2025 Wildlife Report, yogurt data, muscle-brain

Happy Friday my friend,

Hope everyone who celebrates Christmas had a warm, nourishing holiday, and that everyone else is finding a little quiet space at the end of the year too. If you want a gentle post-holiday mission, the century-old community bird census known as the Christmas Bird Count is running right now through early January.

ECL TRIVIA: What mineral is essential for building hemoglobin in human blood and helps transport oxygen throughout the body? (Answer below)

🌎 Planet Health

🧭 SPECIES PROTECTION SCORECARD: A new “Species Protection Report” from Map of Life offers a rare bit of good news, showing conservation protection efforts in 2025 increased by 6% on land and 4% at sea, with protected land area up 0.7% and marine protected areas up 1.4%. Here’s Yale’s clear, balanced summary of the progress and what still needs work.

🏔️ EDGE OF THE WORLD: Chile is moving to create Cape Froward National Park on the southern Brunswick Peninsula, protecting roughly 150k hectares of subantarctic forests, peatlands, glaciers, and coastline. I loved this detail: Rewilding Chile donated about 127k hectares with the condition the park be officially designated within two years, helping shelter the endangered huemul deer and the marine life of the Strait of Magellan.

🪸 CROSS-BORDER OCEAN SAFE ZONE: A major infusion of funding is aiming to connect protected waters across Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador into what supporters describe as the world’s first cross-border marine biosphere reserve, strengthening habitat protection for migratory species like hammerhead sharks and sea turtles. Reuters has a helpful overview of the new $24.5M push to unify marine protections in the Eastern Tropical Pacific.

🧑‍⚕️ Human Health

🏋️ MUSCLE = YOUNGER-LOOKING BRAIN: New imaging research presented through RSNA suggests people with more muscle mass and less visceral fat tend to have “younger” brain-age estimates, while deep belly fat tracks the other direction. It’s not proof of cause and effect (and not yet peer-reviewed), but it is a compelling reminder that strength training is not just about aesthetics – see RSNA’s press release on the findings.

🧠 PROBIOTIC YOGURT + HIPPOCAMPUS: In a triple-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 40 healthy women consumed a probiotic fermented yogurt (or placebo) daily for 8 weeks, and researchers observed signals suggesting the fermented product may modulate hippocampal-related outcomes (including connectivity measures). It’s early evidence – and some findings did not hold after correction for multiple comparisons – but the gut–brain connection keeps getting more interesting in THIS new Gut journal study summary.

😴 SLEEP & LONGEVITY: A new analysis published in Sleep Advances found that across U.S. states (2019–2025), higher levels of sleep insufficiency tracked with shorter life expectancy, and the association remained even after accounting for other common mortality predictors. Only smoking showed a stronger relationship. Here’s the primary paper on sleep insufficiency and life expectancy at the state-county level.

An Ounce of Prevention…

A growing body of research suggests our odds of developing cancer can be meaningfully reduced through prevention. Not in a perfect, one-size-fits-all way, but through everyday choices that lower risk over time:

• avoiding tobacco, secondhand smoke

• minimizing alcohol

• prioritizing fiber-rich whole foods

• maintaining a healthy body weight, building muscle

• moving consistently

• sleeping well

• reducing avoidable chemical exposures at home and work

• and more…

I find this empowering because it puts more of the equation back in our hands. It also reframes prevention as a steady practice, not a purity contest.

It also made me think: plenty of people do “everything right” and still face a frightening diagnosis, which is why I’m interested in broader, evidence-informed conversations.

My friend Jonathan Otto has assembled A NEW DOCUSERIES, C*ncer Secrets, featuring clinicians and researchers discussing lifestyle, environmental exposures, nutrition, and integrative strategies that may complement standard care.

This is about education and questions to bring to your doctor, not miracle claims.

If you want to join me, watch, and lean into a more informed 2026… LEARN MORE HERE.

Trivia Answer:

Iron. Iron enables the body to produce hemoglobin, the molecule in red blood cells responsible for carrying oxygen from the lungs to tissues and organs, and a deficiency can lead to anemia.

To a healing future,

— Rob

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