Happy Friday!
Turns out "good genes" might be a real thing. A new study found that people with at least one parent who lived to 100 years young tended to live longer and to live without developing certain age-related diseases until later. This was the case even if their day-to-day habits didn’t look much different.
One exception: they did not have a significantly lower risk of cancer. So keep eating those salads and tending to lifestyle habits! 🥗
Today’s headlines:
Remembering Gloria Steinem
Your liver might love a low-carb diet
Are taking screenshots making your memory worse?
A Nobel Prize for making people laugh
Spotlight
Remembering women’s biggest champion
Gloria Steinem fiercely advocated for women’s rights for more than six decades, leaving behind a legacy of change and community.
Gloria Steinem, the award-winning journalist, author, social activist, and "personification of the modern women’s movement," died Wednesday, September 2, at 92.
“Gloria’s near-century on earth were years well-lived,” according to an official Instagram post commemorating her passing. “She continued working for equality until the very end.”
From grassroots activism to the global stage
Steinem spent her life trailblazing women's liberation.
From early days spent reporting at New York magazine, she later joined grassroots movements, launched Ms. magazine, wrote 11 books, and rallied for change on the global stage. Words were her superpower.
Her impact was recognized with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, but for Steinem, it was also deeply personal.
Steinem cared for her mother with mental illness during childhood, and how doctors dismissed her mother’s pain and experiences became formative in her passion for rights.
She was also a longtime advocate for abortion rights. Having written about her illegal abortion at 22, she understood the profound impact it could have on a woman’s health, finances, dignity, and future.
Leaving behind a legacy of connection
“God may be in the details,” she once said, “but the goddess is in connections.”
Throughout her lifetime, Steinem embodied the idea that change begins when we show up together.
It lived in her ‘talking circles,’ intimate, ‘off-the-record’ spaces for women to share openly about health, life, and their experiences. It helped inspire our own Livelong Women’s Circle, and will live on in the laws, movements, literature, and advocates shaped by new generations.
Her final memoir, “An Unexpected Life,” is expected to be released September 22.
Wellness watch
Your liver might have a favorite diet
Written by: Rachel Rhee
A new study found eating a low-carb diet might support a healthier liver than a low-fat or Mediterranean-style diet, a gold standard for long-term health.
What researchers found
Researchers at Washington University tracked 55 adults with a combination of obesity, prediabetes, and fatty liver disease as they followed one of three diets: Keto (low carb), Mediterranean, or a low-fat, plant-forward diet.
Each participant lost about 10% of their body weight, but what happened inside their bodies looked completely different.
The ketogenic diet reduced liver fat by 67% in patients, compared with 45% on both the Mediterranean and low-fat plans.
In addition, 50% of the ketogenic group no longer met the criteria for pre-diabetes, versus 29% on the Mediterranean diet and just 7% on the low-fat plan.
The catch: Researchers didn’t study healthy people trying to prevent disease.
Why this matters
Weight loss helps everyone's metabolism, but cutting carbs specifically seemed to give both the liver and blood sugar an extra push toward healthier levels.
The takeaway: Weight loss might not just be about losing the pounds. While cutting carbs, not just calories, shows some signs of reversing prediabetes and fatty liver linked to obesity, this is a small study, and the Mediterranean diet has more longevity research behind it (along with more fiber and easier long-term sustainability than keto typically offers).
Bottom line, we’re going to need more data before we all hop on a keto craze.
In other news
What was the last screenshot you took?
…If you can’t remember, a new study in Memory & Cognition might explain why.
In seven experiments, researchers at Binghamton University found that people who took screenshots remembered less about the images later than people who just viewed them.
In tests, they remembered less about them, what they looked like, or if they’d even seen it at all.
Blame Google? Screenshots may encourage ‘cognitive offloading,’ when the brain puts less effort into remembering because we assume the information was saved elsewhere. And in our highly searchable world, why remember anything? (AKA the ‘Google effect’)
Big picture: Screenshots can be useful reminders, but the science may be hinting at curbing the screenshot itch for memory.
Practical tips:
Jot down the key point in your own words
Describe the image out loud or to someone else
Mentally review one saved screenshot before bed. No peeking!
Short longevity hits
“Self-exercising” muscle graft: Chinese scientists developed an injectable muscle that exercises itself.
Does diet make you allergic to exercise? A new review links certain ultra-processed foods to exercise intolerance.
You’re not unmotivated — you might just be low on orexin!
Long-levity
Image credit: Good News Network
And the 2026 Ig Nobel Prize winner is….
The Nobel Prize is awarded to only the most virtuous and outstanding science. The Ig Nobel Prize is not that.
Yesterday was the 36th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony in Zurich, Switzerland, which acknowledges new science “that makes people LAUGH, then THINK.”
A few of this year’s Ig winners:
The late Tokuji Unno: On how to blow your nose
Franz Bender et al. On what happens if you bury and unearth 1000 pairs of underpants in 25 countries
Ilona Croy et al. On why babies—but not teenagers—smell wonderful to their parents
Previous winners include a doctor who measured his fingernail growth for 35 years, and a Schadenfreude study of telling a narcissist they’re intelligent.
It’s science for laughs, but that might make it the greatest longevity science there is.
Check out the list of previous winners here.
New at Livelong
What we’re signing up for
Chronic Disease Isn’t Inevitable: What Root-Cause Medicine Can Actually Do with Robin Berzin. Wednesday, September 9, 11:00 AM PDT/2:00 PM EDT. RSVP here
Younger 2027: Join the aging competition to see how you answer the challenge: How much younger can you get in six months?
What we’re reading
Compounds in Marijuana may protect the liver.
This vitamin outperformed prescription drugs for fatty liver.
Reader response
Highlighting your responses to last week's question, featured in Who really ages faster: men or women. We asked:
Who do you feel more connected to: people your own age, or people from a different generation?
It depends on the person.
We received a beautiful response from one reader: “I welcome people of all ages into my life because the wisdom of someone older is priceless, and to see things from a younger perspective can be just as important as wisdom.”
What’s the last thing you learned from someone of a different generation? I recently met the lovely Judy who told me, “Have courage. No matter what.”
Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend.
Erin
How did you like today's newsletter?
The information provided about wellness and health is for general informational and educational purposes only. We are not licensed medical professionals, and the content here should not be considered medical advice. Talk to a doctor before trying any of these suggestions.
