Stop The World…

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.

Some news highlights from this week:

“US vs Them”?

With the US now set to lose its WHO membership, what does that mean for Americans? For most, the consequences will be indirect:

  • the nation’s scientists and institutions will be somewhat “left out in the cold” when it comes to international scientific collaboration in the field of health
  • the US will no longer enjoy a position of influence and power within the WHO, which organization’s reports and position statements have a lot of sway over the world’s health practices

Are there any benefits (of leaving the WHO) for Americans? Yes, there is one: the US will no longer be paying into the WHO’s budget, which means:

  • the US will save the 0.006% of the Federal budget that it was paying into the WHO annually
  • for the average American’s monthly budget, that means (if the saving is passed on) you’ll have an extra dime

However, since US scientific institutions will still need access to international data, likely that access will need to be paid separately, at a higher rate than US membership in WHO cost.

In short: it seems likely to go the way that Brexit did: “saving” on membership fees and then paying more for access to less.

Why is the US leaving again? The stated reasons were mainly twofold:

  1. the cost of US membership (the US’s contribution constituted 15% of the the overall WHO budget)
  2. holding the US’s disproportionately high COVID death rate (especially compared to countries such as China) to be a case of WHO mismanagement

Read in full: What losing WHO membership means for the U.S.

Related: What Would a Second Trump Presidency Look Like for Health Care? ← this was a speculative post by KFF Health News, last year

Halt, You’re Under A Breast

More seriously, this is about halting the metastasis of cancerous tumors in the breast. It is reasonable to expect the same principle and thus treatment may apply to other cancers too, but this is where the research is at for now (breast cancer research gets a lot of funding).

And, what principle and treatment is this, you ask? It’s about the foxglove-derived drug digoxin, and how it stops cancerous cells from forming clusters, and even actively dissolves clusters that have already formed. No clusters means no new tumors, which means no metastasis. No metastasis, in turn, means the cancer becomes much more treatable because it’s no longer a game of whack-a-mole; instead of spreading to other places, it’s a much more manageable case of “here’s the tumor, now let’s kill it with something”.

Note: yes, that does mean the tumor still needs killing by some other means—digoxin won’t do that, it “just” stops it from spreading while treatment is undertaken.

Read in full: Proof-of-concept study dissolves clusters of breast cancer cells to prevent metastases

Related: The Hormone Therapy That Reduces Breast Cancer Risk & More

Force Of Habit

“It takes 21 days to make a habit”, says popular lore. Popular is not, however, evidence-based:

❝This systematic review of 20 studies involving 2601 participants challenges the prevailing notion of rapid habit formation, revealing that health-related habits typically require 2–5 months to develop, with substantial individual variability ranging from 4 to 335 days. The meta-analysis demonstrated significant improvements in habit scores across various health behaviours, with key determinants including morning practices, personal choice, and behavioural characteristics

So, this is not a lottery, “maybe it will take until Tuesday, maybe it will take nearly a year”, so much as “there are important factors that seriously change how long a habit takes to become engrained, and here is what those factors are”.

Read in full: Study reveals healthy habits take longer than 21 days to set in

Related: How To Really Pick Up (And Keep!) Those Habits

Don’t Forget…

Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

Recommended

  • From Painkillers To Hunger-Killers
  • Non-Sleep Deep Rest: A Neurobiologist’s Take
    How to experience the benefits of sleep while awake! Dr. Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist, explains Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) and its ability to reduce stress and improve well-being.

Learn to Age Gracefully

Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Sesame & Peanut Tofu

    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.

    Yesterday we learned how to elevate tofu from “nutrition” to “nutritious tasty snack” with our Basic Baked Tofu recipe; today we’re expanding on that, to take it from “nutritious tasty snack” to “very respectable meal”.

    You will need

    For the tofu:

    • The Basic Baked Tofu that we made yesterday (consider making this to be “step zero” of today’s recipe if you don’t already have a portion in the fridge)

    For the sauce:

    • ⅓ cup peanut butter, ideally with no added sugar or salt (if allergic to peanuts specifically, use almond butter; if allergic to nuts generally, use tahini)
    • ¼ bulb garlic, grated or crushed
    • 1 tbsp tamarind paste
    • 1½ tbsp tamari sauce (or low-sodium soy sauce, if a substitution is necessary)
    • 1 tbsp sambal oelek (or sriracha sauce, if a substitution is necessary)
    • 1 tsp ground coriander
    • 1 tsp ground black pepper
    • ½ tsp ground sweet cinnamon
    • ½ tsp MSG (or else omit; do not substitute with salt in this case unless you have a particular craving)
    • zest of 1 lime

    For the vegetables:

    • 14 oz broccolini / tenderstem broccoli, thick ends trimmed (failing that, any broccoli)
    • 6 oz shelled edamame
    • 1½ tsp toasted sesame oil

    For serving:

    • 4 cups cooked rice (we recommend our Tasty Versatile Rice recipe)
    • ½ cup raw cashews, soaked in hot water for at least 5 minutes and then drained (if allergic, substitute cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained)
    • 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
    • 1 handful chopped cilantro, unless you have the “this tastes like soap” gene, in which case substitute chopped parsley

    Method

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

    1) Combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl and whisk well (or use a blender if you have one that’s comfortable with this relatively small quantity of ingredients). Taste it, and adjust the ingredient ratios if you’d like more saltiness, sweetness, sourness, spiciness, umami.

    2) Prepare a bowl with cold water and some ice. Steam the broccolini and edamame for about 3 minutes; as soon as they become tender, dump them into the ice bathe to halt the cooking process. Let them chill for a few minutes, then drain, dry, and toss in the sesame oil.

    3) Reheat the tofu if necessary (an air fryer is great for this), and then combine with half of the sauce in a bowl, tossing gently to coat well.

    4) Add a little extra water to the remaining sauce, enough to make it pourable, whisking to an even consistency.

    5) Assemble; do it per your preference, but we recommend the order: rice, vegetables, tofu, cashews, sauce, sesame seeds, herbs.

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

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

    Take care!

    Share This Post

  • Reading As A Cognitive Exercise

    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.

    Reading, Better

    It is relatively uncontroversial to say that reading is good for cognitive health, but we don’t like to make claims without science if we can help it, so let’s get started:

    There was a 2021 study, which found that even when controlling for many other factors, including highest level of education, socioeconomic status, and generalized pre-morbid intelligence:

    ❝high reading activity, as defined by almost daily reading, was associated with lower odds of cognitive decline, compared to low reading activity❞

    ~ Dr. Carol Chan

    Source: Can reading increase cognitive reserve?

    However, not all reading is the same. And this isn’t just about complexity or size of vocabulary, either. It’s about engagement.

    And that level of engagement remains the key factor, no matter how quickly or slowly someone reads, as the brain tends to automatically adjust reading speed per complexity, because the brain’s “processing speed” remains the same:

    Read more: Cognitive coupling during reading

    Everyone’s “processing speed” is different (and is associated with generalized intelligence and executive functions), though as a general rule of thumb, the more we practice it, the faster our processing speed gets. So if you balked at the notion of “generalized intelligence” being a factor, be reassured that this association goes both ways.

    Read more: The unique contribution of working memory, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and intelligence to reading comprehension and reading speed

    So is the key to just read more?

    That’s a great first step! But…

    The key factor still remains: engagement.

    So what does that mean?

    It is not just the text that engages you. You must also engage the text!

    This is akin to the difference between learning to drive by watching someone else do it, and learning by getting behind the wheel and having a go.

    When it comes to reading, it should not be a purely passive thing. Sure, if you are reading a fiction book at bedtime, get lost in it, by all means. But when it comes to non-fiction reading, engage with it actively!

    For example, I (your writer here, hi), when reading non-fiction:

    • Read at what is generally considered an unusually fast pace, but
    • Write so many notes in the margins of physical books, and
    • Write so many notes using the “Notes” function on my Kindle

    And this isn’t just like a studious student taking notes. Half the time I am…

    • objecting to content (disagreeing with the author), or
    • at least questioning it, or which is especially important, or
    • noting down questions that came to my mind as a result of what I am reading.

    This latter is a bit like:

    • when you are reading 10almonds, sometimes you will follow our links and go off down a research rabbit-hole of your own, and that’s great!
    • sometimes you will disagree with something and write to tell us, and that’s great too (when this happens, one or the other or all of us will learn something, and yes, we have published corrections before now)!
    • sometimes what you read here will prompt a further question, and you’ll send that to us, and guess what, also great! We love questions.

    Now, if your enjoyment of 10almonds is entirely passive, don’t let us stop you (we know our readers like quick-and-easy knowledge, and that’s good too), it’s just, the more you actively engage with it, the more you’ll get out of it.

    This, by the way, was also a lifelong habit of Leonardo da Vinci, which you can read about here:

    How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day – by Michael J. Gelb

    a very good book that we reviewed last year

    How you read (i.e. what medium) matters too!

    Are you reading this on a desktop/laptop, or a mobile device? That difference could matter more than the difference between paper and digital, according to this study from 2020 that found…

    ❝The cumulation of evidence from this and previous studies suggests that reading on a tablet affords different interactions between the reader and the text than reading on a computer screen.

    Reading on a tablet might be more similar to reading on paper, and this may impact the attentional processes during reading❞

    ~ Dr. Ugo Ballenghein et al.

    Read more: Cognitive engagement during reading on digital tablet: Evidence from concurrent recordings of postural and eye movements

    What if my mind wanders easily?

    You can either go with it, or train to improve focus.

    Going with it: just make sure you have more engaging reading to get distracted by. It’s all good.

    Training focus: this is trickier, but worthwhile, as executive function (you will remember from earlier) was an important factor too, and training focus is training executive function.

    As for one way to do that…

    Mindfulness training improves working memory capacity and GRE performance while reducing mind wandering

    If you’d like a primer for getting going with that, then you may enjoy our previous main feature:

    No-Frills, Evidence-Based Mindfulness

    Enjoy!

    Share This Post

  • The Best Menopause Advice You Don’t Want To Hear About

    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.

    Nutritionist and perimenopause coach Claudia Canu, whom we’ve featured before in our Expert Insights segment, has advice:

    Here’s to good health

    When it comes to alcohol, the advice is: don’t.

    Or at least, cut back, and manage the effects by ensuring good hydration, having an “alcohol curfew” and so forth.

    What’s the relation to menopause? Well, alcohol’s not good for anyone at any time of life, but there are some special considerations when it comes to alcohol and estrogenic hormonal health:

    • The liver works hard to process the alcohol as a matter of urgency, delaying estrogen processing, which can increase the risk of breast and uterine cancer.
    • Alcohol has no positive health effects and is also linked to higher risks of breast and colorectal cancer.
    • Alcohol can also trigger some menopausal symptoms, such as night sweats and hot flashes. So, maybe reaching for that “cooling drink” isn’t the remedy it might seem.
    • During menopause, the body becomes more insulin-resistant, making it more susceptible to blood sugar spikes caused by alcohol. Also not good.

    Common reasons women turn to alcohol include stress, frustration, the need for reward, and social pressure, and all of these can be heightened when undergoing hormonal changes. Yet, alcohol will ultimately only worsen each of those things.

    For more on the science of some of the above, plus tips on how to make positive changes with minimum discomfort, enjoy:

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

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Take care!

    Share This Post

Related Posts

  • From Painkillers To Hunger-Killers
  • How extreme heat can affect you—and how you can protect yourself

    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.

    Because of climate change, last summer was the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere in 2,000 years—and this summer is expected to be even hotter. The record may continue to be broken: Extreme heat is expected to become even more frequent.

    The scorching heat has led to an increase in heat-related deaths in the United States, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, with approximately 2,300 deaths in the summer of 2023. Extreme heat, defined as a period of two to three days with high heat and humidity with temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, can have serious health consequences, including symptoms like headache, dizziness, loss of consciousness, nausea, and confusion. 

    As we face more extreme heat, you may be wondering how you can protect yourself and your loved ones. Read on to learn about heat-related illness, who’s most at risk, and more.

    What happens when our bodies are exposed to extreme heat?

    As our body temperature rises, our bodies attempt to cool down by opening up more blood vessels near the skin to begin sweating. The evaporation of our sweat regulates our body temperature, but it also leads to losing fluids and minerals. 

    When it’s too humid, sweating alone doesn’t do the trick. The heart must work harder to bring blood around the body. It starts beating faster, which can cause light-headedness, nausea, and headache.

    This process can affect our health in different ways, including increasing our risk of hospitalization for heart disease, worsening asthma, and injuring kidneys due to dehydration. It can also result in heat-related illness. Below are some effects of heat on our bodies: 

    • Heat cramps: Occur when a person loses salt through sweating, which causes painful cramps. Symptoms begin as painful spasms after heavy sweating, usually in the legs or the stomach. Heat cramps can lead to heat exhaustion or heat stroke. 
    • Heat exhaustion: This occurs when the body loses an excessive amount of water and salt, usually during intense physical activity. Symptoms include irritability, heavy sweating, and weakness, including muscle cramps. Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke. 
    • Heat stroke: This is the most severe heat-related illness. It happens when the body can’t cool down and reaches a temperature of 106 Fahrenheit or higher within 10 to 15 minutes. If the person doesn’t receive emergency treatment, it can cause permanent disability or death. Symptoms include confusion, loss of consciousness, and seizures. 

    What should I do if someone experiences a heat-related illness?

    If you or someone you’re with begins to show signs of heat illness, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the following: 

    • Heat cramps: Stop all physical activity, drink water or a sports drink, move to a cool place, and wait for cramps to go away before resuming activity. If the cramps last more than an hour, you’re on a low-sodium diet, or you have heart problems, get medical help. 
    • Heat exhaustion: Move the person to a cool place, loosen their clothes, use a cool bath or cloths to try to lower their body temperature, and give them a sip of water. If the person throws up, or if their symptoms last longer than an hour or worsen, get medical help. 
    • Heat stroke: Call 911 immediately. Then, move the person to a cooler place, use cool cloths or a cool bath to help lower their temperature, and don’t give them anything to drink. 

    Read more about heat-related illness and what to do in each case.

    Who’s more vulnerable to extreme heat? 

    While everyone can be affected by extreme heat, some people are more at risk, including people of color.

    A 2023 KFF report outlined that because of historical residential segregation in the U.S. (known as “redlining”), people of color are more likely to live in areas that experience higher temperatures from rooftops, asphalt, and sidewalks that retain the sun’s heat (known as the “urban heat island effect”). Additionally, communities of color are more likely to live in areas with fewer trees, which act as a canopy and provide shade, making the heat worse and more direct.  

    Children under 5, adults 65 or over, and pregnant people are also more vulnerable to extreme heat. If you have a chronic health condition like diabetes, heart problems, or a mental health condition, you’re also at higher risk. (Some psychiatric medications, like antidepressants, can also make people more susceptible to heat). 

    Lastly, anyone exposed to the sun and extreme heat for long periods is also at higher risk. This includes athletes, people who work outdoors, and unhoused people. 

    What can I do to prevent heat-related illness during a heat wave?

    During a heat wave, follow these tips to stay cool and protect yourself from heat-related illness: 

    • Never leave your pets or children inside a car
    • Wear loose, light-colored clothing (dark colors absorb more heat).
    • Find shade if you’re outside.
    • If you don’t have air conditioning in your home, go to a place where you can cool down, such as a local library, community center, local pool or splash pad, or mall. Check to see if your city has designated cooling centers. (Cities like New York have a list of places.) 
    • Wear a hat.
    • Drink (non-alcoholic) fluids often to stay hydrated—and if you have pets, give them water frequently as well.
    • Check on your family members or older neighbors who may be more sensitive to extreme heat.
    • Avoid using your stove or oven too often or during the hottest parts of the day.
    • Cover your windows with shades to keep the heat out.

    What are some resources to prevent heat-related illness? 

    If you need financial assistance to cool down your home, such as to purchase an air conditioner, apply to the federal government’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

    Before you head outside during a heat wave, use the CDC’s HeatRisk tool: Enter your zip code to find the current heat risk in your area and get tips on what to do to stay safe with each risk level.

    During a heat wave, also look for a cooling center in your state using the National Center for Healthy Housing’s list

    Check out the National Weather Service’s for more tips and resources.

    For more information, talk to your health care provider.

    This article first appeared on Public Good News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Curing Hiccups And Headaches At Home With Actual Science

    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.

    Quick fixes for bodily annoyances

    Do you ever find yourself desperately trying to cure hiccups, and advice on the Internet is like “breathe in through your ears while drinking vinegar upside-down through your nose”?

    If so, you’re not alone. So, today we’re going to look at some science-based approaches to dealing with common bodily annoyances.

    Hiccups

    Unfortunately, most popular advices simply don’t work, and the only near-guaranteed way to cure these is with anti-convulsive medications whose side-effects may be worse than the hiccups.

    However, before you head to the pharmacy, there is one breathing exercise that has a very simple scientific underpinning: 4:4 breathing. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s just:

    1. Breathe slowly in through your nose to a count of four
    2. Hold your breath for a count of four
    3. Breathe slowly out through your nose to a count of four
    4. Hold your breath for a count of four

    …and repeat. The slower the better. At first, your hiccups will interrupt this, but just “keep calm and carry on”.

    The reason this can work is that breathing is an autonomic function (e.g., it happens without us thinking about it) that, unlike most other autonomic functions, we can all control directly. By taking control of one, others will tend to fall into line with it.

    For example, it is normal that your heart rate will tend to slow or quicken as your breathing slows or quickens, respectively.

    Your hiccups? Autonomic function. Actually a very, very old evolutionary left-over trait, that’s only useful for protecting lungs while breathing underwater. In other words, it’s the bodily function thinks you’re a fish (or a tadpole-like amphibious creature) in the process of developing lungs. Unfortunately, because hiccuping doesn’t harm our chances of passing on our genes, it never got naturally de-selected so we still have it.

    Anyway, the bottom line is: take control of your breathing in the aspects you can directly control, and the aspects you can’t directly control will fall into line. You may need to give it some minutes, don’t give up too quickly.

    Headaches

    If you ever get a headache and you don’t have painkillers or perhaps they’re not helping or you have another reason for not wanting to take them, there’s “one quick trick” that can cure most headaches in seconds.

    First, the limitation: this will only cure headaches that have been caused by increased localized blood pressure in the forehead. However, that’s more than half of most common headaches.

    Next, how it works…

    We’re mentioning this first, because understanding how it works will give you more confidence in using it.

    Your body has a wonderful homeostatic system, which is the system by which your body maintains its “Goldilocks zones” of not too hot or cold, not to acidine or alkaline, not too hydrated or dehydrated, blood pressure not too high or too low, etc. Sometimes, however, it can get confused, and needs a nudge back to where it should be.

    One of the ways it maintains blood pressure is biofeedback from receptors in blood vessel walls, called baroreceptors. They are what it sounds like; they measure blood pressure internally.

    In certain places, there are clusters of baroreceptors in one place. And if we press on that one place, the body will think “Oh no! Super high blood pressure in this bit!” and reduce the blood pressure immediately.

    This is called the baroreflex, and that’s what you need to cure a hypertensive headache.

    So, what to do:

    With your thumb, carefully feel the upper inside corner of your eye socket. So, at the top, and about ¼ of the way out from the bridge of your nose. You should feel a groove. No, not like the Emperor’s New, but, an actual groove in your eye socket. That’s the supraorbital notch (or foramen), and it allows the supraorbital artery, veins, and nerve to run through.

    Press it firmly (you can do both sides at once, assuming you have two thumbs) for about three seconds, and then massage it gently. Repeat as necessary, but it shouldn’t take more than about three goes to have cured the headache.

    As a bonus, this is a great party trick for curing other people’s headaches, when the need arises!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Shoe Wear Patterns: What They Mean, Why It Matters, & How To Fix It

    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.

    If you look under your shoes, do you notice how the tread is worn more in some places than others? Specific patterns of shoe wear correspond to how our body applies force, weight, and rotational movement. This reveals how we move, and uneven wear can indicate problematic movement dynamics.

    The clues in your shoes

    Common shoe wear patterns include:

    • Diagonal wear on the outside of the heel: caused by foot angle, leg position, and instability, leading to joint stress.
    • Rotational wear at specific points: due to internal or external rotation, often originating from the hip, pelvis, or torso.
    • Wear above the big toe: caused by excessive toe lifting, often associated with a “lighter” or kicking leg.

    Fixing movement issues to prevent wear involves correcting posture, improving balance, and adjusting how the legs land during walking/running.

    Key fixes include:

    • Aligning the center of gravity properly to prevent leg overcompensation.
    • Ensuring feet land under the hips and not far in front.
    • Stabilizing the torso to avoid unnecessary rotation.
    • Engaging the glutes effectively to reduce hip flexor dominance and improve leg mechanics.
    • Maintaining even weight distribution on both legs to prevent excessive lifting or twisting.

    Posture and walking mechanics are vital to reducing uneven wear, but meaningful, lasting change takes time and focused effort, to build new habits.

    For more on all this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

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

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Steps For Keeping Your Feet A Healthy Foundation

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails: