Men's Health Australia May 2022

WHILE OUR annual Earth Issue is a highlight on the editorial calendar, it also hits with a bittersweet flavour. Personally, I find the content of these issues fascinating and essential, particularly in light of the current state of the world. However, therein lies the problem: why is it still necessary to produce an Earth Issue when, by now, everyone’s eyes should be open to the environmental crisis that’s threatening to spin out of control? As this issue went to print, communities along the East Coast of Australia were rebuilding following devastating floods, yet another ‘once in a lifetime’ ecological disaster unfolding only three years after the last. As the fallout continues, if you’re still asking, “What does the environment have to do with my health?”, then this is the issue for…

THE BIG QUESTION Q I’m in the office every day now. How can I make those long commutes productive? - SE IT CAN BE tempting to view your commute as dead time: a wasted two, three or four hours in which all the jobs you could be doing nag at you. But rushing to fill that space with read-aloud email apps, rolling news and financial reports hurriedly scanned on commuter trains might not be your best strategy. In fact, it could make you worse at your job. A new study from Dartmouth College in the US has found that the anxiety and frustration brought about by stressful commutes hamper our ability to do our best work for the rest of the nine-to-five. “Your commute predicts your day,” says Professor Andrew Campbell, lead researcher…

SHIFT GEARS FOR FITNESS THAT ENDURES The benefits of regular cycling are more far-reaching than an autumnal phase. Give your fitness habits a new spin IT’S A CLICHÉ that the fitness programs we zealously commit to one minute often feel uninspiring a few weeks later. For example, analysts at tech company Foursquare have even identified an annual ‘Fall Off the Wagon’ day - when a rise in fast-food sales meets a drop in weekly gym visits - in mid-February. But perhaps our obsession with willpower and wagons is part of the problem. Relying on sheer self-discipline to get you to the gym on a cold May morning is fallible. Most research shows habit-building, not resolve, is likely to keep us on course. This explains why research published in the journal Sports Medicine has…

IN NORDIC TRADITION, hardy people plunge into icy waters during the winter months, when the temperature can drop to 2°C, before heading into a steamy sauna to recover from the chill. In recent Australian tradition, of course, thrill-seekers take dips in iced-up ocean pools, then enthuse about the life-changing powers for days on Instagram. (How do you know if someone’s a cold-water swimmer or not? Oh, don’t worry, they’ll tell you.) Whether you’re a champion of the trend, or are sceptical of its purported mood-boosting benefits, the latest research provides a new and compelling reason to take the plunge. In a study published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, young men who participated in icy swims and sauna sessions at least once a week were shown to have a metabolic advantage over…

SHROOMS ARE UNDOUBTEDLY having a moment. From energising mushroom coffee to fungi-based nootropics, immunity-boosting tinctures of reishi and chaga, and the hype around hallucinogenic psilocybin, mushrooms’ health properties are the wellness trend on everyone’s tongue. But because the rare and expensive (and largely illegal) varieties tend to make the headlines, it’s easy to overlook the huge – and proven – benefits of the kind you, well, cook and eat. No longer. Research shows that men who enjoy mushrooms three times a week can reduce their risk of prostate cancer by 17 per cent. This kind of nutritional intervention is especially effective in men over the age of 50 – a good reason to satisfy your stroganoff cravings. Prostate cancer remains the most common cancer in men – with one in eight affected at…

IF YOU WANTED a tangible object that captures Ash Grunwald’s attitude to life, you could do worse than look at one of his guitars. Not just any of the 15 or so I can see hanging on the black wall of his home studio near Brunswick Heads in Northern NSW. This particular one, an acoustic, has a print of a wave etched around the body, a nod to Grunwald’s dream of being a travelling musician who seamlessly combines songs and surf. He turns the instrument around to show me the other end. What looks like a random pattern is actually the word “Now” repeated around the sound hole. “Now,” says Grunwald, who’s wearing a blue T-shirt and has his curly brown locks tied up with a colourful hair tie. “Now,” I…