Medley 23: Swearing, sugar, and alzheimers

Happy Monday! Let's see what we have this week...

New Article : How Swearing Leads to a Shitty Vocabulary

This is a shorter article on a problem I recently realized with swearing too much: it limits your vocabulary, and in doing so, can negatively affect your psychology around different experiences. Worth reading if you tend to swear a lot (like me).

80+ New Lessons : Lessons from Books, Articles, Speeches, and More

I set a $500 stake with my friend that I had to finish pulling all of my remaining book notes out of Evernote and upload them last week. And I hit it! My lessons page now has my notes from ~140 books I've read the last few years, with many more to come.

Preventable Alzheimers : Alzheimer's Disease Is Type 3 Diabetes–Evidence Reviewed

This article analyzes the existing research on Alzheimer's Disease and concludes that Alzheimers can be thought of as a "Type 3 Diabetes," and not as a genetic predetermined "age related" disease.

This is huge for our understanding of one of the most depressing, and prevalent, afflictions that can hit us in old age. In short, avoiding refined sugar (sucrose, corn syrup, etc.), maintaining a healthy blood glucose level, and not being overweight can significantly decrease your odds of developing Alzheimers. It's completely preventable, so long as we stay healthy.

Joe Rogan and Dr. Rhonda Patrick on Health (#773) : YouTube, iTunes

In this episode, Rogan and Patrick cover tons of recent research on health and fitness. Patrick is by far my favorite public-facing researcher on much of this, and she doesn't hold back in going deep on the science.

A few key notes:

• LDL Cholesterol is not inherently bad, it's the combination of LDL with refined carbohydrates that's problematic. Low cholesterol can actually lead to cell damage, Alzheimers, other problems.
• Cold exposure AND heat exposure are great for psychological boosts, though cold exposure immediately following a workout can dampen the muscular development.
• NSAIDs (like Tylenol) are pretty terrible for your heart

Supersize Me But Sugar : "That Sugar Film"

This week has a theme, can't you tell? This documentary follows a normally healthy eater who switches to a diet where he gets the average amount of sugar that most people are eating, and only through sources that are marketed as healthy.

Long story short, it WRECKS his body in subtle ways you wouldn't realize from the outside. And he puts on a considerable amount of fat despite eating the same number of calories.

Sugar and Smoking : I made this medley very health-focused, and part of that is because I think we're at an important turning point. It's becoming more and more apparent that refined sugar is as bad for us as smoking. Being overweight can shave ~10 years off your lifespan, just as smoking can shave ~10 years off, and we know that injecting everything with sucrose and eating a high-carb diet is the main reason we have such an insane obesity epidemic.

We succeeded in drastically reducing cigarette consumption in the US through public awareness, and now it's time to do the same to sugar. As great as sugar tastes, we need to pull our heads out of the sand and realize what it's doing to us. A casual cigarette, cigar, or piece of cake every week or two isn't going to kill us or wreck our bodies, but regular consumption certainly will.

Okay, that ended kind of depressing, so here's some dog pictures to cheer you up.

Have a good week!
Nat