The average person consumes 39 000 to 52 000 microplastic particles per year through food and drink. This number doubles when taking into account how many microplastics we might inhale. Microplastics have been found in blood samples and almost every organ in the human body. In this episode, we discuss what are microplastics, how they get into your body, how they affect your health and how to avoid being exposed to them.

References cited in this podcast:

Human Consumption of Microplastics: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b01517

Polypropylene microplastics promote metastatic features in human breast cancer: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-33393-8

Microplastics and Nanaoplastics in Atheromas and Cardiovascular Events: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2309822

The average person sits for more than 6-8 hours. While we can't avoid sitting (and sometimes it's necessary), most of us do too much and continuous sitting can increase your risk for disases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and dementia, and early death. In this episode we discuss the problems with sitting, how it affects your metabolism, can your exercise counteract sitting and provide you with tips on how to reduce your sitting.

References cited in this podcast:

Association of Sitting Time with Mortality and Cardiovascular Events in High-Income, Middle-Income and Low-Income Countries: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/article-abstract/2793521

Device-measured physical activity, sedentary time, and risk of all-cause mortality: An individual participant analysis of four prospective cohort studies: https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/57/22/1457

Breaking Up Prolonged Sitting Reduces Postprandial Glucose and Insulin Responses: https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/35/5/976/38374/Breaking-Up-Prolonged-Sitting-Reduces-Postprandial

From frozen vegetables to heat-and-serve burritos, processed foods are all around us and make up a large portion of most people’s diet. Ultra-processed foods, such soda pop, frozen meals and soup, have been associated with heart disease, cancer, diabetes and early death, but can all these foods be grouped together, and can processed foods be part of a healthy diet? In this episode, we discuss what makes a food a processed food, how processed foods affect your health and whether you should be concerned if they’re in your diet.

Some references cited in the podcast:

Ultra-processed food exposure and adverse health outcomes: umbrella review of epidemiological meta-analyses: https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj-2023-077310

NOVA classification of foods: https://world.openfoodfacts.org/nova

Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitum Food Intake: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413119302487

Strong body, strong mind, is a common saying, but the reverse can be true too. How you think can affect your physical health because each and every thought you have is the result of a chemical reaction. In this episode, we discuss how certain thoughts affect performance and health, what happens in your body to make this happen and how to shift to a more positive way of thinking.

Some references cited in the podcast:

Association of Optimism with Cardiovascular Events and All-Cause Mortality

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2752100

Become More Optimistic by Imagining a Best Possible Self

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005791611000358?via%3Dihub

Interactions of momentary thought content and subjective stress predict cortisol fluctuations in a daily life experience sampling study

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-33708-0

More than 40% of adults consume artificial sweeteners, with most of this coming from diet pops. But they're also found in yoghurts, chewing gum and cereals, among other foods. Commonly used by people wanting to avoid calories, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended against their use. In this episode, we discuss what artificial sweeteners are, what the WHO is concerned about, and whether you're putting your health at risk by consuming them.

Some references cited in the podcast:

https://www.who.int/news/item/15-05-2023-who-advises-not-to-use-non-sugar-sweeteners-for-weight-control-in-newly-released-guideline

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-023-02223-9

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916522031860

Over 50% of people consume alcohol in Western countries. Many guidelines indicate having 1-2 drinks per day is acceptable and may even be beneficial. However, recent studies and experts have said no amount of alcohol is safe. In this episode we discuss how common alcohol is, what alcohol use disorder means, how your body responds when you have a drink and untangle the conflicting research as to whether alcohol is good or bad for your health.

Nearly half of adults report having challenges with sleeping. Getting a good night's sleep is important to maintaining physical and mental health. In this episode we discuss tips to help you get a good night's sleep from setting up your nighttime routine to home remedies to when you might need to speak with your doctor.

In Part 1 of this episode, we discussed the health consequences of not enough sleep and the biology of how your body knows when to sleep.

Guidelines recommend you get between 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Yet many people don't get enough sleep potentially putting their health at risk. In this episode we discuss how not getting enough sleep, or getting too much, can affect your health, along with the biology of how your body knows when to sleep.

In Part 2 of this episode, we discuss strategies for getting a good night's sleep.