Let me first start with an apology. 

 The last newsletter (as many of you rightly pointed out!) had a few extra typos and spelling mistakes...I can only blame my post marathon brain for this and will ensure this newsletter doesn’t succumb to the same grammatical woes! 

The best thing you’re not doing for your health.... ... 

NOTHING...and I mean nothing. 

In modern society, boredom and doing nothing is often dismissed as an unpleasant and unproductive state...but it plays a critical role in brain function, particularly through its relationship with the Default Mode Network (DMN).  

The DMN is a network of interconnected brain regions active during rest and passive thought, and it becomes more engaged when you’re not focused on external tasks....think mind wandering, nostalgia, future planning...basically let your brain be deprived of stimuli and let it drift. 

This period of introspection allows you to process complex thoughts and faciliater more creativity. The DMN is the reason some of your best ideas happen when doing mundane things like washing the dishes, having a shower or commuting to work! 

Don’t be in a constant rush to fill your boredom or emptiness with a 5 minute scroll on social media or another spotify playlist...allow your brain to incubate and reflect. Today and tomorrow and every day...embrace a few minutes of boredom to light the flames of your creativity.  

P.S if you want to learn more interesting things about human health, grab my book here: 

p.p.s if you’ve already got it, drop a review on Amazon please! 

Why fungi might be to blame for your allergies! 

 We are neck and nose deep in sniffly nose season but for some this a curse that follows them year round! 

 New research has suggested that those who suffer eternal allergies could blame their nasal microbiome...specifically the type of fungi their noses. 

 We all have a colony of microbes in the nose, the nasal microbiome. These critters likely play a role in immune regulation and preventing more harmful tenants from taking up residency. Delving even further into the nasal microbiome is the MYCObiome, the collection of fungi in your nose! 

 Researchers took nasal swabs from 214 patients with allergies and 125 healthy participants. 

The swabs revealed between upto 10 of the most common types of nasal fungi were different between the two groups – and that those with allergies had more diverse mycobiomes. How this relates to disease is still a question which needs more research but it points to the possibiltiy that the nasal cavity is a major storage tank for fungi that could be involved in allergic rhinitis which affects 25-40% of people!  (Frontiers in Microbiology) 

Plants to beat gestational diabetes?! …

There’s a simple rule in research: shit in, shit out. 

Just because something is published in a scientific journal does not automatically mean you can blindly rely on the outcomes of that research. 

Bearing this caveat in mind will serve you well whenever someone quotes something from a study and cherry picks their data.... 

Having said the above, I do like coming across novel bits of research which have clinical translatability – i.e. a little life hack, tip or statement that we can use in real life to improve health or prevent against disease. 

I came across a new study (BMC Nutrition) which suggested that adherence to a plant based diet during pregnancy reduced the risk of gestational diabetes! 

A total of 635 mothers, of which 79 diagnosed with gestational diabetes, were studied. Those in the upper third for plant consumption has a 45% lower risk of developing gestational diabetes compared to those in the lowest plant consumption group. 

Now there aren’t a huge number of studies investigation diet in pregnancy and looking at outcomes but it stands to reason that consuming high amounts of dietary fibres as well as polyphenols and micronutrients found in plants can lead to beneficial metabolic shifts in pregnancy.

Why your farts are crucial...for life

You thought I’d let you escape a week with me mentioning something delightful about your digestive function? Nice try. 

But seriously your noxious tail end fumes aren’t just a disturbance to the peace but a key part of your physiology. 

A chunk of intestinal gases are produced when gut microbes ferment carbohydrates, fibers, and other undigested food components in your diet and you’re left with things like hydrogen, methane, hydrogen sulfide etc  

These gases can actually influence microbial composition by creating selective pressures. Methanogens (the subset of microbes) thrive in low-oxygen environments and use hydrogen to produce methane. 

Sulfate-reducing bacteria convert hydrogen into hydrogen sulfide. 

Its thus easy to see how gases like hydrogen sulfide and methane regulate microbial activity, such as limiting overgrowth or influencing nutrient metabolism, shaping microbiome diversity and stability. Darwin would be rolling in his grave at the emergence of this new evolutionary selection pressure! 

Methane is known to slow gut motility by increasing intestinal smooth muscle tone, which reduces peristalsis (the wave-like contractions that move food through the gut). 

