Women & Cardio, Sitting Disease, Heart Problems, Miscarriages, Naps, EOs and Sleep, and Much, Much More

Good afternoon Nikkola Newsletterers!

It’s been a year since I broke my neck and damaged my spinal cord.

Standing up from my hospital bed about 12 hours after my cervical fusion, walking for the first time a few hours later, walking out of the hospital three days after the surgery, when three days prior, nobody was certain what physical function I’d have.

The support and encouragement from friends and family were unlike anything I’d ever experienced before, as well.

I thought more about my memory of the events and how most of my physical function came back much faster than the doctors said it would (my triceps are still extremely weak and small compared to what they used to be…a consequence of the C7 damage).

Every day began with the same thoughts as the day before: “What can I do today that I couldn’t do yesterday?” That thought caused me to keep trying, whether it was to hold a coffee cup, write the alphabet, or do a pushup.

But waking up with that thought wasn’t a result of the accident. It was a thought I’d woken up with for years and years. I’d encourage you to ask yourself that question, too.

Too often, people focus on what they can’t do or think they can’t do. But there’s a lot more each of us can do than we can’t. And, you’ll quickly find that there’s much more you can do than you realize if you’re just willing to try.

Cultivating such a mindset will serve you well when times are good as well as when you’re hit with something unexpected.

If you’re interested…I Broke My Neck, Part 1: Injuries, Surgery, and Recovery Challenges.

Enjoy this week’s carefully curated newsletter!

This Is Why Women Need Cardio More Than Men: Over the past couple of decades in working with men and women, I’ve consistently seen that women benefit from cardio more than men. Most of the time, when a guy starts eating better and lifts weights, he gets leaner. However, I’ve noticed that for most women, to get leaner, they need to do some cardio in addition to their resistance training. While I don’t have specific research to back it up, I’ve found that women do best when they split up their resistance training and cardio between a 50/50 and 70/30 weight training to cardio mix. Keep reading (or listen)…

How Too Much Sitting Leads to Disease and an Early Demise: Sitting is the new smoking. At least that was a new idea a few years ago. Today, I suppose many people would tell you that remaining unvaccinated is the new smoking, but I’d better not get off on a tangent with that one. A sedentary lifestyle causes, or contributes to, metabolic dysfunction, muscle imbalances, pain, depression, cardiovascular problems, and decreases in mental and physical performance. If you believe you’re an active adult, you might be fooling yourself. Keep reading (or listen)…

A week doesn’t seem to go by where new research disproves the continued claim that COVID vaccines are safe. This past week, Swiss researchers found that myocarditis may be as must as 20 times more common than previously claimed. Not 20% more common, but 20 times more common. That’s 2000% more common.

Meanwhile, another survey shows the vaccines lead to 18 times the risk of serious cardiac events. The results aren’t published in a scientific journal but seem consistent with other published data.

And…evidence shows a significant increase in miscarriages and stillbirths related to that “totally safe and effective” vaccine.

Need a nap? Take one! The findings of a new study in Sleep Health show that people who nap regularly have larger brain volumes, a measure of overall brain aging. The difference in brain volume between nappers and non-nappers was the equivalent of 2.6 years of brain aging. 💤

Inhaling essential oils for two hours per night improves cognitive function in older adults. A study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience found that when older adults spent a couple of hours per night in a room diffused with essential oils, their cognitive function improved by an average of 226%. The essential oils used in the study included rose, orange, eucalyptus, lemon, peppermint, rosemary, and lavender.

Lavender beats insomnia. Another study showed that diffusing lavender essential oil improved sleep quality and overall quality of life in postmenopausal women with sleep apnea.

Want to recover faster after your workouts? Get in an infrared sauna. Evidence shows it’ll help you restore peak physical power faster, and reduce muscle soreness.

Are you going to eat that? As of June, the USDA approved the entrance of lab-grown meat into the U.S. market. Lab-grown chicken got approval last year. I'd love to know if you’ve seen any of this in stores or restaurants in your area. Reply to this email. That brings us to this week’s poll.

Stop the muscle loss. Older adults lose muscle at an accelerated rate. Especially if they don’t strength train and eat enough protein. An extensive research analysis looked at what supplements can help slow the loss, as well. Some of the supplements with strong evidence that they slow muscle loss include:

• Protein - 1–1.2 g/kg/day for healthy elderly, 1.2–1.5 g/kg/day for the malnourished, or 25–30 g protein per meal

• Leucine - 2.5-2.8 g per meal

• HMB - 3 g/day

• Vitamin D - 800-1000 IU (most people need even more)

• Vitamin E - 400 IU/day

• Vitamin C - 45 to 90 mg/day

• Magnesium - 300 mg/day

Belief in God, angels, Heaven, Hell and devil hit record lows. The shares of Americans who believe in God, angels, Heaven, Hell and the devil have all tumbled to the lowest levels ever recorded over the last two decades and belief in God and Heaven have made the steepest dips, new data from Gallup show. Keep reading…

Energy Industry Fears White House Will Declare COVID-Like 'Climate Emergency.' After the past few years, this headline doesn’t seem far-fetched at all. Some energy industry groups are expressing concern that the White House will declare a COVID-19-like emergency—but for the climate instead. "They're leaning to that direction," U.S. Oil and Gas Association President Tim Stewart told Just the News in an article published on July 30. "If you grant the president's emergency powers to declare a climate emergency, it's just like COVID.” Keep reading…

Two Sets of Laws for Two Americas. Leftwing Democrats are systematically dismantling the constitutional foundations of the U.S. (Another excellent essay by Victor Davis Hanson). Two sets of laws now operate in an increasingly unrecognizable America. Consider the matter of unlawfully removing and storing classified papers. Donald Trump may go to prison for removing contested White House files to his home. So far Joe Biden seems exempt from just such legal jeopardy. Keep reading…