50 Ways To Rewire Your Anxious Brain – by Dr. Catherine Pittman & Dr. Maha Zayed-Hoffman

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The book is divided into sections:

  1. Calming the amygdala
  2. Rewiring the amygdala
  3. Calming the cortex
  4. Resisting cortex traps

…each with a dozen or so ways to do exactly what it says in the title: rewire your anxious brain.

The authors take the stance that since our brain is changing all the time, we might as well choose the direction we prefer. They then set out to provide the tools for the lay reader to do that, and (in that fourth section we mentioned) how to avoid accidentally doing the opposite, no matter how tempting doing the opposite may be.

For a book written by two PhD scientists where a large portion of it is about neuroscience, the style is very light pop science (just a few in-line citations every few pages, where they couldn’t resist the urge), and the focus is on being useful to the reader throughout. This all makes for reassuringly science-based but accessibly readable book.

The fact that the main material comes in the form of 50 very short chapters also makes it a lot more readable for those for whom sitting down to read a lot at a time can be off-putting.

Bottom line: if you experience anxiety and would like to experience it less, this book will guide you through how to get there.

Click here to check out 50 Ways To Rewire Your Anxious Brain, and rewire your anxious brain!

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  • The Inflammation Spectrum – by Dr. Will Cole

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    We’ve previously reviewed Dr. Cole’s other book “Gut Feelings”, and now he’s back, this time to tackle inflammation.

    The focus here is on understanding what things trigger inflammation in your body—personally yours, not someone else’s—by something close to the usual elimination process yes, but he offers a way of sliding into it gently instead of simply quitting all the things and gradually adding everything back in.

    The next step he takes the reader through is eating not just to avoid triggering inflammation, but to actively combat it. From there, it should be possible for the reader to build an anti-inflammatory cookbook, that’s not only one’s own personal repertoire of cooking, but also specifically tailored to one’s own personal responses to different ingredients.

    The style of this book is very pop-science, helpful, walking-the-reader-by-the-hand through the processes involved. Dr. Cole wants to make everything as easy as possible.

    Bottom line: if your diet could use an anti-inflammatory revamp, this is a top-tier guidebook for doing just that.

    Click here to check out The Inflammation Spectrum, find your food triggers and reset your system!

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  • Body Scrubs: Benefits, Risks, and Guidance

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    It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

    Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

    In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

    As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

    So, no question/request too big or small

    ❝I was wondering whether I should be using a body scrub in the shower, rather than just soap.  What should guide me in the choice of a body scrub, and are there any risks to be aware of?❞

    Body scrubs are great for giving skin a healthy glow, but are best used sparingly—over-exfoliation leads to the opposite effect (unhappy skin, premature skin aging, etc).

    As for contents:

    • microplastics are now banned in most places, but you might want to check any products (and their containers!) are BPA-free, pthalate free, etc.
    • fragrances in body scrubs are usually a bad idea, and many essential oils have been shown to be endocrine-disruptors, which you do not want:

    About the microplastics, harmful artificial chemicals in general, and what constitutes “etc”:

    Consumer behavior and exposure to parabens, bisphenols, triclosan, dichlorophenols, and benzophenone-3: Results from a crowdsourced biomonitoring study

    About the fragrances’ (including “natural” essential oils’) endocrine-disrupting shenanigans:

    Endocrine-disrupting chemicals: an Endocrine Society scientific statement

    So, what might you want to use instead?

    If you’re feeling adventurous, you might like to try treating yourself to a pineapple-based mask instead (a muslin cloth soaked in pineapple juice will work just fine; please don’t waterboard yourself though), as the bromelain enzymes (found very generously in pineapple juice) break down dead cells without the need for scrubbing.

    Another option is a homemade salt- or sugar-scrub. Put your salt or sugar into a jar, add enough warm water to cover it, leave it for about a day, adding more water if it seems in danger of drying out, until it recrystallizes with a high water content keeping it malleable to the touch; congratulations, you now have a very simple scrub. This should still not be used more than, say, once per week, though.

    Last but not least, you might consider investing in a konjac sponge; they gently remove dead skin without damaging living skin. Here’s an example product on Amazon, for your convenience

    For more on gentle-yet-effective skincare, you might like to read:

    Clean: The New Science of Skin and the Beauty of Doing Less

    Enjoy!

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  • How Much Does A Vegan Diet Affect Biological Aging?

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    Slow Your Aging, One Meal At A Time

    This one’s a straightforward one today, and the ““life hack” can be summed up:

    Enjoy a vegan diet to enjoy younger biological age.

    First, what is biological age?

    Biological age is not one number, but a collection of numbers, as per different biomarkers of aging, including:

    • Visual markers of aging (e.g. wrinkles, graying hair)
    • Performative markers of aging (e.g. mobility tests)
    • Internal functional markers of aging (e.g. tests for cognitive decline, eyesight, hearing, etc)
    • Cellular markers of aging (e.g. telomere length)

    We wrote more about this here:

    Age & Aging: What Can (And Can’t) We Do About It?

    A vegan diet may well impact multiple of those categories of aging, but today we’re highlighting a study (hot off the press; published only a few days ago!) that looks at its effect on that last category: cellular markers of aging.

    There’s an interesting paradox here, because this category is:

    • the most easily ignorable; because we all feel it if our knees are giving out or our skin is losing elasticity, but who notices if telomeres’ T/S ratio changed by 0.0407? ← the researchers, that’s who, as this difference is very significant
    • the most far-reaching in its impact, because cellular aging in turn has an effect on all the other markers of aging

    Second, how much difference does it make, and how do we know?

    The study was an eight-week interventional identical twin study. This means several things, to start with:

    • Eight weeks is a rather short period of time to accumulate cellular aging, let alone for an intervention to accumulate a significant difference in cellular aging—but it did. So, just imagine what difference it might make in a year or ten!
    • Doing an interventional study with identical twin pairs already controlled for a lot of factors, that are usually confounding variables in population / cohort / longitudinal / observational studies.

    Factors that weren’t controlled for by default by using identical twins, were controlled for in the experiment design. For example, twin pairs were rejected if one or more twin in a given pair already had medical conditions that could affect the outcome:

    ❝Inclusion criteria involved participants aged ≥18, part of a willing twin pair, with BMI <40, and LDL-C <190 mg/dL. Exclusions included uncontrolled hypertension, metabolic disease, diabetes, cancer, heart/renal/liver disease, pregnancy, lactation, and medication use affecting body weight or energy.

    Eligibility was determined via online screening, followed by an orientation meeting and in-person clinic visit. Randomization occurred only after completing baseline visits, dietary recalls, and questionnaires for both twins❞

    ~ Dr. Varun Dwaraka et al. ← there’s a lot of “et al.” to this one; the paper had 16 collaborating authors!

    As to the difference it made over the course of the 8 weeks…

    ❝Various measures of epigenetic age acceleration (PC GrimAge, PC PhenoAge, DunedinPACE) were assessed, along with system-specific effects (Inflammation, Heart, Hormone, Liver, and Metabolic).

    Distinct responses were observed, with the vegan cohort exhibiting significant decreases in overall epigenetic age acceleration, aligning with anti-aging effects of plant-based diets. Diet-specific shifts were noted in the analysis of methylation surrogates, demonstrating the influence of diet on complex trait prediction through DNA methylation markers.❞

    ~ Ibid.

    You can read the whole paper here (it goes into a lot more detail than we have room to here, and also gives infographics, charts, numbers, the works):

    Unveiling the epigenetic impact of vegan vs. omnivorous diets on aging: insights from the Twins Nutrition Study (TwiNS)

    Were they just eating more healthily, though?

    Well, arguably yes, as the results show, but to be clear:

    The omnivorous diet compared to the vegan diet in this study was also controlled; both groups were given a healthy meal plan for their respective diet. So this wasn’t a case of “any omnivorous diet vs healthy vegan diet”, but rather “healthy omnivorous diet vs healthy vegan diet”.

    Again, the paper itself has the full details—a short version is that it involved a healthy meal kit delivery service, followed by ongoing dietician involvement in an equal and carefully-controlled fashion.

    So, aside from that one group had an omnivorous meal plan and the other vegan, both groups received the same level of “healthy eating” support, guidance, and oversight.

    But isn’t [insert your preferred animal product here] healthy?

    Quite possibly! For general health, general scientific consensus is that eating at least mostly plants is best, red meat is bad, poultry is neutral in moderation, fish is good in moderation, dairy is good in moderation if fermented, eggs are good in moderation if not fried.

    This study looked at the various biomarkers of aging that we listed, and not every possible aspect of health—there’s more science yet to be done, and the researchers themselves are calling for it.

    It also bears mentioning that for some (relatively few, but not insignificantly few) people, extant health conditions may make a vegan diet unhealthy or otherwise untenable. Do speak with your own doctor and/or dietician if unsure.

    See also: Do We Need Animal Products To Be Healthy?

    We would hypothesize, by the way, that the anti-aging benefits of a vegan diet are probably proportional to abstention from animal products—meaning that even if you simply have some “vegan days”, while still consuming animal products other days, you’ll still get benefit for the days you abstained. That’s just our hypothesis though.

    Take care!

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  • Before You Reach For That Tylenol…

    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.

    First, on names: we’ve titled this with “Tylenol” because that’s a well-known brand name, but the drug name is paracetamol or acetaminophen:

    • paracetamol is the drug name used by the World Health Organization, and thus also most countries.
    • acetaminophen is the drug name used in Canada, Colombia, Iran, Japan, US, and Venezuela.

    They are absolutely the same drug.

    Firstly, obviously, do avoid overdose

    The safe dosage described on the packet is generally accurate (usually around 4g/day, spaced out at 1g per 4 hours), and the dose required for toxicity is generally about 10g, or 200mg/kg body weight, whichever is lower. Since a single dose usually contains 2x 500mg = 1g, that makes overdose all too easy.

    The amount required for toxicity can be misleading too, because that’s assuming…

    • a healthy liver
    • no other health problems
    • no other medications that interact or add to the toxicity
    • no medications that strain the liver (as with many pro-drugs, and drugs in general that are metabolized by the liver, which is lots).

    Which is a lot of assumptions! Especially given that the liver can only process so much at once, meaning that if your liver has a lot of things to do, it can get a backlog, and you think “I’m not taking anything with this painkiller that I shouldn’t” but your liver is still metabolizing the last of last night’s glass of wine and one of your regular medications from this morning, because previously it was still metabolizing things from the day before yesterday, and so on.

    See also: How To Regenerate Your Liver ← the liver is an incredible organ that does an amazing job, but it can’t do that if you don’t do this

    Please don’t overdose deliberately either. Intentional overdoses make up a very large portion of acetaminophen overdoses (exact figures vary from year to year and place to place, but it’s always high), and what a lot of people doing that don’t realize is:

    1. it’s a very unpleasant way to die. You’ll take it, you might get some initial symptoms within the first hours or you might not, then you’ll probably feel better, and then the next day or so, you’ll enter the organs-shutting-down stage that usually will take most of a week to kill you slowly and painfully. Often your kidneys will go first but it’ll usually be liver necrosis that deals the final blow.
    2. it’s very difficult to treat. Stomach-pumping might work if you get it within 1 hour of overdose, and activated charcoal might help if you get it within 2 hours. Acetylcysteine may reduce the toxicity if you get it within the 8–48 hour window (depending on the speed of gastric emptying), but whether or not that will help depends on the severity of the overdose and other factors, so this is not something to bet on. After 48 hours, a liver transplant is the last resort, without which, mortality is around 95%.

    Unfortunately, this means that a lot of people who do not intend to die horribly, and hoped to either die peacefully or else be saved, die horribly instead.

    Ok, that was not a cheerful topic but it is important, before moving on, we’ll just put this here for anyone it may benefit:

    How To Stay Alive (When You Really Don’t Want To) ← this is about suicidality, in yourself or others

    Secondly, that dosage is for occasional use only

    The problem often starts like this:

    ❝Due to its perceived safety, paracetamol has long been recommended as the first line drug treatment for osteoarthritis by many treatment guidelines, especially in older people who are at higher risk of drug-related complications❞

    People with chronic pain, whether high or low on the pain level of that chronic pain, can very easily get into a habit of “I’ll just take this to take the edge off”, for example when getting up in the morning (often a trigger for pain starting) or going to bed at night (one needs to sleep and the pain is a barrier to that).

    But… Those events, getting up and going to bed, it means that taking the drug also becomes part of one’s morning/evening routine—with many people even metering the doses out into pill organizers for the week, with this in mind.

    A large (n=582,961) study looked at two groups of people, all aged 65+:

    • 180,483 people who had been prescribed paracetamol repeatedly (≥2 prescriptions within six months)
    • 402,478 people of the same age who had never been prescribed paracetamol repeatedly

    The findings? Bearing in mind that “≥2 prescriptions within six months” is not something generally considered excessive…

    ❝Acetaminophen use was associated with an increased risk of peptic ulcer bleeding (aHR 1.24; 95% CI 1.16, 1.34), uncomplicated peptic-ulcers (aHR 1.20; 95% CI 1.10, 1.31), lower gastrointestinal-bleeding (aHR 1.36; 95% CI 1.29, 1.46), heart-failure (aHR 1.09; 95% CI 1.06, 1.13), hypertension (aHR 1.07; 95% CI 1.04, 1.11), and chronic kidney disease (aHR 1.19; 95% CI 1.13, 1.24).❞

    The researchers concluded:

    ❝Despite its perceived safety, acetaminophen is associated with several serious complications. Given its minimal analgesic effectiveness, the use of acetaminophen as the first-line oral analgesic for long-term conditions in older people requires careful reconsideration.❞

    You can see the study itself here: Incidence of side effects associated with acetaminophen in people aged 65 years or more: a prospective cohort study using data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink

    What to use instead?

    It’s been established that taking aspirin regularly isn’t great either:

    See: Low-Dose Aspirin & Anemia and Aspirin, CVD Risk, & Potential Counter-Risks

    And as for ibuprofen, we don’t have an article about that yet, but it’s gut-unhealthy (harms your microbiome), and besides, anything it can do, ginger can do as well or better (in head-to-head trials; we’re not speaking hyperbolically here):

    Ginger Does A Lot More Than You Think ← in fact, it was even found as effective as the combination of acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and caffeine

    There are other options though, and as pain is complicated and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, we’ve compiled the following:

    Take care!

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  • Chipotle Chili Wild Rice

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    This is a very gut-healthy recipe that’s also tasty and filling, and packed with polyphenols too. What’s not to love?

    You will need

    • 1 cup cooked wild rice (we suggest cooking it with 1 tbsp chia seeds added)
    • 7 oz cooked sweetcorn (can be from a tin or from frozen or cook it yourself)
    • 4 oz charred jarred red peppers (these actually benefit from being from a jar—you can use fresh or frozen if necessary, but only jarred will give you the extra gut-healthy benefits from fermentation)
    • 1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and cut into small chunks
    • ½ red onion, thinly sliced
    • 6–8 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
    • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
    • 2 tsp chipotle chili paste (adjust per your heat preferences)
    • 1 tsp black pepper, coarse ground
    • ½ tsp MSG or 1 tsp low-sodium salt
    • Juice of 1 lime

    Method

    (we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

    1) Mix the cooked rice, red onion, sweetcorn, red peppers, avocado pieces, and sun-dried tomato, in a bowl. We recommend to do it gently, or you will end up with guacamole in there.

    2) Mix the olive oil, lime juice, chipotle chili paste, black pepper, and MSG/salt, in another bowl. If perchance you have a conveniently small whisk, now is the time to use it. Failing that, a fork will suffice.

    3) Add the contents of the second bowl to the first, tossing gently but thoroughly to combine well, and serve.

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

    Take care!

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  • The Tiniest Seeds With The Most Value

    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.

    If You’re Not Taking Chia, You’re Missing Out

    Last Tuesday, we wrote about nutritional psychiatry, and the benefits of eating for one’s mental health.

    You can check out Dr. Uma Naidoo’s to-dos, here:

    The 6 Pillars Of Nutritional Psychiatry

    In response, one of our subscribers wrote to mention:

    ❝Really interesting….just put chia seeds in my diet love them……taking the Drs advice.❞

    ~ Cindy, 10almonds subscriber

    And then! On Friday, our tip at the top of the newsletter was:

    Not sure how to incorporate chia seeds into your diet? It’s easier to want the benefits of their many brain-healthy (and otherwise-healthy, too) nutrients, than it is to know what to do with them necessarily, and not everyone enjoys seeds as a snack. So…

    When you cook rice, throw in a tablespoon of chia seeds too. The cooking process will soften them and they won’t be texturally any different than the rice, but the nutrients will be all there.

    They can also be thrown in with lentils, in the same fashion! Or oatmeal, when cooking it or making overnight oats.

    We’ll be honest, it was Cindy’s comment that prompted us to suggest it. But wait! There was more to come in response:

    ❝You had a teaser ..on Chia seed.would of liked a article on the benefits . I’ve just discovered Chia seeds…❞

    ~ Cindy, 10almonds subscriber

    So, Cindy, this one’s for you:

    Nutritional powerhouse

    First things first, these tiny seeds have a lot of nutrients. There are not many more nutrient-dense foods than this (there’s a kind of seaweed that might be a contender; we’ll have to do some research and get back to you).

    Check them out:

    USDA Nutritional Factsheet: Chia Seeds

    So much protein and healthy fat, so many vitamins and minerals, and so many miscellaneous other micronutrients that we’d be here all day to list them (which is why we linked the above factsheet instead).

    Antioxidants in abundance

    These deserve a special mention, because they include quercetin which we’ve written about previously:

    Fight Inflammation & Protect Your Brain, With Quercetin

    …as well as quite a collection of others (including chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid, which may sound alarming but are great for lowering your blood pressure and against inflammation, respectively):

    There are others too, with cardioprotective effects, liver-healthy effects, and anticancer properties:

    Nutritional and therapeutic perspectives of Chia (Salvia hispanica L.): a review

    Good for the heart and blood

    Check it out:

    Oh, and about diabetes? There’s more, this time pertaining to reducing after-dinner blood sugars (or “postpranidial glycemia”, in sciencese):

    Good for the brain

    Regular 10almonds readers will know that “what’s good for the blood, is good for the brain” is a very good rule of thumb already, but their highomega-3 content makes them especially so:

    What Omega-3 Fatty Acids Really Do For Us

    Want some?

    We don’t sell them, but you can probably find them in your local supermarket and/or health food store, and if you prefer getting things online, here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon

    Enjoy!

    Don’t Forget…

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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