Drop Dead Healthy by A.J. Jacobs

I just finished reading "Drop Dead Healthy" by A.J. Jacobs, and it was a pretty fun and potentially useful read. If you're interested in the book, the Author's page has some great info and links to get it from your preferred seller.

I had read a few other books by A.J. Jacobs over the years, and despite being dated, written in 2012, I think there was still some good content in this.

In "Drop Dead Healthy," AJ Jacobs takes an over two-year journey to try all of the different things one should do to be healthy. He talks about his experience in a fun and relatable way; the approach he takes is picking a particular topic each monty and doing a deep dive on it. While it's clear some of the things he does continuously throughout the whole book, others he seems to only do for the month in question.

While this probably isn't the most rigorous or scientific book, it did have a lot of interesting nuggets which I wanted to highlight in this review.

Interesting Takeaways

Walk in the Woods

On page 43 of the book I was using, he talks about a surprising benefit of exposure to nature. In the study he cites, he mentions that a two-hour walk in a forest can cause a 50% spike in natural immune cells. This seems like a pretty great outcome for a short walk in the woods.

Silence is Golden

Not much later he talks about a totally different topic: noise pollution. In this section on page 55, he mentions that noisy environments seem to be correlated to a higher risk of heart issues. I didn't write down the exact stats that he mentioned, but I remember it being pretty surprising in addition to all of the other negative side effects from noisy environments, such as a lower ability to maintain attention and things of that nature.

I did a quick Google, and there now seem to be quite a few articles focusing on the negative impacts of noise pollution. One of the first couple of ones I looked at included this pretty crazy quote:

Face the Facts

The next bit of advice he recommended is something I've heard quoted quite often. I guess this adds a bit more evidence that maybe it's the case, or perhaps he's just quoting what everyone else is saying.¹ Essentially, the simple act of measuring and paying attention to your health stats will help you adopt a healthier lifestyle. This can be things such as weighing yourself daily, looking at a pedometer, and things of that nature. Anecdotally, this seems to be true with me; the more I weigh myself on my digital scale and check the trend, the better I tend to be at losing weight. However, I also know that I am prone to convince myself not to weigh myself if I know I had a bad few days of diet and exercise ¯_(ツ)_/¯

No bones about it

Dogs are good for your health. In the section on page 151 he makes the case even stronger than that.

Miscellany

General wellness and mental health tips from around page 156 & 168:

1. Humming is good for you.
2. Eat slowly, chew LOTS. (like 50x per mouthful)
3. Verbal commitment before meals ('I commit to only eating 80% of this meal', 'I commit to not eating the fries')
4. Moisturizer and Sunscreen are largely great²
5. Gratitude lists are good for you
6. Get a UV light treatment/anti-SAD³ light
7. Keep your brain active with crosswords, logic puzzles, etc.
8. Practice math 'Train your Brain' by Dr. Kaashima was recommended.
9. Memorize poems/long content now and then (Recommended: 'The Brain that Changes Itself')
10. Try new things. Even tiny ones. Like as small as 'I normally go clockwise through the grocerystore; I'm going to go counterclockwise the next few times.
11. Do neck exercises (side to side, front to back, circles). They recommended 5 times per day.
12. Noise Cancelling Headphones Are Good™
13. Ice water burns some calories
14. Put smaller food portions on smaller plates and it will feel like it is more than it is.
15. People eat more when eating at the TV.
16. Tiny forks or chopsticks can help slow down eating.
17. Financially penalize yourself for unhealthy activities. Specifically, his recommendation was to write a check to some group you disagree with (maybe your local political Deomcratic/Republican party) and commit to sending it if you do the thing you're trying to avoid. I might send my local Evil party $50 if I order a pizza on my next work trip.
18. Apples, lots of water, nuts, and soup (especially with Cayenne) can all help reduce the feeling of hunger

All of these were allegedly somewhat evidence/study backed; I didn't jot down much beyond they were things he mentioned and a lot of it makes intuitive sense to me.

Smell the roses....or Thyme?

I have a terrible sense of smell. I am awful at identifying scents, and, apparently, that's not great. The author is similarly unskilled and wrote a pretty compelling section which focused on the ability to identify scents and noted that improving or having a good senseof smell is, cognitively, a very good thing to do.

The author had some success after two or three weeks of practice. They essentially practiced by taking spices and herbs and things like that from around the kitchen, putting a blindfold on, grabbing them randomly, trying to identify them, and seeing how well they did. I think I will be trying this as my sense is badddd.

Keep on Moving

Walking pad/desk treadmill. Being sedentary is bad. If you work at a desk, get a walking pad or similar device to counteract some of the badness of being sedentary for hours each day. Standing is good but walking is WAY better. If you're not able to keep a workout schedule and do your daily or few times a week gym session, at least try to walk an hour or three while working each day.

Overall Thoughts

I am a fan of Jacobs' writing style and enjoyed this book. I wish there was a bit more rigor in the output or perhaps a more structured approach to it all but there are so many confounding factors that I don't think any experiment by one person would be particularly more relevant. I found it a good motivator to try out some of those items in the sections listed above and, overall, it was just an enjoyable, occasionally insightful, and often funny look at the insane 'healthy living' advice which is out there.