"Bliss Point," depression, & why you should measure VO2 Max | #12
Greetings everyone—
Happy February. With the unseasonably warm weather this month, I encourage you to get outside and move!
We’ve published a bunch of great blog posts since last month’s newsletter, I encourage you to check out:
Our health coach, Teresa Rosa, published a great piece, “4 Tips for Becoming a Successful Integrative Medicine Patient.”
I published a longish piece about environmental and social determinants of health, “Personal responsibility is now the “third rail” of public health — it shouldn’t be.”
Also, our team published a great summary of how diet can be used to treat Leaky Gut Syndrome, a common issue with many of my patients.
Ok—now, on to this month’s recommendations!
#1: How food industry scientists engineer “the bliss point”
This is a very well done story in Salon outlining how food scientists spend millions to get you addicted to food that’s bad for you: “This happens when companies use a combination of salt, sugar and fat to create foods that overstimulate the taste buds — and yet are designed to never quite leave you feeling satisfied.”
This is a big part of how we get excessive calorie intake leading to metabolic complications. It is by design. Definitely worth the read!
#2: Depression is a complex disease with many possible causal factors
As a society, we are finally moving past the mistaken belief that depression is caused by a lack of a serotonin in the brain. It was a theory proposed in the 1960s, but debunked by 2000. Yet, too often traditional medicine often still reaches for pharmacological treatments based on the old theory.
This piece in Quanta Magazine does a good job of explaining: “Just because aspirin relieves a headache, it doesn’t mean that aspirin deficits in the body are causing headaches.” So what does cause depression? Theories abound, including impacts of gut microbiome production of tryptophan (a serotonin precursor), chronic inflammatory conditions, and reductions in neural connections in certain areas of the brain.
The bottom line is that an approach combining cognitive behavioral therapy, lifestyle modifications (focused on nutrition and movement), and medications in selective combinations will offer the best treatment for a still complex disease.
#3: Reversing Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease is Possible
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease and is found in almost 25% of Americans. 5% of us develop the more aggressive version, Non-alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH), which is a result of scarring and fibrosis of liver cells which unchecked can lead to liver failure.
The vast majority of NAFLD is due to increased saturated fat and processed food intake. In this study, 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week (brisk walking) resulted in a 30% reduction in liver fat as measure by MRI. Yet another benefit of keeping moving on a daily basis!
#4: Older adults should be testing their VO2 Max
VO2 Max is the maximum volume of oxygen your body can import, transport and use in a single minute during intense physical activity. It is a measure of fitness used typically in high performance athletes and runners. As Medscape reports, there is “a growing body of research has long shown VO2 max to be a significant determinant of health and one that physicians should be paying closer attention to, especially for aging patients.”
Garmin has a good explanation of what your VO2 Max should be depending on your age range. It is now being used more frequently to track fitness levels as we age. This article explores its use in older individuals and describes why it is important to measure. If you have a sports watch such as Garmin or trackers such as Whoop and Apple Watch you have access to your VO2 Max.