Get The Right Help For Your Pain

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How Much Does It Hurt?

Sometimes, a medical professional will ask us to “rate your pain on a scale of 1–10”.

It can be tempting to avoid rating one’s pain too highly, because if we say “10” then where can we go from there? There is always a way to make pain worse, after all.

But that kind of thinking, however logical, is folly—from a practical point of view. Instead of risking having to give an 11 later, you have now understated your level-10 pain as a “7” and the doctor thinks “ok, I’ll give Tylenol instead of morphine”.

A more useful scale

First, know this:

Zero is not “this is the lowest level of pain I get to”.

Zero is “no pain”.

As for the rest…

  1. My pain is hardly noticeable.
  2. I have a low level of pain; I am aware of my pain only when I pay attention to it.
  3. My pain bothers me, but I can ignore it most of the time.
  4. I am constantly aware of my pain, but can continue most activities.
  5. I think about my pain most of the time; I cannot do some of the activities I need to do each day because of the pain.
  6. I think about my pain all of the time; I give up many activities because of my pain.
  7. I am in pain all of the time; It keeps me from doing most activities.
  8. My pain is so severe that it is difficult to think of anything else. Talking and listening are difficult.
  9. My pain is all that I can think about; I can barely move or talk because of my pain.
  10. I am in bed and I can’t move due to my pain; I need someone to take me to the emergency room because of my pain.

10almonds tip: are you reading this on your phone? Screenshot the above, and keep it for when you need it!

One extra thing to bear in mind…

Medical staff will be more likely to believe a pain is being overstated, on a like-for-like basis, if you are a woman, or not white, or both.

There are some efforts to compensate for this:

A new government inquiry will examine women’s pain and treatment. How and why is it different?

Some other resources of ours:

Take care!

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  • Why Do We Have Crooked Teeth When Our Ancestors Didn’t?

    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.

    Evidence shows that people in ancient times typically had straight teeth set well into strong jaws, with even wisdom teeth fitting properly.

    So, what went wrong? Did evolution do us a disservice?

    Some information to chew on

    Transition from hard-to-chew diets to processed, refined foods over millennia has reduced jaw size while tooth size stayed constant. Smaller jaws lead to tooth crowding, crookedness, and impacted wisdom teeth, requiring braces or extractions in modern times.

    However, all is not lost!

    Studies on non-human animals show softer diets reduce jaw and facial growth, causing dental crowding. In other words: dental crowding is primarily attributed to dietary and lifestyle changes, though genetics may play a role.

    And notably, when it comes to humans, populations with less processed diets experience fewer dental problems, suggesting lifestyle modifications could help prevent tooth crowding.

    And no, it is not too late. Remember, you are rebuilding your body all the time, including your bones!

    For more on all of this, enjoy:

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    You might also like to read:

    The Exercises That Can Fix Sinus Problems (And More) ← this also improves the jaw structure

    Take care!

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  • Hazelnuts vs Pistachios – Which is 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.

    Our Verdict

    When comparing hazelnuts to pistachios, we picked the hazelnuts.

    Why?

    An argument could be made for either, depending on what we prioritize! So there was really no wrong answer here today, but it is good to know what each nut’s strengths are:

    In terms of macros, pistachios have more fiber, carbs, protein, and (mostly healthy) fat. That does make them the “more food per food” option, but it’s worth noting that while hazelnuts have more fiber, they also have a higher margin of difference when it comes to their greater carb count, and resultantly, hazelnuts do have the lower glycemic index. That said, they’re still both low-GI foods, so we’ll call this section a win for pistachios overall.

    When it comes to vitamins, hazelnuts have more of vitamins B3, B5, B9, C, E, K, and choline, while pistachios have more of vitamins A, B1, B2, and B6. So, a fair 7:4 win for hazelnuts here.

    In the category of minerals, hazelnuts have more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, and zinc, while pistachios have more phosphorus, potassium, and selenium. A clear 6:3 win for hazelnuts.

    In short, both are good sources of many nutrients, so choose according to what you want to prioritize, or better yet, enjoy both.

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Why You Should Diversify Your Nuts

    Take care!

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  • Chromium Picolinate For Blood Sugar Control & Weight Loss

    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.

    First, a quick disambiguation:

    • chromium found in food, trivalent chromium of various kinds, is safe (in the quantities usually consumed) and is sometimes considered an essential mineral, sometimes considered unnecessary but beneficial. It’s hard to know for sure, since it’s in a lot of foods (naturally, like many trace elements)
    • chromium found in pollution, hexavalent chromium (so: twice as many cationic bonds, if this writer’s chemistry serves her correctly) is poisonous.

    We’re going to be writing about the food kind, which is also possible to take as a supplement.

    In this case, supplementing vs getting from food is quite a big difference, by the way, since (unlike for a lot of things, which are often the other way around) the bioavailability of chromium from food is very low (around 2.5%), whereas chromium picolinate, one of the most commonly-used supplement forms, boasts higher bioavailability.

    Does it work for blood sugars?

    Yes, it does! At least, it does in the case of people with type 2 diabetes. Rather than bombard you with many individual studies, here’s a systematic review and meta-analysis of 22 criteria-meeting randomized clinical trials that found:

    ❝The available evidence suggests favourable effects of chromium supplementation on glycaemic control in patients with diabetes.

    Chromium monosupplement may additionally improve triglycerides and HDL-C levels.❞

    Source: Systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy and safety of chromium supplementation in diabetes

    Type 1 diabetes does not have anything like the same weight of evidence, and indeed, we couldn’t find a single human study. It was beneficial for mice with artificially-induced T1D, though wait no, we have an update! We found literally a single human study:

    Chromium picolinate supplementation for diabetes mellitus

    Literally, as in: it’s a case study of one person, and the results were a modest reduction in Hb A1c levels after 3 months of 600μg daily; the researchers concluded that ❝chromium picolinate continues to fall squarely within the scope of “alternative medicine,” with both unproven benefits and unknown risks❞.

    As for people without diabetes, it may reduce the risk of diabetes:

    Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Is Lower in US Adults Taking Chromium-Containing Supplements

    However! This was an observational study, and correlation ≠ causation.

    Furthermore, they said:

    ❝Over one-half the adult US population consumes nutritional supplements, and over one-quarter consumes supplemental chromium. The odds of having T2D were lower in those who, in the previous 30 d, had consumed supplements containing chromium❞

    That “over one-quarter consumes supplemental chromium” brought our attention to the fact that this is not talking about specifically chromium “monosupplements” (definitely not quarter of the adult population take those), but rather, “multivitamin and mineral” supplements that also contain a tiny amount (often under 50μg) of chromium.

    In other words, this ruins the data and honestly the benefit could have been from anything in the “multivitamin and mineral” supplement, or indeed, could just be “the kind of person who takes supplements is the kind of person who lives a lifestyle that is less conducive to becoming diabetic”.

    Does it work for weight loss?

    We’re running out of space here, so we’ll be brief:

    No.

    There are many papers that have concluded this, but here are two:

    Chromium picolinate supplementation for overweight or obese adults

    and

    The potential value and toxicity of chromium picolinate as a nutritional supplement, weight loss agent and muscle development agent

    Is it safe?

    Science’s current best answer is “we don’t know; it hasn’t been tested enough; we haven’t even established the tolerable upper limit, which is usually step 1 of establishing safety”.

    Nor is there an estimated average requirement (if indeed there even is a requirement, which question is also not as yet answered conclusively by science), and science falls back to “here’s an average of what people consume in their diet, so that’s probably safe, we guess”.

    (that average was reckoned as 25μg/day for young women and 25μg/day for young men, by the way; older ages not as yet reckoned)

    You can read about this sorry state of affairs here.

    Want to try some?

    Notwithstanding the above lack of data for safety, it does have benefits for blood sugars, so if that’s a gamble you’re willing to make, then here’s an example product on Amazon.

    Note: the dosage per capsule there (800μg) is half of the low end of the dose that was implicated in the serious kidney condition caused in this case study (1200–2400μg), so if you are going to try it, we strongly recommend not taking more than one per day.

    Take care!

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  • CBD Oil

    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.

    Q&A with the 10almonds Team

    Q: Very interested in this article on CBD oil in the states. hope you do another one in the future with more studies done on people and more information on what’s new as far as CBD oil goes

    A: We’re glad you enjoyed it! We’ll be sure to revisit CBD in the future—partly because it was a very popular article, and partly because, as noted, there is a lot going on there, research-wise!

    And yes, we prefer human studies rather than mouse/rat studies where possible, too, and try to include those where we find them. In some cases, non-human animal studies allow us to know things that we can’t know from human studies… because a research institution’s ethics board will greenlight things for mice that it’d never* greenlight for humans.

    Especially: things that for non-human animals are considered “introduction of external stressors” while the same things done to humans would be unequivocally called “torture”.

    Animal testing in general is of course a moral quagmire, precisely because of the suffering it causes for animals, while the research results (hopefully) can be brought to bear to reduce to suffering of humans. We’re a health and productivity newsletter, not a philosophical publication, but all this to say: we’re mindful of such too.

    And yes, we agree, when studies are available on humans, they’re always going to be better than the same study done on mice and rats.

    As a topical aside, did you know there’s a monument to laboratory mice and all they’ve (however unintentionally) done for us?

    ❝The quirky statue depicts an anthropomorphic mouse as an elderly woman, complete with glasses balanced atop its nose. Emerging from two knitting needles in its hands is the recognizable double-helix of a strand of DNA.❞

    ~ Smithsonian Magazine

    See The Statue For Yourself Here!

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  • Knit for Health & Wellness – by Betsan Corkhill

    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.

    Betsan Corkhill, a physiotherapist, has more than just physiotherapy in mind when it comes to the therapeutic potential of knitting (although yes, also physiotherapy!), and much of this book is about the more psychological benefits that go way beyond “it’s a relaxing pastime”.

    She makes the case for how knitting (much like good mental health) requires planning, action, organization, persistence, focus, problem-solving, and flexibility—and thus the hobby develops and maintains all the appropriate faculties for those things, which will then be things you get to keep in the rest of your life, too.

    Fun fact: knitting, along with other similar needlecrafts, was the forerunner technology for modern computer programming! And indeed, early computers, the kind with hole-punch data streams, used very similar pattern-storing methods to knitting patterns.

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    One thing this book’s not, by the way: a “how to” guide for learning to knit. It assumes you either have that knowledge already, or will gain it elsewhere (there are many tutorials online).

    Bottom line: if you’re in the market for a new hobby that’s good for your brain, this book will give you great motivation to give knitting a go!

    Click here to check out Knit For Health & Wellness, and get knitting!

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  • Is Vitamin C Worth The Hype? (Doctorly Investigates)

    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.

    Double Board-Certified Dermatologists Dr. Muneeb Shah & Dr. Luke Maxfield weigh in on vitamin C; is it worth the hype?

    Yes it is, but…

    There are some caveats, for example:

    • It’s best to apply vitamin C on clean, dry skin and let it set before layering other products.
    • Avoid mixing with oxidants like benzoyl peroxide (cancels out antioxidant effects).
    • Avoid combining with copper (may negate brightening benefits).
    • Do not use with hypochlorous acid (oxidative reactions cancel out benefits).
    • Be cautious with retinol due to irritation risks.

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    • Morning use: acts as an antioxidant, pairs well with sunscreen for better protection from sun and environmental damage.
    • Night use: maximizes functions like improving tone, collagen production, texture, and reducing wrinkles.

    That’s not to say that at night it stops being an antioxidant or during the day it isn’t critical for collagen synthesis, but it is to say: because of the different things our bodies typically encounter and/or do during the day or night, those are the best times to get the most out of those benefits.

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    • Skinceuticals C E Ferulic: research-backed, $180, effective but potentially irritating.
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    • Dermatology Vitamin C E Ferulic: relatively more affordable ($70), fragrance-free, includes peptides and ceramides.
    • Drunk Elephant C-Firma: powder-to-serum formula, sued for patent infringement.
    • Paula’s Choice C15 Booster: reformulated, fragrance-free, similar to Skinceuticals.
    • Neutrogena Vitamin C Capsules: stabilized 20% ascorbic acid, single-use, travel-friendly.
    • La Roche-Posay Vitamin C Serum: contains fragrance and alcohol, not ideal for sensitive skin.
    • Matter of Fact Vitamin C Serum: includes ascorbic acid and ferulic acid, oily texture for dry skin.
    • Medik8 Super C Ferulic: stable 30% ethyl ascorbic acid, lightweight texture.
    • Naturium Vitamin C Complex: multi-form Vitamin C with niacinamide, alpha arbutin, and turmeric.
    • Timeless Vitamin C Serum: affordable ($20), 20% ascorbic acid with E and ferulic acid.

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    Take care!

    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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