Health

Kind of a silly and "private" topic, but it sounded interesting

There's one company "Snowballs Underwear" that has cooling packets that go in their underwear that supposedly may help with male fertility (and/or may boost testosterone?)

(Again a personal note before linking to this that this is kind of a "private" topic for "mature readers": https://www.snowballsunderwear.com/)

It has some historical precedent as the site notes that Russian bodybuilders of the 70s and 80s experimented with this "natural" attempt to boost testosterone

Any men tried this or have thoughts on the topic?

Good for a laugh? Able to confer serious benefits?

The idea for Heavyhands grew out of Schwartz’s discovery that the athletes with the highest VO2 max (generally considered the best indicator of cardiovascular fitness) were not cyclists, nor runners, but cross-country skiers.

Ok I saw that said in another place, but then my first suggestion is people should cross-country ski more if they can.

Part of the boost comes from training in the cold I think.

The other boost is making use of the whole body: arms and legs while exercising.

So this workout was trying to hold some weights in the arms while walking, to kind of be like skiing. I'd think you could also do what's called "nordic walking" which is basically like walking with ski poles on the ground. maybe add some weights to that?

Schwartz found that doing the “Heavyhands Walk” — essentially walking while pumping dumbbells with one’s arms — was the “best way to begin combined, four-limbed movements” and the most natural form of heavy-handed exercise.

Stumbled upon this idea today, I'd like to try to reframe some new year's resolutions as "themes" which are less specific "goals", with more specific "resolutions" on top of them.

For example, someone might have a "theme" of "losing weight this year" and with a specific goal to "lose 10 pounds by April".

The nice thing about a "theme" is that you might "fail" a specific resolution, while still "honoring" the overall "theme" you're aiming for. You might not lose 10 pounds by April, but still lose 10 pounds by June, and so still "honor" the "theme" of "losing weight this year".

Any new thoughts on new year's resolutions, goals, or themes?

Happy New Year! 🎊️🎉️🎇️🎆️

Trending on social media, people have been discussing some of their best "hacks" for improving their sleep

Anything from taking magnesium before bed, to getting enough exercise in during the day so you sleep well at night, a lot of tips are discussed and being experimented with (you could probably find a bunch of articles about the topic in a search engine)

I've noticed for example for remembering dreams that a dream diary or simply trying to remember them and/or write them down seems to improve dream recall

What are your top "sleepmaxxing" tips, or things that have helped improve your sleep?

Had no idea there were so many varieties of foods, I've seen this with other things like apples. Growing up you just think there are "apples" and "olives" and that's it, but it's fascinating to see how much variety there can be within each thing.

We all get the occasional sugar craving, but a new survey finds that most Americans have gone completely overboard when it comes to sweet treats and drinks. In a startling revelation, the average American consumes an astonishing 36,000 grams of sugar per year — equivalent to nearly 80 pounds.

This eye-opening statistic emerges from a poll of 2,000 Americans conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Hint Water, shedding light on the nation’s sugar habits and their surprising impact on hydration levels. The study found that the typical American ingests 99 grams of sugar daily, surpassing the sugar content of two 12-ounce cans of soda. This excessive consumption comes despite 85% of respondents actively working to reduce their sugar intake.

The survey also reveals that for 34% of respondents, the majority of their daily sugar intake in beverages comes from their morning coffee. Another 28% say that soda makes up most of their liquid consumption.

Interestingly, more than half of the participants (51%) believe that their sugar cravings might actually be a sign of dehydration. This insight gains significance when considering that respondents reported drinking only 48 ounces of water on a typical day, far below recommended levels.

sugarless ones contain aspartame which is bad. Tried organic lemonade once but that was too healthy and didnt taste good.

Sorry about the clickbait title but I thought it was funny and an appropriate reaction to this propaganda piece reminding people to wear sunscreen:

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/06/17/nx-s1-5002030/sunscreen-tiktok-misinformation-melanoma

The article "lies" by omission, if you want to accuse it of doing so, but here are some omissions to consider:

*Sunscreen isn't needed for one, because you can just wear clothes to cover up. A lot of people who work outside would just wear long pants and sleeves. Or in the middle east there is the common image of people wearing clothes that cover the whole body. The fact this is seldom mentioned always strikes me as curious as it's a viable alternative to sunscreen, even assuming one must avoid sun on the skin. There are even clothes that have SPF ratings like sunscreen.

*Article says "any sunscreen is better than no sunscreen"... which is a pretty dramatic claim as I could envision there being toxic sunscreens you should avoid.

*Article fails to mention concerns of proven toxic additives to sunscreens (naturally these aren't in all sunscreens): https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-24/many-sunscreens-still-have-potentially-dangerous-chemicals

*Article fails to mention a little direct contact with sunlight, which sunscreen blocks or disrupts, is important for Vitamin D production; vitamin D being important for general health and well-being.

*Article fails to mention a prevailing theory that diet influences one's susceptibility to being sunburned (particularly "seed oils" have been thought to increase one's ability to be burned; this may indeed be incorrect, but the broad idea of diet relating to possible sunburns sounds worth considering).

This would be a good example of why people struggle to take seriously articles that strongly denounce "misinformation" as well as various "authorities" who seem to peddle "misinformation" they purport to be combating.

Any other thoughts on avoiding toxic sunscreens and the like?

I saw an article about popular weight loss drugs today, which said they artificially stimulate the production of hormones in the brain to make people feel "satsified" and "full" (stimulate a feeling of "satiety") with whatever food they've eaten.

I've seen before that people've said certain foods create more satiety than others; the hypothesis goes that more foods that may taste good but lack nutritional value and satiety have been consumed more today, resulting in more overweight and obese people.

One issue is that it doesn't look like a lot of research has been done on what foods create a feeling of satiety; here's one such list of foods but the foods were determined subjectively I think by participants in a study: https://www.diabetesnet.com/food-diabetes/satiety-index/

Does this seem like a useful tool for people to lose more weight, for them to identify and consume more foods with a higher "satiety" than other foods?

Does it work as well as toothpaste or is there some other way to skip the disposable toothpaste tubes? I think some places recycle the traditional "tubes"

The mini pantry movement is a grassroots, crowdsourced solution to immediate and local need. Whether a need for food or a need to give, mini pantries help feed neighbors, nourishing neighborhoods.

a lot of gum has sweeteners in it which give headaches to some people and allegedly contribute to causing cancers? I saw this gum as an alternative, are there any others that avoid some of the problems?

Here's their site: https://refreshgum.com/

So there are a lot of articles that assert that having "good experiences" improves well-being much more than other things like accumulating material possessions beyond a reasonable level of need.

However, whenever I try to look up "what are the best experiences to have" there's a bunch of random links that come up on a search engine.

Yet I stumbled upon this book - "Time and How to Spend It: Seven Ways to Better Days" by James Wallman which outlines some criteria for elements of an experience that the author thinks is thought to be more valuable:

The author uses an acronym "STORIES", which stands for:

Story, Transformation, Outside & Offline, Relationships, Intensity, Extraordinary, and Status & Significance.

An "ideal experience" should be worth telling a story about, should "transform" who you are into something new, should ideally be in nature unplugged, should be with other people or strengthen relationships, should have totally challenge you or have you fully immersed in the experience, should be awe-inspiring (like watching a sunset), and should boost your status or have a significance for you personally.

I imagine "good experiences" that people have may lack these things, but I was curious what you think are some of the "best experiences" people can have and about what you think of this framework?

(The author has created a "World Experience Organization" which seems to put on or highlight events the group believes to be interesting that people might partake in)