How To Triple Your Chances Of Getting The “Razorblade Throat” COVID Variant Or Long COVID
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Well, that sounds like fun, doesn’t it? More formally known as variant NB.1.8.1, also called Nimbus (after the “NB” in its official name), comes under the Omicron variant umbrella, and is generally not nice.
Along with all the usual COVID symptoms, it is characterized by usually causing a razorblade sensation in the throat, along with gastrointestinal upset, including nausea and vomiting, which latter is probably the last thing you want if you have a “razorblade throat”.
Stats we know: in the US, it’s currently (at time of writing) the most popular variant, accounting for 43% of cases
Stats we don’t know: in the US, it’s currently (at time of writing) responsible for:
- a 21% increase in infections since the previous week
- a 40% increase in hospitalizations since the previous week
- a 36% decrease in deaths since the previous month
You may be wondering how we are giving numbers for what we said we don’t know. The answer is that COVID reporting is increasingly suffering from considerable reporting bias, that is to say, “it doesn’t count if we don’t count it”; low numbers look better for the government.
It’s the statistical equivalent of the old “if you need to use our accessible bathroom for disabled customers, please ask for the key at the desk upstairs” and then reporting that there was very low demand for it since almost nobody went upstairs to ask for the key.
Indeed, the above infection rate is generally being reported as, for example:
❝More of an uptick than a surge, the COVID case weekly positivity rate increased to 5.1% as of July 19, compared to 4.2% the week before, representing an increase of 0.3%, according to the CDC.❞
…and, that is mathematically very incorrect! A jump from 4.2 to 5.1 is not a 0.3% increase! It’s not even a 0.3 percentage points increase, it’s a 0.9 percentage points increase. Frankly, we don’t know where they got the 0.3% figure from, since the 0.9 percentage points increase can be arrived at easily by counting on one’s fingers.
As for the actual percentage increase:
- 4.2 is (of course) 100% of 4.2
- 5.1 is (grabbing a calculator) 121% of 4.2
- That is a 21% increase
…which is very different from the 0.3% increase claimed.
One important thing to understand before we get to tripling your chances of getting it
Remember when we said:
- a 40% increase in hospitalizations since the previous week
- a 36% decrease in deaths since the previous month
It’s easy to read that and think “ok, so, it’s less deadly, that’s at least one good thing”, and while there’s a logic to that… We would suggest that the death rate has gone down because the hospitalization rate has gone up, not because the variant is less deadly per se. Consider:
- You get a cough, it’s annoying, but whatever, you’re pretty sure it’s nothing. Then you can’t breathe, go to hospital, but it’s too late and you die.
- You get a cough, and nausea, and vomiting, and a razorblade throat. You go to hospital, get diagnosed, get treated, and you live.
So, the very unpleasant symptoms themselves are a protective factor, because it means you are more likely to go get treatment.
On which note…
How to triple your chances of getting it
Firstly we’ll note, the two (Omicron variant NB1.8.1, and long COVID) are linked, because higher survivorship rates mean higher long COVID rates (can’t get long COVID if you’re dead).
With that in mind, we’re going to talk about some long COVID research; just keep in mind that this new(ish) variant is more likely to produce long COVID than previous ones.
Researchers (Dr. Candace Feldman et al.) investigated social determinants of health that contribute both to infection rates and long COVID rates.
In few words: people facing financial hardship, food insecurity, limited healthcare access, low social/community support, crowded living conditions, or social disadvantages (e.g. being part of some socially marginalized demographic) are two to three times more likely to develop long COVID (it was already established that they were commensurately more likely to get infected in the first place).
This was arrived at by looking at 3,700 adults infected during the Omicron wave, tracking social risk factors at infection, and long COVID symptoms six months later. The significance of the data was high, and more social risk factors correlated with higher long COVID risk, even after adjusting for age, sex, race, ethnicity, disease severity, vaccination, and pregnancy status.
The researchers concluded that addressing social risk factors—like improving access to food, healthcare, and safe housing—may be essential to reducing long COVID burden.
You can read the paper here: Social Determinants of Health and Risk for Long COVID in the U.S. RECOVER-Adult Cohort
What this means for you: let us imagine that you, dear reader, are financially secure with good healthcare access, and generally not subject to most of the problems above.
You have to act like it!
So…
If you want to triple your chances of getting infected with the latest variant, if you want to triple your chances of getting long COVID, here’s how to do it:
- Do not get updated vaccinations, even if you have good healthcare access
- Spend time in crowded places, even if you can afford not to
- Eat unhealthily, even if you are not in food insecurity
It’s easy, but a lot of people don’t think about it!
Want to learn more?
Check out:
Why Some People Get Sick More (And How To Not Be One Of Them)
Take care!
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Oven-Roasted Ratatouille
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This is a supremely low-effort, high-yield dish. It’s a nutritional tour-de-force, and very pleasing to the tastebuds too. We use flageolet beans in this recipe; they are small immature kidney beans. If they’re not available, using kidney beans or really any other legume is fine.
You will need
- 2 large zucchini, sliced
- 2 red peppers, sliced
- 1 large eggplant, sliced and cut into semicircles
- 1 red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 cans chopped tomatoes
- 2 cans flageolet beans, drained and rinsed (or 2 cups same, cooked, drained, and rinsed)
- ½ bulb garlic, crushed
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp black pepper, coarse ground
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp red chili pepper flakes (omit or adjust per your heat preferences)
- ½ tsp MSG or 1 tsp low-sodium salt
- Mixed herbs, per your preference. It’s hard to go wrong with this one, but we suggest leaning towards either basil and oregano or rosemary and thyme. We also suggest having some finely chopped to go into the dish, and some held back to go on the dish as a garnish.
Method
(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)
1) Preheat the oven to 350℉ / 180℃.
2) Mix all the ingredients (except the tomatoes and herbs) in a big mixing bowl, ensuring even distribution.
2) Add the tomatoes. The reason we didn’t add these before is because it would interfere with the oil being distributed evenly across the vegetables.
3) Transfer to a deep-walled oven tray or an ovenproof dish, and roast for 30 minutes.
4) Stir, add the chopped herbs, stir again, and return to the oven for another 30 minutes.
5) Serve (hot or cold), adding any herb garnish you wish to use.
Enjoy!
Want to learn more?
For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:
- Lycopene’s Benefits For The Gut, Heart, Brain, & More
- Level-Up Your Fiber Intake! (Without Difficulty Or Discomfort)
- Capsaicin For Weight Loss And Against Inflammation
- The Many Health Benefits Of Garlic
- Black Pepper’s Impressive Anti-Cancer Arsenal (And More)
Take care!
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Are Home Test Kits Worth It Or A Scam?
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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!
No question/request too big or small 😎
❝Home test kits. Real (useful) or a scam? And how to tell good ones from bad ones❞
The last part there hints at the answer: it depends!
Certainly, not all home test kits are created equal, so in the broadest sense it’s a bit like trying to say whether cars are useful or a scam—it depends on the car, your circumstances, and various other factors.
As with cars, home tests kits can be anything ranging from life-saving to outright fraud.
As with cars, it makes a difference if you can know how to use it, too. In the case of tests, that means not just operatively (i.e. can follow the instructions), but also in terms of interpreting the results, and even before that, simply asking the right questions. Because…
First, why do doctors order tests?
Doctors will order tests to be done for a multitude of reasons, including:
- To find out the information the test will provide, in the hopes it will support or rule out a diagnosis
- To show on the medical record that they did due diligence and were not negligent
- To reassure you that they’re taking you seriously
- To get you out of their office and generally “kick the can down the road” with regard to procrastinating having to actually make a treatment decision
- To sell you something (applicable in places like the US with a for-profit healthcare system)
Private individuals, meanwhile, will tend to order tests for mostly different reasons, including:
- To find out the information the test will provide, in the hopes it will support or rule out a diagnosis
- To find out the information the test will provide, not because they think it’ll be important, but because it seems sensible just in case
- To find out the information the test will provide, out of pure and simple curiosity
- Because they feel like they should be doing something to be healthier, and buying a test kit is easier than developing an exercise habit
- Because the advertising was very compelling
In both cases, some of those are clearly good reasons, and others are a little more questionable.
So, if considering a home test kit, perhaps the first question to ask is “why?”.
Next, will it give you the information you need?
Some home test kits are a lot more reliable than others, and while there are far too many to list here, there are some rules of thumb:
- Tests that give Yes/No answers are usually more reliable than tests that give numerical answers
- For example, a pregnancy test kit usually has 99% accuracy, whereas a continuous glucose monitor can easily be way out (so can direct testing of blood sugar levels with a fingerprick test, though those are at least more accurate than CGM kits).
- You may be thinking: haven’t you praised GCM kits before? And yes, we have. But we’ve also urged readers to a) not rely on them, and b) use them to observe the trends, rather than the numbers. In other words, they can be imprecise, but will tend to show when spikes occur, even if they get the numbers of those spikes wrong.
- Tests that test for one thing are usually more reliable than tests that test for many things
- This means that sometimes tests that offer many things at once are often simply not going to deliver on those promises (just ask Elizabeth Holmes).
- Similarly, when it comes to personal health genomics, more is not always better when it comes to how many SNPs (or whatever) it’s measuring.
- Tests that require some skill to administer are usually more reliable than tests that practically perform themselves
- On the easy end of things, if the instructions are basically “pee on this”, that’s hard to get wrong.
- But in contrast, there are so many ways to mess up when trying to use a blood pressure monitor.
Some examples from our archives:
- 12 Things Your Urine Says About Your Health (Test At Home)
- Try This At Home: ABI Test For Clogged Arteries
- How to test for STIs at home
- The Real Benefit Of Genetic Testing
- Continuous Glucose Monitors Without Diabetes: Pros & Cons
Lastly, what will you do with that information?
Good news: knowledge is power!
Bad news: power can be destructive!
If the intended purpose of a home test kit is to potentially raise a red flag if necessary (so that you can bring it up with your main healthcare provider), that’s probably a good use.
If the intended purpose of a home test kit is to upsell to a cure and/or hop on a treatment train, that can be a problem, and can lead people to take medications that are inappropriate for them.
See also: Are You Taking Potentially Inappropriate Medications?
Want to learn more?
Check out:
Do You Have A Personalized Health Plan? (Here’s How)
Take care!
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What Actually Causes High Cholesterol?
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In 1968, the American Heart Association advised limiting egg consumption to three per week due to cholesterol concerns linked to cardiovascular disease. Which was reasonable based on the evidence available back then, but it didn’t stand the test of time.
Eggs are indeed high in cholesterol, but that doesn’t mean that those who eat them will also be high in cholesterol, because…
It’s not quite what many people think
Some quite dietary pointers to start with:
- Egg yolks are high in cholesterol but have a minimal impact on blood cholesterol.
- Saturated and trans fats (as found in fatty meats or dairy, and some processed foods) have a greater influence on LDL levels than dietary cholesterol.
And on the other hand:
- Unsaturated fats (e.g. from fish, nuts, seeds) have anti-inflammatory benefits
- Fiber-rich foods help lower LDL by affecting fat absorption in the digestive tract
A quick primer on LDL and other kinds of cholesterol:
- VLDL (Very Low-Density Lipoprotein):
- delivers triglycerides and cholesterol to muscle and fat cells for energy
- is converted into LDL after delivery
- LDL (Low-Density Lipoprotein):
- is called “bad cholesterol”, which we call that due to its role in arterial plaque formation
- in excess leads to inflammation, overworked macrophage activity, and artery narrowing
- HDL (High-Density Lipoprotein):
- known as “good cholesterol,” picks up excess LDL and returns it to the liver for excretion
- is anti-inflammatory, in addition to regulating LDL levels
There are other factors too, for example:
- Smoking and drinking increase LDL buildup and cause oxidative damage to lipids in general and the blood vessels through which they travel
- Regular exercise, meanwhile, can lower LDL and raise HDL
- Statins and other medications can help lower LDL and manage cholesterol when lifestyle changes and genetics require additional support—but they often come with serious side effects, and the usefulness varies from person to person.
For more on all of this, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
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Healing After Loss – by Martha Hickman
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Mental health is also just health, and this book’s about an underexamined area of mental health. We say “underexamined”, because for something that affects almost everyone sooner or later, there’s not nearly so much science being done about it as other areas of mental health.
This is not a book of science per se, but it is a very useful one. The format is:
Each calendar day of the year, there’s a daily reflection, consisting of:
- A one-liner insight about grief, quoted from somebody
- A page of thoughts about this
- A one-liner summary, often formulated as a piece of advice
The book is not religious in content, though the author does occasionally make reference to God, only in the most abstract way that shouldn’t be offputting to any but the most stridently anti-religious readers.
Bottom line: if this is a subject near to your heart, then you will almost certainly benefit from this daily reader.
Click here to check out Healing After Loss, and indeed heal after loss
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Finally! Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Biomarkers Identified
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.
And other items from this week’s health news:
Good news for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferers
Historically considered a syndrome that has no observable signs (only symptoms reported by the sufferer), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) now has some biomarkers identified, achieving 90% diagnostic accuracy—offering objective proof for a disease often dismissed due to a lack of lab evidence.
How it was done: researchers (Dr. Julia Oh et al.) showed how the gut microbiome, immune cells, and metabolites correlate with symptoms like fatigue, pain, and sleep disturbances. ME/CFS patients had reduced butyrate (a gut-beneficial fatty acid), elevated tryptophan and benzoate (indicators of microbial imbalance), and increased inflammatory responses, especially in cells linked to gut health. In terms of which parts did what, immune cell data best predicted overall symptom severity, while gut microbiome data correlated most with gastrointestinal, emotional, and sleep-related symptoms. Meanwhile, symptoms like dizziness, sleep disturbances, and headaches were linked directly to disruptions in gut-immune-metabolic networks, offering a systems-level disease view.
In other words, a lot of data.
It was also worthy of note that biological disruptions were less extensive in patients ill for under four years compared to those ill over a decade, implying worsening dysregulation over time.
Which makes it all the more important that we now have ways to categorically identify and thus usefully diagnose it:
Read in full: Previously undetectable biomarkers in gut microbiome may predict “invisible” chronic fatigue syndrome, long COVID
Related: How To Be 7.5x More Likely To Develop Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Texas is taking the lead!
But not in good ways, unfortunately. This time it’s not about measles, though, and rather is about STI rates, especially on a county level. For example, Dallas county ranked 7th (in the US), with 1,314.5 STI cases per 100,000 people.
You might be wondering what STIs specifically, and: chlamydia and gonorrhea dominate case numbers, but syphilis and HIV are steadily rising, particularly in urban areas.
The report identified the following factors as being the main reasons the rates are rising so much:
- inadequate sex education
- limited access to affordable care and regular testing
- high infection rates among youth lacking primary care
- stigma and misinformation
- racial and economic disparities (impacting accessibility of testing and treatment)
In Texas, people aged 15–29 represent the largest portion of new infections, but before you write that off as “young people nowadays” who cannot contain their hormones, note that that’s new infections—the only reason older demographics score lower is because each instance of infection is less likely to be one’s first, the further one goes through life. Overall infection rates (i.e., not just “new infections”) are rising the highest in adults over 50.
Read in full: Texas counties have some of the highest STD rates in US, new report says
Related: Why STIs Are On The Rise In Older Adults
The change
Prostate cancer is one of the major killers of men, the top cancer for men by prevalence, and affects over 60% of men over the age of 60 (with that percentage then rising each year thereafter). Note that this means “if something else doesn’t kill you first, you are more likely to get this than not”.
Prostate cancer is also something where the early stages of it are often described “nothing to worry about for now; let’s keep an eye on it”.
Happily, researchers have now discovered how prostate cancer evolves into its most lethal form, neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC). This was a win for medical AI (while both are called “AI”, this is incredibly different from ChatGPT et al.), and specifically, it was a 3d genome mapping breakthrough; using advanced genomic tools, they created the first 3D map of how prostate cancer cells rewire their DNA structure to enable and promote the aforementioned shift to NEPC.
Some technical bits for those who want it:
- The key proteins involved have been identified: FOXA2 and NKX2-1 drive the transformation by reprogramming the cancer cells; FOXA2 opens inaccessible DNA regions, allowing NKX2-1 to activate NEPC-related genes.
- The role of cbp and p300 enzymes have been identified: these enzymes help activate oncogenes crucial to the NEPC transformation, acting as co-drivers of the aggressive cancer form.
- A potential treatment has been identified: the drug CCS1477, a CBP/p300 inhibitor in clinical trials, successfully halted NEPC tumor growth in lab studies.
The latter is particularly important, as it allows for new treatment avenues for prostate cancers that become resistant to hormone therapy, by preventing or reversing the NEPC transition.
Read in full: Study uncovers how prostate cancer becomes deadly, offers hope for new treatments
Related: Prostate Health: What You Should Know
Take care!
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Healthiest-Three-Nut Butter
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We’re often telling you to “diversify your nuts”, so here’s a great way to get in three at once with no added sugar, palm oil, or preservatives, and only the salt you choose to put in. We’ve picked three of the healthiest nuts around, but if you happen to be allergic, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered too.
You will need
- 1 cup almonds (if allergic, substitute a seed, e.g. chia, and make it ½ cup)
- 1 cup walnuts (if allergic, substitute a seed, e.g. pumpkin, and make it ½ cup)
- 1 cup pistachios (if allergic, substitute a seed, e.g. poppy, and make it ½ cup)
- 1 tbsp almond oil (if allergic, substitute extra virgin olive oil) (if you prefer sweet nut butter, substitute 1 tbsp maple syrup; the role here is to emulsify the nuts, and this will do the same job)
- Optional: ¼ tsp MSG or ½ tsp low-sodium salt
Method
(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)
1a) If using nuts, heat your oven to 350℉ / 180℃. Place the nuts on a baking tray lined with baking paper, and bake/roast for about 10 minutes, but keep an eye on it to ensure the nuts don’t burn, and jiggle them if necessary to ensure they toast evenly. Once done, allow to cool.
1b) If using seeds, you can either omit that step, or do the same for 5 minutes if you want to, but really it’s not necessary.
2) Blend all ingredients (nuts/seeds, oil, MSG/salt) in a high-speed blender. Note: this will take about 10 minutes in total, and we recommend you do it in 30-second bursts so as to not overheat the motor. You also may need to periodically scrape the mixture down the side of the blender, to ensure a smooth consistency.
3) Transfer to a clean jar, and enjoy at your leisure:
Enjoy!
Want to learn more?
For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:
- Why You Should Diversify Your Nuts!
- Sesame Seeds vs Poppy Seeds – Which is Healthier?
- If You’re Not Taking Chia, You’re Missing Out
- Sea Salt vs MSG – Which is Healthier?
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
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