coppafeelpeople – a charity that [will] educate, encourage and empower people (especially young people) to ensure breast cancer is diagnosed early and correctly.”

“I feel SO lucky to be well, and proud for this moment. It’s taken a lot to get here, and I’m really ready to hopefully make a difference x.”

Hainsby’s health struggle began during an emotional time in her life, as “two days before my best friend’s funeral, I found a lump in my breast,” she captioned a series of Instagram photos of herself in a hospital bed last year.

“That really is a sentence I NEVER imagined writing.”

After first being dismissed by a doctor who said she was fine, she went on to consult another physician and was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2022.

“I trusted my gut and got a second opinion,” she wrote. “That saved my life. Check, and check again.”

Back in August, Hainsby — who is engaged to fellow Peloton instructor Ben Alldis, 30 —celebrated another milestone: One year of sobriety.

She said she was inspired to give up alcohol after her cancer diagnosis.

“At first, it was to ensure that I was as healthy as possible “ during treatment, she wrote on Instagram. “Then it quickly turned into the best decision I made for myself, because everything everyone says about stopping drinking, for me, continues to be true.”

While she said that her mental clarity and productivity improved, “I think my initial reason for stopping drinking was definitely more intense than it would be for most. Deep in the VERY early stages of traumatic grief, and shock, drinking too much to try and numb an ounce of the pain in any way possible, and then diagnosed with cancer a few weeks later, it could have been a recipe for disaster.”

But instead, Hainsby said, “I chose to sit with the feelings, as brutal and relentless as they have been.”

And while “we all have our own definition of fun,” Hainsby wrote, “I’m just redefining mine.”

Stepping toward lower blood sugar: The benefits of walking

Deseret News

Stepping toward lower blood sugar: The benefits of walking

Emma Pitts – September 18, 2023

Walking could be the key to your digestive health. | Adobe Stock

After a big meal, the last thing you might want to do is exercise. The good news is something as simple as a short walk can benefit your health and lower blood sugar levels, according to a study published in the journal Sports Medicine.

This doesn’t mean Olympic speed walking. It simply means walking as little as five minutes to get the blood flowing, the study said.

The study delved into whether standing was effective as well, and though it had more benefits than simply sitting, walking showed greater health benefits in lowering blood sugar.

“Intermittent standing breaks throughout the day and after meals reduced glucose on average by 9.51% compared to prolonged sitting. However, intermittent light-intensity walking throughout the day saw a greater reduction of glucose by an average of 17.01% compared to prolonged sitting,” study co-author Aidan Buffey told CNN.

Adding that, “This suggests that breaking prolonged sitting with standing and light-walking breaks throughout the day is beneficial for glucose levels.”

Benefits of walking

There is a plethora of health benefits that come with taking a stroll around the park, the Mayo Clinic said, emphasizing that exercising does not have to be a vigorous activity for you to see benefits.

Health benefits that come with walking, according to the Mayo Clinic, include:

Maintain a healthy body.
Prevent or manage high blood pressure and heart disease.
Boost immune system.
Increase energy levels.
Improve balance.

What is high blood pressure?

Blood pressure is the pace at which blood moves throughout your arteries. If blood pressure is high, your heart is working harder to pump the blood through your body, per Catholic Health.

According to Eating Well, “After you eat, your blood sugar increases, and the pancreas secretes a hormone called insulin. … This hormone signals the body to soak up glucose, lowering blood sugar along the way.”

Walking helps kickstart your body’s blood flow and helps send glucose from outside the muscle cell to the inside, fitness nutritionist Michele Canon told Eating Well.

How to get started

It is important that you monitor your blood sugar levels more often when just starting to workout, especially if it’s been a while since being active, per the American Diabetes Association.

Repetition will allow improvement. “Start slowly and walk for just a few minutes the first time. The more you walk, the easier it will get, and you’ll be able to add intensity by increasing your time, pace, or distance,” the American Diabetes Association added.

Easy ways to incorporate walking into your day could include the following:

Avoid driving to walkable destinations.
Get a friend to walk with and hold each other accountable.
Invest in a treadmill or march in place.
Listen to a podcast or interactive app to encourage you.

Researchers make disturbing discovery while analyzing samples taken from the Great Lakes: ‘We know we are being exposed’

The Cool Down

Researchers make disturbing discovery while analyzing samples taken from the Great Lakes: ‘We know we are being exposed’

Erin Feiger – September 17, 2023

It has long been said that water is life, as no human can survive without it. Humans, however, aren’t showing our waters the appreciation they deserve in return.

The Guardian reported that a recent peer-reviewed paper from the University of Toronto found that nearly 90% of water samples taken from the Great Lakes over the last 10 years contain levels of microplastics unsafe for wildlife.

What’s happening?

Our planet is riddled with plastic pollution. Plastics take ages to break down, and as they do, they create microplastics — tiny particles less than five millimeters (about 0.2 inches) in length.

Of the samples taken and analyzed from the Great Lakes, about 20% are at the highest level of risk.

“Ninety percent is a lot,” Eden Hataley, University of Toronto researcher and co-author of the study, told t he Guardian. “We need to answer some basic questions by monitoring … so we can quantify risks to wildlife and humans.”

The authors reviewed data from other peer-reviewed studies from the last 10 years. These studies showed that the highest levels are found in tributaries leading to the lakes or around major cities like Chicago and Toronto, with the highest average levels in Lake Michigan and Lake Ontario.

Statista reported that about 40 million tons of plastic are thrown out annually in the United States. Only about 5% of this gets recycled, per Greenpeace, and about 85% ends up in landfills.

Researchers found that nearly 22 million pounds of plastic debris enter the Great Lakes every year from the U.S. and Canada. That’s as much weight in plastic as about 5,500 cars.

Hataley believes wastewater treatment plants, microfibers that come off clothing in washing machines, and preproduction plastic pellets used in manufacturing are major contributors of plastics to the Great Lakes basin.

She also noted that alarming levels of microplastics have been found in fish consumed by humans and beer brewed with water from the Great Lakes.

“We know we are being exposed,” she told the Guardian, “but what that means in terms of harm or what’s a safe level – we have no idea, and that’s going to take more research.”

Why is this concerning?

Combined, the Great Lakes supply drinking water to over 40 million people across Canada and the U.S. They hold nearly 90% of the freshwater in the U.S.; and they are home to 3,500 species of plants and animals, according to the Guardian.

If these lakes aren’t healthy, neither are we.

However, the study’s authors said that if the U.S. and Canada act now, the damage to the Great Lakes can be reversed.

What can be done to save the Great Lakes?

The authors say both governments must start monitoring the lakes’ microplastics levels now.

Hataley pointed out that the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement already has programs monitoring other pollutants, and adding microplastics to the list would not be difficult.

Adding filters to washing machines or storm sewers at manufacturing sites would also greatly help, Hataley told the Guardian.

As individuals, we can research ways to reduce our reliance on single-use plastics and take steps to do so.

“The timeline is not that shocking,’ Hataley said, “but it makes a lot of sense to do it now.”

Study identifies surprising culprit behind the poor performance of some NFL teams: ‘The evidence is piling up’

TCD

Study identifies surprising culprit behind the poor performance of some NFL teams: ‘The evidence is piling up’

Laurelle Stelle – August 26, 2023

The amount of air pollution in an athlete’s city has a measurable effect on their performance, according to a new study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Researchers from two Louisiana universities recently collected data on two high-level team sports: Major League Baseball (MLB) and the NFL. They then compared those stats to the air quality index for each team’s home city.

Their analysis, published in January, shows that baseball teams commit an extra 0.000993 errors per game for every additional air quality index point, while quarterbacks can expect a 0.23-point dip in their QB rating, an all-around stat for measuring on-field performance.

This study is the latest in a series of recent papers examining the effects of air quality on athletics. Another study published this year found that air pollution impacts running speed, while one conducted in 2017 linked air quality to the number of passes that soccer players made.

In this case, researchers accounted for other factors that might affect performance, like the team’s budget.

Francis Pope, a University of Birmingham professor of atmospheric studies, told The Daily Beast that this data is about more than just the heart and lungs — pollution also affects the brain. Unlike a sport like track in which the athlete is constantly moving, baseball and football are played in short bursts, so errors can easily occur due to failures in judgment.

“Certainly the evidence is piling up,” he told the outlet, “that pollution does appear to have an effect on the cognitive impacts of people, both in the short term and, via increased rates of diseases like Alzheimer’s, the long term.”

Study co-author Jeremy Foreman stressed to the Daily Beast that air quality isn’t the only factor that can affect an athlete’s performance.

“It doesn’t mean that a high-performing quarterback is going to all of a sudden be awful because he’s playing in a certain city,” he said. “But how much better could you be if there was better air?”

As wildfires multiply, a new era of air pollution

AFP

As wildfires multiply, a new era of air pollution

Issam Ahmed – August 23, 2023

Heavy smog covers the skylines of the boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan in New York on June 7, 2023 (Ed JONES)

From Quebec to British Columbia to Hawaii, North America is facing an extraordinary wildfire season — and regions both near and far have found themselves increasingly blighted by smoke exposure.

Here’s what you should know about air pollution from these blazes.

– What we know –

One of the defining aspects of smoke from wildfires is “particulate matter” — toxins that, in their numbers, can make smoke visible.

Particulate matter of 2.5 micron diameter, PM2.5, is “particularly dangerous for human health and emitted in really large quantities,” Rebecca Hornbrook, an atmospheric chemist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who flies in planes through smoke for her research, told AFP.

“Typically if you are downwind of a wildfire, that’s the thing that’s causing the majority of the darkening of the sky and the lack of visibility,” she said, such as the shrouded skies seen in New York as a result of fires hundreds of miles away in Quebec earlier this year.

PM2.5 penetrates deep inside the lungs and potentially even the bloodstream.

The average American had already been exposed to 450 micrograms of smoke per cubic meter by early July, worse that the entirety of the years from 2006-2022, economist Marshall Burke at Stanford posted on X recently, citing calculations made by the university’s Environmental Change and Human Outcomes Lab.

Also of concern are invisible substances known as volatile organic compounds such as butane and benzene. These cause eye and throat irritation, while some are known carcinogens.

When VOCs mix with nitrogen oxides — which are produced by wildfires but also are abundant in urban areas from burning fossil fuels — they help form ozone which can exacerbate coughing, asthma, sore throat and difficulty breathing.

– What we don’t know –

Automobile ownership exploded after World War II, and in the decades since scientists have gained insights on how it impacts humans — from the onset of asthma in childhood to increased risk of heart attacks and even dementia later on in life.

That breadth of knowledge is lacking for wildfire smoke, explained Christopher Carlsten, director of the Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory at the University of British Columbia.

Based on the two dozen studies published “there seems to be a greater proportion of respiratory versus cardiovascular effects of smoke as compared to traffic pollution,” he told AFP.

The reason might be that nitric oxides are more prominent in traffic pollution.

Carlsten’s lab has begun conducting human experiments with wood smoke to gain more clarity.

Medical interventions exist, said Carlsten, who is also a physician, including inhaled steroids, non-steroid inflammatories, and air filters — but research is urgently needed to know how best to use them.

– Will it spur action? –

The warming planet also impacts our psychological wellbeing in myriad ways, Joshua Wortzel, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s committee on climate change in mental health, told AFP.

One response is distress, “anger, grief, anxiety, in the face of the natural disasters they expect to come,” with these rates far higher in younger people than older.

Another is mental “acclimatization,” a byproduct of evolution that helps us cope with new stressors, but if we’re not careful can inure us to dangers, much like the proverbial frog in boiling water.

For Hornbrook, who is based in Colorado, what eastern North America experienced in 2023 is what the western side of the continent has already been dealing with for many years — and the global picture is only set to worsen given humanity’s appetite for burning fossil fuels.

While historic pollution regulations helped rein in emissions from cars and industry, climate action will be needed to tackle the wildfire scourge, she said.

“It gets frustrating knowing that we’ve been ringing the warning bell for years and years, and we’re now seeing what we’ve been warning about,” she said, but added there was still hope. “Maybe now people are actually starting to notice and we’ll see some change.”

Most fish oil supplements make unsupported heart health claims, finds new study. Here’s why experts say most people can skip them.

Yahoo! Life

Most fish oil supplements make unsupported heart health claims, finds new study. Here’s why experts say most people can skip them.

Korin Miller – August 23, 2023

For years, fish oil supplements were promoted as an important way to boost health and particularly heart health. But recent research has shown mixed results on their impact, despite some supplement companies continuing to promote their products as having a big influence on health.

Still, nearly 10% of U.S. adults take fish oil supplements. Now, a new study finds that many fish oil companies make claims that are untested, and that a wide variety of amounts of omega-3 fatty acids — the core healthy fats in fish oil — are in their supplements.

What the study says

The study finds that the majority of fish oil supplements on the market make health claims that aren’t backed up by clinical trial data.

What are the key findings?

For the study, researchers analyzed the labels of more than 2,800 fish oil supplements and found that 2,082 (or nearly 74%) made at least one health claim. Of those, only 399 (19.2%) used a qualified health claim that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (A qualified health claim means that the statements are supported by scientific evidence.)

But nearly 81% of those supplements made claims about the structure or function of what the supplements could do, such as saying that they “promote heart health,” with cardiovascular claims being the most common.

The researchers also found “substantial variability” in the supplements’ daily dose of omega-3s EPA and DHA — two major compounds in fish oil.

The researchers noted in the study’s conclusion that most fish oil supplement labels make health claims “that imply a health benefit across a variety of organ systems, despite a lack of trial data showing efficacy.” There is also “significant” diversity and quality in the daily dose of EPA and DHA in supplements, “leading to potential variability in safety and efficacy” between them.

Joanna Assadourian, lead study author and a fourth-year medical student at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, tells Yahoo Life that “based on what I’ve seen personally in the grocery store and pharmacy, I was not surprised to find such high rates of health claims on fish oil supplements. What was surprising, though, was just how broad the types of claims being made was — from heart and brain health to joint health, eye health and immune function.”

The study’s co-author, Dr. Ann Marie Navar, associate professor of medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, tells Yahoo Life that “as a preventive cardiologist, I see patients in clinic all the time taking fish oil with the belief it is helping their heart. They are often surprised when I tell them that randomized trials have shown no benefit for fish oil supplements on heart attacks or strokes.”

Navar adds: “And we’ve all been in the supplement aisles of the grocery store or pharmacy and seen the massive number of products all claiming different types of potential health benefits. We wanted to better characterize what types of claims are being made on fish oil supplement labels.”

What experts think

It’s worth noting that supplements are a largely unregulated industry in the U.S. Companies can put new supplements on the market without FDA approval — they’re just expected to adhere to FDA guidelines about safety and labeling. The agency also monitors reports of adverse events after products are up for sale.

“This is an important reminder that supplements are not FDA regulated, and you may not truly know what is in the bottle, despite what the label says,” Dr. Ali Haider, an interventional cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, tells Yahoo Life. “This also highlights that the ‘health benefits’ touted by many supplement manufacturers are often not based on real evidence and are misleading. Patients need to be aware and educated before spending money on unhelpful products.”

This is an issue with all supplements, Dr. Cheng-Han Chen, an interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Disease Program at MemorialCare Saddleback medical center in Laguna Hills, Calif., tells Yahoo Life. “I always tell patients to be cautious with supplements because any manufacturer can put anything they want in a pill and say whatever they want about it,” he says. “Fish oil is no different.”

Why do so many people continue to take fish oil supplements despite this? “Many people take fish oil because of longstanding beliefs about its potential health benefits, particularly for heart health,” registered dietitian Scott Keatley, co-owner of Keatley Medical Nutrition Therapy, tells Yahoo Life. “The supplement industry, anecdotal evidence and earlier studies have often promoted these benefits. Once a narrative becomes deeply embedded in popular culture, it can be difficult to change, even when new evidence emerges.”

When doctors use DHA and EPA in clinical practice, “it’s generally at doses of 2 to 4 grams a day to help lower triglyceride levels in patient with high triglycerides,” Haider says. (Triglycerides are levels of fat in the blood.) But, she adds, “studies have not shown that fish oil supplements reduce your risk of heart attack or stroke.”

Navar admits that the messaging around fish oil supplements is “confusing,” chalking it up to evolving science and slow administrative processes. “Epidemiologists first found that people who eat more fish and who have higher levels of EPA and DHA in their blood have less heart disease,” she explains. “This led people to think there could be a benefit to fish oil. In fact, this type of data is what led the FDA in 2003 to approve a qualified health claim for fish oil that it may lower the risk of coronary heart disease.”

But several large, high-quality, placebo-controlled randomized trials since then haven’t shown any benefit for the general population to take fish oil to prevent heart disease. “Despite these two trials showing no benefit, many people still believe fish oil has some benefit,” Navar says. “The landscape here is really confusing — even though large clinical trials show no benefit for prevention of heart disease, the 2003 FDA qualified health claim is still active.” As a result, manufacturers of fish oil supplements can legally make claims like “promotes heart health,” even though recent data doesn’t support that, she says.

Why it matters

There are two FDA-approved fish oil-based drugs, “but they’re for very specific indications, like people with high triglycerides,” Chen says. For everyone else, fish oils aren’t really recommended.

“There is potential harm in taking fish oil supplements,” Chen says. “They may have additives and fillers, and we don’t know what they are.” Fish oil can also raise the risk of bleeding and atrial fibrillation, he says.

“I tell my patients that large, placebo-controlled trials have failed to show any benefit for prevention of heart attacks and strokes, so if they are taking it to try to lower their risk of those, they can stop,” Navar says. “There are far more effective pills to lower the risk of heart attack and stroke — and fish oil supplements aren’t usually covered by insurance, so they can get expensive.”

Chen recommends speaking to your doctor before taking a fish oil supplement. “Initially, we thought that fish oil was better for treating heart disease than it turned out to be,” he says.

Assadourian agrees, saying: “Supplement labels can be confusing even for the most savvy of consumers. Patients should talk to their doctor about what supplements they are taking and why they are taking them — they may be surprised to learn that they are not getting the health benefits they think they are.”