Eat to Beat Disease – by Dr. William Li

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Dr. William Li asks the important question: is your diet feeding disease, or defeating it?

Because everything we put in our bodies makes our health just a little better—or just a little worse. Ok, sometimes a lot worse.

But for most people, when it comes to diet, it’s a death of a thousand cuts of unhealthy food. And that’s what he looks to fix with this book.

The good news: Dr. Li (while not advocating for unhealthy eating, of course), focuses less on what to restrict, and more on what to include. This book covers hundreds of such healthy foods, and ideas (practical, useful ones!) on incorporating them daily, including dozens of recipes.

He mainly looks at five ways our food can help us with…

  1. Angiogenesis (blood vessel replacement)
  2. Regeneration (of various bodily organs and systems)
  3. Microbiome health (and all of its knock-on effects)
  4. DNA protection (and thus slower cellular aging)
  5. Immunity (defending the body while also reducing autoimmune problems)

The style is simple and explanatory; Dr. Li is a great educator. Reading this isn’t a difficult read, but you’ll come out of it feeling like you just did a short course in health science.

Bottom line: if you’d like an easy way to improve your health in an ongoing and sustainable way, then this book can help you do just that.

Click here to check out Eat To Beat Disease, and eat to beat disease!

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  • How Much Difference Do Probiotic Supplements Make, Really?

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    How Much Difference Do Probiotic Supplements Make?

    There are three main things that get talked about with regard to gut health:

    • Prebiotics (fibrous foods)
    • Probiotics (things containing live “good” bacteria)
    • Postbiotics (things to help them thrive)

    Today we’ll be talking about probiotics, but if you’d like a refresher on general gut health, here’s our previous main feature:

    Making Friends With Your Gut (You Can Thank Us Later)

    What bacteria are in probiotics?

    There are many kinds, but the most common by far are Lactobacillus sp. and Bifidobacteria sp.

    Taxonomical note:sp.” just stands for “species”. The first name is the genus, which contains a plurality of (sometimes, many) species.

    Lactobacillus acidophilus, also written L. acidophilus, is a common species of Lactobacillus sp. in probiotics.

    Bifidobacterium bifidum, also written B. bifidum, is a common species of Bifidobacterium sp. in probiotics.

    What difference do they make?

    First, and perhaps counterintuitively, putting more bacteria into your gut has a settling effect on the digestion. In particular, probiotics have been found effective against symptoms of IBS and ulcerative colitis, (but not Crohn’s):

    Probiotics are also helpful against diarrhea, including that caused by infections and/or antibiotics, as well as to reduce antibiotic resistance:

    Probiotics also boost the immune system outside of the gut, too, for example reducing the duration of respiratory infections:

    Multi-Strain Probiotic Reduces the Duration of Acute Upper Respiratory Disease in Older People: A Double-Blind, Randomised, Controlled Clinical Trial

    You may recallthe link between gut health and brain health, thanks in large part to the vagus nerve connecting the two:

    The Brain-Gut Highway: A Two-Way Street

    No surprises, then, that probiotics benefit mental health. See:

    There are so many kinds; which should I get?

    Diversity is good, so more kinds is better. However, if you have specific benefits you’d like to enjoy, you may want to go stronger on particular strains:

    Choosing an appropriate probiotic product for your patient: An evidence-based practical guide

    Where can I get them?

    We don’t sell them, but here’s an example product on Amazon, for your convenience.

    Alternatively, you can check out today’s sponsor, who also sell such; we recommend comparing products and deciding which will be best for you

    Enjoy!

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  • Antihistamines for Runny Nose?

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    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 😎

    ❝Do you have any articles about using Anti-Histamines? My nose seems to be running a lot. I don’t have a cold or any allergies that I know of. I tried a Nasal spray Astepro, but it doesn’t do much.?❞

    Just for you, we wrote such an article yesterday in response to this question!

    The Astepro that you tried, by the way, is a brand name of the azelastine we mentioned near the end, before we got to talking about systemic corticosteroids such as beclometasone dipropionate—this latter might help you if antihistamines haven’t, and if your doctor advises there’s no contraindication (for most people it is safe for there are exceptions, such as if you are immunocompromised and/or currently fighting some infection).

    You can find more details on all this in yesterday’s article, which in case you missed it, can be found at:

    Antihistamines’ Generation Gap: Are You Ready For Allergy Season?

    Enjoy!

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  • What Does “Balance Your Hormones” Even Mean?

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    Hormonal Health: Is It Really A Balancing Act?

    Have you ever wondered what “balancing your hormones” actually means?

    The popular view is that men’s hormones look like this:

    Testosterone (less) ⟷ Testosterone (more)

    …And that women’s hormones look more like this:

    ♀︎ Estrogen ↭ Progesterone ⤵︎

    ⇣⤷ FSH ⤦ ↴ ☾ ⤹⤷ Luteinizing Hormone ⤦

    DHEA ↪︎ Gonadotrophin ⤾

    ↪︎ Testosterone? ⥅⛢

    Clear as mud, right?

    But, don’t worry, Supplements McHerbal Inc will sell you something guaranteed to balance your hormones!

    How can a supplement (or dietary adjustment) “balance” all that hotly dynamic chaos, and make everything “balanced”?

    The truth is, “balanced” in such a nebulous term, and this is why you will not hear endocrinologists using it. It’s used in advertising to mean “in good order”, and “not causing problems”, and “healthy”.

    In reality, our hormone levels depend on everything from our diet to our age to our anatomy to our mood to the time of the day to the phase of the moon.

    Not that the moon has an influence on our physiology at all—that’s a myth—but you know, 28 day cycle and all. And, yes, half the hormones affect the levels of the others, either directly or indirectly.

    Trying to “balance” them would be quite a game of whack-a-mole, and not something that a “cure-all” single “hormone-balancing” supplement could do.

    So why aren’t we running this piece on Friday, for our “mythbusting” section? Well, we could have, but the more useful information is yet to come and will take up more of today’s newsletter than the myth-busting!

    What, then, can we do to untangle the confusion of these hormones?

    Well first, let’s understand what they do, in the most simple terms possible:

    • Estrogen—the most general feminizing hormone from puberty onwards, busiest in the beginning of the menstrual cycle, and starts getting things ready for ovulation.
    • Progesteronesecondary feminizing hormone, fluffs the pillows for the oncoming fertilized egg to be implanted, increases sex drive, and adjusts metabolism accordingly. Busiest in the second half of the menstrual cycle.
    • Testosterone—is also present, contributes to sex drive, is often higher in individuals with PCOS. If menopause is untreated, testosterone will also rise, because there will be less estrogen
      • (testosterone and estrogen “antagonize” each other, which is the colorfully scientific way of saying they work against each other)
      • DHEA—Dehydroepiandrosterone, supports production of testosterone (and estrogen!). Sounds self-balancing, but in practice, too much DHEA can thus cause elevated testosterone levels, and thus hirsutism.
    • Gonadotrophin—or more specifically human chorionic gonadotrophin, HcG, is “the pregnancy hormone“, present only during pregnancy, and has specific duties relating to such. This is what’s detected in (most) pregnancy test kits.
    • FSH—follicle stimulating hormone, is critical to ovulation, and is thus essential to female fertility. On the other hand, when the ovaries stop working, FSH levels will rise in a vain attempt to encourage the ovulation that isn’t going to happen anymore.
    • Luteinizing hormone—says “go” to the new egg and sends it on its merry way to go get fertilized. This is what’s detected by ovulation prediction kits.

    Sooooooo…

    What, for most women, most often is meant by a “hormonal imbalance” is:

    • Low levels of E and/or P
    • High levels of DHEA and/or T
    • Low or High levels of FSH

    In the case of low levels of E and/or P, the most reliable way to increase these is, drumroll please… To take E and/or P. That’s it, that’s the magic bullet.

    Bonus Tip: take your E in the morning (this is when your body will normally make more and use more) take your P in the evening (it won’t make you sleepy, but it will improve your sleep quality when you do sleep)

    In the case of high levels of DHEA and/or T, then that’s a bit more complex:

    • Taking E will antagonize (counteract) the unwanted T.
    • Taking T-blockers (such as spironolactone or bicalutamide) will do what it says on the tin, and block T from doing the jobs it’s trying to do, but the side-effects are considered sufficient to not prescribe them to most people.
    • Taking spearmint or saw palmetto will lower testosterone’s effects
      • Scientists aren’t sure how or why spearmint works for this
      • Saw palmetto blocks testosterone’s conversion into a more potent form, DHT, and so “detoothes” it a bit. It works similarly to drugs such as finasteride, often prescribed for androgenic alopecia, called “male pattern baldness”, but it affects plenty of women too.

    In the case of low levels of FSH, eating leafy greens will help.

    In the case of high levels of FSH, see a doctor. HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) may help. If you’re not of menopausal age, it could be a sign something else is amiss, so it could be worth getting that checked out too.

    What can I eat to boost my estrogen levels naturally?

    A common question. The simple answer is:

    • Flaxseeds and soy contain plant estrogens that the body can’t actually use as such (too incompatible). They’ve lots of high-quality nutrients though, and the polyphenols and isoflavones can help with some of the same jobs when it comes to sexual health.
    • Fruit, especially peaches, apricots, blueberries, and strawberries, contain a lot of lignans and also won’t increase your E levels as such, but will support the same functions and reduce your breast cancer risk.
    • Nuts, especially almonds (yay!), cashews, and pistachios, contain plant estrogens that again can’t be used as bioidentical estrogen (like you’d get from your ovaries or the pharmacy) but do support heart health.
    • Leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables support a lot of bodily functions including good hormonal health generally, in ways that are beyond the scope of this article, but in short: do eat your greens!

    Note: because none of these plant-estrogens or otherwise estrogenic nutrients can actually do the job of estradiol (the main form of estrogen in your body), this is why they’re still perfectly healthy for men to eat too, and—contrary to popular “soy boy” social myths—won’t have any feminizing effects whatsoever.

    On the contrary, most of the same foods support good testosterone-related health in men.

    The bottom line:

    • Our hormones are very special, and cannot be replaced with any amount of herbs or foods.
    • We can support our body’s natural hormonal functions with good diet, though.
    • Our hormones naturally fluctuate, and are broadly self-correcting.
    • If something gets seriously out of whack, you need an endocrinologist, not a homeopath or even a dietician.

    In case you missed it…

    We gave a more general overview of supporting hormonal health (including some hormones that aren’t sex hormones but are really important too), back in February.

    Check it out here: Healthy Hormones And How To Hack Them

    Want to read more?

    Anthea Levi, RD, takes much the same view:

    ❝For some ‘hormone-balancing’ products, the greatest risk might simply be lost dollars. Others could come at a higher cost.❞

    Read: Are Hormone-Balancing Products a Scam?

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  • Managing Chronic Pain (Realistically!)

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    Realistic chronic pain management

    We’ve had a number of requests to do a main feature on managing chronic pain, so here it is!

    A quick (but important) note before we begin:

    Obviously, not all chronic pain is created equal. Furthermore, we know that you, dear reader with chronic pain, have been managing yours for however long you have, learning as you go. You also doubtlessly know your individual condition inside out.

    We also know that people with chronic health conditions in general are constantly beset by well-meaning unsolicited advice from friends and family, asking if you’ve heard about [thing you heard about 20 years ago] that will surely change your life and cure you overnight.

    It’s frustrating, and we’re going to try to avoid doing that here, while still offering the advice that was asked for. We ask you, therefore, to kindly overlook whatever you already knew, and if you already knew it all, well, we salute you and will not be surprised if that’s the case for at least some readers. Chronic pain’s a… Well, it’s a chronic pain.

    All that said, let’s dive in…

    How are you treating your body right now?

    Are you hydrated; have you eaten; are you standing/sitting/lying in a position that at least should be comfortable for you in principle?

    The first two things affect pain perception; the latter can throw a spanner in the works if something’s not quite right.

    Move your body (gently!)

    You know your abilities, so think about the range of motion that you have, especially in the parts of your body that hurt (if that’s “everywhere”, then, our sympathies, and we hope you find the same advice applies). Think about your specific muscles and joints as applicable, and what the range of motion is “supposed” to be for each. Exercise your range of motion as best you can (gently!) to the point of its limit(s) and/or pain.

    • If you take it past that limit, there is a good chance you will make it worse. You don’t want that.
    • If you don’t take it to the limit, there is a good chance your range of movement will deteriorate, and your “safe zone” (i.e., body positions that are relatively free from pain) will diminish. You definitely don’t want that, either.

    Again, moderation is key. Yes, annoying as the suggestion may be, such things as yoga etc can help, if done carefully and gently. You know your limits; work with those, get rest between, and do what you can.

    For most people this will at least help keep the pain from getting worse.

