Mark Sisson's Blog, page 265

How to Raise Creative and Self-Reliant Free-Range Kids

I always find it funny when I write about something and suddenly I find other incredible angles of the topic coincidentally pop up in my newsfeed or even conversation. (I also loved reading the gamut of stories and opinions on the board.) Such was the case a couple weeks following my post on free-range kids. It’s true some other major media outlets took up the general subject in their op-eds, etc. More interestingly, I’ve stumbled across commentaries that cover everything from the value of tree-climbing to the no-fuss, no-guilt philosophy of 70s mothers (as the title notes, drinking Tab and locking us outside). Sound familiar to anyone?

The most intriguing find, however, was an NPR article highlighting a children’s “adventure park” in Wales inspired by the unofficial play havens of bombed out buildings during/after WWII. The unconventional playground, called simply “The Land,” is apparently one of dozens in Europe (with a small handful in the U.S. – including one in Berkeley, CA, and a few in New York).

The scene is probably every kids’ primal dream: a few acres of zip lines, hills, mud, fire, paints, chains, climbing structures, piping, tires, dens, hammers and nails, random boards, and all manner of, well, junk. (I mentioned the hours in New England dumps a couple weeks ago, and it’s apparently an official and universal truth: kids just like junk.)

The designers and “playworkers” (specially trained observers who offer strategically minimal interaction) emphasize the importance of “loose parts” for this kind of open-ended “play work” – e.g. pallets, boards, tools, etc. with no fixed or pre-associated function.

Such an environment, so antithetical to most traditional playgrounds, encourages self-direction, managed risk and social negotiation from the relative absence of any structure. (If you find yourself drawn to the concept, by the way, for your children or – admit it – yourself, they even offer a free PDF Play Work primer – a fantastically awesome resource.)

The concept casts playgrounds – and play – in a renewed light. In an era when swing and teeter-totters are deemed too dangerous, these parks refuse that safety-obsessive movement. (There’s something about rushing toward whatever everyone tells you is dangerous….) It also refuses the “precious” set-ups of perfectly arranged stations of toys or equipment that still suggest to kids what they’re supposed to do and cost more than most people make in a month. There’s nothing cute or stylish here. It’s ugly, and the kids like it that way.

What does it remind you of? Maybe nature – before we began to get caught up in the aesthetic arrangement of it. Nature when it was hands-on, when no one cared if you picked whatever plants you wanted, moved logs (if you were strong enough to lift them), threw rocks everywhere, walked in the mud. Nature when it was human habitat and not an endangered specimen or pristine gardenscape.

I think we find ourselves with this angle at an intriguing intersection of free play and free range. Not only are we obsessively restricting our kids’ parameters of place – the space in which they feel at home, competent to navigate, free to explore, but we’re relentless about planning or directing their play with everything from the over scheduled activity calendars to one-function toys to neurotic cleanliness.

Let’s eradicate their sense of communal space but make up for it by decorating their bedrooms to the nines. Let’s make sure they never so much as get a knee scrape but put them on ADHD medication before we even stop to question whether they simply want to run around a few times a day. We don’t have time for a green hour each day, but two hours of homework, and hour and a half of organized activities and an allotted hour on the iPad aren’t up for questioning.

It’s somehow become so easy to downplay play. But risky play, wild play, dangerous play? How do we justify anything presumably unessential to higher test scores – and remotely hazardous? The status quo might grudgingly accept that you have to let the little kids out to play for a short stint each day to help attentiveness and prevent major behavioral problems. When you try to then push the envelope and insist on play as more than a stretch break (for all kids – and maybe even adults)…that’s another story.

When we begin to look at the purposes of play and the diversity of its forms, it’s blatantly obvious we’re giving it short shrift. Well-known play theorist and advocate, Bob Hughs, is also one of the minds behind the development of the Playwork movement – and creator of the play taxonomy. According to Hughs, there are no less than sixteen types of play – all essential to cognitive, social, physical and emotional development (PDF).

Socio-dramatic
Rough-and-tumble
Exploratory
Object
Creative
Communication
Deep
Recapitulative
Symbolic
Fantasy
Dramatic
Imaginative
Locomotor
Mastery
Role play

Creativity has been called, for example, the most important factor for professional success in leadership. It’s little wonder, given that studies suggest free play (self-directed) supports a kind of a executive flexibility – the ability to switch out goals and directions.

For anyone who’s ever watched a horde of kids negotiate what to play or where to go or how to do something on their own, it’s clear adaptability is key to keep the peace and the fun moving forward. There’s a flow to it that might take their scenarios in a hundred different amusing directions, but for them it’s serious business. Fast forward twenty-five years, and that flexibility will work for them in their personal adult development. Yet, as Torrence test scores indicate, creativity is on the decline – paralleling the decline in children’s free time and free play (PDF).

Beyond the realm of success, however, is the question of general well-being and even emotional stability. Research has found strong connections between play and lower rates of depression and anxiety rates as well as the development of social empathy. Interviews with murderers have found that play deprivation was a leading (and unexpected) correlation at 90%.

Finally, from a Primal perspective, let us consider for a moment the definitions of just two of these: deep play and recapitulative play…. (PDF)

Deep Play is described as “play which allows the child to encounter risky or even potentially life threatening experiences, to develop survival skills and conquer fear.”

Recapitulative Play is “play that allows the child to explore ancestry, history, rituals, stories, rhymes, fire and darkness. Enables children to access play of earlier human evolutionary stages.”

What about our current education system or even most families’ weekend activities addresses these needs? There’s so much to just these two theorized types of play I’ll have to cover them another time, but I couldn’t help including them here. Grok as ultimate playworker.

So, I get it. Not everyone lives near an adventure park. Not everyone lives in a neighborhood safe enough for 8-year-olds to walk by themselves for more than half a block. I’m not suggesting we put our heads in the sand. What I am suggesting is that we look at the opportunities we have available to us. In fact, maybe we could commit to an experiment. Let me throw out some totally random suggestions that open the door for wild, free-range, diverse, and self-directed play and invite you to offer your own inspired ideas.

Plan your next vacation to include a trip (be prepared for repeat requests) to an adventure park. Better than Disneyland any day.


Make your own “pop-up” adventure park at home – or with others in your community. Make it the theme of your kid’s next birthday party.


Collect large (as large as you can get) cardboard boxes. Put them somewhere visible but don’t say anything. At some point, they’ll ask if they can have them. Pretend to reluctantly agree. Do not, under any circumstances, suggest what they could do with them.


Dump the idea of a perfect playroom or perfect toys. If it pleases an adult aesthetic, it’s probably not that fun. Forget anything that matches or declares its own function. Imagine Grok’s kids and choose for them. Think random, unusual, and useful. Kids, when left to their own devices, will raid your recycling and kitchen drawers for their play.


Donate 50% (or more) of your kids’ toys and make a room in your house (or backyard now that we’re heading into the warmer season) nothing but “loose parts” – tubes, beads, buckets, hose, platforms, random clothes, rags, boards, cardboard boxes of all sizes (never enough), etc. Tell them “nothing around the neck,” and then let them have at it.


Offer your child the chance to play with a group of friends/cousins/neighbor kids (not all same age) on a regular basis with a wild and loose part focus. The more minds, the more enthusiasm and ideas they’ll gather as well as negotiate.


Do a city/country scavenger hunt that allows kids the chance to wander with unobtrusive adult accompaniment (as needed).


Have a portable bin of “adventure junk” that you can bring to other parks and let the kids use. The different environment (and other kids who will inevitably flock to the new options) will open up new scenarios.


Give them their own “workshop,” which could be a portable wagon. Teach them (or, better yet, have a responsible non-parent teach them) to safely hammer, saw, etc. Give them opportunities to “work” while you’re inconspicuously present – washing the car in the driveway while they work in the garage.


Teach them how to play with fire without burning the neighborhood down (or seriously injuring themselves).


Spend an hour each week somewhere outdoors where they can actually manipulate things – where the “no touch” rule doesn’t apply. Have you ever watched kids on a rock beach? Bring water and food because you’ll be there for hours. Find a friend who has some land and doesn’t mind the kids moving old tree limbs and whatever else they find.


And most of all? Make time for whim, adventure, exploration, experimentation – boredom…which is the mother of many a great invention (and many a good story).

Thanks for reading, everyone. Have you been to an adventure park or feel inspired to go build one? Have a great end to the week, and enjoy some deep and recapitulative play this weekend.

How to Take Care of Your Gut: The New and Improved Primal Flora

Anytime I discuss supplements, some readers balk. For them, if Grok didn’t do it, we shouldn’t either. And you know what? If that describes you, I get where you’re coming from. Ideally, optimal health develops organically — from the food we eat, the sun, sleep, and movement patterns we follow, the lifestyles we develop. But we don’t live in Grok’s world any more. We don’t have access to the same nutrient-dense plants and animals he did, and we face entirely new stressors and endure novel deficits previous generations never have. These new challenges call for new solutions, and supplements can be one of these solutions. As a supplement maker, I always take cues from Grok’s behaviors, physiology, and requirements and use modern day science to produce quality products. I’m not just making them to sell something. I’m meeting a need and filling a deficit. Usually my own!

The funny thing about science is that it’s a moving target. It’s evolving, and if the science evolves, so too must the supplements based on its findings. To stay abreast of it all, I’m always researching and listening to advisors and other experts to make sure that my formulations are optimal. Gut health as a health topic has exploded in recent years, as has the amount of research being done, and what we know about how the foods we eat, behaviors we do, and supplements we take affect our guts has evolved. I recently updated the Primal Flora formulation to reflect the latest developments. It now contains an (almost) entirely new set of probiotic strains. Below I’ll explain what these are, how you can benefit, and share my own experience using the new formulation.

But first, I need to explain a few concepts. You are probably aware that most common probiotics and fermented milk products contain primarily lactobacillus and bifidobacterium species. The reason I elected not to focus on those is because these species are already very prevalent in our guts – there are probably over 20 trillion – so adding even 20 billion more CFU (colony forming unit) is only boosting the population by one one-thousandth. And that’s if they even survive the harsh acidic environment of the stomach (which most probiotics don’t). Instead, what I wanted was a number of well-researched species that I could deliver to the GI tract where they could colonize and do their unique jobs. To do this, most had to be what we call “spore formers” that remain dormant until they reach the appropriate parts of the gut, undamaged by stomach acid. These needed to be the species and strains that were proven effective in years of solid research, in many cases signaling to other bacteria to increase or decrease. Finally, to make the formula even more effective, I put them in “time release” veggie capsules that won’t disintegrate until past the stomach. Now, instead of delivering 40 or 60 Billion colony forming units that are DOA, we can deliver a smaller dosage of far more potent (and living) probiotics. In fact, less may be more in this case.

So, what strains are new in Primal Flora?

Bacillus subtilis

Ever eat natto, the sticky, pungent Japanese fermented soybean? Despite its unique smell, texture, taste, and soy-ness, I’ve grown to enjoy natto — all thanks to Bacillus subtilis. When you inoculate soybeans with that particular strain, great things happen. Vitamin K2 production ramps up (natto is the best source of vitamin K2, a nutrient important in bone mineralization, cancer prevention, and protection from heart disease). The soy proteins grow less allergenic. The soy is transformed into a beneficial nutritional powerhouse.

Turns out that Bacillus subtilis may have profound effects as a probiotic in our bodies, too; combined with antibiotics, it’s been shown to lower urinary pH and reduce infections in patients with stones-associated UTIs. Perhaps most beneficial are its abilities to hydrolyze nutrients, convert antinutrients to beneficial compounds, manufacture vitamins, and make allergenic proteins less so:

It produces phytase, the enzyme responsible for breaking down phytic acid into inositol and improving mineral bioavailability.
It converts vitamin K (the version found in leafy greens that’s less biovailable to us) into vitamin K2 (the version found in natto, goose liver, and aged cheese that’s far more bioavailable).
It can hydrolyze wheat proteins, soy (as mentioned above), and casein, potentially making them less allergenic.

Bacillus subtilis is omnipresent in soil, so it likely populated the ancestral human gut and definitely belongs in yours.

Bacillus clausii

In Europe, Bacillus clausii supplementation has gained notoriety as an effective therapy for patients with diarrhea (including antibiotic-related diarrhea), hay fever, and IBS, and as a preventive measure against upper respiratory tract infections. Bacillus clausii may even help treat small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (PDF). These wide-ranging effects are likely due to its ability to boost innate (or “general”) immunity, and several human trials suggest major efficacy:

Among kids attending germ factories (also known as daycare), Bacillus clausii reduced the incidence of upper respiratory tract infections.
In patients being treated for H. pylori infections, Bacillus clausii supplementation ameliorated antibiotic-related side effects like diarrhea, nausea, and gut pain.
In hay fever sufferers, taking Bacillus clausii modulated their immune response.

Lactobacillus plantarum

If you regularly consume kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, or traditional milk ferments made by Masai tribesmen, you’re getting Lactobacillus plantarum. But many people don’t eat those foods. I know I certainly get lax about making kraut or drinking kefir, and the fact that this particular strain of probiotic bacteria shows up in such wildly disparate traditional foods made me investigate it as a potential addition to Primal Flora. Needless to say, it made the cut for a number of reasons:

It produces biotin in the colon.
It may reduce intestinal permeability.
It seems to improve symptoms in IBS patients.
It can improve the lipid profile of hypercholesterolemic adults.
It may offer protection against upper respiratory tract infections.
It produces folate in vivo.

Saccharomyces boulardii

Rather than a bacteria, Saccharomyces boulardii is a strain of non-pathogenic yeast with decades of use in the treatment of inflammatory gastrointestinal diseases, both acute and chronic. Acute diseases include:

Antibiotic-associated diarrhea
Clostridium difficile infection
Acute diarrhea
Persistent diarrhea
Enteral nutrition-related diarrhea
Traveler’s diarrhea (name a diarrhea, it probably helps resolve it)
Helicobacter pylori infection

Chronic diseases include:

Crohn’s disease
Ulcerative colitis
Irritable bowel syndrome
Parasitic infections, like amoebic colitis, giardiasis, and blastocystis hominis
HIV-related diarrhea

Researchers have confirmed several mechanisms that might explain the broad efficacy of Saccharomyces boulardii:

Modulates the host (that’s you!) immune response, both locally and systemically.
Prevents pathogens from adhering to the intestinal lining.
Regulates microbial homeostasis.
Stabilizes gut barrier function.

Those are the four new strains I’ve included in the new formulation, but my research also re-confirmed the utility of two of the strains from the previous version: Bifidobacteria bifidus and Bacillus coagulans.

Bifidobacteria bifidus

Every team needs a bruiser, a guy so formidable that he intimidates the opposing players with the mere threat of a physical encounter. The New York Knicks had Charles Oakley (and later Anthony Mason), the Pistons had Rick Mahorn, and every hockey team has a designated enforcer. In your gut, Bifidobacteria bifidus can play a similar role: it’s really good at adhering to the intestinal lining, keeping out the pathogens and protecting against their negative effects. That’s probably why it’s considered an essential human gut commensal starting from infancy (assuming breastfeeding).

In addition, it feeds on gut mucus, which sounds undesirable, but this prompts the secretion of additional mucus and the total amount protecting the gut increases. After injury to the gut lining, Bifidobacteria bifidus can repair the damage and strengthen the intestinal tight junctions. It’s also been shown to alleviate IBS and improve quality of life in patients suffering from IBS.

Bacillus coagulans

Many probiotics cannot survive the harsh conditions of the stomach and never reach the gut. Bacillus coagulans, however, is extremely tolerant of acidic conditions and survives transit to reach and colonize the gut (PDF). Once there, there’s evidence that it can do some pretty interesting stuff for us.

In patients with IBS, a Bacillus coagulans supplement improved bloating and abdominal pain.
In a small pilot trial of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, bacillus coagulans supplementation resulted in several clinical improvements. Compared to the placebo group, patients who got the supplement improved their ability to walk two miles, lowered their C-reactive protein levels, were able to participate in daily activities to a greater degree, and reported less disability.
Four weeks of using Bacillus coagulans also improved GI symptoms in adults with really bad gas after meals.
Bacillus coagulans may modulate the immune response. One study found that the immune response to a viral challenge was upregulated upon supplementation with bacillus coagulans.
It also secretes lactic acid itself, which lowers the pH of the gut and drives out pathogens that can’t tolerate the acidity.

Bacillus coagulans practices “sporulation,” meaning it reproduces once introduced into the gut. This ability seems to grant anti-microbial activity against certain pathogens, as well as help support and bolster its own populations.

As with all my products, I designed Primal Flora first and foremost for myself and my family. I am constantly seeking new ways to help heal my gut after 47 years of not being so kind to it. I have used the new Primal Flora for several months now and am extremely pleased with the results. I know you will be as well. Of course, in the unlikely event that you’re not happy with it, Primal Flora comes with my unconditional 30-day guarantee.

If you decide to give Primal Flora a shot, let me know how it works out for you. I’m really excited about this new formulation and I can’t wait to hear how it’s helping people.

Thanks for reading, everyone! Take care!

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Do You Value Experiences Over Things?

When I look back on my life and take stock of the things that have made and make me happiest, I don’t think about the material objects I’ve procured. I don’t think about the money I’ve made or the cars I’ve owned or the possessions stashed away in my garage. I think about the experiences.

There are the grand adventures: I did Outward Bound when I was 17. It was 28 days of rigorous experiences in the wild of New England — moment to moment instances where I had to “be here now or maybe die” — that majorly shaped the rest of my life, and for which I will be ever grateful. A journey to Europe alone at 22 with a backpack, a Eurail pass, and no agenda or itinerary (before the days of smartphones and apps and online reviews that eliminate the mystery of travel if you let them). The annual 10-day trip I take with my extended family to a part of the world we’ve never been. These are relatively expensive undertakings, and one could say “well, you could have purchased a new car, or updated your wardrobe, or remodeled your bathroom and have had a more ‘practical’ and ‘long-lasting’ use of the investment.” After all, a trip is over when it’s over, but that car will always be in your garage, they say. But the lasting images, feelings, impressions and life lessons of the experiences are always of greatest value to me. And having kids is at the top of that list.

