5/3/24: Real life Pokémon, dolphins return, and cocoa for heart

Planet Health

🎉 CONSERVATION REFLECTION: Are conservation strategies actually slowing and reversing biodiversity loss? Re:Wild’s first-ever meta-analysis of 186 studies on the subject revealed that two-thirds of the studied conservation actions at minimum slowed biodiversity declines or led to improved biodiversity. “It is clear that conservation must be prioritized and receive significant additional resources and political support globally, while we simultaneously address the systemic drivers of biodiversity loss, such as unsustainable consumption and production," the co-author of the analysis reported.

🐬 DOLPHINS RETURN: In Rio de Janeiro's iconic Guanabara Bay, dolphins are making a comeback from the brink of extinction. The population numbers have dropped 93% in the last 40 years. Now, scientists hope that research, education, and the creation of protected marine areas may help nurture population numbers, especially as one service organization prevented 82M liters of sewage from being dumped into the bay last year.

🌿 EUROPEAN ACTION: Nature-based solutions are becoming the basis of environmental resilience for European urban centers. "Of the 19k climate action plans surveyed, 91% included options like maintaining parks, urban forests or green roofs and facilitating natural water retention," the article states. Click to read which European cities stand out for their innovative approaches and "bioclimatic" design.

Human Health

🍫 CALMING COCOA: Could cocoa help your heart? New results from the COSMOS study say that "long-term cocoa extract supplementation may favorably impact clinical cardiovascular outcomes, including a significant 27% reduction in cardiovascular death and greater cardiovascular benefits." Flavanols from cocoa stimulate stem cell activation and may provide many other health benefits, according to Dr. William Li in this quick video. Read more about the COSMOS study here.

🥦 DIET & EXERCISE COMBO: It may not be surprising to learn this, but research in Tunisia says time-restricting eating (eating between 8am and 4pm) combined with intense exercise “can get better results than doing either one alone." Given a small 64-women participant group, this study is limited, but cardiovascular markers following lipid levels, blood glucose and cholesterol provide interesting insights on this dietary/lifestyle combination.

🍸 LESS ALCOHOL: Alcohol breaks down in the body into a substance called acetaldehyde, "which can damage your cells and stop them from repairing." Several countries are recently changing the guidance on alcohol consumption limits, including cancer warning labels on alcohol becoming a 2026 requirement in Ireland. "The simple message that’s best supported by the evidence is that, if you drink, less is better when it comes to health,” says Dr. Timothy Naimi in British Columbia.

Creature Feature

🐌 MASTER OF CAMO: There's over 3k species of this teeny (…dare I say: cute?) aquatic member of the mollusca family, and by "eating the coral and anemones of their habitat, it gives them the same coloring making it easier to blend in." Some even absorb the stinging properties of their prey, making them extra unappealing to their predators, but all the more adorable to human fans of this unique creature. With so many unique varieties, they are basically real life Pokémon. 🤓

Nutrition 101

🌰 FEELING NUTTY: Can you guess which raw nut contains the highest amount of selenium in any food consumed by humans? It supports thyroid health, metabolism, and reproductive health. However, consuming more than just 4 of these nuts per day may not be advisable. "It is possible to exceed the upper limit (UL), which is the maximum daily intake of a nutrient unlikely to cause adverse health effects," so consume this crunchy nut in very small quantities! Learn more here.

Last poll’s results

How do you most commonly wash dishes?

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Dishwasher 🍽️ (37.2%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 By hand 🧽 (62.8%)