The Unchaste Berry

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A Chasteberry, By Any Other Name…

Vitex agnus castus, literally “chaste lamb vine”, hence its modern common English name “chasteberry”, gets its name from its traditional use as an anaphrodisiac for monks (indeed, it’s also called “monk’s pepper”), which traditional use is not in the slightest backed up by modern science.

Nor is its second most popular traditional use (the increase in production of milk) well-supported by science either:

❝Its traditional use as a galactagogue (i.e., a substance that enhances breast milk production) is not well supported in the literature and should be discouraged. There are no clinical data to support the use of chasteberry for reducing sexual desire, which has been a traditional application❞

~ Dr. Beatrix Roemheld-Hamm

Source: American Family Physician | Chasteberry

Both of those supposed effects of the chasteberry go against the fact that it has a prolactin-lowering effect:

❝It appears that [chasteberry] may represent a potentially useful and safe phytotherapic option for the management of selected patients with mild hyperprolactinaemia who wish to be treated with phytotherapy.❞

~ Dr. Lídice Puglia et al.

Source: Vitex agnus castus effects on hyperprolactinaemia

Prolactin, by the way, is the hormone that (as the name suggests) stimulates milk production, and also reduces sexual desire (and motivation in general)

  • In most women, it spikes during breastfeeding
  • In most men, it spikes after orgasm
  • In both, it can promote anhedonic depression, as it antagonizes dopamine

In other words, the actual pharmacological effect of chasteberry, when it comes to prolactin, is the opposite of what we would expect from its traditional use.

Ok, so it’s an unchaste berry after all…. Does it have any other claims to examine?

Yes! It genuinely does help relieve PMS, for those who have it, and reduce menopause symptoms, for those who have those, for example:

❝Dry extract of agnus castus fruit is an effective and well tolerated treatment for the relief of symptoms of the premenstrual syndrome.❞

~ Dr. Robert Schellenberg

Source: Treatment for the premenstrual syndrome with agnus castus fruit extract: prospective, randomised, placebo controlled study

❝That [Vitex agnus castus] trial indicated strong symptomatic relief of common menopausal symptoms❞

~ Dr. Barbara Lucks

Source: Vitex agnus castus essential oil and menopausal balance: a research update

Is it safe?

Generally speaking, yes. It has been described as “well-tolerated” in the studies we mentioned above, which means it has a good safety profile.

However, it may interfere with some antipsychotic medications, certain kinds of hormone replacement therapy, or hormonal birth control.

As ever, speak with your doctor/pharmacist if unsure!

Where can I get some?

We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon

Enjoy!

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  • See what other 10almonds subscribers are asking!

    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.

    It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

    Q: I would be interested in learning more about collagen and especially collagen supplements/powders and of course if needed, what is the best collagen product to take. What is collagen? Why do we need to supplement the collagen in our body? Thank you PS love the information I am receiving in the news letters. Keep it up

    We’re glad you’re enjoying them! Your request prompted us to do our recent Research Review Monday main feature on collagen supplementation—we hope it helped, and if you’ve any more specific (or other) question, go ahead and let us know! We love questions and requests

    Q: Great article about the health risks of salt to organs other than the heart! Is pink Himalayan sea salt, the pink kind, healthier?

    Thank you! And, no, sorry. Any salt that is sodium chloride has the exact same effect because it’s chemically the same substance, even if impurities (however pretty) make it look different.

    If you want a lower-sodium salt, we recommend the kind that says “low sodium” or “reduced sodium” or similar. Check the ingredients, it’ll probably be sodium chloride cut with potassium chloride. Potassium chloride is not only not a source of sodium, but also, it’s a source of potassium, which (unlike sodium) most of us could stand to get a little more of.

    For your convenience: here’s an example on Amazon!

    Bonus: you can get a reduced sodium version of pink Himalayan salt too!

    Q: Can you let us know about more studies that have been done on statins? Are they really worth taking?

    That is a great question! We imagine it might have been our recent book recommendation that prompted it? It’s quite a broad question though, so we’ll do that as a main feature in the near future!

    Q: Is MSG healthier than salt in terms of sodium content or is it the same or worse?

    Great question, and for that matter, MSG itself is a great topic for another day. But your actual question, we can readily answer here and now:

    • Firstly, by “salt” we’re assuming from context that you mean sodium chloride.
    • Both salt and MSG do contain sodium. However…
    • MSG contains only about a third of the sodium that salt does, gram-for-gram.
    • It’s still wise to be mindful of it, though. Same with sodium in other ingredients!
    • Baking soda contains about twice as much sodium, gram for gram, as MSG.

    Wondering why this happens?

    Salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) is equal parts sodium and chlorine, by atom count, but sodium’s atomic mass is lower than chlorine’s, so 100g of salt contains only 39.34g of sodium.

    Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO₃) is one part sodium for one part hydrogen, one part carbon, and three parts oxygen. Taking each of their diverse atomic masses into account, we see that 100g of baking soda contains 27.4g sodium.

    MSG (monosodium glutamate, C₅H₈NO₄Na) is only one part sodium for 5 parts carbon, 8 parts hydrogen, 1 part nitrogen, and 4 parts oxygen… And all those other atoms put together weigh a lot (comparatively), so 100g of MSG contains only 12.28g sodium.

    Q: Thanks for the info about dairy. As a vegan, I look forward to a future comment about milk alternatives

    Thanks for bringing it up! What we research and write about is heavily driven by subscriber feedback, so notes like this really help us know there’s an audience for a given topic!

    We’ll do a main feature on it, to do it justice. Watch out for Research Review Monday!

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  • Chickpeas vs Mung Beans – Which is Healthier?

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    Our Verdict

    When comparing chickpeas to mung beans, we picked the chickpeas.

    Why?

    Both are great! But there’s a clear winner here:

    In terms of macros, chickpeas have more protein, carbs, and fiber, as well as the lower glycemic index. The difference is very small, but it’s a nominal win for chickpeas.

    When it comes to vitamins, chickpeas have more of vitamins A, B2, B6, B9, C, E, K, and choline, while mung beans have more of vitamins B1, B3, and B5. Again the differences aren’t huge, but by strength of numbers they’re in chickpeas’ favor, so it’s another win for chickpeas here.

    In the category of minerals, chickpeas have more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while mung beans are not higher in any mineral. An easy win for chickpeas on this one.

    Adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for chickpeas, but by all means enjoy either or both; diversity is good!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Plant vs Animal Protein: Head to Head

    Enjoy!

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  • Moringa Oleifera Against CVD, Diabetes, Alzheimer’s & Arsenic?

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    The Healthiest Drumstick

    Moringa oleifera is a tree, whose leaves and pods have medicinal properties (as well as simply being very high in nutrients). It’s also called the drumstick tree in English, but equally often it’s referred to simply as Moringa. It has enjoyed use in traditional medicine for thousands of years, and its many benefits have caught scientists’ attention more recently. For an overview before we begin, see:

    Medicinal utilization and nutritional properties of drumstick (Moringa oleifera)—A comprehensive review

    Now, let’s break it down…

    Anti-inflammatory

    It is full of antioxidants, which we’ll come to shortly, and they have abundant anti-inflammatory effects. Research into these so far has mostly beennon-human animal studies or else in vitro, hence the guarded “potential” for now:

    Potential anti-inflammatory phenolic glycosides from the medicinal plant Moringa oleifera fruits

    Speaking of potential though, it has been found to also reduce neuroinflammation specifically, which is good, because not every anti-inflammatory agent does that:

    In silico and pharmacokinetic studies of glucomoringin from Moringa oleifera root for Alzheimer’s disease like pathology

    Antioxidant

    It was hard to find studies that talked about its antioxidant powers that didn’t also add “and this, and this, and this” because of all its knock-on benefits, for example:

    ❝The results indicate that this plant possesses antioxidant, hypolipidaemic and antiatherosclerotic activities and has therapeutic potential for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

    These effects were at degrees comparable to those of simvastatin.❞

    ~ Dr. Pilaipark Chumark et al.

    Source: The in vitro and ex vivo antioxidant properties, hypolipidaemic and antiatherosclerotic activities of water extract of Moringa oleifera Lam. leaves

    Likely a lot of its benefits in these regards come from the plant’s very high quercetin content, because quercetin does that too:

    Quercetin reduces blood pressure in hypertensive subjects

    For more about quercetin, you might like our previous main feature:

    Fight Inflammation & Protect Your Brain, With Quercetin

    Antidiabetic

    It also has been found to lower fasting blood sugar levels by 13.5%:

    Effect of supplementation of drumstick (Moringa oleifera) and amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor) leaves powder on antioxidant profile and oxidative status among postmenopausal women

    Anti-arsenic?

    We put a question mark there, because studies into this have only been done with non-human animals such as mice and rats so far, largely because there are not many human volunteers willing to sign up for arsenic poisoning (and no ethics board would pass it anyway).

    However, as arsenic contamination in some foods (such as rice) is a big concern, this is very promising. Here are some example studies, with mice and rats respectively:

    Is it safe?

    A popular food product through parts of Africa and (especially) South & West Asia, it has a very good safety profile. Generally the only health-related criticism of it is that it contains some anti-nutrients (that hinder bioavailability of its nutrients), but the nutrients outweigh the antinutrients sufficiently to render this a trifling trivium.

    In short: as ever, do check with your doctor/pharmacist to be sure, but in general terms, this is about as safe as most vegan whole foods; it just happens to also be something of a superfood, which puts it into the “nutraceutical” category. See also:

    Review of the Safety and Efficacy of Moringa oleifera

    Want to try some?

    We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon 😎

    Enjoy!

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  • How Likely Are You To Live To 100?

    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.

    How much hope can we reasonably have of reaching 100?

    Yesterday, we asked you: assuming a good Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL), how much longer do you hope to live?

    We got the above-depicted, below-described, set of responses:

    • A little over 38% of respondents hope to live another 11–20 years
    • A little over 31% hope to live another 31–40 years
    • A little over 7% will be content to make it to the next decade
    • One (1) respondent hopes to live longer than an additional 100 years

    This is interesting when we put it against our graph of how old our subscribers are:

    …because it corresponds inversely, right down to the gap/dent in the 40s. And—we may hypothesize—that one person under 18 who hopes to live to 120, perhaps.

    This suggests that optimism remains more or less constant, with just a few wobbles that would probably be un-wobbled with a larger sample size.

    In other words: most of our education-minded, health-conscious subscriber-base hope to make it to the age of 90-something, while for the most part feeling that 100+ is overly optimistic.

    Writer’s anecdote: once upon a time, I was at a longevity conference in Brussels, and a speaker did a similar survey, but by show of hands. He started low by asking “put your hands up if you want to live at least a few more minutes”. I did so, with an urgency that made him laugh, and say “Don’t worry; I don’t have a gun hidden up here!”

    Conjecture aside… What does the science say about our optimism?

    First of all, a quick recap…

    To not give you the same information twice, let’s note we did an “aging mythbusting” piece already covering:

    • Aging is inevitable: True or False?
    • Aging is, and always will be, unstoppable: True or False?
    • We can slow aging: True or False?
    • It’s too early to worry about… / It’s too late to do anything about… True or False?
    • We can halt aging: True or False?
    • We can reverse aging: True or False?
    • But those aren’t really being younger, we’ll still die when our time is up: True or False?

    You can read the answers to all of those here:

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

    Now, onwards…

    It is unreasonable to expect to live past 100: True or False?

    True or False, depending on your own circumstances.

    First, external circumstances: the modal average person in Hong Kong is currently in their 50s and can expect to live into their late 80s, while the modal average person in Gaza is 14 and may not expect to make it to 15 right now.

    To avoid extremes, let’s look at the US, where the modal average person is currently in their 30s and can expect to live into their 70s:

    United States Mortality Database

    Now, before that unduly worries our many readers already in their 70s…

    Next, personal circumstances: not just your health, but your socioeconomic standing. And in the US, one of the biggest factors is the kind of health insurance one has:

    SOA Research Institute | Life Expectancy Calculator 2021

    You may note that the above source puts all groups into a life expectancy in the 80s—whereas the previous source gave 70s.

    Why is this? It’s because the SOA, whose primary job is calculating life insurance risks, is working from a sample of people who have, or are applying for, life insurance. So it misses out many people who die younger without such.

    New advances in medical technology are helping people to live longer: True or False?

    True, assuming access to those. Our subscribers are mostly in North America, and have an economic position that affords good access to healthcare. But beware…

    On the one hand:

    The number of people who live past the age of 100 has been on the rise for decades

    On the other hand:

    The average life expectancy in the U.S. has been on the decline for three consecutive years

    COVID is, of course, largely to blame for that, though:

    ❝The decline of 1.8 years in life expectancy was primarily due to increases in mortality from COVID-19 (61.2% of the negative contribution).

    The decline in life expectancy would have been even greater if not for the offsetting effects of decreases in mortality due to cancer (43.1%)❞

    Source: National Vital Statistics Reports

    The US stats are applicable to Canada, the UK, and Australia: True or False?

    False: it’s not quite so universal. Differences in healthcare systems will account for a lot, but there are other factors too:

    Here’s an interesting (UK-based) tool that calculates not just your life expectancy, but also gives the odds of living to various ages (e.g. this writer was given odds of living to 87, 96, 100).

    Check yours here:

    Office of National Statistics | Life Expectancy Calculator

    To finish on a cheery note…

    Data from Italian centenarians suggests a “mortality plateau”:

    ❝The risk of dying leveled off in people 105 and older, the team reports online today in Science.

    That means a 106-year-old has the same probability of living to 107 as a 111-year-old does of living to 112.

    Furthermore, when the researchers broke down the data by the subjects’ year of birth, they noticed that over time, more people appear to be reaching age 105.❞

    Pop-sci source: Once you hit this age, aging appears to stop

    Actual paper: The plateau of human mortality: demography of longevity pioneers

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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  • The Diabetes Code – by Dr. Jason Fung

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    Cure this serious disease with diet!” is often a bold-claim that overreaches scientific rigor, but in this case, it’s well-established as scientifically valid.

    Caveat up-front: the only known circumstance in which this won’t work is if you have comorbidities that prevent you from following the advice.

    You may be wondering: is this just the Mediterranean diet again? The answer is that the Mediterreanean diet (or similar) is part of it. But there’s a lot more to this book than that.

    Dr. Fung explains to us a lot of the physiology of type 2 diabetes; how insulin resistance occurs, how it becomes a vicious cycle that we get locked into, and how to escape it.

    • We learn about the role of fructose, and why fruit is very healthful whereas high-fructose corn syrup and similars are very much not.
    • We learn about the role of the liver in glycogen metabolism, and how to un-fatty a fatty liver. Good news: the liver has famously strong self-regenerative abilities, if we give it a break to allow it to do so!
    • We learn why portion control doesn’t work, and why intermittent fasting does (here be science).

    Dr. Fung’s very readable explanations are free from needless jargon while not dumbing down. The writing style is clear and direct: “this happens this way”, “do this, not that”, etc.

    Bottom line: if you have type 2 diabetes and would like to not have that (or if you are pre-diabetic and would like to avoid diabetes) this is a book for you. If you are in great metabolic health and would like to stay that way as you get older, then this is a book for you too.

    Click here to check out The Diabetes Code, and get/keep your metabolic health in order!

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  • 4 Practices To Build Self-Worth That Lasts

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    Self-worth is internal, based on who you are, not what you do or external validation. It differs from self-esteem, which is more performance-based. High self-worth doesn’t necessarily mean arrogance, but can lead to more confidence and success. Most importantly, it’ll help you to thrive in what’s actually most important to you, rather than being swept along by what other people want.

    A stable foundation

    A strong sense of self-worth shapes how you handle boundaries, what you believe you deserve, and what you pursue in life. This matters, because life is unpredictable, so having a resilient internal foundation (like a secure “house”) helps you to weather challenges.

    1. Self-acceptance and compassion:
      • Accept both your positive and negative traits with compassion.
      • Don’t judge yourself harshly; allow yourself to accept imperfections without guilt or shame.
    2. Self-trust:
      • Trust yourself to make choices that benefit you and create habits that support long-term well-being—especially if those benefits are cumulative!
      • Balance self-care with flexibility to enjoy life without being overly rigid.
    3. Get uncomfortable:
      • Growth happens outside your comfort zone. Step into new, challenging experiences to build self-trust.
      • However! Small uncomfortable actions lead to greater confidence and a stronger sense of self. Large uncomfortable actions often doing lead anywhere good.
    4. Separation of tasks:
      • Oftentimes we end up overly preoccupying ourselves with things that are not actually our responsibility. Focus instead on tasks that genuinely belong to you, and let go of trying to control others’ perceptions or tasks.
      • Seek internal validation, not external praise. Avoid people-pleasing behavior.

    Finally, three things to keep in mind:

    • Boundaries: respecting your own boundaries strengthens self-worth, avoiding burnout from people-pleasing.
    • Validation: self-worth is independent of how others perceive you; focus on your integrity and personal growth.
    • Accountability: take responsibility for your actions but recognize that others’ reactions are beyond your control.

    For more on all of these things, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Practise Self-Compassion In Your Relationship (But Watch Out!)

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails: