Magnesium is an essential mineral involved in over 300 enzyme reactions in the body — from energy production and muscle function to nerve signalling and sleep regulation. Many people fall short, since modern diets and depleted soils deliver less than they used to. Signs of low magnesium can include muscle cramps, fatigue, poor sleep, and…
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Sleep is not downtime. It is one of the most metabolically and cognitively active things your body does, and it’s probably the single highest-leverage health behaviour available to you. During deep non-REM sleep the brain consolidates declarative memory and the glymphatic system clears metabolic waste, including beta-amyloid. During REM, emotional processing and creative recombination happen.…
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Omega-3s are a family of essential polyunsaturated fats your body can’t make. The three that matter are ALA from plants — walnuts, flaxseed, chia — and the two marine forms, EPA and DHA, found in oily fish. The distinction is important: humans convert ALA into EPA and DHA at a notoriously poor rate, often under…
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Sugar isn’t poison, but the quantity in a modern diet is genuinely a problem. The key distinction is between sugars intrinsic to whole foods — bound up with fibre, water, and micronutrients in fruit — and free or added sugars, which arrive stripped of all of that and hit the bloodstream fast. The mechanism worth…
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Extra virgin olive oil is the most thoroughly studied fat in human nutrition, largely because it sits at the centre of the Mediterranean diet. It’s roughly 73% monounsaturated fat, mostly oleic acid, but the interesting part is the minor fraction: polyphenols like hydroxytyrosol and oleocanthal, plus vitamin E. Oleocanthal is responsible for that peppery catch…
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Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a protein that is produced in the brain and is involved in the growth and development of nerve cells. It is a member of the neurotrophin family of proteins, which are critical for the survival and differentiation of neurons. BDNF is important for the development of the nervous system during…
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Dr. Michael Mosley was a British doctor turned broadcaster who became one of the most trusted health communicators of his generation — largely because he ran the experiments on himself first. He popularized intermittent fasting in the English-speaking world with the BBC documentary “Eat, Fast and Live Longer” and the 5:2 approach in “The Fast…
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James Clear’s “Atomic Habits” has sold well over 20 million copies, and for good reason: it’s the clearest operating manual for behaviour change currently in print. His headline framing is that you do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. The structure is four laws, each…
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In July 1944, with the war still being fought, delegates from 44 nations met at a hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to design the post-war financial order. The result pegged major currencies to the US dollar, pegged the dollar to gold at $35 an ounce, and created the International Monetary Fund and what became…
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