This ends up prolonging intestinal transit time, leading to harder, drier stools. 

 Hydrogen Sulfide, produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria (e.g., Desulfovibrio) as they metabolize sulfur-containing compounds (e.g., amino acids like cysteine or dietary sulfates) can acts as a gaseous signaling molecule: 

You can thank me later about learning so much you never wanted to know about farts. 

3 books that I can’t wait to tuck into this month and next... 

So recently I’ve been on a space, time travel, sci fi binge. 

I’ve completed all 3 books in the “3 body problem” series by Cixin Liu. 

I can honestly say I’ve never read a series of books so scientifically accurate and plasubile whilst at the same time tugging my heart strings. It’s one of those series I wish I could read again for all the twists and turns. 

In fact I also rewatched the sci fi movie Interstellar for the 7^th this weekend which left me hungry for more information on time travel, wormholes, black holes, space travel and the questions about intelligent life in the cosmos. 

I want to know more about these topics in a factual manner but also don’t want to be bogged down by heaps of complex jargon. So far these are the 3 books I’ve ordered based on my desire for the above mentioned topics and reviews: 

1. Black holes and Time warps – Kip Thorne (who was actually the scientific consultant for Interstellar!) 

2. Parallel Worlds – Michio Kaku 

3. Astrophysics for people in a hurry – Neil Degrasse Tyson  

One thing we are all VERY bad at...  

Well I’m bad at a lot of things but I’m exceptionally bad at this...and probably so are you. 

 The eternal chase for the next shiny thing. 

We’ve evolved from hunting mammoths to chasing milestones—and somehow, we’re just as bad at knowing when to stop and celebrate. Back then, if you took down a mammoth, you'd feast, tell stories, and carve a tusk into a trophy. Today? You finish a major project or hit a life milestone, and what do you do? Add the next goal to your to-do list before your coffee even cools. It's as if we're hardwired to sprint on the treadmill of ambition, only to forget that treadmills don’t actually go anywhere. 

 I get why our ancestors needed to keep moving—hunt, gather, survive. The moment they stopped appreciating their wins, saber-toothed cats probably had them for dinner. 

But we’ve out-evolved that danger, yet our brains didn’t get the memo. Now, instead of running from predators, we run from our own existential dread, filling the void with accomplishments we rarely pause to savor. 

 It’s the classic Goalpost problem - every milestone achieved pushes the goalpost further. You land the dream job? Great—now you need a promotion. You ran 5K? Amazing—so, when’s the marathon? 

 Your life is like an endless game of The Sims, but you forgot to program in a "Celebrate Win" function. So your little avatar just keeps grinding, perpetually unsatisfied. 

In chasing the next big thing, we turn life into a series of transactions...one accomplishment, cashed in for the next goal and one joyous moment, traded for the promise of "better joy" later. 

But what if that promise is a scam? What if the milestone you’re chasing doesn’t even make you as happy as the one you just ignored? 

We suck at celebrating wins because we’re too busy measuring them against someone else’s. You bought your first car, but your neighbor got a Tesla. Your promotion feels great until you remember someone your age is a CEO. 

It’s like we’re stuck in a game of Monopoly, comparing who has the most fake paper money while missing the point: nobody really wins at Monopoly. The game just ends. For all of us. 

 We can blame society sure...it glorifies the "grind." If you’re not hustling, you’re slacking. Stopping to celebrate feels like a dangerous pause—a moment when someone else might overtake you. But here’s the unpopular dark truth: life is stagnation. You’re hurtling toward entropy whether you’re CEO of a Fortune 500 company or binge-watching Bake Off in your pajamas. So, why not bake the cake and enjoy it while you’re here? 

Maybe take a lesson from Greek mythology, Sisyphus rolls a boulder uphill for eternity. It’s miserable—unless he decides to celebrate every roll. In that case, every push becomes a party. 

That’s the trick: life is an endless climb, but it’s only unbearable if you forget to laugh and dance along the way and laugh through the occasional misery. If we’re all spiralling into the void anyway, we might as well bring balloons and cake. 

P.S for less existential dread and more focus on the small wins and health habits…check out my weekly podcast “Dr Karan Explores” on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube!