Tamara Pazos, biologist specialized in neuroscience: "Taking supplements that we do not need only serves to produce very expensive urine"

• Body The order in which you should take the menu
• Breakfast Why it's not the most important meal

Today we live longer, but better? On this premise starts the new publication of the popularizer Tamara Pazos (A Coruña, March 28, 1992), biologist with a master's degree in neuroscience passionate about human behavior.

From the time we spend on Netflix to the decrease in our attention since we move in digital environments such as TikTok, to the self-prescription of drugs such as melatonin. This book will make you live longer (or at least better) (Ed. Paidós) exposes the good habits that can be adapted to the daily routine to improve our well-being. It comes in the middle of his research for a doctoral thesis on how to use the dissemination of science to prevent health risks.

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It is important to receive direct natural light every day for the proper functioning of our body. However, it is already warned of the excessive and unjustified prescription of vitamin D, while dermatologists warn of the dangers of the sun. So what do we do? Scientific evidence recommends an exposure of between 20 and 40 minutes, although this depends on the amount of skin exposed, for example, in summer we go in short sleeves and in winter the skin is more covered. We can take walks, put ourselves near windows... I defend the power of the sun to mark our circadian rhythms, although it is true that we have to take into account its dangers and apply sunscreen with SPF 50 if we exceed that time and, above all, in the central hours of the day. If we are honest, we do not reapply it. Vitamin D is essential for our immune system and a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D is a part of the plan for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. Do we need it? Melatonin is a hormone present in our body. Just as lack of sun exposure translates into vitamin D deficiency, if we do not spend enough hours in the dark we suffer from a melatonin deficit. In fact, they work in a complementary way, since melatonin exerts an antioxidant function against the damage to this exposure to UVB and UVA rays. But we cannot take it without medical indication. Before going to the pharmacy for supplements, let's visit the GP and review our behaviours. The usual thing nowadays is to go to bed in the presence of screens. In the end, taking melatonin supplements or any other that we do not need only serves to produce a very expensive urine. As it is taken, it is expelled because the body does not synthesize it. With a blood test that is easily seen. Coffee after lunch is a very Spanish custom. Caffeine has great benefits in fat burning and performance. However, in the book he says that from the afternoon we should not take it. What does caffeine do in the brain? Indeed, coffee raises passions. The general recommendation to make sure that there is no caffeine in the blood when we go to sleep is to avoid its consumption after noon. I am also Spanish and for me noon is until 16:00, if you hurry me, sometimes at five in the afternoon we have another coffee. But we shouldn't have a cup after one o'clock in the afternoon. Caffeine makes our brain less rested and interferes with its cleaning, renewal while you sleep. The theory would say that you take advantage of the day if as soon as you arrive you sleep at the pull, but there are the light and the noises of the neighbors, and it is normal that you go rested. It is said that the night shift subtracts years of life. It is not optimal, and in fact there are studies that relate it to a higher consumption of ultra-processed foods. But, although food is a day guideline, there is room for improvement in everything. Occupational hazards should be taken into account by the contractor. First, see if that position is so necessary, and if it is, compensate it through salary and with measures such as making shifts as stable as possible, because modifying them every two days is what most mismatches the body. Then, on the part of the person who works at night, you can relieve your pressure with good habits such as physical activity, silence and "We are more profitable awake than asleep," he says in his book, quoting Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, when he tweeted from the platform's official account that sleep was its biggest enemy and not other competitors. What is social jet lag you talk about and how is it combated? It is the fact of having leisure behaviors and schedules that decompensate our circadian rhythms, in the same way that happens with jet lag when we travel, for example, from Spain to Australia. The internal signals will send us that we feel like eating breakfast while it is getting dark and we will begin to secrete melatonin. Our television consumption is not aligned with the sun. The dizzying pace of Netflix and other platforms makes us postpone sleep and the main losers are us. There are people who get it with seven hours, but below six is harmful. Call our inner Siri, Apple's famous virtual personal assistant, SARA. He says that this Ascending Reticular Attentional System works like Alexa, but even more efficient, coordinating a response without having to talk to it. What happens if we fill SARA with simultaneous tasks? When you go into multitasking mode, especially at work, answering the phone and writing an email at the same time, you can even be productive and perform, but you disconnect the mind from the body and emotions. At least Netflix asks us if we want to see a new chapter. TikTok doesn't wait even five seconds between videos. What can we find out if we consume television stuck at the same time in social networks? Fashion series are formulated in multiplot format, like slots, so that if you do not get hooked on a story at least you like one of the others that happen at the same time. Because, subjected to so many stimuli, everything bores us. And it is promoted by immediacy. At the moment, there are studies that the addictive potential of the platforms is the same for adults as for young people. In social networks we also have the immediate reward of the like, which gives a lot of pleasure. The consumption of content is more short-term, the action occurs and then if you think so. We are promoting a life on autopilot, in a stress loop and increasingly rejecting the long term.Does this explain why we continue to believe in miracle diets and weight-loss drugs instead of the effort of leading a daily healthy lifestyle? It is difficult for us to commit to ourselves, even though deep down we know that miracle solutions are a trap. When we see an ad or the article of get the abs of a celebrity in two weeks we hope to flee from a long-term habit and we bite. "Grow muscles to reap health." It's a quote from his book. However, muscles have always been associated with lack of intellect and vice versa. And there is the classical philosophy, which is so fashionable now, appealing to good habits for a stronger society that suffers less. Can physical activity do more for the brain than intellectual activity? We were talking about attention and, precisely, the best thing you can do to maintain it is to move, either with a walk in nature or exercising. After 20 minutes releasing endorphins you return with full concentration, improve the focus to work and study and stimulate memory. Sport promotes better thanThe synthesis of neurons in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory that deteriorates greatly when Alzheimer's appears. It does not prevent the development of the disease but it does slow its appearance and the evolution of its symptoms So the brain is not the one who studies, but the one who does sports. Assert that no food or food group should be restricted. But almost all diets involve the demonization of some or feelings of guilt. What is being done wrong from the scientific and media field to make nutrition so ambiguous in its recommendations? We usually draw conclusions from a loose or observational study without its correlations as a categorical statement. For example, it is observed that vegetables have oxalate and hence it follows that we must exclude them because of their toxins. When its benefits to the body far outweigh that possible risk of kidney stones from the chemical compound. And so we do with everything, without any sense. We recommend fasting for everyone, when for some people it is linked to the onset of ACT [disorders related to self-perception and distortion of body image]. Or we suppress gluten and, if there is no intolerance, we do not have to stop taking it. The only thing that works 100% is the Harvard dish, but it's boring. He advises mindfulness, although it is surrounded by a mystique that not everyone convinces. I myself was skeptical about this link with spirituality. But, nowadays, body and head go separately and that is lethal. It is very beneficial because it helps us to be present, in the here and now, but that is not only achieved through meditation. Pick up a book and start reading, even if it's hard for you to concentrate and reread a paragraph. Kitchen. Take a walk. Do crafts. All these activities allow that inner connection with what happens to flow.

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