House Keeping…

Here are the articles published this month on my blog, Evolved to Exceed:

The Paleolithic Rhythm Part I: Long, Slow Endurance - by Greg Schmalzel

Persistence Hunting And The Running Species - By Greg Schmalzel

How Play Has Saved Us In The Past, And It Can Save Us In The Future - By Greg Schmalzel

Seasonal Affective Disorder (or SAD): The Winter Feels - By Greg Schmalzel

ALSO…

I’m Proud to announce that I’m in the process of writing an ebook called The Adaptive Scholar. More details will be released on this in the coming months, but stay tuned for what it entails. It will be an essential resource for anyone in college, any independent researcher who is getting their feet wet with academic literature, or health and fitness coaches who want to ground their programs and philosophy in science backed research…

Book.

Title: Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

Author: Matthew Walker

Published: 2017.

Summary/Analysis

For anyone interested in health and fitness, especially anyone who is particularly intrigued by the mysteries of sleep, this book is essential. Touching on virtually ever aspect of sleep, from lucid dreaming to the societal impacts of drowsy drivers, Matthew Walker has created the sleeping handbook. It goes into great detail on the neurobiological mechanisms governing sleep. It explores the evolution of sleep and how it clashes with modern culture. It describes the negative consequences of this clash. Finally, it provides some solutions. For this newsletter, I want to highlight what he claims to be the negative consequences of insufficient sleep, how modern culture feeds into this, and the his proposed solutions.

Nearly every facet of our mental and physical health is influenced by sleep, or a lack thereof. First, let’s look at the brain. Walker’s synthesis of the sleep literature (including his own research, being that he is a sleep scientist) suggests that all of the following are negatively impacted by a lack of sleep (which he defines as less than 7-8 hours per night): attention, memory, emotional stability, problem solving, and creativity. Second, the physical repercussions associated with insufficient sleep are even more frightening. These include: higher risks of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity, cancer, and a weakened immune system. With increasingly more people failing to sleep at least 7 hours per night due to voluntary deprivation or sleep disorders like insomnia, these findings are horrifying and warrant action. We must act, but first we must find the root cause.

Walker suggests that certain cultural traits associated with modernity make us more susceptible to sleep deprivation and disorders. Among them include: “constant electric light as well as LED light, regularized temperature, caffeine, alcohol, and strict work hours forcing us to terminate sleep and wake up early.” These elements were absent for most of human history and their socially engineered presence in the 21st century are contributing to large scale sleep deprivation. Walker concludes the book with some interesting society level solutions, including businesses incentivizing their employees to get more sleep via bonuses, having more flexible work shifts, and prosecuting drowsy driving (similar to how we prosecute drunk driving) because, as cited throughout the book, they can be equally dangerous.

More important, are the individual-level changes people can make to their daily habits that would improve sleep quality and quantity. Here are the twelve habits he endorses:

1.) Stick to a sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day.

2.) Exercise is great, but not too late in the day.

3.) Avoid caffeine and nicotine, especially later in the day.

4.) Avoid alcoholic drinks before bed.

5.) Avoid large meals and drinks late at night.

6.) If possible, avoid medicines that delay or disrupt your sleep.

7.) Don’t take naps after 3 p.m.

8.) Relax before bed.

9.) Take a hot bath before bed.

10.) Dark bedroom, cool bedroom, gadget-free bedroom.

11.) Have the right sunlight exposure. Daylight is key to regulating daily sleep patterns.

12.) Don’t lie in bed awake. If you find yourself still awake after staying in bed for more than twenty minutes, get up and do some relaxing activity until you feel sleepy.

Quotes

Academic Paper.

Gurven, Michael and Daniel Lieberman. 2020. “WEIRD bodies: mismatch, medicine and missing diversity.” Evolution and Human Behavior 4:330–340

Summary/Analysis

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re doing so from a laptop or an iPhone in a country that has been deemed “WEIRD”. WEIRD countries are those whose populations are broadly defined as western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic. But, have you ever wondered what it’s like to live in another country - one that that does not fall under this criteria? Many things would be very different. You would have much less access to “luxury” material goods like that iPhone or laptop for example. Certain essentials like food and water might even be less accessible.

