Testosterone & Your Heart
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Testosterone is in the news lately in the US, mostly due to the country’s Secretary of Defense wanting to increase the effectiveness of soldiers.
You can read about it here, for example: Pete Hegseth wants a testosterone-fueled military. The science doesn’t back the macho fantasy
However, here in the real world, testosterone will not turn people into the Incredible Hulk, but rather is a hormone that mediates a lot of things in the body, and people generally function best with correct hormone levels.
- For most women, that’s 0.2–1.9nmol/L
- For most men, that’s 8.7–38nmol/L
We’ve written about both before, for example:
- For women: Is It Worth Taking Testosterone In Menopause?
- For men: Topping Up Testosterone?
So, what’s this about the heart?
Too much of a good thing
Researchers (Dr. Hatim Kerniss et al.) analyzed data from 227,108 men aged 30–75 who were prescribed testosterone, matching 113,554 men with hypogonadism to an equal number without hypogonadism.
Those who were prescribed testosterone despite having no evidence of hypogonadism had a 51% higher risk of major adverse cardiovascular events than men with hypogonadism who were receiving testosterone.
Further, testosterone users without hypogonadism had a 90% higher risk of death from any cause compared with those who had hypogonadism.
Testosterone-using men without hypogonadism also had higher risks of ischemic stroke, heart attack, cardiac arrest, heart failure, and pulmonary embolism.
All this means that before getting a testosterone prescription, it is important to:
- Assess current testosterone levels (i.e. is the man actually suffering from hypogonadism?)
- Assess current cardiovascular risk (i.e. if cardiovascular risk is high, then what’s more important?)
…and then make an informed decision from there.
You can read this study in full, here: Off-label testosterone therapy is associated with higher long-term cardiovascular risk in men
Since then, another study, this time by Dr. Anand Reddy Maligireddy et al., found that atrial fibrillation (AF) risk may be higher at both low and high testosterone levels, with the lowest risk appearing to occur in the mid-physiological range.
In other words, this is the sort of thing we meant up top when we said “people generally function best with correct hormone levels”.
More is not always better!
And in fact, if wondering whether it’s better to err high or err low, then in this case, it’s worth noting that:
- evidence for increased AF risk was more consistent at higher testosterone levels than evidence at the low end
- older men in the highest two testosterone groups had nearly twice the AF risk of those in the middle group
You can read this paper in full, here: Association of testosterone and testosterone replacement therapy with atrial fibrillation: an updated review
Want to learn more?
For more on managing T-levels and related considerations, consider:
- DHT Blockers: What Actually Works?
- Too Much Or Too Little Testosterone?
- Tribulus Terrestris For Testosterone?
- What Menopause Does To The Heart
- Testosterone levels decline with age, not menopause, despite what you’ve heard
Take care!
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Skin Care Down There (Incl. Butt Acne, Hyperpigmentation, & More)
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Dr. Sam Ellis, dermatologist, gives us the low-down:
Where the sun don’t shine
Common complaints and remedies that Dr. Ellis covers in this video include:
- Butt acne/folliculitis: most butt breakouts are actually folliculitis, not traditional acne. Folliculitis is caused by friction, sitting for long periods, or wearing tight clothes. Solutions include antimicrobial washes like benzoyl peroxide and changing sitting habits (i.e. to sit less)
- Keratosis pilaris: rough bumps around hair follicles can appear on the butt, often confused with acne.
- Boils and abscesses: painful, large lumps; these need medical attention for drainage.
- Hidradenitis suppurativa: recurrent painful cysts and boils in skin creases, often in the groin and buttocks. These require medical intervention and treatment.
- Ingrown hairs: are common in people who shave or wax. Treat with warm compresses and gentle exfoliants.
- Hyperpigmentation: is often caused by hormonal changes, friction, or other irritation. Laser hair removal and gentle chemical exfoliants can help.
In the event that the sun does, in fact, shine on your genitals (for example you sunbathe nude and have little or no pubic hair), then sun protection is essential to prevent further darkening (and also, incidentally, reduce the risk of cancer).
For more on all of this, plus a general introduction to skincare in the bikini zone (i.e. if everything’s fine there right now and you’d like to keep it that way), enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
The Evidence-Based Skincare That Beats Product-Specific Hype
Take care!
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Acorns vs Chestnuts – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing acorns to chestnuts, we picked the acorns.
Why?
In terms of macros, chestnuts are mostly water, so it’s not surprising that acorns have a lot more carbs, fat, protein, and fiber. Thus, unless you have personal reasons for any of those to be a problem, acorns are the better choice, offering a lot more nutritional value.
In the category of vitamins, acorns lead with a lot more of vitamins A, B2, B3, B5, B6, and B9, while chestnuts have more of vitamins B1 and C. However, that vitamin C is useless to us, because it is destroyed in the cooking process (by boiling or roasting), and both of these nuts can be harmful if consumed raw, so that cooking does need to be done. That leaves acorns with a 6:1 lead.
When it comes to minerals, things are more even; acorns have more copper, magnesium, manganese, and zinc, while chestnuts have more calcium, iron, phosphorus, and potassium. Thus, a 4:4 tie (and yes, the margins of difference are approximately equal too).
We mentioned “both of these nuts can be harmful if consumed raw”, so a note on that: it’s because, while both contain an assortment of beneficial phytochemicals, they also both contain tannins that, if consumed raw, chelate with iron, essentially taking it out of our diet and potentially creating an iron deficiency. Cooking tannins stops this from being an issue, and the same cooking process renders the tannins actively beneficial to the health, for their antioxidant powers.
You may have heard that acorns are poisonous; that’s not strictly speaking true, except insofar as anything could be deemed poisonous in excess (including such things as water, and oxygen). Rather, it’s simply the above-described matter of the uncooked tannins and iron chelation. Even then, you’re unlikely to suffer ill effects unless you consume them raw in a fair quantity. While acorns have fallen from popular favor sufficient that one doesn’t see them in supermarkets, the fact is they’ve been enjoyed as an important traditional part of the diet by various indigenous peoples of N. America for centuries*, and provided they are cooked first, they are a good healthy food for most people.
*(going so far as to cultivate natural oak savannah areas, by burning out young oaks to leave the old ones to flourish without competition, to maximize acorn production, and then store dried acorns in bulk sufficient to cover the next year or so in case of a bad harvest later—so these was not just an incidental food, but very important “our life may depend on this” food. Much like grain in many places—and yes, acorns can be ground into flour and used to make bread etc too)
Do note: they are both still tree nuts though, so if you have a tree nut allergy, these ones aren’t for you.
Otherwise, enjoy both; just cook them first!
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Why You Should Diversify Your Nuts
Take care!
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Intermittent Fasting In Women
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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
❝Does intermittent fasting differ for women, and if so, how?❞
For the sake of layout, we’ve put a shortened version of this question here, but the actual wording was as below, and merits sharing in full for context
Went down a rabbit hole on your site and now can’t remember how I got to the “Fasting Without Crashing” article on intermittent fasting so responding to this email lol, but was curious what you find/know about fasting for women specifically? It’s tough for me to sift through and find legitimate studies done on the results of fasting in women, knowing that our bodies are significantly different from men. This came up when discussing with my sister about how I’ve been enjoying fasting 1-2 days/week. She said she wanted more reliable sources of info that that’s good, since she’s read more about how temporary starvation can lead to long-term weight gain due to our bodies feeling the need to store fat. I’ve also read about that, but also that fasting enables more focused autophagy in our bodies, which helps with long-term staving off of diseases/ailments. Curious to know what you all think!
~ 10almonds subscriber
So, first of all, great question! Thanks for asking it
Next up, isn’t it strange? Books come in the format:
- [title]
- [title, for women]
You would not think women are a little over half of the world’s population!
Anyway, there has been some research done on the difference of intermittent fasting in women, but not much.
For example, here’s a study that looked at 1–2 days/week IF, in other words, exactly what you’ve been doing. And, they did have an equal number of men and women in the study… And then didn’t write down whether this made a difference or not! They recorded a lot of data, but neglected to note down who got what per sex:
Here’s a more helpful study, that looked at just women, and concluded:
❝In conclusion, intermittent fasting could be a nutritional strategy to decrease fat mass and increase jumping performance.
However, longer duration programs would be necessary to determine whether other parameters of muscle performance could be positively affected by IF. ❞
~ Dr. Martínez-Rodríguez et al.
Those were “active women”; another study looked at just women who were overweight or obese (we realize that “active women” and “obese or overweight women” is a Venn diagram with some overlap, but still, the different focus is interesting), and concluded:
❝IER is as effective as CER with regard to weight loss, insulin sensitivity and other health biomarkers, and may be offered as an alternative equivalent to CER for weight loss and reducing disease risk.❞
As for your sister’s specific concern about yo-yoing, we couldn’t find studies for this yet, but anecdotally and based on books on Intermittent Fasting, this is not usually an issue people find with IF. This is assumed to be for exactly the reason you mention, the increased cellular apoptosis and autophagy—increasing cellular turnover is very much the opposite of storing fat!
You might, by the way, like Dr. Mindy Pelz’s “Fast Like A Girl”, which we reviewed previously
Take care!
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5 Daily Exercises to Look & Feel 10 Years Younger
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Granted, feeling younger is for most of us more important than looking younger, but since one follows the other, we might as well have glowingly good health in all regards. Here’s how:
Five ways
Movement, posture, and gait can make you look older than wrinkles do, And while stiffness, slowness, and poor posture age you, mobility and upright posture restore youth and energy. So, here are 5 exercises to ensure you attain and maintain that:
- Wall angel: stand with your butt, shoulders, and head against a wall with your elbows bent at 90°, then move your arms overhead without leaving the wall. This improves posture, scapular mobility, and shoulder control.
- Seated cat-cow: sit forwards on a chair, with your feet flat and your hands on your knees; alternate rounding your spine (cat) and arching your spine with your chest lifted (cow). This restores spinal mobility, especially thoracic extension.
- Hip flexor stretch with side bend: kneel on a padded surface, and squeeze your buttocks, tilting your pelvis under, then raise your hand behind your head, and bend sideways. This stretches your hip flexors, abdomen, and shoulder, improving hip extension for walking.
- Heel raise: stand on a step with your heels hanging off, lower yourself down for stretch, then rise onto your toes. This strengthens calves for walking power and speed, reducing shuffling.
- Band pull apart: hold a resistance band in front of you at chest height, pull it wide across your chest while squeezing your shoulder blades, then relax. This strengthens postural muscles for a healthily upright stance.
For more on each of these plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
10 Mobility & Strength Exercises to Move Better & Feel Younger!
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How Do Inhalers Work?
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And how safe are they?
Take a deep breath…
First, understand how asthma affects your lungs: air normally travels through your bronchi into the tiny air sacs (alveoli), where oxygen enters your bloodstream. In asthma, airway muscles tighten, the airway lining becomes inflamed, and excess mucus narrows the airways, making it especially difficult to breathe out.
With this in mind, inhalers are primarily used for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The two main kinds of inhaler are:
- Preventative inhalers (used daily to control symptoms prophylactically)
- Rescue inhalers (used for rapid relief during breathing attacks)
They each work in slightly different ways:
- How preventative inhalers work: preventative inhalers are taken every day to reduce symptoms before they begin. They usually combine corticosteroids, which reduce airway inflammation, with long-acting bronchodilators, which, you guessed it, dilate the bronchi and bronchioles. Some COPD bronchodilators are chemically related to compounds found in thorn apple, and work by blocking nerve signals that tighten airway muscles and stimulate mucus production.
- How rescue inhalers work: rescue inhalers contain short-acting bronchodilators that quickly relax the airway muscles, opening the airways and improving breathing for about four hours. They are effective for both asthma and COPD attacks, but frequent reliance on them instead of preventative treatment can be harmful.
For more on all of this, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
Why Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Is More Likely Than You Think
Take care!
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Sunflower Corn Burger
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Burgers are rarely a health food, but in this case, everything in the patty is healthy, and it’s packed with protein, fiber, and healthy fats.
You will need
- 1 can chickpeas
- ¾ cup frozen corn
- ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
- ⅓ cup sunflower seeds
- ⅓ cup cornichon pickles
- ⅓ cup wholegrain bread crumbs (gluten-free, if desired/required)
- ¼ bulb garlic (or more if you want a stronger flavor)
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for frying
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (or 1 tsp yeast extract)
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 2 tsp black pepper, coarse ground
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- To serve: 4 burger buns; these are not usually healthy, so making your own is best, but if you don’t have the means/time, then getting similarly shaped wholegrain bread buns works just fine.
- Optional: your preferred burger toppings, e.g. greenery, red onion, tomato slices, avocado, jalapeños, whatever does it for you
Note: there is no need to add salt; there is enough already in the pickles.
Method
(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)
1) Combine all the ingredients except the buns (and any optional toppings) in a food processor, pulsing a few times for a coarse texture (not a purée).
2) Shape the mixture into 4 burger patties, and let them chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
3) Heat a skillet over a medium-high heat with some olive oil, and fry the burgers on both sides until they develop a nice golden crust; this will probably take about 4 minutes per side.
4) Assemble in the buns with any toppings you want, and serve:
Enjoy!
Want to learn more?
For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:
- Sunflower Seeds vs Pumpkin Seeds – Which is Healthier? ← pumpkin seeds have more micronutrients; sunflower seeds have more healthy fats; feel free to use either or both in this recipe
- What Omega-3 Fatty Acids Really Do For Us
- Level-Up Your Fiber Intake! (Without Difficulty Or Discomfort)
- Making Friends With Your Gut (You Can Thank Us Later)
- Our Top 5 Spices: How Much Is Enough For Benefits?
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
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Learn to Age Gracefully
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