The Nutrient: Anxiety created by the body, Avoiding a dad bod, direction

Here are a few things I found interesting this week.

Research

Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests
Nature

Does anxiety increase your heart rate, or does an increased heart rate lead to anxiety? This study (in mice) showed how the brain and the heart work together to contribute to intense emotions like anxiety. To me, this suggests that tools that improve HRV, like biofeedback for example, could be a useful tool for anxiety because they help lower your heart rate.

I shared this study on Reddit and the post got 105k views and 67 insightful comments. Here are a few of my favorites:

"I have anxiety even though my body can't make its own cortisol. I have to take hydrocortisone every day. (Addison's Disease) So it must have other causes than too much cortisol. Interesting to think about."

"I hope everyone is anxiety free, and I love you all as well as want to announce my new band... Mouse Heart."

And this eloquent gem:

"No shit."

Article

Notes on the dad bod
Doctor Rondo

The dad bod isn't just caused by less time, energy, and motivation. You're also up against a steady decline in lean mass after you turn 30. This is referred to as sarcopenia, which is derived from the Greek words 'sarx' and 'penia' and translates to “poverty of the flesh."

Words of the week

"You must determine where you are going in your life, because you cannot get there unless you move in that direction. Random wandering will not move you forward. It will instead disappoint and frustrate you and make you anxious and unhappy and hard to get along with (and then resentful, and then vengeful, and then worse)."
- Jordan B. Peterson

Until next week,
Dr. Adam