There are the smaller, more private adventures: My friend Eric and I were out paddling one day when we came across a very friendly and interactive pod of dolphins. We see dolphins up close fairly frequently, but these guys really wanted to play, so for 30 minutes we chased them (or they chased us). But, alas, Eric is a dedicated photographer and was agonizing the whole time over the fact that he didn’t have his camera. So as we paddled past his beach house, he bailed on this once in a great while real-time experience to paddle in and retrieve his camera. So he could possess the images on film (or digitally) rather than in his memory. While I continued to play with the dolphins for another 20 minutes, he chronicled it from his front porch. I win.

Or small investments like a fabulous dinner with close friends, a great bottle of wine, and a total disregard for the clock. Traveling with a child to a soccer tournament, or, later, a trip to visit colleges. These all cost money and don’t add to an accumulation of things (the wine is drunk, the food is digested, words shared between friends vanished into the night), but are infinitely more “valuable” when you can pull up the recollection and access the feelings whenever you want.

In my own life, and I suspect in most lives when they actually sit down to consider the issue, the things that change you most, that resonate for a lifetime, are experiences. And although my focus on experiences over things is at odds with the way our societies and economies are constructed, it’s not new. It’s ancient. It goes way back to our essential natures as nomadic hunter-gatherers.

Nomads are limited by what they can carry. We don’t have a perfect picture of what life was like for them or what possessions they carried with them, but we can make some strong guesses based on studies of extant nomadic peoples. They have the essentials — food and the tools to procure and prepare more of it, materials to build shelters, vessels for water, baskets, craftworks, maybe some music instruments — and little else. If they want to remain lean and agile and mobile, they can’t be lugging around furniture and wardrobes and TVs. Marlowe’s observations of the Hadza people of Tanzania support this.

Marlowe catalogued Hadza possessions. As you’ll see, there are very few extravagances:

Digging sticks
Hammerstones
Fire drills (used to generate sparks and start fires)
Bows
Arrows (a half dozen different varieties)
Poison (three types)
Knives
Axes
Gourds (as containers for water, honey, coals, and fat)
Skins (as clothing and to carry food, make baby slings, and construct shelters)
Clothes
Art (primarily jewelry like necklaces, bracelets, earrings, anklets)

Nothing requiring vehicles or pack animals. Nothing bulky or onerous enough to make moving camps (which happens around 6-7 times a year) a huge chore or undertaking. Nothing wasted, everything used. There’s no big box of CDs you haven’t listened to in years but still keep lugging around every time you move to a new apartment for some reason that escapes you. No amorphous contractor bags filled with junk and labeled “miscellaneous.”

And that’s how we all lived until about 10000 years ago: as nomads. If it shaped our dietary requirements, I think it’s possible it shaped how we derive happiness and value from the world around us, too.

Modern research confirms the general superiority of experience over material objects. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor out of Cornell, ran a pair of studies in 2003, finding that if you ask people from various demographic groups to reflect on past purchases, they say that buying experiences made them happier than buying material objects. If you ask people to think about making purchases, those who pondered buying an experience rated the process as more positive than those pondering buying a material object.

Buying experiences clearly made people happier than buying material objects. But why?

Experiential purchases provided added value in the form of anticipation. A trip abroad isn’t just the trip. There’s the planning, the fantasizing about the food you’ll eat and the smells you’ll smell and the markets you’ll peruse and the haggling you’ll do, the butterflies you get when you finally pull the plug and receive email confirmation for your plane tickets. For months, you revel in the glow of anticipation and derive happiness and value from that — without even actually having taken the trip yet. Compared to the pleasurable anticipation of experiential purchases, waiting to receive a material purchase is usually an unpleasant experience. What’s better: waiting for your friends to arrive for a dinner party or waiting for the new iPhone to come out?

Even when an experience is negative, you get a good story out of it. That vacation you and your family took in Hawaii where it was rained the entire time and you spent an entire day holed up in the hotel lobby eating Spam might not have been the getaway of your dreams, but it made for a heck of a story when you got back. And when you look back on that trip, you can’t help but laugh to yourself.

No matter how much you like them, materials objects are always separate from you, but your experiences become part of you. In a series of studies, researchers examined how we relate to different types of purchases. When telling their life stories, participants were more likely to mention their experiential purchases than their material purchases. They were more likely to describe experiential purchases to explain their sense of self identity. And when hearing about another person’s purchases, they felt the experiential ones offered greater insight into that person’s true self than the material ones. You are what you do, not what you own.

Deciding on a material purchase is harder and more unpleasant than deciding on an experiential purchase. With material objects, you’re more likely to “ruminate about unchosen objects,” and this makes you less satisfied with the object you choose. The grass is always greener. It’s easier (and less stressful) to decide where to go on vacation than it is to decide whether you want to buy a plasma or LCD television.

You’re more likely to regret paying for a material object. When it comes to experiences, we’re more likely to regret not paying for it. We almost never regret actually going to the concert, checking out the art exhibit, or forking over the money for the plane tickets. But how often have we lamented dropping fifty bucks on the gadget that became obsolete the next day? Things can be replaced, and something better is always around the corner. Not paying for the experience, though, is a missed opportunity.

Okay, all this makes sense, but what about the material objects that really do seem to make us happy? If you really think about it, most of the material objects that confer happiness do so because they enable and enrich our experiences.

The slackline slung between trees in my backyard? It’s a physical object that provides a calming, meditative experiential space for me on a daily basis. I use it to have experiences.

My standup paddle board is absolutely a thing, but it’s enabled countless memorable experiences out on the waves, including the experience with the dolphins that I’ll never forget and constantly revisit.

Books are material objects that convey an experience: you read them.

Food is a thing, but then you prepare it, and it becomes a meal.

A brand new chef’s knife is a material possession that enables the experience of slicing effortlessly through a flat iron steak.

A cookbook holds the promise of months and months of new culinary experiences.

An Olympic weight set is a one time purchase that lasts decades and makes you healthier, stronger, and fitter for the duration.

But you guys get it. Whether it’s the time you invest reading this blog and implementing the changes in your own lives, or the money you spend finally getting a decent commercial mayo or furthering your health and wellness education, you understand the value of experience. Because you’re not merely buying objects. You’re investing in your own health, and a healthy body allows a person to fully engage with the world and obtain experiences without the encumbrance of physical dysfunction.

Yes, you need to have a few “things” for security, but after basic needs are met — healthy and tasty food, comfortable shelter, transportation, companionship, Internet access — there’s not much more reward to the bigger, the better, the faster. A nice new car is great and all, but half the time you’re thinking “Man, I hope I didn’t park my new car too close to that other guy. Now I’m going to worry about a door ding while I shop.” Believe me, I know, because I have a number of bigger, better, faster items in my inventory, and while they provide short term hedonistic hits, the highs don’t last very long, and often you wind up resenting the fact that often these things own you.

So to answer the titular question — What’s better to spend our money on: experiences or things? — I say experiences. By far.

What’s your take, folks? What do you value most — experiences or objects? Do the results of the research, and the lessons of the nomadic Hadza, jibe with your experiences? Or have you regretted your vacations and found lasting happiness through material possessions?

Let me know down below. Thanks for reading!

Dear Mark: Moonlight and Melatonin, Exercise Non-Responders, and Is Weight Loss Impossible and Unhealthy?

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, we’ve got three questions and three answers. First, the full moon sure is pretty and big and bright at night, but can it produce (or reflect, rather) enough light to disrupt our melatonin production? Should we be blocking out moonlight, too? Next, do exercise non-responders exist? If not, what else can explain the curious case of a lifelong heavy lifter who has nothing – physique-wise – to show for it? And finally, a recent article in Slate makes the claim that weight loss is basically impossible and not even all that good for you. Is the author right? Is the author wrong? See my thoughts on the matter down below.

Let’s go:

Hi Mark,

Completely blacking out a room for sleep seems to be all the rage these days, but we seem to be forgetting a large source of natural light at night – the full moon. I know that’s different to street lights etc, but the full moon (especially when it’s a supermoon) throws off A LOT of light. So is it really necessary to block out all light in our rooms when Grok would have had to sleep with a significant amount of light himself?

Pete

Yep, those crazy kids and their blackout curtains, eh?

Pete, I’m with you. It doesn’t make sense. The moon is always up there. There’s no escaping it when you go camping, and I just can’t see a paleolithic hunter gatherer scurrying around trying to block it out with animal hides. I’ve never found the moon, even a full moon, to bother me at night like a light on bothers me.

Now, if you’re a golden or seagrass rabbitfish (I hope there are at least few of you out there, because that would confirm I’ve finally broken into the ocean communities), moonlight can inhibit melatonin production. But as of now, there are no human studies showing evidence of melatonin inhibition in response to moonlight.

Is it possible, though? I doubt it.

One study sought to determine the relationship of light intensity to melatonin levels. At midnight, human subjects’ melatonin levels were measured after being exposed to an hour of light at 3000 lux, 1000 lux, 500 lux, 350 lux, or 250 lux. The brighter the light, the greater the suppression of melatonin. 3000 lux suppressed it by 71%, 1000 lux by 67%, 500 lux by 44%, 350 lux by 38%, and 200 lux by 16%. The very brightest the moon’s light can get is around 1 lux. And that’s a full moon on a clear night. Your garden variety moonlight will struggle to even reach a single lux.

However, full moons still can disrupt sleep, but not because of the light. In 2013, a sleep lab study found that the lunar phase can affect human sleep. What changed during the full moon?

A biomarker of deep sleep dropped by 30%.
Time to fall asleep increased by 5 minutes.
Sleep duration was reduced by 20 minutes.
Subjective sleep quality suffered.
Melatonin levels dropped.

Amazingly, the subjects weren’t exposed to any more or less light. They didn’t do any moon gazing. They didn’t even see the moon, as the lab conditions were strictly controlled. The researchers aren’t really sure what was going on. Neither am I.

But it’s not the light from the moon disrupting melatonin. So don’t lose sleep over it. Pun intended.

A couple final thoughts:

Blackout curtains can make sense if you live in an urban environment or otherwise need to block out street or car lights.

And finally, while it’s doubtful moonlight disrupts sleep, I’ve yet to find any evidence that a lack of moonlight has any effect either. In other words, there’s nothing wrong with blackout curtains.

Hi Mark

Thanks for all the information you share with us. I have lifted heavy things all my life (I am now 51) but look externally as if I do no exercise whatsoever. I also eat primally and have done so for 3 years now. My question is do you think there is a percentage of the population that does not respond to any exercise protocol? Thank you in advance for any comments.

Kevin

Hey, Kevin. You’re on the right track. There are genetic non-responders to exercise. Most of the research in this area has focused on endurance exercise, but genetic non-responders to strength training also exist. In a 2007 study, researchers placed 66 people on a lower body strength training regimen consisting of squats, leg presses, and leg extensions. Every subject was matched for effort based on their 1 RM max, so everyone worked equally hard. They trained for four months, after which the degree of hypertrophy was assessed and the group divided into three subsections: those whose thigh muscle fibers grew 50%, those whose grew 25%, and those whose didn’t grow at all. 17 subjects were hyper responders, 32 were moderate responders, and 17 were total non-responders. Further analysis of the same data revealed intrinsic differences between the subjects, with the hyper responders starting with higher baseline numbers of satellite cells (the precursors to muscle cells) than both the moderate responders and especially the non-responders.

You might try doing a bit more endurance work, though. I know, I know, it’s sacrilege around here, but the fact is that some people just respond better — much better — to endurance training. Don’t overdo it, and keep up with the strength training, too. Strength training isn’t a pointless endeavor even if you’re a non-responder. While the non-responders from the study didn’t get any bigger, they did make significant strength gains — a minimum of 46% over their starting strength by the end of the training. That’s real progress, objective strength that can’t be ignored. So even if you’re not massive or “ripped,” you are stronger than most of the population who hasn’t been training, and it’s clear that you’re getting something out of the training since you’ve kept up with it so long. Don’t be disheartened or dissuaded. Keep it up.

I’ll briefly summarize the endurance lit in case anyone reading this falls into that category. Whereas about 85% of the population experiences big improvements in VO2max after sustained endurance training, about 15% do not. They can work hard, about as hard as the others, and follow the same protocol yet experience almost no improvement to their oxygen consumption rates. In some people, endurance training can even degrade their health. They actually experience worsened insulin sensitivity, lower HDL, and elevated blood pressure when they train.

Another thing to look into is getting your testosterone levels checked. Do a full panel with your doctor and go from there. It may be that your levels are a little low, which is sometimes just a part of aging. If so, a little T replacement therapy can be hugely beneficial to your strength levels, your physique, and your overall quality of life. I’d at least rule that out before worrying too much.

Have you seen this?

The Weight of the Evidence: It’s time to stop telling fat people to become thin.

I about threw my computer across the room when I read it, but I’m not sure where to begin breaking it down. If you have the time, I’d greatly appreciate reading your response.

Collin

Let’s look at one of the claims: losing weight doesn’t actually confer any health benefits.

Except for a few totally inconsequential health benefits, that is:

The improved pregnancy rates and live births that occur when obese women successfully lose weight.
The improved sexual function in obese men and women who lose weight.
The improvement in osteoarthritis.
The increase in insulin sensitivity.
The reduction in depression symptoms that accompanies weight loss.
The improvement in cognitive function and quality of life in obese older adults who lose weight.
The prevention and remission of diabetes.

Or how about another claim the author makes: being obese isn’t really that bad for you.

The author stresses the many recent epidemiological studies have observed that higher BMIs seem to be more protective against mortality than lower BMIs. Particularly in the elderly, who are, let’s remember, the ones doing most of the dying, a low body weight is often associated with earlier dying from all causes. This would seem to suggest that being overweight or even obese is perfectly safe, if not downright protective. So, is dieting dangerous?

No. Here’s the thing: many diseases cause weight loss. When an obese person develops cancer, they’ll often lose enough weight (from the disease itself and the treatments) to reach a normal or even underweight BMI. If they die from the disease, that death counts as a “normal BMI death.” But the thing that killed them happened when they were obese. A recent study examined this exact issue, using “maximum BMI” to control for the disease-induced weight loss confounder. What they found was extremely interesting:

The percentage of mortality attributable to overweight and obesity among never-smoking adults ages 50-84 was 33% when assessed using maximum BMI. The comparable figure obtained using BMI at time of survey was substantially smaller at 5%.

So, when you include the obese and overweight people who got sick and then lost weight before they died, obesity and overweight is responsible for a third of deaths in non-smoking elderly. When you don’t, obesity and overweight is only responsible for 5% of deaths. The guy who loses a hundred pounds going Primal is very different than the guy who loses a hundred pounds going through chemotherapy, but most studies examining weight loss and mortality don’t make this distinction. That makes all of them and their conclusions suspect, if not downright invalid.

And the biggest whopper of all: weight loss is impossible.

That’s the biggest load of self-deceiving malarkey in the entire article. The author’s proof of weight loss’ futility?

Research showing that half of all bariatric surgery patients keep the weight off. Research showing that “about half” of bariatric surgery patients regain some or all of the weight they lost, which is just the “glass half empty” way of saying that half of all bariatric surgery patients keep the weight off.

An anecdote of a woman who lost 55 pounds 10 years ago and only keeps it off with an 1800 calorie diet and regular exercise. Um, okay.

One of the studies she cites – the Look AHEAD study – actually confirms that sustained weight loss is possible and even likely. Among those participants who lost 10% of their starting weight in the first year, almost half had kept off 18% of their starting weight by year four. And among all participants, not just the ones with massive first year weight loss, 25% had lost and maintained 10% of their starting weight by year four. The most successful at keeping and maintaining the weight loss were the ones who ate well (whatever “well” means in that study) and exercised regularly. Hard? Yes. Futile? No.

Still, I can’t really get too upset at the author. Weight loss isn’t easy and keeping it off is even tougher. There’s no getting around that. People are frustrated because what the “obesity industrial complex” is prescribing doesn’t really work. Those who do lose weight may find it comes back twice as easily for reasons which I’ve covered quite recently. It’s hard. Everyone agrees with that.

But it’s also worth the effort. Anyone who’s gone from wheezing after a flight of stairs to bounding effortlessly up a ten story stairwell while carrying three boxes of paperback books for your buddy who’s moving into his new place and refuses to adopt eBooks can tell you that.

Whatever you do, try not to lose sleep over it. The article is annoying, but check out the comment section: people are getting it, even if the author isn’t. More people are calling her out than cheering her on, and that means we’re winning this thing.

Weekend Link Love – Edition 342

Meditation for stress relief doesn’t work for me. I’ve tried. Many times. On HuffPost Live, I explain what has worked for me: gratitude.

Research of the Week

People with higher biomarkers for fruit and vegetable intake have a lower risk of diabetes.

High levels of dietary pesticide exposure may reduce semen quality.

Saying “ow” improves pain tolerance.

Both being lonely and feeling lonely are independent predictors of mortality risk.

Xylitol may be overrated for preventing tooth decay.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 61: Abel James: He’s a speaker, a musician, an entrepreneur, a podcaster, an app developer, and a bestselling author. I hang out with Abel to talk about his new book The Wild Diet, how Thai food in Thailand differs from Thai food in the US, living (and eating) off the grid, what it was like jamming with Tim McGraw, and much more.

Each week, select Mark’s Daily Apple blog posts are prepared as Primal Blueprint Podcasts. Need to catch up on reading, but don’t have the time? Prefer to listen to articles while on the go? Check out the new blog post podcasts below, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast here so you never miss an episode.

25 Ways to Improve Your Insulin Sensitivity
Why Some Like It Hot
How to Go Primal With Food Allergies and Restrictions
The Definitive Guide to Traditional Food Preparation and Preservation
How to Overcome Inertia and Get Yourself Unstuck

Interesting Blog Posts

A nice, quick guide to spicing your meals.

Serious Eats concludes what I did years ago: olive oil is perfectly safe to cook with.

Why some food in the supermarket takes so long to go bad.

Leave yourself wanting more.

Sugar’s back.

Media, Schmedia

Red meat: not the enemy (according to the NY Times).

Can Joel Salatin bridge the partisan rift in this country?

Everything Else

An ancient Anglo-Saxon remedy for styes also kills drug-resistant MRSA.

American kids are eating less fast food.

Humans have pretty much always had a wide range of body sizes and shapes.

The color of lettuce determines the speed at which you absorb its antioxidants.

An apple a day doesn’t really keep doctors away (but it might keep them from writing so many prescriptions).

Why space is unhealthy.

Recipe Corner

How the great Alton Brown makes dozens of hard-boiled eggs at once (in the oven).
Still not sure what to do for Easter dinner? This guide will help.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Apr 6 –Apr 12)

One True Paleo Diet Doesn’t Exist, but So What? – There are still major trends that inform human eating patterns.
Yes, We’re All Susceptible to Food Advertising – If it didn’t work, they wouldn’t use it.

Comment of the Week

My takeaway: I need to breastfeed more. It’s just so difficult finding a compliant, lactating person to accommodate me. They act like my healthquest is weird.

– Yeah! What the heck is their problem?

Madras Chicken Salad

This a guest post from Michelle Tam of Nom Nom Paleo.

Whipping up some chicken salad? Don’t you dare make a bland-tasting version tossed with plain old mayonnaise. Instead, punch it up with smoky, aromatic curry powder, crisp apples, fresh herbs, and toasted almonds. With just a few pantry items, you can radically transform a ho-hum dish into an elegant and flavorful meal.

Although this South Asian-inspired chicken salad is making its debut on my blog today, it’s been one of my favorites for years. In fact, this recipe first popped up in our iPad app almost three years ago, before making its second appearance in our cookbook. When I’ve had a long day, I just throw this salad together and serve it on a giant bed of organic lettuce mix. Hosting a party? Spoon it into cucumber cups or on endive spears for a fancy hors d’oeuvre. No one’ll guess how little time it took!

If you don’t have any cooked chicken on hand and decide to purchase a rotisserie chicken instead, don’t worry—I won’t tell anyone. Confession: in a pinch, I’ll pick up Whole Foods Market’s Classic Organic, Salt and Pepper, or Perfectly Plain rotisserie chickens (prioritized in that order). These birds are minimally seasoned (if at all); in fact, according to my buds at Whole Foods, they’re roasted at the top of a vertical rotisserie oven so that the non-Paleo seasonings on the birds at the bottom of the oven can’t drip on ’em. (Still, a word of caution for allergy sufferers: because the birds are cooked in the same oven, wheat and soy contamination is nonetheless possible.)

So grab your cooked chicken, your Paleo Mayonnaise, and the rest of the ingredients, and let’s do this!

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

½ cup Paleo Mayonnaise (if you don’t feel like making it, grab some Primal Kitchen Mayo)
¾ teaspoon Indian curry powder
1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 small Gala, Fuji, or Honeycrisp apple, peeled, cored, and cut into ½-inch dice
Juice from ½ medium lime
1 pound cooked chicken breast or thighs
½ cup packed fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
2 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
¼ cup almond slivers, toasted

Steps:

First, make the curried mayonnaise. In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, curry powder, salt, and pepper to taste. Yes, folks—whenever possible, it’s important to taste your food so you can adjust the seasoning as needed.

In a separate bowl, toss the apple chunks with the lime juice. This will ensure that your apples won’t oxidize into brown, splotchy cubes—and the acid adds a nice zing to the salad, too.

Shred the chicken by hand, and toss it into the bowl with the acidulated apples. Add the cilantro, scallions, and curried mayonnaise, and mix well.

Top with toasted almond slivers and serve. How easy was that?

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Breathing Easy with a Primal Lifestyle

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

My name is Ryan and I am a 35 year old father of two beautiful daughters, ages three and nearly two. I am also a loving husband to an amazing wife who has been an amazing support to me over the years.

Ever since I was six weeks old, I have been in and out of hospital with severe, type two, brittle asthma. This form of asthma basically means that I can be fine one minute, and go into a major asthma attack the next without warning.

Throughout my years at school, I was reasonably healthy. I even played state level squash in Australia and trained five to six days a week. I was also an avid outdoors lover. On weekends that I was not playing squash in competitions, I was out hiking and camping before heading back into the classroom for school on Mondays.

When I was around 17, my asthma came back to haunt me. I had an acute asthma attack and spent two weeks in hospital and came out with a bucket load of medication. When I left school I became on outdoor instructor for a company named Outward Bound Australia, where I spent six years trekking through the bush with troubled youth on personal development programs. I did have the occasional asthma flare up during this time, but I also felt the best I had felt in a long time. I do put this down to breathing in the fresh air and being immersed in nature 24 hours a day.

Over the years since, my asthma progressively got worse. Over the last 10 years, I have spent one to tow months a year in hospital on respiratory wards and in and out of intensive care. I have been on every asthma medication under the sun prescribed by the “experts”.

As you can imagine, as I got older with work and family, this became extremely difficult. Not only does it physically knock you around because it takes months to get back to a so called “normal” lung volume, but it is also extremely hard emotionally.

As a male, there is always a little thought in the back of your head that you should be the “provider” in the family. If not financially, you should be the strong emotional “rock” that is always there for you wife/partner and kids to rely on. But with an illness such as asthma, it adds another level of complexity. You feel like you can’t be the so called “rock” that everyone talks about, as you never know when the next “flare up” is going to happen, when you will be back in hospital, and for how long. As such, you go through life always questioning, “When will I next be sick? Will I need to go to hospital? For how long will I be away from my family? Will everything be alright? Etc.”

My most recent hospitalisation was in September last year (2014). I spent two weeks in hospital with two days in intensive care with a C-pap mask (a mask that sits over your face and nose and forces oxygen into your lungs).

When I came out of hospital I weighed 115 kg. (Whenever you have an asthma flare up the docs put you straight onto steroids, which equals instant wait gain). In addition to the weight gain, my lung volume (FEV1) was at 47% of what my predicted lung volume for my height/weight and age should have been.

I had had enough of the constant weight gain, the cycle of hospitalisations, the specialist appointments, and, most importantly, missing my wife and two beautiful daughters.

I vaguely recalled hearing about a diet called paleo. As I do with a lot of questions I have, I put it out to Facebook land, to see if anyone I knew had tried going paleo/primal and what their experiences had been.

To my surprise, there were a lot of haters out there who straight away told me not look into it any further because it was just a “fad diet” or “You can’t sustain it” or “It’s only a trend.”

These were actually the people that fueled my fire to look into the paleo/primal lifestyle more deeply. I was contacted by an old school friend, Pete, who wanted to catch up over a coffee and talk to me about the benefits that he had seen since he went paleo. Not only did he explain the benefits that he saw, he explained a bit about the inflammation that the SAD diet creates. Since asthma is an inflammatory disease, I thought I would look into it a bit more. Pete recommended The Primal Blueprint as the first book to look at, and he directed me to Mark’s Daily Apple. Well, I have not looked back since. I read The Primal Blueprint and trawled through Mark’s Daily Apple (and many other web sites). Every time I am asked about my journey, I recommend these two important resources straight away, as they had a huge part in my decision to lead a paleo/primal lifestyle.

In January 2015 I joined Pete’s gym, CrossFit WODen, to get some more physical activity to assist with the asthma—I love every minute of it. Not only do I love working out, I enjoy being part of a tribe with a similar mindset and view on lifestyle and diet.

The Good Stuff:

I have dropped 17kg (37.5 lb)
I have dropped four inches on the waist (although this is not the main reason I have gone paleo/primal, it’s an added bonus).
I have A LOT more energy in the afternoons to play with my gorgeous daughters (even when they get me up at stupid o’clock in the morning!)
I feel a lot better about myself
I have a lot more confidence
My Ventolin (reliever puffer) has gone from about 4-6 puffs a day to under two puffs a fortnight!
My lung volume has gone from 47% of my predicted max (back when I got out of hospital in September) to 104% in my lung tests in January (my asthma specialist was very surprised and happy about this).

I have noticed that every time I stray from the primal foods, and move toward processed ones, my asthma symptoms come back. This gives me the additional motivation I need to continue with my journey.

The one thing that I am absolutely AMAZED with is how this happened in only four months! I could never have thought of how amazing life could be five months ago when I was lying in a hospital bed hooked up to tubes and monitors.

I am hoping to get my girls to start eating more paleo/primal foods in the future when I am 100% all over the paleo lifestyle (I’m still learning).

The real test will be to see how my asthma goes over winter (this is the worst time of the year for me) and also next summer when my physicians are looking to take me off the other medication to see if it has an effect.

In my mind, the paleo/primal lifestyle has had an amazing impact not only my weight and confidence, but, most importantly, my quality of life and my asthma. It gives me the opportunity to be a dad—not just a dad that sits down and watches his kids grow up, but a dad who activity plays, participates, runs around and teaches his kids about the benefits of having a healthy lifestyle and a positive tribe to be a part of. I am extremely happy that I have started this journey and I am looking forward to every step of it.

If you are thinking about adapting a paleo/primal lifestyle, I say GO FOR IT! The first few weeks are tough…but hey, it’s worth it and the benefits totally outweigh the negatives.

Ryan

Self-Control: The Ultimate Exercise of Freedom

I’ll admit I’ve come to significantly edit my environment over the years. I work largely from home and have my favorite haunts and destinations as well as a close circle of like-minded family and friends. The nature of my work automatically puts me in touch mostly with those who have similar goals and lifestyles. Even my media is customized (easy to do these days with the way we’re tracked by bots). I never watch television or listen to radio that has commercials. Without thinking too much about it, my environment is for the most part very Primally oriented.

When I’m out and about, however, it can feel a little like culture shock. A few weeks ago I went to a movie and made the mistake (actually accident) of getting there early. I was one of the few without tubs, packages and cups in hand, and I watched as ads for soda and candy flashed again and again. In my boredom, I noticed a curious pattern. Every time there was a shot of cola flowing, everyone with a soda drank. Every time there was an image of a person eating, everyone with food ate. The themes of joy, celebration and indulgence were all the same, and one soda ad actually stated, “Choose happiness.” It’s speculation, of course, but I wonder how many of this people felt emotional affirmation around their “choice” to buy all the junk food they did.

In a culture that worships (and markets to) impulse, self-control has all the appeal of soggy blanket. We see discipline as an imposition and chafe against the curtailment of our will. Cultural messaging and social belonging often hinge on following blind custom or our most unhealthy momentary inclinations. We exercise our autonomy or “choice” through (often market influenced) poor decisions. Freedom is conflated with whim. Any attempt to rein in stupidity is more than just the voice of a killjoy but an act of aggression. We’ve become such a precious, entitled bunch that the mere suggestion we temper our instinctive response feels like an insult. Where does that leave our health? Look around….

If we think thumbing our noses at self-discipline makes us happier in the long-term – OR short-term – we’re wrong. The higher study subjects rated their self-control, the more satisfied they were with their lives. They were even happier when facing temptation. Likewise, other studies show those with strong self-control enjoy happier close relationships as well as more secure attachments within relationships, better school performance, lower rates of addiction, higher self-esteem and healthier emotional responses. But aren’t those with self-control beset with constant struggle against draws of temptation? The research shows those with ample self-control tend to minimize situations that conflict with their goals (a smart tactic that, researchers suggest, helps even the short-term score for happiness).

Nonetheless, we can’t always live in a Primal bubble – my movie theater experience being case in point. In those instances, however, I think we can acknowledge an unhealthy desire/craving/bout of laziness, even respect it within a thoughtful context – as we reflect on its innate purpose within primal history (e.g. sugar used to equal limited availability, nutrient dense fruit for our ancestors). We can understand it within physiological and neurological explanations. And yet we also see it for what it is – an urge that doesn’t serve our interests – and treat it as such.

It’s not about emotionally bludgeoning ourselves for feeling drawn to the dessert cart at a restaurant or appreciating the warm comfort of our beds when it’s time for our morning workouts. It’s about giving all inner “contributors” their due without identifying with the ones we don’t want running the show. Controlling the self (self-control) isn’t ultimately about controlling a singular self in relation to the outside environment but about managing the inner voices that respond to it.

We can achieve this with some proper detachment: recognizing that something “in me” wants that donut rather than “I” want that donut. Instead of ignoring that vexing part of yourself, you can ask what else might take care of it in the moment. Some of us might require more “care” in that regard, and there’s no judgment on that. It’s all useful input – self-knowledge.

Think of a long car ride with young children. (Those of you who’ve had the distinct pleasure probably already know what I’m talking about here….) You pace the drive with their needs in mind – plenty of stops, well-timed meals and snacks, a longer midday break, the promise of pool time at the hotel, etc.. You provide whatever games, conversation, and other activities you can to keep the young ones busy and relatively happy in the meantime. You respect their needs as passengers with certain limitations, shall we say, but you don’t give up the trip, ask them to navigate or let them drive the car.

Likewise, we can attend to our inclinations and perhaps the genuine needs behind them without giving them dominion over our lives and well-being. You’re tired at 3:00 p.m.? Step away from the vending machine and go walk outside for ten minutes in the bright sunlight. If you work from home, take a power nap.

Again, it’s all about learning to identify who we want leading the charge – our thoughts or the bigger awareness of our thoughts. Call it whatever you want, but we all have it. Maturity – and self-control – can be described as the gradual development of a thoughtful, effective filing system for inputs and impulses that organizes itself around healthy priorities. We first have to know that someone/something in us can actually do that filing…. A lot of people never quite get to that point, choosing to (in many areas at least) fly by the next urge that arises, flinging it eventually into a massive pile that never lends order or priority to how they run their days – or lives.

Likewise, self-control isn’t just about what we give up, what we say no to, what we stay away from – in short, what we avoid. Not to be overly simplistic (I’ll admit I usually hate it when people indulge in these word games), but “avoid” breaks down into “a void.” It’s what we say yes to, what fills the space. If we focus our days on what we can’t have, we’re still giving it power over us. We’re still mentally obsessing about the donut even if we never eat it. At any given moment, we can get perspective by asking what we’re psychologically orbiting around.

What’s much easier is focusing on what we want to see happen – what we wish to prioritize. We can either live in response to our environments or live with direction toward our greater visions. I’ve said before, true discipline isn’t about self-restraint but self-possession.

In this way, self-control opens the door to intentional living. Our goals are next to impossible without self-control. The fact is, self-control allows the fruition of our intent by giving it space (that “void”), which would otherwise be subsumed by momentary whim and distraction.

At it’s best, self-control doesn’t revolve around deprivation, denial or chastising but clarity, intention, and attunement. We don’t disown elements of ourselves but get clear about what role we want them to have in our decision-making. We don’t punish ourselves or take pride in how little we can force ourselves to live with. We create an over-arching vision for our lives and make choices that take care of our needs in ways that also serve that plan.

In that regard, self-control is the ultimate exercise of freedom – a freedom that comes from self-determination of one’s life unbound from both cultural norms and lesser impulses. What we call control is, in fact, the alignment and actualizing of our higher will.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Share your thoughts, and have a great end to the week.

Prefer listening to reading? Get an audio recording of this blog post, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast on iTunes for instant access to all past, present and future episodes here.

25 Ways to Improve Your Insulin Sensitivity

Insulin does a lot of important things for us. It pulls glucose from the blood and fritters it away into our cells to be burned for energy or stored as glycogen. It prevents hyperglycemic toxicity to neurons, pancreatic cells, the arterial walls and the generation of excessive levels of reactive oxygen species. It even promotes muscle protein synthesis and helps augment muscular hypertrophy, especially following resistance training. Clearly, we need insulin. Without it, we’d die, as type 1 diabetics readily do without an exogenous source.

But insulin has other effects, like inhibiting the breakdown of body fat into free fatty acids for energy production. Although locking fatty acids into body fat sounds terrible, it isn’t evidence of insulin being malicious. Lipolysis is temporarily blunted so that we can burn or sequester the glucose coming in. Once the glucose is handled, lipolysis resumes. We oscillate between fat burning and glucose burning, seamlessly switching fuel sources when needed. Sure, we’re not burning any fat when insulin is elevated, but once our insulin levels normalize we’ll be back on track. When you’re insulin sensitive, this is pretty much how it works. You secrete enough insulin to get the job done, but not so much that you gain weight and stop burning fat.

What if a person secretes too much insulin in response to a glucose load? What if, for whatever reason (and there are dozens of possible culprits), a person’s cells are resistant to the effects of insulin? What if, to remove the same amount of glucose from the blood, a person secretes twice or thrice the amount of insulin? What happens when insulin stays elevated? Lipolysis is inhibited to an even greater degree. Body fat becomes even harder to burn. Susceptible brain, artery, and pancreatic cells are exposed to higher levels of blood sugar for longer. Muscle protein synthesis falls off a cliff. Glycogen is replenished at a diminished rate. And if cells are already full of glycogen and there’s nowhere else to put the glucose, it converts to fat for storage.

Obviously, we don’t want to be insulin resistant. We want to be insulin sensitive. But how do we do it?

1. Lift weights.

Lifting heavy things, particularly with great intensity, improves insulin sensitivity by an interesting mechanism: non-insulin dependent glucose uptake happens immediately after the workout, which allows your muscles to replenish glycogen without insulin. According to some researchers, “the effect of exercise is similar to the action of insulin on glucose uptake.” I’d say not having to secrete any insulin makes you effectively insulin-sensitive.

2. Run (or bike/swim/row) sprint intervals.

An overloaded, energy-replete cell is an insulin resistant cell. An empty, “starving” cell is an insulin sensitive cell. Any exercise that burns glycogen and leaves your muscles empty and gaping for more will necessarily increase insulin sensitivity. I can’t think of a faster way to burn through your glycogen than with a high intensity interval training session. Hill sprints or rower sprints are sufficiently intense and comprehensive.

3. Do CrossFit or similar full body high-volume, high-intensity training.

Glycogen depletion occurs locally: high rep leg presses will deplete leg muscle glycogen, but they won’t touch glycogen in your arms, chest, and back. To fully deplete all the glycogen, you need to do full-body movements. CrossFit WODs and other similar metcon workouts that have you doing pullups, squats, sprints, pushups, box jumps, and other compound movements — at high volume, in the same workout, and with minimal rest—will drain your glycogen stores and reduce the amount of insulin you need to replenish them.

4. Train at altitude.

A recent study found that altitude hiking at 4500 meters improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. This isn’t feasible for everyone (4500 meters is really quite high, and not everyone lives near a suitable mountain), and some people just aren’t ready to climb a mountain and hike around (in the study, some participants with low DHEA-S levels didn’t get the benefits), but it’s one way to improve it. Just google around to see if any local hikes reach those heights.

5. Train fasted.

While training of any kind promotes better insulin sensitivity, training in the fasted state enhances this effect. One study found that relatively high-intensity “cardio” performed while fasted increased subjects’ insulin sensitivity beyond the group who did the same training after a carb meal, even in the context of a normally obesogenic high-fat, high-carb diet.

6. Go for a walk.

As you know from reading this blog, a simple walk can be quite powerful, particularly if you string them together to form a daily walking habit. A walk is good for glucose control after meals, but regular walking can have impressive effects on insulin sensitivity. Whether it’s obese Japanese men or obese women, making walking a regular occurrence will help.

7. Never stop exercising.

I don’t mean “take no breaks.” I mean “stay active for life.” In a recent paper, both sprinters (aged 20-90 years) and endurance athletes (20-80 years) had far better insulin sensitivity than sedentary controls. And get this: insulin sensitivity didn’t decrease with age in the two active groups. Even the 90 year-old sprinter retained good insulin sensitivity. The sedentary controls? Not so much.

8. Eat cinnamon.

Although cinnamon isn’t always effective against insulin resistance, it can reliably attenuate the insulin resistance resulting from sleep loss. Plus, cinnamon is delicious, so there’s that.

9. Sprinkle some vinegar on your food.

Next time you plan on eating a high-carb meal, have a salad with a vinegar-based dressing beforehand. Vinegar has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity in response to a carb-rich meal in type 2 diabetics.

10. Get more magnesium.

Magnesium figures into hundreds of physiological processes, many of which concern glucose disposal and insulin sensitivity. My favorite sources are leafy greens like spinach, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate, and halibut. If you hate spinach, nuts, fish, chocolate (what’s wrong with you?), and other magnesium-rich foods, oral supplementation of magnesium also works pretty well.

11. Drink mineral water.

Mineral water—good, high-mineral content water—is rich in minerals commonly associated with insulin sensitivity, like magnesium. So it’s no surprise that high sodium-bicarbonate mineral waters have been shown to increase insulin sensitivity in postmenopausal women and post-surgery breast cancer patients.

12. Drink tea.

Green tea lowers insulin resistance in subjects with type 2 diabetes. Pu-erh tea, a fermented black tea with a distinct and strong taste, also ameliorates insulin resistance. Gallic acid, an antioxidant compound found in tea leaves, also improves insulin sensitivity. Across the board, tea improves insulin sensitivity.

13. Lose weight.

Since insulin resistance is often the body’s response to energy excess (too much energy in), losing weight (increasing energy out) improves insulin sensitivity. Losing abdominal fat is particularly effective for increasing insulin sensitivity.

14. Go low carb, but not too low carb.

Huh? Isn’t low-carb the greatest and most effective path to insulin sensitivity? Partly because it’s often the easiest way to lose weight, low-carb eating can and usually does improve insulin sensitivity. But when you go very low carb, low enough to start relying primarily on ketones and free fatty acids for energy, your peripheral tissues enter an insulin-resistant state to preserve glucose for the parts of the brain that require it. This is normal, and as long as you don’t try to eat a high-fat, high-carb diet, this physiological insulin resistance should pose no harm.

15. Meditate.

Maybe it’s the quieting of the sympathetic nervous system, the “flight or flight” stress pathway. Maybe brief glimpses of bodhi reduce the amount of insulin required to dispose of glucose. Whatever’s going on, meditation improves insulin sensitivity. Well, successful meditation. I’ve never had much luck with it.

16. Go hug someone you love.

Okay, so maybe the researchers didn’t prescribe bear hugs to improve insulin sensitivity in overweight subjects. Maybe they used intranasal oxytocin. But oxytocin is what we secrete in response to positive social interactions like sex, good conversation, dinner parties, breastfeeding, and yes, hugs.

17. Get adequate sleep.

Now, if you’re coming from a place of already-adequate sleep, getting even more adequater sleep isn’t going to help your insulin sensitivity. It is the absence of adequate sleep that destroys insulin sensitivity. By sleeping well, you’re restoring what was lost.

18. Eat colorful and bitter plant foods.

Color and bitterness imply phytonutrients, the intangible plant compounds that don’t show up in standard nutrient databases but play huge roles in human health. Many, perhaps most, rich food sources of phytonutrients improve insulin sensitivity, like blueberries, strawberries, purple sweet potatoes, broccoli sprouts, and dark chocolate (even in healthy folks).

19. Eat pungent fermented food from Asian cuisines.

I’ve been telling you guys to get on this stuff for awhile now. No more messing around, yeah? A natto (sticky stinky fermented soybeans) breakfast improves insulin sensitivity. Long-fermented kimchi also improves it; fresh kimchi does, too, but not as much as the sour stuff.

20. Go paleo (or Primal).

In controlled trials, the paleolithic diet consistently improves insulin sensitivity in human subjects, besting even that critical darling of seemingly every mainstream health expert: the Mediterranean diet.

21. Cook with ginger and garlic.

Cook with ginger and garlic because they’re delicious. Cook with ginger and garlic because many dishes require their inclusion. But also cook with ginger and garlic because both can improve insulin sensitivity. Ginger helped type 2 diabetics regain insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. Garlic helped fructose-fed rats do the same.

22. Use turmeric.

I love turmeric for its taste and pharmacoogical profile. I’ve outlined turmeric’s effects in the past, so it should come as no surprise to learn that it is a potent insulin-sensitizer. Be sure to include some black pepper when you cook with it to increase the bioavailability.

23. Get some vitamin K2 through food or supplements.

In a 2011 controlled trial, vitamin K2 supplementation improved insulin sensitivity. Maybe that’s partly why natto improved it in the breakfast study mentioned previously — it’s the richest source of vitamin K2 around. Other likely sources of vitamin K2 include goose and chicken liver, aged cheeses (especially gouda), grass-fed butter, pastured eggs, and fermented milk.

24. Reduce refined sugar intake.

Some would say “reduce all sugar intake.” That’s a mistake, because it eliminates many colorful fruits and berries, most of which either have a neutral or beneficial effect on insulin sensitivity. But by most accounts, eating excessive amounts of refined sugar (and perhaps even moderate amounts) can reduce insulin sensitivity. And “excessive” is relative, of course. Highly active individuals with room to spare in their glycogen compartments have more leeway. I still do sugar in my coffee, and I’ll have a bite or two of dessert if someone else orders it at dinner.

25. Eat liver and oysters once a week.

Ruminant liver and oysters are some of the best sources of copper and zinc, two minerals that play essential roles in maintenance of insulin sensitivity. Serum zinc and copper have inverse relationships to insulin resistance, and increases in zinc status match up well with improvements to insulin sensitivity.  If you absolutely hate these foods, you can certainly find zinc and copper elsewhere. These are just the quickest way to obtain them (plus other important nutrients).

Now, this isn’t an exhaustive list. There are probably other ways to improve insulin sensitivity outlined in the literature, and still others yet to be discovered. But this is a good start that should keep you busy for a good long while.

Now, let’s hear from you guys. What did I miss that should be included? What shouldn’t be included? What’s worked for you? What didn’t that everyone said would?

Thanks for reading!

Why Some Like It Hot

We’ve explored the health benefits of cold (water) exposure. What about heat?

I decided to explore the health benefits of acute heat exposure in the form of saunas, baths, and steam rooms for one main reason: the sauna is a near-universal human tradition, and I’m always curious about those. Indigenous peoples of North America had the sweat lodge, those of Central America the temazcal. The Romans had the thermae, which they picked up and refined from the Greeks. Other famous traditions include Finnish saunas, Russian banyas, Turkish hammams, Japanese sentó (or the natural spring-fed onsen), and the Korean jjimjilbang. Are all these many billions of people across time and space sitting in heated rooms for the heck of it?

As popular as it is to deride traditional wisdoms or practices as outdated, irrelevant, or the delusions of superstitious primitives, traditions don’t arise out of nothingness. And when the same or similar tradition arises in nearly every culture and people ever known, it’s time to pay attention and dig deeper. Universal human traditions don’t always harbor truth and insight into the human mind, body, and condition, but they’re always worth checking out. Confirm before you discard.

