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A few years back, I attended my friend Nick’s blowout 40th birthday party.

As part of the celebration, he hired an improv comic, and we all had to participate in learning improv comedy.

(I just felt the collective shiver of all the introverts reading this newsletter).

We started tossing out fun scenarios and scenes to participate in, and we learned about the most important rule of Improv: “Yes and.”

Two simple words, and the foundation for all of improv comedy:

Whenever somebody comes up with a scene, sentence, or situation, the ONLY acceptable response is: “yes and”

• Yes: Acceptance! I accept and acknowledge that whatever the situation is, no matter how absurd, to be true.
• And: build! Like a tennis match, after your improv partner hits the ball to you, your job is to hit it back! Building on the situation or scene.

For example, if your improv partner says, “I’m a space pirate” your response could be:

• “Yes, and I’m the space police, you’re under arrest!”
• “Yes, and I’m a first mate looking for a new crew, this is perfect!”
• “Yes, and my name is Captain Hook, welcome to Pirates Anonymous.”

The “yes and” rule is so crucial, because there’s nothing worse than a bad improv partner!

Kind of like Liam Neeson in ​this short sketch​ with Ricky Gervais, (I laugh every time):

The Yes And Rule for Life

As a former overachieving “gifted child” who has quite the negative inner critic, I’ve worked hard on incorporating “yes and” into my life.

The “yes” part is built around acceptance, which is something I’ve spent the past two years working to embrace.

Check out my past essays on ​Acceptance​ and ​Wabi Sabi​ for more.

It’s the “and” part I’ve focused on lately.

As Dr. Kristen Neff points out on in her book ​Self-compassion​, life is complex and so are humans:

“Judgment defines people as bad versus good and tries to capture their essential nature with simplistic labels.

Discriminating wisdom recognizes complexity and ambiguity.”

Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Things are never as good or bad as our brains think they are either.

So despite the voice in our heads that wants to judge everything in black-or-white, yes-or-no, good-or-bad terms… We must remember that life is a beautifully complicated mess.

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald once said:

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.

This is my task for you today.

Is there a part of your life that feels black-or-white, and instead could use a bit of complexity?

Nothing is as simple as it seems.

Life is hard, and change is hard. AND you’re a good person who’s trying.

Which means there’s hope. And ​hope is the warrior emotion​.

Also, please go watch that ​Liam Neeson skit​.

You’re welcome.

-Steve

PS: Need guidance and accountability to reach your fitness goals? Nerd Fitness has helped 10,000+ humans over the last 8 years with 1-on-1 online fitness coaching. ​Click here for more details​.

A study of almost 500,000 individuals has revealed that the chromosome end fragments in the immune system’s white blood cells are shortened from cigarette smoking. These end fragments are known as telomeres, and telomere length is an indicator of how fast we age and the ability of the cells to regenerate and repair.

The study demonstrates that smoking status and number of cigarettes smoked can shorten the length of leucocyte telomeres, an indicator of aging, tissue regeneration, and self-repair. This means that smoking cigarettes can accelerate the aging process while quitting can significantly reduce the associated risk.

Telomeres are like the metal or plastic sheaths that stop the fraying of shoelaces. They are repetitive DNA sequence lengths protecting the chromosome ends. The telomeres become a little bit shorter every time a cell divides and gradually become so short that the cell is no longer able to divide and dies.

This process is part of aging. The length of telomeres in white blood cells known as leucocytes has been associated with smoking, but there haven’t been many studies into whether the amount smoked and smoking status in fact caused the telomere length to shorten.

Data were analyzed from the UK Biobank that contains health and genetic information from 500,000 individuals. They examined whether an individual was currently smoking, a former smoker, or never smoker, smoking addiction level, the number of cigarettes smoked (pack-years of smoking), in addition to leucocyte telomere length information obtained from blood tests.

They made use of a method known as Mendelian randomization that uses gene variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms that we inherit to deduce how exposure to a changeable environmental factor that includes smoking is causally associated with a condition or health issue like shorter leucocyte telomeres.

The Mendelian randomization avoids the challenge of other, frequently unknown factors influencing the results, which enables researchers to examine whether a specific factor causes a condition, instead of just being linked to it.

Data from 472,174 UK Biobank participants were used, and 113 single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with smoking status, 15 single nucleotide polymorphisms for participants currently smoking, 78 single nucleotide polymorphisms for participants who had never smoked and 20 single nucleotide polymorphisms for participants who had smoked before.

The researchers discovered that there was a statistically significant association between current smoking status and shorter leucocyte telomere length, while former smokers and never smokers didn’t show shorter leucocyte telomere length.

Individuals who used to smoke tended to have shorter telomere length, but this wasn’t statistically significant. A shorter leucocyte telomere length that was significant was seen in individuals who smoked the most cigarettes.

In conclusion, smoking can shorten leucocyte telomere length, and the shortening effect is stronger when more cigarettes are smoked.

Observational studies have associated leucocyte telomere length shortening with numerous conditions, which include muscle loss, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Research has shown that a healthy lifestyle involving regular social connection, healthy sleep, healthful eating, moderate consumption of alcohol, and regular physical activity while avoiding an excessive amount of sedentary behavior and smoking, lowers depression risk.

Researchers examined a combination of factors such as brain structure, genetics, lifestyle factors, and the metabolic and immune systems to determine the underlying mechanisms that could explain this relationship.

According to the WHO, about 1 in 20 individuals suffer from depression, and the disorder presents a significant public health burden globally. The factors that affect the start of depression are complex and include a combination of lifestyle and biological factors.

To examine the association between depression and these factors, data were made use of the UK Biobank, a research resource that contains the participants’ health, lifestyle, and genetic details.

By looking at data from nearly 290,000 people, of whom 13,000 experienced depression, followed over 9 years, the researchers could identify 7 healthy lifestyle factors linked to a reduced depression risk. These were:

• Frequent social connection
• Low-to-moderate sedentary behavior
• Never smoking
• Healthy sleep
• Regular physical activity
• Moderate alcohol consumption
• Healthy diet

Getting a good night’s sleep of between 7 and 9 hours every night made the largest difference out of all of the factors for reducing depression risk by 22%, which includes treatment-resistant depression and single depressive episodes.

A regular social connection had the most protective effect against recurrent depression which generally lowered depression risk by 18%.

Never smoking reduced depression risk by 20%, regular physical activity reduced risk of depression by 14%, low-to-moderate sedentary behavior reduced risk of depression by 13%, moderate alcohol consumption reduced risk of depression by 11%, and a healthy diet reduced risk of depression by 6%.

The individuals were allocated to 1 of 3 groups according to how many healthy lifestyle factors they stuck to: favorable lifestyle, intermediate lifestyle, and unfavorable lifestyle.

The intermediate group participants were about 41% more unlikely to experience depression in comparison to the unfavorable lifestyle individuals, while the favorable lifestyle individuals were 57% more unlikely to experience depression.

The researchers then looked at their DNA, allocating each participant a genetic risk score based on the person’s number of genetic variants that are known to be associated with depression risk.

Individuals with the lowest score for genetic risk were 25% more unlikely to develop depression in comparison to individuals with the highest score for genetic risk, a much smaller impact compared to lifestyle.

In individuals at low, medium, and high genetic depression risk, the researchers additionally observed that a healthy lifestyle can reduce depression risk.

These results underline the significance of adhering to a healthy lifestyle for the prevention of depression, irrespective of an individual’s genetic risk.

Although our DNA can increase depression risk, the study shows that a healthy lifestyle is possibly more important.

There is a degree of control for several of these lifestyle factors, so looking for ways for improvement such as getting out to socialize and ensuring we get a good night’s sleep can make a difference to people’s lives.

To determine how a healthy lifestyle decreases depression risk, the researchers examined several other factors.

To start with, they looked at MRI brain scans from just less than 33,000 individuals and observed several brain areas where a larger volume, i.e. more connections and neurons, were associated with a healthy lifestyle, which included the amygdala, hippocampus, pallidum, and thalamus.

They then looked for blood markers that suggested metabolism or immune system issues. Among those markers shown to be associated with lifestyle was a molecule produced in the body when responding to stress known as C-reactive protein, and one of the main types of fat that the body uses for storing energy known as triglycerides.

These connections are supported by several other studies. Stress exposure in life can impact how efficiently blood sugar is regulated, which could result in immune function deterioration and accelerate age-related damage to the body’s molecules and cells.

Lack of sleep and inadequate physical activity can damage the ability of the body to respond to stress. Insufficient social support and loneliness have been shown to increase immune deficiency markers and the risk of infection.

The researchers found that the lifestyle to metabolic and immune function pathway was the most significant. So, a poorer lifestyle affects our metabolism and immune system, which subsequently increases depression risk.

A study has shown that commonly used household cleaning products can release 100s of harmful VOCs, or volatile organic compounds.

The study assessed 30 cleaning products, such as air fresheners, glass cleaners, and multipurpose cleaners.

Researchers analyzed conventional products as well as green cleaning products and a total of 530 VOCs were detected in the 30 products tested.

It was found that 193 of these VOCs were harmful, defined as being potentially harmful to health, which includes increased cancer risk, respiratory system damage, and reproductive and developmental health risks.

Cleaning product VOCs impact the air quality indoors as well as outdoors. They however contaminate indoor air 2 to 5 times, with some estimates as much as 10 times more than outdoor air. Certain products give off VOCs for days, weeks, and even months.

The results highlight a way to minimize exposure to harmful VOCs, by choosing ‘green’ products particularly products that are ‘green’ as well as fragrance-free.

The study determined that products labeled green released fewer VOCs, in comparison to conventional products, approximately half the number.

The green products classified as fragrance-free also produced the least VOC emissions, almost 8 times less than conventional and 4 times less than fragrance-containing green products.

This was also observed for the amount of VOCs regarded as harmful in the products. Only 4 chemicals categorized as harmful were released by the green products in comparison to approximately 15 in fragrance-containing green products and 22 for conventional products.

This indicates that opting for green, or even fragrance-free green cleaning products could be the sensible choice for individuals concerned about indoor quality of air and possible health risks.

VOCs’ health harms are particularly concerning due to the amount of Individuals who could be experiencing workplace exposure.

Research indicates that cleaning industry workers have a 43% greater chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk and a 50% greater asthma risk.

Women who work in the cleaning industry also face a greater lung cancer risk.

The health of children could also be at risk. Other research has shown that an increased use of some indoor cleaners while pregnant and in infancy is linked to a higher risk of wheezing and asthma in childhood.

The results of the study are consequential for environmental health as well as human health. Consumer product-emitted VOCs can play a role in outdoor air pollution, contributing to current environmental concerns.

A 2018 study determined that 50% of the VOCs responsible for air pollution originate from consumer products.

Choosing green cleaning products is a simple method for reducing harmful chemical exposure. This could be particularly important for the health of women and children.

Although nuts are an excellent source of protein, they are also full of fats which is sometimes a deterrent for individuals wanting to lose a few pounds.

However, research reveals that almonds can be eaten while losing weight at the same time.

In a large study, researchers determined that the inclusion of almonds in an energy-restricted diet helped individuals with losing weight and cardiometabolic health was also improved.

Looking at the impact of supplementing energy-restricted diets with almonds or with snacks high in carbohydrates, it was revealed that body weight was reduced by approximately 7kg with both diets.

Over 1.9 billion individuals worldwide are overweight with 650 million obese. The study shows how nuts can complement a healthy diet for the management of weight and cardiometabolic health.

Nuts such as almonds are excellent for snacking. They’re high in fiber, protein, and full of minerals and vitamins, but they are also high in fat which can be associated with an increase in body weight.

Nuts contain healthy unsaturated fats which can help ease inflammation, improve cholesterol levels, and promote a healthy heart.

The researchers looked at a diet supplemented with almonds as well as a diet without nuts to determine any impact on weight and cardiometabolic health. The nut as well as the nut-free diets led to about a 9.3% weight reduction during the study.

However, the diets supplemented with almonds also exhibited statistically significant atherogenic lipoprotein subfractions changes, which could result in cardiometabolic health improvements in the long term.

Also, nuts have the additional benefit of providing a feeling of fullness for longer, a bonus when attempting to manage weight.

The study saw 106 individuals complete a 9-month eating program that consisted of a 3-month energy-restricted weight loss diet, then a 6-month energy-controlled weight maintenance diet.

In both stages, 15% of energy consumption for the nut diet comprised of unsalted almonds or 15% of energy consumption for the nut-free diet comprised of carbohydrate-rich snacks which included baked cereal bars or rice crackers.

It’s usually assumed that consuming coffee can be dehydrating considering that coffee has diuretic properties, therefore increasing kidney stone risk. Studies have however suggested the opposite.

Kidney stones are an increasingly common issue with recent estimates suggesting prevalence as high as 15% of the general population. More than 500,000 individuals visit emergency rooms with kidney stone issues each year.

Kidney stones form as a hard object from chemicals found in the urine. The stone can remain in the kidney after formation or travel into the urethra via the urinary tract. Stones that don’t move can result in urine backing up, which causes pain.

An inverse connection between consumption of coffee and kidney stone incidence has been consistently found in some research.

In one study researchers applied the Mendelian randomization technique to assess the potential causal connection between consumption of coffee and kidney stone development.

Data were used from 571,657 participants who had kidney stones from 2 studies, which included 176,613 FinnGen study participants and 395,044 U.K. Biobank study participants.

The study looked at how genetics influence the coffee and kidney stone association. The study design took advantage of genetic variants linked to higher coffee consumption. The results showed that increasing from 1 daily cup to 1.5 daily cups reduces kidney stone risk by 40%.

Available data were made use of and 12 single-nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, were selected from genome-wide association studies that were linked to coffee intake. Coffee intake was determined via food frequency questionnaires.

Making use of the inverse-variance weighted method, coffee consumption causal estimates were computed: a 40% reduced likelihood of stones was found for a 50% increase in consumption, corresponding to a 1 to 1.5 daily cup increase.

The study data together with the observational data should negate the mistaken belief that coffee dehydrates and is a beverage that individuals with a high risk of kidney stones should avoid. This study provides causal evidence that kidney stone risk is reduced with coffee consumption.

The researchers offer several theories for why coffee can help reduce kidney stone occurrence, explaining that urine flow is increased with caffeine intake, representing an important protective factor against kidney stone development. It’s important to mention that this consumption of caffeine should be accompanied by sufficient intake of water.

The adhesion of calcium oxalate crystal to kidney cells can also be reduced by caffeine, and the coffee plant is full of citric acid, and urinary citrate inhibits the formation of kidney stones.

Although a lot of middle-aged individuals incorrectly assume that exercise is reserved only for people younger than 40, regular physical activity is in actual fact a lot more important as we get older.

A study has indicated that just 10 minutes of exercise every day in middle age helps to protect the brain against cognitive decline.

Getting a minimum of 1 hour and 15 minutes or more every week of physical activity with a moderate to vigorous intensity throughout midlife can be important for preserving brain structure and promoting overall brain health during a lifetime.

In another study, researchers found that excessive belly fat seems to actively prevent the ability to think and react quickly in older individuals.

Three easy and effective ways to maintain a healthy mind and body after 40

1. Yoga

One comprehensive study reports that older individuals regularly practicing yoga are in better all round shape, and have better leg strength, flexibility, and balance.

Another study followed a group of overweight or obese individuals as they tried out 2 unique kinds of yoga for 6 months. Irrespective of whether they were practicing vinyasa or hatha yoga, individuals experienced significant weight loss and improvements in cardiorespiratory health.

2. Walking

Intense, vigorous exercise every single day isn’t essential. Simple, day-to-day activities such as walking are an easy and fun way to complement more intense exercise and help maintain a healthy mind and body.

Research reports that just a few 30-minute or longer walks several times every week can help reduce body fat as well as improve general fitness.

Likewise, another study confirms that walking can help significantly to build up and then maintain muscle strength and size in older individuals.

3. Resistance training

No fitness program is complete without some strength training, especially after 40. A study confirms that a combination of a weightlifting program and clean eating is a better option compared to selecting cardio exercises only.

Aerobic exercise can burn important lean muscle, while resistance exercises such as push-ups or weight lifting help in maintaining and supporting lean muscle.

Focusing on completing more repetitions per set is also effective. A weight lifting program focusing on more repetitions with lower weights instead of a few reps with heavier weights helps to promote a shorter recovery time.

Carrying out more reps per set helps to increase calorie expenditure and boost metabolism which will help to shed body fat more rapidly.

Approximately 80% of older individuals suffer from hypertension. Having healthy blood pressure can safeguard against serious disorders such as strokes, heart attacks, and heart failure.

A pilot study observed that adding a somewhat small amount of movement, approximately 3,000 daily steps, can lower high blood pressure substantially.

This study wanted to find out if older individuals with high blood pressure could achieve these benefits with a moderate increase in walking every day, which is one of the most common and easiest types of physical activity for any individual.

Walking is easy to do, no equipment is needed, and it can be done anywhere at pretty much any time.

The research focused on a group of inactive older individuals between 68 and 78 years who walked approximately 4,000 steps every day on average before the research.

After consulting current studies, it was established that a reasonable goal would be a 3,000 step increase, 3,000 steps are enough but not too demanding to attain for health benefits.

This would also place most individuals at 7,000 steps every day, consistent with the American College of Sports Medicine’s advice.

The study was carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning everything had to be done remotely.

The participants were sent a kit with blood pressure monitors, pedometers, and step diaries for logging how many daily steps they were walking.

Systolic and diastolic blood pressures dropped by 7 and 4 points on average after increasing steps every day.

Other research suggests blood pressure reductions such as these correspond to a reduction of 16% in cardiovascular mortality risk, an all-cause mortality risk by 11%, an 18% reduction in heart disease risk, and a 36% reduction in stroke risk.

It’s remarkable that a basic lifestyle treatment can be as effective as some meds and structured exercise.

The results indicate that the 7,000-step program the individuals in the study accomplished is comparable to reductions achieved with anti-hypertensive meds.

Out of the 21 participants, 8 of them were already taking anti-hypertensive meds. Those individuals still experienced systolic blood pressure improvements from increasing their activity every day.

The researchers found in a previous study that exercise combined with meds improved the effects of blood pressure meds on their own. It demonstrates exercise’s value as an anti-hypertensive treatment. The effects of the meds are not completely negated; exercise is just part of the treatment strategy.

The researchers observed that walking in continuous bouts and walking speed didn’t make a difference as much as just increasing total steps.

They observed that the physical activity volume is most important and not so much the intensity. Making use of the volume as a target, whatever works and fits in will provide health benefits.

According to a study, having good quality sleep can play a part in supporting the heart and overall health, and perhaps even in how long we live. The research observed that young individuals who have better quality sleep patterns are less likely to die prematurely.

The results also indicate that approximately 8% of any cause deaths can be attributed to bad sleep habits.

The researchers observed a clear dose-response connection, so an individual has a stepwise reduction of cardiovascular and all-cause death the more beneficial factors they have with regards to having higher sleep quality.

For their analysis, the researchers included data from 172,321 individuals with an average age of 50 who took part in a survey carried out every year by the National Center for Health Statistics and the CDC to help evaluate the population’s health and includes questions regarding sleep and sleep patterns. The study used a nationally representative population to examine how different sleep behaviors, and not only sleep duration, could have an impact on life expectancy.

Because participants were able to be linked to the records from the National Death Index, the connection could be examined between individual as well as combined sleep factors and cause-specific death as well as all-cause death. Individuals were monitored for an average of 4.3 years when 8,681 of them died.

2,052 of these deaths were from cancer, 2,610 were cardiovascular disease-related deaths, and 4,019 deaths were as a result of other causes.

Researchers evaluated 5 different quality sleep factors making use of a low-risk sleep score which they developed according to answers obtained from the survey.
Factors included:

• An ideal 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night
• Trouble falling asleep a maximum of twice a week
• Difficulty remaining asleep a maximum of twice a week
• Not making use of any sleep meds
• Feeling well rested after sleeping a minimum of 5 days a week.

A score of 0 or 1 point was given for each factor with 5 points indicating the highest quality of sleep.

If individuals have each one of these ideal sleep behaviors, they are more likely to live longer. So, if overall sleep can be improved, and sleep disorders identified, some of this early death might be able to be prevented.

For the analysis, other factors that might have increased the risk of death were controlled for, such as other medical conditions, alcohol and smoking consumption, and lower socioeconomic status.

In comparison to individuals who had 0 to 1 favorable sleep factors; individuals with all 5 had 30% less chance of dying for any reason, 19% less chance of dying from cancer, 21% less chance of dying from cardiovascular disease, and 40% less chance of dying from causes other than cancer or heart disease,.

These other causes of death are likely a result of neurodegenerative diseases, infections, or accidents which include Parkinson’s disease and dementia.

Among women and men who reported having all 5 measures of quality sleep, life expectancy was 2.4 years higher for women and 4.7 years higher for men in comparison to individuals with none or only 1 of the 5 low-risk sleep factors.

More research is required to establish why men who had all 5 low-risk sleep factors had twice the life expectancy increase in comparison to women with identical quality sleep.

If these good sleep patterns can be developed even from an early age, ensuring generally good sleep hygiene and sleep with few distractions, overall long-term health can significantly benefit.

The researchers estimated life expectancy gains beginning at age 30 for the study, but the model could be used for predicting gains at other ages as well. Younger individuals need to understand that many health behaviors are cumulative over time.

A study indicates that 90% of women who are pregnant don’t get sufficient nutrients while pregnant just from food and must resort to supplements to satisfy that shortage.

However, they also found that 99% of the affordable nutritional supplements available don’t contain proper amounts of important micronutrients that are desperately required to compensate for the nutritional shortfall.

Nutrition is essential for a healthy mom and the baby. Not enough specific nutrients can result in birth defects, low birth weight, pre-term birth, as well as other health problems. An excess could also change how the body of the baby develops and the risk of having health issues later on.

That’s why consuming a balanced diet as well as selecting a good prenatal supplement is so necessary. The study observed 2,450 women during their pregnancy. Data were first analyzed about what the women drank and ate throughout their pregnancies.

It was then established what quantities of omega-3 fatty acids, iron, calcium, folic acid, vitamin D, and vitamin A, each individual was getting from just food and how much they required to satisfy the nutritional guidelines suggested by the NIH while pregnant was determined. They then compared over 20,000 supplements containing additional nutrients.

Out of all of the general and prenatal supplements analyzed, only one was identified that could potentially give pregnant women the optimal quantities of the most essential nutrients. However, the monthly expense of this supplement could be too much for some individuals and pregnant women are required to take 7 pills every day.

This study results will help advise pregnant women and their physicians about important nutrients their diets are deficient in and help in selecting prenatal supplements that can provide the nutrients needed. Manufacturers of dietary supplements can also use these results to improve product dosing.

The study results emphasize a continuing need for prenatal supplement options that are convenient and inexpensive, while still providing the optimal essential nutrient quantities. More research on food nutrients is also required to help provide pregnant women with more of these essential nutrients in their daily diets.