Domestic Parity? Ha!
Plus: How Much Sun Exposure is Healthy?
How Much Sun Exposure is Healthy?
Bad advice on TikTok has contributed to 1 in 7 younger US adults believing that daily sunscreen use is more harmful than direct sun exposure. That’s baloney, this doctor writes. The proper prescription: Use sunscreen, and get your vitamin D, and don’t get burned.
Tanning is a protective mechanism in our skin cells to reduce DNA damage by creating more dark pigmented melanin. The skin tans to protect itself from getting burnt. And no, you do not need to get close to burning to get the maximal benefit from Vitamin D. Its production is maximized through sun exposure at one-third of the minimal dose needed to cause any red color or burn to the skin. Once UV exposure increases to the level at which the skin becomes red, vitamin D synthesis stops.
—Dr. Julian Barkan
Domestic Parity? Ha!
US women average 4.5 hours of daily housework and childcare, vs. 2.8 for men. But that’s just the beginning of the workload. Running the home—planning, coordinating and following up—requires 30+ hours per week, a new survey finds. Guess who does most of that CEO-type stuff? Guys, you need to hear this: Moms are sicker, sadder, and more stressed out thanks to you copping out on basic domestic chores (and not even realizing you do). Thanks for taking the garbage out though. :)
Compared to their partners, the mothers not only did more physical housework but also handled more of the cognitive labor. On average, mothers reported performing 73% of all cognitive household labor compared to their partners’ 27%. When it came to physical labor, moms did 64%, compared to their partners’ 36%.
—Kathleen Murphy
Why I Neurohack My Kids' Brains with Omega-3s
It’s tough to sort through all the nutritional buzzwords these days, so we turned to a neuroscientist for advice on one of the buzziest of them all: omega-3 fatty acids, which research shows can “grease the brain,” making communication between neurons faster and more efficient. Omega-3s boost brainpower, help balance emotions and support early brain development, she writes, and she explains why and how she advises including them in the diets of adults and children.
Omega-3 fatty acids, especially DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) make up about 60% of your child’s brain’s fat. Fat plays a protective role in the brain by coating the axons of the neuron (the wires of the brain), and insulating them, increasing the speed and efficiency of communication between neurons.
—Dr CJ Yatawara
Want to Live to 100? Here are the Key Strategies
Very few people become centenarians. But the numbers are growing. That offers researchers a chance to better study what it takes to live so long. New research pins down three firm factors: Don’t smoke, do exercise, and eat a diverse diet. No huge surprise, but as this writer explains, doing these things also ups the odds of living a better life while you’re extending those years. And on the diet and exercise front, he digs into the how and the why, with some surprises, like:
Low muscle strength and low muscle mass are independently associated with an elevated risk of all-cause mortality… Consistent, heavy resistance training can have lasting benefits for older adults. By heavy, I mean choosing a weight and repetition amount that brings you close to failure.
—Zachary Walston, PT, DPT, OCS
Power of Touch: How Physical Contact Calms the Anxious Mind
Anxiety makes us think everything has to be fixed right now, and since we can’t fix everything all at once, the worries pile up, sleep worsens, and the cycle spirals downward. This writer, cycling deeper into despair, found her remedy in the unexpected therapy of physical contact.
He held me in his arms. And something happened as that loving human touch enveloped me. I smelled his smell. I felt his heartbeat and skin. And my own heart slowed. My breathing calmed. I actually fell back asleep. Medicated only with love and touch.
—Jennie Lyons
Food Affects How Drugs Work
There are many ways in which a given medication works differently in each of us, and among the wildcards is the food we eat. In particular, acidic foods like orange juice can have a notable effect on a drug’s effectiveness. That’s just a glimpse into the process of pharmacokinetics, a surprisingly fascinating explanation for how each of our bodies deals differently with a drug, based on everything from absorption to excretion.
Understanding how the balance between acids and bases can affect how our bodies process drugs is useful information for anyone who takes medications. But there are often more important factors determining medication levels in our bodies. A number of different attributes related to the drug, and to the person, can contribute to why there is so much individual variation in medication levels and responses after consuming the same dose of a medication.
—John Kruse MD, PhD
Also, over our sister site, Aha! Science, there’s this gem:
Will AI Companions Cure Loneliness?
Feeling a little lonely? How about an AI companion. The increasingly popular robots—a virtual friend, family member or lover—promise to “chat about your day, do fun or relaxing activities together, share real-life experiences.” Research suggests they can indeed curb loneliness. But this writer has her doubts.
Humans already invented a tool that allows them to practice their conversation skills — social media. Never in the history of humanity have we had the ability to connect with and speak to this many people. … We have a tool that brings thousands of conversations into our homes, yet we have never been more lonely.
—Carlyn Beccia
And lastly, yours truly waxed a little cosmically this week on Aha!…
When Everything Spirals
In nature, everything spins. The ultimate expression of spin is a beautiful spiral. Our minds spin, too, but when the mind spins out of control, the spiral is not so pretty. In this article, I explore the universal penchant for curvature, and what it can teach us about human nature—how we can spot and prevent the bad spirals before they take hold.
Amid all its joys and challenges, successes and disasters, good times and bad, life never moves in a straight line. Try as we might, and even with all the luck in the world, tricky twists and turns and frustrating speed bumps will knock us off the ideal course we might imagine. It’s the random nature of the human condition, the emotional effect of the proverbial butterfly flapping its wings in Africa to spark a tiny atmospheric wave that grows chaotically into a colossal tempest wreaking havoc thousands of miles away.
—Robert Roy Britt