Speedy Easy Ratatouille

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One of the biggest contributing factors to unhealthy eating? The convenience factor. To eat well, it seems, one must have at least two of the following: money, time, and skill. So today we have a health dish that’s cheap, quick, and easy!

(You won’t need a rat in a hat to help you with this one)

You will need

  • 3 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
  • 2 zucchini, halved and chopped into thick batons
  • 2 portobello mushrooms, sliced into ½” slices
  • 1 large red pepper, cut into thick chunks
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
  • 2 tsp garlic paste
  • 2 tsp thyme leaves, destalked
  • 1 tsp rosemary leaves, destalked
  • 1 tsp red chili flakes
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • Optional: 1 tsp MSG, or 1 tsp low sodium salt (the MSG is the healthier option as it contains less sodium than even low sodium salt)
  • Optional: other vegetables, chopped. Use what’s in your fridge! This is a great way to use up leftovers. Particularly good options include chopped eggplant, chopped red onion, and/or chopped carrot.

Method

(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

1) Put the olive oil into a sauté pan and set the heat on medium. When hot but smoking, add the mushrooms and any optional vegetables (but not the others from the list yet), and fry for 5 minutes.

Note: if you aren’t pressed for time, then you can diverge from the “speedy” part of this by cooking each of the vegetables separately before combining, which allows each to keep its flavor more distinct.

2) Add the garlic, followed by the zucchini, red pepper, chili flakes, and thyme; stir periodically (you shouldn’t have to stir constantly) for 10 minutes.

3) Add the tomatoes and a cup of water to the pan, along with any MSG/salt. Cover with the lid and allow to simmer for a further 10 minutes.

4) Serve, adding the garnish.

Enjoy!

Want to learn more?

For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

Take care!

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  • How To Be 7.5x More Likely To Develop Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

    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 is it?

    Many more people have chronic fatigue, which is the symptom of being exhausted all the time, than have chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) which is the illness of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).

    This is because fatigue can be a symptom of many, many other conditions, and can be heavily influenced by lifestyle factors too.

    A lot of the advice for dealing with chronic fatigue is often the same in both cases, but some will be different, because for example:

    • If your fatigue is from some other condition, that condition probably impacts what lifestyle factors you are (and are not) able to change, too
    • If your fatigue is from lifestyle factors, that hopefully means you can change those and enjoy less fatigue…
      • But if it’s not from lifestyle factors, as in ME/CFS, then advice to “exercise more” etc is not going to help so much.

    There are ways to know the difference though:

    Check out: Do You Have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

    The chronic disease pipeline

    While it had been strongly suspected that COVID infection could lead to CFS, with long COVID having chronic fatigue as one of its characteristic symptoms, a research team led by Dr. Suzanne Vernon has now established the nature of the relationship.

    It was a large (n=13,224) longitudinal observational cohort study of people with no pre-existing ME/CFS, grouped according to their COVID infection status:

    1. acute infected, enrolled within 30 days of infection or enrolled as uninfected who became infected (n=4,515)
    2. post-acute infected, enrolled greater than 30 days after infection (n=7,270)
    3. uninfected (n=1,439).

    (to be clear, that last means “never infected”, or else they would be in group 2)

    Note: people who had COVID and were hospitalized for it were excluded from the study, so this risk is the risk represented by even just more “moderate” infections.

    What they found:

    ❝The proportion of all RECOVER-Adult participants that met criteria for ME/CFS following SARS-CoV-2 infection was 4.5% (531 of 11,785) compared to 0.6% (9 of 1439) in uninfected participants.❞

    There are then different numbers if we look per 100 person-years, as the study also did—in which case, we get a re-modelled increase in risk of 5x instead of 7.5x, but a) that’s still not good b) the “here-and-now” figures of 4.5% vs 0.6% are also relevant.

    Read in full: Incidence and Prevalence of Post-COVID-19 Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: A Report from the Observational RECOVER-Adult Study

    The killer nobody wants to talk about anymore

    Of course, as we all know the pandemic is over, because politicians declared it so, which is very reassuring.

    Nevertheless, COVID is currently the still 4th leading cause of death in the US, placing it higher than stroke, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and others.

    See also: Emergency or Not, Covid Is Still Killing People. Here’s What Doctors Advise to Stay Safe

    So, while it’s very good to take care of our hearts, brains, blood sugars, and so forth, let’s at the very least continue to keep on top of our vaccinations, avoid enclosed crowded spaces where possible, etc.

    And for extra boosts to one’s chances: Why Some People Get Sick More (And How To Not Be One Of Them)

    What if I do get (or already have) long COVID and/or ME/CFS?

    Well, that is definitely going to suck, but there are still some things that can be done.

    Here’s a big one: How To Eat To Beat Chronic Fatigue ← this will not, of course, cure you, but it’s a way of getting maximum nutrition for minimum effort, given that for someone with chronic fatigue, effort is a very finite resource that must be used sparingly

    Finally, here are some further resources:

    Support For Long COVID & Chronic Fatigue

    Take care!

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  • 100 No-Equipment Workouts – by Neila Rey

    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.

    For those of us who for whatever reason prefer to exercise at home rather than at the gym, we must make do with what exercise equipment we can reasonably install in our homes. This book deals with that from the ground upwards—literally!

    If you have a few square meters of floorspace (and a ceiling that’s not too low, for exercises that involve any kind of jumping), then all 100 of these zero-equipment exercises are at-home options.

    As to what kinds of exercises they are, they each marked as being one or both of “cardio” and “strength”.

    They’re also marked as being of “difficulty level” 1, 2, or 3, so that someone who hasn’t exercised in a while (or hasn’t exercised like this at all), can know where best to start, and how best to progress.

    The exercises come with clear explanations in the text, and clear line-drawing illustrations of how to do each exercise. Really, they could not be clearer; this is top quality pragmatism, and reads like a military manual.

    Bottom line: whatever your strength and fitness goals, this book can see you well on your way to them (if not outright get you there already in many cases). It’s also an excellent “all-rounder” for full-body workouts.

    Click here to check out 100 No-Equipment Workouts, and find the joy and freedom in not needing anything at all for full-body training!

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  • The Sugar Alcohol That Reduces BMI!

    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.

    Inositol Does-It-Ol’!

    First things first, a quick clarification up-front:

    Myo-inositol or D-chiro-inositol?

    We’re going to be talking about inositol today, which comes in numerous forms, but most importantly:

    • Myo-inositol (myo-Ins)
    • D-chiro-inositol (D-chiro-Ins)

    These are both inositol, (a sugar alcohol!) and for our purposes today, the most relevant form is myo-inositol.

    The studies we’ll look at today are either:

    • just about myo-inositol, or
    • about myo-inositol in the presence of d-chiro-inositol at a 40:1 ratio.

    You have both in your body naturally; wherever supplementation is mentioned, it means supplementing with either:

    • extra myo-inositol (because that’s the one the body more often needs more of), or
    • both, at the 40:1 ratio that we mentioned above (because that’s one way to help balance an imbalanced ratio)

    With that in mind…

    Inositol against diabetes?

    Inositol is known to:

    • decrease insulin resistance
    • increase insulin sensitivity
    • have an important role in cell signaling
    • have an important role in metabolism

    The first two things there both mean that inositol is good against diabetes. It’s not “take this and you’re cured”, but:

    • if you’re pre-diabetic it may help you avoid type 2 diabetes
    • if you are diabetic (either type) it can help in the management of your diabetes.

    It does this by allowing your body to make better use of insulin (regardless of whether that insulin is from your pancreas or from the pharmacy).

    How does it do that? Research is still underway and there’s a lot we don’t know yet, but here’s one way, for example:

    ❝Evidence showed that inositol phosphates might enhance the browning of white adipocytes and directly improve insulin sensitivity through adipocytes❞

    Read: Role of Inositols and Inositol Phosphates in Energy Metabolism

    We mentioned its role in metabolism in a bullet-point above, and we didn’t just mean insulin sensitivity! There’s also…

    Inositol for thyroid function?

    The thyroid is one of the largest endocrine glands in the body, and it controls how quickly the body burns energy, makes proteins, and how sensitive the body should be to other hormones. So, it working correctly or not can have a big impact on everything from your mood to your weight to your energy levels.

    How does inositol affect thyroid function?

    • Inositol has an important role in thyroid function and dealing with autoimmune diseases.
    • Inositol is essential to produce H2O2 (yes, really) required for the synthesis of thyroid hormones.
    • Depletion of inositol may lead to the development of some thyroid diseases, such as hypothyroidism.
    • Inositol supplementation seems to help in the management of thyroid diseases.

    Read: The Role of Inositol in Thyroid Physiology and in Subclinical Hypothyroidism Management

    Inositol for PCOS?

    A systematic review published in the Journal of Gynecological Endocrinology noted:

    • Inositol can restore spontaneous ovarian activity (and consequently fertility) in most patients with PCOS.
    • Myo-inositol is a safe and effective treatment to improve:
      • ovarian function
      • healthy metabolism
      • healthy hormonal balance

    While very comprehensive (which is why we included it here), that review’s a little old, so…

    Check out this cutting edge (Jan 2023) study whose title says it all:

    Inositol is an effective and safe treatment in polycystic ovary syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

    Inositol for fertility?

    Just last year, Mendoza et al published that inositol supplementation, together with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, could be an optimal strategy to improve female fertility.

    This built from Gambiole and Forte’s work, which laid out how inositol is a safe compound for many issues related to fertility and pregnancy. In particular, several clinical trials demonstrated that:

    • inositol can have therapeutic effects in infertile women
    • inositol can also be useful as a preventive treatment during pregnancy
    • inositol could prevent the onset of neural tube defects
    • inositol also reduces the occurrence of gestational diabetes

    Due to the safety and efficiency of inositol, it can take the place of many drugs that are contraindicated in pregnancy. Basically: take this, and you’ll need fewer other drugs. Always a win!

    Read: Myo-Inositol as a Key Supporter of Fertility and Physiological Gestation

    Inositol For Weight Loss

    We promised you “this alcohol sugar can reduce your BMI”, and we weren’t making it up!

    Zarezadeh et al conducited a very extensive systematic review, and found:

    • Oral inositol supplementation has positive effect on BMI reduction.
    • Inositol in the form of myo-inositol had the strongest effect on BMI reduction.
    • Participants with PCOS and/or who were overweight, experienced the most significant improvement of all.

    Want some inositol?

    As ever, we don’t sell it (or anything else), but for your convenience, here’s myo-inositol and d-chiro-inositol at a 40:1 ratio, available on Amazon!

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  • A new emergency procedure for cardiac arrests aims to save more lives – here’s how it works

    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.

    As of January this year, Aotearoa New Zealand became just the second country (after Canada) to adopt a groundbreaking new procedure for patients experiencing cardiac arrest.

    Known as “double sequential external defibrillation” (DSED), it will change initial emergency response strategies and potentially improve survival rates for some patients.

    Surviving cardiac arrest hinges crucially on effective resuscitation. When the heart is working normally, electrical pulses travel through its muscular walls creating regular, co-ordinated contractions.

    But if normal electrical rhythms are disrupted, heartbeats can become unco-ordinated and ineffective, or cease entirely, leading to cardiac arrest.

    Defibrillation is a cornerstone resuscitation method. It gives the heart a powerful electric shock to terminate the abnormal electrical activity. This allows the heart to re-establish its regular rhythm.

    Its success hinges on the underlying dysfunctional heart rhythm and the proper positioning of the defibrillation pads that deliver the shock. The new procedure will provide a second option when standard positioning is not effective.

    Using two defibrillators

    During standard defibrillation, one pad is placed on the right side of the chest just below the collarbone. A second pad is placed below the left armpit. Shocks are given every two minutes.

    Early defibrillation can dramatically improve the likelihood of surviving a cardiac arrest. However, around 20% of patients whose cardiac arrest is caused by “ventricular fibrillation” or “pulseless ventricular tachycardia” do not respond to the standard defibrillation approach. Both conditions are characterised by abnormal activity in the heart ventricles.

    DSED is a novel method that provides rapid sequential shocks to the heart using two defibrillators. The pads are attached in two different locations: one on the front and side of the chest, the other on the front and back.

    A single operator activates the defibrillators in sequence, with one hand moving from the first to the second. According to a recent randomised trial in Canada, this approach could more than double the chances of survival for patients with ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia who are not responding to standard shocks.

    The second shock is thought to improve the chances of eliminating persistent abnormal electrical activity. It delivers more total energy to the heart, travelling along a different pathway closer to the heart’s left ventricle.

    Evidence of success

    New Zealand ambulance data from 2020 to 2023 identified about 1,390 people who could potentially benefit from novel defibrillation methods. This group has a current survival rate of only 14%.

    Recognising the potential for DSED to dramatically improve survival for these patients, the National Ambulance Sector Clinical Working Group updated the clinical procedures and guidelines for emergency medical services personnel.

    The guidelines now specify that if ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia persist after two shocks with standard defibrillation, the DSED method should be administered. Two defibrillators need to be available, and staff must be trained in the new approach.

    Though the existing evidence for DSED is compelling, until recently it was based on theory and a small number of potentially biased observational studies. The Canadian trial was the first to directly compare DSED to standard treatment.

    From a total of 261 patients, 30.4% treated with this strategy survived, compared to 13.3% when standard resuscitation protocols were followed.

    The design of the trial minimised the risk of other factors confounding results. It provides confidence that survival improvements were due to the defibrillation approach and not regional differences in resources and training.

    The study also corroborates and builds on existing theoretical and clinical scientific evidence. As the trial was stopped early due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the researchers could recruit fewer than half of the numbers planned for the study.

    Despite these and other limitations, the international group of experts that advises on best practice for resuscitation updated its recommendations in 2023 in response to the trial results. It suggested (with caution) that emergency medical services consider DSED for patients with ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia who are not responding to standard treatment.

    Training and implementation

    Although the evidence is still emerging, implementation of DSED by emergency services in New Zealand has implications beyond the care of patients nationally. It is also a key step in advancing knowledge about optimal resuscitation strategies globally.

    There are always concerns when translating an intervention from a controlled research environment to the relative disorder of the real world. But the balance of evidence was carefully considered before making the decision to change procedures for a group of patients who have a low likelihood of survival with current treatment.

    Before using DSED, emergency medical personnel undergo mandatory education, simulation and training. Implementation is closely monitored to determine its impact.

    Hospitals and emergency departments have been informed of the protocol changes and been given opportunities to ask questions and give feedback. As part of the implementation, the St John ambulance service will perform case reviews in addition to wider monitoring to ensure patient safety is prioritised.

    Ultimately, those involved are optimistic this change to cardiac arrest management in New Zealand will have a positive impact on survival for affected patients.The Conversation

    Vinuli Withanarachchie, PhD candidate, College of Health, Massey University; Bridget Dicker, Associate Professor of Paramedicine, Auckland University of Technology, and Sarah Maessen, Research Associate, Auckland University of Technology

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

    Don’t Forget…

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  • One Critical Mistake That Costs Seniors Their Mobility

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    Will Harlow, the over-50s specialist physio, advises what to do instead:

    Nose over toes

    Often considered the most important test of mobility in later life (or in general, but later life is when it tends to decline) is the ability to get up off the floor without using your arms.

    Many seniors, meanwhile, struggle to get out of a chair without using their arms.

    Now, sitting in chairs in the first place is not good for the health, but that’s another matter and beyond the scope of today’s article.

    If, perchance, you struggle to get up from a chair (especially if it’s low/deep, like many armchairs are) without using your hands, then here’s the way to do it:

    1. While practicing, cross your arms in front of you, so that you cannot use them.
    2. Shuffle yourself towards the front of the chair. No, don’t use your arms for this either, do a little butt-walk instead, to get you to the front edge of the chair.
    3. Lean forwards to position your nose over your toes (hence the mnemonic: “nose over toes”; memorize that!), as this will put your center of gravity where it needs to be.
    4. Now, push with your feet to rise up and forwards; slowly is better than quickly (quickly may be easier, but slowly will improve your strength and balance).

    For more on all of this plus a visual demonstration, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    The Most Anti Aging Exercise

    Take care!

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  • Relationships: When To Stick It Out & When To Call It Quits

    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.

    Like A Ship Loves An Anchor?

    Today’s article may seem a little bit of a downer to start with, but don’t worry, it picks up again too. Simply put, we’ve written before about many of the good parts of relationships, e.g:

    Only One Kind Of Relationship Promotes Longevity This Much!

    …but what if that’s not what we have?

    Note: if you have a very happy, secure, fulfilling, joyous relationship, then, great! Or if you’re single and happy, then, also great! Hopefully you will still find today’s feature of use if you find yourself advising a friend or family member one day. So without further ado, let’s get to it…

    You may be familiar with the “sunk cost fallacy”; if not: it’s what happens when a person or group has already invested into a given thing, such that even though the thing is not going at all the way they hoped, they now want to continue trying to make that thing work, lest their previous investment be lost. But the truth is: if it’s not going to work, then the initial investment is already lost, and pouring out extra won’t help—it’ll just lose more.

    That “investment” in a given thing could be money, time, energy, or (often the case) a combination of the above.

    In the field of romance, the “sunk cost fallacy” keeps a lot of bad relationships going for longer than perhaps they should, and looking back (perhaps after a short adjustment period), the newly-single person says “why did I let that go on?” and vows to not make the same mistake again.

    But that prompts the question: how can we know when it’s right to “keep working on it, because relationships do involve work”, as perfectly reasonable relationship advice often goes, and when it’s right to call it quits?

    Should I stay or should I go?

    Some questions for you (or perhaps a friend you might find yourself advising) to consider:

    • What qualities do you consider the most important for a partner to have—and does your partner have them?
    • If you described the worst of your relationship to a close friend, would that friend feel bad for you?
    • Do you miss your partner when they’re away, or are you glad of the break? When they return, are they still glad to see you?
    • If you weren’t already in this relationship, would you seek to enter it now? (This takes away sunk cost and allows a more neutral assessment)
    • Do you feel completely safe with your partner (emotionally as well as physically), or must you tread carefully to avoid conflict?
    • If your partner decided tomorrow that they didn’t want to be with you anymore and left, would that be just a heartbreak, or an exciting beginning of a new chapter in your life?
    • What things would you generally consider dealbreakers in a relationship—and has your partner done any of them?

    The last one can be surprising, by the way. We often see or hear of other people’s adverse relationship situations and think “I would never allow…” yet when we are in a relationship and in love, there’s a good chance that we might indeed allow—or rather, excuse, overlook, and forgive.

    And, patience and forgiveness certainly aren’t inherently bad traits to have—it’s just good to deploy them consciously, and not merely be a doormat.

    Either way, reflect (or advise your friend/family member to reflect, as applicable) on the “score” from the above questions.

    • If the score is good, then maybe it really is just a rough patch, and the tools we link at the top and bottom of this article might help.
    • If the score is bad, the relationship is bad, and no amount of historic love or miles clocked up together will change that. Sometimes it’s not even anyone’s fault; sometimes a relationship just ran its course, and now it’s time to accept that and turn to a new chapter.

    “At my age…”

    As we get older, it’s easy for that sunk cost fallacy to loom large. Inertia is heavy, the mutual entanglement of lives is far-reaching, and we might not feel we have the same energy for dating that we did when we were younger.

    And there may sometimes be a statistical argument for “sticking it out” at least for a while, depending on where we are in the relationship, per this study (with 165,039 participants aged 20–76), which found:

    ❝Results on mean levels indicated that relationship satisfaction decreased from age 20 to 40, reached a low point at age 40, then increased until age 65, and plateaued in late adulthood.

    As regards the metric of relationship duration, relationship satisfaction decreased during the first 10 years of the relationship, reached a low point at 10 years, increased until 20 years, and then decreased again.❞

    ~ Dr. Janina Bühler et al.

    Source: Development of Relationship Satisfaction Across the Life Span: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

    And yet, when it comes to prospects for a new relationship…

    • If our remaining life is growing shorter, then it’s definitely too short to spend in an unhappy relationship
    • Maybe we really won’t find romance again… And maybe that’s ok, if w’re comfortable making our peace with that and finding joy in the rest of life (this widowed writer (hi, it’s me) plans to remain single now by preference, and her life is very full of purpose and beauty and joy and yes, even love—for family, friends, etc, plus the memory of my wonderful late beloved)
    • Nevertheless, the simple fact is: many people do find what they go on to describe as their best relationship yet, late in life ← this study is with a small sample size, but in this case, even anecdotal evidence seems sufficient to make the claim reasonable; probably you personally know someone who has done so. If they can, so can you, if you so wish.
    • Adding on to that last point… Later life relationships can also offer numerous significant advantages unique to such (albeit some different challenges too—but with the right person, those challenges are just a fun thing to tackle together). See for example:

    An exploratory investigation into dating among later‐life women

    And about those later-life relationships that do work? They look like this:

    “We’ve Got This”: Middle-Aged and Older (ages 40–87) Couples’ Satisfying Relationships and We-Talk Promote Better Physiological, Relational, and Emotional Responses to Conflict

    this one looks like the title says it all, but it really doesn’t, and it’s very much worth at least reading the abstract, if not the entire paper—because it talks a lot about the characteristics that make for happy or unhappy relationships, and the effect that those things have on people. It really is very good, and quite an easy read.

    See again: Healthy Relationship, Healthy Life

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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