TThe best advice for living a healthy and balanced lifestyle – eat your vegetables, get a good night's sleep, politely decline when Jägerbombs appear – never really changes. Other important points, like how much protein you should eat or how to maximize your workouts, seem to change every year. But while we're wondering whether we should really try sauerkraut again, science is moving forward, taking tiny steps toward improving our understanding of what's healthy. Here's what you may have missed in this year's research, from the best reason to eat beets to how to ruin your five-on-five game before the game even starts. There is still time to drink pickle juice until 2026…
Collagen Can Help You Jump Higher
The effect of collagen on the skin may be slightly exaggerated. Review 2023 More than two dozen studies have concluded that supplements improve hydration and elasticity, but the effect is small. However, there is another reason to take it: 16 week trial in healthy young people, the results of which were published in July, found that it can increase muscle tendon stiffness, which appears to improve explosive strength. Start with 10 grams per day: You may not look any younger on the pickleball court, but there's a chance you'll improve your skills. Ern shot.
Hot baths may be the best remedy after training in the mountains…
If you're looking to take up altitude training to improve your endurance in the UK, you're out of luck – even Ben Nevis, at 1,345 meters (4,413 feet), falls just short of 2,000 meters or so, where the oxygen really starts to run low. But there may be another possibility: a study published in May cross adaptationwhere the training effects of one stressor (such as heat) can carry over to another (such as altitude), put 20 well-trained adults on a high-intensity interval training program and then doused half of them in hot water after the session. After six weeks, they tested the athletes in low-oxygen conditions and found that the time to exhaustion was 25% longer in the hot bath group than in the control group. Jumping into a 42°C bath after a few sprint intervals probably isn't good fun – and proper hydration is crucial – but if you're training for an altitude race, it's worth a try.
…and catching a cold after a workout is probably bad
If you spent time on fitstagramYou've seen people jump into everything from alpine lakes to bins full of ice to speed up post-workout recovery, but there's growing evidence that it may have the opposite effect. A study published in September found that when young athletes immersed one leg in cold water after resistance training, it reduced blood flow and amino acid delivery, which actually slowed, rather than promoted, muscle growth.
Beet juice is good (again)
Remember the beet juice craze of 2012? It's okay if you don't: in short, it's a natural source of dietary nitrates, which the body converts into nitric oxide, improving blood flow and reducing the “oxygen cost” of exercise. Top-level athletes, as well as part-time Pelotonians, started taking it – but the benefits weren't huge for most people, so the craze fizzled out. Now the purple elixir is back: in research published in August by researchers at the University of ExeterTaking “shots” of concentrated juice twice a day lowered blood pressure in older adults in just two weeks. Adults aged 60 to 70 saw an improvement in their oral microbiome, with an increase in good bacteria and a decrease in bad bacteria, which helped convert nitrate into nitric oxide, which is key to healthy blood vessels. The same effect didn't seem to be observed in younger volunteers, so if you're not a fan of beets, you may want to hold off on this until later, or try nitrate-rich alternatives like spinach, arugula, fennel, celery and kale.
Exercise helps you get rid of internet addiction
We should try to reduce the number of TikToks and YouTube Shorts. meta-analysis A study published in September suggests that increased use of short videos and scrolling interfaces is associated with worse cognitive performance, decreased attention and increased stress. It's easier said than done, but physical activity can help. IN other analysisA study published in January found that exercise reduced internet addiction and improved psychological symptoms in students suffering from it. It's important to note that “open” motor skills, where you are forced to make quick decisions, are more effective than “closed” motor skills, such as lifting weights or swimming. It's time to sign up for a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class…
Gargling with pickle juice may stop cramps
Athletes have been drinking pickle juice for a long time – England men's football team reportedly used it to treat cramps during Euro 2024 – but he did have a moment at this summer's French Open when Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner held him back in a five-set final. It is a source of electrolytes, particularly sodium and potassium, but the anticonvulsant effect appears to be due to the sour taste, which stimulates reflex signals that cause muscles to relax. The good news is that you don't even have to drink the juice for it to do its job—you can swish it around in your mouth. previous study assuming it could take effect in 35 seconds.
Creatine may help your brain (or compensate for a bad night's sleep)
While bodybuilders and athletes often use it to push their limits during workouts, there is growing evidence that creatine can strengthen your brain. He can help cognition in older peopleaccording to a study published in September, and may improve clinical outcomes in menopausal women, according to one study published in August.
Sex improves your mood… for up to two days
Regular hay rolls have several advantages: better sleep to lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease – and new research shows it can also boost your mood, which lasts for up to 48 hours. A study published in January using diary data Almost 600 volunteers found that “the sexual afterglow lasted on average at least one day, especially after partner-initiated or mutually initiated sex” and could last up to two days.
Eating more fruit can protect your lungs from pollution
It is not ideal that 90% of the world's population is exposed to levels of air pollution exceeding WHO recommendations. If you're looking to offset the effects of dirty air, new research suggests diet can be a backup. A study published in September using data from the UK Biobank. nearly 200,000 people found that a healthy diet was associated with improved lung function regardless of exposure to air pollution, and that women who ate four or more servings of fruit per day had less air pollution-related decline in lung function than those who ate less. “This may be partly explained by antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds,” said study leader Pimpika Keusri. “This may help mitigate oxidative stress and inflammation caused by fine particles, potentially offsetting some of the harmful effects.” Write to your MP, and in the meantime, eat an apple.
Sitting for hours is bad for your brain
The bad news for those who prioritize daily exercise is that sitting for hours at a time is associated with neurodegeneration as you age, even if your level of physical activity is high. The Vanderbilt Memory and Aging Project, founded back in 2012, is a longitudinal study examining vascular health and brain aging, as well as data collected from more than 400 of its participantsand published in May, suggests that a more sedentary lifestyle is associated with worse executive function, memory and cognitive function.
If you use your phone before a five-on-five game, it could ruin your first touch…
Doomscrolling before Monday night football may seem reasonable: a little aggression on the field never hurts, so why not be angry about everything? Sad, volleyball player researchpublished in February suggests the opposite: when a group of teenage athletes logged on to social media before training, their attack efficiency decreased, so being “too online” could be detrimental to concentration before a match.
…and dehydration can increase stress
Are you facing a few terrible days at the office? It might be time to invest in one of those large water jugs. In a study published in Journal of Applied Physiology in September, volunteers were labeled as “low fluid” (if they drank less than 1.5 liters of fluid per day) or “high fluid” (if they regularly met the daily water intake guidelines of 2 liters for women and 2.5 liters for men). They then took the Trier Social Stress Test, a way to induce anxiety in subjects by having them go through a simulated job interview and ask mental arithmetic questions. In the low-hydration group, the cortisol response to stress was more than 50% higher than those who met daily water intake recommendations, which could be detrimental to health in the long term.
Drinking coffee helps your heart – if you do it in the morning
If you haven't yet been bullied by the sleep lobby into not drinking coffee after 1 p.m., there's another reason to save your mocha for the morning: It seems to be better for your heart health. An analysis of data from more than 40,000 adults published in January found that morning coffee drinkers were 31% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease over a 10-year follow-up period than those who went without coffee, but there was no significant reduction in mortality among all-day coffee drinkers compared with those who avoided coffee. There has already been a study suggest that up to three cups of coffee a day may help heart health, but it is unclear why the effect disappears with afternoon drinks – one possible explanation is that it disrupts sleep, with all the negative consequences that this entails. There's also hope for people who just love the taste of an Americano after lunch: If coffee's protective effects are due to anti-inflammatory compounds, as some researchers suggest, then decaf would have similar benefits…without ruining your sleep.
