Welcome to the positive corner of the internet. Every weekday, we make sense of the confusing world of wellness by analyzing the headlines, simplifying the latest research, and offering quick tips designed to make you healthier in less than 5 minutes. If you were forwarded this message, you can get the free daily email here.
Today’s Health Upgrade
Weekly wisdom
What we’re reading
Try this for better sleep
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Feed your gut, strengthen your mind
Arnold’s Podcast
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Weekly Wisdom
What We’re Reading
Placenta Power
Could a vital organ in pregnancy hold the secrets to the future of regenerative medicine?
Research suggests that the placenta could be the key to helping regenerate tissue for serious wounds.
This recent article in The New York Times explores how the placenta can be used for healing burns and preventing scar tissue, to more dramatic changes such as restoring lost vision, remolding tissue, and even regrowing the tip of someone’s nose.
It almost seems like magic, but it’s clouded by government skepticism, cost, and scarcity. Placenta grafts are not FDA-approved, and the placenta is typically viewed as waste and removed after birth. However, that doesn’t mean the case studies of seemingly miraculous recoveries can be completely ignored.
The use of the placenta stands at the crossroads of regenerative medicine, where experimental treatments show promise, but adoption takes time to guarantee safety and eliminate as many unknowns as possible.
Nutrition
Forget Essential Oils. Try This For Better Sleep
When you try to improve your sleep, most tips focus on winding down or avoiding screens before bed. But what if the secret to better sleep is found in what you eat? A new study suggests that fish oil might be your new best friend for a better night's rest.
Supplementing with omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA) can improve sleep quality and increase restorative rest.
The participants were randomly assigned to either take an omega-3 supplement or a placebo daily for 12 weeks. Researchers measured their sleep patterns using self-reported questionnaires and sleep monitoring devices that tracked sleep duration, quality, and disturbances throughout the night.
Those who took 576 mg of DHA and 285 mg of EPA led to more frequent dreaming, deeper rest, and less difficulty falling asleep.
And this isn’t the first time fish and fish oil was linked to better sleep. The researchers speculate that the improvements might be because Omega-3s are known to influence the production of melatonin, the hormone responsible for regulating sleep. By supporting a better balance of this hormone, omega-3 supplements can help regulate your sleep-wake cycle more effectively.
If you’re looking for a high-quality fish oil (especially one with enough DHA), we recommend Momentous Omega-3. Most fish oils have impurities, and Momentous’s third-party testing guarantees the quality and safety of each product. That means you can enjoy the benefits without the risks.
If you don’t want to supplement, a few studies suggest that eating fatty fish — such as salmon — can also benefit sleep quality.
On Our Radar
Feed Your Gut, Strengthen Your Mind
Many people call your microbiome your “second brain,” and a new study suggests why that nickname might be earned.
Researchers found that probiotics could improve cognitive function, mood, and sleep in older adults.
The study caught our attention because of the design. We know that probiotics are important for gut health, but we’re still learning how they work because changes in the microbiome appear to be very individualized. What’s good for one person might not benefit another.
In this study, the researchers gave the participants a probiotic for 10 weeks and tracked cognitive performance, sleep, and other health outcomes. Then, they took a 4-week break and put those same participants on a placebo (without telling them it was a placebo) for another 10 weeks.
The probiotics improved every measure of cognition compared to the placebo, including better problem-solving, memory, planning, attention and focus, sleep, and even a lower likelihood of depressed mood.
This study highlights the gut-brain axis and how gut health could directly influence mental clarity and emotional balance. As we age, our cognitive and emotional well-being can decline, but this research suggests a daily multi-species probiotic might offer a natural and effective way to combat these changes.
The participants took 3.3 billion colony-forming units of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium lactis daily after breakfast for ten weeks. Keep in mind, the participants were all over the age of 55, so it’s hard to know how this applies to younger people. While the research needs to be replicated, probiotics are a relatively low-risk, potentially high-reward approach to improve gut health and potentially support brain health.
And that’s it for this week. Thank you for being a part of the positive corner of the internet, and we hope you all have a fantastic weekend!
-Arnold, Adam, and Daniel
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell
