CBD Oil

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Q&A with the 10almonds Team

Q: Very interested in this article on CBD oil in the states. hope you do another one in the future with more studies done on people and more information on what’s new as far as CBD oil goes

A: We’re glad you enjoyed it! We’ll be sure to revisit CBD in the future—partly because it was a very popular article, and partly because, as noted, there is a lot going on there, research-wise!

And yes, we prefer human studies rather than mouse/rat studies where possible, too, and try to include those where we find them. In some cases, non-human animal studies allow us to know things that we can’t know from human studies… because a research institution’s ethics board will greenlight things for mice that it’d never* greenlight for humans.

Especially: things that for non-human animals are considered “introduction of external stressors” while the same things done to humans would be unequivocally called “torture”.

Animal testing in general is of course a moral quagmire, precisely because of the suffering it causes for animals, while the research results (hopefully) can be brought to bear to reduce to suffering of humans. We’re a health and productivity newsletter, not a philosophical publication, but all this to say: we’re mindful of such too.

And yes, we agree, when studies are available on humans, they’re always going to be better than the same study done on mice and rats.

As a topical aside, did you know there’s a monument to laboratory mice and all they’ve (however unintentionally) done for us?

❝The quirky statue depicts an anthropomorphic mouse as an elderly woman, complete with glasses balanced atop its nose. Emerging from two knitting needles in its hands is the recognizable double-helix of a strand of DNA.❞

~ Smithsonian Magazine

See The Statue For Yourself Here!

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  • ‘It’s okay to poo at work’: new health campaign highlights a common source of anxiety

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    For most people, the daily or near-daily ritual of having a bowel motion is not something we give a great deal of thought to. But for some people, the need to do a “number two” in a public toilet or at work can be beset with significant stress and anxiety.

    In recognition of the discomfort people may feel around passing a bowel motion at work, the Queensland Department of Health recently launched a social media campaign with the message “It’s okay to poo at work”.

    The campaign has gained significant traction on Instagram and Facebook. It has been praised by health and marketing experts for its humorous handling of a taboo topic.

    A colourful Instagram post is accompanied by a caption warning of the health risks of “holding it in”, including haemorrhoids and other gastrointestinal problems. The caption also notes:

    If you find it extremely difficult to poo around other people, you might have parcopresis.

    Queensland Health/Instagram

    What is parcopresis?

    Parcopresis, sometimes called “shy bowel”, occurs when people experience a difficulty or inability to poo in public toilets due to fear of perceived scrutiny by others.

    People with parcopresis may find it difficult to go to the toilet in public places such as shopping centres, restaurants, at work or at school, or even at home when friends or family are around.

    They may fear being judged by others about unpleasant smells or sounds when they have a bowel motion, or how long they take to go, for example.

    Living with a gastrointestinal condition (at least four in ten Australians do) may contribute to parcopresis due to anxiety about the need to use a toilet frequently, and perceived judgment from others when doing so. Other factors, such as past negative experiences or accessibility challenges, may also play a role.

    A man in office attire holding a roll of toilet paper.
    Some people may feel uncomfortable about using the toilet at work. Motortion Films/Shutterstock

    For sufferers, anxiety can present in the form of a faster heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating, muscle tension, blushing, nausea, trembling, or a combination of these symptoms. They may experience ongoing worry about situations where they may need to use a public toilet.

    Living with parcopresis can affect multiple domains of life and quality of life overall. For example, sufferers may have difficulties relating to employment, relationships and social life. They might avoid travelling or attending certain events because of their symptoms.

    How common is parcopresis?

    We don’t really know how common parcopresis is, partly due to the difficulty of evaluating this behaviour. It’s not necessarily easy or appropriate to follow people around to track whether they use or avoid public toilets (and their reasons if they do). Also, observing individual bathroom activities may alter the person’s behaviour.

    I conducted a study to try to better understand how common parcopresis is. The study involved 714 university students. I asked participants to respond to a series of vignettes, or scenarios.

    In each vignette participants were advised they were at a local shopping centre and they needed to have a bowel motion. In the vignettes, the bathrooms (which had been recently cleaned) had configurations of either two or three toilet stalls. Each vignette differed by the configuration of stalls available.

    The rate of avoidance was just over 14% overall. But participants were more likely to avoid using the toilet when the other stalls were occupied.

    Around 10% avoided going when all toilets were available. This rose to around 25% when only the middle of three toilets was available. Men were significantly less likely to avoid going than women across all vignettes.

    For those who avoided the toilet, many either said they would go home to poo, use an available disabled toilet, or come back when the bathroom was empty.

    Parcopresis at work

    In occupational settings, the rates of anxiety about using shared bathrooms may well be higher for a few reasons.

    For example, people may feel more self-conscious about their bodily functions being heard or noticed by colleagues, compared to strangers in a public toilet.

    People may also experience guilt, shame and fear about being judged by colleagues or supervisors if they need to make extended or frequent visits to the bathroom. This may particularly apply to people with a gastrointestinal condition.

    Reducing restroom anxiety

    Using a public toilet can understandably cause some anxiety or be unpleasant. But for a small minority of people it can be a real problem, causing severe distress and affecting their ability to engage in activities of daily living.

    If doing a poo in a toilet at work or another public setting causes you anxiety, be kind to yourself. A number of strategies might help:

    • identify and challenge negative thoughts about using public toilets and remind yourself that using the bathroom is normal, and that most people are not paying attention to others in the toilets
    • try to manage stress through relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation, which involves tensing and relaxing different muscles around the body
    • engaging in gradual exposure can be helpful, which means visiting public toilets at different times and locations, so you can develop greater confidence in using them
    • use grounding or distraction techniques while going to the toilet. These might include listening to music, watching something on your phone, or focusing on your breathing.

    If you feel parcopresis is having a significant impact on your life, talk to your GP or a psychologist who can help identify appropriate approaches to treatment. This might include cognitive behavioural therapy.

    Simon Robert Knowles, Associate Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Swinburne University of Technology

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • Online Reaction Tests & Women’s Cognitive Health (Test Yours!)

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    A team of researchers have looked into the use of online reaction tests (in which, for example, one clicks whenever a certain prompt is shown, or for more of a cognitive challenge, one presses a numerical key when the corresponding digit is shown) to cognitive health in women at different ages.

    Why women? To quote the man who had the honor of being the first-listed author on the study (something that happens mysteriously often in science),

    ❝Women have long been under-represented in healthy aging research, despite making up more than half the population. We developed an easy way to measure cognitive function in the home, without the need for individuals to travel to clinics or receive home visits. Our research shows that testing of cognitive function in the home largely acceptable, easy and convenient❞

    About that convenience: they used data from the UK Women’s Cohort Study, which involved over 35,000 British women, and then specifically focused on a follow-up study of 768 participants aged 48–85.

    Of the two kinds of online reaction tests we described up top, they used the numerical kind. The participants also filled in a questionnaire about their personal traits (demographic data, mostly, though things like self-reported level of health literacy, and how they would rate their overall health).

    What they found

    The findings included:

    • Younger women were more likely to participate, with participation rates dropping from 89% at age 45 to 44% at age 65.
    • Each higher level of education increased the likelihood of volunteering by 7%.
    • Women who rated themselves as having “high” intelligence were 19% more likely to participate than those who considered themselves of “average” intelligence.
    • Women with lower self-reported health literacy made fewer errors, possibly due to taking longer to decide on answers—consistent with findings from older adults.

    You can read the full paper itself here: Health literacy in relation to web-based measurement of cognitive function in the home: UK Women’s Cohort Study

    Why this matters

    We wrote, a little while ago, about the use of online games (of a specific kind) to improve cognitive function:

    Synergistic Brain-Training: Let The Games Begin (But It Matters What Kind) ← the good news is, these are very accessible too

    When it comes to rapid and/but correct reactions, this becomes really critical:

    How (And Why) To Train Your Pre-Frontal Cortex ← Dr. Sandra Chapman advocates strongly for this, and it’s closely related to working memory and the ability to focus

    Want to test yours?

    Here are two ways to do it (now, for free, without needing to sign up for anything; the tests are right there on the page):

    • HumanBenchmark.com’s Reaction Time Test ← this one’s just a “click when the red panel turns green” test, but the merit here is that it compares your scores to a very large dataset of other people
    • Keypress Reaction Time Test ← this one’s the kind that was used in the study, and requires pressing the correct numerical key when the corresponding digit is shown on the screen. You can make it easier or harder by restricting or increasing the range of numbers it uses (default setting is to use the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6)

    Enjoy!

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  • We looked at over 166,000 psychiatric records. Over half showed people were admitted against their will

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    Picture two people, both suffering from a serious mental illness requiring hospital admission. One was born in Australia, the other in Asia.

    Hopefully, both could be treated on a voluntary basis, taking into account their individual needs, preferences and capacity to consent. If not, you might imagine they should be equally likely to receive treatment against their will (known colloquially as being “sectioned” or “scheduled”).

    However, our research published in British Journal of Psychiatry Open suggests this is not the case.

    In the largest study globally of its kind, we found Australians are more likely to be treated in hospital for their acute mental illness against their will if they are born overseas, speak a language other than English or are unemployed.

    What we did and what we found

    We examined more than 166,000 episodes of voluntary and involuntary psychiatric care in New South Wales public hospitals between 2016 and 2021. Most admissions (54%) included at least one day of involuntary care.

    Being brought to hospital via legal means, such as by police or via a court order, was strongly linked to involuntary treatment.

    While our study does not show why this is the case, it may be due to mental health laws. In NSW, which has similar laws to most jurisdictions in Australia, doctors may treat a person on an involuntary basis if they present with certain symptoms indicating serious mental illness (such as hallucinations and delusions) which cause them to require protection from serious harm, and there is no other less-restrictive care available. Someone who has been brought to hospital by police or the courts may be more likely to meet the legal requirement of requiring protection from serious harm.

    The likelihood of involuntary care was also linked to someone’s diagnosis. A person with psychosis or organic brain diseases, such as dementia and delirium, were about four times as likely to be admitted involuntarily compared to someone with anxiety or adjustment disorders (conditions involving a severe reaction to stressors).

    However, our data suggest non-clinical factors contribute to the decision to impose involuntary care.

    Compared with people born in Australia, we found people born in Asia were 42% more likely to be treated involuntarily.

    People born in Africa or the Middle East were 32% more likely to be treated this way.

    Overall, people who spoke a language other than English were 11% more likely to receive involuntary treatment compared to those who spoke English as their first language.

    Some international researchers have suggested higher rates of involuntary treatment seen in people born overseas might be due to higher rates of psychotic illness. But our research found a link between higher rates of involuntary care in people born overseas or who don’t speak English regardless of their diagnosis.

    We don’t know why this is happening. It is likely to reflect a complex interplay of factors about both the people receiving treatment and the way services are provided to them.

    People less likely to be treated involuntarily included those who hold private health insurance, and those referred through a community health centre or outpatients unit.

    Our findings are in line with international studies. These show higher rates of involuntary treatment among people from Black and ethnic minority groups, and people living in areas of higher socioeconomic disadvantage.

    A last resort? Or should we ban it?

    Both the NSW and Australian mental health commissions have called involuntary psychiatric care an avoidable harm that should only be used as a last resort.

    Despite this, one study found Australia’s rate of involuntary admissions has increased by 3.4% per year and it has one of the highest rates of involuntary admissions in the world.

    Involuntary psychiatric treatment is also under increasing scrutiny globally.

    When Australia signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it added a declaration noting it would allow for involuntary treatment of people with mental illness where such treatments are “necessary, as a last resort and subject to safeguards”.

    However, the UN has rejected this, saying it is a fundamental human right “to be free from involuntary detention in a mental health facility and not to be forced to undergo mental health treatment”.

    Others question if involuntary treatment could ever be removed entirely.

    Where to from here?

    Our research not only highlights concerns regarding how involuntary psychiatric treatment is implemented, it’s a first step towards decreasing its use. Without understanding how and when it is used it will be difficult to create effective interventions to reduce it.

    But Australia is still a long way from significantly reducing involuntary treatment.

    We need to provide more care options outside hospital, ones accessible to all Australians, including those born overseas, who don’t speak English, or who come from disadvantaged communities. This includes intervening early enough that people are supported to not become so unwell they end up being referred for treatment via police or the criminal justice system.

    More broadly, we need to do more to reduce stigma surrounding mental illness and to ensure poverty and discrimination are tackled to help prevent more people becoming unwell in the first place.

    Our study also shows we need to do more to respect the autonomy of someone with serious mental illness to choose if they are treated. That’s whether they are in NSW or other jurisdictions.

    And legal reform is required to ensure more states and territories more fully reflect the principal that people who have the capacity to make such decisions should have the right to decline mental health treatment in the same way they would any other health care.

    If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

    Amy Corderoy, Medical doctor and PhD candidate studying involuntary psychiatric treatment, School of Psychiatry, UNSW Sydney

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Related Posts

  • To Nap Or Not To Nap; That Is The Question
  • Cherries vs Blackberries – Which is Healthier?

    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.

    Our Verdict

    When comparing cherries to blackberries, we picked the blackberries.

    Why?

    In terms of macros, cherries have more carbs while blackberries have more protein and fiber. The protein of course is a tiny amount and an even tinier difference, and/but it’s worth noting that the fiber isn’t, and blackberries have more than 3x the fiber. So, a win for blackberries in this category.

    In the category of vitamins, cherries have more of vitamins A, B1, B2, and B6, while blackberries have more of vitamins B3, B5, B9, C, E, K, and choline. Another win for blackberries.

    When it comes to minerals, cherries have a tiny bit more potassium, while blackberries have considerably more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium, and zinc. Another easy win for blackberries.

    Both fruits have abundant antioxidants, but as many are different, and comparison between them becomes more subjective than we have room for here.

    In short, enjoy either or both, but we say blackberries win overall on macro- and micronutrients!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Cherries’ Very Healthy Wealth Of Benefits

    Take care!

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  • Mediterranean Diet… In A Pill?

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    Does It Come In A Pill?

    For any as yet unfamiliar with the Mediterranean diet, you may be wondering what it involves, beyond a general expectation that it’s a diet popularly enjoyed in the Mediterranean. What image comes to mind?

    We’re willing to bet that tomatoes feature (great source of lycopene, by the way, and if you’re not getting lycopene, you’re missing out), but what else?

    • Salads, perhaps? Vegetables, olives? Olive oil, yea or nay?
    • Bread? Pasta? Prosciutto, salami? Cheese?
    • Pizza but only if it’s Romana style, not Chicago?
    • Pan-seared liver, with some fava beans and a nice Chianti?

    In fact, the Mediterranean diet is quite clear on all these questions, so to read about these and more (including a “this yes, that no” list), see:

    What Is The Mediterranean Diet, And What Is It Good For?

    So, how do we get that in a pill?

    A plucky band of researchers, Dr. Chiara de Lucia et al. (quite a lot of “et al.”; nine listed authors on the study), wondered to what extent the benefits of the Mediterranean diet come from the fact that the Mediterranean diet is very rich in polyphenols, and set about testing that, by putting the same polyphenols in capsule form, and running a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover clinical intervention trial.

    Now, polyphenols are not the only reason the Mediterranean diet is great; there are also other considerations, such as:

    • a great macronutrient balance with lots of fiber, healthy fats, moderate carbs, and protein from select sources
    • the absence or at least very low presence of a lot of harmful substances such as refined seed oils, added sugars, refined carbohydrates, and the like (“but pasta” yes pasta; in moderation and wholegrain and served with extra sources of fiber and healthy fats, all of which slow down the absorption of the carbs)

    …but polyphenols are admittedly very important too; we wrote about some common aspects of them here:

    Tasty Polyphenols: Enjoy Bitter Foods For Your Heart & Brain

    As for what Dr. de Lucia et al. put into the capsule, behold…

    The ingredients:

    1. Apple Extract 10.0%
    2. Pomegranate Extract 10.0%
    3. Tomato Powder 2.5%
    4. Beet, Spray Dried 2.5%
    5. Olive Extract 7.5%
    6. Rosemary Extract 7.5%
    7. Green Coffee Bean Extract (CA) 7.5%
    8. Kale, Freeze Dried 2.5%
    9. Onion Extract 10.0%
    10. Ginger Extract 10.0%
    11. Grapefruit Extract 2.5%
    12. Carrot, Air Dried 2.5%
    13. Grape Skin Extract 17.5%
    14. Blueberry Extract 2.5%
    15. Currant, Freeze Dried 2.5%
    16. Elderberry, Freeze Dried 2.5%

    And the relevant phytochemicals they contain:

    • Quercetin
    • Luteolin
    • Catechins
    • Punicalagins
    • Phloretin
    • Ellagic Acid
    • Naringin
    • Apigenin
    • Isorhamnetin
    • Chlorogenic Acids
    • Rosmarinic Acid
    • Anthocyanins
    • Kaempferol
    • Proanthocyanidins
    • Myricetin
    • Betanin

    And what, you may wonder, did they find? Well, first let’s briefly summarise the setup of the study:

    They took volunteers (n=30), average age 67, BMI >25, without serious health complaints, not taking other supplements, not vegetarian or vegan, not consuming >5 cups of coffee per day, and various other stipulations like that, to create a fairly homogenous study group who were expected to respond well to the intervention. In contrast, someone who takes antioxidant supplements, already eats many different color plants per day, and drinks 10 cups of coffee, probably already has a lot of antioxidant activity going on, and someone with a lower BMI will generally have lower resting levels of inflammatory markers, so it’s harder to see a change, proportionally.

    About those inflammatory markers: that’s what they were testing, to see whether the intervention “worked”; essentially, did the levels of inflammatory markers go up or down (up is bad; down is good).

    For more on inflammation, by the way, see:

    How to Prevent (or Reduce) Inflammation

    …which also explains what it actually is, and some important nuances about it.

    Back to the study…

    They gave half the participants the supplement for a week and the other half placebo; had a week’s gap as a “washout”, then repeated it, switching the groups, taking blood samples before and after each stage.

    What they found:

    The group taking the supplement had lower inflammatory markers after a week of taking it, while the group taking the placebo had relatively higher inflammatory markers after a week of taking it; this trend was preserved across both groups (i.e., when they switched roles for the second half).

    The results were very significant (p=0.01 or thereabouts), and yet at the same time, quite modest (i.e. the supplement made a very reliable, very small difference), probably because of the small dose (150mg) and small intervention period (1 week).

    What the researchers concluded from this

    The researchers concluded that this was a success; the study had been primarily to provide proof of principle, not to rock the world. Now they want the experiment to be repeated with larger sample sizes, greater heterogeneity, larger doses, and longer intervention periods.

    This is all very reasonable and good science.

    Read in full: A Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Cross-Over Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Biological Effects and Safety of a Polyphenol Supplement on Healthy Ageing

    What we conclude from this

    That ingredients list makes for a good shopping list!

    Well, not the extracts they listed, necessarily, but rather those actual fruits, vegetables, etc.

    If nine top scientists (anti-aging specialists, neurobiologists, pharmacologists, and at least one professor of applied statistics) came to the conclusion that to get the absolute most bang-for-buck possible, those are the plants to get the phytochemicals from, then we’re not going to ignore that.

    So, take another list above and ask yourself: how many of those 16 foods do you eat regularly, and could you work the others in?

    Want to make your Mediterranean diet even better?

    While the Mediterranean diet is a top-tier catch-all, it can be tweaked for specific areas of health, for example giving it an extra focus on heart health, or brain health, or being anti-inflammatory, or being especially gut healthy:

    Four Ways To Upgrade The Mediterranean

    Enjoy!

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  • The Hidden Risk of Stretching: Avoiding Hamstring Injuries in Yoga

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    What is Yoga Butt

    Have you ever experienced a mysterious pain while stretching, or perhaps during yoga? You might be dealing with “yoga butt,” a common—although rarely discussed—injury. In the below video, the Lovely Liv from Livinleggings shares her journey of discovering, and overcoming, “yoga butt”.

    Dealing With Yoga Butt

    Yoga butt, or proximal hamstring tendinopathy, occurs when the hamstrings are overstretched without adequate strengthening. Many yoga poses help stretch the hamstrings, but often don’t focus on strengthening said hamstrings; this imbalance is what can lead to damage over time.

    To help prevent Yoga butt, it’s essential to balance stretching with strengthening. You can look into incorporating hamstring-strengthening exercises like Romanian deadlifts, hamstring curls, and modified yoga poses into your routine.

    (If you’re new to strengthening exercises, we recommend reading Women’s Strength Training Anatomy Workouts or Strength Training for Seniors).

    Watch the full video to learn more and hopefully protect yourself from long-term injuries:

    Let us know your thoughts, and whether you have any other topics you’d like us to cover.

    Don’t Forget…

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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