Newsletter #059: Superfoods and Optimizing Sleep 🍔
Hello Friends!
Welcome to the newest edition of the humanOS newsletter! Here is where we share our work, plus the various studies and media that captured our attention this week. 🤓
New humanOS Feature
This Week’s Research Highlights
🥗 Inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption may account for millions of deaths from heart disease and strokes each year worldwide.
Researchers estimated average intakes of fruits and vegetables from diet surveys and food availability data representing 113 countries, then combined this information with data on causes of death in each country and data on the cardiovascular risk associated with inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption. The scientists estimated that suboptimal fruit consumption results in nearly 1.3 million deaths from stroke and more than 520,000 deaths from coronary heart disease worldwide each year. Suboptimal vegetable consumption was estimated to result in about 200,000 deaths from stroke and more than 800,000 deaths from coronary heart disease.
😴 Insufficient sleep is common among college students and may have profound psychological costs.
Researchers analyzed data from 110,496 individuals on subjective sleep and mental health symptoms. In adjusted models, they found a dose-response relationship between inadequate sleep and symptoms of impaired mental health. Specifically, with every additional night of poor sleep, there was 21% increased risk for depressed mood, 24% for hopelessness, 25% for anxiety, 25% for desire to self-harm, and 28% for suicide ideation.
📚 Starting school later increases sleep duration and improves academic engagement.
In Fall 2017, the Cherry Creek School District in Colorado delayed school start times for middle school by 50 minutes (changing from 8:00 am to 8:50 am) and for high school by 70 minutes (changing from 7:10 am to 8:20 am). One year after the shift in time, self-reported sleep on school nights was 31 minutes longer for middle school students and 48 minutes longer for high school students. Additionally, the percentage of students who were too sleepy to do homework declined.
⚗️ A compound derived from biomolecules found in pomegranates may be a veritable fountain of youth.
Researchers gave 60 elderly adults a daily dose of synthesized urolithin A for 28 days. When they examined participants’ blood and muscle tissue, they found that the compound stimulated mitochondrial biogenesis - much like exercise is known to do. This restoration of dysfunctional mitochondria may help prevent the loss of muscle mass and other consequences of the aging process. Urolithin A has also shown promising effects in animal models. For instance, it was found to increase the lifespan of nematodes by as much as 45%, and older mice that were given the compound exhibited a 40% improvement in endurance while running.
Podcasts We Loved This Week
- Jed Fahey: Sulforaphane (the badass cancer-fighting compound in broccoli). Via Smart Drug Smarts.
- Jed Fahey: Moringa (antioxidant-rich and very cool looking tropical plant). Via Smart Drug Smarts.
Products We Are Enjoying
🍵 MRM Superfoods Matcha.
Ginny says: Matcha is a powder made from finely grinding green tea leaves. Because you are consuming the whole plant, as opposed to an infusion like when you use tea bags, you wind up getting way more of the bioactive catechins, like EGCG. It’s the only way that I consume green tea, mainly because it is so easy to add to smoothies or just mix it up in a bottle (and it’s a beautiful bright green!). So why this brand Well, Consumer Lab tested a bunch of different green tea products and identified this as one that was particularly rich in beneficial compounds.