The Nutrient: Mindfulness reduces anxiety, Morning activity, A coup for poo

Research

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction vs Escitalopram for the Treatment of Adults With Anxiety Disorders

This is the first randomized trial to compare a pharmaceutical with mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). No surprise, the results are enlightening.

The escitalopram group was flexibly dosed from 10 to 20 mg daily, while the mindfulness group had quite the agenda, including an 8-week course with weekly 2.5-hour classes, one day-long weekend class, and 45-minute daily home practice exercises. That's a lot of mindfulness, and obviously a lot more involved than taking a pill.

After 8 weeks, both groups had almost a 30% drop in their anxiety. Symptoms decreased slightly more in both groups at 3 months and 6 months.

Takeaway
This research shows that Escitalopram and 8 weeks of mindfulness training can both lower anxiety by about 30%. 45-minutes of daily mindfulness practice requires some serious commitment, but this research suggests it's a legitimate option to help lower anxiety.

News

Study shows link between morning physical activity and lowest risk of heart disease, stroke

"It is well established that exercise is good for heart health, and our study now indicates that morning activity seems to be most beneficial. The findings were particularly pronounced in women, and applied to both early birds and night owls."

Maybe I should call this newsletter "The Movement" since it seems that each week there's more research showing another reason why we need to move more. To balance things out I included a quote today that suggests diet matters, too.

Article

A coup for poo: why the world’s first fecal transplant approval matters

A lot of good one-liners in this article...

"You need to put something in there to occupy the space … to block out the weaker competitor."

And...

“If there’s inflammation involved, it’s possible FMT might work, but more likely you’ll need a defined mixture.”

Words of the week

"Conventionally, diet and exercise have been prescribed as treatments for obesity as if they are equally important. But diet and exercise are not fifty-fifty partners like macaroni and cheese. Diet is Batman and exercise is Robin. Diet does 95 percent of the work and deserves all the attention; so, logically, it would be sensible to focus on diet. Exercise is still healthy and important—just not equally important."
– Dr. Jason Fung in The Obesity Code

Take care,

Dr. Rondo