What Mattress Is Best, By Science?

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The 10almonds Team

The Foundations of Good Sleep

You probably know the importance of good sleep for good health. If not, here’s a quick refresher:

You should also definitely check out this quite famous book on the topic:

Why We Sleep – by Dr Matthew Walker

What helps, to get that good sleep

We’ve covered this a little before too, for example:

How to level-up from there

One of the biggest barriers to good sleep for many people is obstructive sleep apea:

Healthier, Natural Sleep Without Obstruction!

We covered (in the above article) a whole lot of ways of mitigating/managing obstructive sleep apnea. One of the things we mentioned as beneficial was avoiding sleeping on one’s back, and this is something Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Somers agreed with:

Back Sleeping, And Sleeping Differently After 50

“But side-sleeping is uncomfortable”

If this is you, then chances are you have the wrong mattress.

If your mattress is too firm, you can get around it by using this “five pillow” method:

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If your mattress is too soft, then sorry, you really just have to throw that thing out and start again.

The Goldilocks mattress

While different people will have different subjective preferences, the science is quite clear on what is actually best for people’s spines. As this review of 39 qualified scholarly articles concluded:

❝Results of this systematic review show that a medium-firm mattress promotes comfort, sleep quality and rachis alignment❞

~ Dr. Gianfilippo Caggiari et al.

Read in full: What type of mattress should be chosen to avoid back pain and improve sleep quality? Review of the literature

Note: to achieve “medium-firm” that remains “medium firm” has generally been assumed to require a memory-foam mattress.

How memory-foam works: memory-foam is a moderately thermosoftening material, designed to slightly soften at the touch of human body temperature, and be firmer at room temperature. This will result in it molding itself to the form of a human body, providing what amounts to personalized support for your personal shape and size, meaning your spine can stay exactly as it’s supposed to when you’re sleeping on your side, instead of (for example) your hips being wider meaning that your lumbar vertebrae are raised higher than your thoracic vertebrae, giving you the equivalent of a special nocturnal scoliosis.

It will, therefore, stop working if

  • the ambient temperature is comparable to human body temperature (as happens in some places sometimes, and increasingly often these days)
  • you die, and thus lose your body temperature (but in that case, your spinal alignment will be the least of your concerns)

Here’s a good explanation of the mechanics of memory foam from the Sleep Foundation:

Sleep Foundation | What is Memory Foam?

An alternative to memory foam?

If you don’t like memory foam (one criticism is that it doesn’t allow good ventilation underneath the body), there is an alterative, the grid mattress.

It’s very much “the new kid on the block” and the science is young for this, but for example this recent (April 2024) study that concluded:

❝The grid mattress is a simple, noninvasive, and nonpharmacological intervention that improved adults sleep quality and health. Controlled trials are encouraged to examine the effects of this mattress in a variety of populations and environments.❞

~ Dr. Heather Hausenblas et al.

Read in full: Effectiveness of a grid mattress on adults’ sleep quality and health: A quasi-experimental intervention study

However, that was a small (n=39) uncontrolled (i.e. there was no control group) study, and the conflict of interest statement is, well, interesting:

❝Heather A. Hausenblas, Stephanie L. Hooper, Martin Barragan, and Tarah Lynch declare no conflict of interest. Michael Breus served as a former consultant for Purple, LLC.❞

~ Ibid.

…which is a fabulous way of distracting from the mention in the “Acknowledgements” section to follow, that…

❝Purple, LLC, provided financial support for the study❞

~ Ibid.

Purple is the company that invented the mattress being tested. So while this doesn’t mean the study is necessarily dishonest and/or corrupt, it does at the very least raise a red flag for a potential instance of publication bias (because Purple may have funded multiple studies and then pulled funding of the ones that weren’t going their way).

If you are interested in Purple’s mattress and how it works, you can check it out here ← this is a link for your interest and information; not an advertisement or an endorsement. We look forward to seeing more science for this though, and echo their own call for randomized controlled trials!

Summary

Sleep is important, and while it’s a popular myth that we need less as we get older, the truth is that we merely get less on average, while still needing the same amount.

A medium-firm memory-foam mattress is a very good, well-evidenced way to support that (both figuratively and literally!).

A grid mattress is an interesting innovation, and/but we’d like to see more science for it.

Take care!

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  • Foods For Managing Hypothyroidism (incl. Hashimoto’s)

    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.

    Foods for Managing Hypothyroidism

    For any unfamiliar, hypothyroidism is the condition of having an underactive thyroid gland. The thyroid gland lives at the base of the front of your neck, and, as the name suggests, it makes and stores thyroid hormones. Those are important for many systems in the body, and a shortage typically causes fatigue, weight gain, and other symptoms.

    What causes it?

    This makes a difference in some cases to how it can be treated/managed. Causes include:

    • Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune condition
    • Severe inflammation (end result is similar to the above, but more treatable)
    • Dietary deficiencies, especially iodine deficiency
    • Secondary endocrine issues, e.g. pituitary gland didn’t make enough TSH for the thyroid gland to do its thing
    • Some medications (ask your pharmacist)

    We can’t do a lot about those last two by leveraging diet alone, but we can make a big difference to the others.

    What to eat (and what to avoid)

    There is nuance here, which we’ll go into a bit, but let’s start by giving the one-line two-line summary that tends to be the dietary advice for most things:

    • Eat a nutrient-dense whole-foods diet (shocking, we know)
    • Avoid sugar, alcohol, flour, processed foods (ditto)

    What’s the deal with meat and dairy?

    • Meat: avoid red and processed meats; poultry and fish are fine or even good (unless fried; don’t do that)
    • Dairy: limit/avoid milk; but unsweetened yogurt and cheese are fine or even good

    What’s the deal with plants?

    First, get plenty of fiber, because that’s important to ease almost any inflammation-related condition, and for general good health for most people (an exception is if you have Crohn’s Disease, for example).

    If you have Hashimoto’s, then gluten (as found in wheat, barley, and rye) may be an issue, but the jury is still out, science-wise. Here’s an example study for “avoid gluten” and “don’t worry about gluten”, respectively:

    So, you might want to skip it, to be on the safe side, but that’s up to you (and the advice of your nutritionist/doctor, as applicable).

    A word on goitrogens…

    Goitrogens are found in cruciferous vegetables and soy, both of which are very healthy foods for most people, but need some extra awareness in the case of hypothyroidism. This means there’s no need to abstain completely, but:

    • Keep serving sizes small, for example a 100g serving only
    • Cook goitrogenic foods before eating them, to greatly reduce goitrogenic activity

    For more details, reading even just the abstract (intro summary) of this paper will help you get healthy cruciferous veg content without having a goitrogenic effect.

    (as for soy, consider just skipping that if you suffer from hypothyroidism)

    What nutrients to focus on getting?

    • Top tier nutrients: iodine, selenium, zinc
    • Also important: vitamin B12, vitamin D, magnesium, iron

    Enjoy!

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  • Buckwheat vs Bulgur Wheat – Which is Healthier?

    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.

    Our Verdict

    When comparing buckwheat to bulgur, we picked the buckwheat.

    Why?

    First, some things to know up front:

    • Bulgur wheat is a kind of cracked wheat product. As such, it contains wheat, and yes, gluten.
    • Buckwheat is not a wheat, nor even a grass, but a flowering plant. Buckwheat is as related to wheat as a lionfish is to a lion. It does not contain gluten.
    • Buckwheat can be purchased whole or hulled. We went with whole. If you go with hulled, the percentages of vitamins and minerals will be relatively higher, and/but this will be because you lost the fibrous husk, so they’ll be commensurately lower in fiber. If you were to go with hulled, we’d still pick it over bulgur wheat though, just for a different reason (as in that case, the vitamin and mineral contents would be more overwhelmingly in buckwheat’s favor, even though it’d have less fiber).

    Ok, now that those things are covered…

    Looking at the macronutrients, there’s not a lot between them, except that buckwheat has the much lower glycemic index (this is only the case if you got whole, not hulled—if you got hulled, the glycemic index would be about the same).

    In terms of vitamins, buckwheat has more of vitamins B2, B5, B9, E, K, and choline, while bulgur wheat technically has more vitamin A, but the numbers are tiny; a cup of bulgur wheat will give you 0.12% of the RDA. So, an easy win (functionally: 5:0) for buckwheat.

    When it comes to minerals, buckwheat has more copper, magnesium, potassium, and selenium, while bulgur wheat has more calcium and manganese. They’re equal on iron and phosphorus, making this a 4:2 win for buckwheat.

    Adding up the categories makes this a clear win for buckwheat!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Take care!

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  • Activate Your Brain – by Scott G. Halford

    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 a number of “improve your brain health” books over time, and this one’s quite different. How?

    Most of the books we’ve reviewed have been focused on optimizing diet and exercise for brain health with a nod to other factors… This one focuses more on those other factors.

    While this book does reference a fair bit of hard science, much of it is written more like a pop psychology book. As a result, most of the actionable advices, of which there are many, pertain to cognitive and behavioral adjustments.

    And no, this is not a book of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It just happened to also address those two aspects.

    We learn, for example, how our neurochemistry influences us—but also how we can influence our neurochemistry.

    We also learn the oft-neglected (in other books!) social factors that influence brain health. Not just for our happiness, but for our productivity and peak cognitive performance too. Halford talks us through optimizing these such that we and those around us all get to enjoy the best brain benefits available to each of us.

    The format of the book is that each chapter explains what you need to know for a given “activation” as the author calls it, and then an exercise to try out. With fifteen such chapters, every reader is bound to find at least something new.

    Bottom line: if you want to grease those synapses in more ways than just eating some nuts and berries and getting good sleep and exercise, this book is a great resource.

    Click here to check out “Activate Your Brain” and find your next level of cognitive performance!

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  • Pneumonia: Prevention Is Better Than Cure

    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

    Pneumonia: What We Can & Can’t Do About It

    Pneumonia is a significant killer of persons over the age of 65, with the risk increasing with age after that, rising very sharply around the age of 85:

    QuickStats: Death Rates from Influenza and Pneumonia Among Persons Aged ≥65 Years, by Sex and Age Group

    While pneumonia is treatable, especially in young healthy adults, the risks get more severe in the older age brackets, and it’s often the case that someone goes into hospital with one thing, then develops pneumonia, which the person was already not in good physical shape to fight, because of whatever hospitalized them in the first place:

    American Lung Association | Pneumonia Treatment and Recovery

    Other risk factors besides age

    There are a lot of things that can increase our risk factor for pneumonia; they mainly fall into the following categories:

    • Autoimmune diseases
    • Other diseases of the immune system (e.g. HIV)
    • Medication-mediated immunosuppression (e.g. after an organ transplant)
    • Chronic lung diseases (e.g. asthma, COPD, Long Covid, emphysema, etc)
    • Other serious health conditions ← we know this one’s broad, but it encompasses such things as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer

    See also:

    Why Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Is More Likely Than You Think

    Things we can do about it

    When it comes to risks, we can’t do much about our age and some of the other above factors, but there are other things we can do to reduce our risk, including:

    • Get vaccinated against pneumonia if you are over 65 and/or have one of the aforementioned risk factors. This is not perfect (it only reduces the risk for certain kinds of infection) and may not be advisable for everyone (like most vaccines, it can put the body through its paces a bit after taking it), so speak with your own doctor about this, of course.
    • Avoid contagion. While pneumonia itself is not spread person-to-person, it is caused by bacteria or viruses (there are numerous kinds) that are opportunistic and often become a secondary infection when the immune system is already busy with the first one. So, if possible avoid being in confined spaces with many people, and do wash your hands regularly (as a lot of germs are transferred that way and can get into the respiratory tract because you touched your face or such).
    • If you have a cold, or flu, or other respiratory infection, take it seriously, rest well, drink fluids, get good immune-boosting nutrients. There’s no such thing as “just a cold”; not anymore.
    • Look after your general health too—health doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and nor does disease. Every part of us affects every other part of us, so anything that can be in good order, you want to be in good order.

    This last one, by the way? It’s an important reminder that while some diseases (such as some of the respiratory infections that can precede pneumonia) are seasonal, good health isn’t.

    We need to take care of our health as best we can every day along the way, because we never know when something could change.

    Want to do more?

    Check out: Seven Things To Do For Good Lung Health!

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

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  • 20 Easy Ways To Lose Belly Fat (Things To *Not* Do)

    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

    Waist circumference (and hip to waist ratio) has been found to be a much better indicator of metabolic health than BMI. So, while at 10almonds we generally advocate for not worrying too much about one’s BMI, there are good reasons why it can be good to trim up specifically the visceral belly fat. But how?

    What not to do…

    Autumn Bates is a nutritionist, and her tips include nutrition and other lifestyle factors; here are some that we agree with:

    For more, including to learn what she has against peanut butter, enjoy her video:

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    Want to know more?

    Check out our previous main feature:

    Visceral Belly Fat & How To Lose It

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

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  • Retinoids: Retinol vs Retinal vs Retinoic Acid vs..?

    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’m confused about retinol, retinal, retinoin, retinoids, etc, and of course every product claims to be the best, what’s the actual science on it?❞

    Before we get into these skincare products, let’s first note that for most people, what’s best for the skin is good sleep and hydration, a plants-centric whole foods diet, and good stress management:

    See for example: Of Brains And Breakouts: The Brain Skin Doctor

    However, the world of potions and lotions can be an alluring one, and there is some merit there too. So, in a nutshell:

    • Retinoids are the overall class of chemicals, and not a specific type
      • Retinoic acid is the strongest form of this chemical and is prescription-controlled in most places
        • “Retinoin” is probably tretinoin (all-trans retinoic acid) with the “t” having fallen off; we can only find it being used as a product name, not an actual substance
      • Retinal, when it’s not an adjective referring to the retina (the part of the eye that receives refocussed light) and is instead a noun, is a less potent retinoid than the prescription-only kinds, but still stronger than retinol
      • Retinol is a much less potent form, and is the most widely found in skincare products

    All of them work the same way; it is only how serious they are about it that differs.

    The mechanism of action is that they speed up the turnover (shedding cycle) of skin, so that cells are replaced sooner. As with any non-cancerous human tissue, this means that the tissue itself (in this case, your skin) will be biologically younger than if it had been replaced later.

    The downside, of course, of this is that—while trying to make your skin healthier and more beautiful—the first thing that will happen is skin shedding. Depending on the retinoid type, dose, and the health of your skin to start with, this may mean anything from needing to exfoliate in the morning, to having to go to hospital with what looks like the world’s worst sunburn. For this reason, it is recommended to start with weaker products and lower doses, and work up carefully.

    A note on doses: the recommended doses for these products are always truly tiny, like “use a pea-sized amount of this 0.05% serum on your face”. Take them seriously until you’re absolutely sure from experience that your skin can handle more.

    Also, a tip: wear gloves when you apply any of the above products. This is because your fingers are also covered in skin, and if you don’t use gloves, then half the product that you intended for your face will be absorbed into your fingers instead. On the bright side, you’ll have beautifully rejuvenated fingertips, though.

    You can learn more about the science of retinoids here, in our article about tretinoin, the usually prescription-only form of retinoic acid:

    Tretinoin: Undo The Sun’s Damage To Your Skin

    Want to try some?

    We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product of retinal (stronger than retinol) on Amazon 😎

    Take care!

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