Don’t Love Needles? New Oral GLP-1 Med Works Just As Well!
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…and other items from this week’s health news:
GLP-1, easier
Orforglipron may sound like the name of a demon, or perhaps an elf, but in fact it’s the new GLP-1 drug in oral form, offering the benefits of other GLP-1 receptor agonists, but without having to do injections (and also without the resultant mountain of plastic waste from the disposable subcutaneous injection pens!).
It was tested in a 72-week, double-blind placebo-controlled trial across 136 sites in 10 countries, enrolling 1,613 adults with type 2 diabetes. Doses were escalated from 1 mg to 6 mg, 12 mg, or 36 mg.
There was a slight difference from many such studies though; whereas similar trials often prescribe a fixed 500-calorie deficit, participants were encouraged to use portion control, avoid skipping meals, prioritize protein- and fiber-rich foods, limit saturated fats, added sugar, and salt, and complete at least 150 minutes of physical activity each week. So, there’s a distinct diet-and-lifestyle element here too.
Still, the diet and lifestyle can’t take all the credit, as average weight reductions after 72 weeks were 5.5% (6 mg), 7.8% (12 mg), 10.5% (36 mg), and 2.2% (placebo).
It’s also worth noting that the medication improved blood sugar control, and produced only mild to moderate gastrointestinal side effects comparable to standard injectable GLP-1 therapies:
Read in full: Oral GLP-1 pill shows strong weight loss and blood sugar benefits in adults with diabetes
Related: 1 in 5 US Women Aged 50–64 Has Used GLP-1 RAs: What We’ve Learned
Good news for hot tub lovers this winter
No sauna available? The good news is that a hot tub outperforms them anyway. And, that doesn’t mean that it has to be a fancy one—a regular hot bath will work too.
The reason it has extra benefits is because hot tubs raise core temperature more strongly than saunas, producing greater cardiovascular, immune, and acute inflammatory responses.
As for why it does that even at the same temperatures, it’s because immersion limits your body’s ability to dissipate heat, so your core temperature rises more, boosting the blood flow and vascular stress that supports cardiovascular health.
Furthermore, when tested head-to-head, only hot-water immersion increased inflammatory cytokines and similar immune cell populations, indicating a measurable acute immune response (that’s good).
Read in full: New research shows hot tubs trigger surprising health benefits saunas don’t
Related: How Useful Is Hydrotherapy?
The DAMP harbingers of stroke
After an ischemic stroke, the brain launches an inflammatory “fire drill” that can either protect it or accidentally make things worse.
Specifically: when brain cells die, they spill distress molecules that kick the immune system into action, raising the inflammatory biomarkers IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-6. In the short term, this can breach the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and worsen injury. But when calmer signals like IL-10 and TGF-β take over, the brain finally gets a chance to rebuild blood vessels and repair tissue.
If measured, this can give doctors important clues about what’s going on (and thus how to treat it). For example:
- Early-rising markers help confirm a stroke sooner
- High CRP, IL-6, and MMP-9 levels predict slower recovery and higher complications
- Simple ratios such as NLR and SII give fast insight into risks like pneumonia and long-term disability
- Markers including SII, NLR, FAR, and CCR7+ T cells can even guide thrombectomy decisions
Based on these things, new therapies aim to calm harmful inflammation without shutting down the good kind. These include IL-1β-blocking antibodies, drugs that tune microglia towards healing modes, MMP inhibitors, and experimental miRNA-based treatments.
In other words: personalized treatment flowcharts guided by each patient’s biomarker profile (rather than guessing and hoping).
Read in full: Inflammatory biomarkers offer new insights for precision medicine in ischemic stroke
Related: Reduce Your Stroke Risk
Take care!
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Cantaloupe vs Cucumber – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing cantaloupe to cucumber, we picked the cucumber.
Why?
In terms of macros, both are of course 90–95% water, with just enough fiber to hold them together. However, it’s cantaloupe that’s 90% water and cucumber that’s 95% water, because cantaloupe has more than 2x the carbs and 144x the sugar (whence the sweetness). Now, it’s a fruit and so this sugar isn’t really anything to worry about if you’re eating it in solid form (as opposed to as juice), but by the numbers, it does mean that cucumber has the much lower glycemic index (cucumber has a GI of 21, while cantaloupe has a GI of 65), so we’ll give cucumber the win in this category.
In the category of vitamins, cantaloupe has more of vitamins A, B3, B6, B9, C, and E, while cucumber has more of vitamins B2, B5, and K, so cantaloupe scores a 6:3 win in this round.
When it comes to minerals, cantaloupe has more potassium and selenium, while cucumber has more calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc, so another win for cucumber here.
Looking at polyphenols, cantaloupe has almost nothing (trace amounts of some lignans), while cucumber has more of the same lignans that cantaloupe has, plus highly beneficial flavones apigenin and luteolin, and famously good flavonols like kaempferol and quercetin. So, one more win for cucumber here.
Plus, and it’s not yet known the mechanism of action for this one, but cucumber extract beats glucosamine and chondroitin for reducing joint inflammation, at 1/135th of the dose.
Adding up the sections makes for a very clear overall win for cucumber, but by all means enjoy either or both; diversity is good!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?
Enjoy!
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Prevention Is Better Than Cure
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.
Preventative healthcare is the theme this week:
New year, new risks
The start of a new year is a great time to update adult vaccinations, including the flu shot, any COVID-19 boosters, and vaccines for pneumonia, shingles, and tetanus—when was your last booster, after all? Vaccination recommendations vary by age and health conditions, so do check what’s appropriate in your case. Key vaccines include the pneumonia vaccine for those 65 and older, the shingles vaccine for adults over 50, and the Tdap vaccine every 10 years to protect against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (whooping cough), especially for new parents and grandparents, to protect infants:
Read in full: Why it’s important to update adult vaccinations for a new year
Related: The Truth About Vaccines
The heart-healthiest swap you can do
Based on a large (n=202,863, of which 160,123 women and 42,740 men) dataset, a higher plant-to-animal protein ratio is associated with significantly lower risks of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and coronary artery disease (CAD), with diets lower in meat (especially if lower in red meat) and instead rich in plant-based proteins like legumes, nuts, and whole grains reducing CVD risk by 19% and coronary artery disease risk by 27%. Which is quite considerable.
Substituting even small amounts of animal protein (especially if it’s red meat) with plant protein further enhances heart health:
Read in full: Higher plant-to-animal protein ratio linked to lower risk for CVD, CAD among U.S. adults
Related: Plant vs Animal Protein: Head to Head
Let’s keep pan-resistant superbugs at bay
Researchers want to warn us about the threat of pan-resistant bacteria, which could render all known antibiotics ineffective, leading to a sharp rise in global infection-related deaths.
To be clear, we don’t have anything pan-resistant yet, but antibiotic-resistant superbugs are getting close, and in the long term, are likely to win the evolutionary arms race if we don’t change things to diverge considerably from our current path. Modeling a hypothetical pan-resistant E. coli strain, researchers predicted U.S. sepsis deaths could increase 18- to 46-fold within five years of its emergence.
The study calls for urgent action, including stricter antibiotic stewardship, new drug development, and monitoring technologies, emphasizing that without intervention, the global impact could be catastrophic:
Read in full: A public health emergency is waiting at the bottom of the antibiotic resistance cliff
Related: Stop Sabotaging Your Immune System ← see also (linked therein), 4 ways antibiotics can kill you
Take care!
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2 Key Things Women Should Eat More Of In Midlife For Healthier Old Age
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…and other items from this week’s health news:
Don’t go against the grain
Researchers followed 47,513 women (not in the stalker sense, in the longitudinal cohort study sense) recording their diets and health for more than 30 years. Those who ate more high-quality carbohydrates and fiber in midlife were more likely to age healthily. So, per this study, that’s what it would be good to focus on eating now, to enjoy better health in older age.
These “high-quality” carbs came from foods rich in fiber like whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes, while those who ate more refined carbs, such as by added sugar, white flour products, and highly-processed potato products, did not age so well.
Notably, this association continued to hold true even when related factors such as total calorie intake were taken into account. This is important, as a lot of refined carbohydrate products are also very high in calories, so it was critical to check that it was the carb quality that truly mattered, not the calorie count:
Read in full: Midlife intakes of high-quality carbohydrates and dietary fiber linked to better health in older women
Related: What Do The Different Kinds Of Fiber Do? 30 Foods That Rank Highest
Federal research cuts: what the impact will be
As the US’s federal government makes research funding cuts and plans more, it’s easy to despair and think “so much less science will be done”.
And, that’s partly true (alas), but it’s worth noting that the funding cuts are not random or equal, rather, they are being disproportionately applied to areas of science that contradict the opinions of the government. Similar to the approaches of stopping COVID testing so that case rates will go down, and stopping food quality testing so that there won’t be recalls all the time, a “what we don’t know can’t hurt us” approach is not only not ideal for public health, but also, will likely end up resulting in very misleading publication bias (because studies that don’t get funded, won’t get published), which also means there will likely be, proportionally, a significant rise in privately-funded research—which, private interests being what they are, will invariably mean a commercial bias, as studies will be disproportionately funded by companies with things to sell, instead of the National Institute of Health with the primary goal of actually safeguarding the nation’s health.
This is not cheerful news, but the good news for the majority of people is that, per the below-linked report, things that affect minorities are first on the chopping block. So statistically, that’s probably not you, dear reader (because that’s how “minority” works statistically). But watch out, because “women” is also a category on the “DEI” list, and as the report also notes, this means that research into women’s health issues will likely be restricted further.
Read in full: Academic medical researchers face the reality of federal cuts
Related: Vaccine Mythbusting
“Beans, beans, good for your heart” is about more than just the fiber content
Amongst the world’s scientific community, it’s fairly uncontroversial that most people could stand to eat more plants and fewer animal products. While the scientific consensus doesn’t hold for outright veganism being critical for health (indeed, fermented dairy products and fish are considered healthy in moderation, and poultry appears to be at least neutral in moderation), the worst offenders are well-established as processed and/or red meat, with pork going into the same metabolic category notwithstanding not being a red meat per se, and unfermented dairy products being something of a mixed bag, healthwise.
Which means that enjoying a wide array of plants as one’s main source of protein is beneficial. Since heart disease remains a #1 killer in the US, it’s worth mentioning that enjoying more plant-based protein is a statistically safe bet:
❝For every 20 grams of plant-based protein consumed each day, the risk for hypertension decreased by 16% compared to those who ate the fewest plant foods.❞
(ideally not diversifying into a wide array of processed meat substitutes though; that increased blood pressure risk in the study, probably due to the increased sodium content that’s common in such products)
Read in full: Plant-based proteins may help lower high blood pressure risk, research indicates
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Small Changes For A Healthier Life
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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
I am interested in what I can substitute for ham in bean soup?
Well, that depends on what the ham was like! You can certainly buy ready-made vegan lardons (i.e. small bacon/ham bits, often in tiny cubes or similar) in any reasonably-sized supermarket. Being processed, they’re not amazing for the health, but are still an improvement on pork.
Alternatively, you can make your own seitan! Again, seitan is really not a health food, but again, it’s still relatively less bad than pork (unless you are allergic to gluten, in which case, definitely skip this one).
Alternatively alternatively, in a soup that already contains beans (so the protein element is already covered), you could just skip the ham as an added ingredient, and instead bring the extra flavor by means of a little salt, a little yeast extract (if you don’t like yeast extract, don’t worry, it won’t taste like it if you just use a teaspoon in a big pot, or half a teaspoon in a smaller pot), and a little smoked paprika. If you want to go healthier, you can swap out the salt for MSG, which enhances flavor in a similar fashion while containing less sodium.
Wondering about the health aspects of MSG? Check out our main feature on this, from last month:
I thoroughly enjoy your daily delivery. I’d love to see one for teens too!
That’s great to hear! The average age of our subscribers is generally rather older, but it’s good to know there’s an interest in topics for younger people. We’ll bear that in mind, and see what we can do to cater to that without alienating our older readers!
That said: it’s never too soon to be learning about stuff that affects us when we’re older—there are lifestyle factors at 20 that affect Alzheimer’s risk at 60, for example (e.g. drinking—excessive drinking at 20* is correlated to higher Alzheimer’s risk at 60).
*This one may be less of an issue for our US readers, since the US doesn’t have nearly as much of a culture of drinking under 21 as some places. Compare for example with general European practices of drinking moderately from the mid-teens, or the (happily, diminishing—but historically notable) British practice of drinking heavily from the mid-teens.
How much turmeric should I take each day?
Dr. Michael Greger’s research (of “Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen” and “How Not To Die” fame) recommends getting at least ¼ tsp turmeric per day
Remember to take it with black pepper though, for a 2000% absorption bonus!
A great way to get it, if you don’t want to take capsules and don’t want to eat spicy food every day, is to throw a teaspoon of turmeric in when making a pot of (we recommend wholegrain!) rice. Turmeric is very water-soluble, so it’ll be transferred into the rice easily during cooking. It’ll make the rice a nice golden yellow color, and/but won’t noticeably change the taste.
Again remember to throw in some black pepper, and if you really want to boost the nutritional content,some chia seeds are a great addition too (they’ll get cooked with the rice and so it won’t be like eating seeds later, but the nutrients will be there in the rice dish).
You can do the same with par-boiled potatoes or other root vegetables, but because cooking those has water to be thrown away at the end (unlike rice), you’ll lose some turmeric in the water.
Request: more people need to be aware of suicidal tendencies and what they can do to ward them off
That’s certainly a very important topic! We’ll cover that properly in one of our Psychology Sunday editions. In the meantime, we’ll mention a previous special that we did, that was mostly about handling depression (in oneself or a loved one), and obviously there’s a degree of crossover:
The Mental Health First-Aid That You’ll Hopefully Never Need
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Retrain Your Brain – by Dr. Seth Gillihan
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15-Minute Arabic”, “Sharpen Your Chess Tactics in 24 Hours”, “Change Your Life in 7 Days”, “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in 7 weeks”—all real books from this reviewer’s shelves.
The thing with books with these sorts of time periods in the titles is that the time period in the title often bears little relation to how long it takes to get through the book. So what’s the case here?
You’ll probably get through it in more like 7 days, but the pacing is more important than the pace. By that we mean:
Dr. Gillihan starts by assuming the reader is at best “in a rut”, and needs to first pick a direction to head in (the first “week”) and then start getting one’s life on track (the second “week”).
He then gives us, one by one, an array of tools and power-ups to do increasingly better. These tools aren’t just CBT, though of course that features prominently. There’s also mindfulness exercises, and holistic / somatic therapy too, for a real “bringing it all together” feel.
And that’s where this book excels—at no point is the reader left adrift with potential stumbling-blocks left unexamined. It’s a “whole course”.
Bottom line: whether it takes you 7 hours or 7 months, “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in 7 Weeks” is a CBT-and-more course for people who like courses to work through. It’ll get you where you’re going… Wherever you want that to be for you!
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Sesame Seeds vs Poppy Seeds – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing sesame seeds to poppy seeds, we picked the poppy seeds.
Why?
It’s close, and they’re both very respectable seeds!
In terms of macros, their protein content is the same, while poppy seeds have a little less fat and more carbs, as well as slightly more fiber. A moderate win for poppy seeds on this one.
About that fat… The lipid profiles here see poppy seeds with (as a percentage of total fat, so notwithstanding that poppy seeds have a little less fat overall) more polyunsaturated fat and less saturated fat. Another win for poppy seeds in this case.
In the category of vitamins, poppy seeds contain a lot more vitamins B5 & E while sesame seeds contain notably more vitamins B3, B6 and choline. Marginal win for sesame this time.
When it comes to minerals, poppy seeds contain rather more calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and manganese, while sesame seeds contain more copper, iron, and selenium. Marginal win for poppies here.
Note: it is reasonable to wonder about poppy seeds’ (especially unwashed poppy seeds’) opiate content. Indeed, they do contain opiates, and levels do vary, but to give you an idea: you’d need to eat, on average, 1kg (2.2lbs) of poppy seeds to get the same opiate content as a 30mg codeine tablet.
All in all, adding up the wins in each section, this one’s a moderate win for poppy seeds, but of course, enjoy both in moderation!
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
- Chia Seeds vs Flax Seeds – Which is Healthier?
- Sunflower Seeds vs Pumpkin Seeds – Which is Healthier?
- Hemp Seeds vs Flax Seeds – Which is Healthier?
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
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