Twenty-One, No Wait, Twenty Tweaks For Better Health
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Dr. Greger’s 21 Tweaks… We say 20, though!
We’ve talked before about Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen (12 things he advises that we make sure to eat each day, to enjoy healthy longevity), but much less-talked-about are his “21 Tweaks”…
They are, in short, a collection of little adjustments one can make for better health. Some of them are also nutritional, but many are more like lifestyle tweaks. Let’s do a rundown:
At each meal:
- Preload with water
- Preload with “negative calorie” foods (especially: greens)
- Incorporate vinegar (1-2 tbsp in a glass of water will slow your blood sugar increase)
- Enjoy undistracted meals
- Follow the 20-minute rule (enjoy your meal over the course of at least 20 minutes)
Get your daily doses:
- Black cumin ¼ tsp
- Garlic powder ¼ tsp
- Ground ginger (1 tsp) or cayenne pepper (½ tsp)
- Nutritional yeast (2 tsp)
- Cumin (½ tsp)
- Green tea (3 cups)
Every day:
- Stay hydrated
- Deflour your diet
- Front-load your calories (this means implementing the “king, prince, pauper” rule—try to make your breakfast the largest meal of your day, followed my a medium lunch, and a small evening meal)
- Time-restrict your eating (eat your meals within, for example, an 8-hour window, and fast the rest of the time)
- Optimize exercise timing (before breakfast is best for most people, unless you are diabetic)
- Weigh yourself twice a day (doing this when you get up and when you go to bed results in much better long-term weight management than weighing only once per day)
- Complete your implementation intentions (this sounds a little wishy-washy, but it’s about building a set of “if this, then that” principles, and then living by them. An example could be directly physical health-related such as “if there is a choice of stairs or elevator, I will take the stairs”, or could be more about holistic good-living, such as “if someone asks me for help, I will try to oblige them so far as I reasonably can”)
Every night:
- Fast after 7pm
- Get sufficient sleep (7–9 hours is best. As we get older, we tend more towards the lower end of that, but try get at least those 7 hours!)
Experiment with Mild Trendelenburg(better yet, skip this one)*
*This involves a 6º elevation of the bed, at the foot end. Dr. Greger advises that this should only be undertaken after consulting your doctor, though, as a lot of health conditions can contraindicate it. We at 10almonds couldn’t find any evidence to support this practice, and numerous warnings against it, so we’re going to go ahead and say we think this one’s skippable.
Again, we do try to bring you the best evidence-based stuff here at 10almonds, and we’re not going to recommend something just because of who suggested it
As for the rest, you don’t have to do them all! And you may have noticed there was a little overlap in some of them. But, we consider them a fine menu of healthy life hacks from which to pick and choose!
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Is There A Limit To How Much You Can Improve Your Brain?
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There’s a popular myth that our brains finish developing at 25 (not remotely true) and from then on, stays pretty much the same with no new growth (also not true), and in terms of cognitive performance, the only way is down (have a guess whether this is true).
If you guessed “no”, you guessed correctly!
The first two myths we’ve previous covered here: Building Your Brain At Every Age
And for more about the terribly misrepresented study that inadvertently launched the “brain finishes developing at 25” myth, see: The Brain As A Work-In-Progress
So, what about cognitive performance?
Limitless?
Researchers (Dr. Lori Cook et al.) set about this question, by means of a large (n=3,966) and exciting 3-year longitudinal study with adults of all ages (well, 19–94), using the BrainHealth Index (BHI), a first-of-its-kind multidimensional metric that measures holistic brain fitness.
They gave these participants a comprehensive set of brain-healthy practices to do, and then measured to see if there would be improvements, and if so, how much and for whom and what factors affected it.
In few words, they found:
- No ceiling on improvement: significant gains in brain health were observed across the board. Even top-tier performers continued to improve over 1,000 days, suggesting there is no known limit to brain optimization.
- Advantage for “low-starters”: participants who entered the study with the lowest baseline scores demonstrated the most significant rates of improvement, demonstrating that poor brain health is not a life sentence.
- Small habit changes; big difference: gains were directly correlated with consistency of utilization. Participants who engaged the most in 5 to 15 minutes of daily micro-training and adopted brain-healthy habits in their everyday lives achieved the highest brain health scores.
- Age was not an issue: young and old participants alike enjoyed similar brain gains!
…which is really quite groundbreaking! And as one of the researchers put it:
❝For too long, we’ve operated under the outdated notion that we need to wait until something bad happens to our brain before we do anything for it. This study reminds us that our brain is not defined by age, it is defined by possibility. Humans have already expanded how long we live. Now, we are expanding how long the brain can continue to improve, disrupting the trajectory of decline that often begins in our early 30s. Because the true promise of longer life is a brain that allows us to thrive year by year.❞
~ Dr. Sandra Chapman, whose work we featured in our article: How (And Why) To Train Your Pre-Frontal Cortex
…and who was also a co-author on the study we’ve been talking about today, which study you can read in full here: Measuring and increasing the brain health span across adulthood: a public health imperative ← you will need to click on the PDF option to read it in full, otherwise it’s just the abstract on the page
Want to learn more?
As for how to do it for yourself, consider:
- Do Try This At Home: The 12-Week Brain Fitness Program
- Synergistic Brain-Training
- The Physical Exercises That Build Your Brain
- Sharper Minder & Body In 3 Weeks With 1 Supplement
- Seven Exercises To Strengthen Your Brain
- Ways To Boost Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)
- Reading As A Cognitive Exercise ← there are specific tips here for ensuring your reading is (and remains) cognitively beneficial
Take care!
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Trout vs Carp – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing trout to carp, we picked the trout.
Why?
Both have their strong points!
In terms of macros, trout has slightly more protein and fat, and/but also has less cholesterol than carp. So, we pick the trout in the macros category.
In the category of vitamins, trout has much more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B12, C, D, E, K, and choline, while carp has slightly more vitamin B9. In other words, an easy win for trout here.
When it comes to minerals, however, trout has more potassium and selenium, while carp has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc. A fair win for carp this time.
You may be wondering about heavy metals: this will vary depending on location, as well as the age of the fish (younger fish have had less time to accumulate heavy metals than old ones, so if you’re visiting the fishmonger, choose the smaller ones) and the lives they have led (e.g. wild vs farmed), however, as a general rule of thumb, trout will generally have lower heavy metals levels than carp, all other things (e.g. location, age, etc) being equal.
In short, enjoy either or both in moderation, but trout wins on 3/4 categories today.
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Farmed Fish vs Wild Caught: Antibiotics, Mercury, & More
Take care!
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How To Improve Your Brain In Your 90s
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
There’s a popular myth that our brains finish developing at 25 (not remotely true) and from then on, stays pretty much the same with no new growth (also not true), and in terms of cognitive performance, the only way is down (have a guess whether this is true).
If you guessed “no”, you guessed correctly!
The first two myths we’ve previous covered here: Building Your Brain At Every Age
And for more about the terribly misrepresented study that inadvertently launched the “brain finishes developing at 25” myth, see: The Brain As A Work-In-Progress
Because, as the saying goes: you are not too old and it is not too late!
Always, if you are alive, then there is still time:
Age is no barrier
Literally, it’s not even a limiting factor, as shown by the latest research from Dr. Lori Cook et al., in which they followed (in the longitudinal study sense, not in the stalker sense) 3,966 people aged 19–94 for three years and found that measures of brain health improved across the lifespan, amongst participants who completed brief brain-health activities, cognitive training, lifestyle modules, and coaching, typically requiring only 5–15 minutes per day.
how brain health was measured: the study used the BrainHealth Index (BHI), combining 20ish measures (it depends on how you want to count them*) to assess the following three domains:
- Clarity: cognitive function and complex thinking abilities
- Emotional balance: mental well-being and emotional health
- Connectedness: social engagement and sense of purpose
*You can learn more about how it’s done, here: The Brain Health Index: Integrating vulnerability, resilience, and cognitive function into a unified measure of cognitive health and risk of neurodegenerative disease
What they found, in few words: overall BrainHealth Index scores improved over the 3-year period, showing that brain health can indeed be actively strengthened rather than simply maintained, even in later life. Further, improvements were seen across all age groups studied, challenging the common assumption that cognitive decline is an unavoidable consequence of aging.
In fact, the strongest predictor of improvement wasn’t anything that already been determined at the start (e.g. age, sex, or education level)—it was how actively participants engaged with the training tools, coaching, and brain-healthy habits.
One of the co-authors of the study is a scientist we’ve featured before in our “Expert Insights” segment, and in this case she noted:
❝This study reminds us that our brain is not defined by age—it is defined by possibility❞
~ Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman, whom we previously featured in: How (And Why) To Train Your Pre-Frontal Cortex
As for this latest study and more about what specific things they did, you can read it in detail, here: Measuring and increasing the brain health span across adulthood: a public health imperative
Want to learn more?
As for how to do it for yourself, consider:
- Do Try This At Home: The 12-Week Brain Fitness Program
- Synergistic Brain-Training
- The Physical Exercises That Build Your Brain
- Sharper Minder & Body In 3 Weeks With 1 Supplement
- Seven Exercises To Strengthen Your Brain
- Ways To Boost Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)
- Reading As A Cognitive Exercise ← there are specific tips here for ensuring your reading is (and remains) cognitively beneficial
Take care!
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The Gym For Your Mental Health
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Getting The Most Out Of Therapy
If you’ve never had therapy, what image do you have of it? Perhaps you imagine a bearded and bespectacled man in a suit, impassively making notes on a clipboard. Perhaps you imagine an empathetic woman, with tissues and camomile tea on standby.
The reality is: the experience of therapy can vary, a lot.
In its results, too! Sometimes we may try therapy and think “well that was a waste of time and money”. Sometimes we may try therapy and it’ll change our life.
So… Is there any way to make it less of a lottery?
First: knowledge is power
And while the therapist-client relationship certainly shouldn’t be a power struggle, you do want to be empowered.
So, read about different styles of therapy, and also, read some how-to guides for self-therapy. We’ve recommended some before in previous editions of 10almonds; you can check those books out here:
- How to Be Your Own Therapist: Boost your mood and reduce your anxiety in 10 minutes a day – by Owen O’Kane
- You Are the One You’ve Been Waiting For: Applying Internal Family Systems to Intimate Relationships – by Dr. Richard Schwartz
- DBT Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide to Dialectical Behavior Therapy – by Sheri van Dijk
- How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self – by Dr. Nicole LaPera
This will serve two purposes:
- You’ll know what to expect out of a therapist
- You can more efficiently “get to work” in therapy
It also, of course, could help you already, without even going to therapy!
Second: begin with the end in mind
A person who does not know what they want to get out of therapy, will likely not get much out of therapy. Or rather, their first task will be to figure that out. So, figure it out in advance, if you can.
Maybe you have a problem that has a specific name, for example poor self-esteem, anxiety, stress, depression, trauma, neuroticism, phobia, etc.
This isn’t Alcoholics Anonymous, and in this case you don’t want a lifetime of “Hello, my name is ______ and I have ______”, if you can help it.
So, what do you want?
- Maybe you want to be able to go to social events without feeling anxious
- Maybe you want your relationship(s) to be more secure and fulfilling
- Maybe you want to no longer have nightmares about that traumatic thing
- Maybe you want to be able to greet each day’s tasks with confidence and without overwhelm
…etc.
A good therapist will help you to set such goals (if you haven’t already), and attain them.
If you’re going the self-therapy route, then this is your job now!
It will probably start with the question: imagine that everything currently troubling you is now healed.
What would that look like, to you?
Third: get a good match for you
Unless you are going entirely the self-therapy route (which can work for some), you will want a therapist who’s a good match for you.
