The Weekly Dose - Episode 41

The Weekly Dose...

... the latest from Dr Karan

  Here is your weekly dose...  

Hi all!Here is your weekly dose of the Sunday Six! A few things I found interesting this week. If you enjoy this please feel free to forward this to friends. families and enemies alike!If you've enjoyed any of my content over the years, I know you will enjoy my new book "This Book May Save Your Life", available to pre-order here: My First Ever Book!**You'll find more in depth analysis of some of these subjects on my social platforms in the links just below, including Dr Karan Investigates! for deep dives into interesting topics on my YouTube channel.**

The No.1 Key To A Happy Life (according to science)...

It's been almost 4 years since I went on holiday with my parents. In 2019, I visited Abu Dhabi with them and then the pandemic came along and the world turned to faecal matter.These last few days I've had breakfast, lunch and dinner with my parents..I've gone on beach walks with them and numerous Tuk-tuk rides and day trips around Sri Lanka. I've not been this content in a while.This ties in nicely with the decades long study conducted and initiated by Harvard researchers in 1938 which sought to find out..what makes us happy in life. 

The researchers gathered health records from 724 participants from all over the world and asked detailed questions about their lives at two-year intervals. 

The answer was a peculiar one...it’s not career achievement, money, exercise or diet (although clearly these things contribute..) The most consistent finding through 85 years of study is: Positive relationships keep us happier, healthier, and help us live longer. 

What You Should Listen To...

ChatGPT, AI advancements have taken over 2023 so far.I'm not a tech whizz myself and my interactions with chatGPT and AI powered image/song/text generation apps have been modest so far...BUT..this caught my eye and...well, ears.When I listen to this it sounds so incredibly believable that I firmly believe that a significant part of the music industry will be AI enhanced in the coming decade. We might even see artists from previous decades "release" new songs and continue to release music long after they've gone! 

Why Fast Poops Are Good..

We all have a different rates of food being turned into excrement and that excrement exiting from our tailpipes. This is called the intestinal transit time.New research shows some surprising observations about how intestinal transit time impacts our health — and what may be playing a role in determining the transit time.Imagine two people: John and RodrigoJohn inhales his food like the hungry scamp he is and food that he eats takes an average of around 10–20 hours to pass through his digestive system.

Rodrigo on the other hand takes his time eating his food and his body takes its time passing food through his system as well. Food that he eats takes an average of 50–70 hours to travel through his digestive system.

Both eat a pretty similar diet, and neither of them takes any supplements that could impact their intestinal transit time (no fiber supplements, no laxatives).

Most of us would probably guess that Rodrigo would get more energy. The food spends longer in his intestine, which means there’s more time for it to be broken down and absorbed. His conveyor belt is running more slowly than John's.But growing research suggests that the opposite is true..that people absorb more energy from food when it travels FASTER through the Gi tract. 

This may all be down to the diverse collection of trillions of bacteria living in our gut — which we refer to, collectively, as our gut microbiome.

Researchers found that the speed and nutrient absorption are both linked to the dominating bacterial group

We all harbour trillions of bacteria living in an uneasy harmony inside our small and large intestines. There are many different species of bacteria, often around 1,000 different species, and each person has a unique mix. Your blend of bacteria is different from mine, and it’s almost like a fingerprint (just stinkier).

But while each person has a unique microbiome when we look at exact species, we can sort people into general groupings based on the overall dominant species that’s in their gut. The term for this sorting is enterotyping, where individuals are classified into different enterotypes.

(Sort of like being sorted into your House in Harry Potter..)

When the researchers looked at the enterotypes of the individuals in their study, they found three different groupings:

• B-type: a microbiome dominated by the genus Bacteroides

• P-type: a microbiome dominated by the genus Prevotella

• R-type: a microbiome dominated by the family Ruminococcaceae

These groupings seemed to be the biggest factor correlated with intestinal transit time and with levels of energy absorption.

Specifically, individuals with the B-type enterotype had the fastest transit time, the greatest amount of energy absorption, and a higher average body weight.

On the other hand, individuals with the R-type enterotype had the slowest transit time, the least amount of energy absorption, a lower average body weight.

Individuals with the P-type enterotype fell somewhere in the middle.It’s hard to change our microbiome makeup; it takes more than a quick “crash diet” for a few days. But changing our dietary intake, long-term, may impact our microbiome as well as our own waistline — and that microbiome may, in turn, provide more benefits for us.Top tips to speed up intestinal transit time: 1) regular exercise to stimulate peristalsis 2) high fibre diet 3) adequate hydration levels to support the fibre 3) regular pooping schedule so your "internal clock" knows when to go

P.S A super-rough method to figure out your transit time might simply be to eat a big meal and then see how long it takes to pass through your system! So grab a big plate of food, maybe with a unique food dye or colouring in it! And who says that microbiome experiments aren’t fun?

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My Friends Are Growing Up & I'm Not...

I got a ping on my phone today. The boys group whatsapp chat is on fire. Oh dear...who's got into trouble now...My friend of 20+ years, Harry, has sent an image of an ultrasound scan. He's having a baby...well his wife is but you get what I mean.He's the same age as me. This was after another friend from the whatsapp chat announced a few months ago that he was having a baby too. It's infectious!I'd like to think I'm somewhat successful in life. I did well at University, got a job as a Surgeon, somehow managed to rack up a decent social media following..all great.However I also occasionally receive updates from my friends in our boys whatsapp group chats and I'm immediately reminded that I am single, childless and basically a big baby. Outside of the hospital and operating room..I don't REALLY have any big responsibilities..Add to this the pressure of being a single 30+ year old doctor of asian descent means cultural, traditional and parental pressure to get married. My cultural clock is ticking.Every relative or friend we've visited in Mumbai the last few days have whispered in hushed tones to my mum or dad "When is he getting married?" "Has he got a girlfriend?"....hushed but still within earshot.I want to get married and have kids and live the so called "dream" but for me it's not another point on the checklist..it's a potentially life changing situation.This isn't an exam I can revise for or an interview I can prep for. I know how to do those.

What You Should Watch (basically listen to again)...

Sound of Ancient LanguagesYou probably know by now that I do have a fondness for history. One of the things I've always pondered was the sounds of ancient languages and how our predecessors spoke. From the Ancient Egyptians to Sumerians, Romans to Maya, or even the Vikings and Celts...I would love to have a time traveller take a recording of their conversations.Clearly that isn't possible but this is the next best thing! Check out this video which allows you to listen to 14 ancient languages that will transport you back in time. Many are not spoken anymore, so we may not know how they were pronounced but these languages offer a little window into the past and the cultures that once existed. 

The Return Home...

They say the optimal length of a holiday is 8 days.My holiday is almost twice that length. In any case, I will be returning to the hopefully warmer (?!) UK next weekend and have a week of on call shifts to greet me followed by a gruelling 3 days going on a Trauma Refresher course (mandatory for surgeons in the UK every 4 years...its a money game).However some very exciting things that I'm looking forward to:1) I record my first couple of podcast episodes in early May2) I'm headed to the US for 4 days in May to meet someone who I've known for a while on social media and we are planning something very cool3) I'm going to make a couple of videos teasing a few extracts from my book4) Last but not least....giving my dog Shadow copious cuddles on Sunday evening!

As always, please give me feedback on Twitter. Which of this weeks Sunday six is your favourite? Is there something you want more, or less of? I'm open to any suggestions so please let me know! Just send a  tweet to @drkaranrajan and use the hashtag #theweeklydose at the end so I can find it!

Have a wonderful week, all.

Much love,

Karan