Watchman News

A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report on honeybee colonies reveals a troubling trend that could have far-reaching consequences for your food supply and the environment.1 Varroa mites have emerged as the primary threat to honeybee populations, affecting a staggering 54.8% of colonies during April through June 2024.

These parasitic mites weaken bees, making them more susceptible to diseases and reducing their ability to survive harsh conditions. The impact of varroa mites on your local ecosystem cannot be overstated, as they contribute significantly to colony losses and pose a severe challenge to beekeepers nationwide. Understanding the severity of this problem and others facing honeybees is crucial, as it directly affects pollination services essential for many crops you rely on daily.

Colony Collapse Disorder: A Persistent Threat

While there’s a glimmer of hope with a 34% decrease in colonies lost to colony collapse disorder (CCD) symptoms from January through March 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, the issue remains a significant concern.2 CCD, characterized by the sudden disappearance of adult bees from the hive, continues to puzzle researchers and beekeepers alike.

The loss of 70,650 colonies to CCD symptoms in just three months highlights the ongoing struggle to maintain healthy bee populations.3 This mysterious phenomenon not only impacts honey production but also threatens the pollination of countless plants in your garden and local ecosystem. The reduction in CCD cases is encouraging, but it’s clear that more research and preventive measures are needed to protect your food security and biodiversity.

The USDA report paints a picture of constant flux in honeybee populations, with significant losses and additions throughout the year. From January through March 2024, beekeepers lost 396,820 colonies, representing a 15% decline. However, they also added 404,100 colonies during the same period, barely offsetting the losses.

This cycle of loss and renewal underscores the challenges faced by beekeepers in maintaining stable populations. The highest number of colonies lost in 2023 was during April through June, with 378,190 colonies lost.4 Pesticides were also named as a leading stressor in about 10% of colonies from January through June.5

These fluctuations have a direct impact on your local agriculture and ecosystems, as they affect the availability of pollinators for crops and wild plants alike. Understanding this dynamic is crucial for appreciating the efforts required to sustain honeybee populations and the vital services they provide.

Neonicotinoids: A Silent Killer in Your Garden

Common pesticides in your garden are contributing to the alarming decline in honeybee populations. One study shed light on how neonicotinoids, particularly thiacloprid, have long-lasting effects on honeybees even when exposed during their larval stage.6 Thiacloprid, once considered less toxic to bees than other neonicotinoids, is now under scrutiny for its significant impact on bee health.

The research reveals that exposure to sublethal concentrations of thiacloprid during the larval phase leads to reduced survival rates in adult bees. The exposed bees showed increased sugar-water consumption without corresponding weight gain, suggesting a disruption in their energy metabolism.7

This means that bees exposed to thiacloprid as larvae struggle to maintain their energy balance as adults, impacting their ability to forage and contribute to the colony’s survival.

Gut Microbiome Is a Key Player in Bee Health

Your gut health is crucial for your overall well-being, and the same is true for honeybees. The study uncovered that early-life exposure to thiacloprid significantly alters the gut microbiota of adult honeybees.8 On the first day after emergence, bees exposed to thiacloprid showed a dramatic reduction in gut microbial diversity. This disruption in the delicate balance of beneficial bacteria could have far-reaching consequences for bee health.

A healthy gut microbiome plays vital roles in digestion, nutrient absorption, metabolism and immunity. By disturbing this ecosystem, thiacloprid indirectly weakens bees’ defenses against pathogens and reduces their ability to extract nutrients from their food efficiently.

While the study found that the microbial diversity seemed to stabilize by the sixth day after emergence, the initial disruption during a critical period of development could have lasting effects on the bees’ overall health and resilience.9

From Hive to Human: The Ripple Effect of Pesticide Use

You might wonder why the health of honeybees should matter to you. The answer lies in the intricate web of ecological relationships that sustain our food systems. Honeybees are primary pollinators, playing a crucial role in global ecosystems and agricultural biodiversity. Their decline doesn’t just mean less honey; it threatens the very foundations of our food security.

Even pesticides considered “less toxic” have long-term effects that disrupt the delicate balance of nature. When you use neonicotinoids in your garden or purchase produce grown with these pesticides, you’re unknowingly contributing to a chain reaction that weakens bee colonies.

This, in turn, affects crop yields and the overall health of our ecosystems. So, your individual actions, even at the level of choosing garden products, have far-reaching consequences for the environment and, ultimately, your own well-being.

The Hidden Toll of Industrial Agriculture on Honeybees

In intensive agricultural areas, honeybees also face a rollercoaster of feast and famine as crops bloom and wither. During food shortages between mass flowerings, researchers found that worker bees start foraging at a younger age — essentially growing up too fast.10 This premature maturation comes at a steep cost, shortening the bees’ overall lifespan.

By analyzing the life histories of over 1,035 individual bees across different landscapes, scientists uncovered how food scarcity pushes young bees to become foragers earlier than normal.11 While this helps the colony gather resources in the short-term, it means each worker bee lives a shorter life.

Over time, this accelerated life cycle threatens the survival of entire colonies. The findings reveal an invisible toll that modern farming practices take on bee populations, even when the effects aren’t immediately obvious. Understanding these hidden stressors and embracing alternatives like regenerative agriculture are crucial for protecting the pollinators your food supply depends on.

A Lifeline in the Agricultural Desert

Amid the sea of cropland, patches of wilderness provide a vital refuge for bees. The study, published in Science of The Total Environment, found that areas with more semi-natural habitats like meadows, hedgerows and woodlands helped buffer honeybees against the harsh effects of food shortages.12 In landscapes with abundant natural areas, bees were able to delay foraging and live longer lives overall.

This protective effect was especially pronounced during times of scarcity between crop blooms. Bees with access to diverse wild plants maintained more normal life cycles, avoiding the premature aging seen in more barren agricultural zones.

These oases of biodiversity are critical for supporting pollinator health. Even small increases in natural habitat around farms could make a big difference for bee populations. By preserving and restoring these areas, you can help create a more hospitable environment for the bees that your food system relies on.

The Delicate Balance of a Bee’s Lifespan

The researchers uncovered an intriguing trade-off in bee development: workers that start foraging too early or too late tend to have shorter foraging careers overall. The sweet spot appears to be around 14 days old — bees that began foraging at this age had the longest productive lifespans as foragers.13

This delicate balance likely relates to the bees’ physiology. Those pushed to forage too young may not be physically ready for the demanding job. On the flip side, bees that delay foraging for too long may have limited time left in their natural lifespan. Understanding this optimal timing could help beekeepers and farmers better support healthy colonies.

The presence of diverse natural habitats seems to help bees hit this developmental “sweet spot” more often. By creating and supporting an environment that allows for more normal bee development, you can support more robust and resilient pollinator populations in your area.

Hope for Reversing Honeybee Decline

While the findings paint a sobering picture of honeybee health in many industrial agriculture landscapes, they also point to achievable solutions. The study showed that even modest increases in semi-natural habitat around crops have significant benefits for bee populations.14

Simple changes like planting hedgerows, establishing wildflower meadows or leaving some land fallow can make a big difference. These practices not only support bees but also provide habitat for other beneficial insects and wildlife. As a consumer, you can support these efforts by choosing products from small farms that prioritize biodiversity.

You can also create pollinator-friendly spaces in your own yard or community. By advocating for and implementing these changes, you have the power to help reverse the decline of bees and other crucial pollinators.

Take Action to Protect Bees and Your Health

Armed with this knowledge, you have the ability to make a difference. Start by avoiding the use of neonicotinoids and other synthetic pesticides in your own garden. Opt for organic, regenerative gardening methods and support small farmers who practice bee-friendly agriculture. When shopping for plants, ask nurseries if their plants have been treated with neonicotinoids and choose untreated options.

Remember, protecting bee health is ultimately about protecting your own health and the health of future generations. By making conscious choices, you’re not just helping to preserve bee populations; you’re also reducing your exposure to potentially harmful chemicals.

The research on how thiacloprid affects bee metabolism and gut health serves as a warning sign for human health as well. As you work to create a safer environment for bees, you’re also creating a healthier world for yourself and your loved ones. Every small action counts in the fight to preserve our pollinators and ensure a truly sustainable future for all.

Colony Renovation and Conservation Efforts

Meanwhile, despite the challenges, there are signs of proactive measures being taken to strengthen honeybee populations. Colony renovation is a one technique used by beekeepers to maintain and improve the health and productivity of their honeybee colonies.

This process typically involves one of two main approaches: requeening or introducing new bees. Requeening is the practice of replacing an existing queen bee with a new, often younger and more vigorous queen. This helps improve the colony’s genetics, increase egg-laying rates and enhance disease resistance.

Alternatively, beekeepers may introduce new bees through nucleus colonies (small, starter colonies) or packages (boxes containing worker bees and a queen). These methods allow beekeepers to strengthen weak colonies, replace lost bees or start entirely new hives.

By regularly renovating their colonies, beekeepers address issues such as declining populations, poor queen performance or genetic weaknesses, ultimately ensuring the long-term viability and productivity of their apiaries.

According to the USDA report, from April through June 2024, 521,790 colonies were renovated, representing 19% of the total.15 This process helps maintain genetic diversity and colony health, important factors in building resilience against threats like varroa mites and diseases.

As a consumer and member of your local community, supporting these conservation efforts through informed choices and advocacy makes a significant difference. By understanding the importance of these renovation efforts, you contribute to the long-term sustainability of honeybee populations and the ecosystems they support.

Dementia is not a normal part of aging, contrary to what some people believe. In fact, many healthy individuals live their entire lives without developing any form of dementia — yet today, more and more people are gradually experiencing poor cognitive function as they age.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),1 the number of dementia cases among adults 65 years and older is expected to balloon to 14 million by 2060 — that’s nearly a threefold increase from 10 years ago. This makes it even more important to implement strategies that may help protect against this disease.

In August 2024, The Lancet journal2 released a report detailing new evidence about dementia care and prevention, identifying some modifiable risk factors. According to the report, sensory impairments, even those that are mild to moderate, are associated with developing dementia later in life.

Hearing Loss Identified as a Risk Factor for Dementia

Hearing loss or “presbycusis” is one of the risk factors listed by the featured report. An estimated 20% of people worldwide suffer from this condition, and of those affected, 62% are around 50 years old or older.3

The study authors looked at five meta-analyses and determined that all found a link between hearing loss and dementia. The meta-analyses also indicate that as hearing loss progresses, the dementia risk becomes higher, saying that “the magnitude of this risk increase varied between studies, from a 4% increase to a 24% increase in dementia risk per 10 dB [decibels] decrease in hearing ability.”4

A separate review published in the Neuroscientist journal5 looked at the sensory impairments associated with dementia, and pinpointed several mechanisms by which hearing loss may lead to cognitive decline. These include brain changes in the hearing pathway and mental overload that occurs when a hard-of-hearing person strains to understand what’s being said. According to the researchers:

“We have suggested that increased activity in medial temporal lobe mechanisms for auditory cognition during real-world listening, acting to compensate for peripheral hearing loss, might augment the early pathologic mechanisms for AD [Alzheimer’s disease] in the same areas.

Other rodent work has shown that increased external auditory stimulation improves spatial cognition and decreases amyloid deposition in the auditory cortex and hippocampus in a genetic mouse model of AD.”6

The Lancet Adds Vision Loss to Its List of Modifiable Risk Factors
The Lancet report also included vision loss as a sensory impairment associated with dementia. This addition was done after they acquired “considerable new evidence” connecting these two conditions. Based on their findings, nearly 2% of dementia cases were linked to having untreated vision loss in a person’s senior years.7 The study authors explained:

“This evidence includes a meta-analysis of 14 prospective cohort studies, with follow-up of 3.7 to 14.5 years, including 6,204,827 older adults who were cognitively intact at baseline, of whom 171,888 developed dementia. Vision loss was associated with a pooled RR [relative risk] for dementia of 1.47.”8

In 2023, a review published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences noted that glaucoma,9 the second-leading cause of blindness worldwide, shares some biomarkers with Alzheimer’s disease.

According to the researchers, “[t]he pathophysiological process underlying AD is in many aspects similar to that of glaucoma. Numerous epidemiological studies using immunohistochemical and animal data support the link between the two diseases.”10

The ‘Use It or Lose It’ Principle Applies to Brain Tissue

In an article published in The New York Times,11 the researchers provided a simple explanation as to why sensory impairments may be associated with dementia, and it has something to do with how you use your brain tissue.

Basically, if you have sensory loss, there’s less input coming into your brain. As a result, your brain undergoes less stimulation, which can lead to more atrophy — this means you either use your brain tissue or you lose it. As reported in The New York Times:

“The area of the brain that processes auditory information is close to the region most affected by Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting there may be an anatomical connection. Visual information is fed into another part of the brain, but how we use that information activates many different regions.

‘As you’ve reduced activation of certain areas of the brain, you get faster rates of atrophy there to some degree,’ said Dr. Frank Lin, a professor of otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. ‘Which you can imagine has cascading effects on other areas of brain function and structure, as well.’”12

Sensory impairments during adulthood can also lead to social withdrawal, as many people who struggle with these disorders tend to stop engaging with others. This increases loneliness, which is also a risk factor for dementia.

Dr. Gill Livingston, a professor of psychiatry at University College London and the lead author of The Lancet report, shares that people who are in the early stages of dementia may also develop symptoms faster when they lose their sense of hearing or vision. This is because they typically use up more brain power when trying to recognize blurry vision or garbled sounds, leaving fewer resources for everyday memory and cognition.13

She also highlights the importance of addressing these sensory impairments early on, to reduce your dementia risk. Dementia has currently no known treatment or cure, which is why understanding the link between these two modifiable risk factors and dementia may help researchers develop new management or treatment strategies.

“Some people will still develop dementia, but if they address these risks they should have a longer, healthier life and will not have dementia for such a long time,” Livingston explains. “It’s never too early or too late to take action, with opportunities to make an impact at any stage of life.”14

Excessive Noise Can Lead to Hearing Loss

Your sense of hearing can deteriorate naturally and may even start during early adulthood. There are numerous factors that may lead to this condition, although in some people, the deterioration occurs faster, possibly due to genetics or, more commonly, constant exposure to noise and loud sounds.

“Isolation and Dementia — Why We Should Protect Our Ears,” a documentary from the German broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW), embedded above, tackles the topic of hearing damage brought on by noise pollution. It highlights some of the day-to-day situations wherein people are inevitably exposed to excessive amounts of noise — working in nightclubs, busy kitchens and even doing landscape work, and how it has affected their health.

Thomas Sünder, a 49-year-old who worked as a full-time DJ, shares how his health gradually deteriorated after being exposed to over 100 decibels of continuous noise and music every night. He suddenly collapsed due to a severe vertigo attack in the middle of a gig. Soon after, he experienced tinnitus (a ringing sound in the ear), followed by sudden hearing loss.

“I woke up and suddenly felt like I had cotton in my ear. But there was none, and everything was muffled on one side,” he said. As a result, he can no longer stand staying in places with too much noise. Even while wearing custom ear plugs for protection, he says the noise in the club is still unbearable. “It’s so loud that my body is reacting and I’m nervous about my ears, because my ears are already my weak point and it makes me super uncomfortable,” he shares.

Sünder’s condition isn’t an isolated case. In fact, more than 1 billion people worldwide are now at high risk of hearing loss due to constant exposure to noise pollution.15 And when hearing loss occurs, brain deterioration follows.

Dr. Bernhard Junge-Hülsing, an ear, nose, and throat specialist, explains that your brain deteriorates faster if you can’t hear well. It also deteriorates when you’re not interacting with others or are not participating in life. As explained in the documentary:

“Our auditory center works like a muscle that needs to be trained. New auditory impressions cause a constant adjustment in the brain. However, this means that if the auditory system is no longer activated with new impulses, the ‘muscle’ becomes paralyzed. This could even lead to dementia.”

Using Hearing Aids May Help Protect Your Cognitive Health

Sünder has since quit being a DJ and is now working as a hearing aid acoustician in Hamburg, helping other people who are also dealing with hearing loss. He also assists people in finding the appropriate hearing restorative devices to improve their hearing. With modern technology now coming up with better designs and more sophisticated modifications, there could soon be more efficient ways for these devices to address functional hearing loss.

In the U.S., around 38 million adults are dealing with hearing loss; 29 million of them could benefit from using hearing aids.16 What’s more, studies have found that using these tools may help with brain health, protecting against the onset of dementia.

A 2023 meta-analysis published in the journal JAMA Neurology found that using hearing restorative devices led to a 19% decrease in risk factors related to cognitive decline, and a 3% improvement in cognitive test scores.17

Similar findings were seen during a three-year, multicenter, randomized controlled trial, dubbed the Aging and Cognitive Health Evaluation in Elders (ACHIEVE) study.18 They found that in populations who are at high risk of cognitive decline, those who wore hearing restorative devices for three years had less cognitive decline versus those who didn’t use these tools. The researchers concluded:

“Results from the ACHIEVE study add to the growing evidence base that suggests addressing modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia could be impactful in reducing the future global burden of dementia.

Based on evidence from the ACHIEVE study, hearing loss may be a particularly important global public health target for dementia prevention efforts given that hearing loss is highly prevalent among older adults and is treatable with an established intervention (i.e., hearing aids and related support services).”19

Other Strategies to Protect Your Sense of Hearing

Prevention is always better than treatment after the fact and, in the case of hearing loss, is particularly important. This is because, as the featured documentary mentions, your sense of hearing does not regenerate, unlike your other organs. It’s crucial to take the necessary measures to protect your ears, to reduce your risk of hearing loss and avoid the need for hearing aids in the first place.

Protecting your ears from loud noises is one strategy. If you’re prone to unsafe listening practices, such as using earbuds or headphones at high volumes or always frequenting loud entertainment venues (like concerts), your risk for noise-induced hearing loss increases.20

Hence, a commonsense approach is to practice safe listening habits and taking the necessary precautions when going to loud environments, such as wearing protective earplugs. This is particularly important if exposure to loud noises is part of your daily routine.

It’s also a good idea to take regular listening breaks from using personal audio devices to give your ears a rest. For more tips in protecting your ears from noise, read my article, “The Damaging Impact of Noise on Your Health.”

I also recommend getting proper nourishment to keep your ears healthy. A 2023 study published in PLOS Biology21 found that plant-based compounds called phytosterols, which are similar in structure to cholesterol, may help improve the function of your outer hair cells in the inner ear, helping amplify sounds. According to the researchers:

“Our findings point towards the importance of cholesterol homeostasis in the inner ear as an innovative therapeutic strategy in preventing and/or delaying hearing loss.”22

Nutrients That Nourish Your Eyes

As for your vision, remember that the health of your eyes largely depends on your lifestyle; one important aspect that you need to take care of is your diet. Providing your eyes with the proper nourishment can go a long way toward keeping them healthy well into your senior years.

Carotenoids like lutein, zeaxanthin and meso-zeaxanthin are plant compounds with potent antioxidant qualities. They protect your macula, the part of your retina that’s responsible for your vision, from blue light and harmful ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun and other light sources. Your body cannot produce these nutrients, which is why you need to get them from your diet. Some of the best sources include:

Green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale and broccoli
Orange- and yellow-colored fruits and vegetables like squash and bell peppers
Eggs from free-range, pastured hens (choose those with bright orange yolks, which indicate elevated levels of lutein and zeaxanthin)

However, there’s another valuable antioxidant that’s far superior to these — astaxanthin. Previous studies have supported its protective effects against eye-related disorders, such as cataracts and age-related macular degeneration (ARMD),23 which is why many researchers believe it to be the most powerful antioxidant ever discovered for eye health.

Astaxanthin easily crosses into the tissues of your eye and exerts its effects safely and with more potency than any of the other carotenoids, without adverse reactions. Specifically, astaxanthin has been shown to ameliorate or prevent light-induced damage, photoreceptor cell damage,24 ganglion cell damage and damage to the neurons of the inner retinal layers.

Apart from its positive effects on vision health, a 2024 review published in the journal Nutrients also found that astaxanthin may have profound benefits for your brain and may protect against neurodegeneration:25

“AST [astaxanthin] has the potential to improve cognitive function, facilitate neuroprotection, and slow neurodegeneration. This claim is made based on the established positive effects of AST on different branches of memory and response time, as well as the implications of work utilizing biomarkers in human populations.”

Avoid Linoleic Acid and Blue Light to Protect Your Vision

Polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) like linoleic acid (LA) can severely damage your vision — and your overall health, for that matter — which is why it’s crucial to ignore the mainstream advice to consume seed oils or vegetable oils, which are loaded with these harmful fats. In fact, I believe that LA is the most destructive ingredient in your diet and is largely responsible for the epidemic of modern diseases that are rampant today.

LA is found in virtually every processed food, including fast foods, restaurant foods and even salad dressings. Seemingly healthy food like chicken and pork are also be loaded with LA, unless they’ve been raised on special low-PUFA diets. For more information about this topic, I recommend reading my article, “Linoleic Acid — The Most Destructive Ingredient in Your Diet.”

I also advise avoiding blue light, particularly from digital devices, as it can trigger eye strain and contribute to the development of ARMD. As explained in one recent study:26

“High exposure to blue light triggers visual discomfort in the ocular surface of the cornea (digital eye strain), disruption of circadian rhythms, increased insulin resistance, increased affective disorders and even increased incidence of cancer pathologies.

Therefore, it is possible that the effects of overexposure to blue light on the retina by using these devices may contribute to a higher incidence of pathological changes in the retina, such as AMD.”

Sensory Impairments Are Just One Risk Factor

The bottom line is that aging is not tantamount to developing dementia. There are ways to protect your cognitive health and keep your mind sharp even as you reach your golden years. I recommend making the necessary changes to your day-to-day habits, geared towards improving these modifiable risk factors. As mentioned by The Lancet:

“Overall, around 45% of cases of dementia are potentially preventable by addressing the 14 modifiable risk factors at different stages during the life course.”27

For example, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption are two risk factors that can be immediately avoided. Physical inactivity can be addressed by implementing a regular exercise routine. Depression, also a risk factor, can be avoided through socialization and by implementing stress-busting techniques, such as meditation and mindfulness, and by doing the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).

Lastly, make sure to consume a balanced diet composed of high-quality, whole foods, and avoid processed foods, seed oils and junk foods that contribute to diseases like diabetes and obesity.

“Healthy lifestyles that involve regular exercise, not smoking, cognitive activity in midlife (including outside formal education) and avoiding excess alcohol can not only lower dementia risk but may also push back dementia onset,” Livingston said.

“So, if people do develop dementia, they are likely to live less years with it. This has huge quality of life implications for individuals as well as cost-saving benefits for societies.”28

Mushrooms have long been renowned not just for the impressive benefits they offer, but also for the interesting flavors and textures they add to your meals. You may be well-acquainted with common varieties like Crimini, Portobello and shiitake, but have you ever tried exotic ones, like lion’s mane?

Lion’s mane mushroom has been making headlines recently, with some even calling it the “next superfood”1 due to its wholesome health advantages. You’ll be pleased to know that beyond its quirky, pompom-like appearance, it can offer an array of benefits, particularly for your nerves, brain health and more.

Basic Facts About Lion’s Mane

Most commonly found in East Asia, lion’s mane (Hericium erinaceus) stands out from other mushroom species because it doesn’t have a cap, gills and a stem — instead, it’s big, shaggy and rather bizarre-looking, with long, white dangling strands that look like a lion’s mane, hence its name. Its main body is thick and compact, but slightly spongy. You’ll often see it growing on the trunks of dead hardwood trees.2,3,4

Also called bearded tooth mushroom,5 lion’s mane earned the distinction “the smart mushroom” for its potential benefits for your brain.6 However, its benefits go beyond that. In a Yahoo! News article,7 nutritional health coach Georgi Grogan comments:

“There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest it [lion’s mane] can help to reduce anxiety [and] depression, and also boost the digestive tract with its antibiotic and antiaging properties.”

The benefits of lion’s mane have been recognized for centuries, particularly in traditional Chinese and Japanese medicine, where it was used to help ease gastrointestinal disorders and spleen problems, treat liver and kidney diseases, and regulate heart health. Meanwhile, the indigenous populations in North America used lion’s mane as a preventive measure against bleeding.8

The Neuroprotective Effects of Lion’s Mane

Recently, lion’s mane has been recognized for its potential benefits to your nervous system and brain health, with several studies highlighting its neurocognitive, neuroprotective and neurotrophic properties. Lion’s mane stimulates nerve growth factor (NGF) production — this protein helps promote the growth and survival of your neurons.9 Having optimal neural connections improves your cognitive functions, including memory and concentration.

In one review published in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews,10 researchers investigated the role of mushrooms on neurocognition and mood. They found that elderly patients who are dealing with mild cognitive impairment experienced improvements in cognitive function after taking a lion’s mane mushroom supplement for several weeks.

Along with the cognitive benefits, there were also indications of improved kidney function, such as “changes in levels of circulating electrolytes (Na and K), and a reduction in creatinine” among the patients.11 The researchers noted that lion’s mane was the only mushroom that resulted in these cognitive and mood benefits; however, these effects were only seen in older age groups, at high doses and long durations.12

A separate analysis published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences highlighted the neuroprotective and neurotrophic effects of lion’s mane supplementation, noting that it has “promising potential as an excellent neuroprotective agent, capable of stimulating nerve growth factor release, regulating inflammatory processes, reducing oxidative stress, and safeguarding nerve cells from apoptosis.”13

The authors note that the beneficial compounds in lion’s mane, mainly terpenoids and polyketides like erinacines and hericenones, were responsible for these effects, as they have “antioxidative, antidiabetic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and hypolipidemic properties.”14

Researchers Identify Lion’s Mane’s Brain-Boosting Mechanism of Action

In 2023, researchers from the University of Queensland identified the active compound that’s responsible for lion’s mane’s effect on nerve growth and memory.15 According to Frederic Meunier, one of the study authors:16

“Laboratory tests measured the neurotrophic effects of compounds isolated from Hericium erinaceus on cultured brain cells, and surprisingly we found that the active compounds promote neuron projections, extending and connecting to other neurons.

Using super-resolution microscopy, we found the mushroom extract and its active components largely increase the size of growth cones, which are particularly important for brain cells to sense their environment and establish new connections with other neurons in the brain.”

They found that the compound hericene A acts as a potent memory enhancer by promoting neuritogenesis (formation of neurites, tiny projections that extend from the cell body of a neuron) both in vitro and in vivo, and even in very low concentrations. The researchers said:17

“To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to identify a pro-BDNF signaling-enhancing activity for H. erinaceus and to identify hericene A as an active component for this neurotrophic function in vitro and in vivo.

[W]e suggest that the administration of hericene A from H. erinaceus may be useful to ameliorate brain function and disorder-related pathologies in in vivo neurodegenerative disease models. Although further studies are required to test this hypothesis, our report represents the first step on exploring the potential nootrophic benefits from hericene A compounds isolated from the mushroom H. erinaceus.”

In a report published on ScienceDaily, Ramon Martinez-Marmol, a coauthor of the study, highlights the importance of this discovery, saying it hold potential in “applications that could treat and protect against neurodegenerative cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.”18

Ergothioneine — Another Longevity Powerhouse in Lion’s Mane

A sulfur-containing amino acid found in mushrooms, ergothioneine is another standout nutrient that not only promotes brain health but overall longevity, because of its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic and cytoprotectant properties.

Ergothioneine helps reduce cellular damage by eliminating harmful free radicals — its antioxidant properties are actually similar to that of glutathione.19 What’s more, it accumulates in tissues and organs after ingestion, helping minimize and prevent oxidative damage in those tissues over a long period of time.20

As for its benefits for cognitive health, one study published in the Free Radical Biology and Medicine says that having low levels of ergothioneine in the body can increase the risk of neurodegenerative disorders, including dementia, cognitive impairment and Parkinson’s disease. It can also lead to other age-related diseases like cardiovascular disease and eye disease. According to the authors:21

“ET [ergothioneine] is likely to be neuroprotective by a range of mechanisms in vivo. Since complex multifactorial mechanisms contribute to human neurodegenerative and other age-related diseases, this ability to act by several cytoprotective mechanisms can be expected to enhance the efficacy of ET in ameliorating the risk of these diseases.”

According to one study, lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms had the highest ergothioneine levels among seven mushroom varieties that were tested,22 so adding these into your meals is one of the best ways to boost your levels of this longevity nutrient. If you want to learn more about ergothioneine, read my article, “This Mushroom Compound Is a Longevity Powerhouse.”

The Benefits of Lion’s Mane Go Beyond Brain Health

Lion’s mane may also benefit your gut health, as it was found to be a potent prebiotic to help your good gut bacteria thrive. According to Grogan:

“Due to their beta-glucan polysaccharide component, lion’s mane mushrooms are considered a ‘functional food’ that can act as a prebiotic. Put simply, they may help your gut flora (and good bacteria) to flourish while potentially limiting the growth of bad bacteria like H. pylori.”

Helicobacter pylori is a common type of bacteria found in your stomach. It attacks your stomach lining, leading to inflammation and damaging the tissues and your duodenum, the first section of your small intestine. H. pylori can also lead to the formation of peptic ulcers, which are painful sores that form on the upper part of your digestive tract.23

According to a review published in the Journal of Applied and Natural Science,24 animal subjects that were given an aqueous lion’s mane extract had more free mucus in their GI tract, meaning they had better gastroprotection. The mucus acts as a shield that protects the lining from damaging substances, including H. pylori.

But lion’s mane has more to offer beyond your brain and gut — It’s also been associated with helping improve other areas of health. A 2024 review highlighted some of the body-wide effects of lion’s mane, such as:25

Easing depression and anxiety — In one animal study,26 test subjects that were exhibiting symptoms of depression were given lion’s mane orally every day. They found that the mushroom had a “therapeutic potential for treating depression.”

Boosting immune health — Lion’s mane offers bioactive compounds that may promote immunity. According to the researchers, “Mushroom-derived beta-glucans are well-known for their potent immunomodulatory properties, surpassing other types in terms of their ability to affect immune and inflammatory responses.”27

Promoting heart health — Mushrooms offer compounds that help inhibit lipid oxidation, demonstrating an antihyperlipidemic effect. They also contain L-ergothioneine, an amino acid with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, helping boost cardiovascular health.

Helping manage Type 2 diabetes — In one animal study,28 diabetic rats that were given lion’s mane extract had increased serum insulin and reduced glucose levels. It also helped improve the activity of free radical scavenging enzymes.

Reducing cancer risk — Erinacine, another bioactive compound found in lion’s mane, may have antitumor effects, potentially triggering cancer cell death, particularly among gastric cancer cells.

Where to Find Lion’s Mane Mushrooms

While lion’s mane mushrooms are mostly well-known in Asian countries, they grow in North America and Europe as well. In the U.S., you may see them thriving on dead or dying maple, oak or beech trees. According to the Mycelium Society, you can forage for lion’s mane in the late summer, fall and winter — it depends on your location:

“In the southeast, lion’s mane is foraged in winter, while in the northeast, it is found in autumn. The season ends as soon as temperatures drop below 20 [degrees] F, and there are hard frosts.”29

However, don’t be so quick to start gathering lion’s mane — there are areas where foraging mushrooms is prohibited. If it’s allowed in your area, make sure to bring an expert who can help you identify the mushrooms before you pick them. This is particularly important if you are by yourself. To help you identify, harvest and store lion’s mane, here are some pointers, according to an article in CNET:30

“You’ll know it’s ripe by feeling the mushroom. If it’s spongy and soft, you’re good to go. Take a knife to remove the mushroom while leaving the roots. When you return home, cook the mushrooms immediately or store them in a paper bag in your fridge for up to three days,”

But how does this mushroom fare in terms of flavor? Apparently, lion’s mane has a “hearty and satiating” taste; Pamela Smith, RDN, a registered dietitian and the founder of Shaping America’s Plate, describes its sweet flavor to be similar to that of shellfish like scallops, lobster meat or crabmeat.31 When grated, it looks similar to lump crab meat.

Lion’s mane is spongy, which is why it’s so great at soaking up flavors. Simply sauté it in a bit of butter, salt and pepper for an easy side dish. You can also use it to make crab cakes or fish stew. It also works as a replacement for shredded chicken meat, like in pot pies, casseroles or even pasta dishes.

If your area does not allow foraging for mushrooms, you can try checking specialty stores to see if they stock this type. You can also buy lion’s mane in supplement form, if you’re after the benefits.

Mushrooms Are a Superfood, so Add Them to Your Repertoire

Remember that lion’s mane is just one variety that can offer superb benefits. In fact, mushrooms in general are considered superfoods because of their impressive nutrient profile. According to Smith, they are a potent source of B vitamins like biotin and niacin, glutathione and other antioxidants that protect against chronic diseases.32

I highly recommend adding mushrooms to your nutritional plan as they are an excellent addition to nearly any meal. However, it is crucial to choose organically grown mushrooms as fungi easily absorb air and soil contaminants. Growing your own is also an excellent and far safer option than foraging for wild mushrooms.

Aside from lion’s mane, other mushrooms that can offer health-boosting advantages include shiitake, pine mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, porcinis, king boletes, chanterelles and enokitake.33 Each of these have a distinct flavor profile, making them a versatile addition to various dishes — try a few and have fun cooking them in your kitchen!

Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published February 23, 2017.

People think of time as moving along a fixed linear pathway, but in reality, time, including how fast or slow it moves, is all a matter of perception. This is why watching a movie you love feels like it flies by, while to another person who finds the movie boring, it moves tediously slow.

Other peculiarities have also been observed, such as how time moves faster as you get older and it’s possible to lose track of time entirely if you’re engrossed in a task. Likewise, when French geologist Michele Siffre conducted an isolation experiment in the 1960s, it showed that our perception of time changes depending on our circumstances.

He lived in a dark cave, alone, for two months, but when his team came to get him, he thought he’d only stayed for 35 days.1 Further, when he counted off an estimation of 120 seconds while living in the cave (via a phone that only worked one way), he counted for a full five minutes.2

In an interview with Cabinet magazine, Siffre said, “I psychologically experienced five real minutes as though they were two … There was a very large perturbation in my sense of time … My psychological time had compressed by a factor of two.”3

‘Time Doesn’t Exist Outside of Our Own Experience of It’

It’s interesting to note that when Siffre was asked what he thought caused the dramatic disconnect between actual time and his perceived psychological time, he said:4

“That’s a big question that I’ve been investigating for 40 years. I believe that when you are surrounded by night — the cave was completely dark, with just a light bulb — your memory does not capture the time. You forget.”

In some ways, what he experienced is similar to what happens when you’re immersed in an activity you love and suddenly realize you lost track of time. In The Atlantic, senior editor James Hamblin, M.D., wrote:5

“We conceptualize time through metaphors that project it along a straight line — before and after, long and short, earlier and later — as a function of how our perceptions relate to other perceptions. In the same way, the accuracy of any given clock is only relative to other clocks. Because time doesn’t clearly exist outside of our own experience of it, there are ways to manipulate that experience.”

He used Siffre’s experience with time after sensory deprivation as one example, as well as the hallucinogenic drug peyote, which is known to cause changes in sense of time, such as time passing more slowly, as another. Being diagnosed with a terminal illness also changes your perception of time.

“I can’t generally advise spending years on peyote or full-time isolation in a cave,” he noted. “The most practical examples of manipulating time perception come from the common observation that the more we think about time, the slower it goes.” Hamblin wrote:6

“In his treatise, The Principles of Psychology, William James wrote, ‘A day full of excitement, with no pause, is said to pass ‘ere we know it.’ On the contrary, a day full of waiting, of unsatisfied desire for change, will seem a small eternity.'”

Depression Slows Down Time, ‘Flow’ Makes You Lose Track of It

Alan Burdick, author of “Why Time Flies,” revealed that when you’re busy, you tend to sense time as going faster than when you’re bored. Similarly, a study of more than 800 people revealed people with depression reported a slower subjective experience of time.7

As for why depressed people feels time is dragging, it’s due to a slowing down of the internal clock or because they have difficulty being in the present moment or entering a state of consciousness known as “flow.”8

Flow, according to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is the secret to happiness and occurs when you are completely absorbed in an activity (often one that involves creativity).9 When you’re immersed in flow, your sense of time becomes distorted because nearly all of your brain’s available inputs are devoted to the activity at hand, Csikszentmihalyi states.

If you’re depressed and unable to fully give your attention to the present moment, and as a result find time is agonizingly slow, mindfulness-based therapies are very helpful, particularly in cases of a depressed perception of time.10 Interestingly, mindfulness also slows down your perception of time while helping you to appreciate your surroundings.

How Busy You Are Alters Your Perception of Time

If you’re too busy, flying through your daily routines on autopilot mode, you will feel like your day is over in the blink of an eye.

Neuroscientist David Eagleman, Ph.D., adjunct professor at Stanford University, explained that your mental engagement changes your perception of time, and when you’re engaged in mundane activities your brain isn’t taking in much new information. As a result, time passes quickly.11 One of the areas of the brain responsible for emotion and memory is the amygdala.

The more detailed the memory the longer the moment appears to last. This is one of the reasons why it feels like forever when you’re stuck in traffic, but your memory of the event will be that it passed quickly, as you didn’t lay down any new memory.

This is where mindfulness comes in, as staying in the moment slows down the passage of time. Steven Meyers, a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at Roosevelt University in Chicago, told The Huffington Post:12

“Mindfulness allows people to appreciate their surroundings and leads to the feeling that time is passing more slowly. Paying attention to events that are pleasant or interesting certainly enhances our mood and allows us to savor positive experiences.”

Mindfulness Slows Down Time

Practicing “mindfulness” means you’re actively paying attention to the moment you’re in right now. Rather than letting your mind wander, when you’re mindful, you’re living in the moment and letting distracting thoughts pass through your mind without getting caught up in their emotional implications.

Add mindfulness to virtually any aspect of your day simply by paying attention to the sensations you are experiencing in the present moment. Techniques used to become more mindful include:13

Paying focused attention to an aspect of sensory experience, such as the sound of your own breathing

Distinguishing between simple thoughts and those that are elaborated with emotion (such as “I have a test tomorrow” versus “What if I fail my test tomorrow and flunk my entire class?”)

Reframing emotional thoughts as simply “mental projections” to let your mind rest

Meyers added in The Huffington Post:14

“Time slips by because we are blindly going through the routine of our day … There are a range of remedies for this situation. Some people feel a sense of accomplishment if they set personal goals for themselves and work towards them in a purposeful way. Others need to be on the lookout for certain events — like appreciating a kind behavior from another person — to punctuate time passing.”

Staying Busy Benefits Your Brain

Keeping a packed schedule makes it feel like your days fly by, particularly if you don’t make it a point to be mindful, but doing so offers significant benefits to your brain. Research published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience suggests that the saying “the busier the better” is true, at least as far as cognition is concerned.15

Greater busyness was associated with better cognition, particularly for episodic memory. It didn’t matter if the study participant was 50 or 89 years old, having a busier schedule was linked to improved memory and better brain processing, reasoning and vocabulary.

The researchers pointed out that busy people have increased opportunities for new learning, which has been shown to promote the retention of new neurons in the brain’s hippocampus. In addition, busyness promotes the development of neural scaffolding and consequently facilitates cognition, according to the researchers, while promoting the development of brain reserves and the use of more efficient cognitive processing.16

There are downsides to being overly busy, of course, like chronic stress and burnout. Along those lines, healthy eating is often one of the first things to suffer when life gets busy, so it’s important to stick to the basics in this regard — focus on filling your plate with real, unprocessed foods, preferably organic and locally grown, and avoid resorting to convenience and fast foods, energy drinks or excessive amounts of caffeine to keep going.

However, a busy lifestyle is also a positive one if you stay mindful and engage in activities that lead to flow. The more engaged you are, the more you will feel as though you’re living your life beyond the constraints of time instead of by them.

“The Fit Generation” is an award-winning documentary that explores the lives of active older adults in Canada, particularly those in their 70s and 80s. Directed by Elton Hubner and produced by Eyes Multimedia, the film challenges conventional views on aging and highlights the advantages of maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle well into your later years.

In the video above, you’ll hear inspiring stories of seniors who, despite facing significant health challenges such as cancer, arthritis and heart conditions, continue to engage in physically challenging activities and lead vibrant lives.1

“The Fit Generation” emphasizes that age is not a barrier to fitness and may inspire you to pursue an active lifestyle and find joy in your life. Further, the documentary demonstrates how making bold choices that bring you joy significantly enhances both your mental well-being and physical health.

Fit Seniors Prove Age Is Just a Number

Imagine being a full-time ski instructor at 82 years old. This is just a day in the life of George Tjelios-Nicholas, one of the active people featured in the film. When it’s not winter, you can find Tjelios-Nicholas biking around Whistler or paddleboarding.2

“George Tjelios-Nicholas is one of the main characters of the documentary and, well, such a character! He used to smoke, has undergone several surgeries and still suffers from constant back pain — all good reasons to stay home and wait for time to pass,” according to Eyes Multimedia.3 Yet, this doesn’t cross Tjelios-Nicholas’ mind:4

“Teaching skiing is so rewarding! That’s why I like the ski school. I like people, and my job is to get them comfortable. It’s a great motivation to keep going … I find it hard to believe, but technically my skiing is still getting better. I’ve had people say to me, ‘Oh, you’re too old to do that.’ I’m not crazy, I don’t go off big jumps and stuff like that, but I ski pretty fast.

I’ve had stitches in my head from skis hitting me on the head, I’ve dislocated a shoulder and I’ve had two tibial osteotomies because my knees were worn out from skiing … And then I’ve had two knee replacements. I had prostate cancer too and I overcame that. I have a lot of back pain, I have arthritis and I’m still functioning, but I believe that the more active I stay, the less effect it’s going to have on me.”

Others featured in the film include Lawrence Huzar, who, at 79 years old, played hockey three times a week and keeps busy the rest of the time by building and repairing things in his backyard — a perfect pastime for this retired mechanical engineer. “I’ve never been sick in my life. I don’t even have a doctor,” he says.5 While Huzar lives alone since his wife passed away, he’s not lonely.

He says he’s content being alone and also enjoys spending time with other hockey players on his team — several of whom are similar ages. Gwen McFarlan is another inspirational athlete featured in the film. At 81 years old, the world record marathon runner, retired teacher and cancer survivor continued to compete in races, despite injuries:6

“There’s lots of people out there who will help you and there are certainly lots of running groups that you can join, so if you want to get out there and do something, you can, but you have to want to, because no one can push you into doing anything … My breast cancer made me very, very positive.

Every day I wake up now I’m thankful because when you have something like that happen to you and you don’t know if you’re going to come out of it, you’re just so glad to be alive and just face whatever today is and forget it and start a new day tomorrow. I’m looking at 100, at least 100, and I want to run as much as I can until then. I know I will slow down, I know that, but I’m not going to stop.”

Optimism, Joy and Social Connections Are Common Threads

While each of the people featured in the film have different interests and life stories, you’ll notice several common threads, including optimism, joy and a genuine excitement for life. They each have strong social connections in their communities and engage in each day with a sense of purpose, while living fully in the present moment.

Despite facing health challenges, loss of loved ones and other setbacks, each person in the film leads a vibrant life filled with joy and passion. This joy is deeply connected to their physical activities and the strong sense of community they build through shared experiences and social interactions.

Ava Stone, a yoga instructor in her 70s, says, “To me, it’s the biggest pleasure to put myself in a place where I can give something to others.” She uses class time to teach not only breathing and stretching techniques but also meditate, share stories and tell jokes. Outside of class, she loves to drive her black sports car around town and encourages others to have fun and create their own joy:7

“Now stress comes from not appreciating what is, not appreciating life, your life that you created. We blame stress outside ourselves as if it’s caused by some mysterious others. In a nutshell, do you know what stress is? This present moment that you’re having, you don’t like it. You want to get rid of something you don’t want or you want something you don’t have.

Then you tell your friends, listen, I had such a stress, you cannot believe it, what the husband and the kids did. Oh, at work … And yet, you keep creating it … Resisting life as it shows up to you is your stress. This awareness has bought me so much joy and it came from yoga, and if you have any smartness you know that the mind will help keep you healthy. Open your eyes, become aware of the world.

This world here is absolutely amazing, isn’t it? The other joy is that these people that have been coming to see me all these years, they get it, and they keep coming back and they want me to talk and want to have fun and crazy stuff. So, these people are alert, enjoying life and socializing.

… Only the people who have goals, who have plans, who have joy, they want their body well to take them around. Keeping the body lubricated and moving to build the strength, to keep the muscles going and the digestion and sleeping well, that’s just to keep you healthy so your communication with life can go on. You have the peacefulness, you have joyfulness.

From this joy and peacefulness, you’ve come to pure knowledge to say if I’m unhappy, I’m creating it, totally. The ego is something you create from day one, needing to be important and being right. When you let that go, it doesn’t matter. And then you become peaceful, but you have to practice, feel it, pass it on, and you can only have fun if you don’t think seriously. If people think everything is so serious, where is the fun?”

Optimizing Mitochondrial Function Facilitates Life Choices That Bring Joy

At a foundational level, joy comes from curiosity and the ability to make choices in your life. But if you don’t have enough cellular energy, you can’t think properly, let alone have enough energy left over to navigate positive life choices. This is why improving your mitochondrial energy production can bring you joy.

Your brain, being the most energy-dependent organ, makes up only about 2% of your bodyweight yet consumes 20% of the energy used by your entire body.8 Therefore, a surplus of cellular energy creation is necessary to have the ability to allow your brain to work optimally.

Avoiding dietary pitfalls like excess linoleic acid, in the form of vegetable and seed oils, is instrumental in optimizing mitochondrial function and realizing your full capacity to experience joy. Factors like estrogen and endotoxins can also deplete your cellular energy.

However, engaging in regular physical activity is also a powerful way to enhance mitochondrial health, contributing to improved energy metabolism. Exercise encourages the creation of new mitochondria and helps the existing ones work better, producing more energy more efficiently.

Keep in mind that once you get into your mid-40s and 50s — and certainly into your 70s and 80s — exercise should be fun and stress-reducing, not competitive. In his analysis, Dr. James O’Keefe, a cardiologist with the Mid-America Heart Institute at St. Louis Hospital in Kansas City, stresses the importance of “social exercise” over solo exercise: playing a game of hockey with friends, for example.

O’Keefe and colleagues published a study in 2018 that looked at long-term granular data on physical activity and longevity.9 It turned out playing tennis added 9.5 years of extra life expectancy, badminton 6.2 and soccer 4.7, compared to 3.2 years for jogging and 1.5 years for health club activities like weight lifting and running on a treadmill.

At first, O’Keefe thought the analysis had somehow gone wrong. But then he realized it was the social aspects of the sports that conferred the added benefits.

“Exercising and making social connections at the same time, that is an absolute goldmine of a longevity activity. That means that even walking with your dog or your friend or [playing] pickleball is huge … The whole thing is to move your body in a fun, playful manner and make it social.”

Joy and Health Go Hand in Hand

This combination of fun, social physical activity is clearly evident in “The Fit Generation.” Further, the concept of “vorfreude,” or anticipatory joy, also significantly improves happiness and well-being by allowing you to savor the anticipation of future pleasures. This is a concept those featured in the film also seem to fully embrace, by engaging in daily activities they enjoy and look forward to each day.

Joy and health share a deep and intricate connection, and those in the film enjoy both. They don’t dwell on hardships or loss, instead choosing to focus on the good around them. This ability to recognize and alter negative thought patterns is another key to foster a more joyful mindset.

Instead of catastrophizing and focusing on the negative, shift your perspective to appreciate small joys and social opportunities. Ultimately, as Stone put it, you can build the life you want, and it’s never too late to turn a new leaf:10

“If people are older and lonely, there’s lots of things for old people. They have to talk to a friend, a neighbor, and say what do you do, where do you go, where’s the next community center, what’s on the program? It has to be a habit like brushing your teeth or certain things you do, and then you start enjoying it. There is no joy out in the world, only what you put there.”

Properly functioning, pain-free knees are vital for maintaining an active and independent lifestyle. Your knees play a critical role in providing mobility, stability and support for numerous daily activities, from walking and climbing stairs to squatting and playing sports.

The knee joint is the largest and one of the most intricate joints in the human body, made up of bones, cartilage, ligaments and tendons that work together to support movement and bear weight. However, it is particularly vulnerable to injury due to its complex structure and the significant stress it endures.

Common knee problems include damaged ligaments, torn cartilage, tendonitis and arthritis, each of which can cause pain and mobility issues that hamper your quality of life. Fortunately, there are a wide variety of nonsurgical interventions to address knee problems and the pain they cause.

5 Common Knee Problems to Avoid

If your knee joint is injured, you’ll likely experience pain, which can range from dull to sharp and severe. Pain may occur during or after physical activity, or even while you’re at rest. Stiffness, which may make it difficult to use your joint’s full range of motion, may also occur, along with weakness or instability, such as a feeling that your knee may give out.

Other signs of knee problems include popping or crunching noises when you move your knee or an inability to straighten it. Your knee may also get locked into place and, in serious cases, be unable to bear weight. Five of the most common knee problems include:1

• Torn ligaments — This involves the tearing of one or more of the ligaments that support and stabilize the knee joint, typically due to an accident or sports-related injury. Among sports injuries, 41% involve the knee and one-fifth of those involve the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).2

The ACL is located in the center of the knee and controls the forward movement and rotation of the tibia (shin bone) relative to the femur (thigh bone). An ACL tear is often caused by sudden stops, jumps, or changes in direction, common in sports like soccer, basketball and skiing.

• Cartilage injuries — The meniscus is a piece of cartilage that acts as a cushion between your femur and tibia. Tears can occur due to twisting motions or direct impact and can lead to pain, swelling and difficulty moving your knee. “If your knee joint is locking,” physiotherapist Patricia Collins told The Guardian, “and you’re having to physically move it with your hands, that could imply a torn meniscus.”3

• Osteoarthritis — Osteoarthritis occurs when the protective cartilage that cushions the ends of your bones wears down over time. Although osteoarthritis can damage any joint, the knee joint is most frequently affected.4

• Runner’s knee — Also known as patellofemoral pain syndrome, runner’s knee involves pain around the kneecap, often due to overuse, muscle imbalances or improper alignment of the kneecap. It’s common in athletes and active individuals.

Iliotibial (IT) band friction syndrome, also known as IT band syndrome, is another condition that often affects runners and other athletes. It occurs when the iliotibial band, a thick band of fibrous tissue running from the hip to the shin along the outside of the thigh, becomes tight or inflamed and rubs against the outer part of the knee.

• Tendinitis — This is an inflammation or irritation of the tendons around the knee joint. The most common form is patellar tendinitis, also known as “jumper’s knee,” which affects the patellar tendon connecting the kneecap to the shinbone.

Knee Surgery Is Often Ineffective, No Better Than Placebo

While certain knee problems, like ACL or meniscus tears, may require surgical reconstruction, less invasive interventions often lead to better results. For instance, the standard orthopedic surgeon’s intervention for meniscal tears is performing an arthroscopic partial meniscectomy.

In fact, arthroscopic surgery on the meniscus is the most common orthopedic procedure in the U.S.,5 but one study conducted in Finland found that arthroscopic knee surgery for degenerative meniscal tears had no more benefit than “sham surgery.”6

A landmark study conducted in 2002, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also looked at arthroscopic surgery for knee osteoarthritis, and found the real surgery had no benefits over the sham procedure.7 According to the authors:8

“In this controlled trial involving patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, the outcomes after arthroscopic lavage or arthroscopic débridement were no better than those after a placebo procedure.”

In addition, it’s been found that arthroscopic knee surgery with meniscectomy increases the risk of future knee replacement surgery by three-fold.9 Total knee replacement, which is sometimes recommended for osteoarthritis in the knee, also carries risks. Researchers explained in the Journal of Arthritis:10

“Total knee replacement (TKR) is often the end-point of many causes of knee pain and is used with increasingly frequency. However, there are a wide variety of problems associated with TKR including ongoing pain, patient dissatisfaction and the need for revision surgery … TKR should be avoided unless absolutely necessary …”

Obesity Is a Leading Cause of Knee Problems

Your knee joint bears a significant portion of your body’s weight, and excess weight can exacerbate wear and tear, leading to various knee issues. Excess weight may lead to quicker degeneration of cartilage and an increased risk of knee injuries.

For instance, research has found significant changes in the curvature of your knee joint within the first three months after injury with an increased body mass. The results found those who underwent surgery experienced greater flattening of the knee joint than those who used rehabilitation without surgical intervention when their body mass index was higher.11

Obesity is also a leading cause of knee replacements. One Australian study of 56,217 patients showed that, of the patients who received a knee replacement due to osteoarthritis, 31.9% were overweight and 57.7% were obese.12 What’s more, those in the most severe obese category (class 3) were also more likely to have knee replacement surgery at a younger age — 7.2 years earlier than normal weight women.

While the mean age that women of normal weight have knee replacement is 71.3 years, those with class 3 obesity had the surgery at a mean age of 64.1 years. Men with class 3 obesity were also 5.8 times more likely to undergo knee replacement than normal weight men, and also had the surgery 7.3 years earlier.13

Overall, the researchers noted that close to 90% of people who undergo primary knee replacement in Australia are overweight or obese. As for why obesity increases the risk of knee osteoarthritis (OA), they explained:14

“The contribution of obesity to the development of knee OA is multifactorial. Not only does obesity cause excessive loading of joint surfaces, but dyslipidemia and adipose tissue inflammation increase cytokine production, which also contributes to the etiology of OA.”

Further, excess weight can also alter gait and movement patterns, leading to improper alignment and increased stress on the knee joint. This can cause or worsen conditions like patellofemoral pain syndrome and meniscus tears.

Nonsurgical Interventions Are Often Effective

Resolving knee problems without surgery starts with identifying their underlying cause. Depending on the condition, weight loss, physical therapy, knee braces,15 exercise, tai chi16 and acupuncture17 can help.

Platelet rich plasma (PRP) therapy, which releases growth factors that can help heal and strengthen areas of the human body, including knee joints, is another option.18 PRP therapy works by utilizing the high concentration of growth factors and proteins in platelets to stimulate and enhance your body’s natural healing processes.

When injected into damaged tissue, PRP releases these growth factors, which promote tissue repair, reduce inflammation and enhance cellular growth. Research published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine investigated the effects of PRP when applied to patients with OA in both knees.19

At six weeks and three months, patients whose knees were treated with one or two PRP injections had a reduction in pain and stiffness, and experienced improved function. At the six-month mark, positive results from PRP diminished, but knee pain and function were still better than before treatment. Consuming specific anti-inflammatory and healing foods is another strategy to support overall knee health and knee osteoarthritis prevention.

Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and cabbage, for instance, contain a compound called sulforaphane. also help reduce the risk of osteoarthritis,20 in part by blocking enzymes that are linked to joint destruction. Optimizing your vitamin D levels is another strategy, as insufficient levels of vitamin D are associated with foot pain linked to knee osteoarthritis.

In one study, 23.7% had disabling foot pain due to OA. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a monthly dose of vitamin D3 or a placebo for two years. The data showed greater improvement in people receiving vitamin D and in those who maintained a sufficient level of vitamin D. Researchers concluded that “supplementation and maintenance of sufficient vitamin D levels may improve foot pain in those with knee OA.”21

Red and Near-Infrared Light, Glucosamine Also Useful for Knee Problems

Over the past few decades, more than 5,000 studies have been published about red and near-infrared light therapy, also known as photobiomodulation (PBM), for a wide range of ailments, including knee pain and knee osteoarthritis.22 As about 40% of sunlight is in the near-infrared spectrum, it strongly supports the idea that this is an important frequency to be exposed to.

For knee problems, low-level laser therapy (LLLT), which uses near-infrared light, is one promising option.23 “The ‘optical window’ for biological tissue is approximately 650-1200 nm [nanometers]. The tissue penetration is maximum at these wavelengths, and thus red or near-infrared light (600–950 nm) is utilized in LLLT,” researchers wrote in the Journal of Cutaneous and Aesthetic Surgery.24

Essentially, what you’re doing with near-infrared-based LLLT or photobiomodulation is stimulating your mitochondria to release nitric oxide (NO) and boosting adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production, which is the energy currency of the cell. Together, your mitochondria, NO and ATP work in concert to promote healing effects, such as DNA repair and cellular regeneration.

In a study involving patients with chronic knee pain caused by an osteoarthritis-induced degenerative meniscal tear, LLLT helped relieve chronic pain.25 Other research published in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology stated:

“At the length of 785–904 nm, LLLT can be used as non-pharmaceutical and non-surgical treatment modality for KOA [knee osteoarthritis] patients by combining it with exercises that result in improvement in … pain, range of motion, and functional status in KOA patients via photobiomodulation.

Through this critical opinion, the authors argue that there is sufficient evidence of LLLT to be further used and commercialized as a therapeutic option for KOA patients.”

Supplementing with glucosamine, a compound found in human cartilage, is also worth considering if you have knee problems. Glucosamine has anti-inflammatory properties and may help relieve arthritis-related pain by slowing the degradation of collagen and cartilage and improving the function of your joints. One systematic review and meta-analysis revealed glucosamine is superior to placebo in alleviating knee osteoarthritis symptoms.26

Consume Collagen and Bone Broth for Joint Health

Collagen is a major component of cartilage, the tissue that’s degraded in OA and injured in cases of a torn meniscus. Collagen accounts for about 30% of the total protein in your body.

One of its primary functions is to provide structural support and strength to your tissues, such as skin, bones, tendons, ligaments and cartilage,27,28,29 allowing them to stretch while still maintaining tissue integrity. As such, collagen is crucial for repairing soft tissue, muscle and connective tissue, all of which tend to get weaker and less elastic with age.

For knee problems, a high-quality organic and/or grass fed collagen supplement at a dose of 50 grams a day can be very beneficial. Collagen supplements can be either unhydrolyzed (undenatured) or hydrolyzed (denatured). The processing that most collagen supplements undergo to become hydrolyzed can result in questionable byproducts that are best avoided.

Bone broth contains several nutrients that are beneficial for joint health, including collagen, gelatin, glucosamine and chondroitin. Bone broth also contains amino acids such as glycine and proline, which have anti-inflammatory properties that may help reduce joint pain and inflammation.

Further, bone broth may help reduce joint pain and stiffness,30 including knee osteoarthritis pain.31 It helps reduce joint pain and inflammation, in part, courtesy of chondroitin sulphates, glucosamine and other compounds extracted from the boiled down cartilage.

To make homemade bone broth, simply place bones in an Instant Pot, fill the pot with pure, filtered water — just enough to cover the bones — add salt and other spices to taste, then set it to cook on high for two hours if the bones are from a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) or four hours if organic and grass fed.

Using bones from CAFO beef can be problematic due to potential heavy metal contamination. So, when cooking these bones in the Instant Pot, it’s best to limit the time to two hours to avoid introducing heavy metals into your broth.

If you’re using beef bones from grass fed organic sources, you can safely cook them for four hours. Using bones from an organic source is even more important if you’re using chicken, as CAFO chickens tend to produce stock that doesn’t gel,32 which raises questions about the quality of the collagen.

Exercises to Strengthen Your Knees

Knee strengthening exercises are crucial for maintaining healthy knees and preventing knee problems, as they help to build the muscles that support and stabilize your knee joint. Strong muscles around your knee can reduce stress on the joint, improve alignment and enhance overall function.

Isometric strength exercises, which involve static contraction of muscle as you hold your body in one position, may help strengthen joints better than dynamic strength training.33 They’re useful for reducing pain while increasing range of motion and functional ability in people with knee osteoarthritis, for instance.34 Wall sits are one example.

To perform wall sits, stand with your back against a wall and slide down into a seated position, as if you’re sitting in an invisible chair. Hold this position for 20 to 30 seconds and gradually increase the duration as you get stronger.

Exercise, along with rehabilitation, in middle-aged patients with knee damage has also been found to be as effective as a meniscal surgical repair.35 Other examples of knee-strengthening exercises include:36

Straight leg raises — Lie on your back with one leg bent and the other straight. Lift the straight leg to the height of the bent knee, hold for a few seconds, and then lower it. Repeat 10 to15 times for each leg.

Squats — Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and lower your body as if sitting back into a chair, keeping your chest up and knees over your toes. Return to the starting position and repeat 10 to 15 times.

Sit to stand — Sit in a stable chair, then stand up without using your hands for support. Stand up and sit down 15 times. Repeat the process two to three times.

A bunion, medically known as hallux valgus, is a bony bump that forms on the joint at the base of the big toe — the metatarsophalangeal joint. It occurs when the big toe pushes against the adjacent toe, causing the joint of the big toe to become enlarged and protrude outward. Bunions can be painful and may cause swelling, redness and discomfort, especially when wearing tight or narrow shoes.

The exact cause of bunions is not always clear, but they’re often associated with wearing tight or ill-fitting shoes, genetics or certain foot conditions such as flat feet or arthritis. However, the underlying cause of your bunion may actually be related not only to improper footwear but also going barefoot for too long — and proper footwear and foot dynamics may help.

Aleena Kanner, one of the leading postural experts in the U.S. and a certified Postural Restoration Institute (PRI) practitioner, created “The Shoe Ebook” to help you make informed footwear choices for pain-free — and bunion-free — feet.

Signs and Symptoms of Bunions

Bunions are among the most common chronic orthopedic conditions that affect the forefoot, with up to 28.4% of people affected.1 One of the most noticeable signs of a bunion is a bony bump that protrudes outward at the base of your big toe joint on the inner side of your foot. Your big toe may point toward your other toes instead of straight ahead, causing the big toe joint to become misaligned.

Bunions can cause pain or discomfort, especially when you’re walking, standing or wearing shoes that put pressure on the affected area. The bunion area may also appear swollen and red due to inflammation and irritation of the surrounding tissues. Some people with bunions may experience stiffness or limited range of motion in their big toe joint. However, in some cases there is no pain at all.

Bunions can also lead to the formation of calluses or corns on the affected foot, particularly where the bunion rubs against the inside of shoes. If left unaddressed, complications can also occur, including osteoarthritis and bursitis, a painful condition that affects the small, fluid-filled sacs called bursae, which cushion the bones, tendons and muscles near joints.

Bunions may also contribute to the development of hammertoe,2 an abnormal bending or flexing of the middle joint of one or more of the smaller toes. While anyone can develop a bunion, they’re more common in women and people with a history of foot injuries, such as athletes. There also appears to be a genetic connection, as more than 70% of those with bunions have a parent who also had them.3

While the underlying causes vary, the way you walk and your foot mechanics may play a role, likely in addition to other factors, like improper shoe choices, working on your feet for long periods or underlying inflammatory health conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.4 Uncovering the foundational cause of your bunion is key to proper treatment.

How Walking Barefoot Contributed to My Bunion

I visited Aleena Kanner, one of the leading postural experts in the U.S. and a certified Postural Restoration Institute (PRI) practitioner, to address a bunion I’d been trying to treat for a year. Although it wasn’t painful, I didn’t want it to get worse. After consulting with Kanner, I now believe one of the primary causes of the bunion was adopting a “barefoot” lifestyle for well over 10 years.

Going barefoot is great if you’re walking on the beach or grass — and is an important component of beneficial grounding — but I have tile floors in my home, and walking barefoot on hard, flat surfaces can lead to problems, including bunions, as there is no supportive structure for the foot. Kanner explains:5

“It’s been a huge [trend] lately, in the last, I’d say 10 years, to be wearing barefoot minimalist shoes, or no shoes. No shoes is fine if you are out in nature. I love grounding. We all know that there’s an exchange of frequency from the earth into our bodies, and that’s great if you are outside … in sand, in grass.

However, our society is not built like that. We are not walking outside in grass and sand all the time. We are walking on flat surfaces, and the problem with that is, our feet have arches, and we need to be able to give [them] the proper contact with the ground.

It ends up actually just slapping the ground and not creating that proper movement, range of motion in the foot, where we should have pronation, supination, pronation, supination. When we’re missing that range and that flow, it can lock up your neck. It can lock up your rib cage.

Wearing a specific shoe can open up that ability to have better range of motion at the feet, which can transfer up the chain. It’s a really hard topic for people because the minimalist shoes have a great marketing scheme. They’re saying our ancestors were barefoot. But you have to think about the context of that. They were not walking on pavement all day long in cities.

They were outside in nature, where the foot’s ability to pronate and supinate was still there because nature is uneven surfaces. So I want to get across, it is OK to be outside barefoot if you’re walking on an uneven surface on the beach.

But if you are in society and you’re walking in barefoot minimalist shoes or no shoes at all, and you’re having pain or symptoms … hormone issues, et cetera, a shoe with proper ability to ground, the sensory ability to ground, is going to most likely, almost always, make a positive change for that person’s well-being.”

How Proper Footwear Can Help

While surgery is sometimes recommended for bunion treatment, less invasive options, including choosing the proper footwear, can be effective for relief. Wearing properly fitting shoes with a wide toe box, for instance, can help relieve pressure on the bunion and reduce discomfort. Custom orthotic inserts or arch supports can also help redistribute pressure on your foot and promote proper alignment, reducing symptoms associated with bunions.

Acknowledging that “improper shoe wear can quickly defeat any physical therapy program,” PRI maintains a recommended shoe list that’s updated at least twice a year, noting, “Every time you stand up your whole body is influenced by your feet. No matter what is bothering you, if you aren’t getting better, perhaps you need someone to check your shoes.”6 Wearing the wrong shoes can certainly aggravate or ameliorate bunions, as well. Kanner says:7

“When I change the shoes on people, they can’t believe it because it’s such a simple thing you wouldn’t think about … If they’re in a minimal shoe, that is a big red flag for me as a practitioner.

It’s something I need to address to get their body to be able to relax and get into that calm state to combat whatever they’re dealing with … bunions specifically can happen on the right or left foot. They’re different and should be treated slightly differently from side to side.

This is something I think chiropractors, PTs, et cetera, movement professionals, don’t always know about the body, but we are asymmetrical, so we need to be treated as if we’re asymmetrical. We have a diaphragm on the right side that’s bigger and larger, and it attaches lower into the lumbar spine compared to the diaphragm on the left side.

We have three lobes of lung on the right and only two on the left. And we have a heart that sits on the left chest wall, which keeps that whole chest wall hyper-inflated. And we have a, on average, 3-pound liver on the right side of our body. Because of this internal asymmetry, we’re going to see slight changes in how that person feels and moves.

When I see a bunion, in general, I know that person is most likely lacking an arch of their foot. A bunion is when the toe is coming inwards towards the other toes. That person’s ability to feel the ground with their arch is going to be limited most likely, especially if it’s on the right foot.

When I give that person an arch where it should be, and if they’re not normally sensing that, we don’t necessarily see a huge decrease in the bunion. Maybe with time. It’s not an immediate change because it took time for that person to get a bunion in the first place. But we see major changes in that person’s brain’s ability to feel their feet on the ground.

Somebody with a bunion has really lost that ability to pronate, which is to flatten the arch into the ground and then use their right glute to push off and get the body weight to the left. When I see bunions, I know that there have been bony changes to adapt to somebody’s gait pattern or postural breathing pattern. Gait, posture and breathing are all tied together.”

A Personalized Approach Is Best

The shoes that are right for you are likely going to be different from your neighbor. Ideally, have a professional test you to make sure you’re wearing footwear that has the desired effect in your particular case. If that’s not possible, trial and error has few downsides.

Dr. Geoffrey Phillips, an orthopedic surgeon in Great Neck, New York, also revealed that properly balanced shoes can be fundamental to bunion treatment. TIME reported:8

“The main reason why people go to the doctor about their bunion is because they’re experiencing pain, Phillips says. Some can make lifestyle modifications that eliminate the need for surgery, especially if they start when their bunion is still in its early stages. Phillips’ first recommendation is to make footwear changes.

‘If they’re accustomed to wearing high heels, we try to change that reliance to more balanced shoewear,’ he says. ‘That can include shoes with a wide toe box, so there’s less pressure on the foot.’ It can also be helpful to seek out ‘rocker bottom shoes,’ which have a curved sole that smoothes out the transition from heel-strike to landing on the front of the foot.”

In my case, the bunion is on my left foot, and Kanner gave me arch support for my right foot. The reason for this is because bunions on the left suggests the right foot is not pronating properly. Added arch support allows the right foot to flatten and push off the ground properly, which in turn facilitates the proper movement of the left foot.

I also wear a spacer between the bunion and the second toe to keep them apart and to help the bunion from worsening. Another device that seems to be working quite well is a brace that has a steel bar on one side and a Velcro band that pushes the big toe out medially. There are many corrective devices out there, and working with a professional is best to determine which are useful for your unique case. Kanner adds:9

“When I say the shoe gives the brain the ability to sense the ground better, I’m talking about certain aspects of the shoe … A lot of shoes lack what we call a heel counter. A heel counter is the back of the shoe that grabs the heel and you can feel it. If it’s hard, it’s going to hold the heel in a better place, which is going to position the talus bone, which sits on top of the heel to align the body upwards in a better position.

Feel a barefoot shoe. There’s zero heel counter there. Then that person’s heel, calcaneus and talus, is going to go in whatever position the brain wants it to go in … That’s one component of the shoe. The other component of the shoe is the arch. When you think about walking on the beach, when you’re putting your foot in the sand, there’s sand that comes up to solidify [and] ground that part of your arch.

You don’t have that when you’re walking on flat surfaces. You’re just slapping your foot into the ground. The arch is getting no feedback. I see a lot of people enter a more parasympathetic state when you just put an arch in their shoe. So those are the things we look at with shoes.”

The general principle is that if you have a movement imbalance it will invariably tend to result in some type of injury over time. Further, your body is naturally asymmetrical. Balance is maintained through the integration of these system imbalances, and when balanced integration fails, structural weaknesses and pain, as well as bunions, can develop.

Before resorting to surgery, consider if a switch to better footwear can give you the relief you’re after. In summary, the essential components of proper footwear are:10

A heel counter for calcaneal guidance, supporting the way the heel bone moves and aligns during walking
Arch support for a better ability to pronate
A flexible midfoot for fluid movement
Proper heel lift
A wide toe box for optimal alignment and comfort

For more information and guidance on selecting footwear, download “The Shoe Ebook.”

Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published April 12, 2017.

Dust mites are curious tiny creatures that feed off your dead skin cells and thrive in warm, humid environments. They don’t bite, and they don’t spread disease, but they are responsible for allergic symptoms and have been linked to the development of asthma in children.1

An estimated 10% of the population is allergic to the dust mite’s fecal pellets and body parts. Your pillow is one of the more common places to find large numbers of mites, as the environment is exactly what they need to grow and multiply.

In fact, pillows and down comforters can become a dust mite reservoir. And, though you may think you’ve finally found the perfect pillow for a great night of sleep, it may be time to pitch the one you have and get a new one.

Ideally, your pillow should fill the gap between your head and shoulders when you lie down. Your pillow will serve two functions — support for your neck and upper back and provide a level of comfort you wouldn’t experience without a pillow.

Support is the more important function as your spine is naturally curved at the neck and a well-placed pillow will maintain proper alignment. Although comfort is slightly more subjective, support plays a role in the comfort factor as a lack of support reduces comfort.

For those with a spinal disorder, proper support is essential to sleep quality and musculoskeletal comfort.2 One study found orthopedic pillows kept spinal alignment best, while feather pillows were the worst; individual support is the deciding factor in your pillow choice.

Your Allergies May Stem From Your Pillow

Dust mites are a fact of life. Even though you may not see them, you are their main source of food, so they are anywhere you live. In fact, brand new bedding may be completely colonized within six weeks!3

The video demonstrates how pervasive the mite population in your home may be, and why your allergy symptoms may be worse in the morning. There are 13 species of dust mites, all of which have adapted to living inside the average home.4

They thrive when temperatures are between 68 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit and humidity levels are between 70% and 80%. There are more dust mites in your bedroom and your bedding than anywhere else in your home.

So, if you have a dust mite allergy and can control the population of dust mites in your bedroom, you may also reduce your allergy symptoms. After two years without cleaning, one-third of the weight of your pillow could be from a thriving dust mite population and its droppings.5

Pillows May Increase Your Exposure to Flame-Retardant Chemicals

However, by changing one pillow for another, you may be changing one health challenge for another. Bedding is a common household material where fire-retardant chemicals are used with the idea that by slowing a burning fire, you have a better chance of escaping the flames.

Research shows that fire-retardant chemicals expose you to greater health risks, both before and during a fire. Mattresses, pillows, couch cushions and even electronics may be doused in fire-retardant chemicals, many of which have been linked to serious health risks,6 including cancer, infertility,7 birth defects and reduced IQ.

Although some of these chemicals are slowly being phased out, they are being replaced with others. The materials infused with older retardants are filling landfills, and chemicals are leaching into the groundwater, slowly making their way back into the food supply.

In 2006, the U.S. government moved to phase out polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), as multiple studies showed it interfered with the endocrine system and led to neurodevelopmental problems.8

A 2017 study suggests the levels of PBDEs in humans have stopped declining, plateaued and may even be higher in certain populations.9 The study’s lead author, a research associate with the Cancer Prevention Institute of California, points out that once these chemicals have reached the environment, they are virtually impossible to destroy.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) reports replacement chemicals are quietly taking the place of those being phased out and have not yet undergone scrutiny.10 The extent of the trend was not clear until scientists found a major increase in exposure to chlorinated tris in the past decade.11

Tris has been added to many types of foam furniture, including pillows — this is despite the fact that tris is a known carcinogen that may cause neurological damage. California has now classified it as a chemical known to cause cancer.

What You Might Not Know About Fire-Retardant Chemicals

Among the strongest opponents of fire-retardant chemicals are the firefighters who are forced to breathe the chemicals when they respond to a fire. Not only are the fumes toxic, but the chemicals are also ineffective.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health released the results of more than five years of data demonstrating firefighters face difficult health challenges.12

Their study evaluated over 30,000 firefighters across the U.S. and found this population suffers a greater number of cancer diagnoses and deaths than the general population. Types of cancers included digestive, oral, respiratory, urinary and blood cancers.

Occupational exposure to toxic gases during a fire was the likely culprit. Following past studies, fire-retardant chemicals have been removed from children’s pajamas in response to concerns about cancer, but continued to be used in furniture and foam cushions.

These chemicals were originally developed in the 1970s when cigarettes were a major source of house fires. Under pressure to make fire-safe cigarettes, the tobacco industry pushed for federal standards for fire-retardant furniture instead.

As of July 1, 2007, all U.S. mattresses are required to be highly flame-retardant, to the extent that they won’t catch on fire if exposed to a blowtorch.13

This means manufacturers are dousing them with highly toxic flame-retardant chemicals, which do NOT have to be disclosed in any way. This is probably the most important piece of furniture you want to get right, as you are spending about one-third of your life on it.

Unless you’ve recently remodeled using only natural materials, it’s likely you have flame-retardant lurking in your home right now. You can help to reduce your exposure using these tips:

Know the date of manufacture — Be especially careful with polyurethane foam products manufactured prior to 2005, such as upholstered furniture, mattresses and pillows, as these are most likely to contain PBDE flame retardants.

If you have any of these in your home currently, consider replacing them. At the very least, inspect them carefully and replace ripped covers and/or any foam that appears to be breaking down. Also, avoid reupholstering furniture by yourself, as the reupholstering process increases your risk of exposure.

Use caution during carpet removal — Older carpet padding is another major source of PBDEs, so take precautions when removing old carpet. You’ll want to isolate your work area from the rest of your house to avoid the chemical from spreading, and use a HEPA filter vacuum to clean up.

Take care with electronics — You may also have older sources of PBDEs known as Deca in your home. These chemicals are so toxic they are banned in several states. Deca PBDEs can be found in electronics like TVs, cell phones, kitchen appliances, fans, toner cartridges and more.

Wash your hands after handling electronics, especially before eating, and at the very least, be sure you don’t let infants mouth any of these items (like your TV remote control or cellphone).

Consider naturally safe replacements — As you replace PBDE-containing items around your home, select those that contain naturally less flammable materials, such as leather, wool and cotton.

Consider organic or “green” materials — Look for organic and “green” building materials, carpeting, baby items, mattresses and upholstery, which will be free from these toxic chemicals and help reduce your overall exposure.

Furniture products filled with cotton, wool or polyester tend to be safer than chemical-treated foam; some products also state that they are “flame-retardant free.”

Clean dust carefully — PBDEs are often found in household dust, so clean up with a HEPA-filter vacuum and/or a wet mop often.

How to Get a Restful Night of Sleep

Getting a restful night of sleep is important to your overall health and wellness, and sleeping position is just one of the factors that makes a difference in how rested you may feel in the morning. More than 90% of Americans claim a comfortable pillow is important to how well they feel in the morning.14 You may have a preference for the type of pillow you like prior to sleep, but if you’re waking with back and neck pain, it may be time to make an adjustment.

On your back is the best sleep position as it maintains your head and spine in a neutral position, reduces symptoms of acid reflux and may even prevent wrinkles.15 When on your back, the best pillow is no pillow at all, but rather a flat rolled towel or ultra-thin pillow that will not push your head and neck forward, impacting your breathing.

While the position you use at night affects how well-rested you feel in the morning, I provide additional tips to improve the quality of your sleep, from timing and lighting to temperature, in my article “Top 33 Tips to Optimize Your Sleep Routine.”

Risks Associated With Poor Sleep

A lack of quality sleep may lead to sleep deprivation, which has been linked to a number of different health conditions. Just some of the problems associated with sleep deprivation are listed here. As you can see, they may affect your productivity at work, your relationships, your finances and your health.

Poor emotional balance
Reduced immune function

Worsened constipation
Increased risk of car accidents

Increased accidents at work
Reduced ability to perform tasks

Reduced creativity at work or in other activities
Increased risk of depression

Slowed reaction time
Increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancer, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease

Altered gene expression. Research has shown that when people cut sleep from 7.5 to 6.5 hours a night, there were increases in the expression of genes associated with inflammation, immune excitability, diabetes, cancer risk and stress16
Contribute to premature aging by interfering with your growth hormone production, normally released by your pituitary gland during deep sleep

Reduced brain plasticity and ability to learn new concepts
Reduced motor (physical/athletic) performance

Worsened behavioral difficulties in children
Exacerbated or increased risk of stomach ulcers

Intensified chronic pain. In one study, poor or insufficient sleep was found to be the strongest predictor for pain in adults over 5017
Increased risk of depression. In one trial, 87% of depressed patients who resolved their insomnia had major improvements to their depression, with symptoms disappearing after eight weeks

Exacerbated or increased risk of chronic diseases such as, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis (MS), gastrointestinal tract disorders, kidney disease and cancer
Harm your brain by halting new cell production. Sleep deprivation can increase levels of corticosterone (a stress hormone), resulting in fewer new brain cells being created in your hippocampus

Are You Ready to Replace Your Pillow?

Failure to change your pillow every six months to a year may also increase your risk of acne breakouts.18 Pressing your face into old dirt, oil and dead skin cells may increase your risk of clogging pores and developing whiteheads. Down pillows and comforters attract the most debris and cannot be cleaned conventionally to rid the product of dust mites.

Wash your pillows regularly by putting two pillows in the washing machine at a time to balance the load. Add as little detergent as possible. Run them through the rinse cycle twice and then tumble dry. During the summer months consider hanging the pillows out on sunny days to reduce humidity in the pillow.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends replacing pillows every one to two years,19 and extending the life of your pillow by washing it every six months. You’ll know it’s definitely time to replace your pillow when it becomes lumpy, the shape and comfort no longer resemble a new pillow, or you fold it in half and it doesn’t quickly bounce back.

The Wonders of Wool

The alternative bedding you may have been searching for is made from a sustainable product, naturally repels dust mites, doesn’t contain fire-retardant chemicals and supports your body temperature changes throughout the night. That product is wool.

It may sound like your pillows and comforters would smother you in heat, as woolen jackets have long been what you sought after in the deeply cold winter months. But, for the same reason wool jackets work so well in the winter to protect your body heat, they also work in your bedding to provide you with exactly what your body needs for a restful sleep. Wool fibers trap your body heat, helping you to maintain a steady temperature.

Other types of bedding trap warm air, creating a humid environment, ripe for dust mites. However, wool releases the humidity and helps maintain a steady temperature unique to your body’s needs. Wool also naturally passes federal fire testing, requiring no additional chemicals.20 Wool is machine washable, hypoallergenic and supports farmers who provide a sustainable product. It can be harvested from sheep, alpaca, angora rabbits and camels.21

Creating a restful and safe environment in your bedroom is important to your health and wellness. By reducing your exposure to dust mites and fire-retardant chemicals, and by making small changes to your nightly routine, you may experience greater productivity during the day and improved health overall.

Research1 published in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle demonstrated once again that grip strength is a reliable biomarker of your biological age. In case you were not aware, your biological age can be a different number than your chronological age.

Biological Age, Health Span and Legal Implications

Chronological age is the number of years you have existed on Earth, while biological age describes the age at which your cells are functioning. For some people, these numbers are the same, and for others, they are vastly different. If you throw another measurement into the mix, your health span is the amount of time in life you are free from age-related disease.

Your health span is intimately related to your biological age. This means as your body’s cells decline in function, they’re more susceptible to a variety of age-related diseases, many of which are in the top 10 leading causes of death recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.2 These conditions include heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and chronic liver disease.

Researchers believe that biological age is a combination of genetics, lifestyle choices, nutrition and comorbidities.3 You have control over two factors — lifestyle and nutrition — which together influence comorbidities. In other words, you have control over a vast majority of the factors that impact your biological age, and therefore your longevity.

When you consider the world around you, a lot has changed in the last five years. Bioethicists at Harvard University4 question if the distinction between biological and chronological age is significant, should that support a legal age change? While this is a question for another time, you can see how taking control of your health today may hold many benefits later in life, no matter what time in life you begin making changes.

The featured study indicates that grip strength is a reliable biomarker of your biological age, which would indicate that measuring your grip strength can help doctors predict your probability of developing chronic disease or all-cause mortality. One writer ponders5 about the growing number of individuals in their 20s and 30s who are no longer biologically young.

He writes that over the last eight years, a variety of studies have shown that the number of people with serious chronic diseases is growing, alongside a rising infertility rate, rising rate of mental illnesses in young women, and a roughly 70% decline in male testosterone since the 1970s.

He concludes that it is “obvious just how much the quality of human life has declined in just 1-2 decades.”6 Yet, information from the featured study and many others demonstrate that simple lifestyle changes can produce significant results.

Grip Strength Is a Reliable Biomarker for Biological Age

The researchers identified a growing body of evidence that has linked muscular weakness to a host of age-related health outcomes.7 Many researchers have looked at low grip strength as a biomarker of aging. This research team sought to identify the pathways that connect grip strength to negative health consequences by looking at DNA methylation (DNAm) age acceleration.

The researchers used data from the 2006 to 2008 data collection in the Health and Retirement Study in which there were eight to 10 years of follow-up. The researchers looked at longitudinal modeling that examined a potential association between the change in grip strength and DNAm age acceleration.

The data estimated age acceleration using DunedinPoAm, PhenoAge and GrimAge clocks, which are three epigenetic clocks used to estimate biological age based on DNAm patterns.8

At the conclusion of the study, the researchers wrote that there was “a robust and independent cross-sectional association between NGS (normalized grip strength) and DNAm age acceleration for men using the DunedinPoAm, PhenoAge and GrimAge clocks and for women using the DunedinPoAm and GrimAge clocks.”9

Based on the data, the researchers concluded that there is “some initial evidence of age acceleration among men and women with lower NGS and loss of strength over time.”10 They suggest that more research is needed to understand the extent to which DNAm age is associated with grip strength and chronic disease.

This data seeks to explain what other researchers have documented, that grip strength provides evidence of your overall strength and upper limb function, as well as information about bone mineral density, nutrition, cognition, sleep and quality of life.11

Relationship Between Strength and Overall Health

Other researchers have also identified a similar relationship with grip strength, overall health and specific health conditions. According to geriatric medicine specialist Ardeshir Hashmi from the Cleveland Clinic, “Grip strength naturally begins to decline around age 50, and maybe even earlier. People who maintain their grip strength age more slowly. They stay healthier longer and are stronger throughout their bodies.”12

The consensus is that the stronger your grip strength, the better your health and the lower your grip strength the poorer your health. However, there is no consensus on the exact low and high measurements, and they are different based on your chronological age, weight and other factors.13

It’s estimated that grip strength is an indication of general muscle strength, which is crucial for endurance, balance and mobility. The association between hand grip strength and the strength of your immune system was the focus of a 2022 study14 that concluded measuring hand strength allows for “preliminary predictions on the current level of immunity and inflammation in the body.”

Data has also found that hand grip strength is correlated with heart health and can help predict cardiovascular problems alongside family history, blood pressure and other indicators.15 Low grip strength increases the risk of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women and a stronger grip is associated with increased functional independence.16 Grip strength can also affect your stability and increase the risk of accidents when you can’t catch yourself from falling.

Several studies have also found an association between a weaker grip, a reduction in cognitive functioning, an increase in the risk of psychiatric conditions and an increase in dementia.17 A large study published in 2022 associated poor hand grip strength in midlife with cognitive decline roughly 10 years later.18

The study19 published in JAMA Neurology used data from the U.K. Biobank Cohort Study. The researchers concluded that hand grip strength is associated with neurocognitive brain health. They believe this adds to a growing body of research indicating that increasing muscle strength in middle-aged adults may help maintain neurocognitive brain health as you age.

Another 2022 study20 published in BMC Medicine analyzed cross-sectional and longitudinal data from over 40,000 participants. The number in the cohort varied depending on the measurement being analyzed.

The researchers looked at the association between grip strength, behavioral outcomes and brain structure, finding an association between grip strength and increased gray matter volume in regional areas of the brain, as well as several measures of cognition and mental health.

How to Measure Hand Grip Strength

I have known of the correlation between grip strength and longevity for some time now, but was surprised that the instrument to measure it is inexpensive, So, I purchased one for $25 on Amazon and was delighted that my grip strength was off the charts at 129 pounds. I sincerely believe it is largely due to hanging for 90 seconds to two minutes twice a day for the last few years, a practice that I encourage nearly anyone to consider to increase their grip strength.Researchers in the featured study used a Smedley spring-type hand dynamometer to measure grip strength.21 Grip strength measures muscle strength exerted in your hand and forearm muscles. A dynamometer is typically the tool that’s used to measure grip strength but not what’s used to improve your grip strength.

The measurement is typically given in kilograms or pounds. A digital hand dynamometer is the easiest and most reliable way of measuring your hand strength. Owning a hand dynamometer helps you keep track of your grip strength over time. To use a dynamometer be sure to follow the instructions that come with the device. Generally:22

The grip handle should be positioned to fit your hand
Bend your elbow at a 90-degree angle
Apply maximum effort to squeeze the dynamometer
Repeat a total of three times and average the three results

A 2018 study23 used data from 1,232 participants aged 18 to 85 years to extract normative reference values for hand grip strength in that age range. The researchers established ranges based on gender and dominant or non-dominant hands.The cohort was broken into five-year age ranges and an overall range was established for each group as well as identifying those in the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles. Examples of the measurement ranges in the dominant hand include:

Years
Pounds

Men

18-24
103.6 +/- 17.9

35-39
103.8 +/- 26.2

50-54
97.0 +/- 22.7

60-64
84.7 +/- 22.7

70-74
76.5 +/- 19.8

Women

18-24
61.9 +/- 15.7

35-39
64.4 +/- 13.7

50-54
62.2 +/- 13.9

60-64
52.0 +/- 14.3

70-74
47.4 +/- 11.2

Pay Close Attention to Overall Strength

As the lead researcher of the featured study, Mark D. Peterson said, “Grip strength is a proxy indicator of overall muscle strength, meaning that it is highly correlated to other measures of strength. Thus, simply increasing grip strength would not render any changes to health or longevity.”24

While grip strength is just an indicator of your overall strength, you still may want to spend some time improving your grip strength to make everyday tasks easier. Hashmi recommends25 using a racquetball or squash ball as a squeeze ball.

He notes that the size and the material of the ball are important so that you have the right resistance. A tennis ball is too large and may cause an injury while exercising. Other options can include resistance bands and grip and squeeze handles that come in different sizes and levels of resistance. He recommends using a low resistance and working your way up to higher strengths.

While you might think that traditional weightlifting is the only way to build muscle, there are several other options. If you’ve never done any strength training, it may help to begin with resistance bands that come in a variety of different strengths. These allow you to build muscle while you learn the correct form to reduce your risk of injury.

As you get stronger, I highly encourage you to consider my favorite way of strength training — KAATSU, also known as blood flow restriction training. It can help radically improve muscle growth and strength without risking injury. This makes an ideal for people who have never done strength training and for the elderly.

Strength training is vital to prevent age-related muscle loss that leads to frailty and premature death. KAATSU is not only effective in building muscle, even when you’re older, but it also generates some highly beneficial metabolic byproducts, including insulin growth factor 1, growth hormones and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

You can learn more about the benefits of KAATSU in “How to Optimize Health and Strength — Even if You’re Over 60,” which features my interview with Dr. Marcos de Andrade, a research physician and CEO of BIOHAXS. We met at Dave Asprey’s Biohacking Conference in June 2023, where we ended up arm wrestling. De Andrade was 38 years old and an extreme fitness buff, and I was 69. But I still beat him. So, age doesn’t have to be a determining factor or excuse for poor fitness.

Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published May 31, 2018.

According to the National Brain Tumor Society, about 700,000 Americans are living with a primary brain tumor and upward of 79,000 more will be diagnosed with a tumor in 2018.1 At a minimum, a brain tumor of any kind will radically impact your quality of life, whereas the malignant variety affords you little more than a 1 in 3 chance of survival.2

Because the most common form of malignant brain tumor presents with a five-year relative survival rate of less than 6%,3 you’ll want to do all you can to safeguard your brain health. This includes recognizing the most common signs of a brain tumor. Later in this article I’ll share tips on how to reduce your exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) — one of several factors believed to contribute to brain tumors and other serious health conditions.

Eight Common Symptoms of a Brain Tumor

While some of these symptoms could signal a different health condition needing attention, below is a list of symptoms you may experience if you have a brain tumor. Very often, more than one of these symptoms will be present, aiding your doctor in making an accurate diagnosis. Eight of the most common symptoms of a brain tumor are:4,5

Loss of balance — Persistent issues with balance, evidenced by clumsiness with respect to your arms and legs, as well as trouble with fine motor skills, may be signs of a brain tumor. If you previously had good coordination and suddenly begin to fumble and stumble when performing routine activities like reaching for a glass, tying your shoes or walking, you could have a brain tumor.

“Symptoms are often dependent on the location of the tumor,” explains Dr. Donald O’Rourke, neurosurgeon and director of the Human Brain Tumor Tissue Bank at Penn Medicine in Yardley, Pennsylvania. “For example, if you have a tumor on your cerebellum — the part of your brain involved in coordinating sequences of movements — you may have trouble controlling your arms and legs.”6

Memory loss and language issues — Episodes of confusion and forgetfulness may be signs of a brain tumor, especially if they are accompanied by severe memory loss and language issues. As an example, suddenly forgetting the words for common objects like “ball” or “cup” or being unable to recognize words or numbers on a page may be signs of a brain tumor.7

Memory loss may be accompanied by changes in your speech, such as problems understanding or retrieving words, as well as slurring or stuttering.

“Language problems such as stuttering, difficulty naming objects or understanding what others are saying are key symptoms of a tumor in the frontal or temporal lobes, areas of the brain associated with motor function of speech and language comprehension,” says Dr. Christopher Carrubba, a health care and medical education consultant from Jacksonville, Florida.8

Mood and/or behavior changes — A dramatic change in mood and noticeable increases in risky and other acting out behaviors may be signs of a brain tumor. “Patients suffering from a brain tumor may develop depression, anger or anxiety, even if they don’t commonly exhibit these types of emotions,” says Dr. Sumeet Vadera, neurosurgeon at University of California Irvine Health.

“This is related to tumor irritation or compression of portions of the frontal lobe, which is responsible for many of our personality traits.”9

“A large, slowly growing tumor in the frontal lobe can even alter personality and judgment so far as to be mistaken for criminal behavior or psychiatric problems,” notes Dr. Mike Chen, neurosurgeon and associate professor of neurosurgery at City of Hope hospital near Los Angeles.10 That said, uncharacteristic mood/behavior signs to look for that may indicate the presence of a brain tumor include:

Acting overtly sexual
Becoming increasingly and more easily agitated and angered
Engaging in risky behaviors
Showing less inhibition

Nausea and vomiting — While nausea and vomiting may be associated with many illnesses, unexplained, frequent nausea and/or vomiting has been associated with brain tumors. If you have persistent queasiness that has no apparent root cause — and especially if it is accompanied with headaches or other symptoms — be sure to make an appointment with your doctor to have it checked out.

One-sided weakness or numbness — If you experience weakness or numbness, particularly on one side of your body, you may have a tumor in the frontal lobe area of your brain. Very often, the tumor will present on the side of your brain opposite the bodily weakness or numbness. “The right motor cortex controls the left side of your body and the left motor cortex controls the right side of your body,” says Chen.

“If there are tumors anywhere along this pathway, these signals are completely disrupted, and the result is loss of function.”11 If you notice one of your arms or legs suddenly is not responding the way it used to, this may be a sign a tumor is pressing on your motor cortex. Keep track of your symptoms and review them with your doctor.

Persistent headaches — While persistent headaches can be associated with a brain tumor, even doctors find it difficult to distinguish headaches or full-blown migraines caused by brain tumors and those resulting for other reasons. Bring any new, persistent headaches that do not respond to over-the-counter pain relievers to the attention of your doctor.

“The best indicator is a new daily headache that won’t seem to go away,” states Chen. “These headaches tend to get worse over time and are often present when you wake up in the morning, when intracranial pressure is high from lying in bed for … long periods of time.”12

It’s important to note the intensity of your headache pain is not necessarily correlated to the size or growth rate of the tumor. “A small, fast-growing tumor can cause as severe of a headache as a large, slow-growing tumor,” says Dr. Santosh Kesari, neurologist, neuro-oncologist and chair of the department of translational neurosciences and neurotherapeutics at John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California.13

Seizures — While seizures are related to other health conditions besides brain tumors, the sudden convulsions, changes in consciousness and involuntary movements known to characterize seizures may be attributed to the presence of a brain tumor. About seizures, researchers involved in a 2014 study published in the journal The Oncologist said:14

“Seizures are commonly seen in brain tumors, usually in the range of 40 to 60 percent. They often represent the first clinical sign of a brain tumor and count as a favorable prognostic factor, although reappearance or worsening of seizures may indicate tumor recurrence.”

Seizures, which last only a short time, are caused by abnormal electrical activity in your brain. Of the many types of seizures, the kind you experience depends on the area of your brain that is sending out the abnormal electrical signals.

Vision changes — While your vision may change for any number of reasons, getting regular eye exams is one way to monitor changes in your brain that may signal the presence of a brain tumor. If you are experiencing blurred vision, double vision or a partial or complete loss of vision, you need to make an appointment with your eye doctor right away.

Dr. Adam Rubin, optometry specialist in Gaithersburg, Maryland, once completed an eye exam for a 9-year-old boy complaining of severe headaches and blurry vision in one eye.

About the exam Rubin stated, “Right away, I noticed his right pupil wasn’t responding to light. That was alarming, and I continued looking more closely at the right eye.” Upon further examination, Rubin noticed something even more troubling. “The optic nerve was completely discolored, a sign that can indicate a growth in that area. A tumor or large mass can press against the back of the eye, causing a pale-colored optic nerve head,” he said.15

Given those concerns, Rubin referred the boy to a brain specialist who was able to identify the source of the issues — a benign tumor growing near the boy’s pituitary gland. Fortunately, it was surgically removed, and the boy regained his health. Types of vision changes known to signal the presence of a brain tumor include:16

Double vision can be a symptom of a tumor in your brain stem
Loss of your ability to look upward can be caused by a pineal gland tumor
Partial or complete loss of vision could result from a tumor in the occipital lobe or temporal lobe of your cerebrum

There Is No Doubt: EMFs Damage Your Health

The negative effects of EMFs continue to ignite conversations and controversy worldwide. As society becomes increasingly more technologically advanced, you (and your brain) are being exposed to EMFs all day long — both inside and outside your home — whether you realize it or not.

In case you are not clear on what EMFs are or how they affect you, Dave Asprey, founder and CEO of Bulletproof and author of The New York Times best seller, “The Bulletproof Diet,” provides a helpful working definition:17

“An EMF refers to the invisible cloud of electricity that surrounds electrically charged particles. When charged particles are moving (and they always are), they produce magnetic fields. Every living and nonliving thing you come in contact with has its own electromagnetic field.

Your body is designed to handle a fair amount of EMFs. Even if you lived a completely unplugged existence in the middle of the jungle, the planet you’re standing on exposes you to EMFs. We humans emit electromagnetic energy, and there’s no escaping ourselves.”

Most EMF radiation emits from cell towers, cellphones, computers, smart meters and Wi-Fi, to name just a few of the culprits. Because wireless technology is here to stay, it’s imperative you get educated about the negative effects of EMFs on your health and take steps to reduce your EMF exposure as much as possible. If you have been told EMFs are safe and not a danger to humans, you may want to consider:

The telecommunication industry has manipulated federal regulatory agencies, public authorities and health professionals through powerful and sophisticated lobbying efforts, which has left consumers confused and unaware of the health risks associated with EMFs
As was the case with smoking, the negative health effects from EMFs may not be immediately noticeable but will likely develop gradually and become recognized over time
Without a doubt, among all the other EMFs, cellphone use is among the top public health threats of the 21st century

Effect of Cellphone Radiation on Your Health and Your Brain

As mentioned in the video above, a 2015 study published in the journal Pathophysiology18 indicated heavy cellphone use before age 20 increases your risk of developing brain cancer in your late 20s at a rate four to five times greater than those with minimal exposure. You can access more recent studies involving lab animals, which were completed by the U.S. National Toxicology Program19 and Italy’s Ramazzini Institute, by clicking on the source links.20

Those studies found “statistically significant increases in the development of the same type of very rare and highly malignant tumor in the heart of male rats — schwannomas.”21 About the results, Ramazzini study authors said:22

“The Ramazzini Institute findings on far field exposure to radiofrequency radiation (RFR) are consistent with and reinforce the results of the National Toxicology Program study on near field exposure, as both reported an increase in the incidence of tumors of the brain and heart in RFR-exposed … rats.

These tumors are of the same histotype of those observed in some epidemiological studies on cellphone users. These experimental studies provide sufficient evidence to call for the re-evaluation of the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s conclusions regarding the carcinogenic potential of RFR in humans.”

In my view, the primary hazard of cellphone radiation is not brain cancer per se, but rather, systemic cellular and mitochondrial damage. Such damage is not only harmful to your brain but has also been implicated for its contribution to a wide array of other health problems and chronic diseases. Holding a cellphone directly to your head and over your ear canal puts it in the perfect position to send large amounts of radiation into sensitive areas of your body.

Tips on Reducing Your EMF Exposure

There’s no doubt EMF exposure is a significant hazard you need to address to safeguard your health. Below are some tips to help you begin limiting the EMFs in your life:

Seek to radically decrease your cellphone use and avoid carrying it on your body; use it only on speaker phone and hold the phone at least 3 feet away from you

Shut off your cellphone, Wi-Fi and the electricity to your bedroom at night and consider using a battery-powered alarm clock

Swap CFL and LED bulbs with incandescent bulbs and remove all fluorescent lights from your house

Refuse smart meters as long as you possibly can or add a shield to an existing smart meter

Replace your microwave oven with a steam convection oven, which will heat your food as quickly and far more safely

Use wired internet connections for all appliances, baby monitors, computers, game systems, keyboards, mice, phones, printers, thermostats and TVs; set your wired computers to “airplane mode”

While more research is needed to conclusively link brain tumors to EMFs, including cellphone use, you won’t regret taking precautionary measures now to reduce your exposure. The benefits to your overall health will more than make it worth your time and energy.

Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) look like small flies or gnats. They can be a problem year-round, but are especially common in the summer and fall months. These pesky little flies seem to appear out of nowhere and multiply at a rapid pace. Fruit flies are attracted to the scent of ripened or fermenting produce. Adults reach about one-eighth inch in length and have red eyes.

They lay eggs near the surface of fermenting fruit or other organic materials. When the tiny larvae emerge, they feed on this fermenting mass. Given the opportunity, one fruit fly can lay 500 eggs and will complete a life cycle from egg to adult in about one week.1

The best way to avoid the issue is to eliminate the source. Any produce that is ripened should not be left on the counter, but either eaten, refrigerated or discarded. Any damaged portion of the fruit or vegetable should be cut away and discarded since it may contain eggs or larvae.

Once fruit flies have entered the house, all areas containing any rotting food must be located and eliminated. This includes where juice may have spilled under the refrigerator, or a potato is rotting at the back of a closet. After the source of attraction is eliminated, then it’s time to get rid of the fruit flies that are in the house.

Fruit flies are just one potential challenge that can pop up at home. After discussing how to get rid of fruit flies without damaging chemicals, we’ll dive into other healthy ways of managing home maintenance, cleaning and getting organized.

Fruit Fly, Don’t Bother Me

While some advocate using a pyrethrum-based insecticide2 there are definitely healthier and more natural ways of getting rid of the annoying flying insects. The most popular method has been an apple cider vinegar trap.3

The trap is made by filling a bowl or glass with apple cider vinegar and covering the opening with plastic wrap. Poke small holes in the top and leave the container out to attract the flies. Fruit flies are attracted to the scent of apple cider vinegar and will enter the glass or bowl through the small holes in the plastic wrap. Once they’re in, they can’t get out.

Tom’s Guide lists a few more ways of trapping fruit flies, including using dishwasher detergent with apple cider vinegar to decrease the surface tension so when they land on the apple cider vinegar they drown. Bottles of old beer and wine also attract fruit flies and because the bottleneck is narrow, they can’t escape.

The U.S. Sun calls Sara Snell (TikTok HappyHome_withSara79) a “savvy homeowner” who may have made fruit flies “a problem of the past.”4 They featured her solution to a home invasion of fruit flies, which includes some rotting fruit, a piece of paper, a jar and a few strips of tape.

Sara places some fruit at the bottom of the jar and forms the paper into a cone shape with a small hole at the bottom. The top of the cone becomes as wide as the mouth of the jar and the paper is then taped into place. The smell of the rotting fruit attracts the fruit flies, but the size of the hole is so small they cannot get out again.

According to The U.S. Sun, the post went viral and quickly garnered 1.4 million views and currently has over 200 comments. This is just one video on Sara’s channel5 where she features information about low-tox living, cleaning, organizing and cooking.

Healthy Cleaning Hacks

Household cleaners are as dangerous for your lungs as long-term smoking. Research6 from the University of Bergen and Norway demonstrated that cleaning once a week with cleaning products for 20 years is equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day for 10 to 20 years. The following are nontoxic, healthier ways of cleaning your home and protecting your health.

Fabric softener — Sara features a short video7 on her channel about how bad fabric softener is for the environment and people. In the video, the narrator mentions the many service calls that are directly related to people using fabric softeners. Instead, use a cup of white vinegar in your machine — it softens the clothes and helps keep the pipes clean.

Fireplace — Line the bottom of the fireplace with foil for easy clean up.8 The foil protects the base of your fireplace from damage from heat and abrasion, while extending its life. After the fire is finished and the ashes have cooled, simply fold it with the ashes inside and toss. No more sweeping ashes or getting them on the floor.

Oven cleaner, drain cleaner and carpet deodorizer — Baking soda was used to clean 99 years’ worth of coal tar from the Statue of Liberty in 1986,9 so there’s a good chance it can remove dirt and grime around your house too. Use one cup or more over the bottom of the oven to remove food and grease. Add water to make a thick paste and let it sit overnight before cleaning the next day.
Clean your drains by pouring one-half to 1 cup of baking soda down the drain and then slowly pouring one-half to 1 cup of vinegar after it. Let this sit for 15 minutes and flush it with 1 gallon of boiling water. Deodorize your carpet by sprinkling baking soda on it and waiting 15 minutes before vacuuming thoroughly.

Drain cleaner — If you have a particularly stubborn drain, consider using a wet-dry vacuum to suck out hair and debris first. You can increase suction by creating a seal between the nozzle and the drain with a wet rag.

No iron, wrinkles are gone — Ironing can be time-consuming, especially when you have several items that need the wrinkles out. Instead, try throwing a couple of ice cubes or a wet washcloth in the dryer with lightweight items that need to be ironed.10 Set the dryer for 10 minutes and watch how the steam removes the wrinkles.

Slow shower head — Mineral build-up in the shower head can make for an unsatisfying shower. Remove the shower head and soak it in white vinegar and baking soda for 20 to 60 minutes depending on how much buildup you have.11 Rinse it in hot water and replace it.

Pet hair on the furniture — Yes, sticky tape and pet brushes work to remove pet hair, but if you don’t want to buy one more thing for the house, try textured rubber gloves you use to wash the dishes.12 These will pick up pet hair off your furniture in nothing flat.

Household Maintenance Made Simple

Looking for the light switch in the dark — A dab of glow-in-the-dark paint on the tip of the light switch means you won’t be groping in the dark anymore. This is a particularly important safety tip for older adults living alone.

Maintain a clean toilet — Once the toilet has been cleaned, drop in a denture tablet once weekly to prevent scaly rings around the bowl.13

Shower and bathroom tile — Never clean your tile with acidic cleaners, like white vinegar. This eats away at the grout sealer and destroys the grout, opening small holes so the backboard gets wet and grows mold. Instead, use a squeegee each time you shower and clean the tile with baking soda and water. In high-traffic areas, grout should be resealed yearly.

Stinky garbage disposal — Bits of rotted food in the disposal can make the whole kitchen stink.14 Don’t put your hand in the disposal! Instead, drop in some orange or lemon peel with the water running at half-speed. Run the disposal for about five seconds and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. The citrus will help soften the bits of food.
Next, run a few ice cubes through the disposal with the water running. Next, cover the disposal and fill the sink half-full; then pull the plug and run the disposal.

Slow flushing toilet — Mineral deposits and bacteria may have gotten into the rinse holes under the rim and clogged the water flow.15 You can see the condition of the jets using a small mirror. If there are light-colored scales, you have mineral deposits; dark orange or black spots are bacteria buildup. The jet holes can be cleaned with a piece of wire or coat hanger and a hand mirror. Be sure to wear glasses and gloves to protect against any backsplash.

Organic fertilizer — Pasta, rice and potato water contain starch that helps feed your garden plants. Dilute it until it’s not too cloudy.16 Used coffee grounds can boost nutrients and build healthy soil. Either add to your compost pile, sprinkle it around your plants or dilute it in water for liquid fertilizer. Coffee grounds can also help deter some unwanted pests.

Vinegar in the garden — Vinegar is an inexpensive way to control weeds when it’s mixed with dish detergent and salt.17 However, this mixture will kill whatever it touches. Spray vinegar around door and window frames to deter ants.18

No-ladder gutter cleaner — You can make a gutter cleaning wand in 20 minutes19 using half-inch PVC pipe, two elbows, a cap and a garden hose coupling. Place the garden hose coupling on one end of a long piece of PVC pipe that’s long enough to reach the gutter while you’re on the ground. Place one 90-degree elbow on the other end and another 6-inch PVC pipe to make an “L” shape.
At the end place another 90-degree elbow and a 6-inch PVC pipe. You now have a “J” shape with a long handle. At the end of the 6-inch pipe place the cap with 3-1/8-inch holes drilled. Affix each joint with glue and let it dry. Hook this up to your garden hose and spray out your gutters.

Upgrade your pots — When you overwater, it can lead to root rot, but holes at the bottom of the pot may allow the soil to dry quickly. Try adding a couple of old sponges to the bottom of the pot to retain moisture, create airspace and act as a water reserve.

Get Organized

Small items — Ice cube trays make perfect storage containers for small items like jewelry, office supplies and tools. You can even find colored silicone trays to match your decor.

Wrapping paper sleeve — Don’t tape down the loose edges of wrapping paper.20 Instead, cut an empty toilet paper roll lengthwise and slip it over your wrapping paper. Secure it with tape or a rubber band. The next time you need wrapping paper, you won’t waste any paper.

Metal file holders — These are good for more than files or magazines.21 Laid on the long vertical side, they make a perfect holder for water bottles. Placed upright, file holders are a perfect way to store your flip flops, sandals and flats. You can also use them to organize your cleaning supplies under your sinks.

Hanging shoe organizer — Looking for a place to store your extra cords and chargers?22 Label each pocket of a hanging shoe organizer with the type of cord or the piece of equipment to which it belongs.

Don’t shrink clothes in the dryer — If you have clothes in the wash that shouldn’t go into the dryer, try writing on the washing machine lid with a dry-erase marker, noting the clothes that should not go into the dryer.

Storing long-handled garden equipment — It can be difficult to corral all your shovels, rakes and brooms so they don’t fall over. Securely anchor a pallet against the wall and slip your long-handled garden supplies in from the top. They will stay organized and upright for easy access.23

Color code your keys — If you have multiple keys for your home or padlocks, it’s easy to get them confused. Use a dab of matching nail polish on the key and padlock that go together or color code the different keys for your home.

Keeping your car clean — Getting into a clean car can feel good, but it’s not long before your car can be full of empty wrappers, cups and dead leaves. Quickly make a sturdy and stable in-car garbage can using a plastic cereal container with a lid. Glue a hook and loop fastener (brand name Velcro) to the bottom of the container so it will hook to the car carpet and line it with a small kitchen garbage bag.24

Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published November 14, 2018.

Cellphones were classified as a Group 2B “possible carcinogen”1 in 2011 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the World Health Organization and the global gold standard for the classification of toxins.

This classification was based on evidence showing that nonionizing electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation from cellphones can trigger abnormal cell growth and tumors.2,3
In my view, this is a mistake and, just like smoking, I am confident it will be recategorized in the future to a 1A carcinogen.

Earlier this year, preliminary findings of two government-funded animal studies4 were published that further support the notion that cellphone radiation has carcinogenic potential.

The finalized report5 of these two studies — conducted by the National Toxicology Program (NTP), an interagency research program under the auspices of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences — was released November 1, 2018. While the preliminary report released in February 2018 significantly downplayed the findings, subsequent peer review upgraded the findings of risk.

Cellphone Radiation Linked to Brain and Heart Tumors

The NTP rates cancer risk based on four categories of evidence: “clear evidence” (highest); “some evidence;” “equivocal evidence;” and “no evidence” (lowest). According to the NTP’s final report, the two studies, done on mice and rats of both sexes, found:6

• Clear evidence for heart tumors (malignant schwannomas) in male rats. These types of tumors started developing around week 70, and are very similar to acoustic neuromas found in humans, a benign type of tumor that previous studies have linked to cellphone use

• Some evidence of brain tumors (malignant gliomas) in male rats. Glial cell hyperplasias — indicative of precancerous lesions — began developing around week 58.

(Incidentally, incidence of glioblastoma multiforme (the deadliest type of brain tumor) more than doubled in the U.K. between 1995 and 2015.7,8 According to the authors of the analysis, the dramatic increase is likely due to “widespread environmental or lifestyle factors,” which would include cellphone usage)

• Some evidence of adrenal gland tumors in male rats, both benign and malignant tumors and/or complex combined pheochromocytoma

• Equivocal or unclear evidence of tumors in female rats and mice of both genders

The studies also found evidence of:

• Low body weight in female rats and newborns exposed to high levels of radiation during pregnancy and lactation

• DNA damage and damage to heart tissue in exposed male and female rats, but not mice

• Prostate, liver and pancreatic tumors in both rats and mice

Are Humans at Risk?

According to The New York Times:9

“‘We believe that the link between radio-frequency radiation and tumors in male rats is real,’ John Bucher, a senior scientist at the National Toxicology Program, said in a statement.

But he cautioned that the exposure levels and durations were far greater than what people typically encounter, and thus cannot ‘be compared directly to the exposure that humans experience’ …

The lowest level of radiation in the federal study was equal to the maximum exposure that federal regulations allow for cellphone users … The highest level was four times higher than the permitted maximum.”

While the NTP insists the exposure — nine hours a day for two years, which is the lifetime of a rodent — is far more extensive than that of heavy cellphone users, I would strongly disagree, seeing how many, especially the younger generation, have their cellphones turned on and near their body 24/7.

Many are literally sleeping with their phone beneath their pillow. What’s more, cellphones are not the sole source of radiofrequency (RF) EMFs. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled tablets, computers, smart TVs, wireless baby monitors, cordless phones, smart appliances, smart meters and nearby cellular phone basestations are sources of similarly harmful radiation, and most of us are exposed 24/7.

So, my guess is that the duration of RF-EMF exposure is actually far greater than the one tested in the study.

Did NTP Minimize Press Coverage of Their Report?

According to Microwave News, the NTP may have purposely minimized press coverage of its final report, which upgraded the risks. “Reporters were given very little notice to join the NTP teleconference on the release of the report. Nor was there much time to prepare a story for publication,” Microwave News reports,10 adding they were not informed of the teleconference via email until 10:45 a.m. October 31.

The conference was held at 2 p.m. that same day. While NTP refused to state how many reporters were on the call, the transcript reveals only eight reporters asked questions, giving the impression that many likely missed the advisory. Editors also had precious little time to assign a reporter to cover the story. Microwave News adds:

“The news that the NTP now believes the cancer link is “real” was under embargo until the next day, November 1. That gave the news media less than 24 hours to prepare their stories, an unusually short time for a technically complex subject. The main reason for embargoes is to give reporters time to do their homework and prepare a clear and accurate write-up …

Even the fact that the report was coming out in less than a day was embargoed by the NTP. It apparently wanted no advance notice of any kind … There was one exception among major media outlets: The New York Times … As it happened, [William] Broad, a long-time member of the science desk, was already working on the story. He was making background calls a week earlier …

There’s a long history of New York Times science reporters — Broad included — downplaying, if not outright dismissing, news of electromagnetic health effects. Anyone wanting to conceal the fact that NTP had found ‘clear evidence’ that cellphone radiation could lead to cancer would likely leak the story to the Times. And the Times delivered.

Here’s the headline from its web site: ‘Study of Cellphone Risks Finds ‘Some Evidence’ of Link to Cancer, at Least in Male Rats’ … [T]here is the obvious error in the headline: NTP found more than ‘some evidence’ — it saw ‘clear evidence’ … The subhead … ‘Many Caveats Apply, and the Results Involve Radio Frequencies Long Out of Routine Use,’ offers additional — unjustifiable — reasons to discount the NTP finding.”

The New York Times also claims the results are out of date due to the fact they used 2G, which is no longer in widespread use, and that 3G, 4G and 5G are “far less successful at penetrating the bodies of humans” due to the higher frequencies. However, there’s no evidence to suggest the newer technologies are safer. Quite the contrary. As noted by Microwave News:

“Two different German labs have exposed mice to 3G. Cancer promotion was found in each case. The lead author of the second study, Alex Lerchl, concluded that 3G signals ‘obviously enhance the growth of tumors’ … The fact is that we don’t know whether the higher G’s are any safer than 2G. Believing so is simply wishful thinking.”

The NTP also downplayed the risks by stressing that “high exposure” was associated with cancer in male rats, when in fact the results in some instances revealed a greater effect at a lower dose.

Such nonlinear dose response was also found in Lerchl’s study, in which a dose 50 times lower than the highest dose resulted in a greater response. “At this point, one can only guess where the threshold for RF effects may be. It could be lower than now commonly believed, possibly much lower,” Microwave News notes.

Why Rodent Schwannomas Could Spell Trouble for Human Health

As explained by Louis Slesin, Ph.D., editor and publisher of Microwave News, the increased incidence of schwannomas in rodents exposed to radiofrequencies is of great concern for public health:11

“Schwann cells play a key role in the functioning of the peripheral nervous system. They make the myelin sheath, which insulates nerve fibers and helps speed the conduction of electrical impulses. There are Schwann cells just about everywhere there are peripheral nerve fibers. They are present in most organs of the body — whether mice, rats or humans.

Schwann cell tumors are called schwannomas. The NTP found schwannomas in many other organs, in addition to the heart, of rats chronically exposed to cellphone radiation. These included a variety of glands (pituitary, salivary and thymus), the trigeminal nerve and the eye … The NTP also saw schwannomas in the uterus, ovary and vagina of female rats.

The brain has no Schwann cells — the brain is part of the central nervous system. There, glial cells play a similar function. In fact, Schwann cells are a type of glial cell … Tumors of the glial cells are called gliomas. The NTP also saw an increase in glioma among the male rats exposed to GSM and CDMA radiation …

While schwannomas and gliomas are commonly noncancerous tumors, they can develop into malignant schwannomas or glioblastomas … The implication is that instead of searching for consistency in radio frequencies’ ability to cause cancer in specific organs, the emphasis should now be on specific cell types — beginning with Schwann cells in the periphery and glial cells in the brain.”

Mitochondrial Dysfunction Is a Hazard of Cellphone Radiation

In my view, the primary hazard of cellphone radiation is not brain cancer per se but rather systemic cellular and mitochondrial damage,12,13,14,15 which can contribute to any number of health problems and chronic diseases. The process begins when low-frequency microwave radiation activates voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs)16 — channels in the outer membrane of your cells.

Once activated, the VGCCs open up, allowing an abnormal influx of calcium ions into the cell. This increased intracellular calcium and the accompanying increase in calcium signaling appears to be responsible for a majority of the damage that occurs. This is reviewed in more detail in my interview with professor Martin Pall below.

For example, excess calcium activates nitric oxide, and while nitric oxide has many health benefits, massively excessive nitric oxide reacts with superoxide to produce peroxynitrites — extremely potent oxidant stressors.17 Peroxynitrites in turn:

Can cause single-strand DNA breaks18
Modify tyrosine molecules in proteins to create nitrotyrosine and nitration of structural protein.19 Changes from nitration are visible in human biopsy of atherosclerosis, myocardial ischemia, inflammatory bowel disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and septic lung disease20

This pathway of oxidative destruction — triggered by low-frequency radiation emitted from mobile devices — may partially explain the unprecedented growth rate of chronic disease since 1990,21 and is a far greater concern than brain tumors.

Download Interview Transcript

EMF Exposure Can Cause Heart Issues, Neurological Disorders

While an estimated 94,390 U.S. men, women and children will be diagnosed with a brain tumor this year,22 another 787,000 people die from heart disease.23 So, while the relative rarity of brain cancer may lead you to believe that cellphone use is safe, that’s only because you’re looking at a less prevalent outcome.

Cellphone radiation has also been shown to have a significant impact on neurological and mental health,24 contributing to and/or worsening anxiety, depression and dementia, for example, and all of these conditions are rampant and growing more prevalent. (This also makes sense as brain dysfunction will occur much faster than a tumor, which can take decades.)

Research also suggests excessive EMF exposure is contributing to reproductive problems. For example, researchers have found prenatal exposure to power-frequency fields can nearly triple a pregnant woman’s risk of miscarriage.25

According to lead author and senior research scientist at Kaiser Permanente’s research division, Dr. De-Kun Li,26 “This study provides fresh evidence, directly from a human population, that magnetic field exposure in daily life could have adverse health impacts,” adding his findings “should bring attention to this potentially important environmental hazard to pregnant women.”

According to Li, there are at least six other studies, in addition to two of his own, showing this link.27,28,29,30,31 EMF exposure may also play a significant role in testicular cancer and male infertility.

Studies have linked low-level electromagnetic radiation exposure from cellphones to an 8% reduction in sperm motility and a 9% reduction in sperm viability.32,33 Wi-Fi equipped laptop computers have also been linked to decreased sperm motility and an increase in sperm DNA fragmentation after just four hours of use.34

US FDA Stands Firm on Cellphone Safety

NTP’s final report has now been given to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the two agencies involved in the regulation of cellphones and assessment of health risks. Unfortunately, the FDA appears unwilling to change its stance on cellphone safety.

This is no surprise as the telecommunication industry has far more political lobbying influence than Big Pharma and Big Food combined. To expect anything other than full support for the telecommunication industry would be irrational.

In a November 1 press statement, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, reaffirmed the agency’s position, saying:35

“The Food and Drug Administration is charged with ensuring cellphones — and any radiation-emitting electronic product — are safe for the public to use. Our scientific expertise and input, along with other health agencies, are used by the [FCC] to set the standards for exposure limits of radiation from cellphones, called radiofrequency energy …

We reviewed the recently finalized research conducted by our colleagues at the [NTP] … [W]e disagree, however, with the conclusions of their final report regarding ‘clear evidence’ of carcinogenic activity in rodents exposed to radiofrequency energy.

In the NTP study, researchers looked at the effects of exposing rodents to extremely high levels of radiofrequency throughout the entire body. This is commonly done in these types of hazard identification studies and means that the study tested levels of radiofrequency energy exposures considerably above the current whole body safety limits for cell phones … [T]hese findings should not be applied to human cell phone usage.

NTP hosted a three-day peer review of this study in March, as part of their normal process for issuing scientific reports … which included an assessment of the study methods and data by a panel of 15 peer reviewers to determine the basis of evidence for the final report.

Based on their assessment, the panel voted to upgrade the conclusions from some evidence to clear evidence for malignant heart schwannomas in male rats, and from equivocal (ambiguous) to some evidence for malignant gliomas of the brain and benign tumors of the adrenal gland in male rats. It’s important to note that the vote does not mean new data or findings were reported in the final assessment …

Based on our ongoing evaluation of this issue, the totality of the available scientific evidence continues to not support adverse health effects in humans caused by exposures at or under the current radiofrequency energy exposure limits. We believe the existing safety limits for cellphones remain acceptable for protecting the public health.”

NTP Findings Have Already Been Reproduced

While the FDA insists it “must thoroughly evaluate and take into consideration the totality of the data, and do so within the context of the complete body of evidence rather than drawing conclusions from the results of a single study,” it fails to address the elephant in the room, which is the corroborating evidence published by the Ramazzini Institute just one month after the NTP released its preliminary report in February 2018.

The Ramazzini study36 reproduces and clearly supports the NTP’s findings, showing a clear link between cellphone radiation and Schwann cell tumors (schwannomas)37,38,39 — but at a much lower power level than that used by NTP.

While NTP used radiofrequency (RF) levels comparable to what’s emitted by 2G and 3G cellphones (near-field exposure), Ramazzini simulated exposure to cellphone towers (far-field exposure). Ramazzini’s rats were exposed to 1.8 GHz GSM radiation at electric field strengths of 5, 25 and 50 volts per meter40 for 19 hours a day, starting at birth until the rats died either from age or illness.

To facilitate comparison, the researchers converted their measurements to watts per kilogram of body weight (W/kg), which is what the NTP used. Overall, the radiation dose administered in the Ramazzini study was up to 1,000 times lower than the NTP’s — and below the U.S. limits set by the FCC — yet the results are strikingly similar.

As in the NTP studies, exposed male rats developed statistically higher rates of heart schwannomas than unexposed rats. They also found some evidence, although weaker, that RF exposure increased rates of glial tumors in the brains of female rats.

The fact that the Ramazzini study used a radiation dose well below FCC limits yet still reproduced the NTP’s findings of cancer really weakens the FDA’s claims of safety.

Tech Founders Don’t Want Their Own Kids Using Technology

The good news is that after more than a decade of mounting warnings, many are finally starting to take cellphone exposure seriously — at least as it pertains to their kids. Adults still struggle to curb their own cellphone and computer use, but at least minimizing exposure to children is a step in the right direction, and in my view a really crucial one.

The New York Times recently reported on the trend among Silicon Valley parents to forbid the use of tablets, computers, cellphones and TVs by their young children, and nannies are increasingly having to sign contracts to that end. New York Times contributor Nellie Bowles writes:41

“Even a little screen time can be so deeply addictive, some parents believe, that it’s best if a child neither touches nor sees any of these glittering rectangles. These particular parents, after all, deeply understand their allure … Enter the Silicon Valley nanny, who each day returns to the time before screens.

‘Usually a day consists of me being allowed to take them to the park, introduce them to card games,’ said Jordin Altmann, 24, a nanny in San Jose, of her charges. ‘Board games are huge. Almost every parent I work for is very strong about the child not having any technical experience at all … In the last two years, it’s become a very big deal’ …

The fear of screens has reached the level of panic in Silicon Valley. Vigilantes now post photos to parenting message boards of possible nannies using cellphones near children. Which is to say, the very people building these glowing hyper-stimulating portals have become increasingly terrified of them …

‘The people who are closest to tech are the most strict about it at home,’ said Lynn Perkins, the CEO of UrbanSitter, which she says has 500,000 sitters in the network throughout the United States. ‘We see that trend with our nannies very clearly.'”

Take Safety Precautions to Lower Your Family’s EMF Exposure

> > > > > Click Here

This article was previously published December 13, 2020, and has been updated with new information.

In this interview, we review some of the remarkable benefits of low-dose naltrexone (LDN), including the surprising benefits of microdosed LDN. The two experts featured in this interview are Linda Elsegood, a Briton who founded the LDN Research Trust1 in 2004, and Dr. Sarah Zielsdorf, who has a medical practice in the Chicago area in the U.S.

Elsegood, who was diagnosed with MS in 2000, has been involved in LDN research and public education for 16 years. LDN is a powerful, safe and effective treatment for many autoimmune diseases, yet few, including most health care professionals, know anything about it. Remarkably, LDN may even be helpful in the fight against COVID-19, as it acts to normalize your immune system.2

Elsegood recently published a book on LDN called “The LDN Book, Volume Two: The Latest Research on How Low Dose Naltrexone Could Revolutionize Treatment for PTSD, Pain, IBD, Lyme Disease, Dermatologic Conditions and More.” Each chapter is written by a medical professional with clinical knowledge of the drug’s use. Zielsdorf is one of the contributing authors. Elsegood also hosts a radio show called The LDN Radio Show.3

In the interview, she tells the story of how she discovered LDN and the dramatic benefits she has experienced from it. In summary, beneficial effects became apparent after about three weeks on the drug and, after 18 months, her condition had significantly improved.
We use LDN for nearly all autoimmune conditions, as an adjunct for cancer, and as a treatment for chronic pain. We also use ultra-low dose naltrexone to help potentiate pain relief for people who are on opioids and help them to be less dependent on opioid medications. ~ Dr. Sarah Zielsdorf
Zielsdorf — who has an undergraduate degree in microbiology and a master’s degree in public health microbiology and emerging infectious disease — also has a personal health story that brought her to LDN. She was diagnosed with hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) in 2003. Ten years later, she was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid.

“I learned about functional nutrition and triggers for autoimmunity, and started to do all of the things I needed to do to optimize my biomarkers, remove systemic inflammation, and was able to return to my [medical] training. I had been told that I could never have children and surprisingly became pregnant and had a daughter in my second year of training.

After having her, I [had a flareup]. It was then, in 2014, that a doctor put me on LDN. It changed my life … Once I graduated from residency, I started treating patients with a variety of issues with LDN. I’ve treated thousands of patients with LDN.”

Naltrexone — A Rare Gem of a Drug
Naltrexone in low or even microdoses is one of the few pharmaceutical drugs I wholeheartedly endorse. Not only is it remarkably safe, it’s also a profound adjunctive therapy for a wide variety of conditions. As explained by Zielsdorf:

“Naltrexone is one of the few things that actually enables our own bodies, our own immune systems, to be able to function better and really restore function.

After World War II, they were looking for more opioid medications. By accident, scientists figured out how to block the opioid receptor. They did the exact opposite of what they were supposed to do, which is to find morphine analogs for soldiers.

[In] the 1960s, they were able to synthesize naloxone and naltrexone … FDA approved it in the 1980s for opioid addiction at a dose of 50 to 100 milligrams, and then in the 1990s for alcohol dependence.

But it was Dr. Bernard Bihari and Dr. Ian Zagon in the 1970s that had this amazing idea that if you took a very small dose of naltrexone, compounding it in a clean way [down] to a few milligrams, if would briefly block the opioid receptor in the central nervous system — very briefly kissing that receptor and then unblocking it.

This upregulates the body’s immune system by increasing the opioid receptor’s own production of beta-endorphin and met-enkephalins. Beta-endorphins help with mood, pain, sleep and the immune system, and met-enkephalins are also known as opioid-derived growth factor, and there are receptors for these on many different tissues, including the thyroid.

We now use it for nearly all autoimmune conditions, as an adjunct for cancer, and as a treatment for chronic pain. We also use ultra-low dose [microdosed] naltrexone, which I wrote about, to help potentiate pain relief for people who are on opioids and help them to be less dependent on opioid medications.

I’ve actually been able to get patients off of fentanyl patches and get them off chronic oxycodone or Norco use where their pain specialists said, ‘You will never ever get off these pain medications.’ It’s been an incredible journey and I’m a huge advocate of it.”

Naloxone Versus Naltrexone
Naloxone (Narcan) is what is carried on ambulances and used in ERs and trauma bays as an antidote to an opioid overdose. When given at a high enough dose, naloxone or Narcan acts as a complete opioid blocker, which is why it’s used acutely when someone has taken too high a dose of an opioid.

Naltrexone blocks the opioid receptor only briefly, and by a different mechanism. When used in low dosages as LDN, the chief benefit is actually in the rebound effect, after the opioid receptor has been briefly blocked.
Foundational Treatment Strategies for Autoimmune Diseases

With regard to autoimmune diseases, it’s important to realize there are other, equally important, foundational strategies that will benefit most patients with a dysfunctional immune system. These include optimizing your vitamin D level and omega-3 index, for example.

It’s also important to eliminate potential triggers. The reason why people have an autoimmune disease is because they’re exposed to something in the environment which serves as an antigen that their body recognizes as a foreign invader, and as a result attacks it. If you can avoid those antigens, you can often suppress and frequently eliminate symptoms without anything, because you’ve removed the stimulus.

One common autoimmune trigger is lectins, found in many otherwise healthy vegetables. Zielsdorf will typically place her autoimmune patients on a Mediterranean-style paleo diet or an oligoantigenic elimination diet to optimize detoxification, liver and kidney function, and the microbiome.

Others may be placed on a nose-to-tail carnivore diet. As noted by Zielsdorf, it’s “a way of offloading and simplifying what antigens the body is seeing.” Other helpful diets in this respect include the autoimmune paleo diet and the low-histamine or low FODMAP diet.4

“I am a microbiologist and I do a ton of advanced testing, and then we start looking deeper at triggers,” she says. “I used to put everybody on LDN first, but now we know that certain patients will flair because their immune system is so suppressed due to co-infections.

We see it most with Lyme disease and with yeast overgrowth. If I suspect or I have tests confirming that a patient has one of these things, or their immune system is super suppressed … I’ll work on their microbiome before I start LDN …

I test everybody’s gut, and what I see universally is you get this hyper intense intestinal permeability in these cases … What’s so interesting is a leaky gut equals a leaky brain, and we overwhelm our immune system. I do see this. The first step is getting them off the most common triggers, and sometimes I’ll be testing for lectins too.

Universally, for all of my autoimmune patients, is that they can’t eat wheat. There are over 150 antigens in wheat that you can be sensitive to … It is also desiccated with Roundup, glyphosate, right before processing, so we get that extra toxicity. I test my patients for their environmental toxic load, and I see a lot of patients with glyphosate toxicity.

The wheat that we used to eat 10,000 years ago at the beginning of agriculture is not the wheat [we now eat]. It’s not even the same chromosome number as what our bodies ate in small amounts as hunter gatherers.”

Why You Should Avoid Monogastric Animal Meats
As mentioned by Zielsdorf, a nose-to-tail carnivore diet can be an excellent intervention in some cases, especially for those whose immune function is severely suppressed. However, you should avoid monogastric animals, meaning animals that have only one stomach.

Whereas cows have two, chickens and pigs have only one. The reason for this recommendation is because conventionally factory farmed chicken and pork will be very high in the omega-6 fat linoleic acid. This is because they are typically fed corn, which is high in this type of fat, and a high linoleic acid diet can metabolically devastate your health. So, a diet high in chicken and bacon is not doing your body any favors.

Animals with two stomachs are able to fully process omega-6-rich grains and other foods, as they are equipped with gut bacteria that can break it down into a healthier fat. Aside from bovines, this includes buffalo and lamb.
What Can LDN Treat?
Aside from autoimmune diseases, LDN is also used in the treatment of the following conditions. Bear in mind this is not a complete list. Some of these conditions have been featured in various documentaries5 produced by the LDN Research Trust. You can find links to those documentaries in the references.

Cancer6 — Research by professor Angus George Dalgleish and his colleague Dr. Wei Lou showed LDN could bring cancer cells into remission using pulse dosing.7 LDN also works synergistically with cannabidiol (CBD), and works well for cancer, autoimmunity and pain conditions

Opioid addiction, dependence and recovery8 — Using microdoses of 0.001 milligrams (1 microgram), long-term users of opioids who have developed a tolerance to the drug are able to, over time, lower their opioid dose and avoid withdrawal symptoms as the LDN makes the opioid more effective.

For opioid dependence, the typical starting dose is 1 microgram twice a day, which will allow them to lower their opioid dose by about 60%. When the opioid is taken for pain, the LDN must be taken four to six hours apart from the opioid in order to not displace the opioid’s effects

Lyme disease and its coinfections9

Fibromyalgia

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)

Restless leg syndrome

Depression

Dermatological issues

Infertility

General Dosing Guidelines

Dosing will, of course, depend on the condition being treated, but there are some general guidelines that can be helpful. Downloadable guides can be found on the LDN Research Trust site, and are available in several languages. Keep in mind that LDN is a drug, not something you can buy over the counter, and you need to work with a knowledgeable physician who can prescribe it and monitor your health.

“With a general pain condition, we may use 1.5 to 3 or 4.5 mg. With Hashimoto’s, we start lower and slower because patients with Hashimoto’s may actually have to reduce their thyroid hormone medication if they’re on it because they get reduction of that inflammation and they can produce more of their own thyroid hormone. So, we usually start at 0.5 mg.

For patients with mood conditions … 0.5 to 1 mg. There was an important paper that came out showing LDN is an important agent for depression, for patients who fail those meds or as an adjunct to antidepressants. PTSD patients may have to go higher. There are all sorts of strategies and you just need to find a doctor who’s well-versed in that condition.”

More Information
The LDN Research Trust’s website is an excellent resource for all things LDN. It has a variety of resources to guide patients, prescribing doctors and pharmacists alike. It also has a page where you can find LDN-literate prescribers around the world.

Of course, to learn more, be sure to pick up a copy of “The LDN Book, Volume Two: The Latest Research on How Low Dose Naltrexone Could Revolutionize Treatment for PTSD, Pain, IBD, Lyme Disease, Dermatologic Conditions and More,” and/or “The LDN Book: How a Little-Known Generic Drug ― Low Dose Naltrexone ― Could Revolutionize Treatment for Autoimmune Diseases, Cancer, Autism, Depression and More,” which is the first of the two volumes.

Both books are also available on the LDN Research Trust website, along with videos featuring all of the doctors that contributed chapters to the books. You can also check out The LDN Radio Show.10 Last but not least, LDN Research Trust is a nonprofit that depends on public donations, so if you would like to contribute to the Trust’s LDN research and education efforts, please make a donation.

Today, I have the most important announcement in the quarter of a century history of this newsletter. My goal and passion has always been about supporting you and helping you take control of your health. I am beyond thrilled that there are tens of millions of people who have benefited from what I have shared over the years.
I am filled with joy and gratitude every time I travel and lecture as invariably many people tell me how I’ve changed their lives by providing vital information they couldn’t find anywhere else and even better that was completely free.
These were the times when many of the views I presented were criticized, but that’s to be expected. That was one of the great freedoms we enjoyed. We could have different views and we could speak openly about these views without fear of retribution.
But we are now in a different time. A much darker time. The silence of free speech is now deafening.
Not only is blatant censorship tolerated, it is being encouraged by the very people who were to be entrusted with protecting our freedom of speech.
We are not living from the lessons we’ve learned before. Never in my life, would I believe the sitting President of the United States call out 12 Americans in a McCarthyism like attack in the United States. As you are aware, I was placed at the top of this list.
The last week has brought a tremendous amount of reflections to me, and a lot of unacceptable threats to a company full of amazing people that have helped me support you in this journey.
By now I am sure you know that there was a recent NY Times article attacking me and it was one of the most widely distributed stories in the world. The article was loaded with false statements made about me and my organization.
The report would be laughed at if it were to be submitted for peer review, the groups that created it are funded by dark money and operated by an illegal foreign agent. The press never questioned it, but ran with their orders from above.
I can deal with the CNN crews that chase me by car while I bicycle from my home. I feel sorry for the people in media that have to follow the orders they are given.
It is easy to dismiss the media pawns, but the most powerful individual on the planet has targeted me as his primary obstacle that must be removed. Every three letter agency is at his disposal, and the executive powers have grown beyond what an individual American’s rights can protect against.
A dissenter of medical mandates is now a target and obstacle to be removed. I know – that’s 25 years’ worth of blood, sweat and tears coming down.
I can hardly believe these words are coming out of my mouth. It’s a testament of just how radical things have degenerated in the recent past. However, I will continue to publish new articles, BUT going forward, each article I publish will be available for only 48 hours and will then be removed from the website.
We are at the crossroad where change is unavoidable. We all must make choices that determine our future. To many, this looks like a war … but what we need to find is peace. I am going to find peace through this sacrifice.
Just to be clear, ALL my content will be removed. This includes articles on:

Great Reset
General nutrition
The coronavirus
My interviews with experts

These will be removed to appease the individuals in power who have an arsenal of overwhelming tools at their disposal, and are actively engaged in using them. COVID-19 has activated and authorized emergency powers that have weakened our constitutional rights. Sadly, cyberwarfare and authoritarian forces are beyond our abilities to withstand, and this is now our only way forward.
Over 15,000 articles full of vital information that has helped tens of millions across the world take control of their health, will be removed. There was a time when people could debate and respect each other freely. That time is now gone. I believe laws are best applied like medicine – locally and specifically.
Local food, local democracy – our local community strength is the best way to achieve peace moving forward, and to stop authoritarian technocracy. I also believe we are at our strongest when we can care and maintain respect for each other. This is how we can make our most important decisions in life.
Again I will still be writing my daily articles that I started 25 years ago BUT they will only be available for 48 hours before they are removed. In this way I hope to continue my mission to help you take control of your health – but it’s up to you to download, share and repost this content. I will not be enforcing my copyright on this information so that you may freely share it.
Please also encourage others to read “The Truth About COVID-19,” where you will find much of the information from the past two years that people need to read to wake up and open their eyes. I am donating all earnings to the National Vaccine Information Center.
I want to thank all of you that have supported me over the years. I hope you can understand why I have decided to make this dramatic decision and hope the remaining ephemeral articles will be useful for those who wish to read them.
We will continue through these challenging times together, and remember this:
Your body was designed to stay healthy.

You hold in your hands the power to take control of your health.
Never let anyone take your right to health away from you.
Science can flourish only in an atmosphere of free speech. ~ Albert Einstein

Medical experts and health leaders share insights on important issues affecting your health and well-being.

Medical experts and health leaders share insights on important issues affecting your health and well-being.