Michael Easter

Don't die. Live better. Read the 2% Manifesto. twopct.com/the-2-manifest…

@Broncos4ly82500 @Simply_Usef Go lighter, do dead hangs after you ruck.

@Simply_Usef @Michael_Easter Wrecks my shoulder when I use backpack, need to try front chest rig option.

6 miles today with 30 pounds @Michael_Easter Walk with Weight is worth a read (Amazon.com Walk with Weight: The Definitive Guide to Rucking (Audible Audio Edition): Michael Easter, Michael Easter, Harvest: Audible Books & Originals)

@billgifford It's great. I did a full chapter about his work in my book Scarcity Brain.

Medicine, and especially longevity, have become all about metrics — hitting our targets for ApoB or VO2 max. I’m guilty of helping foster that. But we forget that it’s really all about *living*. Just ordered this book 👇

@amandaorson @AnishA_Moonka Yes!

@AnishA_Moonka @Michael_Easter Research sounds like what you've covered in the past.

Trees release invisible chemicals into the air to protect themselves from bugs and disease. Turns out those same chemicals also switch on your body's cancer-fighting cells. They're called natural killer cells. They're a type of white blood cell that patrols your bloodstream looking for cancer cells and virus-infected cells. When they find one, they punch a hole through its outer wall and inject proteins that force the cell to self-destruct from the inside. You're born with them. Unlike most of your immune system, they don't need to be "trained" on a specific threat first. They just attack anything that looks wrong. The 50% number in this tweet comes from Dr. Qing Li at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, who has been studying the effects of forests on the human body since 2004. His original 2007 study took 12 men on a 3-day, 2-night forest trip, walking two hours a day. Blood tests showed 11 of 12 had roughly 50% more cancer-killing cell activity afterward. A follow-up with 13 female nurses found the same thing. But the part the tweet leaves out: the boost didn't vanish when they went home. It lasted over 7 days in both groups, and in men, it was still detectable in blood work 30 days later. Li's conclusion is that one forest trip per month could keep these cells running at a higher level year-round. The obvious next question is whether it's the forest itself or just the vacation. Li tested this directly. A separate group took a city tourist trip with the same amount of walking. No boost to killer cells. No stress hormone drop. Zero effect. Then he ran an even more controlled test: 12 men stayed in a regular Tokyo hotel room for three nights while a humidifier pumped tree oil (from Japanese cypress) into the air overnight. Their killer cells still went up. Their stress hormones still dropped. That isolates the cause to those tree chemicals, called phytoncides. Pine, cedar, and cypress trees release the most. These chemicals were found in forest air but were nearly absent in city air. A 2021 lab study showed that one of these tree chemicals directly switches on killer cells and slows colon tumor growth in mice. The bigger picture connects these cells directly to cancer risk. An 11-year study published in The Lancet (one of the world's top medical journals) tracked 3,625 Japanese people and found that those with weaker natural killer cells developed cancer at significantly higher rates. A separate study screening for bowel cancer found that people with low killer cell levels were 7 times more likely to be diagnosed. Li's own research across all 47 regions of Japan showed that areas with less forest had higher cancer death rates for lung, breast, uterine, prostate, kidney, and colon cancers, even after accounting for differences in smoking rates and wealth. The caveats: Li's original studies used small groups (12 and 13 people), and the regional data show a pattern but don't directly prove that forests prevent cancer. No large-scale clinical trial has confirmed that yet. But the chain is consistent: trees release chemicals, those chemicals wake up the cells in your blood that kill cancer, the effect lasts weeks, not hours, and people with more active killer cells get cancer less often. Japan now has 65 government-certified Forest Therapy sites across the country, each tested and approved based on the physical effects they have on visitors.

@kd_rager @barstoolsports So good.

@barstoolsports They’re 2%ers and don’t even know it. @Michael_Easter

If anyone was looking for a reason to pick a Troy upset… Their players literally do not use elevators or escalators

@Michael_Easter #2%

I knew that sauna and heat bathing could have improve cardiovascular health and healthspan; I had no idea that intensive heat therapy could also relieve symptoms of depression — until I tried it myself. HOTWIRED excerpt in @MensHealthMag menshealth.com/health/a707369…

Count it.

BMI is useful for the vast majority of people. Here's a deep dive and what people get wrong about it: twopct.com/p/the-bmi-deep…

Now we’re out here slapping protein counts on lettuce mixes, no matter the number.

@kylegeurink @Brady_H Brady is the right person to follow for endurance training.

I'm a cardiologist so I know quite a bit about hearts but I have been learning a lot about endurance training recently from @Brady_H and reading. Has been great to see the work payoff in my daily runs. Feel much better and stats have backed it up. Excited to see how far I can go.

@Brady_H Because Live Mas is a metaphor for freedom. Freedom of expression. Freedom of ingenuity. Freedom to go boldly into the darkness of the Mountain Dew Baja Midnight Pie. It's the American way.

Why isn’t MAHA going after stuff like this?

@joshstrength Amen.

Reading @Michael_Easter this morning. He cites Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki saying cynicism is a defense mechanism. Einstein asked the real question: Is the universe a friendly place? Act like it is. Work hard. Help people. Watch your world improve.

Hidden on page 744 of the farm bill the House Agriculture Committee passed Thursday is a provision that would condemn millions of pigs to a lifetime in gestation crates. Rebranded the 'Save Our Bacon Act,' it's a pork-industry play to wipe out every state law banning the sale of pork from crated pigs — laws the conservative Supreme Court upheld in 2023. Over 85% of Democrats and Republicans oppose these crates. Voters have backed ballot measures to ban them in state after state. The pork industry knows it can't win a straight vote on this. So it's burying the provision in an 800-page bill and hoping no one notices. Contact your senators and representative today and tell them: oppose the farm bill unless the Save Our Bacon Act is stripped out. You can reach them at senate.gov and house.gov — it takes two minutes and it matters.

We’ve talked about this 👉🏻 physiologicallyspeaking.com/p/what-if-exer…

@florida_bethsrq Excellent work. That's fantastic. And I'm glad the yoga block tip helped. The incline treadmill rucks make you feel like a pack mule—in a good way.

I have been rucking for a couple of years thanks to you and love it. I finished your rucking new book this weekend. Today I added a yoga block to my backpack then the weight. Wow what a difference. It did not bother my traps at all as it did in the past. Great book!!!! 28 lbs on a 112lb girl. 12% incline at 3mph for 1 hour 💪

I don't think exercise is medicine. I think inactivity is poison. Movement helps us buffer the poison and reduces the risk of health problems that come from being sedentary.

I talked about this topic with @hubermanlab about a year ago when he had me on the show. It's real. youtube.com/watch?v=BnOX05…

@Bostrich34 @stevemagness Totally.

@stevemagness @Michael_Easter has been big on this idea for a few years now. Helicopter parenting is harming the younger generations

In a ​new paper​, researchers argue that: “a primary cause of the rise in mental disorders [in youth] is a decline over decades in opportunities for children and teens to play, roam, and engage in other activities independent of direct oversight and control by adults.”

Podcast #1,106: Born to Carry — How to Build Strength, Stamina, and Sanity Through Rucking buff.ly/R427xHV with @Michael_Easter .