Calls are made to help address stigmas attached to chemsex and improve support.
‘I was drawn into a secretive world of chemsex and it turned me into a zombie’
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Weight-loss drugs expose women to society’s harsh judgements on their bodies
Women who have quickly lost weight say strangers are now more likely to smile at them or strike up a conversation.
Engage 9: Being in Love
Lesson 9 of the free Engage course delves into how to use visualization to attract and enjoy the experience of being in love with a delightful partner, including how to bypass a key mistake people make when trying to use the Law of Attraction to manifest loving partners.
Feel free to share your feedback in the YouTube comments as well.
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Join the Engage notification list to get an email whenever a new Engage lesson is published. I also encourage you to subscribe to my YouTube channel to follow the course there.
Enjoy!
I’m A Flight Attendant – This Is The Safest Place To Park Your Car In The Airport
Airport parking demand shifts hugely across the UK, Transport Network reports.
Fewer than 1% of travellers through Heathrow look for a parking spot, but 10% of those passing through Bristol Airport look out for one.
That’s partly because of local transport links, they explain. But no matter where you’ve parked your car while on holiday, you’ll want to know it’s safe.
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In a YouTube Short, flight attendant Cierra Mistt shared that the most secure place to park your car may be in the spot you like least.
Where’s safest to park in an airport car park?
“If you want to make sure your vehicle is safe at the airport ― especially on those long trips ― park in either the top floor of the [multi-storey car park], or the very back of economy parking,” Mistt said.
Though those areas are far away from the airport and can seem “unguarded”, Cierra said she recommends them for good reason.
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“This is actually the parking where all the employees of the airport, along with crew members that are going to be on trips, park,” she explained.
“Security is constantly monitoring that area to make sure that no one breaks into those cars, and the shuttles are over there more than any other place because they need to make sure that their employees get to work on time.”
Some airports have separate parking arrangements for their staff ― but you can usually look this up ahead of time.
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What if I don’t want to go that far?
Airports claim your car will still have lots of protection, like CCTV, number plate recognition, and patrols.
Otherwise, the Met Police suggest following some basic steps will prevent break-ins, at the airport and elsewhere.
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These include locking your car, shutting your windows and sunroof, securing your number plates with tamper-resistant screws, and taking out or hiding valuable items inside the vehicle.
And don’t even leave hints of pricey electronic goods, like sat nav mounts, on show, they add.
I’m A Doctor — Focusing Too Much On Your Protein Intake Is Putting Your Health At Risk
In his latest newsletter, NHS Surgeon and TikTok creator Dr Karan Rajan reveals that back in 2018, he was doing pretty significant damage to his gut health without even realising it.
He says: “My Indian ancestors were spiritually shaking their heads at me, because despite coming from a lineage of fibre-laden dal, lentils, and spice-rich cuisine, my diet at the time contained about as much fibre as a wet paper towel.
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“You could almost hear the garam masala, coriander, and cumin seeds collectively sighing in disappointment every time I ate yet another low-fibre, protein-heavy meal.”
However, his gut health seemed fine. He was regularly passing stools, still very active and, in his words, “Nothing about my daily life screamed -you are a fibre-deficient failure.”
However, his blood tests said otherwise
While the routine blood tests he undertook didn’t suggest that a heart attack was imminent, Dr Rajan did experience a bit of a shock to the system when they revealed that his health wasn’t quite where it should be.
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He explains: “let’s just say certain fractions of my cholesterol were slightly higher than they should have been. My triglycerides were creeping up, whispering ominous things about my future and the overall pattern wasn’t what you’d expect from a “healthy” young person.”
Initially, it didn’t make sense to the doctor. He didn’t eat fast food, he regularly exercised and his diet appeared to be overall pretty good.
Then, he explained, “it hit me…I had completely neglected one of the most powerful metabolic regulators: fibre.”
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Fibre: essential for more than just bowel movements
Dr Rajan says: “Most people think of fibre as nature’s plumbing assistant; helpful for keeping you regular, preventing constipation, and producing structurally sound poops.
“But fibre is a metabolic heavyweight.”
He explains that some of the benefits of fibre include:
- Cholesterol regulation: “It reduces cholesterol reabsorption, meaning less circulates in the blood, keeping arteries unclogged”
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Blood glucose control: ”High-fibre diets have been linked to a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes… and if you already have diabetes, fibre can blunt those glucose swings”
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Cognitive & neurological benefits: Emerging research suggests fibre indirectly supports brain health by feeding gut bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). SCFAs reduce neuroinflammation, improve the gut-brain axis, and may even protect against cognitive decline
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Microbiome & liver function: ”A fibre-rich diet lowers systemic inflammation, reducing fatty liver disease risk and keeping gut-derived endotoxins from overwhelming the liver”
The UK Government also urges that we should eat more fibre
On their website, The British Nutrition Foundation warns: “Adults in the UK are not consuming enough fibre. On average, we consume about 20g per day rather than the recommended 30g.”
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The UK Government also urges that eating more fibre can reduce your risk of bowel cancer, adding: “Fibre is an important part of a healthy diet as it aids digestion, prevents constipation and helps to reduce your risk of bowel cancer. Foods like wholegrain cereals, wholewheat pasta, oats, beans, chickpeas, and lentils are all sources of fibre.”
How to add more fibre to your diet
The NHS recommends the following steps:
- Choose a higher-fibre breakfast cereal such as plain wholewheat biscuits (like Weetabix) or plain shredded whole grain (like Shredded wheat), or porridge as oats are also a good source of fibre.
- Go for wholemeal or granary breads, or higher fibre white bread, and choose wholegrains like wholewheat pasta, bulgur wheat or brown rice
- Go for potatoes with their skins on, such as a baked potato or boiled new potatoes. Find out more about starchy foods and carbohydrates.
- Add pulses like beans, lentils or chickpeas to stews, curries and salads.
- Include plenty of vegetables with meals, either as a side dish or added to sauces, stews or curries
- Have some fresh or dried fruit, or fruit canned in natural juice for dessert. Because dried fruit is sticky, it can increase the risk of tooth decay, so it’s better if it is only eaten as part of a meal, rather than as a between-meal snack
- For snacks, try fresh fruit, vegetable sticks, rye crackers, oatcakes and unsalted nuts or seeds
This 1 Phrase Held My Mum Back Her Whole Life. Now I Worry It Will Impact My Daughter Too
Before becoming a parent, I often heard from other mums about how self-aware you become when you have kids, but I never imagined how something as simple as a passing comment could ignite such deep reflection — and even make me fearful.
In early December, my daughter and I flew back to Colombia to visit my family. It was the kind of day I’ve come to cherish when raising a child abroad. But in the midst of all the warmth, I heard a phrase that made my heart sink.
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“Don’t ask for too much; be grateful for what you have,” my grandmother said to my mum.
It wasn’t the first time I’d heard her say it. She had said it to me when I started many of my jobs, and she meant it with the best intentions of a caring grandma. In all of those instances, I didn’t think much of it. This time, however, it hit differently. This time, I pictured my 10-month-old daughter hearing those words one day, and the thought terrified me.
Beliefs like this one are not unique to my grandmother; many of us have them. However, working with female entrepreneurs to overcome financial trauma has taught me that phrases like these create a turmoil of mixed signals between pursuing what you want and staying where you are.
Why this phrase is so limiting
I’ve learned that every phrase reflects a belief system that makes sense for the season and context in which you grew up. For my grandmother, “don’t ask for too much” represented humility, gratitude and holding on to what she had accomplished with much effort. But it also discouraged her from taking further risks and continuing to nurture her ambition — and, consequently, my mum’s ambition.
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I remember my mum once telling me how she had wanted to become a flight attendant when she was younger. Her face lit up when she talked about it.
Still, she never pursued it because, while deciding whether to stick with her current career — which offered security — or take a leap and pursue her dream, the phrase “don’t ask for too much; be grateful for what you have” echoed in her head.
How that phrase shaped me
I was only able to grasp the extent of how this phrase had shaped me when I left home at 19 years old and started living on my own. I started noticing the same patterns in my own life, and whenever I felt I wanted to reach for something different, aim higher, dream bigger, or ask for what I deserved, I had a little voice in the back of my mind that would make me hesitate to take the step. I’d feel as though I wasn’t being grateful enough or was asking for too much if, for instance, I wanted to ask for a raise.
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This inner conflict only worsened when I started my business. I had to dream more significantly to create the kind of movement I wanted for female entrepreneurs and finances; I needed to ask for more. Although I had been very blessed to have already experienced things that nobody else in my social circle was experiencing — like traveling around the world — that inner hesitation made me question if I truly deserved and was capable of the career and lifestyle I was pursuing.
It wasn’t until much later — through my studies of financial trauma, therapy, self-reflection and the building of my frameworks for helping entrepreneurs achieve wealth — that I began to unpack how deeply ingrained those beliefs were.
Surrounding myself with ambitious, like-minded women also helped me see that those beliefs weren’t mine. They had been passed down, generation after generation, like an heirloom I never asked for.
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Breaking the cycle for my daughter
Now, as a mum, I’m determined to rewrite what was once a subconscious narrative. I want my daughter to grow up with a mindset that supports her in her dreams and growth and encourages her to seek as many opportunities as she desires. I want her to believe — and genuinely know — that she can dream big, ask for what she wants and deserves, and take up space in any room she enters.
But breaking the cycle isn’t easy. It starts with unlearning my subconscious beliefs, so I don’t unintentionally pass them on to her. For instance, when she asks for something — whether it’s a new toy or a more significant goal down the road — resist the urge to say, “you don’t need that” or “you already have enough.” Instead, I try to understand her context, explore what she wants, and help her determine what makes sense in her environment.
It also means modelling what I preach. I can’t tell my daughter to be ambitious while shrugging off opportunities myself. So, I’ve made it a point to dream big and take risks, even when they scare me.
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Can LED face masks transform your skin – here’s what the experts say
The at-home light therapy treatment is increasingly being seen as a must-have skincare accessory.
Can an LED face mask really transform your skin?
The at-home light therapy treatment is increasingly being seen as a must-have skincare accessory.
Breakthrough cardiac regeneration research offers hope for the treatment of ischemic heart failure
Researchers in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, Australia, and collaborating institutions report a groundbreaking discovery in cardiac regeneration that offers new hope for the treatment of ischemic heart failure. Published in npj Regenerative Medicine, the study reveals a novel approach to promoting cardiomyocyte proliferation.
“When the heart cannot replace injured cardiomyocytes with healthy ones, it becomes progressively weaker, a condition leading to heart failure. In this study, we investigated a new way to stimulate cardiomyocyte proliferation to help the heart heal,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Riham Abouleisa, assistant professor in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Baylor.
Previous studies showed that calcium plays an important role in cardiomyocyte proliferation. In the current study, Abouleisa and her colleagues explored how modulating calcium influx in cardiomyocytes would affect their proliferation.
“We found that preventing calcium influx in cardiomyocytes enhances the expression of genes involved in cell proliferation,” Abouleisa said. “We prevented calcium influx by inhibiting L-Type Calcium Channel (LTCC), a protein that regulates calcium in these cells. Our findings suggest that LTCC could be a target for developing new therapies to induce cardiomyocyte proliferation and regeneration.”
The study demonstrates that both pharmacological and genetic inhibition of LTCC can induce cardiomyocyte replication and that this occurs by modulating the activity of calcineurin, a known regulator of cardiomyocyte proliferation. This innovative approach showed promising results both in human cardiac slices grown in the lab and in live animals.
“Abouleisa’s multi-continent collaborations led to a discovery that can revolutionize the use of current medicines that regulate calcium entry to the cells, such as Nifedipine, in heart failure patients,” said Dr. Tamer Mohamed, co-author and director of Baylor College of Medicine’s Laboratory for Cardiac Regeneration.
Co-author Dr. Todd K. Rosengart, chair and professor of the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, emphasized that, “The premise of regenerating heart tissue, which once seemed like an impossible dream, is getting closer almost daily. The work of Dr. Abouleisa and the Baylor cardiac regeneration team represents a major step toward human trials that I believe are in the not-too-distant future.”
Abouleisa and her colleagues’ research highlights the importance of targeting calcium signaling pathways to unlock the regenerative potential of the heart and opens new avenues for developing cardiac regenerative therapies, potentially transforming the treatment landscape for patients suffering from heart failure.
Other contributors to this work include Lynn A C Devilée, Abou Bakr M Salama, Jessica M Miller, Janice D Reid, Qinghui Ou, Nourhan M Baraka, Kamal Abou Farraj, Madiha Jamal, Yibing Nong, Douglas Andres, Jonathan Satin and James E Hudson.
Stretching spider silk makes it stronger
When spiders spin their webs, they use their hind legs to pull silk threads from their spinnerets. This pulling action doesn’t just help the spider release the silk, it’s also a crucial step in strengthening the silk fibers for a more durable web.
In a new study, Northwestern University researchers have discovered why the role of stretching is so important. By simulating spider silk in a computational model, the team discovered the stretching process aligns the protein chains within the fibers and increases the number of bonds between those chains. Both factors lead to stronger, tougher fibers.
The team then validated these computational predictions through laboratory experiments using engineered spider silk. These insights could help researchers design engineered silk-inspired proteins and spinning processes for various applications, including strong, biodegradable sutures and tough, high-performance, blast-proof body armor.
The study will be published on Friday (March 7) in the journal Science Advances.
“Researchers already knew this stretching, or drawing, is necessary for making really strong fibers,” said Northwestern’s Sinan Keten, the study’s senior author. “But no one necessarily knew why. With our computational method, we were able to probe what’s happening at the nanoscale to gain insights that cannot be seen experimentally. We could examine how drawing relates to the silk’s mechanical properties.”
“Spiders perform the drawing process naturally,” said Northwestern Jacob Graham, the study’s first author. “When they spin silk out of their silk gland, spiders use their hind legs to grab the fiber and pull it out. That stretches the fiber as it’s being formed. It makes the fiber very strong and very elastic. We found that you can modify the fiber’s mechanical properties simply through modifying the amount of stretching.”
An expert in bioinspired materials, Keten is the Jerome B. Cohen Professor of Engineering, professor and associate chair of mechanical engineering and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering. Graham is a Ph.D. student in Keten’s research group.
Stronger than steel, tougher than Kevlar
Researchers long have been interested in spider silk because of its remarkable properties. It’s stronger than steel, tougher than Kevlar and stretchy like rubber. But farming spiders for their natural silk is expensive, energy-intensive and difficult. So, scientists instead want to recreate silk-like materials in the lab.
“Spider silk is the strongest organic fiber,” Graham said. “It also has the advantage of being biodegradable. So, it’s an ideal material for medical applications. It could be used for surgical sutures and adhesive gels for wound-closure because it would naturally, harmlessly degrade in the body.”
Study coauthor Fuzhong Zhang, the Francis F. Ahmann Professor at Washington University (WashU) in St. Louis, has been engineering microbes to produce spider-silk materials for several years. By extruding engineered spider silk proteins and then stretching them by hand, the team has developed artificial fibers similar to threads from the golden silk orb weaver, a large spider with a spectacularly strong web.
Simulating stretchiness
Despite developing this “recipe” for spider silk, researchers still don’t fully understand how the spinning process changes fiber structure and strength. To tackle this open-ended question, Keten and Graham developed a computational model to simulate the molecular dynamics within Zhang’s artificial silk.
Through these simulations, the Northwestern team explored how stretching effects the proteins’ arrangement within the fibers. Specifically, they looked at how stretching changes the order of proteins, the connection of proteins to one another and the movement of molecules within the fibers.
Keten and Graham found that stretching caused the proteins to “line up,” which increased the fiber’s overall strength. They also found that stretching increased the number of hydrogen bonds, which act like bridges between the protein chains to make up the fiber. The increase in hydrogen bonds contributes to the fiber’s overall strength, toughness and elasticity, the researchers found.
“Once a fiber is extruded, its mechanical properties are actually quite weak,” Graham said. “But when it’s stretch up to six times its initial length, it becomes very strong.”
Experimental validation
To validate their computational findings, the team used spectroscopy techniques to examine how the protein chains stretched and aligned in real fibers from the WashU team. They also used tensile testing to see how much stretching the fibers could tolerate before breaking. The experimental results agreed with the simulation’s predictions.
“If you don’t stretch the material, you have these spherical globs of proteins,” Graham said. “But stretching turns these globs into more of an interconnected network. The protein chains stack on top of one another, and the network becomes more and more interconnected. Bundled proteins have more potential to unravel and extend further before the fiber breaks, but initially extended proteins make for less extensible fibers that require more force to break.”
Although Graham used to think spiders were just creepy-crawlies, he now sees their potential to help solve real problems. He notes that engineered spider silk provides a stronger, biodegradable alternative to other synthetic materials, which are mostly petroleum-derived plastics.
“I definitely look at spiders in a new light,” Graham said. “I used to think they were nuisances. Now, I see them as a source of fascination.”
The study, “Charting the envelope of mechanical properties of synthetic silk fibers through predictive modeling of the drawing process,” was supported by the National Science Foundation (grant numbers OIA-2219142 and DMR-2207879).
