Exercising With Less Soreness!

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An Ancient Sports Drink & Healing Potion, Now With Modern Science?

Ginseng has many health benefits, we talked about 8 of them in this previous edition of 10almonds:

Ginseng, Dopamine, & Exercise

…but we’ve somehow never yet done a Monday’s Research Review for it! We must do one, one of these days. For now though, it’s Saturday’s Life Hacks, and we’re here with…

Speeding up recovery after muscle damage

We talked about this topic before too:

Overdone It? How To Speed Up Recovery After Exercise

…which gives very good advice (including some supplements that help), but was published before the latest science that we’re going to talk about today:

A team of researchers all so very recently found that ginseng also reduces muscular fatigue and, importantly, hastens recovery of muscle damage caused by exercise.

And that’s not all…

❝It should also be noted that, by reducing fatigue, taking ginseng on a regular basis may also help reduce the risk of injury, particularly in the case of muscles or ligaments, which can in turn improve athletic performance.❞

This means that it can be taken regularly and prophylactically, as they found:

❝taking ginseng systematically for a long time can mitigate the response of the biological markers, mainly creatine kinase (CK) and interleukin 6 (IL-6), responsible for exercise-induced muscle damage and inflammation.❞

You may be thinking “isn’t creatine good?” and yes, yes it is:

Creatine: Very Different For Young & Old People

…however, creatine kinase is not creatine. Creatine kinase (CK) is an enzyme that affects the creatine (to put it in few words, without getting into the fascinating biochemistry of this). Now, it’s necessary for us to have some CK (or else we wouldn’t be able to do what we need to with the creatine), but elevated levels often indicate some sort of problem going on:

Approach to asymptomatic creatine kinase elevation

…so ginseng keeping those things balanced is a good thing.

The study

We’ve talked a lot about the findings and what they mean, but if you’d like to read the paper for yourself, you can read it here:

Effect of Ginseng Intake on Muscle Damage Induced by Exercise in Healthy Adults

Where to get ginseng

If you’d like to take ginseng as a supplement, then there are many ways to do so, with the most common being capsules or ginseng tea, which has an interesting and distinctive taste, and is very refreshing. Here are examples on Amazon, for your convenience:

Enjoy!

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  • Food for Life – by Dr. Tim Spector

    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.

    This book is, as the author puts it, “an eater’s guide to food and nutrition”. Rather than telling us what to eat or not eat, he provides an overview of what the latest science has to say about various foods, and leaves us to make our own informed decisions.

    He also stands firmly by the “personalized nutrition” idea that he introduced in his previous book which we reviewed the other day, and gives advice on what tests we might like to perform.

    The writing style is accessible, without shying away from reference to hard science. Dr. Spector provides lots of information about key chemicals, genes, gut bacteria, and more—as well as simply providing a very enjoyable read along the way.

    Bottom line: if you’d like a much better idea of what food is (and isn’t) doing what, this book is an invaluable resource.

    Click here to check out Food for Life, and make the best decisions for you!

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  • Eat Real Food and Love It – by Kari McCloskey

    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.

    Half the battle of healthy eating is enjoying it—because once you do, it’s no longer a battle!

    So that’s what this book focuses on. The author, a Registered Nutritionist, does indeed dispense nutritional advice, as you might expect, but also bids us pay attention to what nature’s foods do for us, and notice what less healthy foods take from us. She goes through these category by category, quite comprehensively, before moving on to the more “active” parts of the book.

    There’s a lot about training our senses, and about taking a holistic approach to eating, as well as renewing not just our relationship with food, but also various other parts of our life that are inextricably linked to it (from sleep and exercise, to social considerations, and medical issues that healthier eating will help us to avoid or at least tame).

    The style is… Joyful. Much like this reviewer, the author loves food, and it shows. She also (again much like this reviewer) cares deeply about the impact food has on her, and (for a third time: like this reviewer!) wants to share that joy and care with the reader. The priority is readability and helpfulness; scientific references are still provided wherever appropriate, though.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to improve your eating but it seems like a chore, this book can help turn it into an excitingly enjoyable journey instead.

    Click here to check out Eat Real Food And Love It, and eat real food and love it!

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  • Celery vs Rhubarb – Which is Healthier?

    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.

    Our Verdict

    When comparing celery to rhubarb, we picked the rhubarb.

    Why?

    In terms of macros, rhubarb has more carbs and fiber, the ratio of which give it the lower glycemic index, though both are low glycemic index foods. This means this category is a very marginal win for rhubarb.

    When it comes to vitamins, rhubarb has more vitamin C, while celery has more of vitamins A, B5, B6, and B9. A win for celery, this time.

    In the category of minerals, rhubarb has more calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, and selenium, while celery has more copper and phosphorus. This one’s a win for rhubarb.

    Let’s give a quick nod also to polyphenols; rhubarb has more by overall quantity, and more in terms of “more useful to humans” too, being rich in an assortment of flavanols while celery must make do with some furanocoumarins.

    In short, enjoy either or both, but nutritional density is a great reason to get some rhubarb in!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?

    Take care!

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    Quick test

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    1. Smoking
    2. High blood pressure
    3. Diabetes
    4. Obesity
    5. Depression
    6. Lack of mental stimulation
    7. Lack of physical activity

    How many did you get? If you got them all, well done. If not, then well, now you know, so that’s good.

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    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • What Matters Most For Your Heart?

    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.

    Eat More (Of This) For Lower Blood Pressure

    Heart disease remains the world’s #1 killer. We’d say “and in the US, it’s no different”, but in fact, the US is #1 country for heart disease. So, it’s worse and perhaps some extra care is in order.

    But how?

    What matters the most

    Is it salt? Salt plays a part, but it’s not even close to the top problem:

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    Is it saturated fat? Saturated fat from certain sources plays more of a role than salt, but other sources may not be so much of an issue:

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    …but it’s still not the top dietary factor.

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    All the above are foodstuffs that a person wanting a healthier heart and cardiovascular system in general might (reasonably and usually correctly) want to cut down, but there’s one thing that most people need more of:

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    And this is especially true for heart health:

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    Specifically, she and her team found:

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    You can read more about it here:

    Dietary fiber critical in managing hypertension, international study finds

    That’s a pop-science article, but it’s still very informative. If you prefer to read the scientific paper itself (or perhaps as well), you can find it below

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    Want more from your fiber?

    Here’s yet another way fiber improves cardiometabolic health, hot off the academic press (the study was published just a couple of weeks ago):

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    this pop-science article was based on this scientific paper

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    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:

  • Mineral-Rich Mung Bean Pancakes

    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.

    Mung beans are rich in an assortment of minerals, especially iron, copper, phosphorus, and magnesium. They’re also full of protein and fiber! What better way to make pancakes healthy?

    You will need

    • ½ cup dried green mung beans
    • ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
    • ½ cup chopped fresh dill
    • ¼ cup uncooked wholegrain rice
    • ¼ cup nutritional yeast
    • 1 tsp MSG, or 2 tsp low-sodium salt
    • 2 green onions, finely sliced
    • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

    Method

    (we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

    1) Soak the mung beans and rice together overnight.

    2) Drain and rinse, and blend them in a blender with ¼ cup of water, to the consistency of regular pancake batter, adding more water (sparingly) if necessary.

    3) Transfer to a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients except for the olive oil, which latter you can now heat in a skillet over a medium-high heat.

    4) Add a few spoonfuls of batter to the pan, depending on how big you want the pancakes to be. Cook on both sides until you get a golden-brown crust, and repeat for the rest of the pancakes.

    5) Serve! As these are savory pancakes, you might consider serving them with a little salad—tomatoes, olives, and cucumbers go especially well.

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

    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: