A new study (on mice) by UC Riverside found that eating too much sugar and fat in childhood can alter microbiomes for life, even if you eat healthier later in life. An early-life Western diet led to a significant decrease in the total number and diversity of gut bacteria, and while regular exercise positively impacted gut bacteria, a bad early-life diet had more long-lasting effects…
COVID-19 is forcing us to see our homes, neighborhoods and our built environment in a new light. We know that COVID hospitalization and death risks are highly correlated with where we live and the corresponding socioeconomic conditions. Our homes may normally be sanctuaries where we can relax, sleep or entertain, but now they have also become our primary places of work, study, play, exercise, creativity…
The timing of the “end of COVID” will be a determining factor in the strength of the recovery. In the UK, the OECD country whose vaccine rollout is so far the most advanced, the Prime Minister’s roadmap expresses the hope that if all goes to plan, June will see a “return to normal.” For reasons on which we expand in our recent book, COVID-19: The…
The pandemic as a wake-up call for personal health–New York Times, March 10, 2021 An important reflection on what the pandemic has taught us about the cost of our failure to focus on preventative health, diet and exercise, and combatting obesity—and the “misguided reliance on medicine to patch up…our self-inflicted wounds.” With obesity the second leading risk factor for death from COVID-19 (behind age), and…
At its essence, physical activity is about movement. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines physical activity as “any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure – including activities undertaken while working, playing, carrying out household chores, travelling, and engaging in recreational pursuit.” The benefits of physical activity are varied, widely proven, and well-known, including: preventing chronic disease, reducing stress, managing weight, strengthening…
For reasons that we’ve expanded on in the past, the pandemic has given fresh impetus to the necessity of implementing broader and deeper wellbeing policies. This is particularly evident in the domain of air pollution as new evidence accrues, suggesting that the situation is worse than we thought. According to a new report, burning fossil fuels causes nearly one in five of all deaths worldwide—a…
