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Four Most Valuable [4MV] Weekly Tips For Living Longer Better | Newsletter

[4MV] On your back? Side? Face-down? How we sleep may trigger or protect our brain ✔ New research

Published almost 2 years ago • 9 min read

Walter Adamson @bodyagebuster Helping You Live Longer better

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Hello,

I trust you're safe, fit and well.

All strength to Ukraine 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

I had my 2nd booster shot during the week. Pfizer. Absolutely no side effects, which was nice. I've had Astra-Z twice, then Moderna, now Pfizer. Some experts consider a mix of vaccines will give the best antibody resilience. I hope so.

Fish is one of my favourite meals. A new study found that people who ate the most fish suffered from the most cancer, specifically melanoma. Should we be worried? - see item #3.

As we get older our sleep quality declines. This increases the risk of neurodegenerative disease including progressive muscle impairments and brain atrophy. The position we sleep in may reduce this risk - see item #1.

Here are the topics I have chosen for you to help you live longer better:

⭑ Sleep position affects long-term brain health ✔ new research
⭑ You can't endurance-train atrophied muscles, keep up the strength training
⭑ Keen on eating fish? ✔ New study casts doubt, but I'm not convinced
⭑ COVID flicks a self-destruct switch — here’s your best chance to stop it

01 On your back? Side? Face-down? How We Sleep May Trigger or Protect Our Brain

This is really interesting, and potentially important. Proteins accumulate in our brain during the day, as a normal part of the metabolic waste of brain activity. Our glymphatic system removes this waste, including toxic proteins, from the brain.

Proteins are also the building blocks of our antibodies, a very complex process which sometimes goes wrong by creating "protein junk" which also accumulates in the brain.

When we age our glymphatic system may struggle to clean out waste proteins every day and they accumulate in the brain. This accumulation marks the beginning of the neurodegenerative disease process – well before the onset of symptoms and brain loss.

Sleep is essential to brain function and to get rid of toxic waste because the glymphatic system only functions when we sleep.

But not all sleep is equal. Sleep includes both rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM sleep. Non-REM sleep includes slow wave sleep – when the glymphatic system is most active.

As we get older, we sleep more lightly and get less deep sleep. This increases the risk of neurodegenerative disease because of the reduction in deep cleaning by the glymphatic system as a result of less Non-REM deep sleep.

What this means for us: The take-away from this new research is that sleep position is also thought to affect glymphatic clearance.

Research conducted in mice found that glymphatic clearance is most efficient in the lateral (or side-sleeping) position, compared to either supine (on the back) or prone (front-lying) positions. The reasons for this are not yet fully understood but possibly relates to the effects of gravity, compression and stretching of tissue.

I'll try sleeping more on my side. There's nothing to lose, and perhaps something to gain for our brain.

They also suggest exercise as a way to improve sleep quality and to increase scavenging of metabolic waste from the brain. And, good news, small amounts of alcohol! Quote: In mouse studies, both short and long-term exposure to small amounts of alcohol were shown to boost glymphatic function while high doses had the opposite effect.

Related: How To Boost Your Circadian Rhythm And Live Longer

Related: How To Sleep Better And Recover Like Elite Soccer Players

02 What's the Difference Between Muscular Endurance and Muscular Strength?

This topic may seem esoteric, but over many years I came to understand that, as we age, the difference between strength and endurance is valuable to know. It helps us better choose exercises which will help us live longer better.

Here are examples of the difference. Boxers train for high explosive strength, high muscular endurance, medium relative strength and low endurance strength.

Tour de France hill climb specialists train for beyond human endurance strength, adequate explosive strength, superior relative muscular strength, and good maximal muscular strength.

Winning a marathon takes superior muscular endurance as a given, just to finish. To win, you also need to have superior relative strength and the latter requires specific training.

In our world it means that to hold our head up and preserve a good posture we need an adequate muscular strength and a good endurance strength. All the muscular strength in the world won't keep our head high if our muscles can't last the distance - that's when we droop and slump.

Both endurance and muscular strength are important in maintaining an active pain-free lifestyle.

A lack of muscular endurance leads to aches and pains developing during the day as time passes. A lack of muscular strength means that our days start with aches and pains and our movements become restricted e.g. sore knees.

What this means for us: Here's the basic rule: to develop muscular endurance you have to have, and maintain, sufficient muscle mass. As we age our muscles waste, and you cannot endurance-train atrophied muscles.

Therefore, despite spin, treadmills and Zumba and such aerobic exercise being the most popular forms of exercise, these simply delay muscular atrophy. In fact, long distance cycling and running accelerate the loss of muscle mass especially in women. This is a problem at mid-life crisis when these things can become obsessions.

Develop muscular strength through squatting, lunging, pushing, pulling, rotating, and hinging - such movements complement your daily life. Exercises that translate well include squats, reverse and side lunges, push-ups, bench presses, planks, side planks, sit-ups, and if you can pull-ups. Burpees with a push-up develop both endurance and strength, as do kettlebell exercises and TRX routines.

Balance your weekly routine with exercises serving both strength and endurance and you'll notice how much more agile you feel and walk.

Related: This One Exercise Will Reshape Your Body And Your Brain, If You’re Game

@Medium - Follow my publication there↗, covering food, brain, body, life

03 Can Your Diet Really Affect Your Skin Cancer Risk?

A new study found that older adults who ate more fish were more likely to develop melanoma.

This riveted my attention as I have had two malignant melanomas - two operations 4 years apart and now checkups every 6 months - and I love fish (especially salmon which was the featured image of the article!).

adults ate salmon melanoma skin cancer seniors
Salmon is one of my favourite meals

I was hoping that it was not true, so I am declaring my unconscious bias. What did it really say?

This was no small study - 490,000 adults aged between 50 and 70 tracked over 15 years! And, it was well-designed in the sense of tracking fish consumption to melanoma.

Compared with those who ate hardly any fish, the group that ate the most — on average 10 ounces, or about three servings, per week — had 22 percent more cases of malignant melanoma, the researchers found.

However... this is merely a correlation. Similar to staying that it often rains when you go to church so going to church causes it to rain; when what you should conclude is that raining and going to church are merely correlated but not causal.

Where the design let them down was that no other factors such as nutrition, lifestyle and location factors were considered in the analysis.

What this means for us: This study tells us that something fishy is going on between fish meals and melanoma, but we don't know what. However what we do know today is that eating fish is still a recommended part of a heart-healthy, anti-inflammatory or broad cancer prevention diet.

We also know that having had five or more sunburns at least doubles your lifetime risk of developing melanoma - and much more if when a child. I used to surf too long and end up with sunburn blisters by the time I got home from the beach.

It may be that people who more fish have higher levels of heavy metals such as mercury and arsenic, which are catalysts for cancer. It may be that people who eat more fish are more outdoorsy by nature, and are more sun-exposed. We just don't know and the study did not ask.

I may be biased but I say keep doing the tried and true things: Eat well, sleep well, exercise well, all in the moderation. This will give you the most resilience you can possibly have against any kind of disease, including cancer.

Related: How Bananas Benefit Your Bones — And Brain

04 Aiming for 10,000 Steps? It Turns Out 7,000 Could Be Enough to Cut Your Risk of Early Deaths

Our exercise of the week is ... walking less! Well not really walking less, but if you are stretched for time you can gain substantial health benefits by hitting 7,000 steps a day.

A recent study found that compared to adults who walked less than 7,000 steps per day on average, those who reached between 7,000 and 9,999 steps per day had a 60% to 70% lower risk of early death from any cause.

The study was of 2,100 adults over ten years using wearable sensors. The results indicated no significant further reduction in the risk of early death for those who walked more.

We shouldn't be surprised that "10,000 steps" is a not magic threshold.

