Best Books About Health

Ozempic and similar drugs were initially thought to work solely in the gut to increase satiety. But new research suggests they also act powerfully on the brain, potentially boosting self-control across the board. Key findings include:

• GLP-1 receptors are found extensively in the brain's appetite and reward centers
• Stimulating these receptors in rats reduced cravings for junk food but not healthy chow
• The drugs also reduced cravings for cocaine, alcohol, nicotine in rats - by up to 50%
• In human anecdotes, the drugs reduce addictive urges around alcohol, drugs, gambling

This raises fascinating questions - could obesity drugs help treat addiction and impulsive behavior more broadly? Are we on the cusp of a self-control revolution?

Section: 1, Chapter: 7

Inflammation is a key way obesity wreaks havoc on health. As fat cells expand, the body perceives the stretching as "damage" and floods fat tissue with inflammatory chemicals. This chronic inflammation impairs immune function and the body's ability to heal itself. It also directly promotes the development of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Reducing obesity-induced inflammation is one key way weight loss could boost health.

Section: 1, Chapter: 4

The author's friend Lara confronts him about his real motives for taking Ozempic. She argues that despite his focus on health benefits, vanity and the desire to conform to societal ideals are also driving him. "If this drug gave you all the same benefits to your health, but it also gave you boils on your face, would you take it?" she challenges. The author has to admit he likely wouldn't. This tension between health and looks dogs many Ozempic users. There's an inherent risk and hypocrisy, Lara argues, in harming your health to look healthier. Those considering the drugs must interrogate their own motives ruthlessly and make peace with that tension.

Section: 1, Chapter: 9

Starting in the late 1970s, something unprecedented happened - obesity rates skyrocketed across the world, more than doubling in the US between 1979-2000. This had never happened before in human history and could not be explained by genetics. The food environment had transformed, flooding us with addictive processed foods.

Scientist Paul Kenny ran an experiment where rats were exposed to the modern American diet - cheesecake, bacon, sugary foods. The rats quickly became addicted, ballooned in weight, and kept overeating even when it meant enduring painful electric shocks. When the junk food was taken away, they starved rather than going back to healthy chow. This mirrors how the human food environment has overridden our natural appetite regulation.

Section: 1, Chapter: 2

In 1984, Daniel Drucker, a young Canadian scientist, accidentally discovered GLP-1 while studying the inner workings of glucagon genes in a run-down lab in Massachusetts. He found that GLP-1 could stimulate the creation of insulin, a crucial discovery that would later lead to the development of new diabetes and weight loss drugs.

Scientists discovered that the venom of the Gila monster lizard contained a copy of GLP-1 that lasted much longer in the human body than natural GLP-1. This led to the development of drugs that could elevate GLP-1 levels for a whole week, bringing blood sugar under control for diabetics. Researchers then found these drugs also caused significant weight loss in obese people.

Section: 1, Chapter: 1

Obesity dramatically increases the risk for a staggering range of serious diseases, including:

• Diabetes: Obese men are 6x more likely and obese women 12x more likely to develop diabetes, which can lead to blindness, amputations, kidney failure and early death.
• Physical pain: Extra weight strains joints, leading to chronic pain. Obese people are 3x more likely to need knee/hip replacements.
• Heart disease: Obesity contributes to high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, and heart failure. Each 5-point BMI increase boosts heart failure risk 41%.
• Cancer: Obesity is linked to 9 types of cancer and is the 2nd biggest cause of cancer in the US/UK.
• Dementia: Obesity and its related conditions increase dementia risk.

Section: 1, Chapter: 4

The author wonders if by trumpeting his Ozempic-driven weight loss so proudly, he's undermining the message of body positivity he wants to impart to his niece's generation. He worries he's promoting the idea that thinness is worth any cost, that "it's better to be thin than to eat." If he loses weight and then gains it back, will he be an even more demoralizing role model? The author realizes there's a direct tension between the message "love yourself at any size" and "medicate yourself to shrink." He has to find a way to resolve this cognitive dissonance, both for himself and the young people watching him.

Section: 1, Chapter: 9

Every Japanese workplace has a shocking anti-obesity ritual - mandatory annual weigh-ins and waistline checks for every employee. It's a group accountability practice unthinkable in the individualistic West. At first glance it seems dystopian, even unethical - a violation of body privacy and autonomy.

But the results are undeniable - Japan boasts stunning population-level leanness and health even as other rich nations balloon in weight. There may be a lesson here in hacking "social contagion" for good - making healthy choices the "easy" default through shared commitment, support, and positive peer pressure. What if we stopped framing body size as a purely personal, private affair and started treating it as a collective, public health responsibility?

Section: 1, Chapter: 12

An analysis of 2000 diet studies found that despite the intuitive appeal of "eat less, move more," diets simply don't work long-term for most people. The findings are stark:

• 2 years after starting a diet, people weigh on average only 2 lbs less than when they started
• 5 years out, the average loss is still only 6.6 lbs
• At most 20% of people maintain a 10% weight loss for a year
• Up to 66% of people actually gain fat mass despite exercising

This dismal track record is not due to individual failings, but to biological and environmental factors that doom most diets.

Section: 1, Chapter: 6

The mTOR enzyme is emerging as a central regulator of aging, and a key target of anti-aging interventions:

• mTOR acts as a control center, sensing nutrient levels and shifting the cell between growth and maintenance.
• When nutrients are plentiful, mTOR promotes growth and reproduction. When nutrients are scarce, it dials down growth and ramps up cell cleanup and recycling.
• Inhibiting mTOR (either through CR or rapamycin) seems to put the cell in a more youthful, resilient state - improving autophagy, stress resistance, mitochondrial function and more. These are the same hallmarks of longer-lived animals.
• Rapamycin powerfully inhibits mTOR. That suggests it could be used as an anti-aging drug. Animal studies show rapamycin extends lifespan and healthspan.
• Early human studies hint that rapamycin may actually enhance immune function, protect the heart and prevent age-related diseases, though more research is needed.

mTOR is one example of how understanding the mechanisms of aging could lead to targeted interventions to slow the entire aging process. That's a paradigm shift from just treating individual age-related diseases reactively.

Section: 1, Chapter: 5

Longevity is not just about maximizing lifespan. It's also critical to extend healthspan - the period of life lived in good health. The author breaks healthspan down into three domains:

Cognitive function - Preventing decline in memory, processing speed, executive function

Physical function - Maintaining strength, stamina, balance, avoiding frailty and disability

Emotional health - Ensuring mental well-being and avoiding emotional suffering

A long life is not very meaningful if cognitive and physical function are poor. Declining health in later years robs people of joy and autonomy. The author calls this period the "marginal decade." In contrast, by extending healthspan, we can achieve a "bonus decade" - extra years lived with vitality and good quality of life.

Section: 1, Chapter: 3

To understand the potential of human longevity, the author examines centenarians - the rare individuals who live 100+ years. Key insights:

• Centenarians tend to be in remarkably good health for their age. They experience a "compression of morbidity" - staying healthy longer, with a shorter period of decline at the very end of life.
• They delay the onset of major chronic diseases by decades compared to the general population. For example, the age at which 20% have been diagnosed with cancer is 100 for centenarians vs 72 for everyone else.
• More than just living longer, they seem to be aging more slowly their entire lives. An 80-year old centenarian has the health profile of an average 60-year old.
• Super-centenarians (110+) are often in even better health than "regular" centenarians

This suggests it's possible to extend healthspan, not just lifespan. We want to emulate centenarians' "rectangularized" survival curve - living well for longer, not just hanging on for more years of sickness. Studying how centenarians achieve this is instructive for the rest of us.

Section: 1, Chapter: 4

Atherosclerosis, the buildup of plaques in the arteries, is a lifelong process:

• It begins when LDL particles penetrate the endothelial lining of the artery and get stuck in the subendothelial space.
• Retained LDL undergoes oxidation, triggering an inflammatory response. Macrophages engulf the oxidized LDL, becoming foam cells.
• Smooth muscle cells migrate and proliferate, laying down collagen and other fibers to form a fibrous cap over the lipid-rich plaque.
• The plaque grows slowly over decades. Some become calcified, others remain 'soft'.
• Rupture of the fibrous cap can trigger a clot, leading to heart attack or stroke.

This process can begin in adolescence and progress silently for decades before causing symptoms. Early intervention is key as advanced plaques are harder to stabilize.

Section: 2, Chapter: 7

The debate over the optimal diet is rife with contradictions, competing dogmas, and ideological battles not rooted in science. Adherents of low-fat, vegan, carnivore, paleo, and keto diets all passionately proclaim theirs as the One True Way, despite a lack of conclusive evidence. The key problem: believing there is one perfect diet for all people.

Section: 3, Chapter: 14

The amyloid hypothesis has dominated Alzheimer's research for decades. It posits that accumulation of amyloid-beta in the brain is the primary cause of the disease.

However, numerous drugs targeting amyloid have failed in clinical trials, leading many to question this theory.

Alternative theories are gaining ground, implicating other potential drivers:

• Vascular dysfunction: Reduced blood flow to the brain may starve neurons of oxygen and nutrients. Vascular risk factors like hypertension and diabetes are strongly linked to AD risk.
• Metabolic dysfunction: Impaired glucose metabolism in the brain, often linked to insulin resistance, may lead to neuronal dysfunction and death.
• Inflammation: Chronic inflammation in the brain, driven by factors like obesity and poor diet, may accelerate neurodegeneration.
• Tau tangles: Accumulation of abnormal tau protein in neurons correlates more closely with cognitive decline than amyloid. Tau may be the real culprit.

Section: 0, Chapter: 9

Sleep deprivation takes a toll on cardiovascular health, increasing risk of:

• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Coronary heart disease, Heart attack, Stroke
• Heart failure

Sleeping less than 6 hours per night leads to a 200% increased risk of having a fatal heart attack or stroke in your lifetime. The mechanisms include:

• Increased heart rate and blood pressure
• Reduced heart rate variability (sign of unhealthy heart)
• Increased inflammation
• Impaired blood vessel function
• Increased calcification and blockage of coronary arteries
  

Section: 2, Chapter: 8

eep deprivation alters appetite hormones, leading to increased hunger and food cravings, especially for high-calorie foods. This is caused by:

• Increased ghrelin, a hormone that triggers hunger
• Decreased leptin, a hormone that provides satiety signals
• Increased endocannabinoids, which stimulate appetite Sleep deprived individuals consume 300+ more calories per day on average. Sleeping 5 hours per night for just one week can lead to 2 pounds of weight gain. Over a year, this could theoretically lead to 70+ pounds of weight gain if diet and exercise are unchanged. Sleep loss also reduces impulse control and ability to resist tempting foods. Getting sufficient sleep is a critical yet underappreciated factor for maintaining a healthy weight.

Section: 2, Chapter: 8