International Day of Women and Girls in Science
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Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, so we’ve got a bunch of content for the ladies out there. Let’s start with the statement Sima Bahous (the Executive Director of UN Women) made:
❝This year, the sixty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) will consider as its priority theme “Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls”.
This is an unprecedented opportunity for the Commission to develop a definitive agenda for progress towards women’s full and equal participation and representation in STEM. Its implementation will require bold, coordinated, multi-stakeholder action.❞
Here at 10almonds, we are just one newsletter, and maybe we can’t change the world (…yet), but we’re all for this!
We’re certainly all in favour of education in the digital age, and more of our subscribers are women and girls than not (highest of fives from your writer today, also a woman—and I do bring most of the sciency content).
Medical News Today asks “Why Are Women Less Likely To Survive Cardiac Arrest Than Men?”
You can read the full article here, but the short version is:
- People (bystanders and EMS professionals alike!) are less likely to intervene to give CPR when the patient is a woman (we appreciate that “your hands on an unknown woman’s chest” is a social taboo, but there’s a time and a place!)
- People trained to give CPR (volunteers or professionals!) are often less confident about how to do so with female anatomy—training is almost entirely on “male” dummies.
A quick take-away from this is: to give effective CPR, you need to be giving two-inch compressions!
On a side note, do you want to learn how to correctly do chest compressions on female anatomy? This short (1:55) video could save a woman’s life!
As a science-based health and productivity newsletter, we make no apologies if occasional issues sometimes have a slant to women’s health! Heaven help us, the bias in science at large is certainly the opposite:
The list of examples is far too long for us to include here, but two that spring immediately to mind are:
- PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome), which affects nearly 1 in 5 women, can lead to infertility, never mind the inconvenience of irregular bleeding, chronic pain, and diabetes (amongst other things), and… nobody knows what causes it, or what to do about it.
- Endometriosis (the lining of the womb starts growing in other places), meanwhile, affects around 1 in 10 women. It causes chronic pain and fatigue, and again, nobody knows what causes it or how to cure it.
Maybe if women in STEM weren’t on the receiving end of rampant systemic misogyny, we’d have more women in science, and some answers by now!
❗️NOT-SO-FUN FACT:
Women make up only 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and men vastly outnumber women majoring in most STEM fields in college. The gender gaps are particularly high in some of the fastest-growing and highest-paid jobs of the future, like computer science and engineering.
Source: AAUW
The US census suggests change is happening, but is a very long way from equality!
WHAT OUR SUBSCRIBERS SAY:
❝Women are slowly gaining more of a place in academia, and slowly making more of a difference when they get there, and start doing research that reflects ourselves. But I still think that it’s a struggle to get there, and it’s a struggle to be heard and be respected.
It’s a matter of pride, it’s a matter of proving yourself, being in STEM, and [women in STEM] still report being extremely disrespected, not taken seriously all, despite being very very good.
It’s worth noting as well, that we’ve had women in STEM for a while and there are so many things we appreciate nowadays that they were a part of, but they were never given credit for—it’s still a problem today and something we need to more actively fight.❞
Isabella F. Lima, Occupational Psychologist
Are you a woman in STEM, and have a story to tell? We’d love to hear it! Just reply to this email 🙂
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Gutbliss – by Dr. Robynne Chutkan
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We’ve previously reviewed another of (gastroenterologist) Dr. Chutkan’s books, “The Anti-Viral Gut”, but Gutbliss is her most well-known book, and here’s why:
This book goes into a lot more detail than most gut health books. You probably already know to eat fiber and enjoy an occasional probiotic, and chances are good you’ve already at least considered screening for food sensitivities/intolerances/allergies, especially common ones like lactose and gluten.
So, well beyond such, Dr. Chutkan talks about the very many things that affect our gut health, and countless small tweaks we can make to improve things, and the very least not sabotage ourselves. A lot of the advice is of course dietary, but some is other aspects of lifestyle, and a lot of items are things like “do this at this time of day, not that time of day”, or “do this and this, but not together”, and similar such advices that come from a place of deep professional knowledge.
The “10-day plan” promised by the subtitle is of course delivered, and while it may seem a bold claim, do remember that the life cycle of things in your gut is very very short, so 10 days is more than enough time for a complete reset, if doing things correctly.
The style is very accessible pop science, making this very easy to implement.
Bottom line: if you’d like your gut health to be better than it is, this book has a wealth of information to guide you through doing exactly that.
Click here to check out Gutbliss, and enjoy how much healthier you can feel!
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Good Health From Head To Toe
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It’s Q&A Day!
Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!
This newsletter has been growing a lot lately, and so have the questions/requests, and we love that! 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!
As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!
So, no question/request too big or small
Q: I am now in the “aging” population. A great concern for me is Alzheimers. My father had it and I am so worried. What is the latest research on prevention?
Very important stuff! We wrote about this not long back:
- See: How To Reduce Your Alzheimer’s Risk
- See also: Brain Food? The Eyes Have It!
(one good thing to note is that while Alzheimer’s has a genetic component, it doesn’t appear to be hereditary per se. Still, good to be on top of these things, and it’s never too early to start with preventive measures!)
Q: Foods that help build stronger bones and cut inflammation? Thank you!
We’ve got you…
For stronger bones / To cut inflammation
That “stronger bones” article is about the benefits of collagen supplementation for bones, but there’s definitely more to say on the topic of stronger bones, so we’ll do a main feature on it sometime soon!
Q: Veganism, staying mentally sharp, best exercises for weight gain?
All great stuff! Let’s do a run-down:
- Veganism? As a health and productivity newsletter, we’ll only be focusing veganism’s health considerations, but it does crop up from time to time! For example:
- Which Plant Milk? (entirely about such)
- Plant vs Animal Protein (mostly about such)
- Making Friends With Your Gut (You Can Thank Us Later) (discusses one benefit of such)
- Staying mentally sharp? You might like the things-against-dementia pieces we linked to in the previous response!
- It’s also worth noting that some kinds of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s, can begin the neurodegenerative process 20 years before symptoms show, and can be influenced by lifestyle choices 20 years before that, so it’s definitely never too early be on top of these things!
- Best exercises for weight gain? We’ll do a main feature one of these days (filled with good science and evidence), but in few words meanwhile: core exercises, large muscle groups, heavy weights, few reps, build up slowly. Squats are King.
Q: I am interested in the following: Aging, Exercise, Diet, Relationships, Purpose, Lowering Stress
You’re going to love our Psychology Sunday editions of 10almonds! You might like some of these…
- Relationships: Seriously Useful Communication Skills!
- Purpose: Are You Flourishing? (There’s a Scale)
- Managing stress: Lower Your Cortisol! (Here’s Why & How)
- Also about managing stress: Sunday Stress-Buster
- Also applicable to stress: How To Set Your Anxiety Aside
Q: I’d like to know more about type 2 diabetic foot problems
You probably know that the “foot problems” thing has less to do with the feet and more to do with blood and nerves. So, why the feet?
The reason feet often get something like the worst of it, is because they are extremities, and in the case of blood sugars being too high for too long too often, they’re getting more damage as blood has to fight its way back up your body. Diabetic neuropathy happens when nerves are malnourished because the blood that should be keeping them healthy, is instead syrupy and sluggish.
We’ll definitely do a main feature sometime soon on keeping blood sugars healthy, for both types of diabetes plus pre-diabetes and just general advice for all.
In the meantime, here’s some very good advice on keeping your feet healthy in the context of diabetes. This one’s focussed on Type 1 Diabetes, but the advice goes for both:
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Cashews vs Pecans – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing cashews to pecans, we picked the cashews, but it was very close!.
Why?
In terms of macros, cashews have 2x the protein while pecans have 3x the fiber and about 60% more fat. As both of these nuts thus have quite a lot going for them in terms of macros, which is better is somewhat subjective, so for simplicity’s sake we’ll call this round a tie, but the above information is worth bearing in mind.
In the category of vitamins, cashews have more of vitamins B5, B6, B7, B9, and K, while pecans have more of vitamins B1, B2, C, and E, making a very marginal win for cashews, though it is worth noting that the biggest margin of difference was in the case of vitamin K, wherein cashews have about 9x more, which may be considered an additional point in cashews’ favor, as most of the other differences were around 1x more or less.
When it comes to minerals, cashews have more copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while pecans have more calcium and manganese. An easy win for cashews in this round.
Adding up the sections makes for an overall win for cashews, but pecans have a lot going for them too (especially that fiber and the healthy fats), so by all means (assuming no nut allergy) enjoy either or both; diversity is good!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Why You Should Diversify Your Nuts!
Enjoy!
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Flossing Without Flossing?
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Flossing Without Flossing?
You almost certainly brush your teeth. You might use mouthwash. A lot of people floss for three weeks at a time, often in January.
There are a lot of options for oral hygiene; variations of the above, and many alternatives too. This is a big topic, so rather than try to squeeze it all in one, this will be a several-part series.
The first part was: Toothpastes & Mouthwashes: Which Help And Which Harm?
How important is flossing?
Interdental cleaning is indeed pretty important, even though it may not have the heart health benefits that have been widely advertised:
However! The health of our gums is very important in and of itself, especially as we get older:
Flossing Is Associated with Improved Oral Health in Older Adults
But! It helps to avoid periodontal (e.g. gum) disease, not dental caries:
Flossing for the management of periodontal diseases and dental caries in adults
And! Most certainly it can help avoid a stack of other diseases:
Interdental Cleaning Is Associated with Decreased Oral Disease Prevalence
…so in short, if you’d like to have happy healthy teeth and gums, flossing is an important adjunct, and/but not a one-stop panacea.
Is it better to floss before or after brushing?
As you prefer. A team of scientists led by Dr. Claudia Silva studied this, and found that there was “no statistical difference between brush-floss and floss-brush”:
Flossing is tedious. How do we floss without flossing?
This is (mostly) about water-flossing! Which does for old-style floss what sonic toothbrushes to for old-style manual toothbrushes.
If you’re unfamiliar, it means using a device that basically power-washes your teeth, but with a very narrow high-pressure jet of water.
Do they work? Yes:
As for how it stacks up against traditional flossing, Liang et al. found:
❝In our previous single-outcome analysis, we concluded that interdental brushes and water jet devices rank highest for reducing gingival inflammation while toothpick and flossing rank last.
In this multioutcome Bayesian network meta-analysis with equal weight on gingival inflammation and bleeding-on-probing, the surface under the cumulative ranking curve was 0.87 for water jet devices and 0.85 for interdental brushes.
Water jet devices and interdental brushes remained the two best devices across different sets of weightings for the gingival inflammation and bleeding-on-probing. ❞
~ Journal of Evidence-Based Dental Practice
You may be wondering how safe it is if you have had dental work done, and, it appears to be quite safe, for example:
BDJ | Water-jet flossing: effect on composites
Want to try water-flossing?
Here are some examples on Amazon:
- Waterpik Complete Care 9.0 ← example of a top-end water-flossing device
- Philips Sonicare Power Flosser 3000 ← top-tier not-Waterpik-brand device
- INSMART Cordless Water Dental Flosser ← very low price and still average 4.5 star reviews, so in our opinion, a fine first choice
Bonus: if you haven’t tried interdental brushes, here’s an example for that
Enjoy!
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The Nitric Oxide (NO) Solution – by Dr. Nathan Bryan & Janet Zand
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Typically we review books, not authors, but here it’s worth mentioning that the authors are an interesting pairing, qualification-wise:
- Dr. Nathan Bryan is a leading expert on nitric oxide, and assistant professor of molecular medicine at the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine of the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.
- Janet Zand is a homeopath, herbalist, and acupuncturist whose qualifications are not widely recognized even by acupuncture organizations.
The result is a book that is neither overly scientific nor overly unscientific.
By this we mean, the authors explain the functioning of nitric oxide (not to be mistaken for nitrous oxide or nitrogen dioxide), and, for that matter, the dysfunctioning of nitric oxide (i.e. what happens when we don’t make enough), and how to fix it by giving our body the things it needs to do it better.
But they explain these things in broad terms, and they mention research without actually citing it, e.g. “a team of researchers found” without saying who, or “a study published in the Journal of Such-and-Such showed…” without saying what study, etc.
Thus, we learn about the decline of nitric oxide production in the body, what causes such (age over 40, and some lifestyle factors), and how to counter it (diet & exercise, but, specific dietary things, especially leafy greens, for example, and amino acid supplements (l-arginine and l-citrulline) that make it easier for the body to produce the enzymes that in turn play their part in the production of nitric oxide.
The benefits (mostly vs CVD and inflammatory diseases) are possibly overstated as much research on this topic has been done on non-human animals and/or has produced mixed results, but there is rarely much that can go wrong with eating more leafy greens, getting in amino acids, and exercising—so for most people the advice remains good regardless.
Bottom line: this is a very interesting book that’s quite light-reading as an introduction to the machinations of nitric oxide in our physiology, and why we might want to promote that. Provided you don’t want more details or need sources, it’s a good book.
Click here to check out The Nitric Oxide (NO) Solution, and say NO to disease!
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Dried Apricots vs Carrots – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing dried apricots to carrots, we picked the dried apricots.
Why?
And first, why this comparison? Well, they’re both pleasantly refreshing vitamin A heavyweights (hence their color, though vitamin B6 does also contribute to that), but mainly it came about because of this writer having a desk snack of dried apricots, whereas in summer she’s more likely to have raw carrots (for posterity: this one was written in winter). And, which is healthier? Well, that’s the question, so…
In terms of macros, dried apricots have more fiber, carbs, and protein, making them the more nutritionally dense option in this category.
In the category of vitamins, dried apricots have more of vitamins B2, B3, B5, B6, and E, while carrots have more of vitamins A, B1, B9, C, and K, for a 5:5 tie (and yes, the margins of difference are quite similar too, so there’s no reasonable tiebreaker in this round).
Looking at minerals, dried apricots have more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while carrots are not higher in any minerals, unless we want to count that they are higher in sodium, which is not usually considered a plus for most of us in the industrialized world. In any case, an overwhelming win for apricots in the minerals category.
In other considerations, they’re comparable for polyphenols, but apricots have some specific anticancer properties that carrots can’t boast, so that’s an extra point in dried apricots’ favor here.
Adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for dried apricots, but by all means enjoy either or both, as carrots really are also great, and diversity is invariably best of all!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Top 8 Fruits That Prevent & Kill Cancer
Enjoy!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
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