    Hot & Cold

    Both of these things could ease your pain… Or make it worse. There is an element of “try it and see”, but here’s a good general guide:

    Here’s How to Choose Between Using Ice or Heat for Pain

    Meditation… Or Distraction

    Meditating really does help a lot of people. In the case of pain, it can be counterintuitively helpful to focus for a while on the sensation of the pain… But in a calm, detached fashion. Without judgement.

    “Yes, I am experiencing pain. Yes, it feels like I’m being stabbed with hot knives. Yes, this is tortuous; wow, I feel miserable. This truly sucks.”

    …it doesn’t sound like a good experience, does it? And it’s not, but paying it attention this way can paradoxically help ease things. Pain is, after all, a messenger. And in the case of chronic pain, it’s in some ways a broken messenger, but what a messenger most needs is to be heard.

    The above approach a) is good b) may have a limit in how long you can sustain it at a time, though. So…

    The opposite is a can be a good (again, short-term) approach too. Call a friend, watch your favorite movie, play a video game if that’s your thing. It won’t cure anything, but it can give you a little respite.

    Massage

    Unless you already know this makes your pain worse, this is a good thing to try. It doesn’t have to be a fancy spa; if the nature of your pain and condition permits, you can do self-massage. If you have a partner or close friend who can commit to helping, it can be very worth them learning to give a good massage. There are often local courses available, and failing that, there is also YouTube.

    Here’s an example of a good video for myofascial release massage, which can ease a lot of common kinds of chronic pain:

    !

    Some quick final things to remember:

    • If you find something helps, then it helps, do that.
    • That goes for mobility aids and other disability aids too, even if it was designed for a different disability. If it helps, it helps. You’re not stealing anyone’s thunder (or resources) by using something that makes your life easier. We’re not in this life to suffer!
    • There is no such thing as “this pain is not too much”. The correct amount of pain is zero. Maybe your body won’t let you reach zero, but more than that is “too much” already.
    • You don’t have to be suffering off the scale to deserve relief from pain

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  • A new emergency procedure for cardiac arrests aims to save more lives – here’s how it works

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    As of January this year, Aotearoa New Zealand became just the second country (after Canada) to adopt a groundbreaking new procedure for patients experiencing cardiac arrest.

    Known as “double sequential external defibrillation” (DSED), it will change initial emergency response strategies and potentially improve survival rates for some patients.

    Surviving cardiac arrest hinges crucially on effective resuscitation. When the heart is working normally, electrical pulses travel through its muscular walls creating regular, co-ordinated contractions.

    But if normal electrical rhythms are disrupted, heartbeats can become unco-ordinated and ineffective, or cease entirely, leading to cardiac arrest.

    Defibrillation is a cornerstone resuscitation method. It gives the heart a powerful electric shock to terminate the abnormal electrical activity. This allows the heart to re-establish its regular rhythm.

    Its success hinges on the underlying dysfunctional heart rhythm and the proper positioning of the defibrillation pads that deliver the shock. The new procedure will provide a second option when standard positioning is not effective.

    Using two defibrillators

    During standard defibrillation, one pad is placed on the right side of the chest just below the collarbone. A second pad is placed below the left armpit. Shocks are given every two minutes.

    Early defibrillation can dramatically improve the likelihood of surviving a cardiac arrest. However, around 20% of patients whose cardiac arrest is caused by “ventricular fibrillation” or “pulseless ventricular tachycardia” do not respond to the standard defibrillation approach. Both conditions are characterised by abnormal activity in the heart ventricles.

    DSED is a novel method that provides rapid sequential shocks to the heart using two defibrillators. The pads are attached in two different locations: one on the front and side of the chest, the other on the front and back.

    A single operator activates the defibrillators in sequence, with one hand moving from the first to the second. According to a recent randomised trial in Canada, this approach could more than double the chances of survival for patients with ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia who are not responding to standard shocks.

    The second shock is thought to improve the chances of eliminating persistent abnormal electrical activity. It delivers more total energy to the heart, travelling along a different pathway closer to the heart’s left ventricle.

    Evidence of success

    New Zealand ambulance data from 2020 to 2023 identified about 1,390 people who could potentially benefit from novel defibrillation methods. This group has a current survival rate of only 14%.

    Recognising the potential for DSED to dramatically improve survival for these patients, the National Ambulance Sector Clinical Working Group updated the clinical procedures and guidelines for emergency medical services personnel.

    The guidelines now specify that if ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia persist after two shocks with standard defibrillation, the DSED method should be administered. Two defibrillators need to be available, and staff must be trained in the new approach.

    Though the existing evidence for DSED is compelling, until recently it was based on theory and a small number of potentially biased observational studies. The Canadian trial was the first to directly compare DSED to standard treatment.

    From a total of 261 patients, 30.4% treated with this strategy survived, compared to 13.3% when standard resuscitation protocols were followed.

    The design of the trial minimised the risk of other factors confounding results. It provides confidence that survival improvements were due to the defibrillation approach and not regional differences in resources and training.

    The study also corroborates and builds on existing theoretical and clinical scientific evidence. As the trial was stopped early due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the researchers could recruit fewer than half of the numbers planned for the study.

    Despite these and other limitations, the international group of experts that advises on best practice for resuscitation updated its recommendations in 2023 in response to the trial results. It suggested (with caution) that emergency medical services consider DSED for patients with ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia who are not responding to standard treatment.

    Training and implementation

    Although the evidence is still emerging, implementation of DSED by emergency services in New Zealand has implications beyond the care of patients nationally. It is also a key step in advancing knowledge about optimal resuscitation strategies globally.

    There are always concerns when translating an intervention from a controlled research environment to the relative disorder of the real world. But the balance of evidence was carefully considered before making the decision to change procedures for a group of patients who have a low likelihood of survival with current treatment.

    Before using DSED, emergency medical personnel undergo mandatory education, simulation and training. Implementation is closely monitored to determine its impact.

    Hospitals and emergency departments have been informed of the protocol changes and been given opportunities to ask questions and give feedback. As part of the implementation, the St John ambulance service will perform case reviews in addition to wider monitoring to ensure patient safety is prioritised.

    Ultimately, those involved are optimistic this change to cardiac arrest management in New Zealand will have a positive impact on survival for affected patients.The Conversation

    Vinuli Withanarachchie, PhD candidate, College of Health, Massey University; Bridget Dicker, Associate Professor of Paramedicine, Auckland University of Technology, and Sarah Maessen, Research Associate, Auckland University of Technology

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • 16 Overlooked Autistic Traits In Women

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    We hear a lot about “autism moms”, but Taylor Heaton is an autistic mom, diagnosed as an adult, and she has insights to share about overlooked autistic traits in women.

    The Traits

    • Difficulty navigating romantic relationships: often due to misreading signs
    • Difficulty understanding things: including the above, but mostly: difficulty understanding subtext, when people leave things as “surely obvious”. Autistic women are likely to be aware of the possible meanings, but unsure which it might be, and may well guess wrongly.
    • Masking: one of the reasons for the gender disparity in diagnosis is that autistic women are often better at “masking”, that is to say, making a conscious effort to blend in to allistic society—often as a result of being more societally pressured to do so.
    • Honesty: often to a fault
    • Copy and paste: related to masking, this is about consciously mirroring others in an effort to put them at ease and be accepted
    • Being labelled sensitive and/or gifted: usually this comes at a young age, but the resultant different treatment can have a lifetime effect
    • Secret stims: again related to masking, and again for the same reasons that displaying autistic symptoms is often treated worse in women, autistic women’s stims tend to be more subtle.
    • Written communication: autistic women are often more comfortable with the written word than the spoken
    • Leadership: autistic women will often gravitate to leadership roles, partly as a survival mechanism
    • Gaslighting: oneself, e.g. “If this person did this without that, then I can to” (without taking into account that maybe the circumstances are different, or maybe they actually did lean on crutches that you didn’t know were there, etc).
    • Inner dialogue: rich inner dialogue, but unable to express it outwardly—often because of the sheer volume of thoughts per second.
    • Fewer female friends: often few friends overall, for that matter, but there’s often a gender imbalance towards male friends, or where there isn’t, towards more masculine friends at least.
    • Feeling different: often a matter of feeling one does not meet standard expectations in some fashion
    • School: autistic women are often academically successful
    • Special interests: often more “socially accepted” interests than autistic men’s.
    • Flirting: autistic women are often unsure how to flirt or what to do about it, which can result in simple directness instead

    For more details on all of these, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Related reading:

    You might like a main feature of ours from not long back:

    Miss Diagnosis: Anxiety, ADHD, & Women

    Take care!

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