Cold Medicines & Heart Health

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.

Cold Medicines & Heart Health

In the wake of many decongestants disappearing from a lot of shelves after a common active ingredient being declared useless*, you may find yourself considering alternative decongestants at this time of year.

*In case you missed it:

Why Is Oral Phenylephrine on the Market After Compelling Evidence of Its Ineffectiveness as a Decongestant?

It doesn’t seem to be dangerous, by the way, just also not effective:

FDA Panel Says Common OTC Decongestant, Phenylephrine, Is Useless

Good for your nose, bad for your heart?

With products based on phenylephrine out of the running, products based on pseudoephedrine, a competing drug, are enjoying a surge in popularity.

Good news: pseudoephedrine works!

Bad news: pseudoephedrine works because it is a vasoconstrictor, and that vasoconstriction reduces nasal swelling. That same vasoconstriction also raises overall blood pressure, potentially dangerously, depending on an assortment of other conditions you might have.

Further reading: Can decongestants spike your blood pressure? What to know about hypertension and cold medicine

Who’s at risk?

The warning label, unread by many, reads:

❝Do not use this product if you have heart disease, high blood pressure, thyroid disease, diabetes, or difficulty in urination due to enlargement of the prostate gland, unless directed by a doctor❞

Source: Harvard Health | Don’t let decongestants squeeze your heart

What are the other options?

The same source as above recommends antihistamines as an option to be considered, citing:

❝Antihistamines such as […] cetirizine (Zyrtec) and loratadine (Claritin) can help with a stuffy nose and are safe for the heart.❞

But we’d be remiss not to mention drug-free options too, for example:

  • Saline rinse with a neti pot or similar
  • Use of a humidifier in your house/room
  • Steam inhalation, with or without eucalyptus etc

See also: Inhaled Eucalyptus’s Immunomodulatory and Antimicrobial Effects

Take care!

Don’t Forget…

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

Recommended

  • Is ADHD Being Over-Diagnosed For Cash?
  • The Midlife Cyclist – by Phil Cavell
    Cycle your way to better health! Dive into biomechanics, physiology, and injury prevention with The Midlife Cyclist. A conversational read for enthusiasts at any level.

Learn to Age Gracefully

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

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

    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.

    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!

    Share This Post

  • The No-Nonsense Meditation Book – by Dr. Steven Laureys

    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’ve reviewed books about meditation before, and when we review books, we try to pick ones that have something that make them stand out from the others. So, what stands out in this case?

    The author is a medical doctor and neurologist, with decades of experience focusing on neuronal plasticity and multimodel neural imaging. So, a little beyond “think happy thoughts”-style woo.

    The style of the book is pop-science in tone, but with a lot of hard clinical science underpinning it and referenced throughout, as one would expect of a scientist of Dr. Laurey’s stature (with hundreds of peer-reviewed papers in top-level journals).

    You may be wondering: is this a “how-to” book or a “why-to” book or a “what-happens” book? It’s all three.

    The “how-to” is also, as the title suggests, no-nonsense. We are talking maximum results for minimum mystery here.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to be able to take up a meditative practice and know exactly what it’s doing to your brain (quietening these parts, stimulating and physically growing those parts, etc) then this is the book for you.

    Click here to check out The No-Nonsense Meditation Book, and re-light the less glowy bits of your brain!

    Share This Post

  • What’s Your Vascular Dementia Risk?

    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 often say that “what’s good for your heart is good for your brain”, and this is because the former feeds the latter, with oxygen and nutrients, and also clears away detritus like beta-amyloid (associated with Alzheimer’s) and alpha-synuclein (associated with Parkinson’s).

    For more on those, see: How To Clean Your Brain (Glymphatic Health Primer)

    For this reason, there are many risk factors that apply equally cardiovascular disease (CVD), and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and other vascular dementias, as well as stroke risk.

    The link between the two has also been studied; recently a team of scienists led by Dr. Anisa Dhana asked the question:

    ❝What is the association between cardiovascular health (CVH) and biomarkers of neurodegeneration, including neurofilament light chain and total tau?❞

    To answer this, they looked at data from more than 10,000 Americans aged 65+; of these, they were able to get serum samples from 5,470 of them, and tested those samples for the biomarkers of neurodegeneration mentioned above.

    They then tabulated the results with cardiovascular health scores based on the American Heart Association (AHA)’s “Life’s Simple 7” tool, and found, amongst other things:

    • 34.6% of participants carried the APOE e4 allele, a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s.
    • Higher CVH scores were associated with lower NfL levels, but not with t-tau concentrations.
    • APOE e4 carriers with high CVH had significantly lower NfL levels.
    • Race did not influence the CVH-NfL relationship.
    • Higher CVH was linked to a slower annual increase in NfL levels but did not affect t-tau changes.
    • Over 10 years, participants with the lowest CVH scores saw a 7.1% annual increase in NfL levels, while those with the highest CVH scores had a 5.2% annual increase.
    • Better CVH is linked to lower serum NfL levels, regardless of age, sex, or race.
    • CVH is particularly crucial for APOE e4 carriers

    In other words: higher cardiovascular health meant lower markers of neurodegeneration, and this not only still held true for APOE e4 carriers, but also, the benefits actually even more pronounced in those participants.

    You may be wondering: “but it said it helped with NfL levels, not t-tau concentrations?” And, indeed, it is so. But this means that the overall neurodegeneration risk is still inversely proportional to cardiovascular health; it just means it’s not a magical panacea and we must still do other things too.

    See also: How To Reduce Your Alzheimer’s Risk

    And as for the study, you can read the paper itself in full here:

    Cardiovascular Health and Biomarkers of Neurodegenerative Disease in Older Adults

    Life’s Simple 7

    We mentioned that they used the AHA’s “Life’s Simple 7” tool to assess cardiovascular health; it is indeed simple, but important. Here it is:

    MetricPoorIntermediateIdeal
    Current smokingYesFormer ≤12 moNever or quit >12 mo
    BMI, kg/m2≥3025–29.9<25
    Physical activityNone1–149 min/wk of moderate activity or 1–74 min/wk of vigorous activity or 1–149 min/wk of moderate and vigorous activity≥150 min/wk of moderate activity or ≥75 min/wk of vigorous activity or ≥150 min/wk of moderate and vigorous activity
    Diet pattern score*0–12–34–5
    Total cholesterol, mg/dL≥240200–239 or treated to goal<200
    Blood pressure, mm HgSBP ≥140 or DBP ≥90SBP 120–139 or DBP 80–89 or treated to goal<120/<80
    Fasting plasma glucose, mg/dL≥126100–125 or treated to goal<100

    *Each of the following 5 diet elements is given a score of 1: (1) ≥4.5 cups/day of fruits and vegetables; (2) ≥2 servings/week of fish; (3) ≥3 servings/day of whole grains; (4) no more than 36 oz/wk of sugar‐sweetened beverages; and (5) no more than 1500 mg/d of sodium.

    As the AHA notes,

    ❝Unfortunately, 99% of the U.S. adult population has at least one of seven cardiovascular health risks: tobacco use,
    poor diet, physical inactivity, unhealthy weight, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high blood glucose.❞

    It then goes on to talk about the financial burden of this on employers, but this was taken from a workplace health resource, and we recognize the rest of it won’t be of pressing concern for most of our readers. In case you are interested though, here it is:

    American Heart Association | Life’s Simple 7® Journey to Health™

    For a more practical (if you’re just a private individual and employee healthcare is not your main concern) overview, see:

    American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7: Lifestyle Recommendations, Polygenic Risk, and Lifetime Risk of Coronary Heart Disease

    Want to know more?

    Here are some very good starting points for improving each of those 7 metrics, as necessary:

    1. Which Addiction-Quitting Methods Work Best?
    2. How To Lose Weight (Healthily!)
    3. The Doctor Who Wants Us To Exercise Less, & Move More
    4. Which Diet? Top Diets Ranked By Experts
    5. Lower Cholesterol Naturally, Without Statins
    6. 10 Ways To Lower Blood Pressure Naturally
    7. 10 Ways To Balance Your Blood Sugars

    Take care!

    Share This Post

Related Posts

  • Is ADHD Being Over-Diagnosed For Cash?
  • How to Think More Effectively – by Alain de Botton

    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 brain is our most powerful organ, and our mind is an astonishing thing. So why do we sometimes go off-piste?

    The School of Life‘s Alain de Botton lays out for us a framework of cumulative thinking, directions for effort, and unlikely tools for cognitive improvement.

    The book especially highlights the importance of such things as…

    • making time for cumulative thinking
    • not, however, trying to force it
    • working with, rather than in spite of, distractions
    • noting and making use of our irrationalities
    • taking what we think/do both seriously and lightly, at once
    • practising constructive self-doubt

    The style is as clear and easy as you may have come to expect from Alain de Botton / The School of Life, and yet, its ideas are still likely to challenge every reader in some (good!) way.

    Bottom line: if you would like what you think, say, do to be more meaningful, this book will help you to make the most of your abilities!

    Click here to check out How To Think More Effectively, and upgrade your thought processes!

    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:

  • How To Stay Alive (When You Really Don’t Want To)

    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 To Stay Alive (When You Really Don’t Want To)

    A subscriber recently requested:

    ❝Request: more people need to be aware of suicidal tendencies and what they can do to ward them off❞

    …and we said we’d do that one of these Psychology Sundays, so here we are, doing it!

    First of all, we’ll mention that we did previously do a main feature on managing depression (in oneself or a loved one); here it is:

    The Mental Health First Aid That You’ll Hopefully Never Need

    Now, not all depression leads to suicidality, and not all suicide is pre-empted by depression, but there’s a large enough crossover that it seems sensible to put that article here, for anyone who might find it of use, or even just of interest.

    Now, onwards, to the specific, and very important, topic of suicide.

    This should go without saying, but some of today’s content may be a little heavy.

    We invite you to read it anyway if you’re able, because it’s important stuff that we all should know, and not talking about it is part of what allows it to kill people.

    So, let’s take a deep breath, and read on…

    The risk factors

    Top risk factors for suicide include:

    • Not talking about it
    • Having access to a firearm
    • Having a plan of specifically how to commit suicide
    • A lack of social support
    • Being male
    • Being over 40

    Now, some of these are interesting sociologically, but aren’t very useful practically; what a convenient world it’d be if we could all simply choose to be under 40, for instance.

    Some serve as alarm bells, such as “having a plan of specifically how to commit suicide”.

    If someone has a plan, that plan’s never going to disappear entirely, even if it’s set aside!

    (this writer is deeply aware of the specifics of how she has wanted to end things before, and has used the advice she gives in this article herself numerous times. So far so good, still alive to write about it!)

    Specific advices, therefore, include:

    Talk about it / Listen

    Depending on whether it’s you or someone else at risk:

    • Talk about it, if it’s you
    • Listen attentively, if it’s someone else

    There are two main objections that you might have at this point, so let’s look at those:

    “I have nobody to talk to”—it can certainly feel that way, sometimes, but you may be surprised who would listen if you gave them the chance. If you really can’t trust anyone around you, there are of course suicide hotlines (usually per area, so we’ll not try to list them here; a quick Internet search will get you what you need).

    If you’re worried it’ll result in bad legal/social consequences, check their confidentiality policy first:

    • Some hotlines can and will call the police, for instance.
    • Others deliberately have a set-up whereby they couldn’t even trace the call if they wanted to.
      • On the one hand, that means they can’t intervene
      • On the other hand, that means they’re a resource for anyone who will only trust a listener who can’t intervene.

    “But it is just a cry for help”—then that person deserves help. What some may call “attention-seeking” is, in effect, care-seeking. Listen, without judgement.

    Remove access to firearms, if applicable and possible

    Ideally, get rid of them (safely and responsibly, please).

    If you can’t bring yourself to do that, make them as inconvenient to get at as possible. Stored securely at your local gun club is better than at home, for example.

    If your/their plan isn’t firearm-related, but the thing in question can be similarly removed, remove it. You/they do not need that stockpile of pills, for instance.

    And of course you/they could get more, but the point is to make it less frictionless. The more necessary stopping points between thinking “I should just kill myself” and being able to actually do it, the better.

    Have/give social support

    What do the following people have in common?

    • A bullied teenager
    • A divorced 40-something who just lost a job
    • A lonely 70-something with no surviving family, and friends that are hard to visit

    Often, at least, the answer is: the absence of a good social support network

    So, it’s good to get one, and be part of some sort of community that’s meaningful to us. That could look different to a lot of people, for example:

    • A church, or other religious community, if we be religious
    • The LGBT+ community, or even just a part of it, if that fits for us
    • Any mutual-support oriented, we-have-this-shared-experience community, could be anything from AA to the VA.

    Some bonus ideas…

    If you can’t live for love, living for spite might suffice. Outlive your enemies; don’t give them the satisfaction.

    If you’re going to do it anyway, you might as well take the time to do some “bucket list” items first. After all, what do you have to lose? Feel free to add further bucket list items as they occur to you, of course. Because, why not? Before you know it, you’ve postponed your way into a rich and fulfilling life.

    Finally, some gems from Matt Haig’s “The Comfort Book”:
    • “The hardest question I have been asked is: “How do I stay alive for other people if I have no one?” The answer is that you stay alive for other versions of you. For the people you will meet, yes, but also the people you will be.”
    • “Stay for the person you will become”
    • “You are more than a bad day, or week, or month, or year, or even decade”
    • “It is better to let people down than to blow yourself up”
    • “Nothing is stronger than a small hope that doesn’t give up”
    • “You are here. And that is enough.”

    You can find Matt Haig’s excellent “The Comfort Book” on Amazon, as well as his more well-known book more specifically on the topic we’ve covered today, “Reasons To Stay Alive“.

    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:

  • Ageless Athletes – by Dr. Jim Madden

    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.

    This is an approach to strength and fitness training specifically for the 50+ crowd, and/but even more specifically for the 50+ crowd who do not wish to settle for mediocrity. In short, it’s for those who not only wish to stay healthy and have good mobility, but also who wish to be and remain athletic.

    It does not assume extant athleticism, but nor does it assume complete inexperience. It provides a fairly ground-upwards entry to a training program that then quickly proceeds to competitive levels of athleticism.

    The author himself details his own journey from being in his 30s, overweight and unfit, to being in his 50s and very athletic, with before and after photos. Granted, those are 20 years in between, but all the same, it’s a good sign when someone gets stronger and fitter with age, rather than declining.

    The style of the book is quite casual, and/but after the introductory background and pep talk, is quite pragmatic and drops the additional fluff. In particular, older readers may enjoy the “Old Workhorse” protocol, as a tailored measured progression system.

    In terms of expected equipment by the way, some is bodyweight and some is with weights; kettlebells in particular feature strongly, since this is about functional strength and not bodybuilding.

    In the category of criticism, he does refer to his other books and generally assumes the reader is reading all his work, so it may not be for everyone as a standalone book.

    Bottom line: if you’re 50+ and are wondering how to gain/maintain a high level athleticism, this book can definitely help with that.

    Click here to check out Ageless Athlete, and go from strength to strength!

    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: