Mythbusting The Mask Debate

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The 10almonds Team

Mythbusting The Mask Debate

We asked you for your mask policy this respiratory virus season, and got the above-depicted, below-described, set of responses:

  • A little under half of you said you will be masking when practical in indoor public places
  • A little over a fifth of you said you will mask only if you have respiratory virus symptoms
  • A little under a fifth of you said that you will not mask, because you don’t think it helps
  • A much smaller minority of you (7%) said you will go with whatever people around you are doing
  • An equally small minority of you said that you will not mask, because you’re not concerned about infections

So, what does the science say?

Wearing a mask reduces the transmission of respiratory viruses: True or False?

True…with limitations. The limitations include:

  • The type of mask
    • A homemade polyester single-sheet is not the same as an N95 respirator, for instance
  • How well it is fitted
    • It needs to be a physical barrier, so a loose-fitting “going through the motions” fit won’t help
  • The condition of the mask
    • And if applicable, the replaceable filter in the mask
  • What exactly it has to stop
    • What kind of virus, what kind of viral load, what kind of environment, is someone coughing/sneezing, etc

More details on these things can be found in the link at the end of today’s main feature, as it’s more than we could fit here!

Note: We’re talking about respiratory viruses in general in this main feature, but most extant up-to-date research is on COVID, so that’s going to appear quite a lot. Remember though, even COVID is not one beast, but many different variants, each with their own properties.

Nevertheless, the scientific consensus is “it does help, but is not a magical amulet”:

Wearing a mask is actually unhygienic: True or False?

False, assuming your mask is clean when you put it on.

This (the fear of breathing more of one’s own germs in a cyclic fashion) was a point raised by some of those who expressed mask-unfavorable views in response to our poll.

There have been studies testing this, and they mostly say the same thing, “if it’s clean when you put it on, great, if not, then well yes, that can be a problem”:

❝A longer mask usage significantly increased the fungal colony numbers but not the bacterial colony numbers.

Although most identified microbes were non-pathogenic in humans; Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Cladosporium, we found several pathogenic microbes; Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Aspergillus, and Microsporum.

We also found no associations of mask-attached microbes with the transportation methods or gargling.

We propose that immunocompromised people should avoid repeated use of masks to prevent microbial infection.❞

Source: Bacterial and fungal isolation from face masks under the COVID-19 pandemic

Wearing a mask can mean we don’t get enough oxygen: True or False?

False, for any masks made-for-purpose (i.e., are by default “breathable”), under normal conditions:

However, wearing a mask while engaging in strenuous best-effort cardiovascular exercise, will reduce VO₂max. To be clear, you will still have more than enough oxygen to function; it’s not considered a health hazard. However, it will reduce peak athletic performance:

Effects of wearing a cloth face mask on performance, physiological and perceptual responses during a graded treadmill running exercise test

…so if you are worrying about whether the mask will impede you breathing, ask yourself: am I engaging in an activity that requires my peak athletic performance?

Also: don’t let it get soaked with water, because…

Writer’s anecdote as an additional caveat: in the earliest days of the COVID pandemic, I had a simple cloth mask on, the one-piece polyester kind that we later learned quite useless. The fit wasn’t perfect either, but one day I was caught in heavy rain (I had left it on while going from one store to another while shopping), and suddenly, it fitted perfectly, as being soaked through caused it to cling beautifully to my face.

However, I was now effectively being waterboarded. I will say, it was not pleasant, but also I did not die. I did buy a new mask in the next store, though.

tl;dr = an exception to “no it won’t impede your breathing” is that a mask may indeed impede your breathing if it is made of cloth and literally soaked with water; that is how waterboarding works!

Want up-to-date information?

Most of the studies we cited today were from 2022 or 2023, but you can get up-to-date information and guidance from the World Health Organization, who really do not have any agenda besides actual world health, here:

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Masks | Frequently Asked Questions

At the time of writing this newsletter, the above information was last updated yesterday.

Take care!

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  • The Problem With Active Listening

    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.

    The problem with active listening

    Listening is an important skill to keep well-trained at any age. It’s important in romantic relationships, parent-child relationships, friendships, and more.

    First, for any unfamiliar or hazy-of-memory: active listening is the practice of listening, actively. The “active” side of this comes in several parts:

    1. Asking helpful questions
    2. Giving feedback to indicate that the answer has been understood
    3. Prompting further information-giving

    This can look like:

    • A: How did you feel when that happened?
    • B: My heart was racing and I felt panicked, it really shocked me
    • A: It really shocked you?
    • B: Yes, because it was so unexpected; I’d never imagined something like this happening
    • A: You’d never expect something like that
    • B: No, I mean, I had no reason to

    And… As a superficial listening technique, it’s not terrible, and it has its place

    But unfortunately, if it’s one’s only listening technique, one will very quickly start sounding like a Furby—that children’s toy from the 90s that allegedly randomly parroted fragments of things that had been said to it. In fact this was a trick of programming, but that’s beyond the scope of this article.

    The point is: the above technique, if used indiscriminately and/or too often, starts to feel like talking to a very basic simulacrum.

    Which is the opposite of feeling like being listened to!

    A better way to listen

    Start off similarly, but better.

    Ask open questions, or otherwise invite sharing of information.

    People can be resistant to stock phrases like “How did that make you feel?”, but this can be got around by simply changing it up, e.g.:

    • “What was your reaction?” ← oblique but often elicits the same information
    • “I’m not sure how I’d feel about that, in your shoes” ← not even a question, but shows active attention much better than the “mmhmm” noises of traditional active listening, and again prompts the same information

    Express understanding… But better

    People have been told “I understand” a lot, and often it’s code for “Stop talking”. So, avoid “I understand”. Instead, try:

    • “I can understand that”
    • “Understandable”
    • “That makes sense”

    Ask clarifying questions… Better

    Sometimes, a clarifying question doesn’t have to have its own point, beyond prompting more sharing, and sometimes, an “open question” can be truly wide open, meaning that vaguer is better, such as:

    • “Oh?”
    • “How so?” ← this is the heavy artillery that can open up a lot

    Know when to STFU

    Something that good therapists (and also military interrogators) know: when to STFU

    If someone is talking, don’t interrupt them. If you do, they might not start again, or might skip what they were going to say.

    Interruption says “I think you’ve said all that needs to be said there”, or else, if the interruption was to ask one of the above questions, it says “you’re not doing a good enough job of talking”, and neither of those sentiments encourage people to share, nor do they make someone feel listened-to!

    Instead, just listen. Passive listening has its place too! When there’s a break, then you can go to one of the above questions/prompts/expressions of understanding, as appropriate.

    Judge not, lest they feel judged

    Reserve judgement until the conversation is over, at the earliest. If asked for your judgement of some aspect, be as reassuring as you can. People feel listened-to when they don’t feel judged.

    If they feel judged, conversely, they can often feel you didn’t listen properly, or else you’d be in agreement with them. So instead, just sit on it for as long as you can.

    Note: that goes for positive judgements too! Sit on it. Expressing a positive judgement too soon can seem that you were simply eager to please, and can suggest insincerity.

    If this seems simple, that’s because it is. But, try it, and see the difference.

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  • Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain – by Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett

    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.

    We’ve reviewed books about neurology before, and we always try to review books that bring something new/different. So, what makes this one stand out?

    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, one of the world’s foremost neuroscientists, starts with an overview of how our unusual brain (definitely our species’ defining characteristic) came to be, and then devotes the rest of the book to mostly practical information.

    She explains, in clear terms and without undue jargon, how the brain goes about such things as making constant predictions and useful assumptions about our environment, and reports these things to us as facts—which process is usually useful, and sometimes counterproductive.

    We learn about how the apparently mystical trait of empathy works, in real flesh-and-blood terms, and why some kinds of empathy are more metabolically costly than others, and what that means for us all.

    Unlike many such books, this one also looks at what is going on in the case of “different minds” that operate very dissimilarly to our own, and how this neurodiversity is important for our species.

    Critically, she also looks at what else makes our brains stand out, the symphony of “5 Cs” that aren’t often found to the same extent all in the same species: creativity, communication, copying, cooperation, and compression. This latter being less obvious, but perhaps the most important; Dr. Feldman Barrett explains how we use this ability to layer summaries of our memories, perceptions, and assumptions, to allow us to think in abstractions—something that powers much of what we do that separates us from other animals.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to learn more about that big wet organ between your ears, what it does for you, and how it goes about doing it, then this book gives a very practical foundation from which to build.

    Click here to check out Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain, and learn more about yours!

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  • CLA for Weight Loss?

    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.

    Conjugated Linoleic Acid for Weight Loss?

    You asked us to evaluate the use of CLA for weight loss, so that’s today’s main feature!

    First, what is CLA?

    Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) is a fatty acid made by grazing animals. Humans don’t make it ourselves, and it’s not an essential nutrient.

    Nevertheless, it’s a popular supplement, mostly sold as a fat-burning helper, and thus enjoyed by slimmers and bodybuilders alike.

    ❝CLA reduces bodyfat❞—True or False?

    True! Contingently. Specifically, it will definitely clearly help in some cases. For example:

    Did you notice a theme? It’s Animal Farm out there!

    ❝CLA reduces bodyfat in humans❞—True or False?

    False—practically. Technically it appears to give non-significantly better results than placebo.

    A comprehensive meta-analysis of 18 different studies (in which CLA was provided to humans in randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials and in which body composition was assessed by using a validated technique) found that, on average, human CLA-takers lost…

    Drumroll please…

    00.00–00.05 kg per week. That’s between 0–50g per week. That’s less than two ounces. Put it this way: if you were to quickly drink an espresso before stepping on the scale, the weight of your very tiny coffee would cover your fat loss.

    The reviewers concluded:

    ❝CLA produces a modest loss in body fat in humans❞

    Modest indeed!

    See for yourself: Efficacy of conjugated linoleic acid for reducing fat mass: a meta-analysis in humans

    But what about long-term? Well, as it happens (and as did show up in the non-human animal studies too, by the way) CLA works best for the first four weeks or so, and then effects taper off.

    Another review of longer-term randomized clinical trials (in humans) found that over the course of a year, CLA-takers enjoyed on average a 1.33kg total weight loss benefit over placebo—so that’s the equivalent of about 25g (0.8 oz) per week. We’re talking less than a shot glass now.

    They concluded:

    ❝The evidence from RCTs does not convincingly show that CLA intake generates any clinically relevant effects on body composition on the long term❞

    A couple of other studies we’ll quickly mention before closing this section:

    What does work?

    You may remember this headline from our “What’s happening in the health world” section a few days ago:

    Research reveals self-monitoring behaviors and tracking tools key to long-term weight loss success

    On which note, we’ve mentioned before, we’ll mention again, and maybe one of these days we’ll do a main feature on it, there’s a psychology-based app/service “Noom” that’s very personalizable and helps you reach your own health goals, whatever they might be, in a manner consistent with any lifestyle considerations you might want to give it.

    Curious to give it a go? Check it out at Noom.com (you can get the app there too, if you want)

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Related Posts

  • Are GMOs Good Or Bad For Us?

  • Eat All You Want (But Wisely)

    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

    Some Surprising Truths About Hunger And Satiety

    This is Dr. Barbara Rolls. She’s Professor and Guthrie Chair in Nutritional Sciences, and Director of the Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior at Pennsylvania State University, after graduating herself from Oxford and Cambridge (yes, both). Her “awards and honors” take up four A4 pages, so we won’t list them all here.

    Most importantly, she’s an expert on hunger, satiety, and eating behavior in general.

    What does she want us to know?

    First and foremost: you cannot starve yourself thin, unless you literally starve yourself to death.

    What this is about: any weight lost due to malnutrition (“not eating enough” is malnutrition) will always go back on once food becomes available. So unless you die first (not a great health plan), merely restricting good will always result in “yo-yo dieting”.

    So, to avoid putting the weight back on and feeling miserable every day along the way… You need to eat as much as you feel you need.

    But, there’s a trick here (it’s about making you genuinely feel you need less)!

    Your body is an instrument—so play it

    Your body is the tool you use to accomplish pretty much anything you do. It is, in large part, at your command. Then there are other parts you can’t control directly.

    Dr. Rolls advises taking advantage of the fact that much of your body is a mindless machine that will simply follow instructions given.

    That includes instructions like “feel hungry” or “feel full”. But how to choose those?

    Volume matters

    An important part of our satiety signalling is based on a physical sensation of fullness. This, by the way, is why bariatric surgery (making a stomach a small fraction of the size it was before) works. It’s not that people can’t eat more (the stomach is stretchy and can also be filled repeatedly), it’s that they don’t want to eat more because the pressure sensors around the stomach feel full, and signal the hormone leptin to tell the brain we’re full now.

    Now consider:

    • On the one hand, 20 grapes, fresh and bursting with flavor
    • On the other hand, 20 raisins (so, dried grapes), containing the same calories

    Which do you think will get the leptin flowing sooner? Of course, the fresh grapes, because of the volume.

    So if you’ve ever seen those photos that show two foods side by side with the same number of calories but one is much larger (say, a small slice of pizza or a big salad), it’s not quite the cheap trick that it might have appeared.

    Or rather… It is a cheap trick; it’s just a cheap trick that works because your stomach is quite a simple organ.

    So, Dr. Rolls’ advice: generally speaking, go for voluminous food. Fruit is great from this, because there’s so much water. Air-popped popcorn also works great. Vegetables, too.

    Water matters, but differently than you might think

    A well-known trick is to drink water before and with a meal. That’s good, it’s good to be hydrated. However, it can be better. Dr. Rolls did an experiment:

    The design:

    ❝Subjects received 1 of 3 isoenergetic (1128 kJ) preloads 17 min before lunch on 3 d and no preload on 1 d.

    The preloads consisted of 1) chicken rice casserole, 2) chicken rice casserole served with a glass of water (356 g), and 3) chicken rice soup.

    The soup contained the same ingredients (type and amount) as the casserole that was served with water.❞

    The results:

    ❝Decreasing the energy density of and increasing the volume of the preload by adding water to it significantly increased fullness and reduced hunger and subsequent energy intake at lunch.

    The equivalent amount of water served as a beverage with a food did not affect satiety.❞

    The conclusion:

    ❝Consuming foods with a high water content more effectively reduced subsequent energy intake than did drinking water with food.❞

    You can read the study in full (it’s a worthwhile read!) here:

    Water incorporated into a food but not served with a food decreases energy intake in lean women

    Protein matters

    With all those fruits and vegetables and water, you may be wondering Dr. Rolls’ stance on proteins. It’s simple: protein is an appetite suppressant.

    However, it takes about 20 minutes to signal the brain about that, so having some protein in a starter (if like this writer, you’re the cook of the household, a great option is to enjoy a small portion of nuts while cooking!) gets that clock ticking, to signal satiety sooner.

    It may also help in other ways:

    Clinical Evidence and Mechanisms of High-Protein Diet-Induced Weight Loss

    As for other foods that can suppress appetite, by the way, you might like;

    25 Foods That Act As Natural Appetite Suppressants

    Variety matters, and in ways other than you might think

    A wide variety of foods (especially: a wide variety of plants) in one’s diet is well recognized as a key to a good balanced diet.

    However…

    A wide variety of dishes at the table, meanwhile, promotes greater consumption of food.

    Dr. Rolls did a study on this too, a while ago now (you’ll see how old it is) but the science seems robust:

    Variety in a Meal Enhances Food Intake in Man

    Notwithstanding the title, it wasnot about a man (that was just how scientists wrote in ye ancient times of 1981). The test subjects were, in order: rats, cats, a mixed group of men and women, the same group again, and then a different group of all women.

    So, Dr. Rolls’ advice is: it’s better to have one 20-ingredient dish, than 10 dishes with 20 ingredients between them.

    Sorry! We love tapas and buffets too, but that’s the science!

    So, “one-pot” meals are king in this regard; even if you serve it with one side (reasonable), that’s still only two dishes, which is pretty good going.

    Note that the most delicious many-ingredient stir-fries and similar dishes from around the world also fall into this category!

    Want to know more?

    If you have the time (it’s an hour), you can enjoy a class of hers for free:

    !

    Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later

    Enjoy!

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  • Make Your Coffee Heart-Healthier!

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    The 10almonds Team

    Health-Hack Your Coffee

    We have previously written about the general health considerations (benefits and potential problems) of coffee:

    The Bitter Truth About Coffee (or is it?)

    Today, we will broadly assume that you are drinking coffee (in general, not necessarily right now, though if you are, same!) and would like to continue to do so. We also assume you’d like to do so as healthily as possible.

    Not all coffees are created equal

    If you order a coffee in France or Italy without specifying what kind, the coffee you receive will be short, dark, and handsome and without sugar. Healthwise, this is not a bad starting point. However…

    • It will usually be espresso
    • Or it may be what in N. America is called a French press (in Europe it’s just called a cafetière)

    Both of these kinds of coffee mean that cafestol, a compound found in the oily part of coffee and which is known to raise LDL (“bad” cholesterol”), stays in the drink.

    Read: Cafestol and Kahweol: A Review on Their Bioactivities and Pharmacological Properties

    Also: Cafestol extraction yield from different coffee brew mechanisms

    If you’re reading that second one and wondering what a mocha pot or a Turkish coffee is, they are these things:

    So, wonderful as they are for those of us who love strong coffee, they also produce the highest in-drink levels of cafestol. If you’d like to cut the cafestol (for example, if you are keeping an eye on your LDL), we recommend…

    The humble filter coffee

    Whether by your favorite filter coffee machine or a pour-over low-tech coffee setup of the kind you could use even without an electricity supply, the filter keeps more than just the coffee grinds out; it keeps the cafestol out too; most of it, anyway, depending on what kind of filter you use, and the grind of the coffee:

    Physical characteristics of the paper filter and low cafestol content filter coffee brews

    What about instant coffee?

    It has very little cafestol in it. It’s up to you whether that’s sufficient reason to choose it over any other form of coffee (this coffee-lover could never)

    Want to make any coffee healthier?

    This one isn’t about the cafestol, but…

    If you take l-theanine (see here for our previous main feature about l-theanine), the l-theanine acts as a moderator and modulator of the caffeine, amongst other benefits:

    The Cognitive-Enhancing Outcomes of Caffeine and L-theanine: A Systematic Review

    As to where to get that, we don’t sell it, but here’s an example product on Amazon

    Enjoy!

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  • DVT Risk Management Beyond The Socks

    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

    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

    ❝I know I am at higher risk of DVT after having hip surgery, any advice beside compression stockings?❞

    First of all, a swift and easy recovery to you!

    Surgery indeed increases the risk of deep vein thrombosis (henceforth: DVT), and hip or knee surgery especially so, for obvious reasons.

    There are other risk factors you can’t control, like genetics (family history of DVT as an indicator) and age, but there are some that you can, including:

    • smoking (so, ideally don’t; do speak to your doctor before quitting though, in case withdrawal might be temporarily worse for you than smoking)
    • obesity (so, losing weight is good if overweight, but if this is going to happen, it’ll mostly happen in the kitchen not the gym, which may be a relief as you’re probably not the very most up for exercise at present)
    • sedentariness (so, while you’re probably not running marathons right now, please do try to keep moving, even if only gently)

    Beyond that, yes compression socks, but also frequent gentle massage can help a lot to avoid clots forming.

    Also, no surprises, a healthy diet will help, especially one that’s good for general heart health. Check out for example the Mediterranean DASH diet:

    Four Ways To Upgrade The Mediterranean Diet

    Also, obviously, speak with your doctor/pharmacist if you haven’t already about possible medications, including checking whether any of your current medications increase the risk and could be swapped for something that doesn’t.

    Take care!

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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