#5SmartReads - January 25, 2022

Hitha on collagen, Ukraine, and our obsession with Wordle

A gentle reminder that you can join the conversation of the day’s reads by clicking the title above and add your thoughts in the comments! My goal for #5SmartReads has always been to start conversations and share our thoughts and perspectives. I hope to see you there!

---

Crisis in Ukraine a showdown of two world views (Associated Press)

In the noisiest past few years of news, Putin has been steadily working to rebuild the Soviet Union - 30 years after its fall.

And this second Cold War is about to become hot indeed.

Russian troops are mobilizing near Ukraine’s border near Poland & Lithuania (who are NATO members), and President Biden has activated 8,500 US troops on alert to potentially deploy in the region.

This article does an excellent job of explaining this issue - the recent history and the present - and more importantly, why it’s happening now.

I wish for Ukraine to be safe, free, and for their membership in NATO to be accelerated for the country’s security. And I hope we all can spare a second from our local and national news to stay abreast of what’s happening globally (and I, for one, will try to do a better job of sharing important global news stories on a daily basis).

---

Caroline Dubois On Inclusivity & Posing As A Boy To Make It In Pro Boxing (Bustle)

Where is the Caroline Dubois biopic? Because I need it.

The British boxer - who’s nabbed 4 European championships, a world championship, and a youth Olympic gold medal by her 20th birthday - posed as a boy to join an amateur boxing club. She rose through the ranks of a sport that banned women until a few years before her birth (boxing for women was illegal in the UK until 1998).

Also, she just seems awesome.

I can’t wait to cheer her on in her next big fight, and to follow her professional career (her first pro fight is February 5th!).

---

Researching collagen to help his achy knees, a statistician explores the painfully weak evidence (STAT)

I’m all in with certain supplements. I love my Athletic Greens, my Beeya seeds for hormonal balance and fiber, Natalist iron for anemia, and CBD to stay sane.

Collagen is one I haven’t tried. And here’s why:

“Why is the research on collagen seemingly stuck at a preliminary stage? If executives of collagen companies truly believe that they are selling a product that relieves symptoms of knee osteoarthritis — a condition that afflicts more than 600 million adults worldwide — why haven’t they sponsored an independent, preregistered trial with hundreds or thousands of participants, the kind of trial whose results could be published in a top medical journal?”

Note that collagen is a billion dollar industry, with sales of $1.9B in 2019.

If you see a benefit in taking collagen, that’s great! If it’s a linchpin habit for you - gets you to stretch more, consume healthier foods, and prioritize hydration and rest - then continue doing it. But to claim that any collagen supplements are miracle workers is just not supported by the data, so I urge caution if and when you purchase it.

---

The Rot of Candy Crush and The Rest of Wordle (Culture Study)

I’ve been sucked in my the allure of Candy Crush (though I prefer Royal Match more). I’m newly obsessed with Wordle. And I’m chasing a meditative state in both of these games that I somehow never seem to find, but am loving the Wordle updates I see on social media or share with my husband.

Though I can get competitive and loathe when he beats me. Which is often.

As usual, Anne Helen Petersen puts games and what we seek from them in eloquent words I wish I had written.

Share this link with the folks you Wordle with. And if anyone has a better starting word than NOISY, please share it with me.

---

Covid Will Become Endemic. The World Must Decide What That Means (WIRED)

“The vaccines, which looked like the salvation of 2021, worked but weren’t enough to rescue us. If we’re going to save 2022, we’ll also have to embrace masking, testing, and maybe staying home sometimes, what epidemiologists broadly call nonpharmaceutical interventions, or NPIs.

Acknowledging that complexity will let us practice for the day Covid settles into a circulating, endemic virus. That day hasn’t arrived yet; enough people remain vulnerable that we have to prepare for variants and surges. But at some point, we’ll achieve a balance that represents how much work we’re willing to do to control Covid, and how much illness and death we’ll tolerate to stay there.”

When COVID becomes endemic is something I spend far too much time and energy thinking about, given that it’s a futile task.

Fantasizing about the day when I can stroll out of my home and in and out of stores without masks and furiously sanitizing my hands and seeing my friends and family freely (okay, I’m torturing myself).

This article put these fantasies into realistic expectations of our future. And while that endemic day is still a faint spot at the end of a tunnel we’re making our way through…it’s there. And it’s slowly getting bigger.

(But endemic must mean that those with disabilities and who are immunocompromised can also resume normalcy without putting their health at risk, always).