Coffee vs Frailty!
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.
We have written before about the health benefits (and risks) of coffee; for most people, the benefits far outweigh the risks, but individual cases may vary:
The Bitter Truth About Coffee (or is it?) ← this is a mythbusting edition
Speaking of bitterness; coffee has abundant polyphenols, which means…
- Coffee is the world’s biggest source of antioxidants
- 65% reduced risk of Alzheimer’s for coffee-drinkers
- 67% reduced risk of type 2 diabetes for coffee-drinkers
- 43% reduced risk of liver cancer for coffee-drinkers
- 53% reduced suicide risk for coffee-drinkers
See also: Why Bitter Is Better: Enjoy Bitter Foods For Your Heart & Brain ← while it says foods in the title, this does cover coffee too.
For mythbusting on caffeine specifically, enjoy: Caffeine: Cognitive Enhancer Or Brain-Wrecker?
There are also gut health benefits from drinking coffee, and what’s good for our gut is invariably good for our heart and brain:
Coffee & Your Gut ← gut bacteria do not, by the way, have a preference about how you make your coffee or whether it is caffeinated or not
And Now The Latest Research: Strong Coffee, Strong Body?
A team of researchers (Dr. Mette van der Linden et al.) have examined the relationship between coffee-drinking and frailty, as part of a longitudinal (7-year) study of aging.
In a nutshell, what they found was:
❝higher habitual coffee consumption is associated with lower odds of frailty❞
In a bigger nutshell (perhaps a coffee cup), their results can be summarized:
- Drinking more than 6 cups of coffee per day is also associated with significantly lower odds of frailty, compared to 0–2 cups per day.
- Drinking more than 4–6 cups of coffee per day is also linked to significantly lower odds of frailty, compared to 0–2 cups per day.
- Drinking more than 2–4 cups of coffee per day is linked to a significantly lower risk of developing frailty after 7 years, compared to 0–2 cups per day.
- Coffee consumption of more than 2–4 cups per day is associated with significantly lower odds of pre-frailty, compared to 0–2 cups per day.
Now, there are some important things to bear in mind, especially for American readers:
- This was a Dutch study, so by “a cup” they mean 125ml, which is half what is called a cup the US (the measurement is specified in the paper)
- However, because in Europe we mostly don’t elongate our coffees with as much water as in the US, those cups are stronger than a cup of coffee would be in the US on average
- Thus, when they say “a cup of coffee”, actually it contains about the same amount of coffee as an American cup of coffee, just, it takes up less space because there’s less hot water added
- In other words, despite the translatlantic differences, 1 cup of coffee = 1 cup of coffee, if we’re looking at how much actual coffee is present, rather than the physical size.
Noteably, it is the coffee itself that is important, not the caffeine. So, strong coffee is better than weak coffee, but decaffeinated is as good, if not better:
❝Stratification of the results by type of coffee (decaffeinated vs. caffeinated) showed that a higher consumption of decaffeinated coffee was associated with a lower hazard of pre-frailty or frailty after three years, while higher consumption of caffeinated coffee was not associated with pre-frailty or frailty incidence.❞
You may be wondering: how is that “as good if not better”; that is clearly better?
The thing here is that this stratification of results demonstrates correlation, but does not make causation clear. Whenever a portion of a study population is abstaining from some substance, it’s important to examine why.
Otherwise, you get silly results like “alcohol is protective against heart disease” when the truth is you looked at former heavy drinkers who quit, vs current light drinkers, noted the former category died of heart disease more often, and came to the conclusion that light drinking is protective, when the reality is that the former heavy drinking was ruinous and the current light drinking was only relatively less bad (for more details on that, see: Are You Making This Alcohol Mistake?).
So, it’s possible that decaffeinated coffee is more strongly protective against frailty than caffeinated, or it could be that the kind of people who switched to decaffeinated coffee were the kind of people who were taking more care of their health in general, or it could be another reason entirely.
What that stats do show, unequivocally, is that both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee are strongly associated with reduced frailty risk, in a dose-dependent fashion (i.e. more coffee = less frailty).
There is, doubtlessly, a cap on that (i.e. you probably cannot drink 30 cups of coffee per day and expect to get 30x the reduction in frailty risk), but whatever the cap is, this study didn’t find it, and topped it off at “and more than 6 cups of coffee per day was associated with the least frailty”.
You can read the paper in full, here:
Not a fan of coffee?
If you’re not a fan of coffee, but also not a fan of frailty, fear not; there is a supplement option available:
Green Coffee Bean Extract: Coffee Benefits Without The Coffee?
Enjoy!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Recommended
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
Avocado vs Eggplant – 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 avocado to eggplant, we picked the avocado.
Why?
In the battle of “fleshy plants that can be enjoyed on toast or in warm salads”, there was a clear winner:
In terms of macros, avocado has more than 2x the fiber, a lot more fat (famously, healthy fats, including omega-3 fatty acids), just a tiny bit more carbs, and more than 2x the protein, winning easily in this category.
In the category of vitamins, avocado has a lot more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, C, E, and K, while eggplant is not higher in any vitamins. A total win for avocado in this round!
Looking at minerals, avocado has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while eggplant has more manganese. Another easy win for avocado.
In other considerations, neither are particularly a good source of polyphenols. Despite the rich purple color, the skin of an eggplant is so thin that unless one is eating only the skin, the polyphenol-per-100g scores are negligible.
Adding up the sections makes for a very clear overall win for avocado, but by all means enjoy either or both, as diversity is good!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
What Omega-3 Fatty Acids Really Do For Us
Enjoy!
Share This Post
-
Should I increase weights at the gym? How often? And by how much?
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.
Many of us go to the gym to bulk up. But how does it actually work?
When you lift weights, it increases tension on the fibres in your muscles, and causes metabolic by-products (such as lactate and hydrogen) and inflammation to build up in the muscle tissue.
These signals tell your muscles to adapt and grow stronger.
But if your aim is to build muscle, lifting the same weight the same number of times every week won’t be enough; you need to continually increase the load or do more repetitions. This is known as “progressive overload”.
So, how do you know when to increase weight? And how much should you add? Let’s take a look.
Thomas Barwick/Getty Knowing how much you can increase
No matter how keen you are, the exact rate your muscles develop is mostly outside your control.
Your genetics likely play a role. Some people will simply adapt to lifting weights faster than others, meaning they can add weight more quickly.
However, lifestyle factors are also important.
Your body is more likely to be able to adapt when you get enough sleep, eat enough protein and keep life stress to a minimum. Otherwise, your progress is likely to be slower.
If you’re new to weight training, you will also likely improve faster than someone who has been training for years. This is sometimes known as “newbie gains” – especially noticeable in the first year of training.
But the more you train, the more your body adapts. Basically, the closer you are to your genetic “ceiling” – the natural limit to how much you can lift – the slower you will improve.
2 methods to increase weight
There are lots of ways you can increase weight in the gym. But we’ll focus on two good ones.
If you are a beginner, using the “linear progression” method is great. This means adding a small amount of weight (for example, 2.5kg) every week or two, while trying to keep your number of repetitions – or “reps” – the same.
For example, in week one, you might do five reps on the leg press at 50kg. Then in weeks two and three, you increase to five reps at 52.5kg, and by week four or five you’re doing five reps at 55 kg.
However, you’ll reach a point where you can’t just add the same amount of weight every couple of weeks. This is when you might try something like the “double progression” method.
Using this approach, you would pick a set and rep range, such as three sets of 8–12 reps. When you can finally do three sets of 12 reps, you increase the weight a little.
At the new higher weight, you might only be able to do eight reps in each set. So you work to slowly increase the number of reps, until you get back up to three sets of 12.
Then, repeat the process: add a little weight and start again at eight reps.
How can I tell I’m ready to lift more?
If the weights are feeling too light, or you can easily manage all your prescribed sets and reps, then it could be time to increase.
But you can add weight even when it’s still feeling challenging.
Research shows most people overestimate how hard they are working in the gym, and underestimate how much weight they can lift or how many reps they can do.
So keeping a logbook to track your progress is a good idea. This allows you to look back and try to beat what you did last week – by either going slightly heavier or adding another rep or two to your set.
You won’t beat your logbook every week. But if increasing weight is your aim, it can help keep you on track and know what to aim for so you keep getting stronger.
People often underestimate how much weight they can lift. MelkiNimages/Getty When should I ease off?
Two signs might suggest you need to back off a little.
First, if the way you do the repetition is changing drastically as you add more weight, this might suggest you are simply making the movement easier, rather than getting stronger.
For example, if you add weight to your squat but start squatting shallower, this probably isn’t actually increasing the load on your muscles.
Second, if you’re feeling unusually fatigued or like you’re getting weaker every week, you might need to take it easy for a week to recover. This can be a sign of overtraining, which commonly happens when people don’t allow adequate rest between sessions.
Can you increase weight too quickly?
Weight training is incredibly safe – especially compared to other sports.
But it can sometimes still be a good idea to take it slow, especially when you’re new to weight training. You’ll find you can increase strength very quickly. But this is also when you’re learning how to perform movements correctly, and your body is adapting to the new stress.
So keeping your weight increases small (for example, just 2.5kg every couple of weeks) will give you a chance to refine your technique and build tolerance gradually. This may also help protect against injuries.
Finally, don’t stress if you are unable to increase weight for a few weeks (or even months).
If the training still feels hard, you can be pretty confident that it is helping you build muscle and get stronger.
Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Share This Post
-
Four Habits That Drastically Improve Mobility
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.
Mobility is critical for health living, but stretching isn’t the entire story:
Beyond just stretching
Liv Townsend, of LivInLeggings fames, recommends these four habits:
- Sit less: prolonged sitting affects hip and shoulder mobility. Specifically, it affects it negatively. It is also a bringer of woe in many other ways beyond the scope of what we’re doing here today, but the important thing for mobility is to sit less. So, if you spent a lot of time at a desk, invest in a standing desk (writer’s note: I dearly love mine, which is technically a sit-stand converter like this one on Amazon but I just keep it in the up position all the time, so it’s easy to forget it has multiple settings. Anyway, it’s sooooooo much better for my back than sitting for hours at a time.). For how to deal with other (i.e. not desk-related) reasons you might be sitting a lot, check out: Stand Up For Your Health (Or Don’t*)
- Take creatine: more than just for strength and muscle-building (and even aside from its brain-benefits that it bestows to older people, but not young ones), creatine also supports mobility and flexibility. Any brand is fine, so long as creatine monohydrate is the sole ingredient. Also, micronized or not is also fine—that’s just to do with whether it’s been pre-compacted into super-tiny beads (so small that it will still effectively be a powder), which helps it to avoid clumping when mixed in a liquid, that’s all. It shouldn’t have any additives either way (so, check labels to ensure it doesn’t).
- Spend more time under tension: no, we’re not talking about texting your spouse “we need to talk”, but rather, this means that when we do stretch, we should spend longer in the stretched position. While dynamic stretching has its place, passive stretching (holding stretches for longer periods) is essential and shouldn’t be overlooked.
- Incorporate “movement snacks”: this is about when we are going about our daily life, we should move more while doing everyday tasks. Get in some shoulder stretches while waiting for the kettle to boil, deep squat while petting the dog, etc. These are very important, because mobility is very much a “use it or lose it” thing, and so moving in many different ways, frequently, is the only way to ensure full coverage (no stretching regimen is going to be able to cover the many compound movements that we do in everyday life).
*That article also covers how to avoid the damage of sitting even if you cannot physically stand!
For more on all of these, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
Mobility As Though A Sporting Pursuit: Train For The Event Of Your Life!
Take care!
Share This Post
Related Posts
-
How long does back pain last? And how can learning about pain increase the chance of recovery?
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.
Back pain is common. One in thirteen people have it right now and worldwide a staggering 619 million people will have it this year.
Chronic pain, of which back pain is the most common, is the world’s most disabling health problem. Its economic impact dwarfs other health conditions.
If you get back pain, how long will it take to go away? We scoured the scientific literature to find out. We found data on almost 20,000 people, from 95 different studies and split them into three groups:
- acute – those with back pain that started less than six weeks ago
- subacute – where it started between six and 12 weeks ago
- chronic – where it started between three months and one year ago.
We found 70%–95% of people with acute back pain were likely to recover within six months. This dropped to 40%–70% for subacute back pain and to 12%–16% for chronic back pain.
Clinical guidelines point to graded return to activity and pain education under the guidance of a health professional as the best ways to promote recovery. Yet these effective interventions are underfunded and hard to access.
More pain doesn’t mean a more serious injury
Most acute back pain episodes are not caused by serious injury or disease.
There are rare exceptions, which is why it’s wise to see your doctor or physio, who can check for signs and symptoms that warrant further investigation. But unless you have been in a significant accident or sustained a large blow, you are unlikely to have caused much damage to your spine.
Your doctor or physio can rule out serious damage.
DG fotostock/ShutterstockEven very minor back injuries can be brutally painful. This is, in part, because of how we are made. If you think of your spinal cord as a very precious asset (which it is), worthy of great protection (which it is), a bit like the crown jewels, then what would be the best way to keep it safe? Lots of protection and a highly sensitive alarm system.
The spinal cord is protected by strong bones, thick ligaments, powerful muscles and a highly effective alarm system (your nervous system). This alarm system can trigger pain that is so unpleasant that you cannot possibly think of, let alone do, anything other than seek care or avoid movement.
The messy truth is that when pain persists, the pain system becomes more sensitive, so a widening array of things contribute to pain. This pain system hypersensitivity is a result of neuroplasticity – your nervous system is becoming better at making pain.
Reduce your chance of lasting pain
Whether or not your pain resolves is not determined by the extent of injury to your back. We don’t know all the factors involved, but we do know there are things that you can do to reduce chronic back pain:
- understand how pain really works. This will involve intentionally learning about modern pain science and care. It will be difficult but rewarding. It will help you work out what you can do to change your pain
- reduce your pain system sensitivity. With guidance, patience and persistence, you can learn how to gradually retrain your pain system back towards normal.
How to reduce your pain sensitivity and learn about pain
Learning about “how pain works” provides the most sustainable improvements in chronic back pain. Programs that combine pain education with graded brain and body exercises (gradual increases in movement) can reduce pain system sensitivity and help you return to the life you want.
Some programs combine education with gradual increases in movement.
Halfpoint/ShutterstockThese programs have been in development for years, but high-quality clinical trials are now emerging and it’s good news: they show most people with chronic back pain improve and many completely recover.
But most clinicians aren’t equipped to deliver these effective programs – good pain education is not taught in most medical and health training degrees. Many patients still receive ineffective and often risky and expensive treatments, or keep seeking temporary pain relief, hoping for a cure.
When health professionals don’t have adequate pain education training, they can deliver bad pain education, which leaves patients feeling like they’ve just been told it’s all in their head.
Community-driven not-for-profit organisations such as Pain Revolution are training health professionals to be good pain educators and raising awareness among the general public about the modern science of pain and the best treatments. Pain Revolution has partnered with dozens of health services and community agencies to train more than 80 local pain educators and supported them to bring greater understanding and improved care to their colleagues and community.
But a broader system-wide approach, with government, industry and philanthropic support, is needed to expand these programs and fund good pain education. To solve the massive problem of chronic back pain, effective interventions need to be part of standard care, not as a last resort after years of increasing pain, suffering and disability.
Sarah Wallwork, Post-doctoral Researcher, University of South Australia and Lorimer Moseley, Professor of Clinical Neurosciences and Foundation Chair in Physiotherapy, University of South Australia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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:
-
The Borderline Personality Disorder Workbook – by Dr. Daniel Fox
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.
Personality disorders in general get a bad rep. In part, because their names and descriptions often focus on how the disorders affect other people, rather than how they affect the actual sufferer:
- “This disorder gives you cripplingly low self-esteem; we call it Evil Not-Quite-Human Disorder”
- “This disorder makes you feel unloveable; we call it Abusive Bitch Disorder”
- …etc
Putting aside the labels and stigma, it turns out that humans sometimes benefit from help. In the case of BPD, characterized by such things as difficult moods and self-sabotage, the advice in this book can help anyone struggling with those (and related) issues.
The style of the book is both textbook, and course. It’s useful to proceed through it methodically, and doing the exercises is good too. We recommend getting the print edition, not the Kindle edition, so that you can check off boxes, write in it (pencil, if you like!), etc.
Bottom line: if you or a loved one suffers from BPD symptoms (whether or not you/they would meet criteria for diagnosis), this book can help a lot.
Click here to check out the BPD Workbook, and retake control of your life!
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:
-
Blackberries vs Kiwi – 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 blackberries to kiwi, we picked the blackberries.
Why?
Both are great, and it was close!
In terms of macros, blackberries have nearly 2x the fiber, while kiwi has more carbs, making this a clear win for blackberries on that front.
In the category of vitamins, blackberries have more of vitamins A, B2, B3, B5, and choline, while kiwi has more of vitamins B1, B6, C, E, and K, making this round a 5:5 tie.
When it comes to minerals, blackberries have more copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, selenium, and zinc, while kiwi has more calcium, phosphorus, and potassium. So, a win for blackberries here.
Looking at phytochemicals, blackberries have a lot more polyphenols, while kiwi has some cancer-killing properties that blackberries don’t. We’ll call this round a tie.
Adding up the sections makes for an overall win for blackberries, but by all means enjoy either or both; diversity is good!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Top 8 Fruits That Prevent & Kill Cancer
Enjoy!
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:
