Health Almanac

Best health models & systems straight from elite health experts, doctors, & scientists.

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Andrew Huberman reveals why magnesium is the one supplement that everyone will be taking soon

"Magnesium 3inate or bisglycinate. I know there are multiple forms, you know, malate for soreness, etc. But bisglycinate and 3inate cross the blood brain barrier more readily. I would say 30 to 60 minutes before sleep"

"Magnesium is protective against hearing loss. Hearing loss is associated with dementia. The endolymph in which the hair cells that vibrate in response to sound are in is a thick, viscous fluid, and magnesium is a prominent feature of that. It gets depleted by very loud sound, so encouraging more magnesium in the endolymph is protective against hair cell loss"

"The whole argument is that there's less magnesium in the soil nowadays because of the way farming is done. It's just been depleted. Your kale of yesterday is not your kale of today. I think magnesium supplementation is going to go through a wave"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

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Dr. Saranya Wyles reveals why your skin is actually a direct reflection of your brain and heart health

"I was very fascinated to study the skin because it's the largest regenerative organ and the only external facing organ. It ages from the inside out, so it reflects how your other systems are aging. Your heart health, your liver, and your brain health can actually show up on the skin"

"We can look at skin in a very unique way as an interface that both reflects and influences holistic aging. Aging became a fundamental mathematical problem recently when we could understand it through the lens of the hallmarks of aging"

"We had these specific pillars and we knew the equation of where things went wrong. It was like looking at it from the lens of an engineer—you know where the problems are, so how do we rewire to fix it? We started to look at the function of the skin as not just a structural reflector of how age looks—it's beyond beauty"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Dr. Saranya Wyles reveals why your skin is actually a direct reflection of your brain and heart health

"I was very fascinated to study the skin because it's the largest regenerative organ and the only external facing organ. It ages from the inside out, so it reflects how your other systems are aging. Your heart health, your liver, and your brain health can actually show up on the skin"

"We can look at skin in a very unique way as an interface that both reflects and influences holistic aging. Aging became a fundamental mathematical problem recently when we could understand it through the lens of the hallmarks of aging"

"We had these specific pillars and we knew the equation of where things went wrong. It was like looking at it from the lens of an engineer—you know where the problems are, so how do we rewire to fix it? We started to look at the function of the skin as not just a structural reflector of how age looks—it's beyond beauty"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Dr. William Li explains why processed meats and charred food significantly increase your risk of digestive cancers

"Processed meat is classified as a class one carcinogen by the World Health Organization. Sausages, hot dogs, deli meats, salami, ham, bacon, and corned beef have been shown to increase your risk of developing digestive cancers, including colon cancer"

"It's not about the meat itself, it's about the grilling process that coats the food with toxic chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These form when fat drips into the flame and the rising smoke deposits carcinogens all over the meat"

"High grilling temperatures convert amino acids and proteins into another toxic carcinogen called heterocyclic amines. If you don't carefully clean your grill, these chemicals stay on the black char left on the grates, and you transfer that right onto your next piece of meat"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Dr. Rupy Aujla explains why taking a daily multivitamin creates a dangerous false sense of security

"These are the classic just in case supplements like a nutritional insurance policy to cover your bases, but for most people, they don't seem to do much. Big studies haven't shown any benefit for living longer or protecting against major diseases like heart disease"

"My big issue with multivitamins is the false sense of reassurance you get. I took my multivitamin today, so I don't really need to worry about my diet. And this is not the way we should be thinking"

"In some people like smokers or those with precancerous conditions, high doses of certain vitamins that you find in multivitamins have actually been linked to a slightly higher risk of cancer. So these aren't harmless across the board"

"My verdict, I would say skip unless you've been advised to take one and focus on real nutrients which are in whole foods first"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

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Dr. Andy Galpin reveals why exercise snacks are more effective than skipping your workout

"Metabolism and endurance today but as long as we're having a discussion about these brief sort of tidbits of how to improve endurance are there any other ways to improve endurance that are of relatively short time investment even if they require a lot of energy?"

"There is a wonderful set of papers that championed this idea called exercise snacks. One of them is a 20 second bout of all out work. They had them run upstairs, and if you repeat that multiple times a week, you'll see a noticeable improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness as well as a number of cognitive benefits."

"If you are the sort of type who is in an office all day and maybe had a giant high glycemic index meal, a little bit of mitigation there can just be running up a flight of stairs for as little as 20 seconds. There is a lot of magic and power in maximal exertion."

"It's not the mode of exercise that matters here, it is simply the exertion. You just go as hard as you can. You could do burpees, you could do any number of things, you could sprint down the hallway back and forth."

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Dr. Andy Galpin reveals why exercise snacks are more effective than skipping your workout

"Metabolism and endurance today but as long as we're having a discussion about these brief sort of tidbits of how to improve endurance are there any other ways to improve endurance that are of relatively short time investment even if they require a lot of energy?"

"There is a wonderful set of papers that championed this idea called exercise snacks. One of them is a 20 second bout of all out work. They had them run upstairs, and if you repeat that multiple times a week, you'll see a noticeable improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness as well as a number of cognitive benefits."

"If you are the sort of type who is in an office all day and maybe had a giant high glycemic index meal, a little bit of mitigation there can just be running up a flight of stairs for as little as 20 seconds. There is a lot of magic and power in maximal exertion."

"It's not the mode of exercise that matters here, it is simply the exertion. You just go as hard as you can. You could do burpees, you could do any number of things, you could sprint down the hallway back and forth."

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Leonid Kim MD reveals why chasing a 10,000 step goal is a waste of time for most people

"The problem is it takes a long time to get that many steps in. Unless you live in a walkable city or you can walk to work, for most of us that's just not the case and time is our limiting factor"

"Instead of chasing an arbitrary step goal, you just add intensity. You walk normally for 3 minutes and then you walk at a brisk pace like you're late for a meeting for another 3 minutes. You repeat that five times for a total of 30 minutes"

"Interval walking training can double the improvement in your aerobic capacity compared to just normal walking. It will also help you lower your blood pressure and reduce your risk of heart attacks and strokes"

"With just 30 minutes of interval walking, which is less than half the time it takes you to walk 7,000 steps, you get improvements in all of these areas"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Justin Sung reveals why your brain sabotages your goals when you are exhausted

"Every time I feel tired, I drag myself to the gym and by the end, I always feel better and more energized. So why has my brain not learned that exercise is something I should just look forward to? Why is it that when I feel tired, it’s always a challenge?"

"When your prefrontal cortex is fatigued, it’s less able to make high-effort decisions that require planning and coordination. It takes no coordination just to give up on life and sit on the couch. We become biased towards making decisions that require less effort, even when we know those aren't the best choices."

"The way I combat that is I remove as much planning as possible. I decide in advance and schedule it in my calendar a week early, so that’s one decision removed. I don’t think about how hard it’s going to be or how long I’ll be there; I just focus on getting there."

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Liz Earle reveals why modern indoor LED lighting is secretly destroying your mitochondrial health

"Indoor lighting is the junk food equivalent of what we are absorbing. Our mitochondria love broad spectrum light. When we come indoors, we are only feeding them with short wave blue light and they really don't like it; they go into massive decline"

"Short wave blue LED lighting is damaging to our mitochondria. It has a significant health impact. It should be taken out of hospitals, schools, and care homes where people need to grow and develop and be well"

"If you just put one or two of the old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs into your home, you can feed your mitochondria with the broad spectrum light they love so much. It balances the blue light you get from your screens and overhead lighting"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Liz Earle reveals why checking your phone first thing in the morning destroys your hormones and energy levels

"I don't think you have to be up with the sun, but for me, it's about getting up as early as I can and the first thing seeing daylight. Ideally within the first 10, 15 minutes of waking up, seeing some daylight"

"It is those early morning light signals going into the retinal cells in our eyes that start to trigger all sorts of inflammatory chemicals, the hormone cascade, the production of cortisol, and later chemicals like dopamine"

"I have the saying at home, it's sky before screen. Too many of us wake up with our phones, and please don't do that. Because otherwise we get drawn into that blue light on the screen and before we know it, we're answering emails and scrolling news feeds before we've even had a chance to wake up properly"

"If you just remember, don't look at your phone until you've looked outside and seen some daylight"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Dr. Darren Candow reveals why standard creatine dosing fails to protect your brain from cognitive fatigue

"Or what about a Stroop test? It's one of the most fatiguing things that you can do and it was one of the most robust studies to show the efficacy behind creatine. The Stroop test is looking at the bottom part where the word and the color are incorrect"

"The study that they did, get this, they had to do this for 90 straight minutes. You can imagine how fatiguing that is for someone studying for the MCAT for medical school or midterms being sleep deprived. And you're not sleep deprived and you struggled, and you got slower"

"In this classic study, they gave 20 grams of creatine before they did the test and after, and it really improved their ability with speed and cognition. It's just a simple example to show our brain is seeing one thing, we have to maintain memory and cognition, and creatine can help maintain some of those factors"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Andrew Huberman reveals why magnesium is the one supplement that everyone will be taking soon

"Magnesium 3inate or bisglycinate. I know there are multiple forms, you know, malate for soreness, etc. But bisglycinate and 3inate cross the blood brain barrier more readily. I would say 30 to 60 minutes before sleep"

"Magnesium is protective against hearing loss. Hearing loss is associated with dementia. The endolymph in which the hair cells that vibrate in response to sound are in is a thick, viscous fluid, and magnesium is a prominent feature of that. It gets depleted by very loud sound, so encouraging more magnesium in the endolymph is protective against hair cell loss"

"The whole argument is that there's less magnesium in the soil nowadays because of the way farming is done. It's just been depleted. Your kale of yesterday is not your kale of today. I think magnesium supplementation is going to go through a wave"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Want to think like the healthiest 1%?

