Hoisin Sauce vs Teriyaki Sauce – Which is Healthier?

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The 10almonds Team

Our Verdict

When comparing hoisin sauce to teriyaki sauce, we picked the teriyaki sauce.

Why?

Neither are great! But spoonful for spoonful, the hoisin sauce has about 5x as much sugar.

Of course, exact amounts will vary by brand, but the hoisin will invariably be much more sugary than the teriyaki.

On the flipside, the teriyaki sauce may sometimes have slightly more salt, but they are usually in approximately the same ballpark of saltiness, so this is not a big deciding factor.

As a general rule of thumb, the first few ingredients will look like this for each, respectively:

Hoisin:

  • Sugar
  • Water
  • Soybeans

Teriyaki:

  • Soy sauce (water, soybeans, salt)
  • Rice wine
  • Sugar

In essence: hoisin is a soy-flavored syrup, while teriyaki is a sweetened soy sauce

Wondering about that rice wine? The alcohol content is negligible, sufficiently so that teriyaki sauce is not considered alcoholic. For health purposes, it is well under the 0.05% required to be considered alcohol-free.

For religious purposes, we are not your rabbi or imam, but to our best understanding, teriyaki sauce is generally considered kosher* (the rice wine being made from rice) and halal (the rice wine being de-alcoholized by the processing, making the sauce non-intoxicating).

*Except during passover

Want to try some?

You can compare these examples side-by-side yourself:

Hoisin sauce | Teriyaki sauce

Enjoy!

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  • California Becomes Latest State To Try Capping Health Care Spending

    The 10almonds Team

    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.

    California’s Office of Health Care Affordability faces a herculean task in its plan to slow runaway health care spending.

    The goal of the agency, established in 2022, is to make care more affordable and accessible while improving health outcomes, especially for the most disadvantaged state residents. That will require a sustained wrestling match with a sprawling, often dysfunctional health system and powerful industry players who have lots of experience fighting one another and the state.

    Can the new agency get insurers, hospitals, and medical groups to collaborate on containing costs even as they jockey for position in the state’s $405 billion health care economy? Can the system be transformed so that financial rewards are tied more to providing quality care than to charging, often exorbitantly, for a seemingly limitless number of services and procedures?

    The jury is out, and it could be for many years.

    California is the ninth state — after Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington — to set annual health spending targets.

    Massachusetts, which started annual spending targets in 2013, was the first state to do so. It’s the only one old enough to have a substantial pre-pandemic track record, and its results are mixed: The annual health spending increases were below the target in three of the first five years and dropped beneath the national average. But more recently, health spending has greatly increased.

    In 2022, growth in health care expenditures exceeded Massachusetts’ target by a wide margin. The Health Policy Commission, the state agency established to oversee the spending control efforts, warned that “there are many alarming trends which, if unaddressed, will result in a health care system that is unaffordable.”

    Neighboring Rhode Island, despite a preexisting policy of limiting hospital price increases, exceeded its overall health care spending growth target in 2019, the year it took effect. In 2020 and 2021, spending was largely skewed by the pandemic. In 2022, the spending increase came in at half the state’s target rate. Connecticut and Delaware, by contrast, both overshot their 2022 targets.

    It’s all a work in progress, and California’s agency will, to some extent, be playing it by ear in the face of state policies and demographic realities that require more spending on health care.

    And it will inevitably face pushback from the industry as it confronts unreasonably high prices, unnecessary medical treatments, overuse of high-cost care, administrative waste, and the inflationary concentration of a growing number of hospitals in a small number of hands.

    “If you’re telling an industry we need to slow down spending growth, you’re telling them we need to slow down your revenue growth,” says Michael Bailit, president of Bailit Health, a Massachusetts-based consulting group, who has consulted for various states, including California. “And maybe that’s going to be heard as ‘we have to restrain your margins.’ These are very difficult conversations.”

    Some of California’s most significant health care sectors have voiced disagreement with the fledgling affordability agency, even as they avoid overtly opposing its goals.

    In April, when the affordability office was considering an annual per capita spending growth target of 3%, the California Hospital Association sent it a letter saying hospitals “stand ready to work with” the agency. But the proposed number was far too low, the association argued, because it failed to account for California’s aging population, new investments in Medi-Cal, and other cost pressures.

    The hospital group suggested a spending increase target averaging 5.3% over five years, 2025-29. That’s slightly higher than the 5.2% average annual increase in per capita health spending over the five years from 2015 to 2020.

    Five days after the hospital association sent its letter, the affordability board approved a slightly less aggressive target that starts at 3.5% in 2025 and drops to 3% by 2029. Carmela Coyle, the association’s chief executive, said in a statement that the board’s decision still failed to account for an aging population, the growing need for mental health and addiction treatment, and a labor shortage.

    The California Medical Association, which represents the state’s doctors, expressed similar concerns. The new phased-in target, it said, was “less unreasonable” than the original plan, but the group would “continue to advocate against an artificially low spending target that will have real-life negative impacts on patient access and quality of care.”

    But let’s give the state some credit here. The mission on which it is embarking is very ambitious, and it’s hard to argue with the motivation behind it: to interject some financial reason and provide relief for millions of Californians who forgo needed medical care or nix other important household expenses to afford it.

    Sushmita Morris, a 38-year-old Pasadena resident, was shocked by a bill she received for an outpatient procedure last July at the University of Southern California’s Keck Hospital, following a miscarriage. The procedure lasted all of 30 minutes, Morris says, and when she received a bill from the doctor for slightly over $700, she paid it. But then a bill from the hospital arrived, totaling nearly $9,000, and her share was over $4,600.

    Morris called the Keck billing office multiple times asking for an itemization of the charges but got nowhere. “I got a robotic answer, ‘You have a high-deductible plan,’” she says. “But I should still receive a bill within reason for what was done.” She has refused to pay that bill and expects to hear soon from a collection agency.

    The road to more affordable health care will be long and chock-full of big challenges and unforeseen events that could alter the landscape and require considerable flexibility.

    Some flexibility is built in. For one thing, the state cap on spending increases may not apply to health care institutions, industry segments, or geographic regions that can show their circumstances justify higher spending — for example, older, sicker patients or sharp increases in the cost of labor.

    For those that exceed the limit without such justification, the first step will be a performance improvement plan. If that doesn’t work, at some point — yet to be determined — the affordability office can levy financial penalties up to the full amount by which an organization exceeds the target. But that is unlikely to happen until at least 2030, given the time lag of data collection, followed by conversations with those who exceed the target, and potential improvement plans.

    In California, officials, consumer advocates, and health care experts say engagement among all the players, informed by robust and institution-specific data on cost trends, will yield greater transparency and, ultimately, accountability.

    Richard Kronick, a public health professor at the University of California-San Diego and a member of the affordability board, notes there is scant public data about cost trends at specific health care institutions. However, “we will know that in the future,” he says, “and I think that knowing it and having that information in the public will put some pressure on those organizations.”

    This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. 

    KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

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    KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

    Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.

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  • Which Sugars Are Healthier, And Which Are Just The Same?

    The 10almonds Team

    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.

    From Apples to Bees, and high-fructose C’s

    We asked you for your (health-related) policy on sugar. The trends were as follows:

    • About half of all respondents voted for “I try to limit sugar intake, but struggle because it’s in everything”
    • About a quarter of all respondents voted for “Refined sugar is terrible; natural sugars (e.g. honey, agave) are fine”
    • About a quarter of all respondents voted for “Sugar is sugar and sugar is bad; I avoid it entirely”
    • One (1) respondent voted for “Sugar is an important source of energy, so I consume plenty”

    Writer’s note: I always forget to vote in these, but I’d have voted for “I try to limit sugar intake, but struggle because it’s in everything”.

    Sometimes I would like to make my own [whatever] to not have the sugar, but it takes so much more time, and often money too.

    So while I make most things from scratch (and typically spend about an hour cooking each day), sometimes store-bought is the regretfully practical timesaver/moneysaver (especially when it comes to condiments).

    So, where does the science stand?

    There has, of course, been a lot of research into the health impact of sugar.

    Unfortunately, a lot of it has been funded by sugar companies, which has not helped. Conversely, there are also studies funded by other institutions with other agendas to push, and some of them will seek to make sugar out to be worse than it is.

    So for today’s mythbusting overview, we’ve done our best to quality-control studies for not having financial conflicts of interest. And of course, the usual considerations of favoring high quality studies where possible Large sample sizes, good method, human subjects, that sort of thing.

    Sugar is sugar and sugar is bad: True or False?

    False and True, respectively.

    • Sucrose is sucrose, and is generally bad.
    • Fructose is fructose, and is worse.

    Both ultimately get converted into glycogen (if not used immediately for energy), but for fructose, this happens mostly* in the liver, which a) taxes it b) goes very unregulated by the pancreas, causing potentially dangerous blood sugar spikes.

    This has several interesting effects:

    • Because fructose doesn’t directly affect insulin levels, it doesn’t cause insulin insensitivity (yay)
    • Because fructose doesn’t directly affect insulin levels, this leaves hyperglycemia untreated (oh dear)
    • Because fructose is metabolized by the liver and converted to glycogen which is stored there, it’s one of the main contributors to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (at this point, we’re retracting our “yay”)

    Read more: Fructose and sugar: a major mediator of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

    *”Mostly” in the liver being about 80% in the liver. The remaining 20%ish is processed by the kidneys, where it contributes to kidney stones instead. So, still not fabulous.

    Fructose is very bad, so we shouldn’t eat too much fruit: True or False?

    False! Fruit is really not the bad guy here. Fruit is good for you!

    Fruit does contain fructose yes, but not actually that much in the grand scheme of things, and moreover, fruit contains (unless you have done something unnatural to it) plenty of fiber, which mitigates the impact of the fructose.

    • A medium-sized apple (one of the most sugary fruits there is) might contain around 11g of fructose
    • A tablespoon of high-fructose corn syrup can have about 27g of fructose (plus about 3g glucose)

    Read more about it: Effects of high-fructose (90%) corn syrup on plasma glucose, insulin, and C-peptide in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and normal subjects

    However! The fiber content (in fruit) mitigates the impact of the fructose almost entirely anyway.

    And if you take fruits that are high in sugar and/but high in polyphenols, like berries, they now have a considerable net positive impact on glycemic health:

    You may be wondering: what was that about “unless you have done something unnatural to it”?

    That’s mostly about juicing. Juicing removes much (or all) of the fiber, and if you do that, you’re basically back to shooting fructose into your veins:

    Natural sugars like honey, agave, and maple syrup, are healthier than refined sugars: True or False?

    True… Sometimes, and sometimes marginally.

    This is partly because of the glycemic index and glycemic load. The glycemic index scores tail off thus:

    • table sugar = 65
    • maple syrup = 54
    • honey = 46
    • agave syrup = 15

    So, that’s a big difference there between agave syrup and maple syrup, for example… But it might not matter if you’re using a very small amount, which means it may have a high glycemic index but a low glycemic load.

    Note, incidentally, that table sugar, sucrose, is a disaccharide, and is 50% glucose and 50% fructose.

    The other more marginal health benefits come from that fact that natural sugars are usually found in foods high in other nutrients. Maple syrup is very high in manganese, for example, and also a fair source of other minerals.

    But… Because of its GI, you really don’t want to be relying on it for your nutrients.

    Wait, why is sugar bad again?

    We’ve been covering mostly the more “mythbusting” aspects of different forms of sugar, rather than the less controversial harms it does, but let’s give at least a cursory nod to the health risks of sugar overall:

    That last one, by the way, was a huge systematic review of 37 large longitudinal cohort studies. Results varied depending on what, specifically, was being examined (e.g. total sugar, fructose content, sugary beverages, etc), and gave up to 200% increased cancer risk in some studies on sugary beverages, but 95% increased risk is a respectable example figure to cite here, pertaining to added sugars in foods.

    And finally…

    The 56 Most Common Names for Sugar (Some Are Tricky)

    How many did you know?

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  • Chipotle Chili Wild Rice

    The 10almonds Team

    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 is a very gut-healthy recipe that’s also tasty and filling, and packed with polyphenols too. What’s not to love?

