The Power of Longer Walks and More Health Highlights for Your Week
Welcome to this week’s edition of Public Health without Politics.
In this edition, we break down the most useful new health research, including surprising early cancer signs, why longer walks matter, how body fat may affect Alzheimer’s risk, and two vitamins that can cancel the benefits of exercise.
Trending in Health this Week
New research shows that longer, steady walks—about 15 minutes or more—provide far bigger health benefits than taking the same number of steps in lots of short bursts.
Surprising Cancer Symptoms: Doctors say several overlooked symptoms—like persistent bloating, unusual fatigue, or long-lasting back pain—can sometimes be early warning signs of cancer and shouldn’t be ignored.
This recent Wall Street Journal article breaks down some common myths about antidepressants.
Obesity drugs like Ozempic are becoming mainstream.
Listening to music most days could guard against dementia.
Wegmans wins again as the best American grocery store.
Try and eat with a friend: Older adults who regularly eat meals alone tend to have poorer nutrition.
A 5-day “fasting-mimicking” diet helped people lose weight and improve key health markers without actually fasting.
Mark your calendars: New dietary guidelines are coming in December. If you like nutrition controversy, settle down with some buttered popcorn high in saturated fat and watch the fireworks.
How Extra Body Fat Might Affect Your Risk of Alzheimer’s
Maintaining a healthy weight can lower the risk of several chronic illnesses, including heart disease and type 2 diabetes. It’s also good for your brain. New research shows that having too much body fat might play a direct role in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
The Study: Earlier research suggested a link between obesity and dementia, but scientists weren’t sure how fat might be involved. In this new study, researchers at Houston Methodist collected belly fat from both obese and lean patients undergoing elective abdominal surgery.
The particles from people with obesity carried a different mix of fats, and those fats seemed to push the brain toward forming the plaques linked to Alzheimer’s disease. In other words, signals coming from excess body fat may directly nudge the brain in an unhealthy direction.
Keep in Mind: It’s early research. Scientists still need to confirm how this works, but future treatments might try to block these signals to help lower Alzheimer’s risk.
Exercise Helps Prevent Type 2 Diabetes — But Skip Certain Supplements
A major study found that exercise is good for preventing Type 2 Diabetes, even if it doesn’t help you lose weight. In fact, exercise may even be better than the anti-diabetic drug, Metformin.
But there’s a catch: taking vitamin C and E supplements wiped out most of those benefits. The supplements basically stopped the body from responding to exercise the way it normally does.
My thoughts: Exercise is great but, at least for now until we learn more, don’t combine it with vitamin C and E supplements. Unfortunately, most multivitamins contain both.
Inspirational Quote
“Leap, and the net will appear.”
—The Artist’s Way
Have a great week,
—Richard