Hi Byte Wellness Fam!

How are you feeling?

I’m feeling powerful- especially after reading this passage from Ida B. Wells’ autobiography:

"I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or rat in a trap. I had already determined to sell my life as dearly as possible if attacked. I felt if I could take one lyncher with me, this would even up the score a little bit."- Ida B. Wells-Barnett (“Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells”)

In her autobiography, Ida B Wells writes about touring Europe to campaign against the United States’ failure to address the rampant lynching of Black folks post-reconstruction. For all the wellness barriers we face today, could you imagine what it takes to survive months, years, decades with the knowledge that fellow citizens who happened to be White could brutalize and kill us at any moment- without consequence?

If you’ve paid any attention to the news or social over the last decade, you’ve seen countless videos circulating showing the disproportionate killing of unarmed Black people at the hands of police as well as at the hands of lay people acting as would-be-vigilantes (RIP Trayvon and Ahmaud). I wouldn’t disagree with you if you said we could probably have a healthy debate about just how different the reality Ida wrote about is from today.

Check the Discussion Question for this week:

• You know that phrase- too much of a good thing is bad? How does that apply to your wellness? What habit makes you feel good in moderation only?

For centuries, we’ve found ways to survive unimaginably brutal physical and psychological conditions. Historians and journalists like Nikole Hannah-Jones (in the 1619 project) trace a thread from the chattel slavery of our African foremothers and forefathers (and colonization of those remaining on the continent) to subsequent dejuré oppression in the United States to the defacto marginalization of today. 

The fact that we’re still here and propelling the U.S. forward in so many remarkable ways is incredible. And, it’s no accident. Our ancestors were doing something right to counter those immense stressors in their lives-something to mitigate the physical and mental harm caused by the physical and social threats they were exposed to. Let’s keep exploring what they have to teach us.

In the #PhyteWellWednesday  Workshop, we unpacked our questions about finding balance in our stress-management strategies. Finding balance in our exercise was a major point.

We need exercise to release life-supporting myokines, to squash chronic inflammation and to keep our muscles working. Most Americans don’t get enough exercise. But, too much exercise on any given day can cause severe soreness that derails our next scheduled workout at best, or leads to devastating injury at worst. 

Watch the video above to check out the recording. If you’re not getting invites to the weekly workshop, send TEXT to 1(224)302-6224 to join the thread.

The CDC recommends movement minimums (150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise every week). Still, it’s up to each of us as individuals to figure out how and when to move in order to find the right balance between rest and activity.

What’s another example of supporting wellness by finding the right balance in our habits? Drinking alcohol in moderation. 

For a while now, a glass of red wine with dinner was thought to boost heart health. This belief was based on research from decades ago suggesting that phytonutrients like resveratrol that are found in red grapes and in red wine are heart-healthy. However, newer studies show that the benefit might not be as real as we thought and may not apply to everyone equally.

These newer studies show that drinking as much as 1 glass per night is linked to worse health outcomes for Black Americans compared to White Americans.

Let’s lay out the facts.

Older studies suggesting that moderate drinking is beneficial to health included mainly White Americans in the study population. These studies showed that compared to not drinking any alcohol, having just one drink a day is linked to lower risk of dying from any cause.

However some newer studies have either included more Black Americans or focused exclusively on Black Americans. These showed one daily drink was connected to higher risk of death compared to not drinking at all.

Other studies looked at different types of health outcomes related to drinking in Black communities. Their results Black people had higher risk of death from liver disease at lower levels of drinking compared to our their White counterparts.

What’s the take-away? Moderate drinking (no more than one drink per day) could very well be harmful to some people…just too much for some bodies to detox.

Let’s be clear. I’m speaking in very uncertain terms because there’s still so much to learn about how alcohol affects our bodies and brains, and which folks are most affected.

There’s a lot we don’t know because studies looking at the affects of alcohol are asking about association, not causation. So their results can’t tell us for sure whether drinking alcohol or not drinking alcohol caused death and disease.

Hopefully, future studies can explain why one daily drink was linked to better health outcomes in White folks but not in Black folks.

In the meantime, we need to recognize that while drinking low amounts of alcohol may provide some psychological benefits (like temporary stress-relief), the science is unclear as to exactly what amount of harm is caused by what amount of drinking, and who suffers most!

What the science is clear about is that there’s no amount of drinking that is absolutely safe for everyone. So, balance is the name of the game.

A similarly fine balance exists among the systems our body uses to manage stress. 

Balance is key to understanding our conversation about the stress-and-wellness chain. In the text thread this week and last week, we talked about how stress triggers inflammation and the fight-or-flight responses to protect us from harm. That’s great in the short-term, when the stress and inflammation dissipate quickly. But, when we have constant stress, and we are constantly inflamed (chronic inflammation) and constantly in fight-or-flight mode, then those responses turn from protective to harmful.

Even more reason to look back at the stress-management lessons from ancestors (and the generations still with us). What have you learned about balancing stress-management techniques from your people?

Happy Healthy Living,

Dr. Wuse