SUBJ: Osteoarthritis can be prevented
SUBtitle: Strengthen your brain –exercise 150 min/wee
Catholics don’t recognize the Reformation; Protestants don’t recognize the Pope; and Southern Baptists don’t recognize each other in the liquor store.
Full Disclaimer. Link to sponsor newsletter. To be removed from the nutrition list distribution.
SHORT NOTES:
1.. Osteoarthritis is a metabolic disorder that can be prevented.
2..Stimulating the vagus nerve may be the answer for chronic pain, heart disease, depression and more.
3..Strengthen your brain – Moderate exercise 150 min/week; Eat leafy greens, berries, nuts, lean protein and whole grains – 53% lower risk of Alzheimers; Sleep 7-9 hrs; Cognition projects like playing music; engage with friends.
4..Michael Fossel “Reversal, Science, Medicine, and a Future Beyond Aging”.
5..The trouble with peptides- not regulated.
6..What’s your maximum heart rate? 220 minus your age. But not g
7..Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
8..The “hard problem” of consciousness: how human beings experience things subjectively.
9..There is simply no way to step into someone else’s head and check.
10..Stay fit-interactive events and classes at aarp.org/wellnessworkshops;
11.. Fecal transplants are a likely treatment for bipolar disorder. There are few effective treatments.
12..The idea that gut microbes can influence the brain is no longer controversial.
13..The vagus nerve connects the enteric nervous system to the brain.
14..Gut microbes also influence the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.
15..Collectively, researchers call these links the “gut-brain axis”.
16..Humans have molded fruit to their liking. Today’s peaches are 16 times the size.
17..Magnesium supplements help you relax.
18..Magnesium helps lift depression.
19..Magnesium seems to ease migraines.
20..The MIND diet was associated with slower brain structural atrophy.
21..Reader question: how much potassium? Recommend 2,600–3,400 mg or higher.
22..The Great Salt Lake is a ticking environmental bomb.
LONG NOTES:
Science 12 Mar 2026 pg 1116 – Osteoarthritis is an age-associated degenerative disease of the joints, classically thought to be caused by accumulated wear and tear. This was thought to explain the increased prevalence and severity of osteoarthritis in patients with obesity, whose joints carry a larger physical load, but recent research has also demonstrated more direct links between metabolic changes and osteoarthritis. Building on these observations, Qin et al. studied both mouse models and human patients treated with semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist. The authors demonstrated that the drug’s benefits for osteoarthritis go beyond those directly attributable to the effects of weight loss, identifying a signaling axis involved in the reprogramming of chondrocyte metabolism and repair of damaged cartilage.
Cell Metab. (2026) 10.1016/j.cmet.2026.01.008 SEE ALSO MY ARTHRITIS ESSAY.
AARP Mar/Apr 2026 pg 24-Stimulating the vagus nerve may be the answer for chronic pain, heart disease, depression and more. You can stimulate it yourself by belly breathing slowly, aerobic exercise, brief exposure to very c0ld temperatures (turn shower to cold for a minute), meditation, gentle massage, or humming.
AARP Mar/Apr 2026 pg 25-Strengthen your brain – Moderate exercise 150 min/week; Eat leafy greens, berries, nuts, lean protein and whole grains – 53% lower risk of Alzheimers; Sleep 7-9 hrs; Cognition projects like playing music; engage with friends.
Michael Fossel’s new book is “Reversal, Science, Medicine, and a Future Beyond Aging”. A review: “Michael Fossel makes a powerful and compelling argument that aging can be reversed, and that the telomere–telomerase axis is the most promising point of intervention because of its central role in regulating the epigenetic changes underlying cellular aging. He takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the history of aging research and its evolving paradigms, showing why the time has come to stop merely treating the symptoms of aging and begin addressing its root cause to reduce human suffering. He also thoughtfully explores the profound implications of a world in which aging no longer exists.”
The Economist, 14 Mar 2016 pg 70-The trouble with peptides– high performers, biohackers, and athletes. Function Health, a firm in Austin, does not specifically target peptide users, but its tests track dozens of biomarkers for upwards of $365 per year. Its celebrity backers include Matt Damon, a Hollywood actor, and it was valued at $2.5bn in a fundraising round in November.
In America, Mr Kennedy’s plan is to allow regulated domestic supplies of peptides. He trailed his intentions in 2024 when, shortly after his appointment, he announced that the American drug regulator’s “war on public health is about to end”, promising to halt the organisation’s “aggressive suppression” of all sorts of fringe medicines, peptides explicitly included. This policy might reduce harm if the government also warned people of the potential dangers of injecting untested drugs into their bodies. So far, it has not done this. In America at least, the peptide rave looks likely to continue unimpeded.
The Economist, 14 Mar 2016 pg 73-What’s your maximum heart rate? It is printed on treadmills and exercise bikes in gyms around the world is a simple method for estimating the maximum rate at which your heart should safely beat, in beats per minute: 220 minus your age. Knowing your maximum heart rate can be useful when planning exercise. Workouts in lower “zones”, defined as up to 70% of maximum heart rate, improve aerobic capacity. More intense exercise emphasises anaerobic fitness. By modern standards, though, the evidence for the formula is flimsy. One study, published in PLOS ONE in October 2025, compared seven different formulas with measured values in 230 people. It found that individual predictions were often off by as much as 20 beats per minute in either direction. That size of error could mean that what counts as moderate exercise for one 50-year-old may equate to vigorous exercise for another.
The Economist, 14 Mar 2016 pg75 Mind over matter– “AFASCINATING BUT elusive phenomenon: it is impossible to specify what it is, what it does, or why it evolved. Nothing worth reading has been written on it.” That is how “The International Dictionary of Psychology” described consciousness in 1989. Michael Pollan’s excellent new book serves as a paginated retort to that last claim. The author, an American journalist, is best known for his work on food and diet. (His pithy distillation of decades of research—“eat food, not too much, mostly plants”—is the crème de la crème of dietary advice.) More recently he has been writing about mind-altering drugs, from psychedelics such as magic mushrooms to opium and caffeine. The “hard problem” of consciousness: namely, how human beings and other organisms experience things subjectively. This question has been occupying philosophers and scientists for centuries. One recent survey counted more than two dozen competing theories. But the hard problem is hard precisely because of its subjective nature. There is simply no way to step into someone else’s head and check that their experience of the world matches yours.
AARP Mar/Apr 2026 pg 40-Stay fit-interactive events and classes at aarp.org/wellnessworkshops; Help your brain at stayingsharp.aarp.org
The Economist 7-13 Mar pg 77-Fecal transplants are a likely treatment for bipolar disorder. Neither of them had received any benefit from standard treatments, but their symptoms had markedly improved after taking antibiotics. As there are few effective treatments for bipolar disorder, this would be a boon for the estimated 37m people who have the condition worldwide. The idea that gut microbes can influence the brain is no longer controversial. Over the past 15 years studies have shown that the gut and the brain probably communicate via four main routes. The most direct is via the vagus nerve, which connects the enteric nervous system (a web of neurons lining the gut, sometimes called the “second brain”) to the brain. Gut microbes also influence a network of brain regions and glands known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which controls stress responses, primarily by releasing cortisol, a hormone. The microbiome also interacts with the immune system in various ways. Finally, by-products of bacterial metabolism, such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), can enter the bloodstream and from there cross into the brain. Collectively, researchers call these links the “gut-brain axis”.
The Economist 7-13 Mar pg78- Over thousands of years of domestication, humans have molded fruit to their liking. Today’s peaches are 16 times the size of their ancient ancestors. The 1,200 varieties of watermelon bear little resemblance to the pale and pip-filled gourd that preceded them. Cultivated fruits also tend to be sweeter. (So much so that some zoos have stopped feeding them to animals.) Some modern fruits, however, achieve their sweetness by lowering acidity and bitterness rather than piling in extra sugar.
The Economist 7-13 Mar pg 79- Will magnesium supplements help you relax? The mineral helps regulate heart rate, glucose and blood pressure, and is essential for the synthesis of DNA and proteins. Magnesium also helps make serotonin, a brain chemical that modulates sleep, appetite and mood. Most of the body’s magnesium comes from food—leafy greens, beans, nuts, bananas, milk and whole grains are rich in it. But sales of supplements, which are formulated with additional substances to create magnesium salts, are surging. Begin with magnesium’s proposed sleep benefits. Recent trials to assess its effects, though mostly small, have been promising, perhaps owing to magnesium’s role in muscle relaxation. The intervention group also scored significantly higher on measures of alertness, energy and productivity. An additional finding also stood out: improved mood.
Could magnesium help lift depression? Some small trials have shown promise. Consider a review of seven randomised clinical trials with a total of 325 depressed adult participants that was published in 2023 in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry. The authors found that those given magnesium compounds experienced a statistically significant drop in depression scores. They noted that magnesium is associated with reduced inflammation and inhibits enzymes that have been linked to stress and mood disorders.
Magnesium also seems to ease migraines, in part by dampening the brain’s firing of pain-signalling chemicals such as glutamate. A review of four randomised controlled trials that was published in February 2025 in Neurological Sciences found a daily supplement of magnesium of 122-600mg could lessen migraines’ severity and reduce their frequency by about 2.5 attacks a month.
All told, a balanced diet will provide enough magnesium for most people, although supplements may help those who struggle to get enough. In its fact sheet on magnesium, updated on January 6th, America’s National Institutes of Health noted that nearly half of Americans ingest too little—perhaps owing to the prevalence of heavy processing of food, which depletes the mineral.
Adherence to the MIND diet and longitudinal brain structural changes over a decade: evidence from the Framingham heart study offspring cohort. In this prospective cohort study, greater adherence to the MIND diet was associated with slower brain structural atrophy, particularly regarding grey matter loss and ventricular enlargement. The MIND diet score was calculated by summing the scores from nine recommended food groups (leafy green vegetables, other vegetables, nuts, berries, beans, whole grains, fish, poultry and olive oil), five restricted food groups (red meat, butter/margarine, cheese, pastries and sweets and fast fried foods) and moderate intake of wine.
Reader question: how much potassium do I need? Potassium (K) helps regulate muscle contractions and nerve function, making it crucial for preventing and managing leg cramps. While bananas with 422 mg are popular, leafy greens, potatoes, and lentils are better sources to maintain your K level. The average U.S. daily potassium intake is approximately 2,400–2,600 mg for adults, well below the recommended 2,600–3,400 mg or higher, making it a nutrient of public health concern. So regular diet with a banana should cover you.
Science 12 Mar 2026 pg 1106 – The imminent collapse of the Great Salt Lake – The Great Salt Lake is a ticking environmental bomb. It has lost 73% of its volume (1) and is projected to collapse within the next 5 years, releasing dust loaded with toxic amounts of mercury, arsenic, and selenium downwind, where 2.5 million people live. Abby Ellis’s new documentary, The Lake, which was featured at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and won a Special Jury Award, follows three individuals—two scientists and a state official—who see the imminent disaster and are fighting to save the lake. Decimation of the lake would be irrevocable and catastrophic. In the 2010s, the collapse of the Aral Sea—a large terminal lake located on the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan—led to the relocation of 500,000 people, negative health consequences for millions, destruction of industries, and the extinction of many species. No terminal lake that has slipped into collapse has ever been restored.
