005 - Long Covid, Gut Health, and Cognition - HealthHippie Week In Review - August 14, 2022
Long Covid
Eric Topol wrote an excellent overview of Long Covid: Some Light on Long Covid. The article includes prevalence, mechanisms and biomarkers, and potential treatments. Nature published a summary of Long Covid treatments, Long-COVID treatments: why the world is still waiting. My takeaway: there still is no consensus on either mechanism or therapy. I did learn from these papers that the adrenal axis is involved.
Eating to Improve Gut Health and Microbial Diversity
I'm often asked what people can do to improve their gut health. I received an email from Michael Greger's Nutrition Facts linking to the following video: How to Cultivate a Healthy Gut Microbiome with Food. Nutrition Facts is a fantastic resource full of free bite-sized videos. I like the site so much that, at various times, I have been a monetary supporter.
Gimme S'More
Ever wonder where S'mores came from? Me either. Regardless, I read an article that covers the history of the S'More--ingredients and all. A brief history of the s'more, America's favorite campfire snack
Orthopedic Surgery and Breast Cancer
I read a disturbing article Why Do Orthopedic Surgeons Have Such High Breast Cancer Rates. Female orthopedic surgeons have four times the breast cancer rate of the general population. The article zeroes in on the radiation that orthopedic surgeons use regularly. In my experience, surgeons are diligent about wearing a radiation shield when using x-rays / fluoroscopy. I am far more suspicious about chemical exposure to methyl methacrylate, the substance orthopedic surgeons use as the "grout" in knee and hip replacements. Even if an orthopedic surgeon is not currently using the compound regularly in their practice, they likely had significant exposure during training. Food for thought.
Walking+
The article, One type of walking reliably boosts fitness more than any other, mentions that adding hand-poles to your walking routine (Nordic walking) will increase caloric expenditure by close to 20%. Nordic walking has many other health benefits as well. That sounds like a no-brainer to me. I ordered a pair of poles today: TrailBuddy Trekking Poles - 7075 Aluminum with Cork Grip: Sports & Outdoors
Linking Nature to Well-Being
I came across the Inverse article, How is nature connected to well-being? It's complicated, scientists say that summarizes an exciting review in Science Advances: Linking the nonmaterial dimensions of human-nature relations and human well-being through cultural ecosystem services Nature, outside of tangible offerings like food, water, and other resources, offers nonmaterial contributions to well-being such as recreation and leisure, spiritual fulfillment, personal development, social relations, and aesthetic experiences. The article reviews existing literature to build a framework/rubric for how nature influences well-being.
+More about nature and well-being with some practical tips from the Atlantic: To Get Out of Your Head, Get Out of Your House
Reversing Lactose Intolerance
About 1/4 of the U.S. population is lactose intolerant. The symptoms of lactose intolerance (bloating, gas, abdominal discomfort, diarrhea) are caused by the absence of lactase, the enzyme that breaks down milk. Lactase production, in many people, turns off after weaning. If you are intolerant but want to enjoy dairy products, all is not lost. You can increase your tolerance of dairy by strategically using food. The article Can you become more tolerant of lactose? explains the method and mentions the ancient New England Journal of Medicine paper on the same topic: Yogurt — An Autodigesting Source of Lactose.
The Hippocampus and PTSD
Interesting scientific output from the AURORA Project (Advancing Understanding of Recovery after Trauma) housed at UNC. A recent paper in The Journal of Neuroscience, Hippocampal Threat Reactivity Interacts with Physiological Arousal to Predict PTSD Symptoms focuses on the memory forming region of the brain, the hippocampus, and its role in the variability of PTSD development in the general population. Read the summary article here: The brain's memory hub may explain why some people get PTSD and some don't
Emotional WellBeing and Whole Person Health
I look forward to receiving emails from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine (NCCIH). The Director's message this week was about emotional well-being and its impact on the various pillars of health. Emotional Well-Being and Whole Person Health. I learned of the NIH networks to advance emotional well-being research. One disturbing fact that had me wanting to learn more-"A recent analysis of U.S. national data showed that 2 years after the diagnosis of cancer, 42 percent of survivors had depleted their entire net worth."_ Here are two of the free lectures the article mentions:
- Well-Being and the Economic Burden of Disease: What Are We Learning From Cancer Survivors?
- Advancing Research on Emotional Well-Being and Regulation of Eating
Dietary Supplements and Cognition
Another email this week touched on the science of supplements to slow cognitive decline, 7 Things To Know About Dietary Supplements and Alzheimer's Disease I'm a big fan of the NCCIH Tip Sheets: Tips on Complementary Health Practices
Mental Fatigue and Cognition
Just as our bodies get tired with prolonged physical activity, our minds show fatigue after long bouts of thinking. The article, How thinking hard makes the brain tired zeroes in on a neurometabolic cause for mental exhaustion (altered glutamate levels in specific regions of the brain).
Gut Microbiome in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine
An interesting article published on WebMD, although a good part of the article is focused on pre-clinical findings: Gut Microbiome in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine
Quote of the Week
"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." ― Maya Angelou