For most people in history, it wasn’t sweet treats that were the problem - there wasn’t a lot of choice when it came to food - if your dad is a fisherman, you’re gonna eat a lot of fish - if you’re family is growing corn, you’re going to eat a lot of corn - and there’s even a known disorder - Pellagra - it causes everything from these awful skin sores to dementia - that comes from eating too much corn without enough other variety in your diet.

Links:

• Food and Nutrition Information Center |NAL|USDA
• Welcome to the USDA Food Composition Database
• WHO | Guidelines on food fortification with micronutrients
• What Are Calories? How Many Do We Need? - Medical News Today
• Eating Too Many Bananas | Med-Health.net
• Blueberry and Banana Steel Cut Oats Recipe - Allrecipes.com

Losing consciousness, defenseless, this doesn’t seem like a good idea from a survival standpoint, especially for a little furry creature in the wilderness that’s trying not to be eaten. You have to sleep or you get sick and you die. And this doesn’t seem to have anything to do with humans having such complex brains - fish sleep, cats sleep, it’s even possible that little microscopic lifeforms like blue-green algae might sleep.

Links:

• Sleep helps healing.
• What is Sleep? - American Sleep Association
• Recommended Amount of Sleep for a Healthy Adult: A Joint Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society
• The Risks of Sleeping “Too Much”. Survey of a National Representative Sample of 24671 Adults (INPES Health Barometer)
• The effects of napping on cognitive functioning. - PubMed - NCBI
• Good sleep, bad sleep! The role of daytime naps in healthy adults. - PubMed - NCBI
• Midday Naps and the Risk of Coronary Artery Disease: Results of the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study
• Comparing the benefits of Caffeine, Naps and Placebo on Verbal, Motor and Perceptual Memory

The role of exercise in health is frustrating to anyone trying to improve their health. Check 3 different sources and you’ll find that something as simple as “is 30 minutes a day exercise enough” turns into a back and forth shouting match, with each side gathering studies that match their own opinions.

Links:

• 989 on: Health - Website
• Exercise & Physical Activity:

Humans have taken stress to a whole new level - it's frequently difficult to deal with, especially since our modern society seems to find every excuse to add new stressors every day.

Links:

• 989 on: Health - Website
• Stress | NCCIH
• NIMH » Fact Sheet on Stress

In Episode 1, we introduce the basic concepts of the Eastern and Western medical systems. Each approach has its place, and a lot to offer - concepts we'll refer back to throughout the episodes that follow.

Links:

• 989 on: Health - Website
• Eastern and Western Approaches to Medicine
• Traditional Chinese Medicine: In Depth | NCCIH