Physio Strength Club

12/11/2025

🧠 Re-thinking Heart Health: From “Blocked Arteries” to Inflammation, Atheroma & Lifestyle 🫀

Hello friends — I want to share something deeply relevant to the work I do, helping clients optimise their health through anti-inflammatory nutrition, lifestyle upgrades, movement and proactive habits. A new major scientific report from the medical journal The Lancet has just reframed how we think about coronary heart disease — and this has powerful implications for how we coach health, prevent issues early, and shift from reaction to prevention.

🔍 What the report says
The commission authors argue that the conventional view of coronary artery disease (CAD) — focused on diagnosing ischaemia (i.e., reduced blood flow because of major blockages) and treating it when symptomatic — is too late. Instead, they define a concept of atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (ACAD): the process of plaque build-up, inflammation of the vessel wall, remodelling, immune activation, lipid accumulation — quite a long time before the big event that we traditionally fear (heart attack, chest pain).
They point out that by the time you detect ischaemia or a major obstruction, a lot of the damage has already been done. The earlier window — when inflammation is still modifiable — is where lifestyle, nutrition, movement, mindset all have their role.
Importantly: the report highlights that eliminating known behavioural and metabolic risk factors (smoking, hypertension, high LDL, poor diet, lack of movement) could reduce the global deaths from ACAD by ~82% by 2050, potentially saving ~8.7 million lives per year.

🌿 Why this matters for anti-inflammatory nutrition & lifestyle coaching
If we accept that the disease process is fundamentally about inflammation, lipid deposition, endothelial injury, immune-vascular interplay, then the role of nutrition and lifestyle leaps into the foreground. Here are some of the take-aways that directly speak to the kind of coaching & support I deliver:

1. Diet matters big time

The report emphasises that dietary risks (ultra-processed foods, high sugar, high sodium, trans fats) are major contributors to ACAD.

Conversely, dietary interventions emphasising nuts, legumes, wholegrains, seafood, low red/processed meat, low sugar-sweetened beverages represent strong preventive potential.

For you and me: adopting an anti-inflammatory, nutrient-rich diet (rich in whole foods, colourful vegetables, fibre, good fats, low processed, limited sugar) is part of shifting the process upstream — before the “blockage” shows up.

2. Lifestyle beyond diet

Movement, physical activity, addressing obesity/overweight, good sleep, managing stress, limiting smoking/tobacco are all flagged.

The report emphasises that early in life (including childhood, prenatal, adolescence) is crucial — meaning the habits you build today can pay lifelong dividends.

For clients: building consistent movement habits, improving sleep, adopting stress-resilience strategies, avoiding chronic low-grade inflammation (from poor lifestyle, diet, environment) becomes central.

3. Focus on inflammation & vessel health, not just ‘clogged arteries’

The report describes how immune cells (leukocytes), inflammatory processes, smooth muscle migration, endothelial dysfunction all contribute to the plaque build-up in the vessel wall — before you get symptoms of ischaemia.

This means part of our coaching frame becomes: “How do we keep your vessel walls calm, flexible, with minimal inflammatory insult?” rather than waiting until “something shows up” and you’re managing downstream damage.

4. Early detection + action = advantage

The report emphasises screening, risk-factor modification, earlier detection of atherosclerosis (even before symptoms) is key.

As a health coach, I help clients understand risk factors, track their markers (lipids, BP, inflammation, lifestyle metrics) and implement changes early — essentially translating this “shift upstream” philosophy into action.

🏁 My Invitation to You
If you’re reading this and thinking “yes — I know parts of this, but I haven’t really taken the upstream route” — that’s totally fine, you’re not late. But the opportunity is here.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing specific tips and frameworks for:

Anti-inflammatory plate building: how to design meals that reduce vascular inflammation, support lipid health, support endothelial function

Movement & lifestyle rhythms that support vessel health (not just cardio for calories)

Stress, sleep & recovery strategies that lower chronic inflammatory burden

Monitoring key markers (nutrition, lifestyle, vascular health) so you can be proactive rather than reactive

If this resonates and you’d like more personalised support (whether you’re health coaching, trying to upgrade your lifestyle, or simply want to age better and reduce cardiovascular risk), I’d love to explore how we can work together.

✅ Final takeaway
Heart disease is not only about “will I get a blockage” or “will I have a heart attack”. A powerful new paradigm (from The Lancet) suggests we should be looking a lot earlier — at the atheroma, the inflammation, the vessel wall changes, the lifestyle drivers — and that’s where much of the modifiable risk lives.
So yes — diet, movement, sleep, stress, environment, habits — they matter. Big time. And they’re where you have the most agency.

If you found this useful, feel free to like/share/comment below and let me know: What’s one habit you’re ready to shift to take advantage of this early-window perspective?

Here’s to building resilient, healthy vessels and thriving lives ❤️

12/11/2025

Cholesterol Panic Is Overblown

The narrative around LDL is simplified, outdated, and harmful.

High LDL isn’t automatically a death sentence — context matters: particle size, inflammation, insulin resistance, nutrient status.

Blindly lowering cholesterol with drugs without addressing cellular health and metabolic balance is like painting over rust. You’re ignoring the real problem.

10/11/2025

Dietary Fiber: What Actually Matters, What’s Overhyped, and How to Use It Wisely

Most of us have grown up hearing one message on repeat: “Eat more fiber.” It sounds simple, but it’s not actually good enough advice. Fiber is not one thing. There are different types, and they behave differently in your body. If we want better digestion, better metabolic health, and better long-term health outcomes, we need to understand what each type of fiber does and how to use it.

That is the core message from a recent discussion by Peter Attia, where he breaks down the science behind fiber. Not in a theoretical way, but in a practical way that we can actually apply.

Here is the key idea:

Combining different types of fiber works better than just trying to hit a number of “grams per day.”
Different fibers support different systems in the body, and they work best when they support each other.

So let’s break this down.

What Fiber Actually Is

Fiber is the part of plant foods that your body doesn’t digest. It moves through your gut mostly intact, but what happens during that process is where the benefits show up.

Fiber falls into a few main categories:

1. Soluble fiber
Forms a gel-like texture in the gut. Helps slow digestion and smooth blood sugar spikes.

2. Insoluble fiber
Adds bulk to stool and keeps things moving.

3. Viscous fiber
Especially helpful for lowering LDL cholesterol and supporting metabolic health.

4. Fermentable fiber (including resistant starch)
Feeds the gut microbiome, supports colon health, and helps produce beneficial compounds like butyrate.

You don’t need to memorize these categories. What matters is combining them.

Why Fiber Matters

The benefits are real, though often smaller or more modest than wellness marketing claims. Fiber can help:

Improve stool regularity and digestion

Reduce glucose spikes and insulin demand

Support weight management by improving satiety

Reduce LDL cholesterol (to a degree)

Support a healthier gut microbiome

If we are thinking about long-term metabolic health and aging, these are meaningful.

Is fiber a magic bullet? No. It is one tool, not the tool. Protein intake, strength training, sleep, stress, omega-3 status, and total calorie balance usually move the needle more.

However, fiber complements everything else you are already doing to support health.

Where the Confusion Comes From

Almost all national recommendations for fiber intake come from epidemiology (population studies). These studies show correlation, not causation.

People who eat more fiber tend to also:

Eat more whole foods

Move more

Smoke less

Sleep better

Drink less ultra-processed calorie load

So fiber often looks like the cause of health improvements, when in reality it may simply be part of a healthier lifestyle pattern.

Still, the risk of fiber intake is generally low, and the potential upside is meaningful.

Why Some People Don’t Tolerate Fiber Well

This is one of the big missing pieces in public health messaging.

Some fibers, especially highly fermentable ones, can cause:

Gas

Bloating

Cramping

Discomfort

This is not a sign of “bad gut health.” It is simply a mismatch of fiber type and digestive tolerance.

The solution is to adjust fiber type, not eliminate fiber altogether.
Start with a mix, go slow, and increase gradually. Hydration matters too.

Practical Strategy (Simple and Effective)

Instead of trying to hit one big number, combine fiber types:

Viscous + soluble fibers: oats, legumes, chia seeds, psyllium husk

Slowly fermentable fibers: green bananas, cooked and cooled potatoes or rice (resistant starch)

Insoluble fibers: vegetables with skins, nuts, seeds, whole grains

If you want a supplement strategy:

Psyllium husk (for glycemic control and LDL support)

Partially hydrolyzed guar gum (gentler fermentable fiber)

Inulin, acacia, or resistant starch (for microbiome support, if tolerated)

Don’t add everything at once.
Increase slowly over 2 to 4 weeks while staying well hydrated.

The Bottom Line

Fiber provides modest and meaningful benefits when used correctly. It supports metabolic health, digestion, satiety, and gut health. Not because it's “magic,” but because it works with your physiology.

The real advantage comes from combining:

Viscous fibers for metabolic control

Slowly fermentable fibers for gut health

Insoluble fibers to keep things moving

No need to go extreme. No need to hit 50g of fiber a day. No need to eliminate it either.

Low risk. Strong physiological rationale. Noticeable real-world upside.

That is how we make nutrition work for real life.

09/11/2025

Focusing on What Really Matters for Your Health

If you took your kids trick-or-treating last week, you probably saw plenty of Freddy Kruegers and masked villains. We love a good scare when it’s fictional. The same goes for the news. We are drawn to the dramatic, the shocking, the rare. Stories about murder, terrorism, sudden tragedy. These topics dominate headlines and get clicks because they evoke emotion.

Here is the problem. The things we fear the most are not the things most likely to kill us.

The biggest risks to your life are not hiding in an alley. They are already inside the body. Heart disease. Cancer. Metabolic disease. Cognitive decline. These are responsible for the majority of deaths in developed countries. Yet they barely show up in the news cycle.

A recent review looked at how often certain causes of death appear in mainstream media. Heart disease and cancer account for more than half of U.S. deaths. In the news, they show up in about 7% of mortality-related coverage. Meanwhile, homicide accounts for less than 1% of deaths but dominates nearly 50% of news stories on death.

This skew shapes our perception. If someone were making health decisions based only on the news, they might avoid going outside due to fear of being attacked, yet not think twice about skipping exercise, smoking, losing muscle mass, eating ultra-processed foods, or ignoring blood pressure and blood sugar.

Daily habits are boring in comparison to headlines. Sensible health practices don’t trend. No one is binge-watching content on how to maintain VO₂ max or how to improve insulin sensitivity.

However, this is precisely where our real leverage lives. The chronic conditions that cause most early deaths are highly modifiable. Which means your lifestyle matters far more than the media ever reflects.

The work I do with clients focuses on the fundamentals that change long-term outcomes:

• Keeping muscle mass high
• Training cardiovascular fitness consistently
• Improving metabolic health and blood sugar control
• Reducing inflammation through nutrition and daily rhythms
• Managing stress and recovery
• Getting enough high-quality sleep
• Identifying risks early and screening appropriately

Are these topics dramatic? No. Are they life-saving? Consistently.

If you take one message from this post, make it this:

Do not let the news dictate what you fear. Let your actual risk dictate what you prioritise.

Your health outcomes tomorrow are shaped by your actions today. Not your intentions, and not what feels urgent in the moment. The basics are not complicated, but they require consistency:

• Lift weights 2–4 times per week
• Walk every day
• Get your heart rate up and build aerobic capacity
• Eat whole foods, prioritise protein, minimise ultra-processed carbs and seed oils
• Get bloodwork done regularly and track trends over years, not weeks
• Protect your sleep like you would protect your income

You do not need perfection to change your trajectory. You need clarity, accountability, and a bias toward action.

The sensational stories will always get more attention. They are designed to. Just remember: the most dangerous threats to your health are the quiet ones that build slowly over time. Those are the ones we can do something about. Those are the ones worth caring about.

If this resonates, share it. More people need this reminder right now.

07/11/2025

Why Bitter Foods Can Make You Healthier (Even Though Your Body Tries to Warn You Off Them)

One of the most interesting things about the human body is that the very compounds which offer some of the biggest health and longevity benefits… often taste bitter.

Think about things like:

Green tea

Dark chocolate

Turmeric

Berberine

Grapefruit peel

Kale, rocket, watercress

Coffee

And most medicinal herbs

They all have some degree of bitterness.

So here’s the big question:

If bitter plant compounds are so good for us… why does the body react to them like a warning sign?

Let’s break this down simply.

Your Tongue Evolves Before Your Education

Your taste system was built millions of years before nutrition science existed.

In the wild:

Sweet meant safe, high-energy (ripe fruit).

Salt meant essential minerals.

Umami meant protein (valuable, rare).

Sour meant “be careful — this may be spoiled.”

Bitter meant “this could be poisonous — proceed with caution.”

And that last part is key.

Many highly toxic plant alkaloids are bitter.
So the body evolved a warning system, not a “good vs bad” system.

Bitterness doesn’t mean “don’t eat this.”
It means:
“This is biologically active. Respect it.”

The Truth: Most “Healthy” Plant Compounds Are Mild Stressors

The bitter compounds we now value — polyphenols, flavonoids, alkaloids — are not nutrients in the usual sense. They are micro-doses of controlled stress.

This is called hormesis.

A small dose → triggers repair, regeneration, improved metabolism, better glucose control, stronger antioxidants, and longevity pathways.

A high dose → overwhelms the system → and can actually cause stress, poor sleep, or digestive issues.

Just like training: Too little → you don’t adapt.
Too much → you break down.
The magic is in the dose.

When Bitter Compounds Help You

(“Green Zone”)

If you’re:

Sleeping reasonably well

Recovering between training sessions

Eating enough protein and nutrients

Stress is moderate

Then bitter compounds can:

Improve insulin sensitivity

Reduce inflammation

Enhance mitochondrial function

Improve gut microbiome balance

Support long-term healthy aging

This is where compounds like berberine, green tea extract, curcumin, resveratrol, and quercetin shine.

When Bitter Compounds Backfire

(“Red Zone”)

If you’re:

Under-slept

Overtraining

Chronically stressed

Eating too little

Sick or run down

Then these same compounds can:

Suppress appetite (when you actually need fuel)

Increase cortisol

Slow recovery

Disrupt sleep

It’s not that they’re “bad.”
It’s that your system doesn’t need more stress — it needs rebuilding.

How to Use Bitter Compounds Intelligently

For fat loss / glucose control:
Take them just before meals.

For gut health:
Take them with meals.

For cellular cleanup and longevity:
Use them earlier in the day or while fasting.

Avoid them close to bedtime — they can keep the nervous system slightly alert.

And just like training: Cycle them. Don’t run them continuous for months without a break.

Key Takeaway

Your body doesn’t panic when something tastes bitter.
It just asks a question:

“Is this stress going to help me grow stronger — or am I already overloaded?”

Your job is to listen to the rest of your system, not just your tongue.

Because used wisely, bitter compounds are one of the most powerful tools for metabolic health, gut resilience, and long-term vitality that we have access to.

If you’d like — I can share a simple 5-day bitter compound schedule based on:

Sleep quality

Training intensity

And your current stress load

Just comment: “Schedule” 👇
and I’ll send it to you.

05/11/2025

🧬 Can Swapping Meat & Sweets for Beans and Nuts Really Add 10 Years to Your Life?

Harvard’s Dr. David Sinclair recently shared a fascinating new study that’s sparked plenty of debate online.

Researchers from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition modelled data across seven nations and concluded that replacing red/processed meats and sugary foods with beans, nuts, and whole grains could add up to 10 years to life expectancy — even for people in their 40s.

Ten years.

That’s an enormous claim. So let’s unpack what the data actually tells us… and what it doesn’t.

🔍 What the Study Really Found

The researchers used global meta-analyses of dietary data to simulate what might happen if the “typical Western diet” shifted toward a more plant-predominant pattern — more legumes, whole grains, and nuts, and less red/processed meat and sugar-sweetened drinks.

Here’s what the model projected:

👉 Up to 10 extra years of life expectancy for young adults making a full, optimal shift.
👉 Around 5–9 extra years for those following a more feasible “vegan-style” diet.

Sounds compelling — but here’s the catch:
🧠 This was a modeling study, not a clinical trial. Meaning, it’s based on statistical associations, not hard evidence from decades-long experiments.

Still, it points us toward a clear truth: our food choices strongly influence how long — and how well — we live.

🧪 What Real-World Trials Show

When we zoom in on large randomized controlled trials and long-term cohort studies, the picture becomes clearer — and more grounded.

✅ PREDIMED (Spain):
Over 7,000 participants followed a Mediterranean-style diet rich in extra virgin olive oil, nuts, whole grains, and legumes.
Result: A 30% reduction in cardiovascular events and a ~25% drop in all-cause mortality over five years.
Estimated gain? Around 1–3 extra years of life if maintained long-term.

✅ Adventist Health Study (U.S. & Canada):
Among more than 96,000 participants, vegetarians and plant-predominant eaters lived 1–2 years longer on average — thanks largely to higher intake of legumes, nuts, and unprocessed plant foods.

✅ Oslo Diet-Heart Study (Norway):
Men who swapped saturated fats from meat for grains and plant oils cut heart events by 47% in five years — a huge gain in disease-free life expectancy.

✅ Women’s Health Initiative (U.S.):
Those who simply ate “low-fat” without adding more whole grains, legumes, or nuts saw no benefit — showing that it’s not about cutting calories, it’s about the quality of what replaces them.

⚖️ Modeling vs. Reality

So, does this mean the “10 extra years” claim is wrong? Not necessarily — just idealistic.

Think of it as a best-case scenario:
If someone perfectly adhered to a nutrient-dense, whole-food, plant-based diet for decades, avoided smoking, exercised regularly, and maintained healthy sleep and stress levels, the combined impact could indeed approach that kind of longevity gain.

But most of us live in the real world — full of work, family, travel, and social meals — where perfection isn’t the goal; consistency is.

Even modest shifts (like 2–3 meat-free dinners a week, or replacing sugary snacks with nuts) can drive measurable improvements in healthspan and biological aging.

💡 My Take

Here’s what I tell my clients and colleagues:

You don’t need to go vegan to get the benefits. The Mediterranean approach — rich in olive oil, legumes, nuts, grains, and colourful plants — remains the most trial-proven path to a longer, healthier life.

The benefits aren’t just about avoiding disease; they’re about keeping energy, strength, and focus as you age.

Longevity isn’t built from diet alone. It’s about how diet supports your body’s internal systems: inflammation control, metabolic flexibility, mitochondrial function, and recovery.

That’s where nutrition connects directly with what I see daily in high-performance coaching — when people fuel smarter, they perform better and age slower.

🧬 The Bigger Picture

Dr. Sinclair’s work on sirtuins and NAD+ pathways (the cellular mechanisms linked to aging and repair) reinforces this same theme.
Diet is the foundation that sets those pathways up to work optimally — but it’s not a silver bullet on its own.

Combining nutrient-dense eating, regular strength and mobility work, quality sleep, purpose, and stress regulation may not just add years to life — but life to years.

🌱 Final Thought

The 10-year number might be optimistic, but the direction is clear.

Every time you swap ham for lentils, or biscuits for almonds, you’re nudging your biology toward a longer, stronger, clearer, more resilient future.

If beans, nuts, and grains could give you even two extra years of vitality — sharper mind, steadier energy, fewer pills — would you make that change?

👇
I’d love to hear your take — would you experiment with this kind of dietary shift yourself?

04/11/2025

Sleep Isn’t Just Rest — It’s a Performance Drug

Skipping sleep isn’t just “tiredness.” It literally rewires your metabolism, suppresses growth hormone, increases inflammation, and destroys cognitive performance.

Yet most adults think 6–7 hours is enough. It’s not. Treat sleep like the most potent supplement you’ll ever take — because it is.

03/11/2025

🔥 Saturated Fat Isn’t the Enemy — I’ve Been Saying This for Years 🔥

For decades, you’ve been told: “Cut butter, eggs, and red meat — or risk a heart attack.”

Here’s the truth: that advice is outdated and often wrong.

💡 Saturated fat doesn’t cause heart disease. Large studies show no consistent link between it and cardiovascular death in healthy adults.

💡 Carbs are the real culprit. Many “low-fat” diets replaced fat with sugar and refined carbs — the real drivers of metabolic disease.

💡 We’re all different. Genetics, metabolism, and overall diet quality determine how saturated fat affects you. One-size-fits-all rules don’t work.

💡 Fat is essential. Hormones, brain function, cell health — all rely on it. Cut it too much, and you may do more harm than good.

I’ve been saying this for years: don’t fear fat. Focus on nutrient-dense foods, quality protein, and a diet that supports your health, energy, and longevity.

✅ Your heart, brain, and hormones will thank you.

01/11/2025

Prevention Beats Medicine — But Nobody Profits From It

Pharmaceuticals save lives, yes — but they treat symptoms, not the cause.
Chronic disease, inflammation, and metabolic dysfunction are profitable.

True prevention — testing, precision nutrition, cellular optimisation — is ignored because it threatens trillions in healthcare revenue.

The real revolution in health is already here. It’s just waiting for us to use it.

29/10/2025

The BMJ Just Confirmed What Many of Us in Health Have Been Saying for Years 💥

Drugs are not the answer for most cases of low back pain.

A new article published in The BMJ (Oct 2025) reviewed the best available evidence for managing non-specific low back pain — the kind of pain that affects half a billion people globally each year, and often shows up without any clear structural cause.

Here’s what they found (and it’s worth pausing on this):

✅ For acute low back pain, simple advice, education, and even superficial heat were shown to help — but only modestly.

✅ For chronic low back pain, the most effective approaches weren’t pills or injections, but:

Exercise

Integrated physical and cognitive therapy (essentially movement + mindset work)

Psychological support when needed

✅ For prevention, the best results came from combining exercise with education or health coaching.

In other words — the data now supports what good clinicians, coaches, and physiotherapists have been advocating for years:
👉 Movement, mindset, and education are the foundation.

Let’s be honest — when pain strikes, most people want a quick fix. A scan, a diagnosis, a tablet.

But the BMJ team reminds us that routine imaging isn’t even recommended for uncomplicated low back pain. Why? Because in most cases, scans don’t change treatment or outcomes — they just increase anxiety and over-medicalise something the body can often resolve with the right approach.

And yet, for 1 in 5 people, back pain becomes persistent. That’s where the real work begins — and where a combined strategy of strength, movement retraining, and nervous system regulation (including stress, sleep, and recovery habits) can make all the difference.

I’ve been saying this for years:
Back pain is rarely just a “back problem.”
It’s often a reflection of how we move, load, recover, and cope with stress.

The future of back pain management isn’t found in a prescription pad — it’s found in coaching, movement, and education that empower people to take control of their own recovery.

💡 Key takeaway:
If you’re dealing with back pain, or if it keeps returning, start by asking:

Am I moving regularly and with purpose?

Do I understand how my body’s reacting to load and stress?

Am I building resilience — not just chasing relief?

Medication may have a short-term role, but real change happens when you address the underlying patterns.

📘 Reference:
Jones CMP, Underwood M, Basnet R, Trewern L, Lin CW-C. “Management of non-specific low back pain without drugs.”
The BMJ (Oct 2025).

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28/10/2025

You’re Eating “Healthy” and Still Aging Faster

Most people think salad, low-fat dairy, and whole grains equals longevity.

Truth: modern food has been stripped of micronutrients, omega balance, and polyphenols. You can eat all the “healthy” foods in the world and still be biochemically inflamed, insulin resistant, and accelerating cellular aging.

Real health comes from bioavailable nutrients, proper fats, and cellular optimisation — not just calories or macros.

27/10/2025

Protein Isn’t Optional — Especially as You Age

Let’s get real: most people are eating way too little protein. The RDA — 0.8 g/kg/day — is a bare minimum, enough to avoid outright deficiency, not enough to maintain strength, function, or long-term metabolic health.

Here’s the part most people miss: as we age, muscle loss isn’t just a cosmetic issue — it’s a serious health risk.

Setbacks accelerate loss. Surgeries, falls, illness, or even short periods of inactivity can strip away muscle that you’ll never fully regain, even if you hit the gym.

Resistance training isn’t enough. Exercise helps, but without sufficient protein, your body can’t rebuild lost muscle effectively. Older adults are particularly vulnerable.

The metabolic cost is huge. Muscle is your body’s metabolic engine — losing it compromises energy balance, insulin sensitivity, bone strength, and overall resilience.

Experts like Peter Attia and Rhonda Patrick emphasize that adults over 40 should aim for well above the RDA — often 1.2–2.0 g/kg/day — and adjust further if active or recovering from illness.

Bottom line: Don’t wait until it’s too late. Protein is the foundation of your muscle, brain, and metabolic health. Every meal is an opportunity to preserve the body that carries you through life — and to protect it against the setbacks that come with aging.