Rebuilding Milo – by Dr. Aaron Horschig

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The author, a doctor of physical therapy, also wrote another book that we reviewed a while ago, “The Squat Bible” (which is also excellent, by the way). This time, it’s all about resistance training in the context of fixing a damaged body.

Resistance training is, of course, very important for general health, especially as we get older. However, it’s easy to do it wrongly and injure oneself, and indeed, if one is carrying some injury and/or chronic pain, it becomes necessary to know how to fix that before continuing—without just giving up on training, because that would be a road to ruin in terms of muscle and bone maintenance.

The book explains all the necessary anatomy, with clear illustrations too. He talks equipment, keeping things simple and practical, letting the reader know which things actually matter in terms of quality, and what things are just unnecessary fanciness and/or counterproductive.

Most of the book is divided into chapters per body part, e.g. back pain, shoulder pain, ankle pain, hip pain, knee pain, etc; what’s going on, and how to fix it to rebuild it stronger.

The style is straightforward and simple, neither overly clinical nor embellished with overly casual fluff. Just, clear simple explanations and instructions.

Bottom line: if you’d like to get stronger and/or level up your resistance training, but are worried about an injury or chronic condition, this book can set you in good order.

Click here to check out Rebuilding Milo, and rebuild yourself!

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Recommended

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  • How does cancer spread to other parts of the body?
    Metastasis, the spread of cancer, is responsible for 67% of cancer deaths. Early detection and treatment are crucial in preventing its deadly consequences.

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  • Cynthia’s Thoughts on Intermittent Fasting

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    The Myth of Breakfast and Snacking

    Here at 10almonds we love addressing misconceptions in the health world.

    When it comes to eating habits and fasting, we’ve written our own pieces on how to break your fast (otherwise known as break-fast, or breakfast), alongside a general breakdown of intermittent fasting, and a much-requested piece on fasting specifically for women.

    Cynthia Thurlow, though, instead of just writing a few articles, has dedicated the majority of her working years to intermittent fasting and, in her TEDx talk (below), makes a strong argument challenging the long-held belief that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

    Cynthia Thurlow’s Two Main Points

    Thurlow argues that it’s not what you eat but when you eat that has a more profound impact on health and aging. And she argues this is crucial regardless of your age.

    Complementing her views on fasting are her views on snacking; she argues that snacking all day long is outdated advice and can overtax the digestive system, leading to various health issues.

    Practical Tips for Starting Intermittent Fasting

    To begin intermittent fasting, Thurlow suggests starting with a 12-13 hour fasting window and gradually increasing it to 16 hours.

    In terms of food choice, she recommends eating whole, unprocessed foods during eating periods as well as staying well-hydrated with water, coffee, or tea.

    But you won’t see results immediately; Thurlow advises giving the strategy a solid 30 days to see results and consulting a healthcare provider if there are any existing health conditions.

    You can dive deeper and join the 15 million other people who have listened to her thoughts on fasting by watching her TEDx talk below:

    How was the video? If you’ve discovered any great videos yourself that you’d like to share with fellow 10almonds readers, then please do email them to us!

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  • Dandelion: Time For Evidence On Its Benefits?

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    In recent decades often considered a weed, now enjoying a resurgence in popularity due its benefits for pollinators, this plant has longer-ago been enjoyed as salad (leaves) or as a drink (roots), and is typically considered to have diuretic and digestion-improving properties. So… Does it?

    Diuretic

    Probably! Because of the ubiquity of anecdotal evidence, this hasn’t been well-studied, but here’s a small (n=17) study that found that it significantly increased urination:

    The diuretic effect in human subjects of an extract of Taraxacum officinale folium over a single day

    You may be thinking, “you usually do better than an n=17 study” and yes we do, but there’s an amazing paucity of human research when it comes to dandelions, as you’ll see:

    Digestion-improving

    There’s a lot of fiber in dandelion greens and roots both, and eating unprocessed or minimally-processed plants is (with obvious exceptions, such as plants that are poisonous) invariably going to improve digestion just by virtue of the fiber content alone.

    As for dandelions, the roots are rich in inulin, a great prebiotic fiber that indeed definitely helps:

    Effect of inulin in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (Review)

    When it comes to studies that are specifically about dandelions, however, we are down to animal studies, such as:

    The effect of Taraxacum officinale on gastric emptying and smooth muscle motility in rodents

    Note that this is not about the fiber; this is about the plant extract (so, no fiber), and how it gets the intestinal muscles to do their thing with more enthusiasm. Of course you, dear reader, are probably not a rodent, we can’t say for sure that this will have this effect in humans. However, generally speaking, what works for mammals works for mammals, so it probably indeed helps.

    For liver health

    More about rats and not humans, but again, it’s promising. Dandelion extract appears to protect the liver, reducing the damage in the event of induced liver failure:

    Protective Effects of Taraxacum officinale L. (Dandelion) Root Extract in Experimental Acute on Chronic Liver Failure

    In other words: the researchers poisoned the rats, and those who took dandelion extract suffered less liver damage than those who didn’t.

    …and more?

    It may help improve blood triglycerides and reduce ischemic stroke risk, but most of this research is still in non-human animals:

    New Perspectives on the Effect of Dandelion, Its Food Products and Other Preparations on the Cardiovascular System and Its Diseases

    And while we’re on the topic of blood, it likely has blood-sugar-lowering effects too; once again (you guessed it), mostly non-human animal studies, though, with some in vitro studies:

    The Physiological Effects of Dandelion (Taraxacum Officinale) in Type 2 Diabetes

    Want to try some?

    We don’t sell it, but if you have a garden, that’s a great place to grow this very easy-to-grow plant without having to worry about pesticides etc.

    Alternatively, if you’d like to buy it in supplement form, here’s an example product on Amazon 😎

    Enjoy!

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  • The Power Foods Diet – by Dr. Neal Barnard

    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, what this is not: it’s not a cookbook. There are recipes, more than a hundred if we consider such things as “barbecue sauce” as a standalone recipe, and if we overlook such things as how “perfect hot oatmeal” is followed on the next page by a recipe for “perfect hot oatmeal with berries”.

    However, as we say, it’s not a cookbook; it’s first and foremost an educational text on the topic of nutrition.

    Here we will learn about good eating for general health, which foods are natural appetite-suppressants, which foods reduce our body’s absorption of sugars from foods (not merely slowing, but flushing them away so they cannot be absorbed at all), and which foods actually boost metabolism for a few hours after the meal.

    Dr. Barnard also talks about some foods that are more healthy, or less healthy, than popularly believed, and how to use all this information to craft a good, optimized, dietary plan for you.

    Bottom line: there’s a lot of good information here, and the recipes are simply a bonus.

    Click here to check out The Power Foods Diet, and optimize yours!

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  • The Medicinal Chef – by Dale Pinnock
  • Why it’s a bad idea to mix alcohol with some medications

    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.

    Anyone who has drunk alcohol will be familiar with how easily it can lower your social inhibitions and let you do things you wouldn’t normally do.

    But you may not be aware that mixing certain medicines with alcohol can increase the effects and put you at risk.

    When you mix alcohol with medicines, whether prescription or over-the-counter, the medicines can increase the effects of the alcohol or the alcohol can increase the side-effects of the drug. Sometimes it can also result in all new side-effects.

    How alcohol and medicines interact

    The chemicals in your brain maintain a delicate balance between excitation and inhibition. Too much excitation can lead to convulsions. Too much inhibition and you will experience effects like sedation and depression.

    Alcohol works by increasing the amount of inhibition in the brain. You might recognise this as a sense of relaxation and a lowering of social inhibitions when you’ve had a couple of alcoholic drinks.

    With even more alcohol, you will notice you can’t coordinate your muscles as well, you might slur your speech, become dizzy, forget things that have happened, and even fall asleep.

    Woman collects beer bottles
    Alcohol can affect the way a medicine works.
    Jonathan Kemper/Unsplash

    Medications can interact with alcohol to produce different or increased effects. Alcohol can interfere with the way a medicine works in the body, or it can interfere with the way a medicine is absorbed from the stomach. If your medicine has similar side-effects as being drunk, those effects can be compounded.

    Not all the side-effects need to be alcohol-like. Mixing alcohol with the ADHD medicine ritalin, for example, can increase the drug’s effect on the heart, increasing your heart rate and the risk of a heart attack.

    Combining alcohol with ibuprofen can lead to a higher risk of stomach upsets and stomach bleeds.

    Alcohol can increase the break-down of certain medicines, such as opioids, cannabis, seizures, and even ritalin. This can make the medicine less effective. Alcohol can also alter the pathway of how a medicine is broken down, potentially creating toxic chemicals that can cause serious liver complications. This is a particular problem with paracetamol.

    At its worst, the consequences of mixing alcohol and medicines can be fatal. Combining a medicine that acts on the brain with alcohol may make driving a car or operating heavy machinery difficult and lead to a serious accident.

    Who is at most risk?

    The effects of mixing alcohol and medicine are not the same for everyone. Those most at risk of an interaction are older people, women and people with a smaller body size.

    Older people do not break down medicines as quickly as younger people, and are often on more than one medication.

    Older people also are more sensitive to the effects of medications acting on the brain and will experience more side-effects, such as dizziness and falls.

    Woman sips red wine
    Smaller and older people are often more affected.
    Alfonso Scarpa/Unsplash

    Women and people with smaller body size tend to have a higher blood alcohol concentration when they consume the same amount of alcohol as someone larger. This is because there is less water in their bodies that can mix with the alcohol.

    What drugs can’t you mix with alcohol?

    You’ll know if you can’t take alcohol because there will be a prominent warning on the box. Your pharmacist should also counsel you on your medicine when you pick up your script.

    The most common alcohol-interacting prescription medicines are benzodiazepines (for anxiety, insomnia, or seizures), opioids for pain, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and some antibiotics, like metronidazole and tinidazole.

    Medicines will carry a warning if you shouldn’t take them with alcohol.
    Nial Wheate

    It’s not just prescription medicines that shouldn’t be mixed with alcohol. Some over-the-counter medicines that you shouldn’t combine with alcohol include medicines for sleeping, travel sickness, cold and flu, allergy, and pain.

    Next time you pick up a medicine from your pharmacist or buy one from the local supermarket, check the packaging and ask for advice about whether you can consume alcohol while taking it.

    If you do want to drink alcohol while being on medication, discuss it with your doctor or pharmacist first.The Conversation

    Nial Wheate, Associate Professor of the School of Pharmacy, University of Sydney; Jasmine Lee, Pharmacist and PhD Candidate, University of Sydney; Kellie Charles, Associate Professor in Pharmacology, University of Sydney, and Tina Hinton, Associate Professor of Pharmacology, University of Sydney

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • What Seasonal Allergies Mean For Your Heart

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    Most people associate seasonal allergies with itchy eyes and stuffy noses, but the effects can go a lot deeper.

    This is because allergic reactions don’t just affect the respiratory system; they trigger chronic inflammation throughout the body, and in fact:

    ❝Allergic disease is a systemic and inflammatory condition❞

    ~ Dr. Rauno Joks, whose work we will cite in a moment

    The important thing to understand in terms of heart health, is that chronic* systemic inflammation can contribute to coronary artery disease, where plaque buildup in arteries (bearing in mind, arterial plaque is in large part made of dead immune cells) raises the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

    *Yes, a season once or twice per year counts as “chronic”.

    A large (n=603,140) study found that allergic rhinitis (hay fever) increased the odds of coronary heart disease by 25% and heart attacks by 20%. Asthma, especially during flare-ups, posed an even greater risk:

    The Relationship Between Allergic Rhinitis, Asthma, and Cardiovascular Disease in the National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS)

    Beyond biology

    The effects aren’t just biological; allergies can limit physical activity, leading to a sedentary lifestyle that harms heart health.

    In other words: if you’re not going outdoors because there’s pollen, and you’re not exercising because you’re exhausted, then the rest of your health is going to take a nose-dive (so to speak) too.

    So, one more reason to take it seriously and not just dismiss it as “it’s just allergies, I’ll survive”.

    Practical takeaways

    Some things we can all do:

    • Monitor your risk factors; i.e. keep on top of your heart health metrics, especially blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as any known genetic predisposition to cardiovascular disease.
    • Watch out for alternative causes: symptoms like fatigue or shortness of breath may not always be allergies; they could signal asthma, reflux (for example if wheezing), or even heart disease. An allergist is a good first port-of-call, though.
    • Be cautious with medications: some decongestants / allergy meds / asthma meds can raise blood pressure and/or interfere with other medications. Your pharmacist is the best person to speak to about this; they know this kind of thing much better than doctors, as a rule. And whenever you get a new medication, it is good practice to make a habit of always reading the information leaflet that comes with it, and/or look it up on a reputable website such as Drugs.com or the the BNF, to learn about what it is, how it works, what the risks are, what its contraindications are, etc.
    • Don’t ignore warning signs: lightheadedness or chest pain could indicate a heart issue and should be addressed immediately. It’s better to be wrong and temporarily embarrassed, than wrong and permanently dead. Besides, even if it’s not a heart issue, it may be something else that would benefit from attention, so taking it seriously is always a good idea.

    Want to know more?

    Check out:

    Take care!

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  • Ricezempic: is there any evidence this TikTok trend will help you lose weight?

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    If you spend any time looking at diet and lifestyle content on social media, you may well have encountered a variety of weight loss “hacks”.

    One of the more recent trends is a home-made drink called ricezempic, made by soaking uncooked rice and then straining it to drink the leftover starchy water. Sounds delicious, right?

    Its proponents claim it leads to weight loss by making you feel fuller for longer and suppressing your appetite, working in a similar way to the sought-after drug Ozempic – hence the name.

    So does this drink actually mimic the weight loss effects of Ozempic? Spoiler alert – probably not. But let’s look at what the evidence tells us.

    New Africa/Shutterstock

    How do you make ricezempic?

    While the recipe can vary slightly depending on who you ask, the most common steps to make ricezempic are:

    1. soak half a cup of white rice (unrinsed) in one cup of warm or hot water up to overnight
    2. drain the rice mixture into a fresh glass using a strainer
    3. discard the rice (but keep the starchy water)
    4. add the juice of half a lime or lemon to the starchy water and drink.

    TikTokers advise that best results will happen if you drink this concoction once a day, first thing in the morning, before eating.

    The idea is that the longer you consume ricezempic for, the more weight you’ll lose. Some claim introducing the drink into your diet can lead to a weight loss of up to 27 kilograms in two months.

    Resistant starch

    Those touting ricezempic argue it leads to weight loss because of the resistant starch rice contains. Resistant starch is a type of dietary fibre (also classified as a prebiotic). There’s no strong evidence it makes you feel fuller for longer, but it does have proven health benefits.

    Studies have shown consuming resistant starch may help regulate blood sugar, aid weight loss and improve gut health.

    Research has also shown eating resistant starch reduces the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other chronic diseases.

    A birds-eye view of a glass of cloudy water on a table.
    Ricezempic is made by soaking rice in water. Kristi Blokhin/Shutterstock

    Resistant starch is found in many foods. These include beans, lentils, wholegrains (oats, barley, and rice – particularly brown rice), bananas (especially when they’re under-ripe or green), potatoes, and nuts and seeds (particularly chia seeds, flaxseeds and almonds).

    Half a cup of uncooked white rice (as per the ricezempic recipe) contains around 0.6 grams of resistant starch. For optimal health benefits, a daily intake of 15–20 grams of resistant starch is recommended. Although there is no concrete evidence on the amount of resistant starch that leaches from rice into water, it’s likely to be significantly less than 0.6 grams as the whole rice grain is not being consumed.

    Ricezempic vs Ozempic

    Ozempic was originally developed to help people with diabetes manage their blood sugar levels but is now commonly used for weight loss.

    Ozempic, along with similar medications such as Wegovy and Trulicity, is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist. These drugs mimic the GLP-1 hormone the body naturally produces. By doing so, they slow down the digestive process, which helps people feel fuller for longer, and curbs their appetite.

    While the resistant starch in rice could induce some similar benefits to Ozempic (such as feeling full and therefore reducing energy intake), no scientific studies have trialled ricezempic using the recipes promoted on social media.

    Ozempic has a long half-life, remaining active in the body for about seven days. In contrast, consuming one cup of rice provides a feeling of fullness for only a few hours. And simply soaking rice in water and drinking the starchy water will not provide the same level of satiety as eating the rice itself.

    Other ways to get resistant starch in your diet

    There are several ways to consume more resistant starch while also gaining additional nutrients and vitamins compared to what you get from ricezempic.

    1. Cooked and cooled rice

    Letting cooked rice cool over time increases its resistant starch content. Reheating the rice does not significantly reduce the amount of resistant starch that forms during cooling. Brown rice is preferable to white rice due to its higher fibre content and additional micronutrients such as phosphorus and magnesium.

    2. More legumes

    These are high in resistant starch and have been shown to promote weight management when eaten regularly. Why not try a recipe that has pinto beans, chickpeas, black beans or peas for dinner tonight?

    3. Cooked and cooled potatoes

    Cooking potatoes and allowing them to cool for at least a few hours increases their resistant starch content. Fully cooled potatoes are a rich source of resistant starch and also provide essential nutrients like potassium and vitamin C. Making a potato salad as a side dish is a great way to get these benefits.

    In a nutshell

    Although many people on social media have reported benefits, there’s no scientific evidence drinking rice water or “ricezempic” is effective for weight loss. You probably won’t see any significant changes in your weight by drinking ricezempic and making no other adjustments to your diet or lifestyle.

    While the drink may provide a small amount of resistant starch residue from the rice, and some hydration from the water, consuming foods that contain resistant starch in their full form would offer significantly more nutritional benefits.

    More broadly, be wary of the weight loss hacks you see on social media. Achieving lasting weight loss boils down to gradually adopting healthy eating habits and regular exercise, ensuring these changes become lifelong habits.

    Emily Burch, Accredited Practising Dietitian and Lecturer, Southern Cross University and Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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