Mindfulness – by Olivia Telford
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Olivia Telford takes us on a tour of mindfulness, meditation, mindfulness meditation, and how each of these things impacts stress, anxiety, and depression—as well as less obvious things too, like productivity and relationships.
In the category of how much this is a “how-to-” guide… It’s quite a “how-to” guide. We’re taught how to meditate, we’re taught assorted mindfulness exercises, and we’re taught specific mindfulness interventions such as beating various life traps (e.g. procrastination, executive dysfunction, etc) with mindfulness.
The writing style is simple and to the point, explanatory and very readable. References are made to pop-science and hard science alike, and all in all, is not too far from the kind of writing you might expect to find here at 10almonds.
Bottom line: if you’d like to practice mindfulness meditation and want an easy “in”, or perhaps you’re curious and wonder what mindfulness could tangibly do for you and how, then this book is a great choice for that.
Click here to check out Mindfulness, and enjoy being more present in life!
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These Top Few Things Make The Biggest Difference To Health
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The Best Few Interventions For The Best Health
Writer’s note: I was going to do something completely different for today (so that can go out another week now), but when reflecting on my own “what should I focus on in the new year?” (in terms of my own personal health goals and such) it occured to me that I should look back on the year’s articles, to take our own advice myself, and see what most important things I should make sure to focus on.
In so doing for myself, it occured to me that you, our subscribers who like condensed information and simple interventions for big positive effects, might also find value in a similar once-over. And so, today’s main feature was born!
Sometimes at 10almonds we talk about “those five things that affect everything”. They are:
- Good diet
- Good exercise
- Good sleep
- Not drinking
- Not smoking
If we were to add a sixth in terms of things that make a huge difference, it would be “manage stress effectively” and a seventh, beyond the scope of our newsletter, would be “don’t be socioeconomically disadvantaged” (e.g. poor, and/or part of some disprivileged minority group).
But as for those five we listed, it still leaves the question: what are the few most effective things we can do to improve them? Where can we invest our time/energy/effort for greatest effect?
Good diet
Best current science consistently recommends the Mediterranean Diet:
The Mediterranean Diet: What Is It Good For?
But it can be tweaked for specific desired health considerations:
Four Ways To Upgrade The Mediterranean Diet
Other most-effective dietary tweaks that impact a lot of other areas of health include looking after your gut health and looking after your blood sugars:
Making Friends With Your Gut (You Can Thank Us Later)
and
“Let Them Eat Cake”, She Said (10 Ways To Balance Blood Sugars)
Good exercise
Most exercise is good, but two of the most beneficial things that are (for most people) easy to implement are walking, and High-Intensity Interval Training:
How To Do HIIT (Without Wrecking Your Body)
Good sleep
This means quality and quantity! We cannot skimp on either and expect good health:
Why You Probably Need More Sleep
and as for quality,
The Head-To-Head Of Google and Apple’s Top Apps For Getting Your Head Down
Not drinking
According to the World Health Organization, the only safe amount of alcohol is zero.
See also:
Can We Drink To Good Health? (e.g. Red Wine & Heart Health)
and
Not smoking
We haven’t done a main feature on this! It’s probably not really necessary, as it’s not very contentious to say “smoking is bad for everything”.
WHO | Tobacco kills up to half its users who don’t quit
However, as a side-note, while cannabis is generally recognised as not as harmful as tobacco-based products, it has some fairly major drawbacks too. For some people, the benefits (e.g. pain relief) may outweigh the risks, though:
Final thoughts
Not sure where to start? We suggest this order of priorities, unless you have a major health condition that makes something else a higher priority:
- If you smoke, stop
- If you drink, reduce, or ideally stop
- Improve your diet
About that diet…
- Worry less about what to exclude, and instead focus on adding more variety of fruit/veg
- See also: Level-Up Your Fiber Intake! (Without Difficulty Or Discomfort)
- That said, if you’re looking for things to cut, sugar is a top candidate (and red meat is in clear second place albeit some way below)
When it comes to exercise, get your 10,000 daily steps in (actually, science says 8,000 steps is fine), and consider adding HIIT per our above article, when you feel like adding that in. As for that about the steps:
When it comes to sleep, if you’re taking care of the above things, and set a regular early wake-up time that you do not deviate from, then this will probably take care of itself, if you don’t have a sleep-inconvenient lifestyle (e.g. shift work, just had a baby, etc) or a sleep disorder.
For further pointers, see: 10 Tips for Better Sleep: Starting In The Morning
Take care!
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My dance school is closed for the summer, how can I keep up my fitness?
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Once the end-of-year dance concert and term wrap up for the year it is important to take a break. Both physical and mental rest are important and taking a few weeks off can help your body repair and have a mental break from dance.
If your mind and body are in need of an extended break (such as more than a few weeks), then it’s more than OK to take longer off, especially if you are training at a competitive or pre-professional level.
There is benefit in enjoying other aspects of your life outside of dance such as spending time with family, friends and enjoying hobbies.
Tatyana Vyc/Shutterstock A safe, fulfilling dancing life
Creating meaning and value in life outside of dance and expanding sense of self can make it easier to lean into other aspects when experiencing change or difficult times during dance training such as being injured.
Taking an extended break from dance training will, however, mean losing some fitness and physical capacity. When you return to dance your body will take time to return to full capacity again.
Approaches such as being “whipped back into shape” can promote sudden spikes in training load (hours and intensity of training) which can increase the risk of injury. It is advised to gradually and progressively increase training load over time to allow the body to adapt and return to full capacity safely.
A four-to-six week period of gradually progressing training load and introducing jumping has been suggested in dance settings.
For dancers wanting to maintain fitness over the summer holidays, a great place to start is focusing on building a physical foundation.
Exercise like running can help build a physical foundation. Jacek Chabraszewski/Shutterstock Building a physical foundation means focusing on targeted areas of fitness such as full body strength, cardiovascular fitness or stamina (such as skipping, cycling walking, running, swimming), flexibility, and some dance-specific conditioning (for example, calf rises for ballet).
A good physical foundation will mean an improved capacity and fitness level so your body is ready to take on more challenging dance movements and routines once you return to the studio.
Building full body strength at home or at the park
A great place to start is by choosing movements that require your muscles to work to support your own body weight.
Fundamental movements such as crawling (moving on the floor on hands and feet) and locomotion (travelling movements such as lunging, hopping, sliding) are great for developing body control, arm and leg stability and coordinated movement patterns.
Below is a sequence that can be used as a warm up and even as a workout itself. The ten minute sequence is based on gross motor and fundamental movement patterns. It includes exercises that work through a range of joint movements and in multiple planes (forwards, sideways, rotating).
This fundamental movement sequence can be used as a warm-up or a workout. Joanna Nicholas, CC BY Once feeling comfortable with the above fundamental movements, it is time to introduce body weight resistance exercises.
Body weight resistance exercises can be beneficial for developing a strong foundation for dance movements such as jumping, landing, floorwork, partnering and aerial work.
Exercises from the above sequence can be used to form a safe and effective neuromuscular warm up.
Aim to include one exercise from each of the below movement categories (squat, horizontal push etc) to build your own workout.
Aim to complete two to three sets (or rounds) of each exercise with about one minute rest between sets. An alternative is to complete one set of each exercise with minimal rest between, then complete a second or third time.
If training with friends, you could set a timer and do each exercise for up to 50 seconds (instead of counting reps) and take ten seconds to transition to the next exercise.
Depending on your level of strength you may need to do fewer repetitions and build up sets and repetitions overtime. After you have completed the body weight exercises complete a cool down including stretches for the upper and lower body muscles. Be sure to use a sturdy bar (such as an outdoor fitness station) for horizontal row and overhead hold.
Exercises may need to be modified depending on fitness level and physical limitations such as injury.
You can build your own full body strength workout using these movements. Joanna Nicholas, CC BY How often should I train?
A common misconception in dance is that “more is better”. This belief can lead to dancers training long hours on most or all days of the week which can lead to overtraining, plateauing and increased risk of injury.
Our bodies require sufficient time between training sessions to adapt and get stronger and fitter. The time between sessions is when our muscles and tissues repair and training gains are made.
By incorporating adequate recovery (including sleep and downtime) and including rest days throughout the week, our bodies can gain the most benefits from training.
Rest days are important, too. Manop Boonpeng/Shutterstock Muscles can take up to 48–72 hours to recover from most types of strength-based exercises (the more intense the longer they’ll need to recover).
Aerobic activity at low intensity, such as a brisk walk, can be done most days (24-hour recovery) while high stress anaerobic exercise such as high intensity intervals or sprints can take three days or more to recover from.
Aim to spread training sessions out over the week and allow time to recover between sessions.
Below is an example weekly schedule based on incorporating adequate recovery between sessions, and incorporating polarised training where some days are harder and others are easier.
Seek guidance from your healthcare provider and/or an exercise professional prior to undertaking a new exercise program.
Joanna Nicholas, Lecturer in Dance and Performance Science, Edith Cowan University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Detox: What’s Real, What’s Not, What’s Useful, What’s Dangerous?
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Detox: What’s Real, What’s Not, What’s Useful, What’s Dangerous?
Out of the subscribers who engaged in the poll, it looks like we have a lot of confidence in at least some detox approaches being useful!
Celery juice is most people’s go-to, and indeed it was the only one to get mentioned in the comments added. So let’s take a look at that first…
Celery juice
Celery juice is enjoyed by many people, with many health benefits in mind, including to:
- reduce inflammation
- lower blood pressure
- heal the liver
- fight cancer
- reduce bloating
- support the digestive system
- increase energy
- support weight loss
- promote good mental health
An impressive list! With such an impressive list, we would hope for an impressive weight of evidence, so regular readers might be wondering why those bullet-pointed items aren’t all shiny hyperlinks to studies backing those claims. The reason is…
There aren’t any high-quality studies that back any of those claims.
We found one case study (so, a study with a sample size of one; not amazing) that observed a blood pressure change in an elderly man after drinking celery juice.
Rather than trawl up half of PubMed to show the lacklustre results in a way more befitting of Research Review Monday, though, here’s a nice compact article detailing the litany of disappointment that is science’s observations regards celery juice:
Why Are People Juicing Their Celery? – by Allison Webster, PhD, RD
A key take-away is: juicing destroys the fiber that is celery’s biggest benefit, and its phytochemicals are largely unproven to be of use.
If you enjoy celery, great! It (when not juiced) is a great source of fiber and water. If you juice it, it’s a great source of water.
Activated Charcoal
Unlike a lot of greenery—whose “cleansing” benefits mostly come from fiber and disappear when juiced—activated charcoal has a very different way of operating.
Activated charcoal is negatively charged on a molecular level*, and that—along with its porous nature—traps toxins. It really is a superpowered detox that actually works very well indeed.
But…
It works very well indeed. It will draw out toxins so well, that it’s commonly used to treat poisonings. “Wait”, we hear you say, “why was that a but”?
It doesn’t know what a toxin is. It just draws out all of the things. You took medicine recently? Not any more you didn’t. You didn’t even take that medication orally, you took it some other way? Activated charcoal does not care:
- The effect of activated charcoal on drug exposure following intravenous administration: A meta-analysis
- Activated charcoal for acute overdose: a reappraisal
Does this mean that activated charcoal can be used to “undo” a night of heavy drinking?
Sadly not. That’s one of the few things it just doesn’t work for. It won’t work for alcohol, salts, or metals:
The Use of Activated Charcoal to Treat Intoxications
*Fun chemistry mnemonic about ions:
Cations are pussitive
Anions (by process of elimination) are negative
Onions taste good in salad (remember also: Cole’s Law)
Bottom line on detox foods/drinks:
- Fiber is great; juicing removes fiber. Eat your greens (don’t drink them)!
- Activated charcoal is the heavy artillery of detoxing
- Sometimes it will remove things you didn’t want removed, though
- It also won’t help against alcohol, sadly
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Mosquitoes can spread the flesh-eating Buruli ulcer. Here’s how you can protect yourself
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Each year, more and more Victorians become sick with a flesh-eating bacteria known as Buruli ulcer. Last year, 363 people presented with the infection, the highest number since 2004.
But it has been unclear exactly how it spreads, until now. New research shows mosquitoes are infected from biting possums that carry the bacteria. Mozzies spread it to humans through their bite.
What is Buruli ulcer?
Buruli ulcer, also known as Bairnsdale ulcer, is a skin infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium ulcerans.
It starts off like a small mosquito bite and over many months, slowly develops into an ulcer, with extensive destruction of the underlying tissue.
While often painless initially, the infection can become very serious. If left untreated, the ulcer can continue to enlarge. This is where it gets its “flesh-eating” name.
Thankfully, it’s treatable. A six to eight week course of specific antibiotics is an effective treatment, sometimes supported with surgery to remove the infected tissue.
Where can you catch it?
The World Health Organization considers Buruli ulcer a neglected tropical skin disease. Cases have been reported across 33 countries, primarily in west and central Africa.
However, since the early 2000s, Buruli ulcer has also been increasingly recorded in coastal Victoria, including suburbs around Melbourne and Geelong.
Scientists have long known Australian native possums were partly responsible for its spread, and suspected mosquitoes also played a role in the increase in cases. New research confirms this.
Our efforts to ‘beat Buruli’
Confirming the role of insects in outbreaks of an infectious disease is achieved by building up corroborating, independent evidence.
In this new research, published in Nature Microbiology, the team (including co-authors Tim Stinear, Stacey Lynch and Peter Mee) conducted extensive surveys across a 350 km² area of Victoria.
We collected mosquitoes and analysed the specimens to determine whether they were carrying the pathogen, and links to infected possums and people. It was like contact tracing for mosquitoes.
Aedes notoscriptus was the mosquito identified as carrying the bacteria that caused Buruli ulcer.
Cameron Webb (NSW Health Pathology)Molecular testing of the mosquito specimens showed that of the two most abundant mosquito species, only Aedes notoscriptus (a widespread species commonly known as the Australian backyard mosquito) was positive for Mycobacterium ulcerans.
We then used genomic tests to show the bacteria found on these mosquitoes matched the bacteria in possum poo and humans with Buruli ulcer.
We further analysed mosquito specimens that contained blood to show Aedes notoscriptus was feeding on both possums and humans.
To then link everything together, geospatial analysis revealed the areas where human Buruli ulcer cases occur overlap with areas where both mosquitoes and possums that harbour Mycobacterium ulcerans are active.
Stop its spread by stopping mozzies breeding
The mosquito in this study primarily responsible for the bacteria’s spread is Aedes notoscriptus, a mosquito that lays its eggs around water in containers in backyard habitats.
Controlling “backyard” mosquitoes is a critical part of reducing the risk of many global mosquito-borne disease, especially dengue and now Buruli ulcer.
You can reduce places where water collects after rainfall, such as potted plant saucers, blocked gutters and drains, unscreened rainwater tanks, and a wide range of plastic buckets and other containers. These should all be either emptied at least weekly or, better yet, thrown away or placed under cover.
Mosquitoes can lay eggs in a wide range of water-filled items in the backyard.
Cameron Webb (NSW Health Pathology)There is a role for insecticides too. While residual insecticides applied to surfaces around the house and garden will reduce mosquito populations, they can also impact other, beneficial, insects. Judicious use of such sprays is recommended. But there are ecological safe insecticides that can be applied to water-filled containers (such as ornamental ponds, fountains, stormwater pits and so on).
Recent research also indicates new mosquito-control approaches that use mosquitoes themselves to spread insecticides may soon be available.
How to protect yourself from bites
The first line of defence will remain personal protection measures against mosquito bites.
Covering up with loose fitted long sleeved shirts, long pants, and covered shoes will provide physical protection from mosquitoes.
Applying topical insect repellent to all exposed areas of skin has been proven to provide safe and effective protection from mosquito bites. Repellents should include diethytolumide (DEET), picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus.
While the rise in Buruli ulcer is a significant health concern, so too are many other mosquito-borne diseases. The steps to avoid mosquito bites and exposure to Mycobacteriam ulcerans will also protect against viruses such as Ross River, Barmah Forest, Japanese encephalitis, and Murray Valley encephalitis.
Cameron Webb, Clinical Associate Professor and Principal Hospital Scientist, University of Sydney; Peter Mee, Adjunct Associate Lecturer, School of Applied Systems Biology, La Trobe University; Stacey Lynch, Team Leader- Mammalian infection disease research, CSIRO, and Tim Stinear, Professor of Microbiology, The University of Melbourne
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Good Energy – by Dr. Casey Means
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For a book with a title like “Good Energy” and chapters such as “Bad Energy Is the Root of Disease”, this is actually a very science-based book (and there are a flock of well-known doctors saying so in the “praise for” section, too).
The premise is simple: most of our health is a matter of what our metabolism is (or isn’t) doing, and it’s not just a case of “doing more” or “doing less”. Indeed, a lot of “our” energy is expended doing bad things (such as chronic inflammation, to give an obvious example).
Dr. Means outlines about a dozen things many people do wrong, and about a dozen things we can do right, to get our body’s energy system working for us, rather than against us.
The style here is pop-science throughout, and in the category of criticism, the bibliography is offloaded to her website (we prefer to have things in our hands). However, the information here is good, clearly-presented, and usefully actionable.
Bottom line: if you ever find yourself feeling run-down and like your body is using your resources against you rather than for you, this is the book to get you out of that slump!
Click here to check out Good Energy, and get your metabolism working for you!
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Sweet Spot for Brain Health – by Dr. Sui Wong
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At 10almonds we often mention that “what’s good for the heart is good for the brain”, but at least in part, it’s because (as this book makes very clear), “what’s good for the blood is good for the brain”. After all, our brain uses about 25% of our energy, and that energy is delivered there by the blood. And if it doesn’t get enough nutrients, oxygen, etc, and detritus isn’t taken away, then problems happen.
Dr. Wong discusses Alzheimer’s as heavily driven by metabolic problems such as diabetes and even pre-diabetes, and sets out to put in our hands the guidebook to not only not doing that, but also, actually making sure our brain gets proper nourishment without delivering that as intermittent sugar spikes because we opted for a something with very fast-acting carbs to perk us up energetically.
More than most books on the topic, she talks a lot about the neurobiology of glucose metabolism, so that’s something that really sets this book apart from many of its genre.
The style is narrative, explaining the body’s processes in a clear fashion, without skimping on science. There are definitely words that your average layperson might not know, but they’re explained as we go, and there are frequent recaps of what we learned previously, making for ultimately easy reading.
After all the information is given, there’s also a guided “12-week challenge” with a theme-of-the-week for each week, to integrate a new lifestyle adjustment each week in a progressive fashion so that without needing to drastically change many things at once, we get where we need to be in terms of healthy habits.
Bottom line: if you’d like to do right by your brain and while you’re at it say goodbye to blood sugar highs and lows, then this book is an excellent guide for that.
Click here to check out Sweet Spot For Brain Health, and enjoy a consistently-energized brain!
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