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Welcome to your Friday edition of The Exercise Doc!
Happy Friday, friends — and welcome to your weekly dose of feel-better, live-longer, “I-didn’t-know-that!” health wisdom.
This week, we’re tackling two big topics that matter to anyone who wants to feel better today and stay healthy for years to come.
First up: Lifestyle Changes for Depression.
No complicated programs. No impossible routines. Just real, doable steps that can lift your mood, steady your mind, and help you feel more like yourself. Think of it as a gentle tune-up for your brain — no appointment needed, and definitely no waiting room music.
Then we jump into something a little more… crunchy: Ultraprocessed Foods and Colon Cancer Risk.
Yes, it turns out that those “foods” with ingredient lists longer than your tax return may not love your colon as much as you’d hope. But don’t worry — I break it down simply, and I promise you won’t feel judged if there’s still an unopened bag of neon-orange chips in your pantry.
And of course, we wrap up with The Top Health Headlines of the Week, so you can walk into the weekend knowing more than the average person scrolling through social media between errands.
As always, I’m grateful you’re here.
If you ever have ideas, questions, or topics you’d love me to explore, just hit reply — your input helps me make this newsletter more useful, more fun, and occasionally, more sarcastic.
Wishing you a healthy, hopeful weekend,
Doc Mike
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How Lifestyle Changes Can Help Treat Depression
Depression can make everyday life feel heavier, slower, and harder than it should be. Even simple things—like getting out of bed, answering a text, or making lunch—can feel overwhelming. While medical treatment and therapy are often essential, the good news is that certain lifestyle changes can make a real difference in how you feel. Small steps can help lift your mood, calm your mind, and slowly bring back parts of yourself you may feel you’ve lost.
Ultraprocessed Foods and Colon Cancer Risk
Colorectal cancer used to be something we mostly worried about after age 60. Today, more people are being diagnosed in their 40s and even their 30s, often with no family history and no obvious warning. At the same time, our plates and pantries have quietly filled up with ultraprocessed foods—frozen pizza, packaged snacks, sugary drinks, ready-to-heat meals, and “grab-and-go” treats. Many experts now believe these two trends are connected.
Healthy Headlines
Childhood Exposure To Fluoride In Drinking Water May Provide Cognitive Benefits, Study Suggests. CNN (11/19, McPhillips) reports a new study “challenges recent claims about the risks of fluoride in drinking water – and instead suggests that it may have additional positive effects.” https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/19/health/fluoride-drinking-water-cognition-positive-link |
Survey Shows Nearly 3 In 4 US Adults Struggle With Daytime Sleepiness
HealthDay (11/18, Edwards) reports a survey (PDF) by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that 72% of US adults say daytime “sleepiness sometimes, often or always gets in the way of their everyday activities. https://www.healthday.com/health-news/sleep-disorder/new-survey-shows-72-of-adults-struggle-with-sleepiness-each-day
NIH Funding Cuts Have Affected More Than 74,000 People Enrolled In Trials, Study Finds The AP (11/17, Ramakrishnan) reports a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that “over 74,000 people enrolled in experiments have been affected by the National Institutes of Health’s funding cuts.” https://apnews.com/article/nih-funding-cuts-32b9b7bad01457a5412af26e394e3735 |
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