There is one key difference that is pertinent to the scientific and medical literature: If you are living in a non-WEIRD country, you are far less likely to be a contributing participant in medical research.

In this paper, anthropologists Michael Gurven and Daniel Lieberman explore this bias in the literature. To do so, they looked at the top three medical journals in the world and documented what percentage of their studies published in 2018 included WEIRD and non-WEIRD participants. They found that 80% of the 99,039,173 participants were from WEIRD countries, and only 20% came from non-WEIRD countries. This is especially alarming when you consider that non-WEIRD people make up the vast majority of the world’s population (about 89%). This leaves us with a major sampling bias in medical research at a global scale.

Limiting our study designs to disproportionately include these WEIRD populations has serious implications for studying health and disease. While there are some general statements we can say about treating and preventing certain diseases that could apply to most individuals (because we are one species), there is also considerable variation between local populations. One way local variants can become distinct or unique is through founder effects and endogamy. Founder effects occur when a population’s genetic diversity is reduced because it descends from only a small population. This can be further decreased by endogamy, whereby members of the population only reproduce within their own cultural group. The combination of these two factors prevent new genetic variants that could fix heritable and non-heritable diseases from entering the gene pool. As examples, the authors cite the greater risk for Ashkenazi Jews to develop Tay-Sachs, white europeans to develop cystic fibrosis, and people of West African descent to get prostate cancer.

One area of research that is affected by this lack of non-WEIRD representation has to do with mismatch diseases. Mismatch diseases are those that occur when an organisms environment changes too quickly, rendering its genes inadequately adapted to this new setting. They argue that there are three causes of mismatch that can occur: 1.) too little of something formerly important (e.g., microbes, physical activity), 2.) too much of something formerly rare (e.g., sugar), or something too new (i.e., nicotine). These novel situations can contribute to diseases like type 2 diabetes, obesity, addiction, and certain cancers. Importantly, though, the rate of change, both culturally and environmentally, has not been the same for all human populations. This means that there is likely to be diversity between the types of mismatches that affect people around the world and the degree to which they do.

To further build off of this mismatch idea, the authors discuss the role of physical inactivity as it relates to this bias in the literature. For example, the high amount of hypertension we see is often attributed to the fact that more people are simply living longer today, thereby increasing the size of the population of those at risk. That being said, studies on traditional subsistence societies show little relation between age and blood pressure. They claim that this is due to the healthy amounts of physical activity performed by these societies when compared to WEIRD countries. The high rates of hypertension in the WEIRD world is more likely to be related to physical inactivity than to age. Therefore, studying these non-WEIRD societies can expose our faulty logic when it comes to deciphering the etiology of certain diseases.

Anatomically modern humans started migrating out of Africa around 70,000 years ago. These migrations resulted in a global distribution of our species. Each population was exposed to unique environments and constructed unique cultures to manage those new environments, leading to the cultural and biological variation we see between people today. Accordingly, that variation should be accounted for in the scientific literature. Unfortunately, this paper shows that this is not the case. Expanding the sampling pool for medical research to include people from non-WEIRD countries could greatly increase our understand of human health as a whole.

Quotes

Podcast.

Summary/Analysis

Our genes code many of the physical traits we see today. Your eye color, height, and even the shape of your nose can be attributed to your DNA. But could your DNA also be responsible for our lifespan? In this podcast, Dr. David Sinclair presents the fundamental framework for his Information Theory on Aging, whereby misinterpretations of DNA segments by the cells of our body result in aging and its accompanying diseases.

Animals inherit what biologists call life histories from their parents. A life history is a rough estimate of the timing of certain developmental and aging stages that an organism goes through. Depending on what species an organism belongs to, certain stages (and even their whole life) may be longer or shorter. For example, Sinclair notes how animals that don’t have many predators are not pressured to reproduce as quickly, so they can invest more energy into longer developmental periods and can reproduce more slowly. As a result, they will typically live longer. By studying the aging process in vastly different species, Sinclair and his colleagues have began uncovering the genes that influence and regulate aging. Importantly, these genes are the same for all species.

There are three main longevity genes, and they all influence each other in a network of sorts Each one needs to be up-regulated or down-regulated to improve longevity/lifespan. First, is mTOR. mTor activity is increased when you consume meat and protein. For the purpose of extending lifespan, you want to down-regulate mTOR, making it less activated. Second, is AMPK. More activation of AMPK, unlike mTOR, is better for lifespan. Third, is SIR2, which (like AMPK) should be up-regulated for improved lifespan. What’s important to understand about these genes, is that they respond to hormesis. Hormesis is the concept of exposing oneself to acute bouts of stress to induce long-term positive change. Hormetic stressors include things like exercise and fasting, which trigger the body to temporarily think that it’s in survival mode. As noted by Sinclair, both exercise and fasting can trigger the these regulatory genes to promote longevity.

At the cellular level this gets very interesting. What these genes are largely doing is slowing down the process of ex-differentition. What does this mean? Differentiation is the process of cells reading and interpreting specific segments of DNA that code for their particular function. For example, neurons in the brain contain all of your DNA, but differentiation is what allows them to specialize in brain functions by limiting its “gene of focus” to those solely associated with the brain. Ex-differentiation happens when strands of DNA within the cell uncoil. When this occurs, cells get confused. A neuron may not read the proper segment of DNA and fail to function as a brain cell. At the core of aging, argues Sinclair, is the ever increasing propensity for cells to experience ex-differentiation. Optimizing the genes that slow ex-differentiation, therefor, is the key to unlocking (for all intents and purposes) immortality.

Throughout other episodes of this podcast, Sinclair describes day-to-day protocols that can be used to enhance these regulatory genes and use them to increase lifespan. He does not go too deeply into those details here but he says the fasting and exercise both induce the type of hormetic stress that increases longevity.

I fear that we, as a modern and comfort-loving culture, are trying so adamantly to avoid hormesis. Are we running away from the very thing that can help us live longer? Paradoxically, I also fear immortality. Are we sure we want to live forever? Will there be undesirable consequence that we cannot predict? How will the very process of natural selection react when our species becomes unaffected by natural death?

Quotes

Fitness Tip.

“To get stronger you need more muscle.” This is a common misconception. The two are not tethered together. In fact, they are largely independent. You can build strength independent of building size. This is largely due to that fact that lifting routines that emphasize strength building are primarily focused on creating neurological adaptations, not muscular adaptations. In doing so, the electrical signals that start in your brain, travel through your nervous system, and signal to your muscle to move become more efficient - the muscles don’t get bigger.

You may want to do this because you compete in a sport with weight classes, or you’re simply someone who wants to get stronger without the aesthetic of “bulking”. Either way, here are some concepts and protocols for achieving strength gains without putting on muscle.

1.) Incorporate complex/compound movements that use multiple joints and muscle groups.

2.) Limit exercise to 1-5 repetitions per set, and 3-20 sets per movement. Higher volume ranges will begin to induce muscle growth.

3.) The weight being lifted should be between 80-100% of your one rep max for that particular movement.

4.) Maximize rest between sets (no less than 2 minutes).

Exercise is a cultural adaptation we use to combat the negative side effects of living in the modern world. One of these is a loss of strength due to sedentary living. By implementing these variables into a lifting routine, you are adopting one variant of this cultural adaptation that will offset the strength losses of modernity.

Fit Fuel Song Suggestion.

If you’re new here, heed this warning:

The Fit Fuel song suggestions are hand picked by yours truly to elicit the motivation (and possibly aggression) needed to initiate or persist through a grueling workout. They typically consist of heavy, brutal guitar riffs and gruesomely guttural vocals. Additionally, I timestamp what I believe to be the best riff of the song - one that will kick your nervous system into overdrive when approaching a personal record.

Title: Gelid Remains

Extra song by the same band (because its appropriately titled): Neanderthal

Band: Demolition Hammer

Album: Tortured Existence

PR Moment - 1:45