Cool As A Cucumber

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Cucumber Extract Beats Glucosamine & Chondroitin… At 1/135th Of The Dose?!

Do you take glucosamine & chondroitin supplements for your bone-and-joint health?

Or perhaps, like many, you take them intermittently because they mean taking several large tablets a day. Or maybe you don’t take them at all because they generally contain ingredients derived from shellfish?

Cucumber extract has your back! (and your knees, and your hips, and…)

It’s plant-derived (being from botanical cucumbers, not sea cucumbers, the aquatic animal!) and requires only 1/135th of the dosage to produce twice the benefits!

Distilling the study to its absolute bare bones for your convenience:

  • Cucumber extract (10mg) was pitted against glucosamine & chondroitin (1350mg)
  • Cucumber extract performed around 50% better than G&C after 30 days
  • Cucumber extract performed more than 200% better than G&C after 180 days

In conclusion, this study indicates that, in very lay terms:

Cucumber extract blows glucosamine & chondroitin out of the water as a treatment and preventative for joint pain

Curious To Know More? See The Study For Yourself!

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  • Self-Compassion – by Dr. Kristin Neff

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    A lot of people struggle with self-esteem, and depending on one’s surrounding culture, it can even seem socially obligatory to be constantly valuing oneself highly (or else, who else will if we do not?). But, as Dr. Neff points out, there’s an inherent problem with reinforcing for oneself even a positive message like “I am smart, strong, and capable!” because sometimes all of us have moments of being stupid, weak, and incapable (occasionally all three at once!), which places us in a position of having to choose between self-deceit and self-deprecation, neither of which are good.

    Instead, Dr. Neff advocates for self-compassion, for treating oneself as one (hopefully) would a loved one—seeing their/our mistakes, weaknesses, failures, and loving them/ourself anyway.

    She does not, however, argue that we should accept just anything from ourselves uncritically, but rather, we identify our mistakes, learn, grow, and progress. So not “I should have known better!”, nor even “How was I supposed to know?!”, but rather, “Now I have learned a thing”.

    The style of the book is quite personal, as though having a heart-to-heart over a hot drink perhaps, but the format is organized and progresses naturally from one idea to the next, taking the reader to where we need to be.

    Bottom line: if you have trouble with self-esteem (as most people do), then that’s a trap that there is a way out of, and it doesn’t require being perfect or lowering one’s standards, just being kinder to oneself along the way—and this book can help inculcate that.

    Click here to check out Self-Compassion, and indeed be kind to yourself!

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  • Coach’s Plan – by Mike Kavanagh

    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.

    A sports coach’s job is to prepare a plan, give it to the player(s), and hold them accountable to it. Change the strategy if needs be, call the shots. The job of the player(s) is then to follow those instructions.

    If you have trouble keeping yourself accountable, Kavanagh argues that it can be good to separate how you approach things.

    Not just “coach yourself”, but put yourself entirely in the coach’s shoes, as though you were a separate person, then switch back, and follow those instructions, trusting in your coach’s guidance.

    The book also provides illustrative examples and guides the reader through some potential pitfalls—for example, what happens when morning you doesn’t want to do the things that evening you decided would be best?

    The absolute backbone of this method is that it takes away the paralysing self-doubt that can occur when we second-guess ourselves mid-task.

    In short, this book will fire up your enthusiasm and give you a reliable fall-back for when your motivation’s flagging.

    Grab Your Copy of “Coach’s Plan” on Amazon!

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  • The Anti-Viral Gut – by Dr. Robynne Chutkan

    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.

    Some people get a virus and feel terrible for a few days; other people get the same virus and die. Then there are some who never even get it at all despite being in close proximity with the other two. So, what’s the difference?

    Dr. Robynne Chutkan outlines the case for the difference not being in the virus, but in the people. And nor is it a matter of mysterious fate, but rather, a matter of the different levels of defenses (or lack thereof) that we each have.

    The key, she explains, is in our microbiome, and the specific steps to make sure that ours is optimized and ready to protect us. The book goes beyond “eat prebiotics and probiotics”, though, and goes through other modifiable factors, based on data from this pandemic and the last one a hundred years ago. We also learn about the many different kinds of bacteria that live in our various body parts (internal and external), because as it turns out, our gut microbiome (however important; hence the title) isn’t the only relevant microbiome when it comes to whether or not a given disease will take hold or be eaten alive on the way in.

    The style is very polished—Dr. Chutkan is an excellent educator who makes her points clearly and comprehensibly without skimping on scientific detail.

    Bottom line: if you’d like your chances of surviving any given virus season to not be left to chance, then this is a must-read book.

    Click here to check out The Anti-Viral Gut, and make your body a fortress!

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  • Too Much Or Too Little Testosterone?
  • Which Magnesium? (And: When?)

    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!

    Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

    In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

    As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

    So, no question/request too big or small

    ❝Good morning! I have been waiting for this day to ask: the magnesium in my calcium supplement is neither of the two versions you mentioned in a recent email newsletter. Is this a good type of magnesium and is it efficiently bioavailable in this composition? I also take magnesium that says it is elemental (oxide, gluconate, and lactate). Are these absorbable and useful in these sources? I am not interested in taking things if they aren’t helping me or making me healthier. Thank you for your wonderful, informative newsletter. It’s so nice to get non-biased information❞

    Thank you for the kind words! We certainly do our best.

    For reference: the attached image showed a supplement containing “Magnesium (as Magnesium Oxide & AlgaeCal® l.superpositum)”

    Also for reference: the two versions we compared head-to-head were these very good options:

    Magnesium Glycinate vs Magnesium Citrate – Which is Healthier?

    Let’s first borrow from the above, where we mentioned: magnesium oxide is probably the most widely-sold magnesium supplement because it’s cheapest to make. It also has woeful bioavailability, to the point that there seems to be negligible benefit to taking it. So we don’t recommend that.

    As for magnesium gluconate and magnesium lactate:

    • Magnesium lactate has very good bioavailability and in cases where people have problems with other types (e.g. gastrointestinal side effects), this will probably not trigger those.
    • Magnesium gluconate has excellent bioavailability, probably coming second only to magnesium glycinate.

    The “AlgaeCal® l.superpositum” supplement is a little opaque (and we did ntoice they didn’t specify what percentage of the magnesium is magnesium oxide, and what percentage is from the algae, meaning it could be a 99:1 ratio split, just so that they can claim it’s in there), but we can say Lithothamnion superpositum is indeed an algae and magnesium from green things is usually good.

    Except…

    It’s generally best not to take magnesium and calcium together (as that supplement contains). While they do work synergistically once absorbed, they compete for absorption first so it’s best to take them separately. Because of magnesium’s sleep-improving qualities, many people take calcium in the morning, and magnesium in the evening, for this reason.

    Some previous articles you might enjoy meanwhile:

    Take care!

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  • The Most Annoying Nutrition Tips (7 Things That Actually Work)

    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.

    You can’t out-exercise a bad diet, and getting a good diet can be a challenge depending on your starting point. Here’s Cori Lefkowith’s unglamorous seven-point plan:

    Step by step

    Seven things to do:

    1. Start tracking first: track your food intake (as it is, without changing anything) without judgment to identify realistic areas for improvement.
    2. Add protein: add 10g of protein to three meals daily to improve satiety, aid fat loss, and retain muscle.
    3. Fiber swaps: swap foods for higher-fiber options where possible to improve gut health, improve heart health, support fat loss, and promote satiety.
    4. Hydration: take your body weight in kilograms (or half your body weight in pounds), then get that many ounces of water daily to support metabolism and reduce cravings. 
    5. Calorie swaps: replace or reduce calorie-dense foods to create a small, modestly sustainable calorie deficit. Your body will still adjust to this after a while; that’s fine; it’s about a gradual reduction.
    6. Tweak and adjust: regularly reassess and adjust your diet and habits to fit your lifestyle and progress.
    7. Guard against complacency: track consistently, and stay on course.

    For more on all of these, enjoy:

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    Want to learn more?

    You might also like:

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    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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  • Younger Next Year: The Exercise Program – by Chris Crowley & Dr. Henry Lodge

    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 previously reviewed the same authors’ original “Younger Next Year”, and now here’s the more specific book about exercise for increasing healthspan and reversing markers of biological aging, going into much more detail in that regard.

    How much more? Well, it’s a very hand-holding book in the sense that it walks the reader through everything step-by-step, tells not only what kind of exercise and how much, but also how to do, what things to do to prepare, how to avoid not erring in various ways, what metrics to keep an eye on to ensure you are making progress, and more.

    There are also whole sections on specific common age-related issues including osteoporosis and arthritis, as well as how to train around injuries (especially of the kind that basically aren’t likely to ever fully go away).

    As with the previous book, there’s a blend of motivational pep talk and science—this book is heavily weighted towards the former. It has, however, enough science to keep it on the right track throughout. Hence the two authors! Crowley for motivational pep and training tips, and Dr. Lodge for the science.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to be biologically younger next year, that exercise will be an important component of that, and this book is really quite comprehensive for its relative brevity (weighing in at 176 pages).

    Click here to check out Younger Next Year: The Exercise Program, and make that progress!

    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: