Dietary Changes for Artery Health
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It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!
Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!
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
❝How does your diet change clean out your arteries of the bad cholesterol?❞
There’s good news and bad news here, and they can both be delivered with a one-word reply:
Slowly.
Or rather: what’s being cleaned out is mostly not the LDL (bad) cholesterol, but rather, the result of that.
When our diet is bad for cardiovascular health, our arteries get fatty deposits on their walls. Cholesterol gets stuck here too, but that’s not the main physical problem.
Our body’s natural defenses come into action and try to clean it up, but they (for example macrophages, a kind of white blood cell that consumes invaders and then dies, before being recycled by the next part of the system) often get stuck and become part of the buildup (called atheroma), which can lead to atherosclerosis and (if calcium levels are high) hardening of the arteries, which is the worst end of this.
This can then require medical attention, precisely because the body can’t remove it very well—especially if you are still maintaining a heart-unhealthy diet, thus continuing to add to the mess.
However, if it is not too bad yet, yes, a dietary change alone will reverse this process. Without new material being added to the arterial walls, the body’s continual process of rejuvenation will eventually fix it, given time (free from things making it worse) and resources.
In fact, your arteries can be one of the quickest places for your body to make something better or worse, because the blood is the means by which the body moves most things (good or bad) around the body.
All the more reason to take extra care of it, since everything else depends on it!
You might also like our previous main feature:
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Reduce Caffeine’s Impact on Kidneys
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It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!
Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!
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
❝Avid coffee drinker so very interested in the results Also question Is there something that you could take or eat that would prevent the caffeine from stimulating the kidneys? I tried to drink decaf from morning to night not a good result! Thanks❞
That is a good question! The simple answer is “no” (but keep reading, because all is not lost)
There’s no way (that we yet know of) to proof the kidneys against the stimulating effect of caffeine. This is especially relevant because part of caffeine’s stimulating effect is noradrenergic, and that “ren” in the middle there? It’s about the kidneys. This is just because the adrenal gland is situated next to them (actually, it’s pretty much sitting on top of them), hence the name, but it does mean that the kidneys are about the hardest thing in the body to have not effected by caffeine.
However! The effects of caffeine in general can be softened a little with l-theanine (found in tea, or it can be taken as a supplement). It doesn’t stop it from working, but it makes the curve of the effect a little gentler, and so it can reduce some unwanted side effects.
You can read more about l-theanine here:
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How to handle teen ‘big feelings’ as the social media ban kicks in
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Watching your teenager grieve the loss of their social media account can be confronting. Many are genuinely distressed or struggling with the change, and many parents are unsure how to respond.
Australia’s social media ban, which started this week, means teens under the age of 16, have lost accounts to platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.
These are the platforms they relied on to talk to friends, find support, follow interests, or decompress after school.
While some teens feel relieved or not fussed, many are feeling sad, worried, powerless, helpless, disappointed or angry.
These aren’t signs of entitlement. They’re signs your teen may need support. https://www.youtube.com/embed/u4KrMG6H0zg?wmode=transparent&start=0 A mixed bag: here’s what more than 17,000 teenagers think of the ban.
Maskot/Getty Why losing social media hits some teens hard
There’s a neurological reason why the loss of social media can hit teens so hard.
Adolescence is a period of enormous social, neurological and emotional change. Teen brains are wired for peer connection, and their brains become more sensitive to feedback from their peers. Meanwhile the brain regions responsible for impulse control, managing strong emotions and long-term planning are still developing.
When teens say losing social media feels like being “cut off”, they aren’t being dramatic. Their neurological systems are reacting to a loss of social reinforcement.
Connect and validate their feelings
If your teen is upset, the instinct might be to justify the government’s decision or to explain why life offline is healthier. However, advice lands badly when a young person feels unheard. Teens often perceive even well-meaning advice as criticism.
Accepting their feelings about the changes helps validate their experience. You can say:
Feeling angry or sad makes total sense. I know you used those sites to stay connected with your friends.
Losing your account feels huge. It’s a big change to deal with.
Then pause and listen.
Or you can sit with them without saying much. Some teens prefer parents to just listen sympathetically.
Supporting your teen doesn’t mean you agree with their perspective. It means you’re acknowledging their emotional reality. When teens feel understood, they become more open to talking – and eventually, to problem-solving.
The first two weeks may be the toughest. Some teens may experience grief and withdrawal-like symptoms: boredom, anxiety, irritability, restlessness and a powerful urge to “just check once”.
Help teens understand these reactions are normal. Social media platforms are designed to keep users hooked.
Understand the ‘why’ together
It might help to explore the governement’s concerns about social media with your teen – but not as a lecture. The ban isn’t about social media being inherently bad, but about how platforms are designed.
You can talk about algorithms maximising engagement using the same mechanisms as gambling to encourage dependence and addiction. Or you can talk about how feeds are personalised to keep users scrolling for longer.
Ask your teen what they think about these concerns. This isn’t about convincing them the ban is right, but developing their awareness of how digital platforms work. This prepares them for use when they’re older.
Help teens rebuild what social media gave them
To support your teen, it helps to understand the function social media played in their life. Was it to:
- connect with friends?
- find community around a niche interest or identity?
- share creative work, or find outlets for self-expression?
- de-stress after a busy day?
- know what others are talking about?
Once you understand this, you can help them find alternatives that genuinely meet their needs. They might be able to maintain:
- connection by organising a get-together, make FaceTime calls, join clubs, or have group chats on allowed platforms
- creativity by finding other outlets such as photography, video-making, music, writing, art, or gaming communities with safe age settings
- relaxation by reading, exercise, podcasts, nature time, shows you can watch together.
Many teens won’t immediately know what they want to try. They may need time and space to have their feelings first. Once they are ready, inviting them to brainstorm a few options (without pressuring them) can help.
Problem-solve together, notice efforts
Once emotions settle, gently shift to collaborative problem-solving. You can ask:
What’s been the hardest part this week?
How could we help you stay connected in ways that are allowed?
What would make this change even a tiny bit easier?
Let your teen lead. Young people are much more likely to follow through on strategies they helped design.
Even small signs of coping deserve acknowledgement. You can say:
I can see you’ve been finding other ways to talk to friends. That takes maturity.
I’m proud of how open you’ve been about how you’re feeling.
But if something doesn’t work, treat it like an experiment. You can say:
OK, that didn’t help as much as we hoped. What else could we try?
Check in later
For teens, losing social media isn’t simply losing an app. It can feel like losing a community, a creative outlet, or a place where they felt understood.
Keep an eye out and offer opportunities to check in with how they are going. This ensures teens don’t navigate this transition alone or become secretive – and that your relationship remains a source of support.
The eSafety Commissioner website explains why the rules were brought in and how they will work; youth mental health service headspace has seven tips for navigating the social media ban; the Raising Children’s website explains how teens use technology for entertainment; tips for digital wellness and how to draw up a “contract” for use of a child’s first phone are also available.
Christiane Kehoe, Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne and Elizabeth Westrupp, Associate Professor in Psychology, Deakin University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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The Stress Prescription (Against Aging!)
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The Stress Prescription (Against Aging!)
This is Dr. Elissa Epel, whose work has for the past 20 years specialized in the effect of stress on aging. She’s led groundbreaking research on cortisol, telomeres, and telomerase, all in the context of aging, especially in women, as well as the relationship between stress and weight gain. She was elected member of the National Academy of Medicine for her work on stress pathways, and has been recognized as a key “Influencer in Aging” by the Alliance for Aging Research.
Indeed, she’s also been named in the top 0.1% of researchers globally, in terms of publication impact.
What’s that about stress and aging?
In her words,
❝Women with the highest levels of perceived stress have telomeres shorter on average by the equivalent of at least one decade of additional aging compared to low stress women❞
Source: Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress
We say “in her words”, as she is the top-listed author on this paper—an honour reserved for the lead researcher of any given study/paper.
However, we’d be remiss not to note that the second-listed author is Nobel Prize Laureate Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn. What a team! Maybe we’ll do a spotlight feature on Dr. Blackburn’s work one of these days, but for now, back to Dr. Epel…
What does she want us to do about it?
She has the following advice for us:
Let go of what we can’t control
This one is simple enough, and can be as simple as learning how to set anxiety aside, and taking up the practice of radical acceptance of what we cannot control.
Be challenged, not afraid
This is about eustress, and being the lion, not the gazelle. Dr. Epel uses the example of how when lions are hunting gazelles, both are stressed, but both are feeling the physiological effects of that stress in terms of the augmentation to their immediate abilities, but only one of them is suffering by it.
We’ll let her explain how to leverage this:
TED ideas | Here’s how you can handle stress like a lion, not a gazelle | Dr. Elissa Epel
Build resilience through controlled discomfort
Don’t worry, you don’t have to get chased by lions. A cold shower will do it! This is about making use of hormesis, the body’s ability to build resilience to stressors by small doses of controlled cortisol release—as for example when one undergoes thermal shock, which sounds drastic, but for most people, a cold shower (or even an ice bath) is safe enough.
You can read more about this here:
A Cold Shower A Day Keeps The Doctor Away
Connect with nature
You don’t have to hug a tree, but you do have get to a natural (or at least, natural-seeming) environment once in a while. Simply put, we did not evolve to be in the urban or even suburban settings where most of us spend most of our time. Getting to be around greenery with at least some kind of regularity is hugely beneficial. It doesn’t have to be a national park; a nice garden or local park can suffice, and potted plants at home are better than nothing. Even spending time in virtual reality “nature” is an option:
(you can see an example there, of the kind of scenery this study used)
Breathe deeply, and rest deeply
Mindful breathing, and good quality sleep, are very strongly evidence-based approaches to reduce stress, for example:
Practice gratitude to build optimism
Optimism has a huge positive impact on health outcomes, even when other factors (including socioeconomic factors, pre-existing conditions, and general reasons for one person to be more optimistic than another) are controlled for.
Read: Optimism and Cause-Specific Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study
There are various ways to increase optimism, and practising gratitude is one of them—but that doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning realism, either:
How To Practise (Non-Toxic) Positivity
There are other ways too, though, and Dr. Epel discusses some with her friend and colleague, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, here:
Want to learn more from Dr. Epel?
We reviewed one of her books, The Telomere Effect, previously. It’s about what we can do to lengthen our telomeres (a key factor in health aging; effectively, being biologically younger). You also might enjoy her newer book, The Stress Prescription, as well as her blog.
Enjoy!
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Reduce Your Glaucoma Risk
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We’ve talked before about eye health, including:
- Brain Food? The Eyes Have It! ← this is mostly about lutein, as found in leafy greens
- Fatty Acids For The Eyes & Brain: The Good And The Bad
- How To Avoid Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Today we’ll be looking at a large (n=9,973) study into how various factors increase or decrease glaucoma risk, discussing some of the fascinating statistics involved, and boiling it down to some practical takeaways:
The study
The researchers chose to express the increased or decreased risk of glaucoma in the form of logistic regression beta coefficients, which is not how most such papers (or especially their abstracts) do it; the usual way is to express risk as an odds ratio (sometimes called a hazard ratio in the case of risks, but mathematically it’s the same thing). So, for clarity, we’ve taken the logistical regression beta coefficients provided in the paper, converted them to odds ratios (using the formula eβ=OR, since we don’t have the raw data to know the error rate to factor in), and then multiplied the results by 100 to get a percentage in each case.
With that in mind, here’s the list of things you probably can’t change, first:
- Older age slightly increases glaucoma risk: each standard deviation increase in age raises odds by about 5.1%.
Yes, just age. That’s it for relevant (i.e., that were found to have an impact) non-modifiable risk factors.
You may be wondering: personally, I age in years, not standard deviations, so what does this mean for me?
And the answer is: we had to scour the paper for this, but buried in a table in the middle we found that the mean age of those with glaucoma was 62.9 (standard deviation 7.99) and the mean age of those without glaucoma was 60.81 (standard deviation 7.49). Taking this information and taking into account the relevant numbers (9,631 people without glaucoma, and 342 with), means that the global standard deviation was a little over 7½ years. So in practical terms, and rounding a little for simplicity: every 7½ years, your risk increases by about 5%, which means that for every year, your risk increases by about 0.6%.
That might seem like a very small increase, but it has unfortunate implications if you plan to live to 120.
Now, for modifiable risk factors that increased the likelihood of glaucoma:
- High blood pressure increases glaucoma risk by about 72.4%.
- Diabetes increases glaucoma risk by about 47.4%.
- Smoking increases glaucoma risk by 29.5%.
- Alcohol consumption increases glaucoma risk by 26.3%.
Some notes:
- High blood pressure is defined as being 130/80 or higher; see: What Most People Don’t Know About Blood Pressure
- Diabetes is modifiable for most people; see: How To Prevent And Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
- Smoking was recorded as yes/no, not an amount, so even occasional smoking (in the past year) was included as a risk factor
- Drinking was recorded as yes/no, not an amount, so even occasional drinking (in the past year) was included as a risk factor
Finally, some things that reduced risk according to the abstract:
- Not being obese decreases glaucoma risk by 16.8%.
- Being illiterate decreases glaucoma risk by 5.5%.
- Having a low health-related quality of life (HRQoL) score decreases glaucoma risk by 3.9% (per standard deviation drop in score).
Those last two might be confusing, and here we see an issue with data collection, and at first glance this seemed almost certainly a case of reporting bias.
In other words:
- someone who is illiterate may be less likely to get their glaucoma diagnosed
- someone with a low HRQoL might also have less access to healthcare services (and/or poor/negligible/no ability to advocate for themselves), and again, be less likely to get their glaucoma diagnosed.
To learn more about reporting bias and other such problems, see: How Science News Outlets Can Lie To You (Yes, Even If They Cite Studies!)
However! When actually looking at the tabulated data, and reading the discussion in the article, it looks suspiciously like that there was simply a typo in the abstract, as doing our own calculations reveals that those two characteristics (illiteracy and low HRQoL) were, when all was said and done and investigated thoroughly, associated with a higher glaucoma risk.
In contrast, not being obese really was associated with a lower risk, as initially described.
You can read the paper in full here: Incidence and risk factors for glaucoma and its clinical, mental health and economic impact in an elderly population: a longitudinal study
What does this mean in practical terms?
There are a few key takeaways:
- Keep your blood pressure within healthy ranges (ideally under 120/80; the threshold for “high” is 130/80, but 120/80 is already “elevated”, and you don’t want that either; as for how, see: Hypertension: Factors Far More Relevant Than Salt)
- Keep your glucose metabolism healthy (so, eat in a way to avoid diabetes, per How To Prevent And Reverse Type 2 Diabetes; if you are unlucky and have Type 1 Diabetes, this advice still stands, as even if you can’t reverse T1D with your diet, you have even more reason to absolutely want to avoid insulin resistance / keep your insulin sensitivity high)
- Keep your weight within healthy ranges—albeit the association here is most probably heavily mediated by cardio/metabolic disorder (e.g. hypertension/diabetes), rather than the adiposity itself, as well as the considerations we discussed in Fat’s Real Barriers To Health, which in turn are typically correlated with low HRQoL. If you want to lose weight, then here’s what we recommend: How To Lose Weight (Healthily!)
- Don’t smoke
- Don’t drink
For the latter two items, see: Which Addiction-Quitting Methods Work Best?
Take care!
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Beetroot vs Cucumber – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing beetroot to cucumber, we picked the beetroot.
Why?
While they’re both mostly-water vegetables that can go in salads, soups, and sauces, they have some notable differences:
In terms of macros, beetroot has nearly 3x the carbs and/but also nearly 6x the fiber, so we say beetroot wins this category.
On the vitamins front, beetroot has more of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B7, B9, C, and E, while cucumber has more of vitamins A, B5, and K. In short, a clear win for beetroot.
In the category of minerals, beetroot has more copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while cucumber is not richer in any minerals.
When it comes to beneficial phytochemicals, both have good things to offer, though we say beetroot has more. Notably, cucumber extract beats glucosamine and chondroitin for reducing joint inflammation, at 1/135th of the dose. On the other hand, beetroot’s phytochemical benefits are so numerous we’ll not list them here, and just recommend checking out the link below!
In short, a win in all categories for beetroot, but cucumbers are great too, so by all means enjoy either or both!
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Beetroot For More Than Just Your Blood Pressure
Enjoy!
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How To Avoid Carer Burnout (Without Dropping Care)
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How To Avoid Carer Burnout
Sometimes in life we find ourselves in a caregiving role.
Maybe we chose it. For example, by becoming a professional carer, or even just by being a parent.
Oftentimes we didn’t. Sometimes because our own parents now need care from us, or because a partner becomes disabled.
Philosophical note: an argument could be made for that latter also having been a pre-emptive choice; we probably at some point said words to the effect of “in sickness and in health”, hopefully with free will, and hopefully meant it. And of course, sometimes we enter into a relationship with someone who is already disabled.
But, we are not a philosophy publication, and will henceforth keep to the practicalities.
First: are you the right person?
Sometimes, a caregiving role might fall upon you unasked-for, and it’s worth considering whether you are really up for it. Are you in a position to be that caregiver? Do you want to be that caregiver?
It may be that you do, and would actively fight off anyone or anything that tried to stop you. If so, great, now you only need to make sure that you are actually in a position to provide the care in question.
It may be that you do want to, but your circumstances don’t allow you to do as good a job of it as you’d like, or it means you have to drop other responsibilities, or you need extra help. We’ll cover these things later.
It may be that you don’t want to, but you feel obliged, or “have to”. If that’s the case, it will be better for everyone if you acknowledge that, and find someone else to do it. Nobody wants to feel a burden, and nobody wants someone providing care to be resentful of that. The result of such is two people being miserable; that’s not good for anyone. Better to give the job to someone who actually wants to (a professional, if necessary).
So, be honest (first with yourself, then with whoever may be necessary) about your own preferences and situation, and take steps to ensure you’re only in a caregiving role that you have the means and the will to provide.
Second: are you out of your depth?
Some people have had a life that’s prepared them for being a carer. Maybe they worked in the caring profession, maybe they have always been the family caregiver for one reason or another.
Yet, even if that describes you… Sometimes someone’s care needs may be beyond your abilities. After all, not all care needs are equal, and someone’s condition can (and more often than not, will) deteriorate.
So, learn. Learn about the person’s condition(s), medications, medical equipment, etc. If you can, take courses and such. The more you invest in your own development in this regard, the more easily you will handle the care, and the less it will take out of you.
And, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Maybe the person knows their condition better than you, and certainly there’s a good chance they know their care needs best. And certainly, there are always professionals that can be contacted to ask for advice.
Sometimes, a team effort may be required, and there’s no shame in that either. Whether it means enlisting help from family/friends or professionals, sometimes “many hands make light work”.
Check out: Caregiver Action Network: Organizations Near Me
A very good resource-hub for help, advice, & community
Third: put your own oxygen mask on first
Like the advice to put on one’s own oxygen mask first before helping others (in the event of a cabin depressurization in an airplane), the rationale is the same here. You can’t help others if you are running on empty yourself.
As a carer, sometimes you may have to put someone else’s needs above yours, both in general and in the moment. But, you do have needs too, and cannot neglect them (for long).
One sleepless night looking after someone else is… a small sacrifice for a loved one, perhaps. But several in a row starts to become unsustainable.
Sometimes it will be necessary to do the best you can, and accept that you cannot do everything all the time.
There’s a saying amongst engineers that applies here too: “if you don’t schedule time for maintenance, your equipment will schedule it for you”.
In other words: if you don’t give your body rest, your body will break down and oblige you to rest. Please be aware this goes for mental effort too; your brain is just another organ.
So, plan ahead, schedule breaks, find someone to take over, set up your cared-for-person with the resources to care for themself as well as possible (do this anyway, of course—independence is generally good so far as it’s possible), and make the time/effort to get you what you need for you. Sleep, distraction, a change of scenery, whatever it may be.
Lastly: what if it’s you?
If you’re reading this and you’re the person who has the higher care needs, then firstly:all strength to you. You have the hardest job here; let’s not forget that.
About that independence: well-intentioned people may forget that, so don’t be afraid to remind them when “I would prefer to do that myself”. Maintaining independence is generally good for the health, even if sometimes it is more work for all concerned than someone else doing it for you. The goal, after all, is your wellbeing, so this shouldn’t be cast aside lightly.
On the flipside: you don’t have to be strong all the time; nobody should.
Being disabled can also be quite isolating (this is probably not a revelation to you), so if you can find community with other people with the same or similar condition(s), even if it’s just online, that can go a very, very long way to making things easier. Both practically, in terms of sharing tips, and psychologically, in terms of just not feeling alone.
See also: How To Beat Loneliness & Isolation
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