Weekend Warriors Enjoy Considerable Health Benefits
Plus: Sitting is bad. Wait, now standing is bad? Argh!
Welcome back to your weekly dose of wisdom and wellness, helping you make tomorrow a little better than today. Below you’ll find the usual mix of amazing in-depth stories by Wise & Well’s team of journalists, topical experts and practicing professionals. But first, the newsletter-only tidbits…
VITAL STAT: 69%
Percentage of Americans who say the election is stressing them out, according to a poll by the American Psychological Association. Below you’ll find a personal note from me linking to a Voter’s (Survival) Guide to help you deal with it.
BIG WORDS: Moderate Physical Activity
When researchers and health advocates use this term, they’re describing activities like walking briskly, doing light yoga or mowing the lawn. The effect is somewhere between “conversation is easy” and “you can hear your breathing but you’re not out of breath.” Here’s a longer description.
BRIEFLY: Weekend Warriors Enjoy Considerable Health Benefits
Plenty of research has proven countless physical and mental benefits stemming from physical activity. A good chunk of those benefits accrue with as little as 22 minutes of moderate to vigorous daily movement, adding up to 150 minutes (2.5 hours) weekly. It does not matter much when or how you get the activity in. Any sort of effort, even small chunks like short walks during the workday or hiking briskly up a flight of stairs, adds up.
Research has also found that weekend warriors, who cram all that activity into one or two days a week, get similar heart-health benefits. A separate study earlier this year found weight-loss is similar among weekend warriors and people who spread their exercise out over many days.
New research finds weekend warriors gain the same amount of protection from cognitive decline and dementia as people who exercise three days a week or more, so long as the total time adds up the same. The findings are detailed in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
While studies on exercise never prove cause-and-effect on their own, the net result of mountains of research is clear: Your physical and mental health stand to improve the more you move, and it does not matter when, where or how you move, so long as you get your heart pumping.
Here are some additional resources to help you get going:
FEATURE STORIES
A selection of this week’s informative, entertaining and actionable Wise & Well stories:
Standing Too Long Can Harm You, Too
Wait. What? Yeah, just as we humans evolved to move, science evolves, too. Here’s the latest take on all this: We can’t be in perpetual motion every waking hour, so we also evolved to sit. The latest twist in this field of stand-up, sit-down research might feel like a flip-flop. But what it really does is suggest that sitting by itself is not evil, but lack of movement is. The writer stumbled into this story after spending hours and hours at a new standing desk. Here’s what she learned:
Swapping standing for sitting may not be that beneficial for cardiovascular disease and may actually harm your circulatory system, according to a new study… Standing longer than two hours increased the risk of circulatory issues such as varicose veins, ulcers, and blood clots, the researchers found.
—Annie Foley
Annie goes on to offer advice that we both stand by.
I Bought a SAD Lamp and It Made Me Happy
This time of year moods can go south, especially in the north, as days shorten and the human body clock struggles with reduced daylight. Like millions of others who deal with seasonal affective disorder, which can range from “just” the blues to really bad, this doctor is testing out a bright light therapy device. So far, his days are definitely brighter.
I have been telling my family and friends about the benefits I have experienced but have yet to hear of anyone I know using a light box. I live in the northeast so there is about a 15–20% chance a person has SAD or winter blues.
—Dr. Julian Barkan
How Journaling Improves Your Mental and Physical Health
I often write long essays that come from my soul but are not publishable. Almost daily I draft little social media posts about fleeting frustrations. Likewise not postable. Turns out this form of “expressive writing” can be extremely helpful for anyone — writers and non-writers — who might be suffering emotionally or otherwise needs to get stuff off their chest. Lots of science here explaining the benefits.
Scientists have several theories. One is that capturing worries on paper creates a sense of “psychological distance,” encouraging a more objective approach to problems. For example, if you’ve been stewing over why someone has hurt you, writing may make it easier to see their point of view or envision a new way forward.
—Kathleen Murphy
Chronic Pain Crashed My Career
This is a tale of immense suffering. It’s also inspirational, a perspective reset for anyone who’s ever been dealt a lousy hand—or anyone else who ought to be endlessly grateful for their good fortune. If you’re feeling good, this story will slap you upside the head and make you appreciate what you have. If you suffer chronic pain or other misfortune, it will remind you of the deep well of human resilience and hope, and the writer has helpful advice for moving forward proactively.
After a decade of being stuck, I’ve found purpose, identity, and a bit of financial hope. And though my experience is unique to my situation, it shows other sufferers that chronic pain need not permanently blow up their lives and livelihoods.
—Randall H. Duckett
The Truth About Creatine
My 20-something son asked me what I thought about creatine for building muscle, and being skeptical about supplements, I promised I’d look into whether it was helpful, harmful or otherwise. I decided instead to ask one of Wise & Well’s experts to analyze the research, and her article suggests Dad might have more to gain from creatine than his son, and now we both have the information needed to make smart decisions.
Creatine supplementation is probably safe for most healthy adults and teenagers. The supplements are effective at increasing muscle mass with exercise in some groups. But many of the other purported benefits like fat loss and brain health are being oversold, and minor side effects can cause discomfort in some supplement users.
—Mandy Willig, PhD, RD
Subtle Signs of Medical Emergencies: Insights from an ER Nurse
Nurses see a lot. Especially ER nurses. And a lot of what they see is people coming into the ER long after they shoulda. This article explains a bunch of practical “better safe than sorry” scenarios regarding lesser-known traumatic outcomes that can be avoided. Log these symptoms in your noggin in case you or a loved one has an unexpected health scare that warrants immediate attention.
In my time behind the triage desk, I have witnessed many heartbreaking outcomes in people like her who didn’t recognize the need for immediate medical attention and waited too long to come in. So, I’m not trying to scare anyone, but if you or a loved one ever experience these symptoms, you need to call 9–1–1 and get your butt (or theirs) to the emergency room right away.
—Andrea Romeo RN, BN
The Search for Nature’s Ozempic Comes Up Short
GLP-1 drugs aimed at diabetes but found to help with weight loss (Mounjaro, Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound) are too expensive for many people. So: Step right up, folks! Have we got some supplements for you! Ahem. This physician sets the record straight, in what discerning readers will recognize as the latest case of marketers and influencers supplementing science with hype.
Due to the expense and inaccessibility of the GLP-1 agonist drugs, there has been interest in alternatives. Three commonly cited supplements are: berberine, cinnamon, and green tea. But while some studies and anecdotes support it, consistent evidence that these cause weight loss is lacking.
—Dr. Jan Patterson
Finally this week…
The Voter’s (Survival) Guide
This is a personal note from me to you about our collective mental well-being in the face of extreme polarization and political ugliness in the US. It can seem like everyone is at each others throats, and the political vitriol has indeed ratcheted up on the eve of the election.
But the loudest voices do not represent the majority of us. The majority of us can vote differently without fighting about it. We can disagree, and get along. We can even argue, then move on.
Yes, OK, I know, we are arguing like never before. Well, not never. My daughter sent me this quote the other day:
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
— Abraham Lincoln
In that spirit, I created a Voter’s (Survival) Guide. It has no candidates in it, no ballot initiatives. No politics whatsoever. It’s a guide for dealing with stress and anxiety caused by the election and politics more broadly, no matter what your politics might be.
Psychologists tell us that even amid chaos, we can choose inner calm. Getting there starts with this realization: Stress does not happen to us. Stress is our reaction to what happens. Anxiety, which has a similar detrimental effect on the mind and body, is our reaction to what we worry might happen. Though it can sometimes seem otherwise, we can exert significant control over how bad stuff effect us.
Oh, and don’t forget to vote. That’s something you can control.
Sincerely,
Rob
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