How do Old Wives' Tales stack up?

Protein has gone from food group to fad - it's getting a lot of attention these days in the health and fitness. At the gym people can be seen with their protein shakes and heard talking about how much protein they need. But is it all hype or substance? In this episode, we will discuss what protein is, what the guidelines say and how to get the protein you need in your diet. 

Nutrition myths have been around for millenia. Some are harmless while others can be harmful to your health. And with social media, the spread of nutrition myths and misinformation spreads far easier than before. In this episode, we will discuss five common myths and talk about the science that debunks them. Select references cited in this podcast: Effect of breakfast on weight and energy intake: Systematic review and meta-analysos of randomized trials: https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l42 Tubers as a fallback and their impact on Hazda hunter-gatherers: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.21040 Butter and plant-based oils intake and mortality: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2831265

With every passing year, and passing day for that matter, you get older and age. It's unavoidable, but while everyone gets older at the same rate, not everyone ages at the same rate. In this episode, we discuss why some people age faster than others, what biological age is, and what you can do to slow it down. Select references cited in this podcast: Longidtudinal changes in epigenetic clocks predict long-term mortality: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-026-01095-1 Three months of strength training changes the gene expression of inflammation-related genes in PBMC of older women: A randomized controlled trial: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/11/3/531 Higher diet quality relates to decelerated epigenetic aging: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916522001204

Roughly half of households worldwide own a pet. And pet ownership continues to climb. There's a lot written to say pets make you healthier, but is that really the case? In this episode we discuss whether pets make people healthy, what are the down sides of owning a pet and the biology behind how your pet affects you.

What to spice up your sex life? Try exercise. Exercise does more than just strengthen your body, it can also strengthen your connections with others, including that special somone just in time for Valentine's Day. In this episode, we discuss how exercise can make you more attractive to others, how it improves connections (enhances new and existing ones) and what's going on in your body to make that happen. Select references cited in this podcast: Effects of Exercise Interventions on Body Image: A Meta-analysis: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1359105309338977 Snychrony and Physiological Arousal Increase Cohersion and Cooperation in Large Naturalistic Groups: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18023-4 Marital Benefits of Daily Individual and Conjoint Exercise Among Older Couples: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/fare.12307

It's the dark days of winter in the Northern Hemisphere in which the sun shines less and is lower in the sky. That means your body has less of a chance of making vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin. Vitamin D is an essential nutrient, meaning your body can't produce it on its own. In this episode, we discuss what vitamin D is and what it does in your body, how you can get vitamin D and how using sunscreen affects how much you have, and what vitamin D defficiency means to your health. Select references cited in this podcast: Effect of Vitamin D3 Supplements on Development of Advanced Cancer: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2773074 The Role of Water-Soluble Viatmins and Vitamin D in Prevention and Treatment of Depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder in Adults: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/12/1902 Supplemental Vitamin D and Incident Fractures in Midlife and Older Adults: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2202106    

The holiday season is upon us and with it the parties, food and time with family and friends. This can be season of joy, but it also brings with it challenges to your healthy lifestyle and for many, extra stress. Up to 45% of people go on an exercise break during the holidays and 90% report some holiday related stress. It's also a time of year we see more people having heart attacks. In this episode, we discuss ways to enjoy the holidays while keeping up with healthy eating and activity, as well as how to handle any extra stress that may come your way. We finish with discussing why heart attacks rise during the holidays and how you can help yourself or a loved one prevent this from occurring.

Old Wives' Tales are claims or sayings meant to promote a specific behaviour, such as eating carrots to improve eyesight. Many of these Tales started without any facts or science to support them and while following some may be harmless, others are not. In this episode, we've fact-checked four common Old Wives' Tales related to health, and the results may surprise you.

To start off our fourth season, we're doing something a bit different. In this special episode we're talking about how our very own Scott Lear achieves what he preaches to live a healthy life to support his physical and mental health. We'll touch on his physical activity, nutrition and sleep routines as well as how important socialization is to mental health.   And be sure to subscribe and join us in future episodes which will cover topics on how being active can make you more productive, busting common nutrition myths, how helping others can benefit you and discussing the latest scientific breakthroughs that will come up in the coming year.   

Is long been promoted that any activity is good for you. And in fact many people need to be doing more, but recent research indicates that not all types activity are good for you. In this episode, we discuss what types of activity may actually be harmful, what is the physical activity paradox, can you do too much activity and the biology behind it all. Select references cited in this podcast: The physical activity paradox in cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: the contemporary Copenhagen General Population Study with 104 046 adults: https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/42/15/1499/6213772 When Moving is the Only Option: The Role of Necessity Versus Choice for Understanding and Promoting Physical Activity in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4411302 Coronary artery calcification and high-volume physical activity: role of lower intensity vs. longer duration of exercise: https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/article/31/12/1526/7656624