Global Health | Geek Life

Here's What You Should Be Drinking Post-Workout

March 9, 2021March 9, 20211 min read ASNF

You’ve just put in the miles on the treadmill or reps at the squat rack. After huffing through a killer session, your post-workout fuel matters. You’re probably apt to grab a sports drink, but what if we said milk is the superior post-workout drink?

“Gatorade inhibits fat oxidation because it contains a type of carbohydrate that blocks the metabolic pathways involved in fat breakdown in the muscle,” says Philip Chilibeck, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. “Meanwhile, the calcium and protein contents of milk stimulate these metabolic pathways to break down fats.”

In Chilibeck’s new study, published in Nutrition Research, he found athletes who drank skim milk after a tough evening workout burned more fat the … Read more

Get Lean and Strong With Tom Holland's ‘Chaos Walking’ Workout

March 8, 20211 min read ASNF

In Netflix’s Chaos Walking, Tom Holland plays a young colonizer left orphaned on an alien planet. His discovery of an astronaut, played by Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley, sets off a chain of events that leave the pair fighting for their lives.

Doing a project between Spider-Man appearances for Marvel meant Holland had to stay strong, but could experiment with his usual superhero routine, so he enlisted British trainer Yousif Mahdi Kampoori to develop a unique program fit for a dystopian survivalist.

“There’s no question if Tom wasn’t in Hollywood he’d be a proper athlete,” says Kampoori, who was connected with the actor through stunt double Bobby Holland Hanton. The two started working together off and on, doing intermittent sessions during the production of Spider-Man: Homecoming. “He was built to do that role.”

Ready to Dump the Sugar? Hard Tea Is Getting a Healthier Update

March 7, 20211 min read ASNF

If you drink tea, it’s easy to skip the sugar. But if you drink boozy hard tea, sugar isn’t optional. It’s the appeal, rooted in nostalgia and America’s collective sweet tooth. Popular brands such as Twisted Tea set a saccharine template that has more or less defined hard tea for the last two decades. But now, beverage companies are moving beyond the sugar cube to create more health-minded hard teas.

“We saw a gap in the market for a sugar-free hard iced tea,” says Julius Makarewicz, the founder and CEO of Nude Beverages, which launched its hard tea in Canada in spring 2019. He launched his company to cater to customers seeker “cleaner,” lower-calorie alternatives. It’s a trend that’s long percolated in the tea world, where Snapple is now sold near unsweetened Pure Leaf tea.

“This category … Read more

Hard-Won Wisdom From a World-Class Mountain Guide

March 6, 20211 min read ASNF

The mountains are a big place. A massive arena for us to explore. But what we can miss is that the mountains are a game of inches,” says Zahan Billimoria, professional guide, father, and founder of Samsara Experience, a training program designed for mountain adventures.

Unlikely the majority of backcountry guides, Z, as he’s known to most, prefers to talk about his mistakes rather than his major accomplishments. And he admits that he’s had a lot of close calls. Through them he’s learned that literal inches are what separates the right and wrong side of the line—and survival itself. “That’s hard to remember in a big arena. All the micro-decisions matter.”

Billimoria’s relationship with risk was captured in a film from Patagonia called Solving for Z, A Calculus of Risk. What’s unique about the film is how candid he is about the miscalculations he’s made.

Heavy metals in baby food? What parents should know and do

March 6, 20211 min read ASNF

If there is anything you can trust to be safe, it should be baby food, right?

Well… maybe not.

A report from the US House Committee on Oversight and Reform says that commercial baby foods are tainted with dangerous levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium, and mercury.

Which baby food companies are involved?

The report was based on information from just four companies that make baby food: Nurture, Beech-Nut, Hain, and Gerber. Arsenic, lead, and cadmium were found in baby foods from all of the companies; mercury was found in the food from the only company that tested for it (Nurture).

Of note, three other companies (Walmart, Sprout, and Campbell’s Soup) were asked to provide the same information about their baby food products, and did not.

And that is part of the problem: this is just one report, with limited information. It’s hard to know exactly what it means about commercial … Read more

The Award-Winning Japanese Whisky You Can Actually Find (And Afford)

March 5, 2021March 5, 20211 min read ASNF

This article was produced in partnership with Tenjaku Whiskey.

Water is the lifeblood of exceptional whisky. It influences the character, smoothness, and finish of the spirit––Mother Nature’s very own touch.

Considering that good water is essential to making good whisky, the skyrocketing popularity of Japanese whisky should come as no surprise. The island nation is home to some of the purest water on Earth, and it’s considered a sacred part of Japanese culture. But if water is the soul of the whisky, its heart lies with mentality of Japanese master distillers––who treat their craft as an exquisite art form.

Over the past few years, whisky aficionados have been clamoring to get their hands on these bottles. Unfortunately, inflated prices and scarce availability has made it challenging to get a taste of Japan’s unique whisky culture––until now. Introduced this past year, Tenjaku is among the fastest growing brands in the category, … Read more

My COVID-19 vaccine story –– and what happened next

March 5, 20211 min read ASNF

Like most healthcare workers, I was thrilled when I was eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. I’ve been involved in COVID-19 patient care since the very start of the pandemic in the US, and I had seen what this virus can do to people. We all felt incredibly helpless against this incredibly contagious bug.

With time, experience, and study, we’ve learned which treatments help and which don’t. Even more importantly, we now have vaccines.

The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines — tested in about 18,600 and 15,000 participants, respectively — were the first available in the US via emergency FDA authorization. They remain the most effective. Trials showed about 95% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infection after two doses.

More importantly, no one — not one participant — who caught COVID-19 after receiving either of these vaccines died, or even got sick enough to be hospitalized. And the numbers of … Read more

Wireless Mouse Guide: The Best Picks for Travel, Work, and More

March 4, 20211 min read ASNF

Whether you’re working, browsing the internet, or gaming, you likely spend a good chunk of your day interacting with computers. With so many hours spent in front of a screen, using quality tech equipment isn’t just a nice-to-have perk—it’s essential. Even if you’re just answering emails all day, a wireless mouse can seriously improve your experience.

Programmable buttons, ergonomic designs, and improved tracking accuracy are just a few reasons to level up to a wireless mouse. When comparing mice, keep an eye out for one key metric: DPI, or dots per inch. The higher the DPI rating, the more sensitive the mouse will be—an important consideration for gaming and design work, for example.

For this guide, we rounded up five options from brands like Logitech, Razer, and more. There’s a mouse here to satisfy keyboard warriors of all stripes, from gamers to WFHers.

Acne: Considerations for darker skin

March 4, 2021March 4, 20211 min read ASNF

Acne affects millions of Americans each year and impacts people of all skin tones, yet acne can pose special challenges in people with darker skin. In darker skin, one pimple or breakout can cause dark marks, scars, or even keloids (scar tissue that continues to grow larger than the original scar) that last for months to years afterward. Those affected are left searching for the secrets to treatment — or better yet, prevention. In this post we discuss how acne and similar or related conditions may be treated, and sometimes prevented, in people with darker skin.

Acne triggers release of melanin

Melanin, the same molecule that pigments our skin and hair and protects us from the damaging ultraviolet rays of the sun, can also protect our skin from inflammation. When the skin gets inflamed from acne (or from harsh acne products), our skin releases melanin. This can result in … Read more

Throw Out Your Toaster. Balmuda Is the Last One You'll Ever Need

March 3, 2021March 3, 20211 min read ASNF

I know you think this headline is clickbait, but I’m not bullshitting you. I used Balmuda The Toaster just once before I tucked my Cuisinart two-slicer under my arm, marched down the stairs of my four-floor walkup, and abandoned it on the sidewalk with a note that read ‘It works!’ It felt a little like leaving a baby on someone else’s doorstep. Okay, maybe maybe more like trading in my 2009 Honda Civic—a bumper car—for a Porsche 911 Carrera—sleek, flashy, and impeccably built.

I had my doubts: How much of a difference can a toaster really make? Just wait and see. I’ll do all the talking, but Balmuda will blow your mind as a beacon of style and design.

Balmuda The Toaster glows while in use Courtesy Image

What Is Balmuda The Toaster?

Think toaster oven to the umpteenth degree. … Read more

5 unusual headaches: Signs to watch for and what to do

March 3, 20211 min read ASNF

Headaches come in lots of varieties, and some are easily recognizable. A migraine classically causes throbbing, pounding pain that lasts for hours — sometimes even days — on one side of the head. A tension headache usually feels like a tight band squeezing around your noggin. And a sinus headache shows up as pressure on one side of the face, behind the nose, or above one eye when you have a sinus infection.

Some headaches, however, aren’t as well-known.

What’s happening to me?

When less familiar headache pain strikes, the symptoms or patterns may be puzzling, or even frightening.

For example, a thunderclap headache (also called “the worst headache of your life”) causes sudden, intense, debilitating pain that can last for an hour or a week.

Here are five other unusual headaches.

Orgasmic headache. Some people experience the sudden onset of a severe head pain similar to that of a

Long Live the Terrible T-Bar Lift

March 3, 2021March 3, 20211 min read ASNF

Some of my strongest memories from nearly 40 years of skiing happened at the hands of the sport’s most questionable lift. I can still clearly recall my first day ever out, four decades ago, for falling off a T-bar surface lift. I can picture my teenage best friend and I huddled together on a slow and cold double-chair plotting our future as pro skiers. And I’ll always remember riding a T-bar with a toddler, partially because of the back pain.

But a troubling trend to replace these ski hill scourges has some collateral damage: losing all those rites of passage for the next generation. And all that core character, replaced instead by a high-speed quad that plays music, a heated bubble chair, and a covered magic carpet, respectively, in one case in particular.

That latest stinging casualty is the Summit Platter, which used to pull the daring to the best … Read more

Is crying good for you?

March 2, 20211 min read ASNF

It’s safe to say that 2020 gave us more than enough to cry about. Yet even prior to last year, it seems that we were crying fairly often. Researchers note that, on average, American women cry 3.5 times each month, while American men cry about 1.9 times each month. These figures may take some of us by surprise, especially as our society has often looked at crying — particularly by men — as a sign of weakness and lack of emotional stamina.

Health benefits of crying

As a phenomenon that is unique to humans, crying is a natural response to a range of emotions, from deep sadness and grief to extreme happiness and joy. But is crying good for your health? The answer appears to be yes. Medical benefits of crying have been known as far back as the Classical era. Thinkers and physicians of ancient Greece and Rome posited … Read more

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Which baby food companies are involved?

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Acne triggers release of melanin

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What Is Balmuda The Toaster?

What’s happening to me?

Health benefits of crying