Nuts To Reduce Your Risk of Dementia? 

I came across an interesting study in the journal “Geroscience” that looked at the relationship between nut consumption and the risk of all-cause dementia in adults from the United Kingdom (UK).  

The data was from the UK biobank and included a total of 50,386 participants. Across all the participants, the incidence of all-cause dementia was 2.8% (n = 1422 cases).  

Compared with no nut consumption, daily nut consumption (> 0 to 3 or more handfuls) was significantly associated with a 12% lower risk of all-cause dementia after 7.1 mean years of follow-up. So it appears there’s an association between consumption of up to 1 handful of 30 g/day of unsalted nuts and a protective benefit to brain health.

This is not to say nuts are the key to avoiding dementia but simply could be part of a healthy lifestyle in addition to various other factors that helps to offset age related neurodegeneration.

It’s not groundbreaking new information as we know that nuts are packed with nutrients and healthy fats that can support brain health, however it’s good to see data which confirms what we assumed all along! 

P.S If you want to learn more about brain health, grab my book:

P.P.S if youve already read it, please drop a cheeky review on Amazon! 

How To Eliminate Shin Splints... 

So I’ve just taken up running again after an almost 13 year hiatus from it! 

When I used to run long distances I always succombed to the dreaded shin splints within 30 mins of running – likely a combination of bad running technique and poor footwear. 

What are shin splint though? Well the fancy medical term is medial tibial stress syndrome, pain just behind the tibia which is the bone that forms the shin. 

Interestingly, the name is a bit of misnomer as it isn’t the bone itself which causes the pain but it’s due to inflammation of the muscles, tendons and tissue layers covering the bone and is often caused by repetitive motion or excessive force on the area. 

This can easily happen if you suddenly change the intensity, volume or frequency of your running but can be exacerbated by having poor running technique & footwear (as mentioned above) or even a lack of strength around legs... even the surface you run on can have an effect! 

So far my couple of weeks of running has come without any shin splints and I put this down to a number of factors:

1) better footwear; make sure you buy appropriate shoes and ensuring the soles aren’t worn out. You might benefit from a gait analysis to get the right style of shoe for your body physics and foot! 

2) I’ve been more gradual in my build up to running longer distances. Week 1 I started with short runs of 2-3km. Week 2 I was doing 5k runs and yesterday I finally did a 1hr+ run. Go slow and steady! And make sure you take appropriate rest days. 

3) Lower body resistance training. If you can strength train for your lower body at least once a week, you help to strengthen muscles around the hip and knee joints to reduce the risk of impact related injuries. This is something I never used to do years ago but now it’s a part of my routine. 

There is no fool proof way to treat shin splints except rest and lots of it!

However looking more closely at your footwear, ensure your shoes are well fitted and assess whether you’re putting undue strain on your shin when running. If so, you might benefit from orthotics.  

Wisdom I Wish I Had 20 Years Ago... 

1. Small things matter: This is a thought that’s adjacent to the notion that you should celebrate small wins and not just focus on the big targets. In a similar vein, you should turn up and dedicate the same energy you do for the big stuff but for the small things too. Remember, you are judged at your worst... 

2. Learn to enjoy the pursuit, not just the outcome: This is something I continue to work on. It’s great to have an eye focused on the end goal and striving for the positive outcome but if you begin to enjoy the process, the building, the labour in addition to the end goal... you will achieve the “happiness of pursuit”.  

3. Your direction matters more than speed: You’ll have lots of opportunities in life, choosing the right ones and saying no are the hardest parts of the mission. Speaking as someone who has climbed up many proverbial “mountains” before realising I picked the wrong one... my advice would be to slow down, don’t focus on completing tasks, rather focus on leveraging the right opportunities. Basically, pick the right mountain, even if the climb is slower. In case you didn’t realise by now, I wasn’t talking about mountains. 

ADHD on TikTok

There’s been a boom in the number of people talking about ADHD and neurodivergent conditions online – for conditions which have traditionally been under the radar (like most neurodivergent ones) this spotlight is much welcome.. but... is there a dark side to this? 

We know that social media apps like Tiktok and Instagram have been increasingly used as easily accessible sources of information on ADHD.

One recent study looked at the quality of information on ADHD screening or “self-test” in Tiktok vidoes with the hashtag adhdtest as well as analysing the engagement of these videos. 

Out of the top 50 “adhdtest” videos, 92% (46) were misleading. The useful videos had minimal engagement with only 4% of the total like, 1% of the total comments and 7% of total favourites. 

I’m all for empowering people to learn about health, science and their own bodies but social media should be used as a stepping stone to delve into a topic. Always cross reference what you read, see and hear online to make sure its trustworthy... 

16th Century Breasts in the Sistine Chapel 

Painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican is “The Flood” - a work of art by Michelangelo. On the right side of this fresco a woman with an abnormal looking breast is shown and the nature of her disease has recently been scrutinised by a team of experts covering art history, art expertise, medicine, genetics, and pathology... 

They concluded that the pathology shown is probably breast cancer. It was unlikely that this was drawn as a whim as on closer inspection, there are  two lumps visible in the upper part of the breast which likely represent enlarged nodes, and the retracted skin of the areola is also indicative of disease.  

To add to this tale a bit more, we know that Michelangelo began assisting in autopsies when 17 years old so he would have observed all sorts of pathology, including breast cancer. 

4 Interesting Health Takeaways From My Podcast Guests... 

1. Obesity & weight gain is not a moral failing. There are numerous factors both within our control and out of our control which influence weight gain – 2 of which, the microbiome and genetics we are only beginning to understand. Episode 23: Dr Giles Yeo – Do Your Genes Make You Fat? 

2. Don’t remove your ear wax unless it’s causing pain, hearing loss or it needs to be removed to allow visualisation of the ear canal. Episode 25: Dr Joe Manjaly – ENT surgeon 

3. “82% of people in Japan over the age of 100 turned out to be dead. And they didn't check them all. It is crazy”. Episode 24: The Blue Zones Are A Scam: Dr Saul Newman Reveals the Biggest Longevity Myths 

4. Creatine not only has benefits for strength and muscle growth but there is growing evdience to suggest cognitive and cardiovascular benefits. Episode 9 – Dr Mike Isratel 

If you want to check out the podcast to learn more about how to improve your health, check out the Dr Karan Explores podcast here: