There has been a profusion of wellness advocates, practitioners and solution providers. In the context of health, you share all sorts of information about yourself. Not just blood reports but intimate details. Have you ever wondered what happens to this data? In a traditional hospital, they follow something known as
In health, we are always seeking a marker that shows good health. The equivalent of what is to illness, one marker that shows good health. There is perhaps no better marker than VO2max. So what is it, what does it show and how can you build yours? VO2max captures the
I am old enough to not recall when I first encountered social media. In the beginning, it was wonderful to reconnect with old friends. But today, social media is associated with doom scrolling. It has quietly become one of the biggest drains on the modern mind. When you scroll endlessly
The human body did not evolve to be extraordinarily lean nor excessively muscular. It evolved to survive. The best way to survive is through balance. In science, we call it homeostasis. When you evaluate the human body through this lens, you can form an objective view on perhaps the most
Most of you reading would concur. You are getting forgetful. You forget names. You forget tasks. You forget where you were supposed to be going. But are you really losing your memory? I guess the question is whether you lost your memory or you simply cannot retrieve it. It is
One of the most enduring questions if biology is whether human beings are still evolving. Darwin taught us that we got here because of evolution. Millions of years of slow, gradual change that turned us into human beings from simple cells. But are we still evolving? Because change is so
Each morning when I wake up, my timeline is flooded with shiny new ways to increase longevity. Peptides, lymphatic stimulation, isolates of compounds. All promising a longer life. But are we chasing the wrong goal? It is not my argument that you should not live long. More likely, with medical
Holding your breath is one of the most ancient human skills. Long before we had gyms, supplements, biohacking devices or wearable trackers, we had lungs. Your lungs are powerful regulators of good health. Hidden inside every pause, between an inhale and the next breath, is a powerful switch that speaks
Exercise is universally accepted as a tool to improve the quality of your life. But research throws up a surprising truth. The benefit of exercise has a J curve. In simple terms, after a point, the benefits start to fade. It can even be detrimental to you after a point.
Hashimoto is one of those conditions that quietly affects millions of people, often long before they even realize something is wrong. So what is Hashimoto and how do you know if you have it? At its core, Hashimoto's is an autoimmune condition. Your own immune system, which is
We often speak about stress as if it is an unseen force pressing on the mind. Yet I have long argued that stress has a strong physical manifestation. One evidence is your adrenal glands. Your adrenal glands sit above your kidney. They determine how we deal with life when confronted
Imagine hearing a loud noise repeatedly. The first time, you jump. The second time, you still notice it. But if the sound continues long enough, it fades into the background. This is an outcome of habituation. Your brain’s ability to tune out repeated stimuli so it can focus on
Think of stress and you will conjure up the life of an adult. Or at least a teenager. But children experience stress as well. Deadlines, finances, relationships and decision making can create stress. For a child, the world is still new and unpredictable. Their brains are learning how to interpret
energy
Each morning when you wake up, you do so with energy. Depending on your lifestyle, the energy can last you the entire day or a few hours. So what exactly is this energy? How can you understand it and use it to your benefit? Every movement you make, from climbing
A stroke has been dramatized in movies forever. A sudden dramatic event where the actor collapses and the body stops cooperating. But a wake up stroke is different. You go to sleep feeling normal, and you open your eyes to find that your speech is slurred or one side of
There is a commonly used phrase on the internet. It is called exercise snack. Exercise snacks are short, intense bursts of physical activity, lasting from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. They can be performed multiple times throughout the day. But let us be contrarian. Let us pursue rest snacks instead.
Each day that we are alive, chances are that you have used cosmetics in some form. Soap, shampoo, face cream, moisturizer, makeup. Our goal is to look and feel better. But are the ingredients causing you more harm than doing good? One ingredient in cosmetics is plant estrogen. You will
When you were a child, one of the biggest aspirations was to grow old. Older at the very least. Older people seemed to do all sorts of fantastical things that you couldn’t. Don’t let the old man in. Here is the funny thing. We never stopped. In fact,
Most of us are on a diet of some sort. The exact nature may vary, depending on what is fashionable at the moment. But chances are that we all modulate our food and nutrition. What does dieting do to your muscles? Your muscles are metabolically active. They require energy simply
This year, I have encountered a surprising number of people who have got Chikungunya. Chikungunya is a viral disease resembling dengue, transmitted by mosquitoes and endemic in East Africa and parts of Asia. If you don’t know anyone who has been inflicted, thank your stars. The pain, fatigue and
I spoke to someone yesterday. He is fifty-nine, diagnosed with osteoporosis. He was advised to not undertake any form of physical activity or exercise, lest he break a bone. So, should you stop exercising if you have osteoporosis? Let me disclaim first, so that there is no misunderstanding. Each person’
Your body has two broad kinds of muscle fibre. Fast twitch and slow twitch. We use both in our everyday lives, perhaps without noticing. What role do different muscles play? The body, designed over years, built capacity for varying needs. To sprint and escape from a predator. To throw a
But he can eat anything, and he never puts on weight. There has to be something wrong with my metabolism. Or genes. Or hormones. Or my stars. Have you felt this about someone? If you have, listen in. Let me use my example. A few weeks ago, I found myself
If you are chasing big ideas in health, among the most powerful ideas is that your genes are not your fate. You may have inherited your genes, but how they behave is in your hands. It is called epigenetics or gene expression. Your lifestyle, your sleep, your stress, and especially