The Science Of Sounds
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We Think You Might Like The Sound Of This…
We’ve written before about the benefits of mindfulness meditation, and how to do it.
We also reviewed a great book on a related topic:
This is Your Brain On Music – by Dr. Daniel Levitin
(yes, that’s the same neuroscientist that we featured as an expert talking about The Five Keys of Aging Healthily)
But what happens when we combine the two?
Mantra meditation & music
Most scientific studies that have been undertaken with regard to meditation tend to focus on mindfulness meditation. It’s easy, effective, and (which makes a difference when it comes to publication bias) is a very safe bet when it comes to funding.
However, today we’re going to look at mantra meditation, which has a lot in common, neurologically speaking, with music. Indeed, when the two were compared separately in a randomized control trial:
❝Daily mantra meditation or classical music listening may be beneficial for cognitive outcomes and quality of life of breast cancer survivors with cancer-related cognitive impairment.
The cognitive benefits appear to be sustained beyond the initial intervention period.❞
One possible reason for some of the similar benefits is the vagus nerve—whether intoning a mantra, or humming along to music, the vibrations can stimulate the vagus nerve, which in turn activates the parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in body-wide relaxation:
The Vagus Nerve (And How You Can Make Use Of It)
How effective is mantra meditation?
According to a large recent narrative review, it depends on your goal:
❝Based on the studies in the four important areas presented, there is no doubt of a strong connection between mantra meditation and human health.
Strong evidence has been found that practicing mantra meditation is effective in relieving stress and in coping with hypertension.
For the other two areas: anxiety and immunity, the evidence is inconclusive or not strong enough to firmly support the claim that the mantra meditation can be used to reduce anxiety or to improve immunity. ❞
Read in full: Scientific Evidence of Health Benefits by Practicing Mantra Meditation: Narrative Review
this is a very interesting read if you do have the time!
How do I practice mantra meditation?
The definition is broad, but the critical criteria are:
- You meditate…
- …using a mantra
Lest that seem flippant: those really are the two key points!
Meditation comes in various forms, and mantra meditation is a form of focussed meditation. While some focussed meditation forms may use a candle or some other focal point, in mantra meditation, the mantra itself provides the focus.
You may be wondering: what should the mantra be?
Classic and well-tested mantras include such simple things as the monosyllabic Sanskrit “Om” or “Ham”. We’re a health science newsletter, so we’ll leave esoteric meanings to other publications as they are beyond our scope, but we will say that these result, most naturally, in the humming sound that we mentioned earlier stimulates the vagus nerve.
But that’s not the only way. Practitioners of religions that have repetitive prayer systems (e.g. anything that uses prayer beads, for example) also provide the basis of focused meditation, using a mantra (in this case, usually a very short oft-repeated prayer phrase).
How long is needed for benefits?
Most studies into mantra meditation have used timed sessions of 15–30 minutes, with 20 minutes being a commonly-used session length, once per day. However…
- Vagus nerve benefits should appear a lot more quickly than that (under 5 minutes) in the case of mantras that cause that vibration we mentioned.
- Repetitive spoken prayers (or similar repeated short phrases, for the irreligious) will generally effect relaxation in whatever period of time it takes for your brain to be fully focused on what you are doing now, instead of what you were thinking about before. If using counting beads, then you probably already know what number works for you.
(again, as a health science publication, we cannot comment on any otherworldly benefits, but the worldly benefits seem reason enough to consider these practices for their potential therapeutic effects)
10almonds tip: for any meditative practice that you want to take approximately a given period of time, we recommend investing in a nice sand timer like this one, as this will not result in a jarring alarm going off!
Like to jazz things up a little?
Enjoy: Meditation That You’ll Actually Enjoy ← Meditation games!
Prefer to keep things to the basics?
Enjoy: No Frills, Evidence-Based Mindfulness ← The simplest scientific approach
Take care!
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Are chemicals to blame for cancer in young people? Here’s what the evidence says
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Cancer is traditionally known as a disease affecting mostly older people.
But some worrying trends show cancer rates in younger people aged under 50 are on the rise.
This week’s ABC 4 Corners suggest chemicals, including plastics, may play a role in rising rates of these early-onset cancers.
So what does the evidence say is causing this increase? And what can we do about it?
Why does cancer mostly affect older people?
Each cell in your body contains a copy of your DNA – the instructions needed to keep that cell functioning properly.
However, DNA can be damaged or “mutated” in such a way that a cell will no longer do the job it’s supposed to.
Some mutations will allow a cell to make too many copies of itself and grow out of control. Others can protect it from dying. And others still allow it to move around and travel to other organs where it doesn’t belong.
Accumulating too many of these DNA mutations can lead to cancer.
Every time a new cell is made in our body, a copy of our DNA is made too. Sometimes, due to random chance, mistakes occur which introduce genetic mutations.
Think of it like making a photocopy of a photocopy, and so on. Each copy will be slightly different than the original.
Most DNA mutations are harmless.
But your cells are making billions of new copies of themselves each day. So the older you get, the more DNA copies you will have made during your lifetime, and the more likely you are to have dangerous mistakes in those copies.
As we get older, our bodies aren’t as good at recognising and removing cells with dangerous mutations. That’s why cancer is much more common in older people.
What’s causing cancer in younger people?
One of the reasons increased cancer rates in younger people is so worrying is it means there are likely environmental factors involved we don’t yet know about.
Environmental factors are anything outside of our bodies: things such as chemicals, viruses and bacteria, the amount we exercise, and the foods we eat.
Many of these environmental factors can increase the likelihood of DNA copying mistakes, or even directly damage our DNA, increasing our risk of cancer.
One well-known example is ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun, which can lead to skin cancer. Another is smoking, which can lead to lung cancer.
Fortunately, public awareness campaigns about the dangers of sun exposure, and reduced rates of people smoking cigarettes, have led to falling numbers of skin and lung cancer cases in Australians under 50 over the past 30 years.
But other types of cancer – including cancers of the liver, pancreas, prostate, breast and kidney – are increasing in young people in Australia. The trend is global, particularly among richer, western countries.
What role do chemicals play?
Researchers are working to understand the causes of these increases. Currently, chemicals are in the spotlight as an environmental factor of particular interest.
We’re exposed to more chemicals in the modern day than many of our ancestors were – things such as air pollution, food additives, plastics and many more.
Alcohol and cigarette smoke aside, most chemicals that are definitively linked to cancer are not ones most people would regularly encounter, as they’re restricted to spaces such as industry.
One of the main chemicals of concern are plastics, which are ubiquitous: almost everyone encounters them, every day.
Experts agree plastics represent an overall massive general risk to human health and the environment.
But there are so many thousands and thousands of plastics, it’s hard to point fingers at specific ones causing specific problems, including cancers.
Studies using animals can give strong evidence one way or another. But in humans who are exposed to thousands of different environmental factors every day, it’s difficult to definitively state “risk factor X contributes to cancer Y”.
So, it’s not possible to point to a single “smoking gun” in the case of the increasing early-onset cancer rates.
Let’s use colorectal cancer (also called bowel cancer) as an example to illustrate the issue.
Why are young people getting bowel cancer?
In older people, bowel cancer rates are actually falling. This is thought to be in part due to improved testing and screening helping to catch and destroy dangerous cells before they actually become cancer.
But early-onset bowel cancer rates are rising.
Some people speculate this may be due to increased exposure to plastics, as the digestive system is exposed to these through the food we eat. This includes things such as nano- or micro-plastics, or chemicals leaching out of the plastics into foods, such as PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances).
But there are other potential culprits, such as diet and lifestyle, with obesity and alcohol intake correlating with increased cancer rates.
Bacteria may also play a role: the types of bacteria found in your microbiome are thought to contribute to bowel cancer risk. Even exposure to certain bacterial toxins has been linked to bowel cancer risk.
How can you reduce your risk of cancer?
While there is no definitive evidence linking chemicals to increased cancer risk in young people, this is an area of intense ongoing research. Reducing your use of and exposure to plastics and chemicals where possible is still probably a healthy thing to do.
On top of that, you can reduce your overall cancer risk through regular exercise and maintaining a healthy, balanced diet.
If you have any concerns, and particularly if you have a family history of cancer, consult your doctor.
Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) and John (Eddie) La Marca, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Is The 80:20 Rule Really A Good Idea?
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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!
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 😎
❝What is your philsophy on eating 80% healthy and 20% not, is it better to try to eat 90% or 100% healthy?❞
Short answer: what works for you, works for you (if it works for you)!
More helpful answer: it depends on what each dietary approach ends up looking like for you. For example, there are important differences between:
- Someone who carefully measures their food to get 80% of calories from whole-foods plant-based nutrient-dense food, and the other 20% from anything they like, healthy or not
- Someone who eats what looks like a healthy diet for 80% of their diet, but falls for a lot of greenwashing and things that look healthier than they are, and then 20% things that look unhealthy (and probably are).
- Someone who considers that dessert is just one small part of the day’s eating, so that triple-chocolate ice cream caramel sundae with waffles and syrup and candy sprinkles must be fine (and then similar the next day, and the next, and…)
- Someone who works out their daily calories, and dutifully calculates “ok, I’m consuming 1600 kcal per day, so 1600/100 x20 = 320, so if I eat healthily the rest of the day, I can have 6 shots of vodka before bed daily
- Someone who applies the 80:20 rule in one of the above ways Monday to Friday, and then at the weekend, declares that 20% of the week and anything goes
As you may gather, some of those are definitely overly optimistic in their understanding of what will bring (and maintain) good health.
We’ll be clear: option 1 is not bad, 2 is next best, 3 and 4 are going wildly off-piste in similar but different ways and neither are doing their health* any favors, and 5 is using the 80:20 rule as an excuse to do whatever they want.
*The main problems with 3 and 4 are the damage to the gut microbiome, the damage to the liver (and associated metabolic problems, which will ultimately hit the heart and pancreas, amongst other organs), and the increased risks of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Depending on alcohol tolerance, there is also an increased risk of harm by accident/incident in the alcohol version.
Let us assume that you, dear reader, are not doing 3 or 4.
What about 5?
The thing with 5 is… If you want to eat that way, you don’t need an excuse. You don’t have to justify it to anyone, including yourself. Just, it might be better to make your peace with the fact that you have simply decided that eating healthily isn’t important to you. And that’s your choice!
Practical example: there are many people who, for one reason or another, have good cause to believe they will die soon regardless of what they eat. It could be because of a terminal diagnosis, or very advanced age, or some other reason, but the relevant thing is: in such a position, there really is a limit to the worst that can happen from eating that triple-chocolate ice cream caramel sundae with waffles and syrup and candy sprinkles, even with a side-serving of 6 shots of vodka, if they so choose.
If you, dear reader, are health-conscious and hoping (and reasonably expecting) to not die soon, then that leaves us with 1 and 2.
2 will put you—guestimating here; we don’t have hard figures—easily into the top quartile of healthy people. That’s not bad at all. It could be better, and if you’re in that position, we’d say that the best thing you can do is exactly what you’re doing: gradually build your knowledge of what is actually healthy vs what just looks healthy, and gradually adjust your grocery-shopping habits accordingly.
1 has a very wide range, but if you get about it in a smart way, it can be super-healthy. We say “it has a wide range” because technically, 1 in its broadest interpretation could include 4 (since the 6 shots of vodka will indeed fit in that 20%). But most people, hopefully, don’t do that.
To go about it “in a smart way”: remember that the “whatever you want” doesn’t have to be unhealthy. It just means that if you’re going out for dinner, ordering a thin-crust pizza with mostly vegetable toppings isn’t going to derail your health plan. You can take a flute of champagne at that wedding, if you find yourself so inclined. And so forth.
You don’t have to “fill” that 20% with unhealthy things. It’s just there if you need to dip into it to avoid inconveniencing yourself.
The best tip
Redefine what “treat” means for you. For this writer, for example, a treat on my birthday means I buy the more expensive coffee if I want to. On my last birthday (let’s just say, it was a number ending in zero, and thus merited extra attention) my main (and only) course of my birthday dinner was shchi ← Russian cabbage soup; sounds terrible, looks worse, yet is my favorite comfort food.
Perhaps you don’t care for coffee and are alarmed at the prospect of eating cabbage soup on a special day.
But, what do you love? For an ex of mine, it was prawn cocktail salad with pomegranate. How about you?
The only limit is your imagination—it doesn’t have to be unhealthy to be good!
Here be science
There is some merit to avoiding slippery slopes by declaring an entire category of food/drink forbidden, so that you’re not tempted to have just a bit, and then more, and then more, and before you know it it’s your new habit, again.
But there’s also merit to allowing wiggle-room for sustainability, because otherwise it’s easy to give up when things are difficult/inconvenient/unpleasant.
Previously at 10almonds, we’ve looked at two fairly opposing schools of thought when it comes to managing what we eat, and the relevant science for each of them.
First we looked at:
What Flexible Dieting Really Means
…and the notion of doing things imperfectly for greater sustainability, and reducing the cognitive load of dieting by measuring only the things that are necessary.
And then in opposition to that,
What Are The “Bright Lines” Of Bright Line Eating?
…and the notion of doing things perfectly so as to not go astray, and reducing the cognitive load of dieting by having hard-and-fast rules that one does not second-guess or reconsider later when hungry.
Either way, intuitive eating can be a very strong method. It means listening to one’s body, and responding to hunger signals, whether those signals are saying “time to eat” or “time to stop”.
A common recommendation is to “check in” with one’s body several times per meal, reflecting on such questions as:
- Do I have hunger pangs? Would I seek food now if I weren’t already at the table?
- If I hadn’t made more food than I’ve already eaten so far, would that have been enough, or would I have to look for something else to eat?
- Am I craving any of the foods that are still before me? Which one(s)?
- How much “room” do I feel I still have, really? Am I still in the comfort zone, and/or am I about to pass into having overeaten?
- Am I eating for pleasure only at this point? (This is not inherently bad, by the way—it’s ok to have a little more just for pleasure! But it is good to note that this is the reason we’re eating, and take it as a cue to slow down and remember to eat mindfully, and enjoy every bite)
- Have I, in fact, passed the point of pleasure, and I’m just eating because it’s in front of me, or so as to “not be wasteful”?
See also: Interoception: Improving Our Awareness Of Body Cues
And for that matter: Mindful Eating: How To Get More Out Of What’s On Your Plate
Finally, you can combine even seemingly opposing methods!
For example, maybe you want to go with the WHO recommendation that “the only safe amount of alcohol is zero”, and consume no alcohol ever, but are happy to be flexible about other things.
So, ultimately—after a detour through the methods, and now some links in this last section to the science of various approaches—we come back to our short answer up top:
❝What works for you, works for you (if it works for you)!❞
So, just make sure that it does, and do it mindfully and with well-informed intent!
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PTSD, But, Well…. Complex.
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PTSD is typically associated with military veterans, for example, or sexual assault survivors. There was a clear, indisputable, Bad Thing™ that was experienced, and it left a psychological scar. When something happens to remind us of that—say, there are fireworks, or somebody touches us a certain way—it’ll trigger an immediate strong response of some kind.
These days the word “triggered” has been popularly misappropriated to mean any adverse emotional reaction, often to something trivial.
But, not all trauma is so clear. If PTSD refers to the result of that one time you were smashed with a sledgehammer, C-PTSD (Complex PTSD) refers to the result of having been hit with a rolled-up newspaper every few days for fifteen years, say.
This might have been…
- childhood emotional neglect
- a parent with a hair-trigger temper
- bullying at school
- extended financial hardship as a young adult
- “just” being told or shown all too often that your best was never good enough
- the persistent threat (real or imagined) of doom of some kind
- the often-reinforced idea that you might lose everything at any moment
If you’re reading this list and thinking “that’s just life though”, you might be in the estimated 1 in 5 people with (often undiagnosed) C-PTSD.
How About You? Take The (5mins) Test Here
Now, we at 10almonds are not doctors or therapists and even if we were, we certainly wouldn’t try to diagnose from afar. But, even if there’s only a partial match, sometimes the same advice can help.
So what are the symptoms of C-PTSD?
- A feeling that nothing is safe; we might suddenly lose what we have gained
- Difficulty relaxing, which also counterintuitively often includes an aversion to exercise for reasons that don’t really add up, or an aversion to being touched.
- Trouble sleeping, born of nagging sense that to sleep is to be vulnerable to attack, and/or lazy, and/or negligent of our duties
- Poor self-image, about our body and/or about ourself as a person.
- We’re often drawn to highly unavailable people—or we are the highly unavailable person to which our complementary C-PTSD sufferers are attracted.
- We are prone to feelings of rage. Whether we keep a calm lid on it or lose our temper, we know it’s there. We’re angry at the world and at ourselves.
- We are not quick to trust—we may go through the motions of showing trust, but we’re already half-expecting that trust to have been misplaced.
- “Hell is other people” has become such a rule of life that we may tend to cloister ourselves away from company.
- We may try to order our environment around us as a matter of safety, and be easily perturbed by sudden changes being imposed on us, even if ostensibly quite minor or harmless.
- In a bid to try to find safety, we may throw ourselves into work—whatever that is for us. It could be literally our job, or passion projects, or our family, or community, and in and of itself that’s great! But the motivation is more of an attempt to distract ourselves from The Horrors™.
“Alright, I scored more of those than I care to admit. What now?”
A lot of the answer lies in first acknowledging to yourself what happened, to make you feel the way you do now. If you, for example, have an abject hatred of Christmas, what were your childhood Christmases like? If you fear losing money that you’ve accumulated, what underpins that fear? It could be something that directly happened to you, but it also could just be repeated messages you received from your parents, for example.
It could even be that you had superficially an idyllic perfect childhood. Health, wealth, security, a loving family… and simply a chemical imbalance in your brain made it a special kind of Hell for you that nobody understood, and perhaps you didn’t either.
Unfortunately, a difficult task now lies ahead: giving love, understanding, compassion, and reassurance to the person for whom you may have the most contempt in the world: yourself.
If you’d like some help with that, here are some resources:
ComplexTrauma.org (a lot of very good free resources, with no need for interaction)
CPTSD Foundation (mostly paid courses and the like)
Some final words about healing…
- You are in fact amazing,
- You can do it, and
- You deserve it.
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Beyond “Make Your Bed”—life lessons from experience
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Beyond “Make Your Bed”—life lessons from experience
This is Admiral William H. McRaven, a former United States Navy four-star admiral who served as the ninth commander of the United States Special Operations Command.
So, for those of us whose day-to-day lives don’t involve coordinating military operations, what does he have to offer?
Quick note: 10almonds’ mission statement is “to make health and productivity crazy simple”.
We tend to focus on the health side of this, and in the category of productivity, it’s often what most benefits our mental health.
We’re writing less for career-driven technopreneurs in the 25–35 age bracket and more for people with a more holistic view of productivity and “a good life well-lived”.
So today’s main feature is more in that vein!
Start each day with an accomplishment
McRaven famously gave a speech (and wrote a book) that began with the advice, “make your bed”. The idea here doesn’t have to be literal (if you’ll pardon the pun). Indeed, if you’re partnered, then depending on schedules and habits, it could be you can’t (sensibly) make your bed first thing because your partner is still in it. But! What you can do is start the day with an accomplishment—however small. A short exercise routine is a great example!
Success in life requires teamwork
We’re none of us an island (except in the bathtub). The point is… Nobody can do everything alone. Self-sufficiency is an illusion. You can make your own coffee, but could you have made the coffee machine, or even the cup? How about, grown the coffee? Transported it? So don’t be afraid to reach out for (and acknowledge!) help from others. Teamwork really does make the dream work.
It’s what’s inside that counts
It’s a common trap to fall into, getting caught up the outside appearance of success, rather than what actually matters the most. We need to remember this when it comes to our own choices, as well as assessing what others might bring to the table!
A setback is only permanent if you let it be
No, a positive attitude won’t reverse a lifelong degenerative illness, for example. But what we can do, is take life as comes, and press on with the reality, rather than getting caught up in the “should be”.
Use failure to your advantage
Learn. That’s all. Learn, and improve.
Be daring in life
To borrow from another military force, the SAS has the motto “Who dares, wins”. Caution has it place, but if we’ve made reasonable preparations*, sometimes being bold is the best (or only!) way forward.
*Meanwhile the Parachute Regiment, from which come 80% of all SAS soldiers, has the motto “Utrinque paratus”, “prepared on all sides”.
Keep courage close
This is about not backing down when we know what’s right and we know what we need to do. Life can be scary! But if we don’t overcome our fears, they can become self-realizing.
Writer’s note: a good example of this is an advice I sometimes gave during my much more exciting (military) life of some decades ago, and it pertains to getting into a knife-fight (top advice for civilians: don’t).
But, if you’re in one, you need to not be afraid of getting cut.
Because if you’re not afraid of getting cut, you will probably get cut.
But if you are afraid of getting cut, you will definitely get cut.
Hopefully your life doesn’t involve knives outside of the kitchen (mine doesn’t, these days, and I like it), but the lesson applies to other things too.
Sometimes the only way out is through.
Be your best at your worst
Sometimes life is really, really hard. But if we allow those moments to drive us forwards, they’re also a place we can find more strength than we ever knew we had.
Keep on swimming
It’s said that the majority in life is about showing up—and often it is. But you have to keep showing up, day after day. So make what you’re doing sustainable for you, and keep on keeping on.
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What I Wish People Knew About Dementia – by Dr. Wendy Mitchell
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We hear a lot from doctors who work with dementia patients; sometimes we hear from carers too. In this case, the author spent 20 years working for the NHS, before being diagnosed with young-onset dementia, at the age of 58. Like many health industry workers who got a life-changing diagnosis, she quickly found it wasn’t fun being on the other side of things, and vowed to spend her time researching, and raising awareness about, dementia.
Many people assume that once a person has dementia, they’re basically “gone before they’re gone”, which can rapidly become a self-fulfilling prophecy as that person finds themself isolated and—though this word isn’t usually used—objectified. Talked over, viewed (and treated) more as a problem than a person. Cared for hopefully, but again, often more as a patient than a person. If doctors struggle to find the time for the human side of things with most patients most of the time, this is only accentuated when someone needs more time and patience than average.
Instead, Dr. Mitchell—an honorary doctorate, by the way, awarded for her research—writes about what it’s actually like to be a human with dementia. Everything from her senses, how she eats, the experience of eating in care homes, the process of boiling an egg… To relationships, how care changes them, to the challenges of living alone. And communication, confusion, criticism, the language used by professionals, or how things are misrepresented in popular media. She also talks about the shifting sense of self, and brings it all together with gritty optimism.
The style is deeply personal, yet lucid and clear. While dementia is most strongly associated with memory loss and communication problems, this hasn’t affected her ability to write well (7 years into her diagnosis, in case you were wondering).
Bottom line: if you’d like to read a first-person view of dementia, then this is an excellent opportunity to understand it from the view of, as the subtitle goes, someone who knows.
Click here to check out What I Wish People Knew About Dementia, and then know those things!
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Spoon-Fed – by Dr. Tim Spector
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Dr. Spector looks at widespread beliefs about food, and where those often scientifically disproven beliefs come from. Hint, there’s usually some manner of “follow the money”.
From calorie-counting to cholesterol content, from fish to bottled water, to why of all the people who self-report having an allergy, only around half turn out to actually have one when tested, Dr. Spector sets the record straight.
The style is as very down-to-earth and not at all self-aggrandizing; the author acknowledges his own mistakes and limitations along the way. In terms of pushing any particular agenda, his only agenda is clear: inform the public about bad science, so that we demand better science going forwards. Along the way, he gives us lots of information that can inform our personal health choices based on better science than indiscriminate headlines wildly (and sometimes intentionally) misinterpreting results.
Read this book, and you may find yourself clicking through to read the studies for yourself, next time you see a bold headline.
Bottom line: this book looks at a lot of what’s wrong with what a lot of people believe about healthy eating. Regular 10almonds readers might not find a lot that’s new here, but it could be a great gift for a would-be health-conscious friend or relative
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