[Examine Newsletter] September 2022 Updates

See what's new on Examine for the past month!  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ [Examine]( [View in browser](=) Hello! Here’s your recap of Examine's September 2022 updates. 📧 Reminder: If you would like to switch back to weekly emails instead of a monthly newsletter — just [click here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Health habits part 1: insidious attachments Sept. 22, 2022 Below, we’ll dive into health habits, but we’ll do so in quite an unconventional way. Whether you’re an expert or novice in health science, at least some of this should apply to you. Note that the vast majority of future emails will still be shorter analyses of supplements, diets, and other prototypically-Examiney stuff. --------------------------------------------------------------- This email is basically a mini-guide Advice on health habits is often given as a directive on a specific facet of health, like diet or exercise. Do this! Avoid that! Stick to it! Look at all these people who succeeded after following my plan! Directives work great for some people, but not for others. Everybody has very different health concerns and life circumstances, so a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t always work. Rather than directives, this email lays out some guidelines for how to broadly approach the prioritization of health habits so you can tailor relevant actionables to your own life. Let’s split health habits into two chunks Part 1: Attachments - In healthcare settings, addictions typically refer to formalized disease states, such as drug dependence or abuse, or pathological gambling. - There’s much debate about what’s truly a medical condition and what isn’t, and definitions can change. For example, Gaming Disorder became a defined medical disorder in 2019. - For the purposes of this email, disordered behaviors that aren’t currently a defined condition will be called attachments, rather than addictions. Part 2: Aversions - Aversions are the opposite of attachments: they’re health-promoting things that you avoid for whatever reason. - If the majority of readers are interested in reading part 2 of this health habits series next week, we’ll cover aversions then. If you’re interested (or not!), just reply to this email and let me know. You already know that addictions can be extremely harmful. But what about attachments? Well, that depends on what the attachment is. If you just can’t get enough of pumpkin spice flavored foods, that isn’t likely to severely harm your health. But other attachments can become major issues. Some unhealthy attachments can lead to slow ruin If you have a major medically-defined addiction, like alcoholism, you already know how negatively it can affect both your short and long-term health. But these five common attachments are less likely to cause acute symptoms or be focused on by your doctor, and can therefore result in slow ruin over time because they’re harder to notice: - [Eating too much ultra-processed food]() - [Spending too much time on the internet]() - [Scrolling aimlessly through social media]() - [Looking at electronic screens late into the night]() - [Sitting in one position for too long]() The ruin is often insidious: one day you sign up for an account on some new social media site, and years later you’ve spent hundreds or even thousands of hours scrolling through it, even if you would have ideally preferred to be doing something else with most of that time, like learning a language, playing an instrument, reading a book, or hanging out with people in real life. Luckily, these habits tend to cluster, and focusing intently on just one habit can indirectly help tame the others. What are your top attachments? Do you have issues with any of these attachments? Some people legitimately don’t, but most people I know definitely do. I’ll use myself as an example. I have issues with #1, #2, and #5. Ever since I first got online to explore bulletin board systems (and later cruise AOL), I’ve spent too much time searching for anything and everything I’m interested in. Insatiable curiosity is a double-edged sword, and I’m sure some Examine readers can relate. Food and sitting were never problems for me until around 2008. Until then, I was a wannabe powerlifter who had very good control over my health habits. And then my joints went haywire. I had a few joint surgeries and was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a painful connective tissue disorder. Then, after seven years of taking various opioid medications, followed by a rocky withdrawal process, I settled into a pattern of sitting too much and eating more and more junk. Everybody has a different origin story. Sometimes it’s a health condition, sometimes it’s a family issue, sometimes it’s a job issue. Sometimes you just have a natural inclination to get attached to something unhealthy. Every reason is a valid reason, but at the end of the day, we’re all just looking for ways to feel better. Now that you’re attached, can you think of one small, sustainable way to detach? Here’s an analogy. Imagine your bad habit as a Band-Aid, covering some sort of wound. Not to be an armchair psychologist, but often the wound is very real: health issues or other life issues can make unhealthy habits that much more appealing because they provide temporary comfort and mask the wound underneath. Some people rip the Band-Aid off, and try to deal with the consequences. Many others just leave it on indefinitely. After all, ripping the Band-Aid off hurts, and exposes the wound beneath it! Perhaps you could try a middle route. Loosen the Band-Aid slowly over time. Nothing too extreme, but baby steps can add up, weakening the Band-Aid’s attachment until it naturally falls off. Here are some possible baby steps for common attachments: Eating too much ultra-processed food - Figure out your main couple trigger foods. Trigger foods are foods that you can’t stop eating once you start, or that cause you to overeat other foods. See if you can go two weeks without those specific foods. Instead, replace them with less processed foods you enjoy eating. For example, let’s say you love peanut butter and potato chips, but can’t stop overeating them. You could temporarily replace them with peanuts and baked potatoes. Not as convenient, but harder to overeat. And if you want to go a step further, shelled peanuts are even harder to overeat! Spending too much time on the internet - Go back through your browser history for the past week and take notes on how you’d ideally preferred to have spent your time. Revisit these notes at the start of the day for the next couple days. Scrolling aimlessly through social media - Uninstall social apps on your phone for a couple days or more, or even temporarily deactivate one or more social media accounts. After a week, consider: did you actually miss any of them? Looking at electronic screens late into the night - Set a reasonable cut-off for screen time (perhaps 10 p.m. or 11 p.m.?) and try to go one week without going over your limit. Sitting in one position for too long - Set a timer for 30 minutes. When time’s up, move around for at least 30 seconds. Start by doing this at least three times a day, for one week. Baby steps! The goal is to loosen attachments rather than ditch all of them at once. This way, you feel a sense of accomplishment from doing something sustainable rather than doing something extreme that’s hard to maintain. Over time, you can build on small victories and aim for larger victories. Are you interested in part 2? These kinds of write-ups can seem almost too basic. Yet most people stand to gain more from fine-tuning health habits than they do from optimal supplementation or hitting the perfect macronutrient ratio. If you want to read part 2 next week, focusing on aversions rather than attachments, let me know by replying to this email. If you don’t, let me know that as well. I’ll go with the majority vote, and then we’ll get back to supplement and nutrition science the week after! --------------------------------------------------------------- Health habits part 2: aversions Sept. 29, 2022 Last week I asked if you wanted a part 2 email on health habits, this time about aversion-related habits. 98.8% of readers voted yes [:partying_face:] 1.2% of readers voted no [:eyes:] I swear the vote wasn’t rigged! So here’s the second and last email on health habits, focusing on aversions. We’ll resume normal emails next week. --------------------------------------------------------------- A quick recap about attachments Last week, we broke health habits into two chunks: attachments and aversions. Attachments are ingrained habits you do too much of. Aversions are potentially positive habits you do too little of. We focused on five common attachments: - Eating too much ultra-processed food - Spending too much time on the internet - Scrolling aimlessly through social media - Looking at electronic screens late into the night - Sitting in one position for too long In a fit of inspiration, many people rush to solve everything at once, rather than chipping away in a sustainable fashion. Last week’s takeaway was to find one or two methods to detach that you’re pretty sure you can sustain, like one week without social media apps on your phone, or a week without your main trigger foods. If you achieve a small victory or two, they can snowball into larger changes over time. Five common aversions People don’t talk about aversions as much as attachments. Yet aversions can be just as (or more) important. Here are five common health-related aversions: - Avoiding a job search (this one’s explained in depth below!) - Avoiding mobility exercises - Avoiding mindful pauses - Not socializing enough - Avoiding regular visits to your healthcare provider Aversions are often a byproduct of busy schedules or prioritization issues. People have so many urgent tasks that they tend to crowd out non-urgent ones, even if they’re more important overall. When busy schedules include a couple of the attachments from the previous email, like scrolling aimlessly through social media, and generally just staring at screens for too long, there’s not a lot of time left in the day to deeply consider aversions and work on them. Avoiding a job search … that’s a common health aversion? Let me start by explaining the first aversion, since it’s often tricky to identify. Avoiding something over a long period of time is just as much a repeated pattern of avoidance as avoiding a daily healthy habit, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on all the habits we cultivate, even if they’re not daily behaviors. The average person works about 90,000 hours in their lifetime. Your job has a huge influence on your health, since it determines the hours you have available to spend with loved ones, stress levels, commute time or lack thereof, healthcare coverage (well, in the U.S. at least, ugh) and much more. I’d bet that at least a few thousand Examine readers could substantially improve their health by switching jobs. But looking for a job is no fun. A friend of mine recently mentioned that he’s been overworked and micromanaged at his job for the past two years, and he’s been waiting for a defining moment of suckiness to start a