Broscience is a new branch of knowledge that came out of buff dudes giving each other advice on how to gain muscle through exercise (lifting primarily) and nutrition. As of now, the term has expanded and can also refer to evolutionary-based health ideas, such as Paleo Diet , important insights from physical therapy regarding posture or orthodontics regarding sleep apnea or jaw-maxxing as well as some supplementary to lifting activities such as red light therapy or cold showers, sometimes referred to as "bromeopathy." Originally the term had a negative connotation of not being very associated with "studies" based science. However, after the journalistic response to COVID flip floped its "expert-based proclamations" too many times, broscience and bromeopathy have become more positive terms. Expert worship isn't really science either, since it's not based on providing simple and usable models. Bro-science has the potential to become the default scientific way of knowledge if it reconcile it's intuitive and N=1 understanding with more generalizable theoretical models.

Personally I am not excited by the idea of fasting, i prefer the "eat when you are hungry method". 

However, several older people have gotten good results and it might help with detoxing one's body.

My book recommendations:

Non Violent Communication, the Language of Life

In Over our Heads, the Mental Demands of Modern Life

Things Hidden Since the Foundations of The World

Read more about these books at my Best Books List

Shot fired :) What about SOL or Tezos?

I use Clearly Filtered and I have a much easier time convincing myself to drink regular water than before. After some time of using it, my wife and I could taste the difference between tap water and filtered water in some places. Recently I also got a basic whole house water softener and a sediment pre-filter, which help with the longevity of finer downstream filters and pipe damage.

When I first heard of sleep apnea, I was under the impression that this is more of a "larger" person disease. However, as despite me having sub-10% body fat, I still had it; it turns out sleep apnea can affect basically anyone.

One of the main criteria for sleep apnea diagnosis is the number of blood oxygen saturation drops per hour. However, there's two competing standards of how to define an oxygen saturation drop. One is 4%, another is 3%. Insurance uses 4% as their standard, as it helps them avoid paying for treatment. Doctors prefer to use 3%. The difference is dramatic. Under the 4% definition, I was "near normal," under the 3% definition, I was in the *most severe* category. Unfortunately, most at home sleep tests use the 4% definition and don't give you the raw data to re-run this by yourself. I had to go to a lab. You can try a very basic O2 saturation night meter , but it’s not the most accurate.

Now, based on other symptoms, my sleep apnea was actually severe. I had bad insomnia, as my body didn't actually want to go to sleep. I didn't wake up refreshed. I ground my teeth at night. One of the key contributors to sleep apnea for me was an under-developed jaw. Causes of an under-developed jaw are many, but they include insufficient chewy foods in childhood, allergies, exposure to mold, various forms of tooth damage and bad orthodontics. One's jaw can either be too far back of too narrow, both were the case for me. Now, a few small at home things that *can* help this. Having a very thin pillow and not elevating one's head too much can help with sleep apnea. Occasionally, I just have a pillow under my neck and not my head. "Sleeping position" is another one of those surprisingly tough to make choices. Sleeping on one's back make sleep apnea worse, however sleeping on one's stomach makes shoulder tension worse.

I wanted more permanent solutions, so I decided to fix my jaw with medical help. For the jaw being too far back, one clean solution for me was Apnodent. It's a more sophisticated way to hold your lower jaw forward compared to older "mandibular adjustment devices." Those "MAD" devices came with some very frustrating side effects, such as TMJ pain, which made them tricky to use long term. For the jaw being too narrow, there are several quasi-surgical solutions, such as "Maxillary Skeletal Expander," which is currently in progress for me. You occasionally can get some small expansion through Invisalign, however you can only push teeth a very small amount if you are not changing jaw bones. There is a lot of complexity in each individual case, as sometimes you may want to align teeth before attempting surgeries, sometimes not. I spent a couple years with various devices and my sleep is way better now. Insomnia is gone and I wake up readily without wanting to snooze for a few hours.

Posture is more than just sitting up straight vs slouching. Perhaps when you hear "posture" you just straightened your back very hard now as you read this, perhaps a little too much. However, I have come to see “posture” as an extremely broad subject that combines trauma, anxiety, awareness, muscular development, bone growth and many other aspects. I suspect that postural issues are extremely endemic in the culture. “Back pain” or related fatigue / anxiety issues don’t have to be a symptom of adulthood.

My 10000 ft general view of how postural problems evolve is below:

Physical Trauma, Emotional Problems or Asymmetric Activity ->

Negative physical feeling or being stuck in the same position ->

Reaction through muscular tension ->

Chronic muscle tension ->

Improper bone growth / loss of capacity to sense one’s body

The bad news is that many people, myself included can get so tense that they lose a lot of ability to feel the problems in the first place, making it hard to believe that your problem is actually “posture.” The good news is that there are many solutions which diagnose and target basically every particular cause.

I have struggled with very serious migraines since the age of 10.

Originally, my strategy to deal with them was a better diet. Eliminating sugar, wheat and alcohol seemed to have had the most improvement, however even after moving the full paleo diet the headaches have not fully disappeared.

My second strategy was combating over-heating. My theory was that having “inflammation" for any reason, then any amount of extra heat might make the situation worse. Some very basic anti-overheating techniques helped me with reducing headaches. They were: a slightly cold shower, a glass of cold water, walking around in cold air.

However, despite all that, the headaches didn’t disappear until I tried the final strategy: Neuro-Cranial Restructuring (NCR) http://drdeanhowell.com/. NCR's stance on posture has a lot of similarity with Postural Restoration Institute, except they look at asymmetry originating in the skull rather than in the diaphragm. By slightly adjusting bones in the head, they move the head to be more symmetrical which reduces the muscle activity required to hold it up. NCR involves a body-work component similar to massage and an adjustment component of the skull bones using a nose balloon (yes, really!). The interesting thing about NCR is how amazing you feel immediately afterwards. Very few therapies can compare in the before and after subjective feeling. NCR is similar to chiropractors in some ways; however, I am more likely to recommend it because it works on parts of the body that are really hard to correct with other methods. After 5 NCR sessions, my life-long headache are gone.

Improper bone growth is the most "medically" visible of postural issues because it will show up on the X-ray, which many chiropractors can give you. I have gone to a couple chiropractors. Their general perspective is that you can get so tense chronically and your body gets so tired in holding up particular positions, such as a forward head posture, that you basically begin to grow new bones on your vertebrae to “lock” yourself into a position. Chiropractors can undo some of the damage to the bones, which is good, but problems can frequently come back if the most root causes are not addressed.