Try This - 5 Shares For Your Week 💡

This week I have five shares for you. 

1. If you have belly fat, you need to see this 

2. The easiest way to feel better

3. How food shapes your cognitive health 

4. A practical guide to pain relief

5. Super simple relationship reminder

Let’s get into it. 

Number 1: Belly Fat Is A Huge Predictor Of Heart Disease

A surprising number of people with a “normal” body mass index (BMI) still have excess abdominal fat (aka belly fat), and we need to pay attention to it, especially if we care about protecting our hearts!

Researchers analyzed data from more than 260,000 people who were followed for an average of 20 years, looking at BMI alongside waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio.

Among people considered "normal weight" by BMI, 18 percent still had a high waist-to-hip ratio. This means you can appear relatively lean on the scale while carrying excess fat around your abdomen—a pattern associated with a substantially higher cardiovascular risk. 

In fact, in the study, having a high waist circumference or waist-to-hip ratio was associated with roughly a 15–50 percent higher risk across most of the cardiovascular outcomes studied, including heart attack, stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular death.

Why? 

This particular fat stored deep within your abdomen, known as visceral fat, surrounds organs like your liver and intestines and is much more metabolically active than the fat sitting underneath your skin. Higher levels are associated with insulin resistance, inflammation, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Of course, waist circumference isn't a perfect measurement of visceral fat. If you want a more detailed picture of your body composition, imaging like a DEXA scan can be useful. But most of us aren't getting DEXA scans regularly. A tape measure costs a few dollars and can reveal something your bathroom scale can't.

There are limitations: This was an observational study, researchers only measured participants' waists once, and they didn't have complete information on diet, exercise, or genetic obesity risk.

Still, I think the takeaway is important: This isn't about getting skinny. It's about paying attention to where your body fat is stored.

Especially as we age, it's possible to gradually lose muscle and gain abdominal fat without seeing much movement on the scale. Your weight may stay the same while your body composition and cardiovascular risk change significantly.

Number 2: Walk It Out

This one is a simple reminder that sometimes a walk is all you need to make a tough day a better one. Have you walked today?

Number 3: Could What You Eat Today Change Your Dementia Risk Decades from Now?

My friend Max Lugavere has been talking about the connection between food, metabolic health, and brain health for years. So I was excited to see his new perspective published on how nutrition may help reduce our risk of cognitive decline and dementia.

It’s estimated that 14 modifiable factors account for roughly 45 percent of dementia risk, including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, physical inactivity, depression, hearing and vision loss, smoking, social isolation, and air pollution. Max argues that the number may be even higher when you consider emerging factors like micronutrient deficiencies.

One of the biggest themes in the paper is metabolic health. Excess visceral fat and insulin resistance don't just increase your risk of diabetes. Impaired insulin signaling in the brain may interfere with glucose utilization, synaptic function, and the metabolism of amyloid and tau, two proteins closely associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Max also makes a strong case for maintaining muscle and eating enough protein as we age. Muscle helps dispose of glucose and acts as an endocrine organ, releasing signals that influence inflammation and brain function. 

Then there are the nutrients our brains need to function. Max highlights omega-3s, carotenoids from leafy greens and colorful produce, vitamin E, choline, magnesium, B vitamins, and creatine. One striking finding he cites: In the Framingham Offspring Study, people with the highest red-blood-cell levels of DHA had a 49 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease than those with the lowest levels.

He also brings some nuance to the conversation around red meat. Rather than lumping processed and unprocessed meat together, Max points out that unprocessed meat provides several important nutrients for the brain, including creatine, B12, iron, zinc, choline, selenium, and carnitine. At the same time, he emphasizes that high LDL cholesterol is now considered a modifiable dementia risk factor and should be appropriately managed.

And diet is only one part of the equation. Aerobic and resistance exercise, restorative sleep, social connection, hearing and vision care, avoiding smoking, moderating or eliminating alcohol, and reducing harmful environmental exposures may all contribute to protecting the aging brain.

My biggest takeaway from Max's paper is that brain health is whole-body health. He places emphasis on: 

• Protecting your metabolism 

• Maintaining muscle 

• Managing blood pressure and cholesterol 

• Eating nutrient-dense, minimally processed foods

• Sleeping deeply

• Staying socially connected may all help stack the odds in your favor.

And because many of the biological processes involved in dementia begin decades before symptoms appear, this isn't advice to save for your 70s. Midlife, and potentially much earlier, is when the opportunity for prevention may be greatest.

Number 4:  If You Struggle with Chronic Pain, This Book Is for You

So many people struggle with chronic pain, and my heart goes out to them. Especially as we get older, it can be so easy to start making decisions based on our pain: skipping workouts and saying no to plans because we’re worried about making injuries worse. 

In his new book, Live More. Hurt Less., Dr. Sean Pastuch challenges the idea that chronic pain has to dictate what you're capable of doing. He draws on 20 years of working with thousands of people experiencing pain and explains how to distinguish pain that's truly a warning sign from pain that doesn't necessarily mean your body is being damaged. 

And, most importantly, he provides practical strategies for using movement and exercise to rebuild confidence in your body, gradually return to activities you've been avoiding, and manage the mental side of living with persistent pain.

This is a great tool if you or anyone you know is struggling with chronic pain

Number 5: Relationship Advice

On the note of simplicity, I love these sentiments that remind us that sometimes the most impactful things are the basic yet overlooked ones.

That’s it for now. See you next week for shares.

Much love,
Dhru Purohit

The information in this newsletter is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice; please consult a qualified healthcare professional before making any health-related decisions.