Luckily, we don’t have to guess: extensive research into the health benefits of saunas, steam baths, IR saunas, and other forms of acute heat exposure confirms that the human universal of getting really, really sweaty, hot, and steamy on purpose has merit.

The latest piece of sauna research concerns something we’re all thinking about: all-cause mortality. Researchers tracked the health and sauna habits of 2,315 Finnish men with a median age of 53 for over 30 years, finding remarkable correlations between sitting in a really hot room with a bunch of naked men and protection from fatal heart attacks.

Men who used the sauna two to three times a week had a 23% lower risk of fatal heart attack compared to men who used it just once a week. Men who used the sauna four to seven times a week had a 48% reduced risk of fatal heart attack compared to once-a-weekers. The more frequently men used the sauna, the greater the protection. Similar connections were found for all-cause mortality, too.

This was observational, of course, and the researchers themselves state that further research is required to identify a potential mechanism for the protective effects.

What could be going on? Let’s look at what happens when you enter a 174° F/80° C sauna.

Receiving between 300-600 watts per meter squared, your skin heats up to around 41° C, or 105° F.
This initiates compensatory cooling, which your body achieves through profuse sweating at a rate of 0.6-1 kilograms per hour.
Sweating can give off 200 watts of heat, but this isn’t enough to offset the total heat load. Your insides start to heat up.
Your core body temperature rises. 30 minutes at 80° C (or 174 degrees F), the typical temperature for saunas, raises an adult’s body temperature by 0.9° C.

For all intents and purposes, this is really stressful. Our bodies don’t want to get too hot — that’s why we have mechanisms in place to prevent overheating, like sweating — but our bodies also don’t want to exercise too much or go without food. Doesn’t mean those aren’t good for us in the right doses, and the same goes for temporary overheating.

So yes, sauna usage is stressful. After an initial drop in cortisol, it transiently increases sympathetic nervous system activity, the “fight or flight” side of things. Stress hormones increase as the temperature (and your body temperature) rises, and by the end of a thirty minute session cortisol is markedly elevated (particularly in women). This isn’t a surprise. Intense exercise also raises cortisol in the short term. And like regular exercise, longer term sauna usage (daily for four weeks in one study) actually reduces stress hormones.  It’s a classic hormetic response, where acute doses of the stressor increase oxidative stress and provoke a compensatory adaptation by the organism.

How does this translate into better health?

Oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress describes an imbalance between the burden of reactive oxygen species and the body’s ability to deal with them. Whether it’s Alzheimer’s, atherosclerosis, diabetes, depression, or cancer, your oxidative burden plays a (likely causative) role. We have several well-known tools at our disposal for lessening the burden, like exercise, good sleep, smart supplementation, meditation, and others, but targeted heat stress can also help lower oxidative stress in both sick and healthy people.

Lower urinary prostaglandins: In patients with established risk factors for heart disease, daily sauna therapy (15 minutes at 60° C in an infra-red sauna for two weeks) lowered urinary levels of an oxidative stress biomarker. Endothelial function also improved in the sauna group.

Increased antioxidant capacity: After initially increasing oxidative stress, sauna therapy triggered compensatory adaptations and activated antioxidant defenses in the blood of healthy volunteers.

Decreased oxidative stress in chronic heart failure: Patients (and some hamsters) with chronic heart failure underwent infra-red sauna therapy (at 60° C) daily for four weeks. After the trial, markers of oxidative stress had dropped and endothelial function had improved.

Improved lipid profiles: In both men and women, sauna use lowers LDL and triglycerides while increasing HDL.

Improved insulin sensitivity: Sauna use increases insulin sensitivity.

Physical performance.

A large body of sports science shows that heat acclimatization — increased heat tolerance — allows athletes to perform better in high heat environments and increase their work output while reducing the overall metabolic, cardiovascular, and muscular strain. One way to increase heat acclimatization is to train in hot weather. Another is with regular use of saunas.

Post-workout sauna sessions improve endurance performance in runners: For three weeks, endurance runners sat in 89° C (+/- 2° C) humid saunas for 31 minutes following training sessions. This amounted to an average of 12.7 sauna sessions per runner. Relative to control (no sauna), sauna use increased time to exhaustion by 32%, plasma cell volume by 7.1%, and red cell volume by 3.2% (both plasma cell and red cell volume are markers of increased endurance performance).

Post-workout sauna use increases plasma volume in male cyclists: Following training sessions, cyclists sat in 87° C, 11% humidity saunas for 30 minutes. Just four sessions were sufficient to expand plasma volume. This is important because increasing plasma volume improves heat dissipation, thermoregulation, heart rate, and cardiac stroke volume during exercise.

Growth hormone.

Exogenous growth hormone is a popular and potent anabolic agent, increasing whole body protein synthesis and promoting muscular hypertrophy and fat loss. It’s well known that intense exercise, fasting, and a good night’s sleep can all naturally increase growth hormone levels, but there’s another, lesser-known method: sauna usage.  Several studies show the powerful effect heat stress can have on growth hormone levels.

A 1976 study found that Finnish sauna usage increased growth hormone 140% over baseline.
In 1986, a group of Finnish researchers subjected 10 healthy men to twice-daily hour-long sauna sessions for seven days. On day three, serum growth hormone had increased 16-fold over baseline levels.
A 1989 study examined the GH response to varying sauna dosages, finding upwards of 5-fold increases in GH.

There’s even evidence that you actually can “sweat out the toxins” in a sauna, contrary to conventional wisdom.

Sweat (along with blood, urine, and probably tears) contains bioaccumulated toxins. BPA shows up in sweat, too, even when it doesn’t show up in the blood or urine. Same goes for certain phthalate compounds and their metabolites. Sweat has also been shown to contain arsenic and lead in exposed individuals. So, if acute heat exposure makes you sweat profusely, and various toxins show up in sweat, heat exposure might be helping you clear some of those out. whether that’s in the dry sauna or in a class full of slippery Bikram yoga practitioners, it’s probably getting rid of some industrial toxins you’ve inevitably accumulated.

Still, that’s indirect evidence. Do we know if using saunas can actually eliminate toxins from the body?

Maybe. In one case report, repeated use of a sauna normalized mercury levels in a person with elevated concentrations. And when meth lab-busting police officers with chronic illnesses caused by high exposure to methamphetamine production chemicals tried sauna therapy, they experienced significant improvement.

The human studies are impressive, but animal studies suggest other effects from sauna therapy:

Increased blood flow and blood vessel formation in diabetic mice.
Enhanced mitochondrial adaptations to endurance exercise in skeletal muscle.
Increased mitochondrial biogenesis in muscle. More mitochondria, more energy production (and utilization).
Enhanced muscle growth.
Reduction in muscle wasting during disuse.

I wouldn’t be surprised if similar mechanisms are in place for humans, too.

By now, you’re probably convinced: sauna sessions aren’t just enjoyable, they’re functional.

What are your options?

Dry sauna: The dry sauna is the most traditional and common form of sauna, using exclusively dry heat. Most “saunas” you see are dry ones, and most research focuses on them. Dry saunas are typically between 160-194 °F.

Steam sauna: It’s a sauna with steam. Steam saunas are more uncomfortable and raise body temperature to a greater degree than dry saunas, but you may have trouble sticking around long enough to get the same benefits you would from the dry sauna.

Infrared sauna: Instead of heating the air, infrared saunas use infrared lamps to heat your body directly. The temperatures used are signifciantly lower (around 120-130 °F) than dry or steam saunas. An infrared sauna therapy known as waon is used in Japan to treat heart failure, peripheral arterial disease, cardiovascular disease, and fibromyalgia, and it can even improve exercise tolerance. Infrared radiation may also improve wound healing,

Don’t get stuck in limbo trying to “optimize” your sauna choice. Just getting into the sauna — any sauna — and getting really, really hot is key. Regular use (at least once a week and ideally more frequently) is better than infrequent use.

Contraindications

Alcohol: Never drink alcohol before or during a sauna stint. This increases the risk of dying, which you don’t want. Many sauna-related deaths involve intoxication.

Multiple sclerosis: Although the changes are transient and totally reversible, sauna usage has been shown to worsen MS patients’ cognitive function and motor control for about an hour.

Strength athletes: Owing to the effects on plasma volume, growth hormone, and insulin sensitivity, sauna therapy is likely going to be beneficial for strength athletes. Immediately prior to training or competition, however, the sauna may have mixed effects. In male athletes, strength endurance and 1 rep max leg press drop in response to preworkout sauna use; 1 rep max bench press is unaffected; maximum power (vertical leap) improves. Another study found that in female athletes but not in males, maximum power decreases after sauna use. It’s probable that these performance disturbances are caused by dehydration, so rehydrating after sauna use might restore performance.

It goes without saying, but be careful. Heat stress is, well, stressful. If you think you’re getting too warm, you probably are and should get out. Heatstroke can happen without warning.

Keep something refreshing to drink on hand in case you get wobbly. Coconut water, mineral water, regular water with a pinch of sea salt are all great ways to maintain hydration when losing a ton of water.

That’s it for today, everyone. Do you use a sauna? If so, what kind? What have you gained from it? Any miraculous stories? Tell me all about it!

Thanks for reading.

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