    You will need

    • 1 cup cooked wild rice (we suggest cooking it with 1 tbsp chia seeds added)
    • 7 oz cooked sweetcorn (can be from a tin or from frozen or cook it yourself)
    • 4 oz charred jarred red peppers (these actually benefit from being from a jar—you can use fresh or frozen if necessary, but only jarred will give you the extra gut-healthy benefits from fermentation)
    • 1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and cut into small chunks
    • ½ red onion, thinly sliced
    • 6–8 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
    • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
    • 2 tsp chipotle chili paste (adjust per your heat preferences)
    • 1 tsp black pepper, coarse ground
    • ½ tsp MSG or 1 tsp low-sodium salt
    • Juice of 1 lime

    Method

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

    1) Mix the cooked rice, red onion, sweetcorn, red peppers, avocado pieces, and sun-dried tomato, in a bowl. We recommend to do it gently, or you will end up with guacamole in there.

    2) Mix the olive oil, lime juice, chipotle chili paste, black pepper, and MSG/salt, in another bowl. If perchance you have a conveniently small whisk, now is the time to use it. Failing that, a fork will suffice.

    3) Add the contents of the second bowl to the first, tossing gently but thoroughly to combine well, and serve.

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

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

    Take care!

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Related Posts

  • Olive Oil vs Coconut Oil – Which is Healthier?

  • Forget Ringing the Button for the Nurse. Patients Now Stay Connected by Wearing One.

    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.

    Phil Galewitz – KFF Health News

    HOUSTON — Patients admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital get a monitoring device about the size of a half-dollar affixed to their chest — and an unwitting role in the expanding use of artificial intelligence in health care.

    The slender, battery-powered gadget, called a BioButton, records vital signs including heart and breathing rates, then wirelessly sends the readings to nurses sitting in a 24-hour control room elsewhere in the hospital or in their homes. The device’s software uses AI to analyze the voluminous data and detect signs a patient’s condition is deteriorating.

    Hospital officials say the BioButton has improved care and reduced the workload of bedside nurses since its rollout last year.

    “Because we catch things earlier, patients are doing better, as we don’t have to wait for the bedside team to notice if something is going wrong,” said Sarah Pletcher, system vice president at Houston Methodist.

    But some nurses fear the technology could wind up replacing them rather than supporting them — and harming patients. Houston Methodist, one of dozens of U.S. hospitals to employ the device, is the first to use the BioButton to monitor all patients except those in intensive care, Pletcher said.

    “The hype around a lot of these devices is they provide care at scale for less labor costs,” said Michelle Mahon, a registered nurse and an assistant director of National Nurses United, the profession’s largest U.S. union. “This is a trend that we find disturbing,” she said.

    The rollout of BioButton is among the latest examples of hospitals deploying technology to improve efficiency and address a decades-old nursing shortage. But that transition has raised its own concerns, including about the device’s use of AI; polls show the public is wary of health providers relying on it for patient care.

    In December 2022 the FDA cleared the BioButton for use in adult patients who are not in critical care. It is one of many AI tools now used by hospitals for tasks like reading diagnostic imaging results.

    In 2023, President Joe Biden directed the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a plan to regulate AI in hospitals, including by collecting reports of patients harmed by its use.

    The leader of BioIntelliSense, which developed the BioButton, said its device is a huge advance compared with nurses walking into a room every few hours to measure vital signs. “With AI, you now move from ‘I wonder why this patient crashed’ to ‘I can see this crash coming before it happens and intervene appropriately,’” said James Mault, CEO of the Golden, Colorado-based company.

    The BioButton stays on the skin with an adhesive, is waterproof, and has up to a 30-day battery life. The company says the device — which allows providers to quickly notice deteriorating health by recording more than 1,000 measurements a day per patient — has been used on more than 80,000 hospital patients nationwide in the past year.

    Hospitals pay BioIntelliSense an annual subscription fee for the devices and software.

    Houston Methodist officials would not reveal how much the hospital pays for the technology, though Pletcher said it equates to less than a cup of coffee a day per patient.

    For a hospital system that treats thousands of patients at a time — Houston Methodist has 2,653 non-ICU beds at its eight Houston-area hospitals — such an investment could still translate to millions of dollars a year.

    Hospital officials say they have not made any changes in nurse staffing and have no plans to because of implementing the BioButton.

    Inside the hospital’s control center for virtual monitoring on a recent morning, about 15 nurses and technicians dressed in scrubs sat in front of large monitors showing the health status of hundreds of patients they were assigned to monitor.

    A red checkmark next to a patient’s name signaled the AI software had found readings trending outside normal. Staff members could click into a patient’s medical record, showing patients’ vital signs over time and other medical history. These virtual nurses, if you will, could contact nurses on the floor by phone or email, or even dial directly into the patient’s room via video call.

    Nutanben Gandhi, a technician who was watching 446 patients on her monitor that morning, said that when she gets an alert, she looks at the patient’s health record to see if the anomaly can be easily explained by something in the patient’s condition or if she needs to contact nurses on the patient’s floor.

    Oftentimes an alert can be easily dismissed. But identifying signs of deteriorating health can be tough, said Steve Klahn, Houston Methodist’s clinical director of virtual medicine.

    “We are looking for a needle in a haystack,” he said.

    Donald Eustes, 65, was admitted to Houston Methodist in March for prostate cancer treatment and has since been treated for a stroke. He is happy to wear the BioButton.

    “You never know what can happen here, and having an extra set of eyes looking at you is a good thing,” he said from his hospital bed. After being told the device uses AI, the Montgomery, Texas, man said he has no problem with its helping his clinical team. “This sounds like a good use of artificial intelligence.”

    Patients and nurses alike benefit from remote monitoring like the BioButton, said Pletcher of Houston Methodist.

    The hospital has placed small cameras and microphones inside all patient rooms enabling nurses outside to communicate with patients and perform tasks such as helping with patient admissions and discharge instructions. Patients can include family members on the remote calls with nurses or a doctor, she said.

    Virtual technology frees up on-duty nurses to provide more hands-on help, such as starting an intravenous line, Pletcher said. With the BioButton, nurses can wait to take routine vital signs every eight hours instead of every four, she said.

    Pletcher said the device reduces nurses’ stress in monitoring patients and allows some to work more flexible hours because virtual care can be done from home rather than coming to the hospital. Ultimately it helps retain nurses, not drive them away, she said.

    Sheeba Roy, a nurse manager at Houston Methodist, said some members of the nursing staff were nervous about relying on the device and not checking patients’ vital signs as often themselves. But testing has shown the device provides accurate information.

    “After we implemented it, the staff loves it,” Roy said.

    Serena Bumpus, chief executive officer of the Texas Nurses Association, said her concern with any technology is that it can be more burdensome on nurses and take away time with patients.

    “We have to be hypervigilant in ensuring that we are not leaning on this to replace the ability of nurses to critically think and assess patients and validate what this device is telling us is true,” Bumpus said.

    Houston Methodist this year plans to send the BioButton home with patients so the hospital can better track their progress in the weeks after discharge, measuring the quality of their sleep and checking their gait.

    “We are not going to need less nurses in health care, but we have limited resources and we have to use those as thoughtfully as we can,” Pletcher said. “Looking at projected demand and seeing the supply we have coming, we will not have enough to meet demand, so anything we can do to give time back to nurses is a good thing.”

    KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

    Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.

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  • What you need to know about PCOS

    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.

    The 10almonds Team

    In 2008, microbiologist Sasha Ottey saw her OB-GYN because she had missed some periods. The doctor ran blood tests and gave her an ultrasound, diagnosing her with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). She also told her not to worry, referred her to an endocrinologist (a doctor who specializes in hormones), and told her to come back when she wanted to get pregnant. 

    “I found [that] quite dismissive because that was my reason for presenting to her,” Ottey tells PGN. “I felt that she was missing an opportunity to educate me on PCOS, and that was just not an accurate message: Missing periods can lead to other serious, life-threatening health conditions.” 

    During the consultation with the endocrinologist, Ottey was told to lose weight and come back in six months. “Again, I felt dismissed and left up to my own devices to understand this condition and how to manage it,” she says. 

    Following that experience, Ottey began researching and found that thousands of people around the world had similar experiences with their PCOS diagnoses, which led her to start and lead the advocacy and support organization PCOS Challenge. 

