WIL Weekly 5-Point Review #19
This Tea Lowers T, Taurine makes you immortal, Men seek respect and more...
This is my free weekly newsletter covering 5 interesting points from the week. Subscribe if you’d like to get it in your inbox each week!
1. Mint may lower testosterone
I used to drink a lot of mint tea as it’s nice to sip on something hot with a bit of flavor in the afternoon while doing my work. I stopped because there is a bit of evidence that mint/spearmint/peppermint may lower testosterone. In fact, mind has specifically been investigated for ameliorating polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) because of its anti-androgen effects.
・A 2010 study in women with PCOS found that 30 days of drinking spearmint tea caused a significant reduction in testosterone levels. This was a plus for the women as their “subjective assessments of their degree of [unwanted body hair growth] scored by the modified DQLI were significantly reduced in the spearmint tea group (p < 0.05).”(S)
・A study on a rat model of PCOS found that 20 days of spearmint essential oil reduced testosterone levels.(S) Another rat study found drinking peppermint tea reduced plasma total testosterone while increasing LH and FSH.(S)
2. Sleep deprivation breaks down muscle. Exercise can counteract this
According to a study called The effect of sleep restriction, with or without high‐intensity interval exercise, on myofibrillar protein synthesis in healthy young men, sleep deprivation can impair muscle protein synthesis. However, people who only slept four hours a night but also did High Intensity Interval Training were able to achieve muscle protein synthesis comparable to those who slept properly.
3. Taurine extends lifespan?
Taurine is an amino acid important for the brain, heart and immune system. The best sources of taurine are meat and fish and seaweed is a decent source.
Taurine is one of the most abundant amino acids in the brain, retina, muscle tissue, and organs throughout the body. Taurine serves a wide variety of functions in the central nervous system, from development to cytoprotection, and taurine deficiency is associated with cardiomyopathy, renal dysfunction, developmental abnormalities, and severe damage to retinal neurons. All ocular tissues contain taurine, and quantitative analysis of ocular tissue extracts of the rat eye revealed that taurine was the most abundant amino acid in the retina, vitreous, lens, cornea, iris, and ciliary body. In the retina, taurine is critical for photoreceptor development and acts as a cytoprotectant against stress-related neuronal damage and other pathological conditions. -Taurine a “very essential” amino acid
A recent study found that mice receiving supplemental taurine lived 12% longer. Taurine in fact seems to decrease with age, suggesting replenishing taurine may have a beneficial effect as people age.
First, Yadav’s team looked at levels of taurine in the bloodstream of mice, monkeys, and people and found that the taurine abundance decreases substantially with age. In people, taurine levels in 60-year-old individuals were only about one-third of those found in 5-year-olds.
4. Carnivore diet cures diabetes but meat gives you diabetes
A 2021 study titled Behavioral Characteristics and Self-Reported Health Status among 2029 Adults Consuming a "Carnivore Diet" on people doing a carnivore diet investigated their “motivation, dietary intake patterns, symptoms suggestive of nutritional deficiencies or other adverse effects, satisfaction, prior and current health conditions, anthropometrics, and laboratory data.”
They found that in those that did a carnivore diet for 6+ months:
・100% of diabetics came off injectable medications
・92% of diabetics came off insulin completely
・84% of diabetics came off all oral medications
7 days ago, a Harvard study found that red meat is consumption associated with increased type 2 diabetes risk. Their definition of “red meat” included sandwiches and lasagna.
5. Men desire respect, women desire love?
As mentioned in my just-released post The Evolutionary Psychology of Men’s Insecurity, diving into the function of testosterone, estrogen and oxytocin (but more so testosterone) has gotten me thinking about some rules of thumb for the differences in values between men and women. It’s been fun to think up some catchy truisms based on this.
Testosterone has so much to do with a man’s position in a social hierarchy, his drive to achieve a higher ‘rank’ in the social hierarchy and be more competitive in general. This is probably why men are so concerned with respect. Disrespect is essentially a challenge to the other person’s position in the social hierarchy. Further, high testosterone doesn’t necessarily provoke aggression in a man unless his social status is being challenged. Further, men who feel they are higher in social rank likely are likely more content due to higher testosterone that comes with that and the anti-depressant, anti-anxiety effects of testosterone.
As mentioned, men have 10x the testosterone of women. Thus, (while they probably value both) men likely value being looked up to or respected by their wife or girlfriend more than they value quality time, lovey-dovey messages, inquiring about his feelings et cetera. Put another way, the quality time emotional connectedness probably doesn’t mean much if he doesn’t feel his wife or girlfriend respects him.
Then, since women have 4x the oxytocin and 4x the estrogen of men, my guess is that they put a lot of value on her boyfriend or husband paying attention to her, being curious about her feelings, being empathetic to her et cetera. Further, women probably want to look up to their husband or boyfriend considering according Dr. David Buss’s Evolutionary Psychology (and common sense), women consistently prefer men who are ‘better’ than them on several metrics like achievement, status, charisma, income et cetera.
Women and men both desire respect and love. However, men likely value respect more than love …and what constitutes “respect” and “love” surely differs for men and women.
Note: I remember on one of these ‘let’s interview a bunch of young (usually promiscuous) women, women who have OnlyFans, and feminists on our podcast to show how unrealistic modern women are’ podcasts, someone said something like: “A woman won’t have sex with a man she doesn’t respect. A man doesn’t need to respect a woman to have sex with her.” That sounded like a pretty accurate truism.
I've recently become a western big game hunting guide. This season has come with many challenges and the largest one has been the sleep deprivation. I'd love to see you research more into sleep deprivation and write more on it. I enjoyed the videos you made on sleep, especially considering you offered a view that differed from Mathew Walker slightly. I was always sceptical of his "Sleep Armageddon" viewpoint, seeing how so many cultures slept when they could as you talk about in the video. Also the fact that until the industrial revolution we slept in two smaller blocks, not one. I come from Appalachia, an area not touched as quickly and deeply by the industrial revolution, and back home some of the old-timers would talk about a "second sleep". Essentially a nap everyone had in the evening, it was a normal thing. We do that here at the hunting camp. Typically we go to bed around 10pm and wake up at 330am. As long as we're not (literally) balls deep in elk guts, by the time noon rolls around we take a nap. It's an insane experience getting used to a sleep schedule like this. You sleep less, and feel better. Sometimes my naps only last 1 or two hours but I will sleep so so deeply with vivid dreams, indictive of R.E.M. sleep.
Regarding the tea one, is that only affecting women with PCOS and not healthy men?
And on love and respect, to Jonathan’s point, Ephesians 5:33 “Nevertheless, each one of you must love his wife as he does himself; on the other hand, the wife should have deep respect for her husband.”