I encourage & support people to live their best lives through optimising wellbeing, vitality & health span. Podcast: In the Doctors Chair 🪑
Waterford, Ireland
Joined September 2012
- Tweets10K
- Following340
- Followers28.7K
- Likes12.9K
Dr. Mark Rowe retweeted
This painting is called Stay.
And once you notice what is really happening in it, you’ll realize it’s a word almost all of us have wanted to say to someone, at least once, when it was already too late…
A girl in a pink dress reaches out toward a man standing beside her, but he is no longer quite there: his body has turned to glass, so clear you can see the sky right through him. Look closely and you’ll find small yellow flowers and flecks of color still caught inside him, as if he were made of memories, while his face has almost dissolved, and behind them the sky turns into something closer to a dream.
It was painted in 2022 by Reynier Llanes, an artist born in Pinar del Río, in Cuba, who moved to the United States in 2007, and anyone who has ever lost someone will recognize the gesture at its heart instantly: the hand stretched out a little too late, toward a person who is disappearing while you are still looking at them.
Llanes often gives invisible feelings a visible shape, and here grief and longing take the form of someone slowly fading away. He never tells us who the man is: he might be a father, a friend, a grandparent, a love that ended, and because we only see the girl from behind, we end up standing exactly where she stands, reaching out toward our own person...
All he gives us is that single word, the one we so often never manage to say in time: stay.
He first showed it in a solo exhibition in Ohio, named after the secret the fox shares in The Little Prince, words that could almost be written beneath this painting: “What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
I started my newsletter because the world is full of beautiful artworks like this one, and so few people ever stop to give them the attention they deserve. Every week I try to. If that is something you'd like to be part of, you can join through the link in my bio!
Thanks for reading.
Dr. Mark Rowe retweeted
On this day in 1512, the pope said Mass under a ceiling that had taken four years, nearly 12,000 square feet of plaster, and one very cranky genius to finish.
Michelangelo didn't want the job. He was a sculptor. He told people so, again and again. Painting, he felt, wasn't his trade.
But Pope Julius II didn't take no for an answer. In 1508, Michelangelo climbed up onto a scaffold about 60 feet above the floor of the Sistine Chapel and started work.
Here's the part most people get wrong, thanks to the movies: he didn't paint lying on his back. He designed his own scaffold and painted standing up, head bent back, arm raised over his face, for hours a day, for years.
It wrecked his body. His eyesight suffered so badly that for a while afterward he had to hold letters over his head to read them. In a poem to a friend, he complained that his beard pointed at heaven, his neck was bent back on itself, and the paint dripping from his brush had turned his face into a colorful floor.
He signed off the poem by saying, once more, that he was not a painter.
The finished ceiling has more than 300 figures, including the famous image of God reaching out to give life to Adam, their fingers almost touching.
On October 31, 1512, the work was done. The next day, All Saints' Day, the pope celebrated Mass beneath it.
More than 500 years later, millions of people a year still walk in, stop, and look straight up.
Not bad for a guy who said he couldn't paint.
Disclaimer: Based on Vatican Museums history, Michelangelo's own poem and published accounts. Some details are summarized.
Photos: Michelangelo's ceiling frescoes and his own sketch from the poem manuscript (public domain); bronze bust of Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra, Louvre (public domain photo); chapel ceiling photo by W. Hochauer (CC BY-SA 2.0 de), Wikimedia Commons.
Dr. Mark Rowe retweeted
Four weeks of wall squats reduced systolic blood pressure by nearly 10 points in adults with high blood pressure.
Researchers then compared continuing three sessions weekly with reducing to two, one, or none for another month. Systolic pressure remained roughly 7 mmHg below starting levels in the once- and twice-weekly groups. Continuing three sessions weekly produced the greatest reduction of about 14 mmHg. In those who stopped completely, blood pressure moved back toward baseline.
This fits with a previous analysis of randomized trials that identified isometric exercise, which involves holding a muscle contraction, as an effective way to lower resting blood pressure.
What interests me is the practical question - how much of an exercise benefit can we preserve when we temporarily have less time? This study suggests that reducing the frequency can retain part of the benefit for up to a month.
Dr. Mark Rowe retweeted
Ultra-processed foods trigger a bigger insulin response than less-processed ones, even when they contain identical calories and nutrients.
When people consumed two different meals matched closely for protein, carbs, fat, and fiber, the ultra-processed one produced a larger insulin response despite a similar overall blood glucose response. It also blunted the normal shift toward burning carbohydrates after eating and changed the brain's response to eating.
I’ve talked before about Kevin Hall’s trial, where people eating an ultra-processed diet consumed about 500 extra calories per day and gained weight. This new study explains another part of why UPFs are so problematic - it shows that the way food is processed can change how our bodies handle it and even how our brains perceive it!
Dr. Mark Rowe retweeted
Saline: a cheap and easy treatment for the common cold.
In this trial, hypertonic saline nasal rinsing + gargling:
1) shortened illness by 1.9 days
2) reduced OTC medication use by 36%, and was
3) linked to 35% fewer reported household infections
Dr. Mark Rowe retweeted
Exercise may be a more powerful tool for pain relief than many people realize, according to a large analysis spanning hundreds of thousands of participants.
ow.ly/oQaA50ZViAF
Dr. Mark Rowe retweeted
Stop judging blueberries (and other purple fruits and veggies ) by how much purple makes it into your blood.
_
Anthocyanins, the pigments behind their deep reds, blues, and purples, have a serious “bioavailability paradox.”
Scientists used to think they were barely absorbed (less than 1% recovered intact).
Yet they deliver benefits for the heart, brain, metabolism, and inflammation.
So what’s happening?
A groundbreaking human study showed the true absorption is around 12%. The secret?
Your body rapidly breaks them down into powerful phenolic metabolites that circulate in your blood for up to 48 hours.
Even better: A substantial fraction (40% based on one study) reaches the colon, where gut microbes break them into additional bioactive compounds.
Here gut bacteria turn them into bioactive compounds and they act as prebiotics, feeding good bacteria like Akkermansia and Bifidobacterium while crowding out the bad ones.
What looked like a weakness (poor stability) is actually their superpower.
Your gut and your bloodstream team up to unlock their full potential.
Who else is adding more color to their plate? 🍒🫐🍇
#Anthocyanins
Dr. Mark Rowe retweeted
‘Make me an instrument of your
peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.’
St. Francis of Assisi
🙏♥️🦋📘
Dr. Mark Rowe retweeted
‘Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.’
- Saint Francis of Assisi
🙏❤️🦋📘
#ThursdayThoughts
#ThursdayMotivation
#SimplyStart
#WisdomQuote
#FrancisofAssisi
Dr. Mark Rowe retweeted
‘Where there is hatred let me sow love. Where there is despair, hope,Where there is darkness, light, And where there is sadness, joy.’ - St. Francis of Assisi.’
Be the change.
#SundayMorning
#SundayMotivation
Food as medicine 🙏
Do you like sardines? If so, you’re in luck!
They’re good for the brain, heart, gut, and bones. Here, five reasons sardines are a serious superfood:
Sardines are having a moment — and for once the hype actually lines up with the research.
These little fish punch way above their weight for brain, heart, gut, bones, and longevity.
Here’s why they’re worth putting on your plate more often 👇
1. Brain health
They’re packed with EPA + DHA (especially DHA, a major building block of brain cell membranes) plus vitamin D. Higher omega-3 status is linked to better memory, processing speed, and brain structure. A trial using sardine oil even showed changes in brain activity during working-memory tasks in older adults.
2. Heart health
Same omega-3s help lower triglycerides, blood pressure, and inflammation. One 12-month RCT in older adults with prediabetes found that adding sardines improved HDL, triglycerides, blood pressure, and insulin resistance compared with the control group.
3. Gut health
Omega-3s appear to influence the gut microbiome and gut-barrier integrity. A small trial in people with type 2 diabetes who ate sardines several times a week saw favorable shifts in their gut bacteria.
4. Bone health
Canned sardines come with the soft, edible bones — a solid source of calcium — plus vitamin D to help you absorb it. Higher fish intake has been associated with lower osteoporosis risk in observational studies.
5. Longevity signal
There’s no “sardines make you live forever” study, but frequent small-fish intake was linked to lower all-cause and cancer mortality in a large Japanese cohort (especially in women). Broader reviews also tie higher fish + omega-3 intake to lower mortality risk.
Bonus: they’re low on the food chain so mercury is generally lower than in bigger fish, inexpensive, and the whole fish (skin + bones) is edible when canned.
Aim for 1–2 times a week. Wild-caught, packed in olive oil or water, squeeze of lemon. That’s it.
Tiny fish, surprisingly big payoff. Have you jumped on the sardine train yet? 😊
My upcoming event details are here drmarkrowe.com/dublin-master…
#liveevent #wellbeing #longevity #dublin #wellness #bluezone
Dr. Mark Rowe retweeted
The most underrated superfood of 2026 isn’t another expensive powder. It’s beans. 🫘
And no wonder! With each cooked cup of beans you get:
• ~15g protein
• ~15g fiber (often more than oats or quinoa)
• Resistant starch that fuels your gut microbiome
• Magnesium, folate & iron for energy + heart health
Plus, they’re dirt cheap, shelf-stable, and deliver proven wins for gut repair, blood sugar stability, satiety, and longevity.
Pro tip (especially if you have trouble digesting beans):
Soak or sprout them (or rinse canned well) to slash anti-nutrients and improve digestibility.
🥇 Black beans — anthocyanins rival blueberries
🥈 Lentils & kidney — top-tier for metabolic health & glucose control
🥉 Chickpeas — prebiotic power + endless versatility
Toss them into salads, soups, bowls, or even your sourdough baking experiments.
What’s your favorite bean recipe or prep hack that actually tastes great?
#GutHealth #FiberMaxxing #YearOfTheBean