Health
Ivanka Trump's jiu-jitsu practice benefits whole family, celebrity trainers reveal
First daughter Ivanka Trump has gone public with her practice of jiu-jitsu.
In a recent Instagram post by martial artists The Valente Brothers, Trump showed off her mastered maneuvers with trainer Gui Valente.
Trump recently shared that her daughter, Arabella, first started taking classes before the entire family joined.
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Supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who has also trained with the Valente brothers and is the mother of Joaquim Valente’s child, has publicly called out the benefits of her own jiu-jitsu practice.
“I feel stronger, more confident and empowered since I started practicing self-defense,” she said in a previous Instagram post. “I feel it’s an important skill for all, but especially for us women.”
In an on-camera interview with Fox News Digital, the three Valente brothers — Pedro, Gui and Joaquim, who are based in Miami, Florida — shared why a self-defense practice like jiu-jitsu is a great physical and mental workout for the whole family.
“We have students starting as young as 3 years old and as old as 87 continuing their training,” Joaquim Valente said. “It creates an opportunity for everyone to engage.”
For kids facing bullying, the practice helps them develop the physical confidence to protect themselves and parents wind up tagging along, according to Joaquim.
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“Saturday, we call it family day here at Valente Brothers,” he said. “We have so many families that come together, and they train with their kids.”
The art of jiu-jitsu
The martial art, which originated from samurai warriors in medieval Japan, started to become popular in the U.S. during the 20th century, when then-President Teddy Roosevelt practiced it in the White House.
For the last 30 years, the Valente brothers, whose family is originally from Brazil and trained with world-renowned Brazilian martial artist Helio Gracie, have specialized in teaching jiu-jitsu as both a self-defense tool and a path to wellness.
The Valente brothers, (left to right) Gui, Pedro and Joaquim, operate several jiu-jitsu facilities in the U.S. At right, Ivanka Trump is shown training in jiu-jitsu with the Valente brothers. (Valente Brothers; Instagram/@valentebrothers)
The brothers focus on a “7-5-3 code” philosophy, which is intended to create “spiritual, mental and physical wellness.”
Joaquim Valente shared that their instruction focuses on empowering people for various situations, like being put in a headlock or preparing for a punch.
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Gui Valente added that jiu-jitsu can also provide health benefits, noting that their predecessors were doctors — including their father, Grand Master Pedro Valente Sr., who was a plastic surgeon.
“He often talked about how what he learned on the mat helped tremendously with his career,” Gui said. “All the fundamentals of jiu-jitsu, the philosophical aspect of jiu-jitsu, can be beneficial on and off the mat.”
Pedro Valente, pictured, also trains members of the U.S. military. (Valente Brothers)
“Self-defense is a human necessity,” Pedro Valente added. “Our style of jiu-jitsu gives students this opportunity even if they’re very busy with their lives – with business and work and family – they still can come in and learn a very powerful system of self-defense but in a very safe way.”
Jiu-jitsu is an “exercise of the mind,” the brothers described, which makes it a great mindfulness practice amid the stresses of daily life.
Maneuvers to master
The brothers repeated that their 7-5-3 philosophy – which represents the seven virtues of a warrior, five keys to health and three states of mind – is lesson No. 1 in learning self-defense.
Simple techniques — like learning how to release control if someone grabs you by the wrist and pulls, or if someone places two hands around your neck with the intention to choke — are a basic necessity, Joaquim Valente noted.
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Another essential technique of jiu-jitsu is learning how to fall without being injured.
But the best self-defense technique, according to the trainers, is avoiding confrontation altogether.
“We want to think about self-defense even before the fight happens,” Gui Valente said. “When we talk about situational awareness, we also talk about teaching students risk management.”
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Pedro Valente also discussed the importance of emotional balance and developing a “sense of poise” when approached with danger.
“When you are in a state of panic, the frontal lobe of your brain is not functioning well, you’re not going to be able to rationally decide what’s the best escape route,” he told Fox News Digital.
“The best self-defense is always avoidance. If you get into a physical fight, you’re already a step behind.”
Pedro added that having emotional balance also helps to avoid “petty arguments, bickering, that many times will lead to a fight.”
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“Anticipation is key — and the only way to anticipate is to be present,” he said, emphasizing the importance of being connected to one’s surroundings.
“Presence is something that can really enhance our mental state and, at the same time, allow us to anticipate a problem that might be happening around us.”
Self-defense in schools
The three brothers, who are all fathers to young children who train, shared their goal for jiu-jitsu to be taught more widely in schools as physical education.
The brothers have been leading this movement in the Miami area, where a few instructors have been teaching in some schools.
“We consider it to be the best form of PE,” Gui Valente said. “It really complements the academics … and what develops into physical confidence, improves children’s self-esteem.”
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Pedro Valente echoed that this education is a “powerful combination of intellectual and physical confidence.”
“Jiu-jitsu — and this is something that we work on with psychologists and therapists — is one of the key ways to address these common problems that every kid faces,” Gui Valente added.
Gui Valente holds baby Arthur, the son of Joaquim Valente and model Gisele Bundchen, in his first kimono. (Valente Brothers)
The brothers also emphasized that jiu-jitsu has helped students of all ages with weight loss due to the physical elements of the sport, as well as nutritional awareness.
“Self-defense is a human necessity.”
“You work every single muscle in your body and in different ways,” Gui Valente said. “You have to be able to develop great stamina, because when you spar, you have to last for sometimes 20 to 30 minutes, or even longer than that.”
“You have to learn how to use strength efficiently, which is truly important in pretty much any exercise you choose to practice, as well as flexibility and mobility.”
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An accidental lab discovery has opened the door to entirely new ways of preventing the flu.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells, SWNS reported.
By targeting the specific molecules the viruses rely on, scientists found that they could block them from entering new cells and halt their replication altogether.
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Researchers say these “fundamental insights” into seasonal influenza highlight a clear path toward developing better preventive medications.
“The hope is that fundamental, curiosity-based research like this helps to pave the way for novel strategies to treat and prevent influenza infections,” principal investigator Dr. Emily Bruce, from the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, said in the SWNS report.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells. (iStock)
While several flu strains cause illness, H1N1 and H3N2 influenza A viruses are the most common. However, current flu tests cannot differentiate between them, and clinical treatments are identical for both.
Although vaccines and antivirals are available, Bruce noted a “dire” need for better medications to stop the virus from spreading cell to xxcell.
“You don’t get sick when a virus is in one cell,” he noted. “You get sick because a virus replicates itself and goes into many more cells.”
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The study, which was published in The Journal of Virology, originally aimed to map how viral RNA segments are transported within cells to create new viral particles.
The team used H1N1 and H3N2 viruses isolated from the nasal passages of positive patients in 2022.
Clinical treatments remain identical for both primary strains of the flu virus. (iStock)
During the investigation, the team unexpectedly stumbled upon a cellular pathway that blocked the virus from entering lung cells, SWNS reported.
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The data revealed that when a specific human protein called Rab11B was depleted, H3N2 viruses failed to enter human lung cells. H1N1 viruses were completely unaffected.
Using reverse genetics, the team mapped this defect and uncovered a brand-new, H3N2-specific role for Rab11B during viral entry.
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This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way.
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“Viruses are like pirates from different countries hijacking someone’s ship,” Bruce said. “Different viruses, like different types of pirates, use different methods to get onboard.”
This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way. (iStock)
“We had previously thought that all flu viruses used the same way to get into a cell, but we discovered that this is not true,” she went on. “H1N1 and H3N2 need different proteins to get in, and if you get rid of the right protein, a specific virus can’t get in.”
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While these findings identify a critical cellular pathway for viral entry, the study was conducted using isolated cells, the researchers acknowledged.
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Further research is needed to determine whether blocking the protein is safe and effective within a live, complex human respiratory system.
Bruce and the team hope to conduct further research to determine whether this Rab11B-dependency is a fundamental property of H3N2, or if it’s a trait unique to currently circulating flu strains.
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Eating processed meat like ham, sausage and bacon may be linked to a higher risk of certain types of cancer, according to new research.
While health organizations have already confirmed that processed meat can contribute to colon cancer, this study looked closer at cancers in the upper digestive tract, where the link has historically been less clear.
To understand these connections, researchers from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), one of the world’s largest long-term nutrition and cancer cohorts, tracked the health and diets of 450,112 people across Europe for an average of 14 years.
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The study group included 131,426 men and 318,686 women, according to the study’s press release.
During the follow-up period, 876 people developed stomach cancer and 215 people developed esophageal adenocarcinoma, which is cancer of the tube connecting the mouth to the stomach.
For female participants, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk of developing the disease. (iStock)
Researchers tracked where the stomach cancers grew, separating them into the upper part of the stomach near the throat and the lower part of the stomach.
The researchers also sorted the tumors into two categories based on how the cancer cells appeared under a microscope: intestinal, which forms more organized structures, and diffuse, in which the cells are more scattered throughout the tissue.
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After adjusting for other lifestyle factors, the researchers found that for every extra 30 grams of processed meat a person ate per day, their overall risk of stomach cancer went up by 9%. Eating that same extra 30 grams a day was also linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma.
A standard single slice of regular deli-sliced ham or lunch meat averages around 28 grams, according to USDA data and nutritional tracking databases.
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken and turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach. (iStock)
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken or turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach, the researchers noted.
The study also revealed differences between men and women. For male participants, only processed meat showed a clear, statistically significant link to a higher risk of stomach cancer. For female participants, however, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk.
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These findings align with global health benchmarks, particularly those established by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The agency has long classified processed meat as a known human carcinogen, primarily due to its strong, well-documented links to colorectal cancer.
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However, health organizations have also consistently pointed to a potential, yet less definitive, relationship between these meats and cancers of the stomach.
Eating 30 grams of processed meat a day, or the equivalent to one slice of ham, was linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma. (iStock)
Further scientific investigation is needed to confirm the findings and to account for other underlying risk factors, such as certain stomach infections, which could interact with dietary habits.
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A key limitation of the study is its reliance on self-reported diets, which can sometimes lead to inaccuracies in how participants recall their meat consumption over time, the researchers noted.
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The findings were published in the International Journal of Cancer.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers requesting comment.
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