We study the world's top doctors, scientists, and researchers so you don't have to.

We break down the protocols, mental models & systems elite health experts use to stay sharp, strong, & disease-free.

Follow @Health_Almanac to get them.

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Andrew Huberman reveals why the "moderate drinking" health trend is a complete lie

"The chair of head and neck surgery at Stanford talked about magnesium to protect against hearing loss, and then it becomes like everyone should be taking magnesium, but it’s only an 11% difference in this population."

"Stanford researchers did an analysis of all those previous papers and found that the control groups in studies concluding moderate drinking is good for you were completely off. They were comparing sick people to less sick people."

"When you normalize for proper controls and do the meta-analysis, without fail, zero is better than any. Moderate drinking is bad for you in terms of elevating cancer risk, disrupting sleep, and the microbiome."

"We have now landed squarely in zero is better than any. Those aren't my data, those are data from the best people for analyzing large-scale studies. The analysis of the analysis is quite solid."

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Dr. Roger Seheult reveals why avoiding sunlight is as dangerous as smoking

"This was a study where they asked 20,000 to 30,000 Swedish women about their habits in sunlight. They divided these women into categories based on how much sun they got and followed them for 20 years to track what they died of"

"When they were done, they were astonished. The women who spent the most amount of time outside had the least amount of mortality from cancer and cardiovascular disease. Those that spent the least amount of time outside had the highest levels of that"

"The magnitude difference was so much that women who spent the most time outside and smoked had the same mortality as those who did not spend time outside and did not smoke. Being in that category of not spending time in the sun was the same risk factor for death as smoking"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Will Harlow reveals the four pillars that predict whether you will be independent or dependent in your later years

"I define independence as being able to do what you want when you want for as long as you want without needing help from someone else unless you want it. It's one of those things we take for granted that we start to lose a lot earlier than we realize"

"The four pillars of independence are mobility, strength, balance, and skeletal health. Avoiding things like osteoporosis and osteopenia is critical because those lead to a big loss in independence for many of the people that I've treated, even if the other pillars are intact"

"I see these four pillars almost like the four legs of a table. You need all four to have a sturdy table. If you knock one away, the table's wobbly at best. If you lose two, the table's on the floor"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Want to think like the healthiest 1%?

We study the world's top doctors, scientists, and researchers so you don't have to.

We break down the protocols, mental models & systems elite health experts use to stay sharp, strong, & disease-free.

Follow @Health_Almanac to get them.

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Will Harlow reveals how to rebuild your strength using "exercise snacks" during dead time

"I find really fascinatingly simple things if they're done consistently, like standing barefoot and brushing your teeth on one foot just to get that one minute of extra foot stability and calling your attention to your balance while you're doing something else"

"The thing you were referring to is what I call exercise snacks. They are short bursts of movement, typically 30 to 60 seconds, that you do in otherwise dead time throughout the day. You don't need to work on your balance—you could work on your strength, your mobility, or even your bone health"

"If you pick the one thing you want to improve and build an exercise snack regime around that one attribute, you are going to start building it up, and the research really supports this as well. This is not just some little thing that you can do"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Dr. Layne Norton explains why the fear that high-protein diets shorten your lifespan is scientifically flawed

"There is kind of this thought process out there that if you're stimulating mTOR, the protein is going to make you die early. First off, we have very little human outcome data to support that claim"

"I really want people to understand that even scientists get this wrong. They look at an acute response of something and assume that is going to relate to long-term outcomes"

"If you didn't know anything about exercise and I told you it makes your blood pressure go up, increases inflammatory markers, and damages your muscles, you'd say that sounds horrible. But what is the long-term effect? You actually get healthier"

"I think some of the arguments out there based on the idea that this increases mTOR, therefore we don't want to do it, is a much more complicated argument than just that. There doesn't seem to be really downsides to very high levels of protein"

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Want to think like the healthiest 1%?

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We break down the protocols, mental models & systems elite health experts use to stay sharp, strong, & disease-free.

Follow @Health_Almanac to get them.

[Health Almanac @Health_Almanac]

Dr. Saranya Wyles reveals why keeping sunscreen in your car is essential for preventing dramatic one-sided skin aging

"I just say to keep sunscreen in your car because most of the time people get exposed in the car and we see a lot of this damage on the left side of the face"

"There is a New England Journal of Medicine paper where there's a truck driver and it's a pretty staggering image where it's the whole arm and that face"

"It's not just UV light, it's visible light as well that can influence these different changes and pigment patterns on the skin. So the tinted ones with iron oxide could be beneficial"