HealthTrekker - Health And Wellness Tips

Health & wellness tips + hacks. -Backed by !SCIENCE! and studies, not bros & Voodoo. Why just survive when you can thrive? Become "The Better You", 1% at a time – starting today. If you're already healthy & want to nerd-out on how to get even more rad, HT is the place for you.

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For information only. This content is not medical care, advice, diagnosis, or recommendations.

The Chemicals Between Us. How Some Of Your Favorite Fatty Foods Are Killing You, Starting With Your Brain

Filed Under: Nutrition

The Chemicals Between Us. How Some Of Your Favorite Fatty Foods Are Killing You, Starting With Your Brain
dementia saturated fat water droplets glass

Evolutionary Drives Amok. Too Much Of A Good Thing Can Be Deadly:

The modern marvel of mass production is a funny thing.

Henry Ford and Samuel Colt basically created the entire middle-class of the world, starting with the US.

But that manufacturing miracle also started killing us, because survival can sometimes get weird.

It’s almost the same reason why it’s easy to get fat. Because we’re engineered to survive a famine.

And part of that engineering involved eating some things that we now get way too much of,

But a Japanese University thinks they might just be able to save us from ourselves…

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Disturbed Sleep Is Not A Metal Cover Band. But It Is A Way To Make Your Brain Health Much Worse Over Time!

Filed Under: Mind/Brain

Disturbed Sleep Is Not A Metal Cover Band. But It Is A Way To Make Your Brain Health Much Worse Over Time!
disturbed sleep brain aging silver tabby cat sleeping

Easily Overlooked Aspects Of Health Can Really Have A Dark Side:

We’ve talked about stealth-health concerns before. Those invisible facets that could make-or-break your well-being without you even knowing it.

But sometimes, the most dangerous risks aren’t hiding in your ultra-processed food or lurking like PFAS or microplastics in your environment.

Sometimes they’re right there in your bedroom, (no, not the SO; different problem) showing up night after night in the form of tossing, turning, and checking the clock at 3 AM.

And a team from UCSF just discovered something pretty alarming about those sleepless nights…

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Caffeine Vs. Alzheimer’s: Your Daily Cup Of Fear May Have Some Bodacious Brain Benefits

Filed Under: Mind/Brain

Caffeine Vs. Alzheimer’s: Your Daily Cup Of Fear May Have Some Bodacious Brain Benefits
caffeine alzheimers hand throwing coffee near mountain

You Are What You Eat? … Now You Are What You Drink!:

Recently, a news piece came out on the world’s “Blue Zones”.

These were allegedly places where lifespan is unusually high.

But then we found out that it wasn’t some miracle, it was just bad record-keeping and insurance fraud.

As bad as that is, it doesn’t invalidate the basic ideas.

Good social networks and regular physical and mental activity are important to longevity.

The other one it doesn’t change is groups of people with varying health practices give researchers a ton of different experiments to test.

And another one of those is how food & drink can impact memory-function and ultimately brain health…

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Lumosity Controversy Remixed!: Puzzles, Reading, Game Workouts Might Make Brains Mighty After-All

Filed Under: Aging

Lumosity Controversy Remixed!: Puzzles, Reading, Game Workouts Might Make Brains Mighty After-All
puzzles reading brain fitness wooden puzzles on blue cloth

Surprisingly Traditional Activities Show Some Brain-Fitness Promise:

We’ve all heard it before. Do puzzles. Read more. Play games. Keep your mind active.

That search for ways to stay sharp as we age has led to everything from brain-training apps to a variety of supplements.

Is it all just Lumosity BS, or just something we tell ourselves to feel better about time spent doing crosswords?

Or, what if some of the most effective tools have been right in front of us all along?

Well, a team at Texas A&M decided to find out for sure.

And their research is uncovering some interesting evidence about the “Lumosity” angle after all…

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The Freaky Benefits Of Lean Muscle Mass Can Go Straight To Your Head. -And Last For A Lifetime!

Filed Under: Exercise

The Freaky Benefits Of Lean Muscle Mass Can Go Straight To Your Head. -And Last For A Lifetime!
muscle mass alzheimer muscular woman in gym

Business Isn’t The Only Source Of Freakonomics. Now Gyms Are Too!:

A couple of themes that keep coming up in the H&W space are 1) How interconnected everything is.

And 2) How much deeper things go than just face-value.

For example, there are supplements for every specific you could think of. But most of them affect several things.

Researchers are also finding out pretty much everything that’s good for your heart is also good for your brain.

So it’s not surprising another team is finding out exercise is good for WAY more than just weight-loss and looking buff at the gym…

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Doomsday Clock: You’re Only As Old As Your Biological Age Test Score Feels. It Could Also Mean Dementia.

Filed Under: Aging

Doomsday Clock: You’re Only As Old As Your Biological Age Test Score Feels. It Could Also Mean Dementia.
red dye 3 food safety

Tech-Bro Nerdery Trickles-Down To Significant Figs For Average Joe:

One of the most unfortunate parts of being alive on this planet is the set of dents our health can take over time.

Researchers like Dr. David Sinclair have even called Aging itself a disease.

And if you look around at different tech bros like Bryan Johnson and his “Blueprint” protocol, a lot of people are trying to solve the problem.

Using a variety of tests that may or may not be accurate, guys like Bryan and tech billionaires taking Metformin are finding out that age may not just be measured in years.

In the immortal words of Indiana Jones, “It’s not the years honey. It’s the mileage.”

And a team of Scandinavian researchers couldn’t agree more…

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Alcohol vs. Alzheimer’s. Drinking Really Can Go Straight To Your Head. In A Very Bad Way.

Filed Under: Aging

Alcohol vs. Alzheimer’s. Drinking Really Can Go Straight To Your Head. In A Very Bad Way.
alcohol alzheimers pouring glass of red wine at table


The Baptist Conspiracy Against Alcohol Finally Revealed!:
One of the more difficult parts of becoming a health nut is changing the things you used to like in your diet.

This might be easy when you considered the Cap’n Crunch, Pancake, OJ carb-splosion you used to engage in as a kid.

But the more you whittle things down, the more disappointing it seems to get.

This was particularly difficult for me when I found out how dangerous eating dark chocolate can really be.

We’re going to have to pour another one out for an old friend on this one.

Because where I was sure Mormons perpetrated this idea first, apparently a squad of Wake Forest Baptists is out to convince you to give up alcohol…

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The Dietary Plutonium Of Ultra-Processed Food Might Steal Your Mind & Accelerate Cognitive-Decline

Filed Under: Nutrition

The Dietary Plutonium Of Ultra-Processed Food Might Steal Your Mind & Accelerate Cognitive-Decline
upf dementia old tv wooden case


UPF Junk Food Gives A Whole New Meaning To, “I Don’t Mind”:
Swanson may have had only good intentions when they wanted to make Thanksgiving dinner accessible to all in 1953.

But ever since that first set of turkey & sides were put into an aluminum tray, things have gotten steadily worse.

Because not only have obesity rates gone up a lot since then, but the rate of people consuming ultra-processed foods today is also increasing.

Worst of all, is that !SCIENCE! is finding that UPFs don’t just make you fat, like they did to the Amazon tribesmen who got “gifts” shipped-in from Nestle.

UPFs are like dietary plutonium. Not only are the after-effects weird, they look like they’re occurring in some of the worst ways…

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Note: For informational purposes only. Should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, recommendations, or substitute for professional care.