It may take a degree of “suck it and see” trial runs before you find the right one, but that takes time and money, so you’ll want to streamline the process as much as you can. If you do this well, you may be able to find a good therapist for you first time.
For this, personal recommendations (such as from friends) may help more than exmaining academic and institutional affiliations.
Yes, you want a well-qualified therapist who is a member in good standing of a respectable regulated body… but whether your therapist is easy for you to “get on with” will matter at least as much as whether their approach is psychodynamic, or 4th wave CBT, or IFS, or whatever seems popular in your time and place.
Bear in mind:
- Some therapists are specialized in helping with some kinds of things and not others. It will obviously help if the therapist you choose is specialized in the thing you are seeking help for.
- Some therapists may be able to relate to you better (or not), based on simple factors of who they are. To this end, while your therapist certainly doesn’t have to be a mirror image of you, factors like age, gender, race, etc can be relevant and may be worth considering, depending on what you are seeking help with, and what factors impact that thing.
Prefer keeping things to yourself?
Therapy isn’t for everyone, but having a good relationship with oneself definitely is. You might want to invest in one of the books whose reviews we linked above, and you might also get value from previous Psychology Sunday articles, which you can find in our archive (every seventh edition here has a Psychology Sunday main feature):
Click Here To Check Out The 10almonds Archive
To borrow the catchphrase of Dr. Kirk Honda (a therapist and therapy educator with decades of experience):
❝Take care of yourself, because you deserve it; you really, really do.❞
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Metabolic Health Roadmap – by Brenda Wollenberg
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The term “roadmap” is often used in informative books, but in this case, Wollenberg (a nutritionist with decades of experience) really does deliver what can very reasonably be described as a roadmap:
She provides chapters in the form of legs of a journey [to better metabolic health], and those legs are broadly divided into an “information center” to deliver new information, a “rest stop” for reflection, “roadwork” to guide the reader through implementing the information we just learned, in a practical fashion, and finally “traveller assistance” to give additional support / resources, as well as any potential troubleshooting, etc.
The information and guidance within are all based on very good science; a lot is what you will have read already about blood sugar management (generally the lynchpin of metabolic health in general), but there’s also a lot about leveraging epigenetics for our benefit, rather than being sabotaged by such.
There’s a little guidance that falls outside of nutrition (sleep, exercise, etc), but for the most part, Wollenberg stays within her own field of expertise, nutrition.
The style is idiosyncratic; it’s very clear that her goal is providing the promised roadmap, and not living up to any editor’s wish or publisher’s hope of living up to industry standard norms of book formatting. However, this pays off, because her delivery is clear and helpful while remaining personable and yet still bringing just as much actual science, and this makes for a very pleasant and informative read.
Bottom line: if you’d like to improve your metabolic health, as well as get held-by-the-hand through your health-improvement journey by a charming guide, this is very much the book for you!
Click here to check out the Metabolic Health Roadmap, and start taking steps!
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Rethinking Diabetes – by Gary Taubes
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We’ve previously reviewed this author’s “The Case Against Sugar” and “Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It“. There’s an obvious theme, and this book caps it off nicely:
By looking at the history of diabetes treatment (types 1 and 2) in the past hundred years, and analysing the patterns over time, we can see how:
- diabetics have been misled a lot over time by healthcare providers
- we can learn from those mistakes going forwards
Happily, he does this without crystal-balling the future or expecting diet to fix, for example, a pancreas that can’t produce insulin. But what he does do is focus on the “can” items rather than the “can’t” items.
In the category of criticism, one of the strategies he argues for is basically the keto diet, which is indeed just fine for diabetes but often not great for the heart in the long-term (it depends on various factors, including genes). However, even if you choose not to implement that, there is plenty more to try out in this book.
Bottom line: whether you have diabetes, love someone who does, or just plain like to be on top of your glycemic health, this book is full of important insights and opportunities to improve things progressively along the way.
Click here to check out Rethinking Diabetes, and rethink diabetes!
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