Finish What You Start – by Peter Hollins
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For some people, getting started is the problem. For others of us, getting started is the easy part! We just need a little help not dropping things we started.
There are summaries at the starts and ends of sections, and many “quick tips” to get you back on track.
As a taster: one of these is “temptation bundling“, combining unpleasant things with pleasant. A kind of “spoonful of sugar” approach.
Hollins also discusses hyperbolic discounting (the way we tend to value rewards according to how near they are, and procrastinate accordingly). He offers a tool to overcome this, too, the “10–10–10 rule“.
Also dealt with is “the preparation trap“, and how to know when you have enough information to press on.
For a lot of us, the places we’re most likely to drop a project is 20% in (initial enthusiasm wore off) or 80% in (“it’s nearly done; no need to worry about it”). Those are the times when the advices in this book can be particularly handy!
All in all, a great book for seeing a lot of things to completion.
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The Orchid That Renovates Your Gut (Gently)
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The Orchid That Renovates Your Gut (Gently)
Dendrobium officinale is an orchid that’s made its way from Traditional Chinese Medicine into modern science.
Read: Traditional Uses, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, and Quality Control of Dendrobium officinale
To summarize its benefits, we’ll quote from Dr. Paharia’s article featured in our “what’s happening in the health world” section all so recently:
❝Gut microbes process Dendriobium officinale polysaccharides (DOPs) in the colon, producing short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and oligosaccharides that alter gut microbial composition and improve human health.
DOPs have been shown to decrease harmful bacteria like E. coli and Staphylococcus while promoting beneficial ones like Bifidobacterium.❞
We don’t stop at secondary sources, though, so we took a look at the science.
Dr. Wu et al. found (we’ll quote directly for these bullet points):
- DOPs have been shown to influence the gut microbiota, such as the abundance of Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Akkermansia, Bacteroides, and Prevotella, and provide different benefits to the host due to structural differences.
- The dietary intake of DOPs has been shown to improve the composition of the gut microbiome and offers new intervention strategies for metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes as well as inflammatory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and colitis.
- Compared to drug therapy, intervention with DOPs is not specific and has a longer intervention duration
This is consistent with previous research on Dendrobium officinale, such as last year’s:
❝DOP significantly increased benign intestinal microbe proportion (Lactobacillus, etc.), but reduced harmful bacteria (Escherichia shigella) (P < 0.05), and significantly increased butyric acid production (P < 0.05)❞
In summary…
Research so far indicates that this does a lot of good for the gut, in a way that can “kickstart” healthier, self-regulating gut microbiota.
As to its further prospects, check out:
Very promising!
Where can I get it?
We don’t sell it, but for your convenience here’s an example product on Amazon
Be warned, it is expensive though!
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Sweeteners & Your Appetite
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.
Sugar is famously not great for the health. See for example: Is Sugar The New Smoking? ← the answer is “no, but it’s still very bad, just not in the same league of badness as smoking”!
Of course, there are some important circumstantial things to bear in mind, such as:
From Apples to Bees, and High-Fructose Cs: Which Sugars Are Healthier, And Which Are Just The Same?
But even without sugar, simply sweetness itself can cause problems: we can build tolerance to sweetness. Many sugar substitutes are many times (in some cases, hundreds of times) sweeter than sugar. This leads to people craving increasingly sweeter foods for the same experiential sweetness level.
Because of this, the World Health Organization has released a report offering guidance regards the use of sugar-free sweeteners.
In a nutshell, the guidance is: don’t
- Here’s the report itself: Use of non-sugar sweeteners: WHO guideline
- And it was based on this huge systematic review: Health effects of the use of non-sugar sweeteners: a systematic review and meta-analysis
- Here’s the WHO’s own press release about it: WHO advises not to use non-sugar sweeteners for weight control in newly released guideline
Nevertheless, if you really want to, we previously did a rundown on:
- Sucrose (metabolic problems)
- Sucralose (genotoxic)
- Erythritol (ischemiagenic)
- Xylitol (gut disruptor)
- Acesulfame K (gut disruptor)
- Stevia (strong risk of sweetness tolerance problem)
- Glycine (beneficial in moderation, sweetness problem though)
For more details than those one-or-few-word summaries, see: What’s The Healthiest Sweetener?
We’ve also talked about: The Fascinating Truth About Aspartame, Cancer, & Neurotoxicity
…which covers how the most popular beliefs about aspartame are myths, and in large part stemming from a single viral hoax chain letter in the 90s!
But sweeteners really increase your appetite?
That’s the question that Dr. Sabina Anderson et al. put to the test all so recently, using a mixture of acesulfame K and acesulfame cyclamate (Ace-K/Cyc).
What they found, in few words:
- No, there was no increase in food intake: participants didn’t eat more after consuming artificial sweeteners compared with water, even when allowed to eat freely later.
- No, there was no meaningful effect on hunger overall: hunger, fullness, and satiety were the same between sweeteners and water across all time points during the study.
- In fact, the participants enjoyed reduced sweet cravings: the sweetened drink lowered the desire to eat something sweet, and this effect persisted even after adjusting for taste differences.
You may be thinking: what happened to that up top about tolerance spiralling and craving more and more sweet things?!
And the answer is: that’s in the big picture; this was a 265-minute study, done three times in a row. So, it’s less about what it does in the long term, and more about what it does in the moment.
Specifically,
❝Subjective appetite sensations were measured using visual analogue scales while fasting and nine times during a 250-min postprandial period. During this period, a standardized breakfast (0–10 min) was served and, 2 h later, a test drink containing either Ace-K/Cyc or water (120–130 min) was given. After 265 min, an ad libitum test meal was served.❞
Read in full: Acute and Prolonged Effects of Sweeteners and Sweetness Enhancers on Postprandial Appetite Sensations, Palatability, and Ad Libitum Energy Intake in Humans: A SWEET Sub-Study (yes, they say “and prolonged”, but when they say “prolonged”, they’re referring to t=265 min, as opposed to immediately after drinking the drink)
That does mean, of course, that while helpful to know about in the moment, the results may not be extrapolated to the long term.
It’s also worth noting that the sample size was small (n=26), so in terms of strength of evidence it’s more of an indicative “jumping-off point” for future studies, rather than anything that should necessarily shape policy (including your personal policy) in the meantime.
One other important limitation is that obviously the results are for acesulfame-K and cyclamate, which means the results cannot necessarily be assumed to apply to all artificial sweeteners.
In fact, there is some science to the opposite for at least one sweetener, sucralose:
The Sweetener That Interferes With Hunger/Satiety Signals
Of course, sucralose is not technically a non-sugar sweetener, as it is chemically a sugar. But in practical terms, sucralose is a sugar in the same way that coffee is a fruit, i.e. it’s true, but for most purposes we can disregard that information as it’s not how we usually use those words in daily parlance.
Want to learn more?
This recommendation’s tangential to our main topic today, but it’ll be relevant for a lot of people who use sweeteners as a blood sugar control tool, so:
Stop Overeating During Low Blood Sugars With Diabetes – by Ginger Vieira
Take care!
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“Bulletproof” Your Knees With This Routine
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Knees are the most injury-prone joint in sports (41% of injuries), due to their structural instability compared to the hip (surrounded by strong muscles) and ankle (supported by bones), while also bearing full body weight. For the same reasons, they can become quite a liability as we get older. But, we can improve our odds a lot:
For reliable knees…
While this routine won’t make your knees literally invulnerable (alas), it will increase the strength, resilience, and mobility around the knee joint to facilitate pain-free movement and avoid injuries:
- Poliquin step-up: targets the vastus medialis oblique (VMO), a key quad muscle for knee stability; done on a 6-inch elevated surface with heel raised, focusing on alignment and pelvic control to correct inner-outer knee strength imbalance.
- Quad stretch: stretches tight quads that can misalign the kneecap and cause pain; done using a bench while tucking the pelvis to intensify the stretch—hold for 30 seconds, ideally repeating 3 times per leg.
- Hamstring curls with resistance band: strengthens hamstrings, which stabilize the knee during flexion; resistance band adds tension where the knee is most vulnerable—aim for 8–12 reps, 3 sets (machine alternative is fine too).
- Hip mobility drill: enhances hip mobility to prevent stress from transferring to the knee; involves seated leg rotations and contract-relax stretching of outer glutes—more mobile hips reduce injury risk overall.
Limitation: if you have a connective tissue disorder such as some kind of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (there are many kinds; it’s an umbrella term), there’s a good chance that no matter how much you strengthen it, your associated nerves aren’t going to believe it, so every now and again your legs will still fold like laundry no matter how strong they are. These exercises still have merit though, as they will help avoid exactly the kind of injury that the “oh no, collapse immediately!” response in EDS is also trying to help you avoid.
For more on these exercises, plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
The Best Exercise to Stop Your Legs From Giving Out
Take care!
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Can We Drink To Good Health?
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Can we drink to good health?
We asked you for your thoughts on alcohol and heart health, and we got quite an even spread of results!
If perchance that’s too tiny to read, the figures were:
- 32% voted for “Alcohol is a relaxant, reduces stress, and can contain resveratrol too. It’s good for the heart!”
- 32% voted for: “Moderate alcohol consumption can be at least neutral for the health, if not positive ⚖️”
- 36% voted for: “Alcohol is bad for pretty much everything, including heart health ✋”
One subscriber who voted for “Alcohol is a relaxant, reduces stress, and can contain resveratrol too. It’s good for the heart!” added the following thoughts:
❝While it isn’t necessary to consume alcohol, moderate amounts can be beneficial and contribute to well-being through social activity, celebrations, etc.❞
That’s an interesting point, and definitely many people do see alcohol that way! Of course, that does not mean that one will find no social activities, celebrations, etc, in parts of the world where alcohol consumption is uncommon. Indeed, in India, wedding parties where no alcohol is consumed can go on for days!
But, “we live in a society” and all that, and while we’re a health newsletter not a social issues newsletter, it’d be remiss of us to not acknowledge the importance of socialization for good mental health—and thus the rest of our health too.
So, if indeed all our friends and family drink alcohol, it can certainly make abstaining more of a challenge.
On that note, let’s take a moment to consider “The French Paradox” (an observation of a low prevalence of ischemic heart disease despite high intakes of saturated fat, a phenomenon accredited to the consumption of red wine).
As it happens, a comprehensive review in “Circulation”, a cardiovascular health journal, has suggested the French Paradox may not be so paradoxical after all.
Research suggests it has more to do with other lifestyle factors (and historic under-reporting of cardiovascular disease by French doctors), which would explain why Japan has lower rates of heart disease, despite drinking little wine, and more beer and spirits.
So, our subscriber’s note may not be completely without reason! It’s just about the party, not the alcohol.
One subscriber who voted for “Moderate alcohol consumption can be at least neutral for the health, if not positive ⚖️” wrote:
❝Keeping in mind, moderate means one glass of wine for women a day and two for men. Hard alcohol doesn’t have the same heart benefits as wine❞
That is indeed the guideline according to some health bodies!
In other places with different guiding advisory bodies, that’s been dropped down to one a day for everyone (the science may be universal, but how government institutions interpret that is not).
About that wine… Specifically, red wine, for its resveratrol content:
While there are polyphenols such as resveratrol in red wine that could boost heart health, there’s so little per glass that you may need 100–1000 glasses to get the dosage that provides benefits in mouse studies. If you’re not a mouse, you might even need more.
To this end, many people prefer resveratrol supplementation. ← link is to an example product, but there are plenty more so feel free to shop around
A subscriber who voted for “Alcohol is bad for pretty much everything, including heart health ✋” says:
❝New guidelines suggest 1 to 2 drinks a week are okay but the less the better.❞
If you haven’t heard these new guidelines, we’ll mention again: every government has its own official bodies and guidelines so perhaps your local guidelines differ, but for example here’s what that World Health Organization has to say (as of January this year):
WHO: No level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health
So, whom to believe? The governments who hopefully consider the welfare of their citizenry more important than the tax dollars from alcohol sales, or the World Health Organization?
It’s a tough one, but we’ll always err on the side of the science.
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10 Ways To Naturally Boost Dopamine
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Dopamine is the “reward” hormone, and is responsible for motivation, as well as various oft-forgotten functions (such as spatial skills, motor functions, task processing, planning, and language). Sometimes, our relationship with dopamine isn’t what it could be, so here’s how to fix that:
Let’s get hormone-hacking…
Here are the 10 ways:
- The seesaw effect: reduce overstimulation by taking tolerance breaks from high-dopamine activities that aren’t particularly useful (like social media or phone games), allowing for natural enjoyment of daily activities that you’d normally find enjoyable. Think: if you died and negotiated to be sent back to life on the condition you’d appreciate it properly this time, what things would you then spend your time doing? It’s probably not Kingdom Crush Saga Farm 2, is it?
- Conscious state meditation: practise conscious state meditation, focusing inward to reduce anxiety and release dopamine. Even a few minutes a day can significantly enhance dopamine levels.
- Hack your REM cycles: optimize sleep, especially REM cycles, which produce the most dopamine. Aim to wake up after your final REM cycle to feel energized and happy.
- The runner’s high: engage in regular exercise, which boosts dopamine through physical exertion and can lead to feelings of relaxation and euphoria, often known as the “runner’s high.”
- Mood-enhancing music: listen to music that makes you feel good. Favorite songs can stimulate dopamine production, improving your mood and well-being.
- Bright light therapy: spend time in natural sunlight to stimulate dopamine production and elevate your mood, countering the negative effects of extended indoor time. If natural sunlight is not very available where you are (e.g. this writer who lives next to an ancient bog surrounded by fog and the days are getting short, at time of writing), then artificial daylight lamps are respectable supplement—but just that, a supplement, not a replacement. Despite how it looks/feels, natural sunlight (especially in the morning, to cue the circadian rhythm to do its thing) is beneficial even through cloud cover.
- Relieve stress for good: actively reduce stress, as it inhibits dopamine. Simplify daily routines and eliminate stressors to naturally boost dopamine and feel more relaxed. Of course, you cannot remove all stress from your life, so get good at managing the stress created by the stressors that do remain.
- Tap into your flow state: enter a “flow state” by focusing deeply on an engaging task, which can elevate dopamine levels and boost motivation and happiness.
- The hormesis effect: embrace mild physical challenges, like cold showers. The temporary discomfort will paradoxically increase dopamine (it’s the body’s way of saying “congratulations, you survived the hard thing, here’s a little treat, so that you’ll be motivated to survive the next hard thing, too”)
- Activate your inner artist: engage in creative activities that you find fun. The process of creating boosts dopamine and provides motivation, enhancing mood and enjoyment in life.
For more on all of these, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
Rebalancing Dopamine (Without “Dopamine Fasting”)
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
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How Most People Use Nasal Sprays Incorrectly
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Is this how you’ve been doing it? Here’s the right way:
Like a professional
5 key points to know:
- Proper position: sit upright with your head slightly forwards, not tipped backwards.
- Prime it first: when you first open a new bottle, pump it once or twice until it produces a fine mist; you do not need to prime it again while using that bottle.
- Aim at an angle: place the nozzle well into the nostril, aim backwards and slightly to the side (the nasal cavity goes back, not up).
- Spray correctly: press to release a spray, feel the medicine inside your nasal cavity, and let it sit there. Avoid strong sniffing because that sends the medicine down your throat; a gentle sniff is fine if it starts to run.
- Actually absorb it: keep your head in a neutral position for a few seconds so the spray can absorb, then repeat on the other nostril.
For more on this plus a visual demonstration, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
Tips For Putting In Eye Drops (3 Techniques That Work!)
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:
