Recently, a patient asked me what I think of the tap water here in Marion, noting that many of her friends refuse to drink it, and choose instead to drink only bottled water.
In fact, I had the water at my house tested by a private company a few years ago, and the report came out quite favorably. (I don’t recall the name of the company that did it, and have no endorsement of a particular company in this regard). I think getting the water in your home tested periodically is not a bad idea for anybody to do. It’s also possible to get a good quality water filter for your home if you want to ensure the purest water possible. Again, I have no particular brand to endorse in this regard, so if this interests you, do your own research.
What I do wish to specifically comment on today is how awful bottled water is for you.
As my patients – and regular readers of this blog – know, one of my frequent recommendations for better health is to increase the intake of dietary protein. Dietary protein is satiating, which tends to lead to lower overall caloric intake, and thus less fat mass. At the same time, dietary protein supports muscle mass, particularly when combined with a regular program of physical activity. The combination of less fat and more muscle leads to lots of desirable outcomes, from improved health (lower blood pressure, lower blood glucose, improved metabolism, lower risk for frailty with aging) to a more visually appealing body aesthetic. Does this strategy work for everyone? No, we’re all unique. But for a lot of people it’s quite helpful.
However, frequently when I make this recommendation to patients, I am met with one particular concern: “won’t all of that extra protein harm my kidneys?”
Last year, I provided a link on this blog to a lecture I gave in 2023, about how lifestyle changes can improve arthritis and other musculoskeletal pains. If for some reason you want to watch that lecture, I will link to it here.
But to give you the brief summary of what I covered in that talk: being overweight doesn’t just cause arthritis by increasing physical pressure on the joint, but also because fat cells have the effect of up-regulating inflammatory signals in the body, which in turn lead to weakening of muscle, increased pain receptors, and other factors that create more pain.
Now a new study published in JAMA supports this point.
I’ve blogged on many occasions about my frustration with our national response to type 2 diabetes. While type 2 diabetes can be dramatically improved, and often outright cured, with lifestyle interventions such as diet and exercise, our system instead treats it as an intractable chronic illness that can merely be managed, not banished. Millions of patients are immediately put on medication at the first sign of poor blood sugar control, and while they are typically given some lip service about eating more healthfully, exercising, and losing weight, the focus of their treatment over the ensuing years involves an ever expanding pharmacopeia of medications. There is certainly evidence that many of these medications do help when compared to doing nothing, but it’s clear that even well treated diabetics don’t live as long and full lives as non-diabetics. So to me, this medication-centered approach is a tragedy of epic proportions.
A topic that I love, but haven’t yet gotten to comment on on this blog, is the remarkable health benefits of sauna use.
Over the past few decades, a large body of scientific research has shown that brief exposure to temperature extremes (both hot and cold) can lead to some biochemical processes in the body that promote better health. In a way, this is analogous to intense exercise. During a bout of intense exercise (say, doing sprints or jump ropes), certain chemical processes are upregulated in your body. In the hours after you finish exercising, these processes lead to beneficial effects in your body such as lowering your blood pressure, slowing your resting heart rate, and improving your insulin sensitivity. Similarly, being exposed to 15 or 20 minutes of uncomfortably hot air can lead to changes in your body over the ensuing hours that are beneficial to health.
One of the popular strategies for weight loss over the past decade has been intermittent fasting, or as some researchers call it, time restricted eating.
In case you don’t know what this is, it’s simply setting a restricted schedule around when you eat and when you don’t. Studies have shown that the typical American spends more than 15 out of every 24 hours in a “feeding” state, meaning that they eat shortly after waking in the morning, and then consume multiple meals and snacks throughout the day right up until shortly before bedtime. As a result, the longest stretch they ever go without eating in a typical day is no more than 9 hours, most of which consists of the time they are asleep overnight.
By contrast, somebody who is intermittent fasting might follow one of the following schedules:
