The difference was striking. The sprint workout produced larger and more immediate changes in numerous proteins and metabolites circulating in the blood. Moderate exercise also produced changes, but they tended to develop more gradually. The researchers found similar intensity-related differences even after participants had completed eight weeks of exercise training.

Why does that matter? Exercise doesn’t affect only the muscles doing the work. When you exercise, muscles, fat and other tissues release chemical signals that essentially allow different parts of the body to “talk” to one another. The researchers found that muscle cells and fat cells were particularly responsive to exercise intensity.

Even more intriguing, proteins stimulated by the sprint workouts were more strongly associated with protection from cardiometabolic problems such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

That doesn’t mean three minutes of sprinting replaces a longer workout. This study investigated the body’s molecular response, rather than proving that a few sprints deliver all the long-term health benefits of sustained exercise. But it adds to evidence that intensity matters and suggests you don’t necessarily need a long workout to send a powerful health-promoting signal throughout your body.

Key Takeaway: Longer, moderate exercise remains valuable, but occasionally adding brief bursts of higher-intensity activity may give your body a distinctly different stimulus. If you’re healthy enough for vigorous exercise, even a few short bursts can make those minutes count.

Many people instinctively reach for pain medications like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or stronger prescription painkillers when they hurt. But while medications can temporarily dull symptoms, they often don’t resolve the biomechanical issues that contribute to pain and can carry long-term risks.

In contrast, chiropractic care emphasizes restoring normal movement and function through hands-on care and supportive therapies. Here are five reasons  chiropractic is a better option for people with musculoskeletal pain.

1. Chiropractic Care Reduces Pain Without the Side Effects of Drugs: Pain medications like NSAIDs can irritate the stomach and, with long-term use, increase risk to the kidneys and cardiovascular system. Opioid painkillers bring risks of dependence, overdose, and significant side effects. Chiropractic care does not depend on medications –  instead, it utilizes spinal manipulation and other therapies that have been shown to reduce pain and improve movement.

Studies, including a review in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, found that patients receiving chiropractic services for low back pain had a significantly lower likelihood of filling opioid prescriptions compared to those who did not seek chiropractic care, indicating reduced reliance on drugs when chiropractic care was part of the plan.

2. Spine-Related Pain (and Physical Function) Improve With Chiropractic: Scientific research supports chiropractic’s effectiveness for common musculoskeletal conditions like back and neck pain:

• A 2018 study published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine looked at data from adults with non-cancer low back pain and found that recipients of chiropractic services were much less likely to fill an opioid prescription than people treated without chiropractic care.
• A narrative review published in PMC in 2021 showed that spinal manipulative therapy is recommended by current clinical practice guidelines as part of first-line care for both neck and low back pain, often together with exercise and education.

This evidence suggests chiropractic care isn’t merely a feel-good option – it can meaningfully reduce pain and help people move more effectively.

3. Chiropractic Targets Underlying Movement and Alignment Dysfunction: Medications primarily block the sensation of pain without addressing mechanical causes. Musculoskeletal pain often arises from restricted joints, imbalanced muscles or altered functional movement patterns. Your doctor of chiropractic assesses and treats these contributing factors by:

• Restoring joint mobility through manual adjustments
• Reducing muscle tension
• Rebalancing movement patterns
• Providing education on posture and activity modification

Improving how your body moves, rather than just masking pain, can lead to longer-lasting relief and better overall function. This functional focus contrasts with many medications, which temporarily interrupt pain signals without correcting the contributing biomechanical problem.

4. Less Risk and Potentially Lower Long-Term Complication Rates: Medications can come with significant potential risks – from gastrointestinal issues to long-term dependency – particularly in the case of opioids. Chiropractic care carries fewer systemic risks and avoids drug-related side effects altogether.

Large-scale systematic reviews have found that spinal manipulation is as effective as recommended allopathic (medical) therapies for chronic low back pain and perform favorably compared with other conservative approaches. For example, a comprehensive review published in the British Medical Journal showed that spinal manipulative therapy delivers effects similar to other recommended treatments for chronic low back pain –  without the systemic risks associated with long-term medication use.

Clinical practice guidelines increasingly recommend nondrug options like spinal manipulation as first-line choices for many patients with musculoskeletal pain.

5. Chiropractic Care Can Lower Overall Healthcare Costs: Spine-related musculoskeletal pain is one of the most expensive health concerns in the U.S., costing tens of billions annually. A 2024 systematic review published in Chiropractic & Manual Therapies compared overall healthcare utilization and costs for adults treated for spine-related musculoskeletal pain with chiropractic care versus traditional medical management. The review looked at 44 studies and found that patients who received chiropractic had:

• Fewer opioid prescriptions and injections
• Fewer surgeries and specialist referrals
• Fewer hospitalizations and emergency-department visits
• Lower overall downstream healthcare costs when chiropractic was the first point of care

None of the studies included in the review found higher long-term costs associated with chiropractic care compared to conventional medical management. This suggests that, beyond pain relief alone, chiropractic care may reduce the burden on patients and the healthcare system by reducing the need for costly procedures and chronic medication use.

What This Means for You (and Millions of Others)

Musculoskeletal pain –  whether fleeting or chronic –  can be life-altering. Medications generally don’t fix the underlying causes and come with systemic risks. Chiropractic care, by focusing on restoring movement, alignment and function, offers an approach that more and more people are realizing every day is not only effective for pain relief, but also empowering and cost-efficient over time.

A Comfort Food Put to the Test

In a six-month randomized, controlled trial, researchers examined whether regularly eating peanut butter could help improve physical function in older adults. Participants were divided into two groups: one added peanut butter to their usual diets, while the other continued eating as they normally would.

Peanut butter isn’t just a nostalgic pantry staple. It’s packed with plant protein, healthy fats, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and bioactive compounds that may support muscle health and overall nutrition – areas that are especially important later in life. Because many older adults struggle to get enough high-quality protein and calories, peanut butter offers a soft, convenient, calorie-dense option that’s easy to incorporate into meals and snacks.

What the Researchers Found

Over the course of the study, participants who added peanut butter to their diets showed measurable improvements in several aspects of physical function compared with those who didn’t. Key areas of improvement included:

• Muscle strength: Better performance on strength-related measures
• Functional mobility : Improvements in everyday movement such as standing, walking and balance
• Overall physical performance: Higher scores on standardized function tests

Importantly, these benefits came from a simple dietary change rather than an intense exercise program or medical treatment.

What About Other Nut Butters?

Peanut butter isn’t the only nut or seed butter on the shelf, and many alternatives offer similar – or sometimes broader – health benefits.

Almond butter is often higher in vitamin E and calcium and provides heart-healthy fats and plant protein. Cashew butter is creamier and slightly lower in protein and fiber, but rich in magnesium and iron, which support muscle and metabolic health. Walnut butter stands out for its omega-3 fatty acids that support heart and brain health. Sunflower seed butter is a strong option for people with nut allergies and provides vitamin E, magnesium and selenium. Mixed nut butters combine the strengths of multiple nuts for broader nutritional diversity.

In general, most nut and seed butters are nutrient-dense foods that provide plant protein, healthy fats and important micronutrients.

Why This Matters for Healthy Aging

Physical function is one of the strongest predictors of independence in older adults. The ability to rise from a chair, walk safely, carry groceries, or climb stairs directly affects quality of life. Even small declines can increase reliance on others and raise the risk of injury.

Nutrition plays a central role in maintaining muscle mass and strength, yet many older adults don’t consume enough protein or nutrient-dense foods. Appetite changes, dental issues, cost concerns, and meal preparation challenges often get in the way. Nut and seed butters may help bridge that gap because they are easy to chew, affordable, shelf-stable, convenient, and calorie-dense.

The researchers found that pterostilbene influenced PPARδ, a protein that helps regulate how muscles handle fat. Rather than simply switching this protein on, pterostilbene appeared to help preserve it inside the cells, allowing it to remain active longer. This increased the activity of genes involved in fatty-acid metabolism and encouraged the muscle cells to break down stored fat rather than continuing to accumulate it.

We’re not talking about the fat you can pinch around your waist. The study focused on lipids accumulating inside muscle cells. Excessive lipid accumulation in muscle can interfere with the way muscles handle fuels such as glucose and fatty acids and is associated with metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance.

That’s what makes the blueberry finding interesting. It suggests a compound naturally present in a popular fruit may influence one of the body’s systems for managing fat at the cellular level.

And blueberries bring plenty more to the table. They’re rich in plant compounds and fit easily into a healthy diet: whether tossed into oatmeal, mixed into yogurt or eaten by the handful. And as this research suggests, they may have more to offer than anyone previously realized.

The difference was substantial. Nearly half (47%) of the cockroaches eating only ultraprocessed food died during the study, compared with 20% of those eating unprocessed food and 23% of those eating the mixed diet. The researchers calculated that the ultraprocessed group had about a 1.5-times higher mortality risk than the unprocessed group.

Obviously, humans aren’t cockroaches, and this study doesn’t establish that ultraprocessed foods cause the same outcome in people. But it adds to research raising concerns about diets heavily dominated by these foods.

This is where some important nuance is needed. Processing itself isn’t the problem.

Freezing vegetables, cooking beans, fermenting yogurt, canning fish, or grinding whole grains are all forms of food processing that can produce highly nutritious foods. Even foods such as whole-grain bread, canned beans and natural nut butter can be processed without becoming “junk food.”

Ultraprocessed foods are different. They are typically industrial formulations designed for convenience, long shelf life and strong appeal, and often contain combinations of refined carbohydrates, added sugars, unhealthy fats, and sodium; while providing relatively little fiber or nutritional value.

Common examples include sugary drinks, candy, many packaged snack cakes, highly sweetened breakfast cereals, chips, and other heavily formulated snack foods. In this study, the ultraprocessed diet consisted specifically of candy-like fruit snacks and potato chips.

So, the lesson isn’t to “avoid anything processed.” It’s to recognize the difference between food that has been processed for convenience or preservation and highly formulated products that can displace more nutritious foods.

If even a cockroach does better with an apple than a candy straw, it might be worth taking a closer look at what’s making up most of your own diet.