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You know that feeling when you add something to your wellness repertoire, and it just clicks? Maybe for you it was meditation, daily walks, blue-light blocking glasses, or a particular supplement. For me, it was face yoga.

Face yoga is billed as a safe and effective anti-aging tool—a facelift without surgery or botox. That’s not why I like it, though. I use face and eye yoga to relieve stress and counteract the effects of looking at screens all day.

I don’t blame you if you’re feeling skeptical. My initial reaction was to roll my eyes, too, which is ironic since eye rolling is an eye yoga exercise. My friends look at me incredulously when I mention it. Reserve your judgment until you try it, though.

It only takes a few minutes a day and to reap the benefits. Even then, you might be thinking, “Seriously?! I don’t have the time or energy to add anything else into my daily routine, and you want me to try face and eye yoga?” Never fear. I’ve worked out a strategy that lets me check some self-care boxes and reduce stress levels at the same time. Read to the bottom of the post for details.

What Are Face and Eye Yoga?

People flock to face yoga mainly for its supposed anti-aging benefits. According to practitioners, it increases muscle tone, circulation, lymphatic drainage, and collagen production. With consistent practice, skin appears plumper and smoother, facial symmetry increases, and you end up looking noticeably younger, or so they claim. Eye yoga is supposed to promote eye health and good vision.

Face and eye yoga practices combine movement exercises, massage, and acupressure. There are dozens and dozens of techniques or poses you might try depending on your specific goals. Some exercises are designed to relieve tension throughout the face and neck. Others specifically target the forehead, eye area, cheeks, mouth, nose, or jawline. Want to tighten up the skin under your chin or reduce the appearance of forehead creases? There’s an exercise for that.

Does Face Yoga Really Work?

So far, the evidence to back up these claims is mostly anecdotal. There are lots of impressive before-and-after photos online, but only a handful of small studies and case reports to back them up.¹ The largest one included 16 middle-aged women who did 30 minutes of face yoga every day or every other day for 20 weeks.² Independent judges thought the women looked younger at the end of the program than when they started, and the women themselves noted significant improvements on 18 of 20 dimensions of facial aging.

A larger body of evidence supports the efficacy of orofacial myofunctional therapy (OMT). OMT is a form of physiotherapy designed to correct functional disorders of the face and mouth. Doctors and dentists use it to treat a wide variety of issues, from sleep apnea to speech problems to teeth grinding. OMT is more concerned with function than aesthetics, but there is considerable overlap between the techniques used in face yoga and OMT. Both aim to strengthen specific muscles and improve head, neck, and tongue posture (yes, that’s a thing).

Eye Yoga Benefits

From what I can tell, the main benefit of eye yoga is to help reduce eye strain. I certainly feel the difference if I spend all day looking at screens with no break versus taking regular breaks and doing some of the eye yoga exercises below.

A few studies corroborate my experience:

• Researchers had 20 undergraduate students do one hour of eye yoga exercises twice a week for eight weeks.³ Compared to a control group that didn’t do the exercises, these students ended up with fewer symptoms of eye fatigue, such as tired eyes, dry eyes, and blurred vision.
• Sixty-two employees of a software company completed an hour of yoga each day for sixty days.⁴ The yoga included 10 minutes of trataka exercises, which is a yoga practice specifically for the eyes. Participants experienced significantly less visual comfort after the intervention, similar to the previous study. A control group that did not do the daily yoga experienced more discomfort over this time period.
• In a similar study, 16 optometry students did 30 minutes of eye exercises five days a week for six weeks.⁵ They also reported less eye fatigue at the end of the study, while a control group reported more.

We can’t rule out the placebo effect with these findings, but they’re promising nonetheless. Frankly, I’m fine with a placebo effect if it helps me feel better. It’s also worth noting that these researchers required a substantial time commitment from participants. I couldn’t find any rationale for the methodologies, nor any studies comparing shorter versus longer bouts of eye yoga. You might not need to do as much as the participants in these studies did in order to reap similar benefits.

Some folks also claim that eye yoga, specifically trataka exercises, can improve eyesight and treat various eye diseases. Fun fact: the Beatles’ Paul McCartney is a vocal proponent of eye yoga, attributing his good eyesight to eye yoga exercises. Unfortunately for Sir Paul and the rest of us, the evidence to support these claims is thin at best. Doctors do use specific exercises to help strengthen the eyes and repair vision after eye injuries, concussions, and TBI. However, multiple studies have found no benefit of trataka practices for improving vision.^{6 7}

Vagus Nerve Connection?

Personally, I’m more interested in face and eye yoga for stress relief than for cosmetic reasons, though I’m happy to have a chiseled jawline or whatever. There’s good reason to think that face and eye yoga should stimulate the vagus nerve and upregulate the parasympathetic (“rest-and-digest”) nervous system.

Branches of the vagus nerve travel throughout the face, mouth, and neck. Some of the massage techniques associated with face yoga could potentially improve vagal tone. Furthermore, when you practice face and eye yoga, you’re also supposed to breathe slowly and prioritize nasal breathing, both of which also increase vagal tone. Trataka practices are apparently associated with higher HRV⁸ and lower heart rate⁹ and blood pressure¹⁰, which all indicate higher vagal tone.

Also, some of the purported anti-aging benefits of face and eye yoga probably arise because you become more aware of your facial muscles. If you carry a lot of tension in your face—clenching your jaw, squinting, furrowing your brow—you’ll start to notice and naturally relax those muscles. Not only will this reduce creasing and wrinkles, it could theoretically provide biofeedback and tell your brain (via your vagus nerve) that you aren’t so stressed after all.

Face and Eye Yoga Exercises to Try

As I said, the catalog of face and eye yoga exercises is pretty extensive. If you’re interested in focusing on a specific area, I suggest you get thee to YouTube and start searching. Remember that the evidence for any particular outcome is purely anecdotal at this point, but there’s no harm in trying.

Always start by taking a couple slow deep breaths to center yourself. For any of the exercises that involve touching your face, wash your hands first.

Six Face Yoga Exercises

Forehead Massage

Make fists with your hands. Rest your fists against the center of your forehead so the middle joints of your fingers (the ones you’d use to knock on a door) are against your skin. Apply gentle pressure as you pull your hands apart and massage from the center of your forehead to your temples. Next, use the middle knuckle on your index finger to stroke upward between your eyebrows.

Do about 10 repetitions of each exercise. Use a face oil or serum to provide slip so you aren’t pulling too hard on the skin.

Tapping

Use the tips of your fingers to tap rapidly all over your face. Then use your middle fingers or ring fingers to gently tap circles around your eyes, following the ridge of your brows and the line of your eye socket in both directions.

Tapping is supposed to increase circulation and reduce under-eye puffiness. Be careful not to tap too hard or pull the delicate skin beneath your eyes. Use an extremely light touch in the undereye area.

“O” Face

Relax all the muscles in your face and allow your mouth to open wide. Keep breathing through your nose. Keeping your forehead and neck still, look up at the ceiling with your eyes and hold for 10 seconds. If you feel your forehead wrinkling, place your hand on your forehead to help keep it smooth.

Surprised Face

Stand in front of a mirror, looking straight ahead. Open your eyes as wide as you can, but keep your forehead perfectly smooth. This is key! Place a hand on your forehead if needed. Hold your eyes wide for a few seconds, then release. Repeat 10 times.

Blowfish Face with Variations

• Keep your mouth closed. Relax the muscles of your face, then inflate your cheeks with air and hold for up to a minute.
• Alternate cheeks. Imagine you are swishing the air back and forth in your mouth like mouthwash.
• Finally, try using your fingers to gently tap your cheeks while they are inflated.

Whichever variation you do, make sure you aren’t scrunching up your eyes. Check yourself in a mirror. If you see vertical lines forming on your upper lip, place your fingertips on the lip to smooth them out.

Kiss the Sky

Sit with your back straight. Tilt your head and look up until you feel a comfortable stretch through the front of your throat. Pucker your mouth like you’re trying to kiss the ceiling. Hold for a few seconds, then relax your face. Repeat for up to a minute, then slowly lower your head. You can also try switching back and forth between puckering your lips and sticking your tongue out.

Six Easy Eye Yoga Exercises

Palming

Vigorously rub the palms of your hands together to warm them up. Gently close your eyes. Cup your hands over them with the heels of your hands resting on your cheekbones and fingertips near your hairline. Hold for several breaths, then blink your eyes open and remove your hands. Take this opportunity to practice extended exhale breathing through your nose.

Shifting Your Gaze, or Eye Flexing

Sit with good posture, looking straight ahead. Without tilting your neck or scrunching your forehead, slowly alternate looking up and down 10 times, then left and right 10 times. All the movement comes from your eyeballs.

You can also gaze diagonally: up and to the left, down and to the right, then up and to the right, down and to the left.

Eye Rolling

Slowly roll your eyes clockwise, looking left, up, right, down. Do this 5 to 10 times, then switch directions and go counterclockwise.

You can do eye rolling and eye flexing with eyes open or closed. Rolling your eyes with eyes closed feels fantastic if you’ve been doing a lot of computer work.

I like to pair eye rolling with box breathing:

• Inhale for a count of four while you look left.
• Look up and hold for four counts.
• Look right and exhale for four counts.
• Look down and hold for four counts.
• Do this a few times, then switch directions.

Figure-8s

Extend your arm in front of you and put your thumb up like you’re hitchhiking. Focus your gaze on the tip of your thumb. Start to draw a figure-8 with your hand. Follow the tip of your thumb with your eyes, but keep your head still. Vary the size and direction of the figure-8.

Distance Gazing and Focus Shifting

Pick a point in the distance and focus on it for about 10 seconds, then shift your gaze to something else and focus on that. Switch between nearer and farther objects.

For a variation on this exercise, focus on a point in the distance. Extend your arm with your thumb up, like in the figure-8 exercise. Shift your focus back and forth between the distant object and the tip of your thumb 10 times.

How to Incorporate Face and Eye Yoga into Your Day

Making time for self-care is hard. Even for me, a staunch self-care advocate, stress-relief exercises are the first things to go when my time is stretched thin. What I like about face and eye yoga is that they’re quick and easy to work into my day. Many poses can be done anytime, anywhere. I’ve started doing blowfish face in the car, for example, which I’m sure has earned me some funny looks from fellow drivers.

Here’s how I’m incorporating them:

First, I make face yoga a part of my morning and evening skincare routine. As I apply my various lotions and potions, I do a few minutes of facial massage and tapping. This forces—or rather, allows—me to slow down a little and take a few minutes at the beginning and end of my day to breathe.

During the workday, I use the Pomodoro technique. If you’re not familiar, Pomodoro is a system where you do focused work for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. Use an app or web-based timer to keep you honest, and adjust the intervals to suit your needs. When the break timer goes off, I do some combination of the following:

• Palming exercise. I consistently start with this one because it feels amazing.
• One or two eye yoga exercises. I particularly like to go out on my front porch and practice distance gazing, but if my eyes feel very fatigued, I’ll close my eyes and do slow eye rolls instead.
• One tech neck exercise, which we’ve covered before on the blog.
• A quick microworkout, like a set of air squats, kettlebell swings, mountain climbers, or a couple of these functional exercises (2, 4, and 10 are my favorites).

I can get this all done and still have time to grab a quick drink before it’s time to get back to work. My productivity is much higher when I adhere to this routine, and my body feels noticeably better.

So what do you say—have I piqued your interest? Pick a couple exercises to do consistently for at least a few weeks. See if you notice any benefits either in your appearance or in how you feel. Then come back here and leave a comment. Let me know how it goes!

The post Face Yoga and Eye Yoga: The Next Anti-Aging Revolution? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Growing up, I was always fascinated by the part in the Odyssey where Odysseus and his men land on an island populated by the “Lotus eaters,” a group of humans who live entirely by eating the fruit of the lotus flower. In the story, some of Odysseus’ men explore the island and encounter the lotus eaters, who offer the sailors some to try. They accept and become addicted to the lotus, wanting nothing but to lie around and nibble on the flowers. When Odysseus comes to retrieve his men, they refuse and weep and try to remain, and he’s forced to remove them from the island and shackle them to the ship until the madness has passed. This part always made me wonder. What was so beguiling about the lotus?

I had no idea about drugs or addiction or anything of that sort. I was too young. So I assumed it was that the lotus just tasted really, really good.

Turns out that it may have been based on a real lotus flower with psychotropic effects—the blue lotus.

For one thing, the lotus eaters weren’t totally invented by Homer. Herodotus, the famous Greek historian, also wrote about a race of lotus eaters living on an island off the coast of Libya. According to Herodotus, these lotus eaters, or Lotophagi, also made and drank lotus wine.

Two, tons of ancient Egyptian artifacts and artwork depict the lotus, either adorning the heads of gods and goddesses or worn by priests and other figures of great prominence in Egyptian society. We know that the ancient Egyptians cultivated and utilized the Blue Lotus for thousands of years. Their primary mode of ingestion was to steep the flower in wine for several weeks and drink it during celebrations and religious rituals.

King Tut’s tomb, for example, had a gold shrine depicting a figure holding a massive Blue lotus flower, and the tomb of Ramses II contained a wreath of dried blue lotus flowers. You can say a lot of things, but I hardly doubt the flower choice on the pharaoh’s tomb was arbitrary.

In the famous (or infamous) Turin papyrus from ancient Egypt depicting a variety of sexual acts, all the women wear blue lotuses in their headdresses.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead includes several sections discussing the use of the blue lotus in religious rites.

There are similar images found in Mayan artwork, and it’s likely that both the Egyptians and the Mayan civilization utilized the blue lotus for various medicinal applications, including treating erectile dysfunction.¹¹ It also had spiritual significance.

Now, I don’t now if the blue lotus is the same thing Homer was referring to in The Odyssey, but I did uncover some potential benefits to the flower that a group of wayward sailors would have enjoyed.

Technically, you’re not supposed to ingest blue lotus. It’s legal to buy it, but it can’t be sold “for human ingestion.” The fact that it’s been used for thousands of years by a diverse coalition of cultures, that the compounds contained therein have been shown to have beneficial health effects, and that there’s a good chance it was memorialized by one of the greatest authors in one of his greatest works makes me want to dig a little deeper.

There isn’t a lot of modern research into blue lotus itself. No real randomized controlled trials showing an effect (or lack of an effect, for that matter). The literature is fairly bereft. However, there is a fair amount of research into the two primary isolated compounds that we know the blue lotus contains. So let’s take a look at that, see whether the research lines up with what the ancient evidence indicates, and maybe we can make some guesses about the rest of the more “esoteric” claims.

Apomorphine

Both apomorphine and aporphine have been isolated from blue lotus flowers, and for most intents and purposes they are interchangeable, as aporphine is hydroxylated in the body to form apomorphine. Historically, clinicians have used isolated apomorphine as an emetic—a reliable way to induce vomiting.

May Alter Dopamine Function.

Apomorphine is a non-selective dopamine receptor agonist, meaning it activates both D1 and D2 dopamine receptors, although it is more active on the D2 receptor. It’s also an antagonist of certain serotonin receptors, and it could inhibit the breakdown of dopamine in the brain in some people. For this reason, some clinicians prescribe subcutaneous or sublingual apomorphine HCL as a treatment for severe Parkinson’s disease (which is characterized by low dopamine activity). When an episode hits, the apomorphine will be applied to reduce muscle stiffness and tremors.

Potential for Psychogenic Erectile Dysfunction

Apomorphine is also prescribed for psychogenic erectile dysfunction (erectile dysfunction originating from psychological rather than physical issues). It does so by downregulating frontal limbic activity, the site of the brain responsible for “thinking.” In other words, apomorphine may improve sexual function by helping you stop overthinking everything—like the sexual act at hand.¹²

Could Increase Growth Hormone Release

One study found that in normal, healthy men, apomorphine increases growth hormone (GH) release.¹³ As to whether that also increases the growth of muscle, bone, cartilage, and stimulates fat loss and immune benefits normally associated with GH, it remains to be seen. But by most measures an increase in GH is a good thing, especially since this is natural growth hormone release—not exogenous administration.

May Increase Motivation

I know of one men’s clinic that uses apomorphine to treat psychogenic erectile dysfunction who’s found it can also improve motivation. They report patients taking apomorphine for ED end up going to the gym more often, getting over depression, pursuing their goals, and displaying other unintended effects of increasing their dopamine function.

May Increase NGF and GDNF

One study found that isolated astrocytes (a type of brain cell) treated with apomorphine showed increased expression of both nerve growth factor (NGF) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), two pathways that are very important for nerve function, nerve regrowth, learning, addiction prevention and treatment, and dopamine function—to name just a few.¹⁴

Could Be Effective as Part of an Addiction Recovery Plan

I’ve also heard of apomorphine being used to to help with alcohol and other drug addictions, especially in the old days. A 1977 study details how how out of 123 addicts (about 50/50 alcohol/opiate users) treated with apomorphine, 65% stayed clean for 6 months and 41% stayed clean for longer than 6 months. ¹⁵ Those are decent stats. It’s an old study, though. More research is needed. If you’re facing addiction, call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.

May Improve Mitochondrial Function

Although these aren’t in vivo studies, there is evidence that apomorphine can improve mitochondrial function and reduce cell death by inhibiting mTOR (the same pathway fasting, calorie restriction, and keto inhibit).¹⁶

Nuciferine

Molecularly, nuciferine is somewhat related to apomorphine but has divergent pharmacological effects.

May Improve Metabolic Health

The majority of this research is in rodents, but it’s impressive. Nuciferine has been shown to reduce gut permeability, increase autophagy, and improve gut bacteria composition in rodents fed junk food. As a consequence, the rodents don’t get as fat as they usually do on such a diet.¹⁷

Mitigated Damage After Heart Attack in Animal Models

Again, in rats: preloading subjects with nuciferine and lotus extract, then inducing a heart attack, spared them from the worst of the health effects. The combo reduced heart and liver inflammation and damage, and it even blocked structural damage and alteration to the heart tissues.¹⁸

May Affect Sexual Function

Combined with two other compounds, nuciferine has been shown to improve erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation in humans.¹⁹

Has Antipsychotic Properties

Recently, researchers found that nuciferine interacted with a similar range of receptor sites as conventional antipsychotic medicines. They ran nuciferine through the gauntlet of gold-standard antipsychotic effect tests and found it had broad—albeit atypical—antipsychotic effects.²⁰

Does Blue Lotus Actually Do Anything?

You know my stance on whole foods/herbs versus isolated compounds: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It is very likely that the blue lotus flower is both more effective and offers a broader range of benefits than either nuciferine or apomorphine. That’s even more likely to be true for general users of these herbs interested in overall health benefits, rather than someone with late-stage Parkinson’s disease or severe psychogenic erectile dysfunction interested in specific pharmacological effects.

Sure enough, in one study, luciferine by itself was not effective against breast cancer, but an alcoholic extract of the lotus (not blue lotus, but a related species with similar compounds present) was effective.²¹

Where to get it?

I know people in the alternative health world. Some would place me in it. From asking around, I’ve learned that Etsy is a good place to find high quality blue lotus.

How to use it?

The most common way to use blue lotus is to make tisane: steep blue lotus petals in boiling water for ten minutes and strain.

I’ve also heard that you can steep blue lotus petals in wine for about a week, strain it, then drink it, to make something approximating what the ancient Egyptian priest and upper castes may have consumed.

What can you expect?

From my reading of the literature, here’s what people have experienced.

Calm.

If the isolated compounds’ effects on psychosis and muscle spasticity extend to the whole plant, you might expect blue lotus to promote both mental and physical calm.

Focus and motivation.

If it indeed promotes healthy dopamine function, blue lotus may improve your motivation and ability to focus.

Sharper mind.

If apomorphine’s effects on nerve growth factor and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor in isolated astrocytes extend to the brains of people who consume blue lotus, the flower could be fantastic for learning, productivity, and cognitive function in general.

Bedroom benefits.

Both nuciferine and apomorphine can have beneficial effects on sexual function, and we know that blue lotus itself had a strong reputation as an aphrodisiac. I find this to be a likely benefit.

Contact with the spirit realm.

Well, that’s not guaranteed, but it certainly was used in religious and spiritual rites for thousands of years. Your mileage may vary.

That’s about all I have for the blue lotus.

In the future, I may try the stuff myself and report back—probably on a Sunday with Sisson (sign up for that if you haven’t already).

I’d be curious to hear if anyone out there has tried it. If so, what did you notice?

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It seems the hot fitness topic of 2020 is learning how to adapt and stay motivated when your gym is closed, events are canceled, and the awesome motivators of group energy and camaraderie are kept at a distance. Interestingly, some folks have been thrown entirely out of whack, with COVID-19 prompting “the COVID 20” in the same manner as the proverbial Freshman-15. Others have adapted and even thrived when forced to modify their fitness regimens. We can definitely take tips and inspiration from them, but if you are struggling in recent times, don’t stress about it. Falling off your A-game in 2020 doesn’t mean you’re lazy or undisciplined. Personality types who favor tight structure and carefully cultivated environments can really get thrown off. Others who are more self-directed and creative can keep going through all kinds of and obstacles and redirections.

My high school running buddy Steve Dietch ran a 2:47 Boston Marathon at age 49 despite an insane international business travel schedule for 200 days a year. New day, new city or country, new running route, new PR—no problem. In recognition of the closure of his gym back in March, 2020, Primal Health Coach (and frequent Primal Blueprint Podcast guest) Dude Spellings of Austin, TX set an hourly alarm on his computer to perform 35 pushups, 15 pullups, and 30 squats. Hit that 6-8 times a day, five days a week, for six months, and it’s easy to see how Dude reports being in his best shape in decades at age 50. Granted, setting an hour alarm and getting the job done to the tune of hundreds of pushups, pullups, and squats every workday is easier said than done. As Sisson says all the time, “If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.” The trick is to discover motivators and environmental triggers that work for you, take baby steps in the direction of your goals and never get discouraged when you fall short of the ideal. Let’s cover an assortment of suggestions that will hopefully make you impervious to distraction, inconvenience or busyness, and allow you to elevate your fitness endeavors into the hallowed category of “automatic” — daily behaviors that characterize a healthy, active way of life.

When a goal feels personally meaningful, and when the rewards bolster your sense of who you are or who you want to become, you will likely find it easier to engage in goal-directed behavior, avoid the temptation to stray from the path and be resilient in the face of setbacks. – Lindsay Taylor, PhD

Cultivate Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation describes doing something to achieve self-satisfaction, while extrinsic motivation describes doing things for external recognition. While intrinsic and extrinsic motivators can undoubtedly complement each other, research suggests that being intrinsically motivated is much more predictive of success and long-term adherence. Dig this quote from MDA’s very own Lindsay Taylor, Ph.D., a social and personality psychologist by training in addition to her role as supermom, keto cookbook author, Ironman triathlete, and Keto Reset Digest queen: “When a goal feels personally meaningful, and when the rewards bolster your sense of who you are or who you want to become, you will likely find it easier to engage in goal-directed behavior, avoid the temptation to stray from the path and be resilient in the face of setbacks.”

Cultivate deep intrinsic reasons for taking action while leveraging extrinsic motivators with a healthy perspective. Go ahead and strive for results, but focus on the process and release the attachment of your self-esteem to the outcome. Sisson tends to draw giggles when he touts “LGN” (Looking Good Naked) as one of the major benefits of a primal lifestyle. But it’s not really a joke. Sure, everyone wants to feel healthy, vibrant, and energetic, experience optimal digestion and elimination, and deliver good blood work. Still, few forces are as powerful as the LGN—whether it’s through the skin you show on Instagram or whether it’s lurking deep in your subconscious.

Create A Winning Environment

Set yourself up with success by making it easy to be fit and active. Get all the equipment and apparel you need, keep everything neat, organized, and in top working order, and find convenient and enjoyable venues. This can mean a go-to running or hiking trail, joining a gym that’s easy to get to and has everything you need, hiring a trainer to guide you and keep you accountable, or getting involved with group exercise programs or clubs. Most importantly, set up your home environment to encourage activity. If installing an Endless Pool or converting a bedroom into a rubber-floored home gym is not in the cards, realize that you can create a fantastic fitness experience with extremely minimal space and budget.

Alas, most well-meaning fitness enthusiasts have a bunch of cool stuff in inventory, but it’s often gathering dust in a basement, garage, or closet. The trick here is to arrange your fitness gear so you could pretty much trip over them during your daily routine. You want your kettlebell in plain view, smiling and saying hello in plain sight every time you pass by. Go ahead, paint a smiley face on it! You want your Mini Bands to be as accessible as your rubber bands or paper clips. It’s also great to implement some clever guidelines, incentives, and payoffs to trigger winning behaviors. How about not leaving the office until you accumulate three sets of 20 deep squats throughout the workday? If you were too busy or unmotivated, I guess you’ll have to hit three sets in a row at quitting time.

Beyond my morning routine, I’ll discuss shortly, I’ve established assorted rules and benchmarks for fitness and activity that have become etched in stone—a sign I respect both myself and the importance of being healthy, fit, and active every day. I have a hex deadlift bar loaded with moderate weight, located along my side yard path to the garbage barrel. Every time I take the garbage out, I have to do a minimum of one set. Ditto for when I enter my storage closet with a pull-up bar in the door frame. One set of 12—automatic. I don’t have to question whether I’m motivated or have enough time or energy because it’s only one set. If I’m feeling energetic, I’ll take the opportunity to do a second, third, or fourth set right away or by returning to the apparatus over the ensuing hours. The hardest part here is not completing the tasks, it’s convincing yourself that these seemingly trivial, OCD covenants are actually incredibly important and beneficial in the age of hyperconnectivity, distraction, and our endless pursuit of luxury and decadence.¹

Visual cues are an essential part of the picture here.² The difference between having an X3 Bar strapped up and ready for action versus tucked away in a closet is astronomical. Here’s another comment from Dr. Lindsay: “All of our behaviors are triggered by something, whether we’re conscious of it or not. Keeping your fitness gear out in the open plants a suggestion in your brain that exercise is important, convenient, and accessible right now. It still takes discipline to get started, but once you start, you’ll most likely finish. Even a small obstacle, like having to unpack or set up fitness gear, can make you less likely to do it. Similarly, leaving a plate of cookies on the table makes you more likely to grab one!”

Morning Routine

My morning flexibility/mobility/yoga/core and leg strengthening routine has been such a life changer that a whole article about it will appear here shortly. First thing in the morning is the best time to build a winning habit that you can leverage into becoming a more focused and disciplined person throughout the day. Some key attributes can make or break your success. First, create a firm commitment to advocate for yourself and complete some kind of mindful movement routine every single day, no matter what. It’s a better energizer than coffee! Second, make your routine short enough to ensure that it’s no problem to complete. On uniquely time-crunched mornings, do a makeup session later in the day. Third, do the exact same thing every day, no matter what, so you don’t have to apply any willpower or creative energy. You can revise your template over time, adding or subtracting exercises as you wish to establish a new fixed routine going forward. Fourth, custom design a routine that works for you and that you enjoy. Perhaps it includes movements that address muscle weaknesses or imbalances, helps you prepare for specific fitness goals, or helps you awaken gracefully. Fifth, add an element of mindfulness where you strive to focus entirely on your breathing or proceeding through the repetition counts for each movement. This will give you a chance to hone your focusing skills and experience a refreshing mind/body connection, something that will be tough to come by as your day gets busier and more fragmented.

The Dog Factor

Being part of something bigger than yourself is a fundamental human desire. This is what fanaticism in sports, religion, social causes, or politics are all about. If you find yourself lacking motivation or consistency with your exercise routine, perhaps you can extend your perspective beyond the whims of your moods, desires, and distractions and do it to honor one of the highest purposes imaginable: the needs and desires of your dog! Establishing a rock-solid accountability partner relationship with a human works here too, but there is something magical about answering to a pet ³ that has worked for me throughout my life. When you visit the shelter or breeder and make that initial heartstring connection with an animal that you eventually bring home, you are making a solemn vow to care for it for its entire lifespan. This means filling the food and water bowls daily and keeping updated on vaccinations, but it certainly should also mean giving your pet daily access to the outdoors and exercise.

Dogs love routines and have an incredibly acute awareness of their circadian rhythms, so perhaps you can create a habit of getting your pet out at the same time every day? Twice a day would be ideal, maybe a really short outing paired with an extended outing. If you’re not feeling motivated, are facing inclement weather, or are too busy engaged with a screen to make it happen, try gazing into your dog’s eyes and explaining the reason why you can’t make it today. Seriously, try this technique out (we all already talk to our pets anyway!) It can be a highly effective strategy to help change your mind on the spot and get out the door—especially if your dog is inclined to pace around and moan on cue first thing in the morning or around sunset. I always get a perspective reset when I’m fretting about leaving a warm home for a snowy winter trail excursion and watch my dogs go gangbusters out the door and attack the snowdrifts with pure joy. Why can’t it be the same for the soft and overly coddled modern human?

Microworkouts

Again, this is such a revolutionary topic that it deserves an entire post. In the context of this article, micro-workouts shine because they don’t require much motivation to complete. When it comes to getting out the door for a dark five-miler after a tough day at work or getting your butt onto a seat for a 6:00 am spin class, low energy and motivation can be a legitimate excuse for mere mortals. But doing one set of kettlebell swings after a long stint at the computer? Or two quick sprints up a flight of stairs after a long meeting in the conference room? These are natural human inclinations that deliver a burst of energy and mood elevation!

To build momentum in this area, find a sweet spot where you can enjoy a quick burst of physical effort, don’t have to strain to total muscular failure or muster the energy for additional sets, and don’t experience any stress over clogging up your busy daily schedule. The anecdote about Dude Spellings doing pushups, pull-ups, and squats on the hour may be too daunting for most people due to the fitness requirement, if not the scheduling logistics, but couldn’t you devote at least one work break per day to bust out robust sets of pushups, pull-ups, and squats? If we were to check back a year from now and you’ve completed one fitness break every single workday, you can imagine the enormous fitness gains this simple commitment can deliver.

Monitor Your Workout Stress

Your subconscious is very good at pushing you away from activities and behavior patterns that cause discomfort and fatigue. This is a genetically hard-wired protection mechanism against breakdown, burnout, illness, and injury. It’s great to open up the throttle once in a while and achieve a fitness breakthrough. Still, many enthusiasts of all ability levels follow workout schedules that are simply too stressful, especially when combined with other stresses in hectic daily life. Thanks to the cultural pressures and manipulative marketing messages that glorify pain and suffering, we have been programmed to disrespect and disregard the subtle and not-so-subtle messages from the subconscious to back off. Advertisements for fitness programming and equipment, sugary beverages, or sexy apparel routinely feature imagery of chiseled specimens sweating and suffering for the great reward of a toned physique. Why jog around the block when you can sprint to the top of the mountain? Consequently, we feel compelled to plug away until we get into a rut and eventually fall apart.

Don’t be that guy or gal! Make sure that your individual workouts and your schedule as a whole are enjoyable, convenient, and feel natural and easy to sustain. Make sure every movement results in an elevated mood, energy levels, and general well-being in the hours and days afterward. Get a simple spiral notebook and make subjective evaluations of your workouts in addition to the statistics and logistics. I’ve been journaling my workouts daily for decades, and it’s been extremely helpful to look back after occasions of burnout or injury and notice the clear warning signs that I was out of balance and heading for a derailment or a full train wreck.

When your workouts are fun, convenient, and energizing, and become an automatic fixture in your daily schedule without needing to willpower, creativity, or extra stress to shuffle other responsibilities, then you don’t have to worry about repeatedly summoning enough motivation to get moving. Instead, things just happen in accordance with your values, beliefs, and personal goals. Good luck, and if you take anything away from this article, it would be to start small and build momentum over time.

The post Mastering Motivation Amidst Challenging Life Circumstances appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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So you’ve been hitting the gym for a few years, you’ve had some fantastic results at times, but you feel like your progress has stalled. You reach the same point and don’t seem to be getting any stronger, you’re not building muscle, and it’s hard to stay motivated. Sound familiar? Well, you’re not alone.

Now, this could be for a couple of reasons:

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If someone invited you over for tea and cake and told you that they were serving toadstool tea, what would you do? Would you politely decline, run for the door, or brave it and give it a try? Believe it or not, mushrooms, fungi, or toadstool tea is not only blossoming with health benefits, but […]

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Making prime rib at home can be intimidating, but we’re going to show you a simple grill-to-oven method that is virtually foolproof. This may become your new go-to recipe when you want to impress!

This prime rib starts on a gas or charcoal grill with wood chips to infuse it with a smoky flavor. If you have a smoker, by all means use that for the smoking portion.

It is then finished in the oven to get a crispy browned exterior and a juicy, medium-rare interior. A variety of wood chip varieties can be used for beef, but for this recipe we like cherry, apple or pecan. For a bolder flavor, you can try hickory or oak.

We highly recommend salting the prime rib the night before and letting it rest in the fridge in a pan with a rack. This will give the meat more flavor and be more tender after cooking. We serve the prime rib along with our Primal Kitchen Steak Sauce.

Ingredients

• 5 lbs. boneless prime rib
• Salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
• 3 Tbsp. chopped sage leaves
• 2 tsp. Black pepper
• 8 cloves grated garlic
• Primal Kitchen® Steak Sauce

Directions

Pat the prime rib dry. Liberally salt your meat on all sides and place it on a rack in the fridge overnight.

The next day, take the meat out and allow it to rest at room temperature for an hour. Melt the butter and mix in the thyme, sage, pepper and garlic.

Rub the mixture all over the meat and place it in a cast iron pan. We used a cast iron grill pan since it was too big for our regular cast iron pan.

While the meat is resting, soak some wood chips for about 20 minutes. Beef can withstand many types of wood for smoking. Many people like using hickory or oak, but for this we like fruit tree chips like apple, cherry, or pecan.

For less than $20, you can purchase a smoker box, which is a metal box with holes that holds wood chips in your grill. Or you can do what I did and make your own smoker out of heavy-duty aluminum foil.

Either way, drain your wood chips thoroughly. Place them in the smoker box or in the center of a large square of foil. Wrap the wood chips in the foil, then use a knife to poke some holes in the top of the foil packet. This will allow fragrant smoke to emanate from the package.

Turn one side of your gas grill on to high heat. Place the foil packet with wood chips on the side that’s heating up. Cover the grill and allow it to come up to temperature and for the wood chips to start smoking. This will take 30 minutes or so.

Once you see a good amount of smoke coming from the foil packet, place the pan with the meat on the opposite side of the grill (the side that isn’t heated up). Cover and allow the meat to smoke for 30 minutes, then flip the meat over and smoke for an additional 20-30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Use a meat thermometer with a heat-safe probe and place it in the center of the thickest part of the meat. Place the pan and meat in the oven and allow it to cook until the internal temperature is reached. Aim for 115-120 degrees for a medium-rare roast. Once the temperature is reached, take the meat out of the oven and allow it to rest for 15 minutes.

Slice the meat as thick or as thin as you’d like. Top with Primal Kitchen Steak Sauce and serve with your favorite sides.

Print

Smoked Prime Rib Recipe, Without a Smoker

---

• 
  Author: Mark’s Daily Apple
• 
  Prep Time: 20 minutes
• 
  Cook Time: 1.5-2 hours
• 
  Total Time: 2-2.5 hours
• 
  Yield: 10 servings
• 
  Diet: Gluten Free

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

Description

Juicy smoked prime rib made in a regular grill without a smoker.

---

Ingredients

5 lbs. boneless prime rib
salt
¼ cup unsalted butter
2 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
3 tbsp. chopped sage leaves
2 tsp. black pepper
8 cloves grated garlic
Primal Kitchen Steak Sauce

---

Instructions

Pat the prime rib dry. Liberally salt your meat on all sides and place it on a rack in the fridge overnight.

The next day, take the meat out and allow it to rest at room temperature for an hour. Melt the butter and mix in the thyme, sage, pepper and garlic. Rub the mixture all over the meat and place it in a cast iron pan (we used a cast iron grill pan since it was too big for our regular cast iron pan).

While the meat is resting, soak some wood chips for about 20 minutes. Beef can withstand many types of wood for smoking. Many people like using hickory or oak, but for this we like fruit tree chips like apple, cherry, or pecan.

For less than $20, you can purchase a smoker box, which is a metal box with holes that holds wood chips in your grill. Or you can do what I did and make your own out of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Either way, drain your wood chips thoroughly. Place them in the smoker box or in the center of a large square of foil. Wrap the wood chips in the foil, then use a knife to poke some holes in the top of the foil packet. This will allow fragrant smoke to emanate from the package.

Turn one side of your gas grill on to high heat. Place the foil packet with wood chips on the side that’s heating up. Cover the grill and allow it to come up to temperature and for the wood chips to start smoking. This will take 30 minutes or so.

Once you see a good amount of smoke coming from the foil packet, place the pan with the meat on the opposite side of the grill (the side that isn’t heated up). Cover and allow the meat to smoke for 30 minutes, then flip the meat over and smoke for an additional 20-30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Use a meat thermometer with a heat-safe probe and place it in the center of the thickest part of the meat. Place the pan and meat in the oven and allow it to cook until the internal temperature is reached. Aim for 115-120 degrees for a medium-rare roast. Once the temperature is reached, take the meat out of the oven and allow it to rest for 15 minutes.

Slice the meat as thick or as thin as you’d like. Top with Primal Kitchen Steak Sauce and serve with your favorite sides.

 

Notes

We highly recommend salting the prime rib the night before and letting it rest in the fridge in a pan with a rack. This will give the meat more flavor and be more tender after cooking.

• Category: Lunch, Dinner
• Method: Grilling
• Cuisine: American

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/10 of recipe without sauce
• Calories: 626.4
• Sugar: 0
• Sodium: 347 mg
• Fat: 50.6 g
• Saturated Fat: 20.9 g
• Unsaturated Fat: 1.52 g
• Trans Fat: .2 g
• Carbohydrates: 1.3 g
• Fiber: .3 g
• Protein: 42.3 g
• Cholesterol: 182.2 mg
• Net Carbs: 1 g

Keywords: smoked prime rib, grilled prime rib, smoked meat without a smoker

The post Smoked Prime Rib Recipe, Without a Smoker appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Research of the Week

OLED is a little better than LED for circadian rhythms, but not by much.

Obesity drove the pandemic.

Some gut bacteria metabolize cholesterol.

Plant “milk” leads to iodine deficiency. Cow milk leads to sufficiency.

Men are more likely to make extreme decisions and changes than women.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 498: Cynthia Thurlow: Host Elle Russ chats with Cynthia Thurlow, globally recognized expert in nutrition and intermittent fasting.

Health Coach Radio: Erin and Laura chat with Michelle Knight, personal branding consultant.

Media, Schmedia

65 grams of red meat a day is a ridiculous limit.

The importance of biological sex in biology research.

Interesting Blog Posts

When will we stop “being surprised” that gut bacteria affect neurological function and development?

Does church reduce drug and alcohol abuse?

Social Notes

Don’t these foods sound familiar?

Don’t do this, folks. Sound off if squeamish (but a good lesson).

Everything Else

Sounds like magic.

Waking up an hour early may lower depression risk.

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

This is why I fast: Liver gets more insulin sensitive, rest of body more resistant.

Famous last words: “Healthier food.”

Good for them: A member of the FDA’s expert panel resigned over the panel’s approval of an Alzheimer’s drug that doesn’t work, probably harms, and is very expensive.

But sure, modernity is flawless and everything is better than it was: Passengers are too heavy for airplanes.

Incredible: Simone Biles in slow motion.

Question I’m Asking

Are you a morning person?

Recipe Corner

• Beef and sweet potato taco salad.
• Ginger turmeric ice cubes, a great idea.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Jun 5 – Jun 11)

• The Definitive Guide to Protein — All about protein.
• The Complete Magnesium Manual — All about magnesium.

Comment of the Week

“Sun exposure – totally depends where you live. Here in New Zealand you can get seriously sunburnt in about 10 minutes in summer between the hours of around 10am – 3pm, especially if you are pale. You can actually feel the sun burning your skin immediately. I NEVER sit directly in the sun and don’t go into the sun without sunscreen and a hat. We have the highest rates of melanoma in the world.”

-Important comment from Monica.

The post New and Noteworthy: What I Read This Week — Edition 134 appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

Depending on who you ask—this can be a controversial topic. But in reality, it’s straightforward. Before we get into exactly what you should, and shouldn’t be doing, let’s take a step back and consider the bigger picture. 

There’s a common misconception about what conditioning is. Most people seem to think that it’s as simple as conditioning = cardio.

read more

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Hey folks! Erin back to answer more of your questions. If you’re struggling to keep your blood sugar balanced, just coming off a 30-day challenge, or want to know the real solution for long-term weight loss, stick around for this week’s post. We love getting your questions, so keep them coming in the comments below or over in our Mark’s Daily Apple Facebook group.

Devin asked:
“I just got blood work done and it came back that I’m prediabetic. I don’t eat much sugar (I’m not a dessert kind of person) and follow a paleo diet about 70-80% of the time, so I’m confused. What else could be at play here?”

Sugar is sneaky. It’s everywhere in our culinary culture and not just in the places you’d expect, like cookies, cakes, and $6 coffee drinks. The average person consumes up to 66 pounds of added sugar per year.¹ That’s added sugar, not naturally sweet foods like fruit, or foods that convert to sugar, which I’ll talk more about here in a sec.

Is Prediabetes Bad?

When you’re a chronic consumer of sugary foods or foods that turn to sugar, your body begins to become insulin resistant, meaning the cells stop responding to the insulin your body pumps out (which keeps blood sugar levels in check). Your doctor already informed you that you’re pre-diabetic, which doesn’t mean you’ll develop diabetes, but it doesn’t mean you won’t – especially if you continue to eat the way you’re eating. But to answer your question, there are lots of factors that can impact your health status other than food.

Things that impact insulin resistance:

• Genetic factors/family history
• Chronic stress and cortisol spikes
• Being sedentary or sleep deprived
• Altered gut microbiome

Where Sugar is Hiding

But let’s assume it is something you’re eating. Food manufacturers use sugar, and yes, even fat, to make food hyper palatable, so they’re hard to resist and easy to overeat. Maybe you’ve been duped by foods claiming to be low in sugar, only to find out that these “healthy foods” are loaded with ingredients like maltodextrin, dextrose, and rice syrup. Processed food is a huge culprit for hidden sugars — everything from soups and salad dressings to ketchup, nut butter, and deli meats.

Not only that, a diet filled with refined and processed carbohydrates will digest more quickly and cause a spike in your blood sugar. And if you’re in the spot you’re in now where your cells stop responding to insulin, certain foods will continue to put you on the fast track to chronic illness.²

In your 70-80% paleo diet, are you eating any of these with any regularity? Even non-sugary foods and non-sweet items turn to sugar in the body, including:

• Oatmeal and breakfast cereals
• Bread (even gluten-free bread)
• Pasta and rice
• Beans
• Pastries and baked goods
• Low-fat yogurt
• Crackers

Your best bet is to opt for whole, real foods that don’t come with a label, get a good night’s sleep, and recheck your labs in a few months.

(By the way, when I received my prediabetes diagnosis 12 or so years ago — which is what inspired me to go Primal and never look back — my doctor implicated my highly stressful job as one of my insulin resistance triggers. Lifestyle factors add up too!)

Ellie asked:?“I’m wrapping up a 30-day detox this weekend and was hoping for some clarification on how to reintroduce regular foods back into my diet. I know I shouldn’t go out and eat a whole pizza right away, but is there a formula for how to do it?”

With summer and this push for “summer bods” right around the corner, I feel like there are a lot of cleanses and detoxes happening right now. I’ve never formally done one — well unless you count “cleansing” myself of grains 12 or so years ago — but maybe that doesn’t count, since it wasn’t an official *thing* I was doing.

What’s Wrong With 30-day Challenges?

It seems like everyone in my social feed is going sugar-free for 30 days. Or attempting a dry month of 30 days without alcohol. The problem with doing a plan like this, is exactly what you mentioned, Ellie. What happens when you inevitably bring those foods (or drinks) back in? 

When I eliminated grains from my diet, I did so with no intention of ever reintroducing them as part of my regular nutrition, seeing as there are no good reasons to include them. That being said, some non-primal foods do make sporadic appearances from time to time: pizza included (of course).

Why Do an Elimination Diet?

I do, however, encourage my clients to try an elimination diet for a set period of time, not to jump start their metabolism or drop a bunch of weight, but with the expectation that they’ll get a glimpse into how much better they can feel without grains, sugars, and their usual rotation of snacky, crunchy, creamy foods.

You will eat pizza again. Of course you will! But before you do, pay attention to what changes you’ve noticed over the past 30 days. Maybe you’ve noticed that you:

• Sleep better
• Experience fewer aches and pains
• Are less bloated
• Have fewer cravings
• Have more sustained energy throughout the day

These 30-day challenges always give me pause because, what happens on day 31? The invitation to go back to your old patterns until you feel the pinch of your symptoms creeping back in? Or a friend coerces you to join them for another no sugar/no processed food/no alcohol challenge that springboards you, temporarily, into better health? I think these challenges can be incredible springboards into health; I just want folks to consider the staying power of what they’ve learned over the 30 days.

Connecting to what feels better in your body is an incredible motivator to anchor to. From there, consider Mark’s 80/20 rule to conceive of how you’re going to live the rest of your life mostly following the Primal philosophy, with some well-thought-out treats thrown into the mix.

Angela asked:
“What’s more important for weight loss, diet or exercise?”

As I like to tell my health coaching clients, I’m not really in the business of weight loss. For me, weight loss is a wickedly awesome side effect of getting your metabolism working again. When your metabolism is doing its job, you don’t have to rely on chronic dieting or exercise — it just happens.

How to Speed Up Your Metabolism

You’re probably familiar with the old calories in/calories out conversation, or the popular “abs are made in the kitchen.” Both are tragically oversimplified, and in some cases, flat out wrong. If all it took to lose weight was to simply eat less and exercise more, it’s possible we wouldn’t be suffering the scourge of an obesity epidemic.

Diet culture tells us there’s something wrong with us if we can’t move the number on the scale. As if that number was a reflection of our self-worth. On top of that, the stress brought on by obsessive measuring, tracking, and calorie counting, can actually cause weight gain.³ Or cause weight loss resistance at the very least. The real secret to getting your metabolism working again is to get your hormones working again.

So to get back to your question — does diet exercise impact fat loss more, or does exercise? — the answer is that both diet and exercise are important, but possibly not in the way we’ve been taught to think. Like I mentioned earlier, overdoing it at the gym or starving yourself (which is different from fasting) will only cause more cortisol, more insulin, more elevated blood sugar, and more stored fat.

Out-of-whack hormones have an impact on weight, not to mention mood, energy, and tearing someone’s head off when you’re hangry. And the *easiest* way to start getting them back in line is to implement a sensible mix of diet, exercise, and lifestyle inputs. 

3 tips for balancing hormones:

1. Eat protein and fat. Start your day with a protein-forward meal that includes healthy fats. Think bacon and eggs, full-fat yogurt, leftover ribeye…
2. Manage your stress. Not all stress is bad, but when it’s chronic, it can be a problem. Consider swapping your high-intensity spin class for a yin yoga session.
3. Move daily. Get out of the habit of counting calories burned or committing to a full hour at the gym every time you go. Instead, get out for a walk, do some gardening, or just move your body in any way that feels good. Your body, your hormones, and your metabolism will thank you.

Agree? Disagree? Tell me what you think in the comments.

The post Ask a Health Coach: Pre-Diabetes, Detoxes, and What’s More Important, Diet or Exercise? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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For the last 30 years, the messaging has been clear: Slather your body with sunscreen if you so much as even think about going outside in the sun. Cloudy and rainy? Doesn’t matter. Wear the sunscreen. Want to build up a base tan? You’re killing yourself. Wear the sunscreen. It’s only ten minutes? That ten minutes of sunscreen-less sun exposure will shave a year off your life. Wear the sunscreen.

In more recent years, the tide has shifted. Research has come out showing that most commercial sunscreen contains chemical compounds that act as carcinogens when absorbed, at least in animal models. Maybe we don’t even want to block the sun at all. Or maybe we do, but there’s a better way to do it than using chemical filters that absorb into our skin. At any rate, I figured with summer rolling around that it was time to revisit the topic of sunscreen. So let’s do that, shall we?

What’s Wrong with Sunscreen?

Most sunscreens have a lot wrong with them:

• Endocrine disrupting UV filters
• Imbalanced UV protection
• Parabens
• Retinyl Palmitate

Endocrine Disrupting UV Filters

Most of your typical commercial sunscreens use chemical UV-filters like benzophenone and oxybenzone that in addition to blocking UV possess a hidden feature: endocrine disruption. Certain forms of benzophenone, for example, inhibit the action of thyroid peroxidase, an enzyme necessary for the production of thyroid hormone.¹ Another study showed that application of sunscreen containing benzophenone-2 for five days lowered T4 and T3 thyroid hormones in rats.² Later, researchers examined the estrogenic effects of another UV-filter used in sunscreen called octyl-methoxycinnamate and found that typical amounts were enough to disrupt hormonal function and exert other, non-endocrine health effects when applied to rat skin.³ That might not a problem if UV-filters in sunscreen weren’t designed to be absorbed into the skin, and therefore the body, nor if every expert weren’t telling us to slather a quarter cup full all over our bodies at the first hint of sunlight. But additional ingredients in the sunblock enhance dermal absorption of these compounds.

It’s also worth mentioning that UV-filtering chemicals often have even more drastic effects on wildlife, like the zebrafish, in whom low amounts of oxybenzone exert multigenerational effects at the gene transcription level.⁴

The worst part is that even effective against the development of melanoma! In fact, one study found a positive association between sunscreen usage and melanoma incidence.⁵

Imbalanced UV Protection

Most sunscreens block UVB only; that’s what SPF refers to—the ability of the sunscreen to block UVB. But our skin is designed to deal with UVB and UVA in concert. After all, UVB with UVA is the ancestral environment. You need both.

UVB rays are the triggers for vitamin D production in our bodies. UVB rays penetrate the epidermis, the upper layers of our skin. UVA rays, on the other hand, penetrate more deeply into the basal section of the dermis, which is where most skin cancer develops. Excessive UVA exposure also associates with wrinkling, immune suppression, oxidative stress, and related aging. Research shows that concurrent exposure to UVB actually serves to counteract skin damage and inflammation from UVA. We need both together. Blocking one while exposing our skin to the other is a recipe for danger.

Parabens

Although parabens are sometimes used as food preservatives, they’re also used as preservatives in sunscreens—and the majority of urinary parabens derives from nondietary sources like cosmetics, primarily, where they are used to extend shelf life.⁶ They show up in our urine because humans can readily absorb parabens from topical application.⁷ Although the health effects haven’t been explicitly proven, human studies suggest a link between urinary paraben levels and certain health conditions, such as sensitivities to airborne and food allergies, elevated stress hormones in pregnant mothers and their newborn children (who, by the way, are showing up with parabens in their first urine!), and DNA damage to sperm.⁸⁹¹⁰

Retinyl Palmitate

Vitamin A in the diet is protective against sun damage, so manufacturers figured they’d start putting it in topical sunscreens. Except a 2012 study in hairless mice found that applying retinyl palmitate to the bare skin and exposing it to UV increased tumor incidence and skin damage. Now, humans aren’t hairless mice. We are wild animals and the hairless mouse has been bred specifically for laboratory experiments. It’s likely that the hairless mouse is more sensitive to skin irritants, and the results from the 2012 paper may not apply to us.

But even if retinyl palmitate isn’t carcinogenic, it’s useless. Avoid just to be safe.

What Are Healthy Sunscreens?

But just because conventional sunscreens are toxic and likely carcinogenic doesn’t mean the sun can’t damage your skin. It can. You still need protection.

There are a few types of sunscreens I do endorse.

Zinc Oxide

Rather than a chemical barrier, zinc oxide is a physical barrier. It sits on your skin, physically preventing UV from damaging you. Zinc oxide is broad spectrum, meaning it blocks both UVA and UVB. Zinc oxide does not absorb into the skin, which is why it stays white (this is also why I can’t fully endorse nano zinc oxide sunscreens that do absorb into the skin) and it’s why most people avoid them—they think the white is unsightly.

It’s not pretty but boy does it work.

Edible Sunscreen

Eating colorful plants and animal foods is a form of “edible sunscreen.” For instance, a high-carotenoid diet protects the skin against UV damage, and lycopene, the active constituent in tomatoes (more active eaten with fat and cooked), has similar effects.¹¹ Polyphenols in general tend to increase the skin’s antioxidant capacity. Anthocyanins, found in red wine and berries, also may also be useful. Consumption of both coffee and green tea have been shown to increase UV-protection, probably due to both the caffeine content and the phytochemicals present in tea and coffee.¹²¹³

Berries, red wine, cooked tomatoes (tomato sauce, paste, ketchup), carrots, paprika, pastured egg yolks, sockeye salmon, shrimp, green tea, and coffee form the basis of a good sun-resistance protocol. Supplementary lutein, zeaxanthin, and astaxanthin can also help.

Infrared Light

IR radiation, as seen in morning sunrises, evening sunsets, infrared saunas, and red light devices, increases the skin’s resistance to UV exposure. This protective effect of infrared light lasts for 24 hours.

Good Sleep and a Healthy Circadian Rhythm

Like almost every other physiological tool we employ, our ability to repair UV-derived damage depends on a well-functioning circadian rhythm.¹⁴ If you didn’t sleep well or are running on a chronic sleep deficit, you may want to hold off on the sunbathing until you get your sleep in order as your skin won’t recover as well.

Plus, melatonin itself is photoprotective against UV damage, and human skin cells synthesize it in-house.¹⁵

Shade

Physically blocking UV light from hitting your skin with hats, clothing, and umbrellas is the oldest form of sunscreen around. If you’re going to spend an extended day in the sun, I highly recommend having some shade handy. The pop up “day-tents” are great for long beach days.

Smart Time-in-the-sun Management

The safest time to get sun is actually at noon. That’s when UVB exposure, and thus vitamin D production, is at its peak (PDF). UVB burns, but it also tans (thus giving warning), and it doesn’t penetrate deep enough into the epidermis to trigger melanoma. At noon, you’re getting both UVB and UVA. UVB also counteracts the UVA damage; UVA keeps the vitamin D synthesis from getting out of hand. If we upset the balance and get too much UVA without enough UVB, melanoma may result.¹⁶

However, you also need to limit your time in the sun. Noon sun is potent but powerful. You may need as little as 10 minutes to get the full dose of vitamin D, depending on your skin color and baseline resistance to UV. Don’t burn. Don’t get pink. Don’t wait til your skin gets tight and stiff.

And you need to be consistent: going on a vacation to the tropics a couple times a year and getting almost zero sun the rest of the year is not how you do it. Small daily doses of sun exposure are healthiest; intermittent doses are the most dangerous.

As you can see, the healthiest ways to screen out sun have little to do with slathering yourself with lotion. If you’re going to forego traditional sunscreen—and I recommend that you do—you have to apply a much more rigorous, holistic, full-spectrum “sunscreen” to your entire life.

How do you do sunscreen? What do you use? What do you do instead?

The post Revisiting Sunscreen appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.