Zen in the Digital Age: Unleashing the Benefits of Meditation Apps

Welcome back to the Daily Dumbbell, where we’re feeling good like we should. Each morning we take a walk around the neighborhood to let sunlight directly into our eyeholes. Side effects include:

• Feeling blessed

• Never stressed

Hope you had an amazing 3 day weekend and are ready to dive back into the work week. We know we are!

Today we’re talking about meditation

Let’s dive in!

Tech Tuesday:
Meditation Apps 

Hey there, fitness aficionados!

After yesterday’s feature on Memorial Day Workouts we’re swapping the sweat for some serenity. That's right, we're diving into the cool, calming pool of meditation.

But this isn't your standard lotus position, incense burning, Tibetan-bowl-chiming kind of thing. We're getting practical. We're getting digital. We’re diving into the the new era of meditation apps.

Meditation: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Practice

First, let's get some perspective.

Meditation—it's been around longer than your grandma's treasured family recipes. Ancient civilizations embraced it as a means to clarity and peace. Today, we know it’s not just woo-woo stuff, science backs it up:

• Reduced Stress

• Enhanced Focus

• Better Sleep

Sounds like winning the life lottery, right?

So how do you start? Simple. Find a quiet spot, close your eyes, and focus on your breath. Feel each inhale and exhale, the rise and fall of your chest, the air entering and leaving your nostrils.

When your mind wanders (and trust us, it will), gently guide it back. Emphasis on the gently, overachievers.

No judgement, no frustration. Easy peasy.

Enter the Meditation Apps

But hey, we get it.

This is the 21st century. We have self-driving cars and missions to Mars. Surely, there must be an app for that. And you’d be right! Meditation apps are the hot new slice of Zen in the tech world.

The Headspace app is currently valued at $3B!

These little pieces of digital tranquility guide you through your meditation journey. They've got everything from beginner-friendly intros to guided meditations with your favorite celebrity.

You can train your mind with Lebron James or follow along to a guided meditation with Jay Shetty.

Can't sleep? There's a meditation for that. Overwhelmed with work? Yep, there's one for that too. It's like having a meditation guru right in your pocket.

Some of our favorites?

Headspace: For it’s animations and easy-to-follow programs.

Calm: For it’s soothing soundscapes and sleep stories. And Insight Timer, with its impressive library of free guided meditations.

Try them out and see which one vibes with you. Hopefully one day we’ll have a discount code for you!

Remember, like any practice, meditation requires, well, practice. You wouldn't expect to run a marathon after one training session, right? So don’t let your frustration lead you to giving up if your mind feels like a hyperactive squirrel at first.

Because it will.

Keep at it. You’ll likely never be a Zen Master, but that’s ok. Just like everything else in our lives, the goal isn’t to optimize for the sake of optimization. You may enjoy the meditative benefits so much you become a monk. Or you may just spend 2 minutes each day taking deep breaths.

Both are perfectly fine outcomes.

Namaste, peeps. Namaste.

Research Roundup:
Tech Tuesday Edition

We might not work on holidays, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to leave you hanging.

Researchers used AI to discover a new, powerful Antibiotic for an antibiotic resistant bacteria

The researchers took the list of 240 and ran experiments on all of them. The results yielded 9 antibiotics, including one that turned out to be incredibly potent and effective at killing Acinetobacter baumannii.

What’s so special about this bacteria?

• It is antibiotic resistant

• Commonly found in hospitals because it can live on door handles and railings for so long, it leads to pneumonia, meningitis, and other serious infections.

• The microbe is also a leading cause of infections in wounded soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan

The most exciting part of all of this is that the drug doesn’t seem to attack other bacteria. So not only is it unlikely to drive more antibiotic resistant strains like other wide spectrum antibiotics, it won’t harm your gut microbiome.

Next up? Doing the same thing for Staph infections and other common bacteria.

Engineers at the University of Colorado have designed medical nano-bots!

A team of engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder has designed a new class of tiny, self-propelled robots that can zip through liquid.

The Robots:

• They’re made of biocompatible polymers using a technology similar to 3D printing. At 20 micrometers wide (several times smaller than the width of a human hair) they move at speeds of about 3 millimeters per second.

• How fast is 3mms per second? Imagine a cheetah, but 3-5x faster.

• Each robot carries a small trapped air bubble, which, when exposed to an acoustic field like ultrasound, vibrates and propels the robot forward by pushing water away.

The Problem:

Interstitial Cystitis is an incredibly painful bladder syndrome affecting millions of Americans.

• Treatment can be equally as painful, often requiring multiple visits to a clinic where a doctor injects a harsh solution of dexamethasone into the bladder through a catheter.

The Solution:

Injecting the nanobots transporting dexamethasone, a common steroid medication, to the bladders of lab mice.

• When injected they dispersed throughout the bladder, sticking to the walls of the bladder to make them less likely to pee out. The medicine was then released over a couple days.

• The slow release of the drug allows the patient to receive more drugs over a longer period of time with less visits. All of which leading to better patient outcomes.

The next step before human use is figuring out how to make the bots biodegradable!

Researchers might have found an effective treatment for toddlers with peanut allergies

Using a 12 month immunotherapy course delivered through a skin patch, Children who originally reacted to a small fraction of a peanut were able to tolerate the equivalent of one to four peanuts after completing the treatment course.

• 2% of Americans have a peanut allergy. It is by far the most severe of all food allergies and can often be triggered by secondhand exposure.

• By increasing the level of exposure required to cause a severe reaction from a product manufactured on shared equipment, to the equivalent of multiple peanuts, this could be life changing technology for thousands of children and their parents.

Phase 4 is the final test where thousands of volunteers will test the patch and researchers will see if its fit for the public!

We hope you enjoyed todays newsletter! See you back here tomorrow for our Wellness Wednesday feature on the importance of resistance training!