Category: General Interest

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One serving of greens daily slows brain aging by over a decade

Salad Bowl

Is memory loss and decreased brain power inevitable as we age? Many people in their 40s, 50s and beyond are told that it is and there is nothing that can be done about it. Is that true? Of course not. Steps can be taken to not only stop memory loss, but also reverse it. Here is a simple step. New research from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago found that eating just one serving of leafy green vegetables a day takes a decade off an aging brain. Two servings produced even greater effects. I explain how below.

There is considerable evidence that diets that are high in green leafy vegetables; highly-colored vegetables such as carrots, yams, and squash; and flavonoid-rich fruits like citrus, berries, and cherries are associated with prevention of age-related memory decline and Alzheimer’s disease. In particular, two large studies have shown that the consumption of green leafy vegetables, including spinach, kale, collards, and lettuce, had the strongest association with slowing down cognitive decline due to aging.

https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/food-cooking/one-serving-of-greens-daily-slows-brain-aging-by-over-a-decade/

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The hidden link between vitamins and hair loss

Woman and Lost Hair In Hand

When hair thins or falls out more than normal, it’s often a signal that you’re low on some key nutrients. Nutrients like vitamins D, B12 and A, and iron, keep your hair looking full and healthy. If you don’t get enough, your locks could suffer as a result.

  • Vitamin deficiencies often cause hair loss, with nutrients like vitamins D, B12, A and iron playing key roles in maintaining healthy hair growth cycles
  • Vitamin D supports hair follicle development, while B vitamins help produce keratin — the protein that forms hair structure
  • Iron carries oxygen to hair follicles; deficiency causes poor growth, but too much is also harmful, with ideal serum ferritin levels being 20 to 40 ng/mL
  • Vitamin A regulates scalp health through sebum production; both deficiency and excess cause hair problems like dryness or thinning
  • A nutrient-rich whole foods diet is the best approach to addressing vitamin-related hair loss, with supplement used only when necessary after proper testing

https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/home-family-pets/the-hidden-link-between-vitamins-and-hair-loss/

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Quote of the Day

“The key to success is going to bed a little smarter each day.” – Warren Buffett, Investor (born 1930)

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Slim down without exercise? The NEAT effect explained

Grip Ball

  • Fidgeting and everyday movements contribute to non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), which is the energy your body uses for activities other than formal exercise, sleeping and eating; it helps maintain a healthy weight
  • These small movements aren’t just nervous habits but your body’s natural response to being sedentary for too long
  • Fidgeting improves focus and cognitive performance, making it especially beneficial for people with ADHD or attention challenges
  • Research shows fidgeting while sitting burns up to 30% more calories than staying completely still, contributing to better metabolic health
  • Simple workplace adjustments like standing desks, walking during calls or using fidget toys significantly increase your daily NEAT

Picture this: you’re stuck at your desk, your leg bouncing under the table, or you’re clicking your pen during a long phone call. You might think it’s just a nervous habit, but what if those wiggles are secretly boosting your health? Fidgeting — those little movements you can’t seem to stop — along with everyday actions like standing or pacing, do wonders for you.

These actions fall under a concept called non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT. In simple terms, NEAT is all the energy your body burns from anything other than sleeping, eating or intentional exercise. These small moves burn calories, lift your mood and even sharpen your focus.

(Tom: I think the author of this article, and the authors of the cited studies, are missing a major reason that people fidget when reading or listening, they are  unconsciously struggling to resist the effects of having read or heard a word for which they do not have the appropriate definition.)

https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/home-family-pets/slim-down-without-exercise-the-neat-effect-explained/

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Princely Giving

Princely Giving

In late 2011, Prince Rogers Nelson walked into Capitol Guitars, a modest music store in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dressed in dark shades and an overcoat, he browsed quietly, barely speaking. The staff recognized him instantly but chose to respect his silence. He pointed at a few guitars, asked about the tonal difference between maple and mahogany, and then paused when the owner mentioned a recent conversation with a local teacher. The teacher had said that students at Anwatin Middle School in Minneapolis were losing access to their music program due to severe budget cuts.
Prince nodded slightly and left without purchasing anything.
Three days later, a delivery truck arrived at Capitol Guitars. Prince had returned but not to shop. Instead, he gave the owner a handwritten list and a simple instruction: “Everything on this list, pack it and deliver it to Anwatin.” The list included guitars, drum sets, violins, keyboards, amps, microphones, and recording equipment. When the owner asked if the instruments should be marked with a donor name or message, Prince replied, “No names. No credit. Just send love.”
The delivery created confusion at the school. Teachers and administrators at Anwatin Middle School had no advance notice, and the delivery slip listed only a phone number that led to a private voicemail. Music teacher Kenneth Simms opened the shipment, stunned by the quality and quantity of the instruments. He assumed it was a mistake. It took several days of asking around and comparing handwriting on the note that came with the shipment before a staff member connected it to Prince, who had visited the store days earlier.
When a friend later asked him about it, Prince said, “That’s between me and the kids. Not for headlines.” He declined to make any public statement or appear at the school. According to Minneapolis-based journalist Jon Bream from “Star Tribune”, even the school district wasn’t formally notified. They only learned about the donor’s identity after teachers pieced the story together.
Those close to Prince knew his silent generosity wasn’t a one-time impulse. During his early years growing up on the north side of Minneapolis, he often spoke about the importance of music education. His mother, Mattie Shaw, was a jazz singer and heavily involved in the local music scene. Prince once said in a 1999 interview with “Ebony”, “If I hadn’t had access to a piano when I was seven, I don’t know who I would’ve become. Music wasn’t a hobby, it was a lifeline.”
Former bandmate Sheila E. recalled in her 2014 memoir “The Beat of My Own Drum” how Prince frequently funded youth centers and music camps without telling anyone. “He believed in giving kids a chance to create,” she wrote. “He didn’t want applause. He wanted them to play.”
At Anwatin, the new instruments transformed the energy of the school. Simms recalled how students began coming to class early just to practice. A hallway that once echoed with silence after the final bell now hummed with guitar riffs, drumbeats, and laughter. “We didn’t just get instruments,” Simms told “MinnPost” in 2012, “we got hope.”
Store owner Alan Geller, who kept the receipt from Prince’s bulk order tucked in his office drawer, shared later that the musician didn’t even ask for a discount. “He said, ‘Charge full price. They deserve the best.’”
For Prince, who had often used his wealth to quietly support causes tied to youth empowerment, the act wasn’t about visibility. His friend Van Jones later commented during an interview with “CNN”, “He believed that if you help a kid find their rhythm, they might avoid chaos. He never needed a stage for that.”
The donation never became a national headline. There were no photo ops or ceremonies. But in a city where music had once saved a young boy from the streets, it was returned, quietly, to the next generation. Prince gave them music when theirs had been taken away and never asked for anything in return.
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How Big Fluoride Tries to Prevent Towns From Removing Fluoride

Washburn North Dakota Fluoridation

Washburn, North Dakota’s town commissioners voted Monday night to stop fluoridating the town’s water supply. But in the months leading up to what the commissioners thought would be a small-town, local debate, the commissioners uncovered a federally funded, coordinated lobbying scheme by state actors and a national fluoride lobby group to crush efforts by small towns like theirs to stop fluoridating their water supplies.

Finish reading: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/north-dakota-towns-effort-end-water-fluoridation-exposes-cdc/

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The Pace Of Change

Professor Thomas Parnell

In 1927, Professor Thomas Parnell wanted to show his physics students a simple truth:

Some things that look solid… aren’t.

So, he began an experiment that would outlive him—and most of his students.

He poured a thick, black substance called pitch into a glass funnel. It looked like a rock. But pitch is a liquid—just an incredibly slow one.

He waited three years for it to settle. Then, in 1930, he cut the tip of the funnel.

And waited.

It took eight years for the first drop to fall.

And every drop since has taken about a decade to follow.

To date, only nine drops have fallen. That’s it.

It’s called the Pitch Drop Experiment, and it’s still going today at the University of Queensland in Australia.

It holds the Guinness World Record for the longest-running laboratory experiment in history. And it’s taught us that pitch is 230 billion times thicker than water.

Scientists tried filming the eighth drop with a webcam.

The camera glitched. The drop fell… unseen.

Even now, the setup remains—quiet, undramatic, but still moving.

And maybe that’s the point.

That in a world of instant everything, there’s beauty in patience.

That science isn’t always explosions—it’s also the hush of time passing.

And that even the slowest things… still move.

(Tom: This is particularly relevant to how we maintain our bodies and the speed at which we age them. Most changes, constructive or destructive, occur so slowly that in this age of 15 minutes of fame most people do not pause long enough to contemplate the long term consequences of their actions.

And what is a criminal? A person who does not predict the consequences of or take responsibility for their actions.

Am I saying that I have been criminally irresponsible for some of my past actions? Tough pill to swallow, but yes, I am.

I continue to assess my planned actions and modify them to improve outcomes.

This last week I have added some weight training and a rest day to my exercise regime and started eating even less in order to lose the next lot of weight to take me to my target level of fitness.

What are you changing this week?)

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The Way Things Work

Three Young Ladies

(Tom: The principle here is deeper than just liberal or conservative. It is that one should not steal what rightfully belongs to one who has more generated from their own production to donate to one who has less.

Rewarding non-production increases non-production.

Penalizing production reduces production.

You get what you reward.

Certainly their are injustices and inequalities that any right minded person would wish remedied but they are best handled by raising the competence and production of those less endowed rather than by a constant flow of charity which evolves them into slaves.)

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be very liberal, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch conservative, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn’t even have time for a boyfriend, and didn’t really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, “How is your friend Audrey doing?”

She replied, “Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She’s always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn’t even show up for classes because she’s too hung over.”

Her father asked his daughter, “Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.”

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father’s suggestion, angrily fired back, “That’s a crazy idea, how would that be fair! I’ve worked really hard for my grades! I’ve invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!”

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, “Welcome to the conservative side of the fence.”

If you ever wondered what side of the fence you sit on, this is a great test!

If a conservative doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one.

If a liberal doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat.

If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him..

If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels. Liberals demand that those they don’t like be shut down.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church. A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and Jesus silenced.

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.. A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.

If a conservative reads this, he’ll post it. A liberal will delete it because he’s “offended.”

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Quote of the Day

“He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.” – Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor (121 -180 AD)