WIL Weekly #45
Your cells are starving for creatine, night time light and diabetes and more...
This is my free weekly newsletter covering 5 interesting points from the week. Subscribe (if you haven’t already) if you’d like to get it in your inbox each week!
1. Yet another study finding higher cholesterol linked with better survival
I’ve presented multiple studies in previous WIL Weeklies finding that higher cholesterol is linked with higher lifespan / survival. Now we have another study from just last month finding that higher LDL “bad” cholesterol is better for survival in asthmatics.
June 2024 paper: Association between serum lipid and all-cause mortality in asthmatic populations: a cohort study
“Our investigation concluded that in American asthmatic populations, LDL-C levels were inversely and linearly correlated with mortality.”
This study looked at 3233 patients with asthma in the NHANES database (2011-2018). They found a “17% decrease in the probability of death for each increased unit of low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) (mmol/L).”
2. Risk of dying from climate-related disasters dropped 99% since 1920
Bjorn Lomborg’s work has done a lot to put climate change in perspective and tamp down the scaremongering “the end is near” narrative. In his July 2020 paper, Welfare in the 21st century: Increasing development, reducing inequality, the impact of climate change, and the cost of climate policies, he highlights the simple fact that richer societies are much more resilient to disasters which has dramatically brought down the climate-related death risk.
3. Your cells are starving for creatine
Great article by Chris Masterjohn on creatine.
After reviewing the function and benefits of creatine, he argues that the idea that the creatine levels achieved with supplementation are unnatural is untrue.
He points to a 1992 study testing different dosing regimens of creatine that found that creatine levels plateau after a certain point. That is, if someone had low creatine stores, they experienced a big increase in creatine stores. If someone had plenty of creatine already, creatine supplementation didn’t change their levels too much. Everyone seemed to converge on the 140-160 nmol/kg range.
Masterjohn argues that being closer to the upper limit is what is optimal and you don’t need to worry about having “too much” creatine from supplementation. In fact, he argues that being at the upper range is what is natural and would be where you’d arrive if you were eating 2 pounds of red meat a day.
4. Type 2 diabetes: Light is more important than genes?
Avoidance of light at night could be a simple and cost-effective recommendation that mitigates risk of diabetes, even in those with high genetic risk.
A study had 84,000 participants wear light sensors for a week to record how much light they were exposed to during the day and night. They then followed the people for 7.9 years and checked to see who got diabetes. Compared to people with darker nights (0-50th percentiles), “diabetes risk was incrementally higher across brighter night light exposure percentiles.” They illustrate the increase in risk by comparing it to genetic risks.
“The difference in diabetes risk between people with bright and dark nights was similar to the difference between people with low and moderate genetic risk.”
5. Body health is mental health: Organ health scores and mental illness
April 2023 paper: Evaluation of Brain-Body Health in Individuals With Common Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Interesting study out of Australia comparing 85,748 adults with neuropsychiatric disorders with 87,420 healthy controls. They found that poor body health was “a more marked manifestation of mental health than brain changes.” The image above sums up the findings nicely.
Eat more meat/fish - work out - stay in the sun - sleep in the dark
Every newsletter contains impactful weighty 'gems' that Joseph has mined . . . .Thanks for highlighting cholesterol because the cholesterol propaganda is very very engrained and will take an enormous amount of effort to counter. Point #5 looks like something from The Onion or Babylon Bee: "Researchers make stunning revelation that the head is in fact connected to the rest of the body." Joseph your new video is PACKED with great content. The production values are so high that, for someone tending toward ADD like me, the added bells and whistles make me have to glance away from time to time just to try to focus & not be distracted from the point being made. Exception: the parts with the pull-ups; they're No problem at all!! (Pullups while talking calmly too . . . or is that lip synching to a voiceover-ha ha!)
P.S. I wonder if a metformin longevity benefit has really been proven in vertebrates, let alone humans. Might only be seen in worms and fruit flies?