determined job search. I told him about Examine, where we’ve had a flex four-day workweek since February (Fridays are usually fully off, and you don’t have to make up the time on other weekdays) and as little bureaucracy as possible. After his ears perked up, I laid it on thick. Real thick. You don’t owe your micromanaging boss anything! A little lower pay for a much better lifestyle is a no-brainer! He probably already knew all that, but having someone else tell you can really help. So I’m telling you now: if your job’s hampering your mental or physical health, consider making time for a job search. If you don’t have time, try cutting out social media or internet scrolling time for a couple weeks, and see if that frees up enough hours to get started. The other four aversions Mobility exercises usually take a backseat to more glamorous exercises. Take it from someone with many trashed joints: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The Examine team doesn’t review many exercise studies (yet!), so if you don’t know much about this topic, ask a physical therapist or trainer, or start Googling around to get some background. Mindful pauses aren’t necessarily meditation. So if you’ve tried and failed to start a meditation routine, don’t worry. By mindful pausing, I just mean getting out of your own head on purpose, on a more frequent basis. With a whole world of information and entertainment at your fingertips on the Internet, many people are loath to pause even once in the day. One simple way to work in pauses is actually scheduling pause time on your calendar, even if it’s just five minutes. I’m guilty of not socializing enough. I moved to the sprawling LA area in the past couple years, which is rich in clogged highways and poor in public transit. Having joint issues that limit driving compounds the issue. Making new friends is hard! Especially as you get older, and that goes double if you’re not keen on putting yourself out there. Yet the strength of one’s social network (the in-person kind rather than the social media kind) has a huge influence on health. If you’re looking to make friends, there are probably other people in your area looking for the same. The last aversion is the most straightforward. If you just love going to the doctor and dentist, then you’re a rare breed. For everyone else, the hassle of making an appointment and routinely visiting a healthcare provider is outweighed by a simple fact: healthcare providers are trained to detect, diagnose, and treat disease. Even if you don’t like your provider, or don’t always agree with their suggestions, make sure you go! Got persistent aversions? Let me re-introduce you to Grandma’s Law. Whatever your main aversion is, there’s a fairly reliable way to approach it. Grandma’s law entails doing a less-likely action before a more-likely action. If you eat veggies (less likely to be done) before allowing yourself a cookie (more likely to be done), the veggies are less likely to get left behind than if you ate them in the reverse order. In behavioral psychology, this is called the Premack Principle: putting the more likely behavior last can serve as motivation to do the less likely behavior first. In other words, you put in the work and then get the reward. You can use this pattern with aversions. If you’ve been putting off a beneficial health habit like the ones above, think of a reward you can give yourself if you accomplish it. Habit emails won’t become a habit! If you don’t need help with habits, and are waiting for me to finally finish up these habit emails, good news: we’ll be back to supplements and nutrition next week. Just keep in mind that optimizing what you put in your body is important, but often not quite as important as all the stuff we’ve gone through in the past two emails. There’s no shame in having attachments and aversions, and there’s no time like the present to start working on them! --------------------------------------------------------------- Four studies about being outside Sept. 1, 2022 The Examine team is on our annual retreat this week, which means a heftier dose of outside time than usual. Do you make it a priority to get extended time outside at least once in a while? If not, maybe these study summaries will convince you! [The positive impacts of forest bathing](=) This is a wide-scoping review of forest bathing, covering 16 systematic reviews. Forest bathing is a traditional meditative practice characterized by walking in a forest combined with breathing and meditation exercises. [Reconnect with nature to reduce stress and blood pressure](=) A review of 14 studies related to forest bathing and hypertension that measured outcomes such as blood pressure, heart rate, and blood markers of cardiovascular health. [Sun and sea for skin disease](=) Researchers investigated whether sun exposure at the Dead Sea basin could benefit children with atopic dermatitis. [If the grass is greener and the air is cleaner, will children have a less stressed demeanor?](=) This was a cohort study of 2,290 children that examined the role of the urban environment on self-reported stress. We usually don’t make recommendations of any sort, but this one’s fairly safe. If you haven’t been outside enough recently, maybe make a plan to see some greenery and open spaces during the next week! Sincerely, Kamal PatelCo-founder, Examine follow us on: [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( [Instagram](=) [About Examine]( | [Careers]() | [Member’s Area]() [Unlock Examine+]( PO Box 592, Station-P, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2T1 [Switch to weekly emails]() | [Opt-out of all emails](