After all it simply arose from the marketing name of a new Japanese pedometer in 1964 which used the Japanese letter "man" which looks like a person walking and also means 10,000. Clever marketing, not too bad for health reasons either.

Kanji: 万 "man" 10,000
Kanji: 万 "man" 10,000

What this means for us: With the ongoing risk of Covid infection, and flu infection, this study brings positive news and a more achievable goal for protecting our health.

It is important because as we age and the less we exercise, the background level of chronic inflammation builds up throughout our entire body. Covid or flu then spikes on top of this background level as an acute rise in inflammation.

When inflammation crosses a certain threshhold it triggers an anti-inflammatory overdrive which unfortunately has the side effect of destroying our good organs. Because older people start with a higher background level of inflammation it takes far less to tip the body over into self-destruction, and death.

This threshold effect is not generally well understood, see my article here which explains in detail > Why Covid Kills More Over-50s And How To Reduce The Risk

It is comparatively easy to hit a daily goal of 7,000 steps - compared to 10,000. You'll get about half from simply walking about during the day, and then top it up with about 40 minutes of dedicated walking or walking-related activity.

You will get best results by averaging 110 steps per minute for the steps you do.

In case you missed it...

Related: The Anti-Inflammatory Benefits of Exercise, Easier Than You Think

Thanks for reading!

About the newsletter: Do you think it can be improved? Have a story idea? Want to share about the time you met Chris Hemsworth, or your questions about how to live longer better? Send those thoughts and more to me at walter@bodyagebuster.com

Walter Adamson @bodyagebuster Helping your live longer better

'4 Most Valuable' is a weekly newsletter from Walter Adamson. If you like it, please forward to a like-minded soul. Someone forward this to you? You can subscribe from this page.

Resources for you:

How To Keep Your Weight Off With Daily Walks — 5 Fun Level-ups That Everyone Can Do

Ease Your Lower Back Pain By Walking Backwards

All Exercise Matters But Intense Matters More If You Want To Live Longer

Measuring Your Waist Will Tell You If You Are On Your Way To Diabetes

How To Walk Better (And Undo The Damage Of Treadmills)

The Surprising Way Hip Flexors Pull You Down Into An Elderly Stoop And Shuffle, And How To Avoid It

Vitamin D Is Free Yet We Don’t Get Enough And Our Health Is Suffering

The Surprising Benefits of Black Tea Daily

As You Age Pistachios Can Help You Sleep Better

I Started Trail Running At 70. Besides Being Bitten By A Dog I Love It

Shining Light On Infrared Therapy - It Helped Unlock My Shoulder

Are You Ab-Wheel Rolling To Back Pain? I Was — Not Now

Brain Health Is Boosted By Eating Less, Often — Here’s How To Start

How To Go From On-knee to Full Pushups, and Reap The Benefits

Why Walnuts Lower Heart Disease and Help You Sleep Better

Five Better Food Choices I Should Have Made Before I Developed Diabetes

No Pain But Gain Strength With Slow Movement Resistance Training

I Am Diabetic — I Eat Fruit — You Should Too

The Countdown - How To Start Exercising When You Can't Get Started

Drink This Many Cups Of Coffee Daily For Better Health

Relieve Your 8PM Burning Eyes With These Three Simple Moves

Six Feet Exercises That Will Keep You Running And Walking Pain-free

Six Out Of Seven Dieticians Can’t Answer This Question — Can You?

I Ditched My Commercial Protein Shake For A Nutritionally-dense Eggnog

Strengthen Hip Flexors, Spring To Your Feet, Balance Better With This One At-Home Exercise

Have a Better Shorter Warm-up With This 3D Dynamic Stretch For Your Hips, Ankles and Lower Back

Over 50? Exercising Cannot Undo The Damage Of Added Sugar Unless You Plan Running 52 km A Week

How To Keep Your Weight Off With Daily Walks — 5 Fun Level-ups That Everyone Can Do

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Four Most Valuable [4MV] Weekly Tips For Living Longer Better | Newsletter

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