Prostate Cancer Diagnosis? Eat More Veggies

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In this cohort study of 2062 men with prostate cancer, higher intake of plant foods after prostate cancer diagnosis was associated with lower risk of cancer progression. These findings suggest nutritional assessment and counseling may be recommended to patients with prostate cancer to help establish healthy dietary practices and support well-being and overall health. Plant-Based Diets and Disease Progression in Men With Prostate Cancer – https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2818122

This reminds me I should get my PSA level checked at my next annual visit.

Last reading was 0.64 back in 2022.

How To Feel Young at 70 (you read articles like this one)

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Sofiya Milman is director of Human Longevity Studies at the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She studies people known as “superagers” —95 and older. “As a group, they have a very positive outlook on life” and are notably resilient, like Jaffe, she told me.

Qualities associated with resilience in older adults include optimism and hopefulness, an ability to adapt to changing circumstances, meaningful relationships, community connections, and physical activity, according to a growing body of research on this topic. A Centenarian Thrives Living Alone, Active and Engaged – https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/centenarian-thrives-living-alone-older-adults/

Hilda Jaffe 102 lives alone and is thriving.

I need to improve my level of physical activity if I want to become a superager.

Humans are Difficult

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That day at the Costco checkout, I paid for my groceries at a human-powered cash register and received the tiny oxytocin boost that comes from a random interaction with strangers, the kind that Mehret Biruk is always raving about, those small insignificant moments of connection that add to the richness of life…

This interaction made me realize that much of what I explore in this newsletter is about embracing inefficiencies—making phone calls instead of texting, planning your route ahead of time instead of relying on a GPS, waiting to check your email from a desktop instead of on-the-go, letting people know that you can’t always be instantly available across various communication platforms.

We live in a world obsessed with optimization. An era of contactless everything. This holiday season, lean into the inefficiencies. Make eye contact with strangers. Take your AirPods out of your ears and make small talk with the cashier instead of scanning your own groceries. Chat with the kind humans handing out samples at Costco. Choose human connection, however uncomfortable that may be. You might be pleasantly surprised. Humans are difficult – https://substack.com/@carmellaguiol

Choose human connection.

The Dark Side of TikTok – Beef Tallow For Skincare

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In just three years, the share of U.S. adults who say they regularly get news from TikTok has more than quadrupled, from 3% in 2020 to 14% in 2023.

More Americans are getting news on TikTok, bucking the trend seen on most other social media sites — https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/11/15/more-americans-are-getting-news-on-tiktok-bucking-the-trend-seen-on-most-other-social-media-sites/

Beef tallow (if smeared on your face) may be be comedogenic according to Dr. Lee – The Beef Tallow TikTok Skincare Trend: Here Are The Concerns – https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2024/12/08/the-beef-tallow-tiktok-skincare-trend-here-are-the-concerns/

This too shall not end well.

The Dark Side of TikTok – Financial Advice?

The Dark Side of Tik Tok – Updated

The Dark Side of Tik Tok – Soak Your Eyeballs in Castor Oil

What’s Your America? (there are 10 Americas) – Updated with Scary Charts 02.01.25

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Asians and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders definitively outlive other Americans. Is there anything we can learn from them? A confluence of factors may be at play. They tend to have relatively higher socioeconomic status, lower rates of obesity, and the lowest smoking rates of any racial group in the U.S. Healthier traditional cooking may also contribute to their longevity. When it comes to life expectancy, there are 10 Americas – https://bigthink.com/health/ten-americas-for-life-expectancy/

Attention Mortality Risk Experts

Sharpen your pencils and don’t ask me what a pencil is.

Updated 02.01.25 with Scary Charts

Scary Charts 12.01.24

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Office CMBS Delinquency Rate Spikes to 10.4%, Just Below Worst of Financial Crisis Meltdown. Fastest 2-Year Spike Ever – https://wolfstreet.com/2024/11/30/office-cmbs-delinquency-rate-spikes-to-10-4-just-below-worst-of-financial-crisis-cre-meltdown-fastest-2-year-spike-ever/

Yikes.

The world’s worst countries for binge-drinking – https://www.statista.com/chart/5357/the-worlds-worst-countries-for-binge-drinking/

Yikes.

Which Lifestyle Changes Can Make You Live Longer? – https://www.statista.com/chart/31766/reduction-in-the-risk-of-premature-death-after-age-40-when-sticking-to-the-lifestyle-factors/

Yikes.

The Worst U.S. States For Binge Drinking – https://www.statista.com/chart/12345/the-worst-us-states-for-binge-drinking/

Yikes. But a great day for Scary Charts!

My Fat Cells Have a Memory

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Even after drastic weight loss, the body’s fat cells carry the ‘memory’ of obesity, research1 shows — a finding that might help to explain why it can be hard to stay trim after a weight-loss programme.

This memory arises because the experience of obesity leads to changes in the epigenome — a set of chemical tags that can be added to or removed from cells’ DNA and proteins that help to dial gene activity up or down. For fat cells, the shift in gene activity seems to render them incapable of their normal function. This impairment, as well as the changes in gene activity, can linger long after weight has dropped to healthy levels, a study published today in Nature reports.

Fat cells have a ‘memory’ of obesity — hinting at why it’s hard to keep weight off – www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03614-9

For the geeks, here’s a link to the original study – https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08165-7

Even without this study I already knew my fat cells have a memory because they are constantly trying to make me gain weight.

Nonrandom Thoughts on Retirement – Nov. 2024 (scary chart too)

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Americans are split over the state of the American dream — https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/02/americans-are-split-over-the-state-of-the-american-dream/

Are you familiar with the self-fulfilling prophecy in psychology/sociology? Simply stated a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when what you believe about your future causes it to happen. When you believe something will become true, you’ll act to make it a reality. Look at the chart above. Looks like around 50% of the survey respondents under the age of 50 will never achieve their American Dream.

They will make choices and act in ways to ensure they will never achieve the American Dream.

GLP-1 – Compounded or Brand-Name?

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Caroline Apovian, MD, co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston.

“Doctors who are obesity medicine specialists like myself in academic centers do not prescribe compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide,” she said.

Many of the compounded prescriptions, she said, come from telehealth virtual–only companies interested in profits.

GLP-1 Prescribing Decisions: Compounded or Brand-Name? – Medscape – November 14, 2024 – https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/glp-1-prescribing-decisions-compounded-or-brand-name-2024a1000krd?

To be clear, all of my GLP-1 posts are not anti-pharma. If you can afford these medications and they work for you on your weight loss journey that’s great. Just be aware of the possible side effects and the fact these medications are for life. You will regain all that you’ve lost if you stop taking the drug.

Here’s the link to Complications? What Complications? (just another GLP-1 receptor agonist post)

Mind the Gaps – Update 11.10.24

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More good news since I posted Mind The Gaps.

On November 5, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated the labels for all glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RA) with a warning about pulmonary aspiration during general anesthesia or deep sedation. The affected drugs are semaglutide (Ozempic, Rybelsus, Wegovy); liraglutide (Saxenda, Victoza); and the dual glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP)/GLP-1 tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound). FDA Updates GLP-1 Label With Pulmonary Aspiration Warning – Medscape – November 06, 2024. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/fda-updates-glp-1-label-pulmonary-aspiration-warning-2024a1000k84?src=rss

Interesting potential side effect. This is from the FDA on regulated GLP-1 RA drugs. But since I know a lot of you out there are using the compounded version…

https://www.medscape.com/s/viewarticle/novo-nordisk-aware-10-deaths-compounded-weight-loss-drug-2024a1000k8f?src=rss

Death is also a potential side effect of the FDA regulated version.

Susan McGowan, 58, took two low-dose injections of tirzepatide, known under the brand name Mounjaro, over the course of about two weeks before her death on 4 September.Her death certificate, seen by the BBC, lists multiple organ failure, septic shock and pancreatitis as the immediate cause of death – but “the use of prescribed tirzepatide” is also recorded as a contributing factor…There have been 23 suspected deaths linked to semaglutide in the UK via the yellow card scheme since 2019. Nurse’s death linked to approved weight-loss drug – https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz6jg6nw2zeo?

Yikes.