Exercises for Sciatica Pain Relief
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Jessica Valant is a physiotherapist and Pilates teacher, and today she’s going to demonstrate some exercise that relieve (and also correct the cause of) sciatica pain.
Back to good health
You will need a large strap for one of these exercises; a Pilates strap is great, but you can also use a towel. The exercises are:
Pelvic Rocking Exercise:
- Lie on your back, feet flat, knees bent.
- Gently rock your pelvis forwards and backwards (50% effort, no glute squeezing).
Leg Stretch with Strap:
- Straighten your left leg and loop the strap around the ball of your right foot.
- Gently straighten and bend your right leg while holding the strap.
- Perform a “nerve glide” by flexing and pointing your foot (not a stretch, just gentle movement).
- Repeat on the left leg.
Piriformis Stretch:
- Bend your right knee and place your left ankle over it (figure-four position).
- For a deeper stretch, hold your right thigh and pull your legs inwards.
Lower Back Release:
- Let your legs fall gently to one side after stretching each leg, opening the lower back.
Back Extension:
- Lie on your belly, placing your elbows down, palms flat.
- Optional: push up slightly into a back bend if it feels comfortable.
Seated Stretching:
- Finish by sitting cross-legged or on a chair.
- Inhale while raising your arms up, exhale while lowering them down, then reach sideways with your arms to stretch.
- Perform gentle neck stretches by tilting your ear to your shoulder on each side.
She recommends doing these exercises daily for at least a few weeks, though you should start to see improvement in your symptoms immediately. Nothing here should cause a problem or make things worse, but if it does, stop immediately and consult a local physiotherapist for more personalized advice.
For more on all of this, plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:
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6 Ways To Look After Your Back
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Accidentally Overweight – by Dr. Libby Weaver
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This book’s main premise is that for most people who become overweight especially in midlife or later, if there wasn’t an obvious lifestyle change to precipitate this (e.g. started living on fast food for some reason), then in most cases, what’s needed is not drastic action, so much as some metabolic tweaks to correct things that have gone off-piste a little in our physiology.
The book covers nine factors that make an impact, and how each can be managed. They are:
- Insulin
- Stress hormones
- Calories
- Thyroid function
- Nervous system
- Emotions
- Sex hormones
- Liver function
- Gut bacteria
Some will be obvious, but as Dr. Weaver explains, are relative trivial compared to the others; “calories” in one such example of this “yes, it’s a factor, but very overrated” category.
Others are things that most people don’t think too much about, like liver function. And yet, it is indeed very much critical, and a major player in metabolism and adiposity.
The style is on the very light end of pop-science, but she does bring her professional knowledge to bear on topic (her doctorate is a PhD in biochemistry, so a lot of explanations come from that angle).
Bottom line: if you’ve found yourself “accidentally overweight”, and would like to tip the scales back in the other direction without doing anything extreme, then this book provides the tweaks that no amount of cardio or restrictive dieting will.
Click here to check out Accidentally Overweight, and re-adjust it back the other way!
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The Core Program: – by Peggy Brill
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The author, a specialist women’s physiotherapist, has produced not only an exercise program, but also an explanation of various body-related matters can be easily neglected—but also, with the right knowledge and a small daily commitment of practice, easily addressed.
Thus, thus subtitular claim of “15 minutes a day that can change your life” is referring to a daily 15-minute exercise session, that’s very Pilates-like in its functional strength and mobility focus with little or no equipment, without actually being Pilates.
After some introductory chapters discussing the things we need to know in order to implement the program with full understanding, she gets into the program itself, which consists of three progressive parts:
- a foundation to get going
- an intermediate level to get things truly into good shape, and
- an advanced level for if one wants to take things further.
She also provides extra advice on maintaining what one gained, taking the program forwards for life.
The program is optimized for women, but there’s nothing truly exclusive to women here, just, occasional “this affects women more” things to include.
The style is a little dated (the book being published in 2003), but this does not meaningfully affect the content, as the information itself is timeless.
Bottom line: if you’d like to get into good condition without overcomplicating things and without needing a lot of resources, this book is quite a comprehensive course!
Click here to check out The Core Program, and get into shape sustainably!
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Neurotransmitter Cheatsheet
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Which Neurotransmitter?
There are a lot of neurotransmitters that are important for good mental health (and, by way of knock-on effects, physical health).
However, when pop-science headlines refer to them as “feel-good chemicals” (yes but which one?!) or “the love molecule” (yes but which one?!) or other such vague names when referring to a specific neurotransmitter, it’s easy to get them mixed up.
So today we’re going to do a little disambiguation of some of the main mood-related neurotransmitters (there are many more, but we only have so much room), and what things we can do to help manage them.
Dopamine
This one predominantly regulates reward responses, though it’s also necessary for critical path analysis (e.g. planning), language faculties, and motor functions. It makes us feel happy, motivated, and awake.
To have more:
- eat foods that are rich in dopamine or its precursors such as tyrosine (bananas and almonds are great)
- do things that you find rewarding
Downsides: is instrumental in most addictions, and also too much can result in psychosis. For most people, that level of “too much” isn’t obtainable due to the homeostatic system, however.
See also: Rebalancing Dopamine (Without “Dopamine Fasting”)
Serotonin
This one predominantly helps regulate our circadian rhythm. It also makes us feel happy, calm, and awake.
To have more:
- get more sunlight, or if the light must be artificial, then (ideally) full-spectrum light, or (if it’s what’s available) blue light
- spend time in nature; we are hardwired to feel happy in the environments in which we evolved, which for most of human history was large open grassy expanses with occasional trees (however, for modern purposes, a park or appropriate garden will suffice).
Downsides: this is what keeps us awake at night if we had too much light before bed, and also too much serotonin can result in (potentially fatal) serotonin syndrome. Most people can’t get that much serotonin due to our homeostatic system, but some drugs can force it upon us.
See also: Seasonal Affective Disorder Strategies
Oxytocin
This one predominantly helps us connect to others on an emotional level. It also makes us feel happy, calm, and relaxed.
To have more:
- hug a loved one (or even just think about doing so, if they’re not available)
- look at pictures/videos of cute puppies, kittens, and the like—this triggers a similar response
Downsides: negligible. Socially speaking, it can cause us to drop our guard, most for most people most of the time, this is not a problem. It can also reduce sexual desire—it’s in large part responsible for the peaceful lulled state post-orgasm. It’s not responsible for the sleepiness in men though; that’s mostly prolactin.
See also: Only One Kind Of Relationship Promotes Longevity This Much!
Adrenaline
This one predominantly affects our sympathetic nervous system; it elevates heart rate, blood pressure, and other similar functions. It makes us feel alert, ready for action, and energized.
To have more:
- listen to a “power anthem” piece of music. What it is can depend on your musical tastes; whatever gets you riled up in an empowering way.
- engage in something competitive that you feel strongly about while doing it—or by the same mechanism, a solitary activity where the stakes feel high even if it’s actually quite safe (e.g. watching a thriller or a horror movie, if that’s your thing).
Downsides: its effects are not sustainable, and (in cases of chronic stress) the body will try to sustain them anyway, which has a deleterious effect. Because adrenaline and cortisol are closely linked, chronically high adrenal action will tend to mean chronically high cortisol also.
See also: Lower Your Cortisol! (Here’s Why & How)
PS: it is also called epinephrine, and chemically different but almost identical in most ways, noradrenaline or norepinephrine
Some final words
You’ll notice that in none of the “how to have more” did we mention drugs. That’s because:
- a drug-free approach is generally the best thing to try first, at the very least
- there are simply a lot of drugs to affect each one (or more), and talking about them would require talking about each drug in some detail.
However, the following may be of interest for some readers:
Antidepressants: Personalization Is Key!
Take care!
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Food Expiration Dates Don’t Mean What Most People Think They Mean
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Have you ever wondered why rock salt that formed during the Precambrian era has a label on it saying that it expires next month? To take something more delicate, how about eggs that expire next Thursday; isn’t that oddly specific for something that is surely affected by many variables? What matters, and what doesn’t?
Covering their assets
The US in particular wastes huge amounts of food, with 37% of food waste coming from households. Confusion over date labels is a major contributor, accounting for 20% of household food waste. Many people misinterpret these labels, often discarding food that is still safe to eat—which is good for the companies selling the food, because then they get to sell you more.
Date labels were introduced in the 70s with the “open dating” system to indicate optimal freshness, not safety. These dates are often conservative, set by manufacturers to ensure food is consumed at its best quality and encourage repeat purchases. However, many foods remain safe well past their labeled dates, including shelf-stable items like pasta, rice, and canned goods, as well as frozen foods stored properly.
Some foods do pose safety risks, especially meat and dairy products, as well as many grain-based foods, all of which which can harbor harmful bacteria. Infant formula labels are strictly regulated for safety. However, most date labels are not linked to health risks, leading to unnecessary waste.
When it comes down to it, our senses of sight, smell, and taste are more reliable than dates on packaging. Some quick pointers and caveats:
- If it has changed color in some way that’s not associated with a healthily ripening fruit or vegetable, that’s probably bad
- If it is moldy, that’s probably bad (but the degree of badness varies from food to food; see the link beneath today’s video for more on that)
- If a container has developed droplets of water on the inside when it didn’t have those before, that’s probably bad (it means something is respiring, and is thus alive, that probably shouldn’t be)
- If it smells bad, that’s probably bad—however this is not a good safety test, because a bad smell may often mean you are inhaling mold spores, which are not good for your lungs.
- If it tastes different than that food usually does, that’s probably bad (especially if it became bitter, pungent, tangy, sour, or cheesy, and does nor normally taste that way).
Some places have trialled clearer labelling, for example a distinction between “expires” and merely “best before”, but public awareness about the distinction is low. Some places have trialled removing dates entirely, to oblige the consumer to use their own senses instead. This is good for the seller in a different way than household food waste is, because it means the seller will have less in-store waste (because they can still sell something that might previously have been labelled as expired).
For more on all of this, enjoy:
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Cheeky diet soft drink getting you through the work day? Here’s what that may mean for your health
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Many people are drinking less sugary soft drink than in the past. This is a great win for public health, given the recognised risks of diets high in sugar-sweetened drinks.
But over time, intake of diet soft drinks has grown. In fact, it’s so high that these products are now regularly detected in wastewater.
So what does the research say about how your health is affected in the long term if you drink them often?
Breakingpic/Pexels What makes diet soft drinks sweet?
The World Health Organization (WHO) advises people “reduce their daily intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake. A further reduction to below 5% or roughly 25 grams (six teaspoons) per day would provide additional health benefits.”
But most regular soft drinks contain a lot of sugar. A regular 335 millilitre can of original Coca-Cola contains at least seven teaspoons of added sugar.
Diet soft drinks are designed to taste similar to regular soft drinks but without the sugar. Instead of sugar, diet soft drinks contain artificial or natural sweeteners. The artificial sweeteners include aspartame, saccharin and sucralose. The natural sweeteners include stevia and monk fruit extract, which come from plant sources.
Many artificial sweeteners are much sweeter than sugar so less is needed to provide the same burst of sweetness.
Diet soft drinks are marketed as healthier alternatives to regular soft drinks, particularly for people who want to reduce their sugar intake or manage their weight.
But while surveys of Australian adults and adolescents show most people understand the benefits of reducing their sugar intake, they often aren’t as aware about how diet drinks may affect health more broadly.
Diet soft drinks contain artificial or natural sweeteners. Vintage Tone/Shutterstock What does the research say about aspartame?
The artificial sweeteners in soft drinks are considered safe for consumption by food authorities, including in the US and Australia. However, some researchers have raised concern about the long-term risks of consumption.
People who drink diet soft drinks regularly and often are more likely to develop certain metabolic conditions (such as diabetes and heart disease) than those who don’t drink diet soft drinks.
The link was found even after accounting for other dietary and lifestyle factors (such as physical activity).
In 2023, the WHO announced reports had found aspartame – the main sweetener used in diet soft drinks – was “possibly carcinogenic to humans” (carcinogenic means cancer-causing).
Importantly though, the report noted there is not enough current scientific evidence to be truly confident aspartame may increase the risk of cancer and emphasised it’s safe to consume occasionally.
Will diet soft drinks help manage weight?
Despite the word “diet” in the name, diet soft drinks are not strongly linked with weight management.
In 2022, the WHO conducted a systematic review (where researchers look at all available evidence on a topic) on whether the use of artificial sweeteners is beneficial for weight management.
Overall, the randomised controlled trials they looked at suggested slightly more weight loss in people who used artificial sweeteners.
But the observational studies (where no intervention occurs and participants are monitored over time) found people who consume high amounts of artificial sweeteners tended to have an increased risk of higher body mass index and a 76% increased likelihood of having obesity.
In other words, artificial sweeteners may not directly help manage weight over the long term. This resulted in the WHO advising artificial sweeteners should not be used to manage weight.
Studies in animals have suggested consuming high levels of artificial sweeteners can signal to the brain it is being starved of fuel, which can lead to more eating. However, the evidence for this happening in humans is still unproven.
You can’t go wrong with water. hurricanehank/Shutterstock What about inflammation and dental issues?
There is some early evidence artificial sweeteners may irritate the lining of the digestive system, causing inflammation and increasing the likelihood of diarrhoea, constipation, bloating and other symptoms often associated with irritable bowel syndrome. However, this study noted more research is needed.
High amounts of diet soft drinks have also been linked with liver disease, which is based on inflammation.
The consumption of diet soft drinks is also associated with dental erosion.
Many soft drinks contain phosphoric and citric acid, which can damage your tooth enamel and contribute to dental erosion.
Moderation is key
As with many aspects of nutrition, moderation is key with diet soft drinks.
Drinking diet soft drinks occasionally is unlikely to harm your health, but frequent or excessive intake may increase health risks in the longer term.
Plain water, infused water, sparkling water, herbal teas or milks remain the best options for hydration.
Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland and Emily Burch, Accredited Practising Dietitian and Lecturer, Southern Cross University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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How To Eat To Lose Belly Fat (3 Stages)
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Belly fat is easier to gain than it is to lose, and it’s absolutely something that needs more attention in the kitchen than in the gym. Here’s one way of doing it:
By the numbers
First note: this video is by a man, and judging by the numbers mentioned, assumes that the viewer is also a man. An end goal of 10% body fat is a little on the low side for men, and would be dangerous for women. The magic 15% mark that he mentions as being a point where various metabolic things change, is more like 20% for women. All assuming normal hormones, of course, since it is hormones that direct this.
Healthy body fat percentages are (assuming normal hormones) in the range of 20–25% for women and 15–20% for men.
With that in mind…
The idea of this approach is to lose enough weight that your body gets rid of even the most awkward bits (e.g: visceral belly fat, which will often be the last to get used) before, if desired, then maintaining at a slightly higher body fat percentage.
- Stage 1: count calories (we don’t usually recommend this at 10almonds, but he does, so we’re reporting it here) and use your weight in pounds multiplied by 12 to give your daily calorie target. Make the majority of your diet foods that have a large volume:calorie ratio, such as fruits and vegetables, in order to feel full without overloading your metabolism. He has an interesting method of calculating a protein target; instead of the usual “1g/kg of body weight”, he says 1g per cm of height. Doing this consistently should get you to 15% body fat (so, 20%, for women).
- Stage 2: start counting fat intake too, and aim for 20–25% of your daily calories as fat. Continue, aside from that, with what you were doing in Stage 1. Doing this consistently should get you to 12% body fat (so, about 17%, for women). Being under the usual healthy level for a while should allow your body to start getting rid of visceral fat.
- Stage 3: track everything, levelling up your precision (no more “this little thing doesn’t count”), and planning ahead when it comes to social events etc. Doing this consistently should yet you to 10% body fat (so, about 15%, for women). This stage has a good chance of making most people miserable, so if that happens, consider the benefits of going back to the healthier 15% body fat (men) or 20% (women).
For more on all of this, enjoy:
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Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
Visceral Belly Fat & How To Lose It ← without calorie-counting! We prefer this 😉
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