Category: Persuasion

As many as 50 percent of the world’s population are deficient in this vitamin.

High levels of vitamin D in the body are linked to weight loss and losing more belly fat, research finds.

One study has found that drinking more milk, which contains calcium and vitamin D, can double weight loss.

Higher levels of the vitamin may help the body to decrease the storage of fat.

On the other hand, low levels are linked to fat storage.

People on a diet have been shown to lose 20 pounds more when their vitamin D levels are high.

The current study included 90 young US women in California whose weight and vitamin D levels were tested.

The results revealed that low levels of vitamin D were linked to being shorter and heavier.

Dr Richard Kremer, the study’s first author, said:

“The high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in young people living in a sun-rich area was surprising.

We found young women with vitamin D insufficiency were significantly heavier, with a higher body mass index and increased abdominal fat, than young women with normal levels.”

Vitamin D is linked to the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is involved in many vital bodily processes, including mood and sleep.

Dr. Vicente Gilsanz, study co-author, said:

“Clinicians need to identify vitamin D levels in younger adults who are at risk by using a simple and useful blood test.

Because lack of vitamin D can cause fat accumulation and increased risk for chronic disorders later in life, further investigation is needed to determine whether vitamin D supplements could have potential benefits in the healthy development of young people.”

Vitamin D deficiency has also been linked to cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases and a higher chance of getting colds.

Foods that are rich in vitamin D include oily fish and eggs, but most people get their vitamin D from the action of sunlight on the skin.

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (Kremer et al., 2008).

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Episode 1746 Scott Adams: PART2 Headlines and Coffee. UFOs And Ukraine. More

Content:

• Elon Musk amusing antics
• Project Veritas and Twitter senior engineer
• Russian Generals jaw dropping truth
• The weakest Presidential administration
• The abortion debate
• Misinterpreting my mask and vaxx comments
• If you would like to enjoy this same content plus bonus content from Scott Adams, including micro-lessons on lots of useful topicsto build your talent stack, please see scottadams.locals.com for full access to that secret treasure.

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The quick workout reduces the risk of heart disease without jogging a single step or lifting a single weight.

A five-minute workout can lower the risk of a heart attack, increase your sports performance and improve clear thinking, research finds.

This is all without jogging a single step or lifting a single weight.

Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (IMST) was developed in the 1980s to improve respiratory muscles in people with lung diseases such as bronchitis, asthma and emphysema.

It involves breathing hard through a hand-held device and improves exercise performance by increasing lung capacity and so makes breathing easier.

Imagine sucking vigorously through a straw that sucks back.

Mr Daniel Craighead, the leader of the study, said:

“IMST is basically strength-training for the muscles you breathe in with.

It’s something you can do quickly in your home or office, without having to change your clothes, and so far it looks like it is very beneficial to lower blood pressure and possibly boost cognitive and physical performance.”

In 2016, research found that 30 inhalations a day with greater resistance helped patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

This condition occurs among people with weak breathing muscles,  in which the throat muscles randomly relaxes and blocks the airway during sleep.

Snoring and shortness of breath are noticeable signs of obstructive sleep apnea.

Participants in this study, after a period of six weeks, developed an unexpected side-effect of the therapy, besides getting more restful sleep.

The subjects systolic blood pressure rapidly reduced by 12 millimetres of mercury, which is higher than many medications and twice as much as aerobic exercise’s effect.

If a high normal rate for systolic blood pressure is 130 mmHg then this means that 30 inhalations per day will reduce the rate to 118 mmHg.

There is no doubt that 30 minutes daily aerobic exercises can reduce blood pressure, but only 5% of adults follow this advice and exercise that amount.

On the other hand, 65% of middle aged people suffer from high blood pressure.

The preliminary results from the recent clinical trial confirmed that the IMST group performed better on certain memory and cognitive tests as well as seeing improvements in large-artery function and a reduction in blood pressure.

The study was presented at the Experimental Biology conference in Orlando and the abstract is published in FASB Journal (Craighead et al., 2019).

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A diet enriched with this oil can lower the levels of bad cholesterol, study has found.

A high-fat diet rich in cottonseed oil can improve cholesterol levels within a 5-day period, research finds.

The study examined the effect of a diet enriched with cottonseed oil or olive oil on lipid profiles (cholesterol and triglycerides levels) in adult men.

These subjects were between 18 and 45 years old and they consumed either a cottonseed oil-rich diet or an olive oil-rich diet for five days.

Cottonseed oil consumption appeared to have a great effect on lipid profiles, but olive oil had no effect at all.

A 15 percent reduction in low-density lipoprotein or LDL (the bad cholesterol) was one of the outcomes of the cottonseed oil diet.

Also, the total cholesterol level was decreased by 8 percent and triglyceride levels dropped down 30 percent.

After just 5 days on a cottonseed oil-rich diet, the level of high-density lipoprotein or HDL (the good cholesterol) was increased by 8 percent.

Dr Jamie Cooper, study co-author, said:

“One of the reasons these results were so surprising is because of the magnitude of change observed with the cottonseed oil diet.

To see this amount of change in such a short period of time is exciting.”

The meals for both 5-day diets were prepared by research personnel ensuring 44 percent of total energy came from cottonseed oil or olive oil.

The meals were a high-fat liquid shake which consisted of 15 percent protein, 35 percent carbohydrates, and 50 percent fat.

The liquid meals contained whey chocolate protein, milk, chocolate syrup, and added oil (either cottonseed oil or olive oil).

The study suggests that dihydrosterculic acid, which is a fatty acid unique to cottonseed oil, is the key because it stops triglycerides building up in the body.

Triglycerides are a type of fat and accumulation of them in the blood vessels may cause heart attacks and strokes.

A high triglyceride level in combination with a high amount of bad cholesterol or low amount of good cholesterol in the blood will increase the risk of heart disease.

Dr Cooper said:

“By doing that, it pushes the body to burn more of that fat because it can’t store it properly, so you have less lipid and cholesterol accumulation.”

The study was published in Nutrition Research (Polley et al., 2018).

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One trait can help protect you from anxiety and depression.

People with stable emotions are at a lower risk of developing anxiety and depression, research finds.

Emotional stability is linked to being better at dealing with stress and minor frustrations.

People who are emotionally stable usually find it easier to control their urges and are mostly unselfconscious.

On top of this, people with stable emotions tend to live longer, perhaps because it leads to a healthier lifestyle.

In contrast, being neurotic — the opposite of emotional stability — is linked to less happiness in life.

Unfortunately, the personality trait can lead to a shorter lifespan.

Part of the reason may be that worriers tend to self-medicate with alcohol, cigarettes and other unhealthy habits.

The conclusions come from a study of 1,788 men who were followed over 30 years.

The results showed that neurotic people were more likely to smoke and this was linked to higher mortality.

Professor Daniel K. Mroczek, the study’s first author, said:

“Research shows that higher levels of neuroticism can lead to earlier mortality, and we wanted to know why.

We found that having worrying tendencies or being the kind of person who stresses easily is likely to lead to bad behaviors like smoking and, therefore, raise the mortality rate.

This work is a reminder that high levels of some personality traits can be hazardous to one’s physical health.”

Reducing neuroticism

It is possible to change a neurotic personality, though, the results of 207 separate studies have found.

People become significantly less neurotic after undergoing therapy.

After only three months of treatment, people’s emotional stability had improved by half as much as it would over their entire adulthood.

After having psychotherapy and/or taking medication, people were also slightly more extraverted.

Both reduced neuroticism and increased extraversion were maintained in the long-term.

The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Mroczek et al., 2009).

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Belly fat is linked to developing heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Exercise is the best way to reduce belly fat, research concludes.

Scientists compared the effects of exercise against medicines for reducing visceral (belly) fat.

The results showed that people lost more visceral fat per pound of total body weight lost.

Visceral fat is the fat that lies deep in the body and is linked to developing heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Dr Ian J. Neeland, the study’s first author, said:

“Visceral fat can affect local organs or the entire body system.

Systemically it can affect your heart and liver, as well as abdominal organs.

When studies use weight or body mass index as a metric, we don’t know if the interventions are reducing fat everywhere in the body, or just near the surface.”

The study was a review of 17 separate randomised controlled trials.

Together they followed 3,602 people for up to a six-month period.

The results showed that both exercise and medicines reduced visceral fat, but exercise worked better.

Dr Neeland said:

“The location and type of fat is important.

If you just measure weight or BMI, you can underestimate the benefit to your health of losing weight.

Exercise can actually melt visceral fat.”

Fat used to be seen as inactive by doctors, but now it is thought of as active in disease processes.

Around 40 percent of Americans are obese.

Dr Neeland said:

“Some people who are obese get heart disease, diabetes, or metabolic syndrome—and others don’t.

Our study suggests that a combination of approaches can help lower visceral fat and potentially prevent these diseases.”

The study was published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Rao et al., 2019).

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Taking blood pressure pills at the right time halves the risk of heart failure, heart attack and stroke.

Blood pressure pills are much more effective if taken at bedtime, an easy behaviour that could greatly reduce the risk of heart disease.

A study has found that, unlike patients who take their medications for high blood pressure in the morning, those who routinely take their pills before going to bed respond better to the treatment.

The researchers followed 9,000 patients for 6 years to see if taking anti-hypertensive medication at night or in the morning has a better effect on cardiovascular disease.

The risk of dying from or having a heart attack, stroke, and heart failure reduced by nearly half in patients who took their medications at bedtime.

These patients had a 66 percent lower risk of death from heart or blood vessel problems as opposed to those who took their medication in the morning.

Taking medications at bedtime also lowered the risk of:

• stroke by 49 percent,
• myocardial infarction, which is a type of heart attack, by 44 percent,
• heart failure by 42 percent,
• and coronary revascularisation by 40 percent.

Professor Ramón C. Hermida, the study’s first author, said:

“Current guidelines on the treatment of hypertension do not mention or recommend any preferred treatment time.

Morning ingestion has been the most common recommendation by physicians based on the misleading goal of reducing morning blood pressure levels.

The results of this study show that patients who routinely take their anti-hypertensive medication at bedtime, as opposed to when they wake up, have better-controlled blood pressure and, most importantly, a significantly decreased risk of death or illness from heart and blood vessel problems.”

The human body’s circadian rhythms or biological clock might have an impact on the absorption of anti-hypertensive drugs since they influence hormone production and digestion.

In this study, those who took their medicine at bedtime had considerably lower blood pressure during the day.

The bedtime treatment lowered their blood pressure even more at night in comparison to patients who were taking their drugs each morning.

Professor Hermida said:

“The findings — indicate that average blood pressure levels while asleep and night-time blood pressure dipping, but not day-time blood pressure or blood pressure measured in the clinic, are jointly the most significant blood pressure-derived markers of cardiovascular risk.”

The study was published in European Heart Journal (Hermida et al., 2019).

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Episode 1747 Scott Adams: Let’s Talk About All The Headlines And Figure Out What’s Going On

Content:

• Project Veritas newest is funny (Twitter)
• Amber Heard’s “best friend”
• Supremacy, is mental illness
• 3D printing everything
• Drone warfare making tanks obsolete
• Ministry of Truth paused, Nina resigns
• If you would like to enjoy this same content plus bonus content from Scott Adams, including micro-lessons on lots of useful topicsto build your talent stack, please see scottadams.locals.com for full access to that secret treasure.

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Episode 1748 Scott Adams: Headlines And A Beverage Sip Because We Like Doing That

Content:

• Chinese drone mothership
• 3D printing drones
• Amber Heard’s sister testifies
• Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act
• Was Keith Raniere set up?
• 100 groups advocate lower Fentanyl penalties
• If you would like to enjoy this same content plus bonus content from Scott Adams, including micro-lessons on lots of useful topicsto build your talent stack, please see scottadams.locals.com for full access to that secret treasure.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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The study looked at three different types of hostility: emotional, behavioural and cognitive.

Being hostile and cynical increases the risk of heart problems, research finds.

Cynical people tend to be distrustful of the nature and motives of others and believe they are motivated only by self-interest.

Cynicism is also linked to pessimism and being contemptuous.

While hostility has long been linked to heart problems, this is one of the first studies to link it to being cynical.

The study, which included 196 people, looked at three different types of hostility: emotional, behavioural and cognitive.

Ms Alexandra T. Tyra, the study’s first author, explained:

“Cynical hostility is more cognitive, consisting of negative beliefs, thoughts and attitudes about other people’s motives, intentions and trustworthiness.

It can be considered suspiciousness, lack of trust or cynical beliefs about others.

These findings reveal that a greater tendency to engage in cynical hostility—which appears to be extremely relevant in today’s political and health climate—can be harmful not only for our short-term stress responses but also our long-term health.”

Meanwhile, behavioural hostility manifests as verbal or physical aggression and emotional hostility as chronic anger.

Under healthy circumstances, people get used to stressors and adapt to them.

Ms Tyra explained:

“Essentially, when you’re exposed to the same thing multiple times, the novelty of that situation wears off, and you don’t have as big of a response as you did the first time.

This is a healthy response. But our study demonstrates that a higher tendency for cynical hostility may prevent or inhibit this decrease in response over time.

In other words, the cardiovascular system responds similarly to a second stressor as it did to the first.

This is unhealthy because it places increased strain on our cardiovascular system over time.”

The people in the study were given personality tests along with a test of their stress response.

The results showed that neither emotional nor behavioural hostility were linked to a higher stress response.

Ms Tyra said:

“This does not imply that emotional and behavioral hostility are not bad for you, just that they may affect your health or well-being in other ways.”

However, people with greater cynical hostility had a high and sustained stress response.

Ms Tyra said:

“I would hope that this research raises awareness about the potential health implications of cynicism.

Perhaps the next time someone thinks a negative thought about the motives, intentions or trustworthiness of their best friend, a co-worker or even a politician, they will think twice about actively engaging with that thought.”

The study was published in the journal Psychophysiology (Tyra et al., 2020).

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