    PCOS is the most common hormonal condition affecting people with ovaries of reproductive age. In the United States, one in 10 women of childbearing age have the condition, which affects the endocrine and reproductive systems and is a common cause of infertility. Yet, the condition is significantly underdiagnosed—especially among people of color—and under-researched. 

    Read on to find out more about PCOS, what symptoms to look out for, what treatments are available, and useful resources. 

    What is PCOS, and what are its most common symptoms? 

    PCOS is a chronic hormonal condition that affects how the ovaries work. A hormonal imbalance causes people with PCOS to have too much testosterone, the male sex hormone, which can make their periods irregular and cause hirsutism (extra hair), explains Dr. Melanie Cree, associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and director of the Multi-Disciplinary PCOS clinic at Children’s Hospital Colorado. 

    This means that people can have excess facial or body hair or experience hair loss. 

    PCOS also impacts the relationship between insulin—the hormone released when we eat—and testosterone. 

    “In women with PCOS, it seems like their ovaries are sensitive to insulin, and so when their ovaries see insulin, [they] make extra testosterone,” Cree adds. “So things that affect insulin levels [like sugary drinks] can affect testosterone levels.”

    Other common symptoms associated with PCOS include:

    • Acne
    • Thinning hair
    • Skin tags or excess skin in the armpits or neck 
    • Ovaries with many cysts
    • Infertility
    • Anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions
    • Sleep apnea, a condition where breathing stops and restarts while sleeping

    What causes PCOS?

    The cause is still unknown, but researchers have found that the condition is genetic and can be inherited. Experts have found that exposure to harmful chemicals like PFAs, which can be present in drinking water, and BPA, commonly used in plastics, can also increase the risk for PCOS. 

    Studies have shown that “BPA can change how the endocrine system develops in a developing fetus … and that women with PCOS tend to also have more BPA in their bodies,” adds Dr. Felice Gersh, an OB-GYN and founder and director of the Integrative Medical Group of Irvine, which treats patients with PCOS. 

    How is PCOS diagnosed?

    PCOS is diagnosed through a physical exam; a conversation with your health care provider about your symptoms and medical history; a blood test to measure your hormone levels; and, in some cases, an ultrasound to see your ovaries. 

    PCOS is what’s known as a “diagnosis of exclusion,” Ottey says, meaning that the provider must rule out other conditions, such as thyroid disease, before diagnosing it. 

    Why isn’t more known about PCOS?

    Research on PCOS has been scarce, underfunded, and narrowly focused. Research on the condition has largely focused on the reproductive system, Ottey says, even though it also affects many aspects of a person’s life, including their mental health, appearance, metabolism, and weight. 

    “There is the point of getting pregnant, and the struggle to get pregnant for so many people,” Ottey adds. “[And] once that happens, [the condition] also impacts your ability to carry a healthy pregnancy, to have healthy babies. But outside of that, your metabolic health is at risk from having PCOS, your mental health is at risk, [and] overall health and quality of life, they’re all impacted by PCOS.” 

    People with PCOS are more likely to develop other serious health issues, like high blood pressure, heart problems, high cholesterol, uterine cancer, and diabetes. Cree says that teenagers with PCOS and obesity have “an 18-fold higher risk of type 2 diabetes” in their teens and that teenagers who get type 2 diabetes are starting to die in their late 20s and early 30s. 

    What are some treatments for PCOS?

    There is still no single medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration specifically for PCOS, though advocacy groups like PCOS Challenge are working with the agency to incorporate patient experiences and testimonials into a possible future treatment. Treatment depends on what symptoms you experience and what your main concerns are.

    For now, treatment options include the following:

    • Birth control: Your provider may prescribe birth control pills to lower testosterone levels and regulate your menstrual cycle. 
    • Lifestyle changes: Because testosterone can affect insulin levels, Cree explains that regardless of a patient’s weight, a diet with lower simple carbohydrates (such as candy, sugar, sweets, juices, sodas, and coffee drinks) is recommended.

      “When you have a large amount of sugar like that, especially as a liquid, it gets into your bloodstream very quickly,” adds Cree. “And so you then release a ton of insulin that goes to the ovary, and you make a bunch of testosterone.” 


      More exercise is also recommended for both weight loss and weight maintenance, Cree says: “Food changes and better activity work directly to lower insulin, to lower testosterone.”


    • Metformin: Even though it’s a medication for type 2 diabetes, it’s used in patients with PCOS because it can reduce insulin levels, and as a result, lower testosterone levels. 

    What should I keep in mind if I have (or think I may have) PCOS?

    If your periods are irregular or you have acne, facial hair, or hair loss, tell your provider—it could be a sign that you have PCOS or another condition. And ask questions.

    “I call periods a vital sign for women, if you’re not taking hormones,” Cree says. “Our bodies are really smart: Periods are to get pregnant, and if our body senses that we’re not healthy enough to get pregnant, then we don’t have periods. That means we’ve got to figure out why.” 

    Once you’re diagnosed, Ottey recommends that you “don’t go through extremes, yo-yo dieting, or trying to achieve massive weight loss—it only rebounds.” 

    She adds that “when you get this diagnosis, [there’s] a lot that might feel like it’s being taken away from you: ‘Don’t do this. Don’t eat this. Don’t do that.’ But what I want everyone to think of is what brings you joy, and do more of that and incorporate a lot of healthy activities into your life.” 

    Resources for PCOS patients:

    For more information, talk to your health care provider.

    This article first appeared on Public Good News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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  • At The Heart Of Women’s Health

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    The 10almonds Team

    A woman’s heart is a particular thing

    For the longest time (and still to a large degree now), “women’s health” is assumed to refer to the health of organs found under a bikini. But there’s a lot more to it than that. We are whole people, with such things as brains and hearts and more.

    Today (Valentine’s Day!) we’re focusing on the heart.

    A quick recap:

    We’ve talked previously about some of these sex differences when it comes to the heart, for example:

    Heart Attack: His & Hers (Be Prepared!)

    …but that’s fairly common knowledge at least amongst those who are attentive to such things, whereas…

    Statins: His & Hers?

    …is much less common knowledge, especially with the ways statins are more likely to make things worse for a lot of women (not all though; see the article for some nuance about that).

    We also talked about:

    What Menopause Does To The Heart

    …which is well worth reading too!

    A question:

    Why are women twice as likely to die from a heart attack as their age-equivalent male peers? Women develop heart disease later, but die from it sooner. Why is that?

    That’s been a question scientists have been asking (and tentatively answering, as scientists do—hypotheses, theories, conclusions even sometimes) for 20 years now. Likely contributing factors include:

    • A lack of public knowledge of the different symptoms
    • A lack of confidence of bystanders to perform CPR on a woman
    • A lack of public knowledge (including amongst prescribers) about the sex-related differences for statins
    • A lack of women in cardiology, comparatively.
    • A lack of attention to it, simply. Men get heart disease earlier, so it’s thought of as a “man thing”, by health providers as much as by individuals. Men get more regular cardiovascular check-ups, women get a mammogram and go.

    Statistically, women are much more likely to die from heart disease than breast cancer:

    • Breast cancer kills around 0.02% of us.
    • Heart disease kills one in three.

    And yet…

    ❝In a nationwide survey, only 22% of primary care doctors and 42% of cardiologists said they feel extremely well prepared to assess cardiovascular risks in women.

    We are lagging in implementing risk prevention guidelines for women.

    A lot of women are being told to just watch their cholesterol levels and see their doctor in a year. That’s a year of delayed care.❞

    ~ Dr. Gina Lundberg

    Source: The slowly evolving truth about heart disease and women

    (there’s a lot more in that article than we have room for in ours, so do check it out!)

    Some good news:

    The “bystanders less likely to feel confident performing CPR on a woman” aspect may be helped by the deployment of new automatic external defibrillator, that works from four sides instead of one.

    It’s called “double sequential external defibrillation”, and you can learn about it here:

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

    (it’s in use already in Canada and Aotearoa)

    Gentlemen-readers, thank you for your attention to this one even if it was mostly not about you! Maybe someone you love will benefit from being aware of this

    On a lighter note…

    Since it’s Valentine’s Day, a little more on affairs of the heart…

    Is chocolate good for the heart? And is it really an aphrodisiac?

    We answered these questions and more in our previous main feature:

    Chocolate & Health: Fact or Fiction?

    Enjoy!

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