Fortune Well

“Hey fatty!” “I’m so big back!” “We’re being such biggies right now!” Welcome to the latest teen-girl parlance—a TikTok-trend spinoff that’s become the new language of casual, constant joking used to poke fun at each other, and one’s self, for eating. “This is a problem for everybody,” says Zöe Bisbing, a body-image and eating-disorders psychotherapist. “It has a lot to do with this really, really entrenched anti-fat bias in our culture that normalizes microaggressions toward fat people.” Complicating the problem, though, is that the jokes are made by and about thin girls. Read more: bit.ly/3xZmRWE

So are smartphones destroying our kids or not? The percentage of U.S. teens who say they’ve had one “major depressive episode” in the past year has increased by more than 150% since 2010, with most happening pre-pandemic. And that, among American girls between 10 and 14, emergency room visits for self-harm grew by 188% during that period, while deaths by suicide increased by 167%; for boys, ER visits for self-harm increased by 48% and suicide by 91%. What researchers theorize is that one of the fundamental things that changed in the period in question—specifically among young people and most especially among adolescent girls—is “the movement of social life onto smartphones and social media, where now they move from spending very little time on platforms like Instagram, which came out in 2010, [to] spending upwards of four, five hours a day on these platforms by 2015.” Read more: bit.ly/4f4k5zV

This millenial biohacker asked for her first date's health labs before meeting. Now, they're married. In the age of longevity, we've heard much about how people—and, at the extreme, biohackers—are optimizing their health. But have you heard about how biohackers are dating? I spent the last few months learning about Kayla Barnes-Lentz's biohacking lifestyle—and how she met her now husband. She asked for his health labs before meeting, and he gave them to her without question. Their first date was in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, and the rest is history. "Being married has been one of the biggest biohacks I’ve ever done," she says. Read more about their life: https://lnkd.in/giBgG5eM Fortune Fortune Well #biohacknig #longevity #healthoptimization #relationships

“Everything was going well, and then this devastating news comes.” bit.ly/3LmgQGo In a recent interview with the BBC’s Katty Kay, NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson recalled his journey with HIV after announcing his diagnosis in 1991. At the time, Johnson was a star player on the Los Angeles Lakers, leading the team to five championship wins between 1980 and 1988. Johnson shared with Kay the advice his doctor gave him: Be positive and accept you will have HIV for the rest of your life; take your medicine every day; and exercise. “Do those three things, you give yourself a chance,” he recalled being told.

Research has shown a clear association between consumption of ultra-processed foods and adverse health effects. bit.ly/4asm4eH A study in the British Medical Journal highlights a link between ultra-processed diets and increased calorie intake, weight gain, and elevated risk of cardiovascular diseases. Participants consuming ultra-processed diets ate an average of 500 more calories per day compared to those on unprocessed diets, putting on additional pounds over time. Ultra-processed foods tend to be energy-dense, nutrient-poor, and often have long shelf lives. Here's how to spot them: bit.ly/4asm4eH

Shelley Duvall died of diabetes complications at the age of 75. The disease had Duvall in hospice and bedridden for months in her home of Blanco, Texas, according to her longtime partner Dan Gilroy. Diabetes is actually the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, according to the American Diabetes Association, killing 100,000 people in both 2021 and 2022. It is the most common underlying condition of disease in the U.S., according to report in the journal BMJ, and some 40% of people who died of COVID-19 had diabetes. But what does it mean to die of diabetes complications? And how common is it? Read more: bit.ly/3Lsu6Jv

Over a third of American adults do not get enough sleep. Getting little sleep is associated with an increased risk of chronic health conditions like heart disease and stroke. Sleeping less puts people at risk of mental health problems like anxiety and depression. One study found older adults who get five or fewer hours of sleep are at risk for developing multiple chronic conditions. So, improving sleep can, in turn, improve our lives. Even following certain sleep habits can increase your life expectancy, per one study. Here's your ultimate guide to getting a good night’s sleep: bit.ly/3RVnSFL

In modern times, staying hydrated can feel like a big ask. Hydration supplements, like electrolyte powders and tablets, have entered the market to fill in when you fall short of your daily water requirement or when you’re feeling depleted—but are they really necessary? Experts explain: bit.ly/3zBniqC

“I make sure I work out at least three times a week—usually first thing when I wake up," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Arnold Schwarzenegger in an online Facebook Q&A session in 2015. The tech tycoon also practices MMA fighting, ran a sub-20-minute 5K, earned a gold medal for Brazilian jujitsu, and completed an intensive CrossFit strength circuit in honor of a Navy SEAL. The CEO often posts on Facebook and Instagram when he crushes an exercise. Here's the intense exercise routine that got Mark Zuckerberg in fighting shape. bit.ly/3Y0bybl

A needle-free alternative could steal weight-loss drug market share. bit.ly/3LlOM6c Pfizer Inc. is moving forward with a weight-loss pill as it seeks to mount a comeback from its post-pandemic slump, but the drugmaker gave few clues about what exactly informed that decision. On Thursday, Pfizer reported long-awaited results from a 20-person study of an anti-obesity pill that previously ran into trouble because of side effects. In the new study, Pfizer tested four versions of the treatment as a once-daily pill instead of twice-daily, with the aim of finding one that generates sufficient weight loss without the side effects that caused people to stop taking it.