Team Asprey

Ultra-Effective Workout Routines That Take 10 Minutes or Less

March 2, 2018 by Team Asprey

People begin workout routines for a variety of reasons, like to get healthy, feel better emotionally, or lose weight. Just as many reasons exist for why people stop exercising. The most common complaint: they don’t have enough time to work out. If you get sidelined due to lack of time, look no further than these six workouts that you can complete in ten minutes or less. From an energizing yoga flow to super-charge your morning – to abs, butt, and super HIIT workouts in between – then back again to a miracle yoga way to end the day… this workout routine roundup will keep you interested, fit, and fabulous.

Energizing Wake Up Vinyasa Flow

Video via BrettLarkinYoga

This is an easy morning vinyasa yoga routine, suitable for any experience level. The focus here is to get your body and mind in sync upon rising so you can make the most of your day. This workout routine is also a great way to cut morning fatigue, gain more focus, and wake up to a rejuvenated you. The sequence starts in child’s pose and moves through cat and upward dog, among other poses. You’ll elongate your spine and pair breath with movement throughout.

Best Ab Workout: Tummy & Muffin Top

Video via Boho Beautiful

Short and sweet, this pilates-based workout routine focuses specifically on the obliques (side abdominals) and lower abs. This ten-minute session tones and strengthens your core – ridding you of that muffin top for good. Remember, the core remains central to good posture because the abdominal muscles stabilize the back, so these exercises hold the key to standing up straighter and meeting the day with the confidence you desire.

Butt & Thigh Toning Workout

Video via FitnessBlender

This exercise video wins with over 3 million views. Tap into better balance, start fat-burning, build lean muscle, and tone up the butt and thighs. Basically, get that booty you’ve been dreaming with this “all-in-one” workout routine. You’ll move through bodyweight squats, reverse lunges, ski squats and lifts, curtsy lunges, leg lifts, thigh raises, bridge, reverse leg lifts. Bonus: the video shows time durations, so you know exactly where you’re at.

HIIT Treadmill Sprints

Video via Brix Fitness

Take high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and pair it with a treadmill. What do you get? One of the best ways to burn fat and preserve muscle mass, which is vital to your weight-loss success. Remember, your metabolism slows down if you lose muscle, so you want to maintain muscle mass for maximum success. This exercise video features 10 sets of 30 seconds running and 60 seconds of rest in between sets. Aim for a speed and incline that challenge you to the fullest, though do pace yourself so you can complete the workout. Bonus: this workout routine can be adapted to any cardio machine.

Full Body Fat-Burning HIIT Workout

Video via Emi Wong

Finally, a short and sweet HIIT workout video with good instruction, interspersed with music to rev you up along the way. This exercise video features 10 exercises lasting 45 seconds, with 15 seconds of rest for 15 in between sets. You’ll start with jumping jacks to warm up and get blood flowing. Then you’ll increase intensity throughout with side plank rotations, burpees, commandos, lunges, squats, arm and leg raises, push-ups, and speed skater exercises. Get ready to build muscle and get rid of fat. This HIIT workout routine will make your muscles pop. No equipment needed—just a mat.

Easy Bedtime Yoga: The “5 Minute Miracle”

Video via Boho Beautiful

This rhythmic yoga flow equals the perfect way to wind down at the end of the day. Safely and holistically release daily stress, relax, and prepare for a sound night’s sleep. You’ll be guided through basic yoga poses that you can even do in bed that send signals to your nervous system that it’s time to relax. Pull yourself into a ball, give your full body a release, move through a spinal twist, and circle your shoulders… There’s even a happy baby pose to release tension and stress in the hips. End in Shivasana, or corpse pose, for complete relaxation. Good night.

People With Anxiety Have Better Memory, Says Study

February 28, 2018 by Team Asprey

A recent study[ref url=”http://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/8/1/6″] published in Brain Sciences reveals that a moderate degree of anxiety gives you a heightened sense of awareness and helps you to remember small details later. This can be a great asset – especially when you can recall subtle details of milestone events like birthdays, weddings, or even major work events after the fact.

Low-level anxiety is better than no anxiety at all, especially for your memory

Eighty college students received a standard screening questionnaire to deduce everyday anxiety levels. Classified as having either low or high anxiety, the students were then asked to study a set of words on a computer screen and answer questions about spelling and meaning. Some of the words were overlaid onto negatives images – i.e., a picture of an auto accident – while some words were overlaid onto neutral images like a house.

When recalling words later, students with higher anxiety levels better remembered the words displayed over negative images. While the overall findings show that possessing higher anxiety improves memory performance, there is one downside. People adopt a “negative retrieval mode,” which can lead to biased memories. “For people with high anxiety, the emotional context in the background tainted their later memory of these words that were otherwise neutral,” says co-author Myra Fernandes, professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo in Canada. While anxiety is a disadvantage in this regard, overall, Fernandes notes that low anxiety levels are better than having none at all. “Having butterflies in your stomach might actually make that information more memorable to you later on,” she says.

This jibes with previous research that shows you are more likely to remember a dishonest face than an honest one.[ref url=”http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167288141012″] That negative retrieval mode helps you hone your survival instincts – to protect you, in this case. While this is obviously a great instinct in the “fight-or-flight” short-term, if you are always in this frame of mind, your anxiety will get the best of you. So how do you make your anxiety work for you instead of against you?

How to channel your anxiety for good

Since a moderate degree of anxiety is actually beneficial, it’s important to learn to work with it, so it can help you in different situations.

Retrain your brain. Research at McGill University[ref url=”http://selfesteemgames.mcgill.ca/research/index.htm”] shows that anxious people are more attuned to negative feedback and give it more weight than positive or neutral attention. For example: you look out at an audience and zero in on the only frowning face in a crowd. Luckily, the researchers found that people can train themselves to downplay the negative thought patterns that produce insecurity and lead to anxiety. They even came up with a brain training game to help you reorient your brain to see the positive over the negative.

Practice gratitude. Practice looking for the smiling faces in a crowd by choosing to see the positive in people and everyday situations. Go one step further and reflect it back to them. Studies show that just one random act of kindness a day reduces stress, anxiety, and depression.[ref url=”http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/39/11/1963″] Need help getting started? Take our 28-day kindness challenge.

Practice deep breathing. If distressing thoughts keep you up at night, or you’re panicking in the middle of a situation, take a moment to check in with yourself and practice one of these 3 deep breathing exercises.

Get out of your comfort zone. The hallmark of anxiety is avoidance — you steer clear of the things that make you uncomfortable. Though it helps you avoid distressing feelings, it only increases anxiety long-term. Putting yourself into stressful situations teaches you that you do have the coping mechanisms to handle it, and that even if the worst does happen, you survived it. Exposure therapy — gradually subjecting yourself to the feared object or situation — helps you become less sensitive to it over time. Learn 10 simple ways to get out of your comfort zone now.

Moms Age 11 Years Faster, Says New Study. Here’s How to Stop It

February 26, 2018 by Team Asprey

If you’ve ever secretly blamed your kids for giving you gray hairs, there’s now science to back that up. A new study[ref url=”https://academic.oup.com/humrep/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/humrep/dey024/4858327?redirectedFrom=fulltext”] finds that women who have children age 11 years faster than women who don’t have kids – at least on a cellular level. Specifically, moms’ telomeres, biological markers associated with longevity, were significantly shorter compared to women without kids. Telomeres are linked to everything from lifespan to health conditions to yep, even gray hair. Luckily, there may be a silver lining. Read on to find out how to spare yourself the extra wrinkles.

Aging is linked to telomere length

Researchers from George Mason University analyzed the length of telomeres in the blood samples of nearly 2,000 American women between the ages of 20 and 44, looking for signs of aging. Evidence of aging appears most measurably in telomeres, structures at the end of chromosomes that keep DNA from deteriorating (much like the plastic coating on the end of shoelaces). Each time cells replicate and divide, the telomeres shorten – literal evidence of aging. Over time, these protective caps wear down. Without telomeres, DNA strands become damaged and cells can’t do their job. This triggers the cells to die in a process called apoptosis, aka programmed cell death.

Women with kids had shorter telomeres than non-moms — a sign of aging

After adjusting for factors like the women’s age, weight, and socioeconomic background, the researchers found that women with kids had telomeres 4.2 percent shorter than their child-free peers, or “11 years of accelerated cellular aging,” says Anna Pollack, lead author of the paper.

Another study found the exact opposite

If all these findings sound depressing, moms and moms to be should take them with a grain of salt. Another study[ref url=”http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0146424″] on Mayan women, from 2017, revealed precisely the opposite: the greater the number of children, the longer their telomeres.

What actually causes aging in moms?

The discrepancies in findings led Pollack to presume that it’s actually the stress levels that accompany child-rearing — not the biological act of having kids — that may be the culprit. Specifically, Pollack highlighted the lack of mandatory maternity leave in the U.S. Additionally, Western cultures don’t have the support of live-in extended family members that exist in Mayan cultures. Plus, many moms in the U.S. juggle office jobs with family care. So while U.S. moms may be aging faster than women without kids, there are steps you can take to lower your stress levels and slow down the aging process.

Here’s how to combat physical, mental, and emotional stress

Foremost, it’s important to understand that oxidative stress — influenced by emotional stress, diet, and other lifestyle factors — causes telomeres to unravel.[ref url=”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0968000402021102″] Armed with that knowledge, you want to focus on lifestyle strategies to lower your stress – physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Nourish your body with nutrients: Replenish your vitamin and mineral levels post-pregnancy. It takes anywhere from six months to two years to replenish the vital nutrients you utilized when pregnant[ref url=”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/002822439502150Q”] – omega-3s, iron, folic acid, calcium, and zinc in particular — so work with your doc to get your nutrient levels back on track through diet and supplementation.

Prioritize sleep: Sleep and stress interact bidirectionally[ref url=”http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2013/sleep.aspx”], which means that stress can cause sleep disturbance; likewise, insufficient sleep can stress your entire system. To protect your precious hours of zzz’s, put your phone on airplane mode (and don’t check it) during the night. Make your next day’s to-do list before bed; research shows it can keep you from worrying in the middle of the night. And, of course, curb coffee consumption after 2PM. Read here for more proven sleep hacks.

Seek out your own tribe: Remember what the Mayan study indicates – a cooperative breeding strategy offers social support, which alleviates stress. Good neighbors, a stable babysitter or other child-care, mom’s groups, or your own friends can create a helpful sense of community, so you don’t feel you’re bearing the brunt of everything alone. Be proactive about exchanging numbers at the playground, and offer to watch your neighbors’ kids. They’ll be more likely to return the favor.

Downgrade mental stress: This can be a challenging one, particularly if you have a taxing job and are trying to balance that with raising kids. Put self-care time on the family calendar and treat it like any other appointment. Schedule personal reading or journaling time, book a massage, or take a walk.

Get active and social: Use scheduled me time for meditation, yoga, high-intensity exercise, or even dates with friends. There’s nothing better than a laugh with a good friend when you’re feeling overwhelmed — and social support goes a long way towards reducing stress. If you feel guilty about the indulgence, remember how much better a mom you are when you feel happy and supported.

New Study Links Alcohol and Longevity. Here’s What It Gets Wrong

February 21, 2018 by Team Asprey

Wouldn’t it be awesome if drinking alcohol made you live longer? Sadly, it doesn’t — even though a recent study[ref url=”http://www.mind.uci.edu/research-studies/90plus-study/”] presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science wants you to believe it does. The findings revealed that people who live to 90 or older drink moderate amounts of alcohol. The research linked drinking two glasses of beer or wine every day to an 18 percent decreased risk of dying prematurely.

Truth? This study shows that people who live longer can handle alcohol…because they are healthier in general.

Cracks in alcohol-longevity study

Here’s why the study is misleading. First, it’s a broad, observational study of people over the age of 90 that observed general lifestyle habits. Alcohol consumption is one trend the researchers found in the older population. Secondly, the study did not randomize for control, so at best, it serves as a snapshot of the lives and lifestyles of those over 90 – though is certainly not definitive.

Study population lived longer because they were healthier — not because of alcohol

The real reason this particular older population lived longer is not alcohol consumption specifically, but the fact that they are healthy to begin with. In fact, it may be that their detox processes are just better equipped in general — and that applies to everything they consume – food, drinks, environmental toxins, etc. The point is – no one can be certain that correlation equals causation. Similarly, it’s true that people who live the longest sleep on average only 6.5 hours per night. However, that’s because healthy people need less sleep, not because less sleep is better for you.

What alcohol does in the human body — the cancer link

Now back to alcohol — here is what we do know. Alcohol is responsible for 3.5% of all cancers. In fact, alcohol damages your DNA and puts you at greater cancer risk. Additionally, alcohol wreaks havoc in the following ways:

It causes a spike in an alcohol breakdown product called acetaldehyde, which in effect, causes cancer and genetic mutation[ref url=”https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-cancer-alcohol/how-alcohol-damages-stem-cell-dna-and-increases-cancer-risk-idUSKBN1ES1N2″]. Read this if you want to learn more about how to hack your hangover to prevent this breakdown.
It depletes SAMe[ref url=”http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hep.1840110203/full”], which regulates vital cellular functions. Alcohol also causes iron buildup[ref url=”http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-0277.2001.tb02314.x/full”] and increases peroxynitrite[ref url=”http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-0277.2002.tb02618.x/full”] — both cause oxidative stress, making it harder for your body to detoxify naturally. Read more about the role of alcohol in oxidative stress buildup in my book Head Strong.
It inactivates tumor suppressor gene BRCA1 and increases your response to estrogen in breast tissue.[ref url=”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3391950/”] This makes things way worse if you already have breast cancer. You could elect for a dual mastectomy in order to drink more, but seriously?

Also, if you’re drinking anything but distilled pure spirits, you get a slew of colorings, sugar, and fermentation byproducts, including mycotoxins, which themselves cause cancer. Not a good scenario any way you cut it.

Maintaining a healthy approach to alcohol consumption

Here’s the deal: Alcohol isn’t something you should be drinking every day. You can enjoy an occasional drink and still perform well and live a long time, especially if you choose the right alcohol and block its negative effects. But please don’t make the mistake of using this study as an excuse to drink more. You’ll have less energy now, and not like your life when you’re old!

This Week in Biohacking Health: An Anti-Aging Pill, and the Reason Your Kid Could be Overweight

February 15, 2018 by Team Asprey

Want to live forever and feel spry at 100? Researchers dive into why the Amish stay young for longer. If you don’t have the Amish gene, no worries – you can still adopt a few key habits. There’s also a new pill on the horizon that’s “the closest we’ve gotten to a fountain of youth.” Speaking of pills, taking this supplement when pregnant could keep your kid from being overweight. Sound intriguing? Read on to see what other biohacking headlines had us clicking this week.

What keeps the Amish so healthy in old age?

Time magazine[ref url=”http://time.com/5159857/amish-people-stay-healthy-in-old-age-heres-their-secret/”] reveals the secrets of how Amish people stay healthy in old age. Spoiler Alert: It’s a combo of lifestyle and genes. It appears that intermarriage actually turned out to be a good thing, because the Amish got a lucky bid. What does this mean for you? Genes get turned on and off, depending on your habits, and those genetic activations have a ripple effect for generations to come. So even if you aren’t Amish, you can live like one: No smoking, no alcohol, exercise built into daily activities, and good sleep (no electricity means an early bedtime). And listen to this podcast if you’re game to understand how your environment hacks your genes.

The latest and greatest anti-aging pill on the horizon

A group of researchers honed in on a verifiable longevity elixir.[ref url=”http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6331/1312″] The key ingredient? A compound called nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, or NAD+ — a molecule responsible for regulating cellular aging. “NAD+ is the closest we’ve gotten to a fountain of youth,” says David Sinclair, co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School.

NAD+ levels decrease in humans over time, but when researchers re-upped NAD+ in mice, the mice looked and acted younger — and lived longer too. What can you do? The nootropic supplement Keto Prime shifts the bodily ratio of NADH to NAD+ – which makes mitochondrial energy production more efficient. Your mitochondria are what keep your cells healthy and vibrant. Another way to boost your longevity? Autophagy — your body’s natural detoxification process. Find out how to induce autophagy to boost your lifespan.

Vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women linked to child obesity

A new study[ref url=”http://news.usc.edu/136309/pregnant-women-deficient-in-vitamin-d-may-give-birth-to-obese-children/”] from the Keck School of Medicine, USC reveals that vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women may result in obese children. Specifically, researchers observed that mothers with low levels of vitamin D fostered 6-year-olds with bigger than average waists – about half an inch larger than children born from vitamin D-sufficient mothers. The children also carried 2% more body fat. If you’re pregnant (or even if you’re not), be sure to get 20 minutes of daily sunshine; eat vitamin D-rich Bulletproof foods like fatty fish and egg yolks; and consider supplementing with vitamin D – in the morning, 1,000 IU per 25 pounds of body weight. Read more about the top 5 reasons vitamin D makes women bulletproof.

Gut bacteria play a role in obesity development and insulin resistance

In obesity-related news, this Johns Hopkins study[ref url=”https://www.nature.com/articles/mi2017114″] reveals a direct correlation between gut bacteria and obesity in mice. The intestinal microbiome – home to a host of bacteria, viruses, and fungal genes – is known to play a key role in obesity development and insulin resistance. This study concludes that there is potential to prevent obesity and diabetes by manipulating gut bacteria levels or related genes that are responsible for metabolism.

To help healthy gut bacteria thrive and minimize the bad bacteria, focus on nutrient-dense, low-inflammation foods. Read more about how to own your gut bacteria.

Uber-processed foods cause cancer

What else makes you fat — and causes cancer? French researchers found mass-produced, packaged bread, chips, sodas and sweetened beverages, instant noodles and soups, frozen/ready-made meals, and even the bad kind of chocolate (less than 70% cacao) are the culprit. The BMJ study[ref url=”http://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.k322″] of 105,000 people revealed the more of these foods people consumed, the greater their cancer risk. The link between being overweight and disease risk is well known. However, what is a little murkier is the difference between processed foods that typically contain a lot of fat, sugar, and processed carbohydrates versus whole foods that naturally contain high levels of fat. You can understand the common health myths about sugar, fats, and meat here.

Is rock-climbing the ultimate full-body workout?

Time Magazine ran an online story[ref url=”http://time.com/5158732/rock-climbing-workout/”] touting rock climbing as the physical activity to live by. Here’s why: rock climbing engages all of your muscles in a way few other activities do. Because climbing terrain varies from one step to the next, you’re constantly mixing it up and challenging muscles in different ways, compared to workouts that rely on the same repetitive motions. Climbing combines the pushing, pulling, and lifting of high-intensity resistance training with a solid cardio workout for a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workout. Read up on the benefits of HIIT and why HIIT is the key to keeping weight off.

Climb the stairs to lower blood pressure and strengthen leg muscles

If you can’t climb walls, climb the stairs instead. A new North American Menopause Society (NAMS) study[ref url=”https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180214093842.htm”] finds that climbing stairs is another great way to combine cardio and resistance training into one activity. The study found that taking the stairs lowers blood pressure and builds leg strength, particularly in postmenopausal women. Catch up on the complete Bulletproof exercise guide, including what a typical routine looks like.

New Study Finds Non-Stick Pans Sabotage Weight Loss

February 14, 2018 by Team Asprey

A new study[ref url=”http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002502″] finds that environmental chemicals known as perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – found in fast-food wrappers, non-stick pots and pans, textile coatings, and even paper – cause another worrisome and unwanted side-effect. Previously linked to hormone dysregulation, immune dysfunction, high cholesterol, and even cancer, PFAS exposure is now also linked to weight gain. Specifically, researchers found that people with the highest levels of PFAS in their bloodstream had the hardest time keeping weight off after dieting.

High PFAS levels are associated with weight gain

For the study, over 600 people followed a heart-healthy diet for six months, leading to an average weight loss of 14 pounds. Over the next 18 months, participants gained back an average of 6 pounds. All the while, researchers tracked PFAS concentrations in people’s bloodstreams. They noticed that while PFAS levels didn’t affect how much weight people lost originally, they did affect how much participants gained back. In fact, people who gained the most weight back possessed the highest PFAS levels. Furthermore, the link appeared to be gender-based – women with the highest PFAS blood levels regained 2.7 to 4.9 pounds more than women with the lowest PFAS levels. It’s possible that PFAS obstruct estrogen metabolism, which is why these results are notably evident in women.

High PFAS levels are also linked to lower resting metabolic rates

Interestingly, the study also concluded that people with the highest PFAS levels possessed lower resting metabolic rates – the baseline rate of caloric burn doing sedentary, daily activities. “People with lower metabolic rates are more likely to accumulate a lot of fat in the body, so this may be a very important part of the problem,” says senior author Qi Sun, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Minimize your risk of environmental toxicity to manage your weight

While Sun argues that it’s “basically impossible” for Americans to avoid PFAS entirely – after all, they’re found in drinking water, contaminated seafood, and packaging products, to name a few – there are steps you can take to minimize your exposure and risk of PFAS health hazards, including the more immediate side-effect of weight gain.

To limit your exposure to PFAS as much as possible:

Purchase PFAS-free pots and pans. Look for ceramic non-stick options, though keep in mind they should not be heated above 450 degrees. As well, best if they’re not manufactured in Latin American or Asian countries where regulations are more lax for cadmium and lead.
Mind your wrappers. This can be trickier if you are eating on-the-go and happen to partake in fast-food. Those wrappers, used because they repel oil and water, are loaded with PFAS, so best to bypass them entirely. Plus, in most cases, the actual food in the wrappers isn’t exactly a boon for your belly either. Microwave popcorn bags also contain PFAS.
Ensure your water is PFAS-free. Purchase a water filter for your home/office faucet with a label on it that notes PFAS-free.

Final takeaway: These environmental chemicals are now linked to weight gain – which is actually a side effect of toxicity in and of itself. One of your bodily defenses is to wrap up toxins in visceral fat to keep it away from your organs – which contributes to weight gain. So even if you’re not trying to lose weight, you still want to keep PFAS out of your system.

To help rid your body of built-up toxins like PFAS naturally, forget about juice cleanses. Think autophagy – a process where your body cleans out damaged cells and toxins to help regenerate newer, healthier cells. While your body does this, to some degree, naturally, there are things you can do to amp up the process. Learn more about how to help your body detox with autophagy.

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