Eat To Avoid (Or Beat) PCOS
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Polycystic ovary syndrome, PCOS, affects very many people; around 1 in 5 women. It can show up unexpectedly, and usually the first-identified sign is irregular vaginal bleeding. We say “vaginal” rather than “menstrual” as it’s not technically menses, although it’ll look (and can feel) the same.
Like many “affects mostly women” conditions, science’s general position is “we don’t know what causes it or how to cure it”.
Quick book recommendation before we continue:
Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World – by Dr. Elinor Cleghorn
…is a top-tier book about medical misogyny. We’d say more here, but well, you can read our review there 🙂
What doesn’t work
Since PCOS is characterized by excessive androgen production, it is reasonable to expect that foods containing phytoestrogens (such as soy) may help. They won’t. The human body can’t use those as estrogen, and in fact, consuming unusually large quantities of phytoestrogens can actually get in the way of your own (or bioidentical) estrogen, by competing for the same receptors but not really doing the job.
But, you won’t get that problem from moderate consumption of soy; the warning is more for those tempted to self-medicate with megadoses, or are opting for dubious supplements such as Pueraria mirifica ← will have to do a research review on that one of these days, but suffice it to say meanwhile, it has some serious drawbacks
See also: What Does “Balance Your Hormones” Even Mean?
What can work
There are some supplement-based approaches that actually can help, and those are the ones that rather than trying to manufacture estrogen out of thin air, work to reduce testosterone and/or reduce the conversion of free testosterone to its more potent form, dihydrogen testosterone (DHT); here are two examples:
- Licorice, Digestion, & Hormones
- One Man’s Saw Palmetto Is Another Woman’s Serenoa Repens ← this one has the most evidence of the two
What will work
…or at least, barring additional confounding factors, what the evidence strongly supports working. Here’s where we get into diet properly, and there are three main dietary approaches:
Low-GI diet: focus on high-fiber, low-carb foods (e.g. whole grains, legumes, berries, leafy greens). Eating this way results in improved insulin sensitivity, lower fasting insulin, cholesterol, triglycerides, waist circumference, and (for women) yes, lower testosterone levels.
See: What Do The Different Kinds Of Fiber Do? 30 Foods That Rank Highest
High antioxidant diet: focus on foods rich in antioxidants (e.g. vitamin A, α-tocopherol specifically, vitamins C and D, and polyphenols) as these lower PCOS incidence.
See: 21 Most Beneficial Polyphenols & What Foods Have Them
Ketogenic diet: focus on high-fat, very low-carb foods (e.g. fatty fish, dairy, leafy greens). This significantly reduces androgen levels, improves insulin sensitivity, and regulates hormones. But… It’s recommended for short-term use only due to its negative health impacts from poor (i.e. narrow) nutritional coverage:
See: Ketogenic Diet: Burning Fat, Or Burning Out?
It is also reasonable to supplement, for example:
❝Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D have powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that significantly improve insulin sensitivity and reduce androgen levels in metabolic syndromes like PCOS. A higher intake of omega-3 and vitamin E also alleviates mental health parameters and gene expression of PPAR-γ, IL-8, and TNF-α in women with PCOS.
Dietary supplements, such as antioxidants like N-acetylcysteine (NAC), vitamin D, inositol, and omega-3 fatty acids, and mineral supplements (zinc, magnesium selenium, and chromium) help in reducing insulin resistance. These supplements also enhance ovulatory function and decrease inflammation in PCOS patients.
Omega-3 fatty acid supplements improve biochemical parameters LH, LH/FSH, lipid profiles, and adiponectin levels and regularize the menstrual cycle in women with PCOS. A recent RCT also indicated that probiotic/symbiotic supplementation significantly improves triglyceride, insulin, and HDL levels in women with PCOS.❞
Source: The Role of Lifestyle Interventions in PCOS Management: A Systematic Review
Want to know more?
You might like this book that we reviewed a little while back:
PCOS Repair Protocol – by Tamika Woods
Take care!
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Celeriac vs Zucchini – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing celeriac to zucchini, we picked the celeriac.
Why?
Both have their merits! But…
In terms of macros, the celeriac has nearly 2x the fiber, more than 2x the carbs, and slightly more protein, winning in this category.
In the category of vitamins, celeriac has more of vitamins B1, B3, B5, B7, E, and K, while zucchini has more of vitamins B2, B9, and C, yielding a 6:3 win to celeriac here.
Looking at minerals, celeriac has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while zucchini has a tiny bit more manganese, making this round another compelling win for celeriac.
In other considerations, celeriac also has slightly more polyphenols (most notably quercetin), but it’s a tiny difference. Realistically, we could call this last round a tie.
Adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for celeriac, but by all means do enjoy either or both, as diversity is best!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?
Enjoy!
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Exosomes vs Hair Loss: Do They Really 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.
Dr. Andrea Suarez, dermatologist, talks us through the science:
The Exo factor
First, what exosomes actually are: tiny membrane-bound packages naturally released by cells that carry an assortment of proteins, lipids, DNA fragments, messenger RNA, microRNA, growth factors, and other signalling molecules whose function is to communicate with nearby cells. They are being investigated as a regenerative treatment for hair loss.
No, they are not the same as stem cells: exosomes are not living cells. Unlike stem cells, they cannot divide, become new cells, or create new hair follicles. Instead, they (as best we currently understand it) rather influence the behaviour of existing cells.
As for why researchers are looking into them for treating hair loss, studies (mentioned in the video but sadly not actually given as references) do suggest exosomes can stimulate dermal papilla cells, encourage blood vessel formation, reduce inflammation, and activate pathways involved in hair growth, including Wnt, VEGF, and TGF-beta signalling. These effects could help keep hair follicles in the active growth (anagen) phase.
However: current human evidence is limited. For example, at best, a systematic review found that only 11 clinical studies met quality criteria from more than 2,000 screened studies. Altogether, they included fewer than 300 patients, and only two were randomized controlled trials*.
*We wish she’d given the link to this systematic review, as we’re curious as to the soundness of the methodology of those two RCTs, and also who paid for them (a lot of this kind of research is funded by beauty companies, which introduces a conflict of interest, and even in the absence of outright corruption, introduces a publication bias as the company can pull funding of studies that aren’t going the way they want, or cut funding at just the right time to do p-hacking of the results).
It’s also worth noting the heterogeneity of studies, as no single exosome treatment exists. Unlike medications such as minoxidil, “exosome therapy” is not one standardized product. Different manufacturers use exosomes from different sources, including fat tissue, placenta, umbilical cord, bone marrow, hair follicles, foreskin, and even plants. That makes it hard to compile a meaningful amount of data if one study’s about one kind of exosome and the next is about another.
All that said, early results are encouraging, so far: most studies reported improvements in at least one measure of hair growth, including increased hair density, thicker hairs, and high patient satisfaction. No serious side effects were reported within these small studies. So that is all superficially looking promising; it’s just very far from compelling as yet.
In short, the honest answer to the question posed in the title is “we don’t know yet”.
And that may seem a disappointing answer, but we believe it’s far better than just spinning things one way or the other to make for a more exciting answer.
Perhaps more importantly, “we don’t know yet” can be followed up with “and if anyone claims they do know, examine where that answer of theirs is coming from”!
For more on all of this as well as some alternatives (nothing that will surprise regular 10almonds readers, as we’ve talked about all the alternatives before), enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
How Science News Outlets Can Lie To You (Yes, Even If They Cite Studies!)
Take care!
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Cashews vs Pecans – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing cashews to pecans, we picked the cashews, but it was very close!.
Why?
In terms of macros, cashews have 2x the protein while pecans have 3x the fiber and about 60% more fat. As both of these nuts thus have quite a lot going for them in terms of macros, which is better is somewhat subjective, so for simplicity’s sake we’ll call this round a tie, but the above information is worth bearing in mind.
In the category of vitamins, cashews have more of vitamins B5, B6, B7, B9, and K, while pecans have more of vitamins B1, B2, C, and E, making a very marginal win for cashews, though it is worth noting that the biggest margin of difference was in the case of vitamin K, wherein cashews have about 9x more, which may be considered an additional point in cashews’ favor, as most of the other differences were around 1x more or less.
When it comes to minerals, cashews have more copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while pecans have more calcium and manganese. An easy win for cashews in this round.
Adding up the sections makes for an overall win for cashews, but pecans have a lot going for them too (especially that fiber and the healthy fats), so by all means (assuming no nut allergy) enjoy either or both; diversity is good!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Why You Should Diversify Your Nuts!
Enjoy!
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Escape Self-Sabotage
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Stop Making The Same Mistakes
It’s easy to think that a self-destructive cycle is easy to avoid if you have no special will to self-destruction. However, the cycle is sneaky.
It’s sneaky because it can be passive, and/or omissions rather than actions, procrastinations rather than obvious acts of impulse, and so forth.
So, they’re often things that specifically aren’t there to see.
How to catch them
How often do you think “I wish I had [done xyz]” or “I wish I had [done yxz] sooner”?
Now, how often have you thought that about the same thing more than once? For example, “I should have kept up my exercise”.
For things like this, habit-trackers are a great way to, well, keep track of habits. If for example you planned to do a 10-minute exercise session daily but you’ve been postponing it since you got distracted on January the 2nd, then it’ll highlight that. See also:
How To Really Pick Up (And Keep!) Those Habits
Speaking of habits, this goes for other forms of procrastination, too. For example, if you are always slow to get medical check-ups, or renew your prescriptions, or get ready for some regularly-occurring thing in your schedule, then set a reminder in your preferred way (phone app, calendar on the wall, whatever) and when the appointed time arrives (to book the check-up, renew the prescription, do your taxes, whatever), do it on the day you set your reminder for, as a personal rule for you that you keep to, barring extreme calamity.
By “extreme calamity” we mean less “running late today” and more “house burned down”.
Digital traps
Bad habits can be insidious in other ways too, like getting sucked into social media scrolling (it is literally designed to do that to you; you are not immune modern programming hijacking evolutionary dopamine responses).
Setting a screentime limit (you can specify “just these apps” if you like) will help with this. On most devices, this feature includes a sticky notification in the notification bar, that’ll remind you “27 out of 30 minutes remaining” or whatever you set it for. That’ll remind you to do what you went there to do, instead of getting caught in the endless scroll (and if you went there to just browse, to do so briefly).
Here’s how to set that:
Instructions for iOS devices | Instructions for Android devices
Oh, and on the topic of social media? If you find yourself getting caught up in unproductive arguments on the Internet, try the three-response rule:
- You reply; they reply (no progress made)
- You reply; they reply (still no progress made)
- You reply; they reply (still yet no progress made)
You reply just one more time: “I have a personal rule that if I’m arguing on the Internet and no progress has been made after three replies, I don’t reply further—I find this is helpful to avoid a lot of time lost to pointless arguing that isn’t going anywhere. Best wishes.”
(and then stick to it, no matter how they try to provoke you; best is to just not look until at least the next day)
When “swept up in love” gets to one of those little whirlpools…
The same works in personal relationships, by the way. If for example you are arguing with a loved one and not making progress, it can be good if you both have a pre-arranged agreement that either of you can, up to once on any given day, invoke a “time-out” (e.g. 30 minutes, but you agree the time between you when you first make this standing policy) during which you will both keep out of the other’s way, and come back with a more productive head on (remembering that things go best when it’s you both vs the problem, rather than vs each other).
See also:
Seriously Useful Communication Skills: Conflict Resolution
What if the self-sabotaging cycle is active and apparent?
Well, that is less sneaky, but certainly no less serious, and sometimes moreso. An obvious example is drinking too much; this is often cyclical in nature. We wrote about this one previously:
That article’s alcohol-specific, but the same advices go for other harmful activities, including other substance abuse (which in turn includes binge-eating), as well psychological addictions (such as gambling, for example).
Finally…
If your destructive cycle is more of a rut you’ve got stuck in, a common advice is to change something, anything, to get out of the rut.
That can be very bad advice! Because sometimes the change you go for is absolutely not the change that was needed, and is rather just cracking under pressure and doing something impulsive.
Here’s one way to actively get out of a slump:
Behavioral Activation Against Depression & Anxiety
Note: you do not have to be depressed or anxious to do this. But the point is, it’s a tool you can use even if you are depressed and/or anxious, so it’s a good thing to try for getting out of most kinds of slumps.
And really finally, here’s a resource for, well, the title speaks for itself:
When You Know What You “Should” Do (But Knowing Isn’t The Problem)
Take care!
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Take These To Lower Cholesterol! (Statin Alternatives)
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Dr. Ada Ozoh, a diabetes specialist, took an interest in this upon noting the many-headed beast that is metabolic syndrome means that neither diabetes nor cardiovascular disease exist in a vacuum, and there are some things that can help a lot against both. Here she shares some of her top recommendations:
Statin-free options
Dr. Ozoh recommends:
- Bergamot: lowers LDL (“bad” cholesterol) by about 30% and slightly increases HDL (“good” cholesterol), at 500–1000mg/day, seeing results in 1–6 months
- Berberine: prevents fat absorption and helps burn stored fat, as well as reducing blood sugar levels and blood pressure, at 1,500mg/day
- Silymarin: protects the liver, and lowers cholesterol in type 2 diabetes, at 280–420mg/day
- Phytosterols: lower cholesterol by about 10%; found naturally in many plants, but it takes supplementation to read the needed (for this purpose) dosage of 2g/day
- Red yeast rice: this is white rice fermented with yeast, and it lowers LDL cholesterol by about 25%, seeing results in around 3 months
For more information on all of the above (including more details on the biochemistry, as well as potential issues to be aware of), enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
- Statins: His & Hers? Very Different For Men & Women
- Berberine For Metabolic Health
- Milk Thistle For The Brain, Bones, & More ← this is about silymarin, which is extracted from Silybum marianum, the milk thistle plant
Take care!
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:
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The Fast-Mimicking Diet
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.
Live, Fast, Live Long
This is Dr. Valter Longo. He’s a biogerontologist and cell biologist, whose work has focused on fasting and nutrient response genes, and how we can leverage them against diseases and aging in general.
We reviewed his book recently:
What does he want us to know?
What to eat
Dr. Longo recommends a mostly plant-based diet (especially vegetables, whole grains, and legumes), but also having some fish. The bulk of our dietary fats, however, he says are best coming from olive oil and nuts.
He also advises aiming for nutritional density of vitamins and minerals in our diet, and/but supplementing with a multivitamin once every few days to cover any gaps.
If in doubt choosing between plant-based whole foods, he recommends that we choose those our ancestors will have eaten.
Read more: Longevity Diet For Adults
When to eat
Dr. Longo recommends time-restricted eating within a 12-hour window per day.
See also: Intermittent Fasting: We Sort The Science From The Hype
However, he also recommends (additionally or separately; it’s up to us; additionally is better but the point is it still has excellent benefits separately too) his “fast-mimicking diet” (FMD), which involves eating according to what we said in “What to eat”, but restricting it to 750 kcal per day, 5 days in a row, but not necessarily 5 days per week.
For example, the following was a 3-month study that involved doing this for only one 5-day cycle per month:
❝Three FMD cycles reduced body weight, trunk, and total body fat; lowered blood pressure; and decreased insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). No serious adverse effects were reported.
A post hoc analysis of subjects from both FMD arms showed that body mass index, blood pressure, fasting glucose, IGF-1, triglycerides, total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and C-reactive protein were more beneficially affected in participants at risk for disease than in subjects who were not at risk.
Thus, cycles of a 5-day FMD are safe, feasible, and effective in reducing markers/risk factors for aging and age-related diseases.❞
~ Dr. Min Wei et al. ← Dr. Longo was
Note: the introduction mentions FMD in mice, but this is just referencing previous studies. This study is about FMD in humans!
Read in full: Fasting-mimicking diet and markers/risk factors for aging, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease
Want to know more?
You might like this (text-based) interview with Dr. Longo, with the Health Sciences Academy:
Eat, fast and live longer? Interview with Professor Valter Longo
Take care!
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:
