The Good Life – by Robert Waldinger, MD, and Marc Schulz, PhD

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For any who have thought “there must be some middle-ground between entirely subjective self-help books advising how to feel better, and sifting through clinical data on what actually affects people’s moods“, this book is exactly that middle-ground!

Drs. Waldinger and Schultz went through the 80-year-long Harvard Study of Adult Development with a fine-toothed comb, and this book details—more readably—what they found.

There are frequent references to data from the study. Not just numbers, though, people’s answers to questions, too. And how different factors about people’s lives affected their answers to the same questions.

We hear from all ages, from young adults to octagenarians, and learn how attitudes (including: of the same people) change over time. Not because people are fickle, but because people grow… or become disillusioned. Or sometimes, both.

We learn about the importance of money… And where that importance ends.

We learn importance of relationships of various kinds, and this is certainly a recurring theme throughout the study—and thus, throughout the book.

The book doesn’t just present data, though, it also presents actionable insights along the way.

Bottom line: the combined wisdom and life-experiences of a lot of people provide a very “big picture” view of life, and what makes us happy, really. We highly recommend it!

Pick up The Good Life from Amazon Today!

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Recommended

  • The Joy of Movement – by Dr. Kelly McGonigal
  • The Snooze-Button Controversy
    To Snooze Or Not To Snooze? (Science Has Answers) Dr. Jennifer Kanaan, a medical doctor specializing in sleep disorders, warns against relying on recent sleep studies. She suggests prioritizing uninterrupted sleep and getting sunlight upon waking.

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  • Is It Possible To Lose Weight Quickly?

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    In Victorian England, weight-loss trends like the dangerous tapeworm diet were popular. While modern fad diets can seem less extreme, they often promise similarly fast results. However, these quick fixes can have similarly harmful consequences:

    Not so fast

    To illustrate the difference between gradual and extreme dieting, the video bids us consider two identical twins, Sam and Felix:

    • Sam adopts a gradual approach, slowly reducing calorie intake and exercising regularly. This causes his body to burn glycogen stores before transitioning to fat as an energy source. Regular exercise helps Sam maintain muscle mass, which boosts his metabolism and supports sustained weight loss.
    • Felix drastically cuts calories, forcing his body into starvation mode. He quickly depletes glycogen stores, loses muscle mass, and burns fewer calories, making long-term weight loss more difficult. Although Felix might initially lose water weight, this is temporary and unsustainable.


    You cannot “just lose it quickly now, and then worry about healthiness once the weight’s gone”, because you will lose health much more quickly than you will lose fat, and that will sabotage, rather than help, your fat loss journey.

    Healthy weight loss requires gradual, balanced changes in diet and exercise tailored to individual needs. Extreme diets, whether through calorie restriction or things like elimination of carbs or fats, are unsustainable and shock the body. It’s important to prioritize long-term health over societal pressures for quick weight loss and focus on developing a sustainable, healthy lifestyle.

    In short, the quickest way to lose weight and keep it off (without dying), is to lose it slowly.

    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 to read:

    How To Lose Weight (Healthily)

    Take care!

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  • Exercised – by Dr. Daniel Lieberman

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    Surely the title is taking liberties? We must have evolved to exercise, right? Not exactly.

    We evolved to conserve energy. Our strength-to-weight ratio is generally unimpressive, we cannot casually hang in trees, and we spend a third of our lives asleep.

    Strengths that we do have, however, include a large brain and a versatile gut perfect for opportunism. Again, not the indicators of being evolved for exercise.

    So, Dr. Lieberman tells us, if we’re not inclined to get up and go, that’s quite natural. So, why does it feel good when we do get up and go?

    This book covers a lot of the “this not that” aspects of exercise. By this we mean: ways that we can work with or against our bodies, for both physical and psychological fulfilment.

    There’s an emphasis on such things as:

    • movement without excessive exertion
    • persistence being more important than power
    • strength-building but only so far as is helpful to us

    …and many other factors that you won’t generally see on your gym’s motivational posters

    Bottom line: this book is for all those who have felt “exercise is not for me” but would also like the benefits of exercise. It turns out that there’s a best-of-both-worlds sweet spot!

    Click here to check out Exercised and get working with your body rather than against it!

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  • Alzheimer’s Risk Reduction Methods

    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.

    It’s Q&A Day!

    Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!

    This newsletter has been growing a lot lately, and so have the questions/requests, and we love that! 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

    Q: I am now in the “aging” population. A great concern for me is Alzheimers. My father had it and I am so worried. What is the latest research on prevention?

    Very important stuff! We wrote about this not long back:

    (one good thing to note is that while Alzheimer’s has a genetic component, it doesn’t appear to be hereditary per se. Still, good to be on top of these things, and it’s never too early to start with preventive measures!)

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Related Posts

  • The Joy of Movement – by Dr. Kelly McGonigal
  • Is stress turning my hair grey?

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    When we start to go grey depends a lot on genetics.

    Your first grey hairs usually appear anywhere between your twenties and fifties. For men, grey hairs normally start at the temples and sideburns. Women tend to start greying on the hairline, especially at the front.

    The most rapid greying usually happens between ages 50 and 60. But does anything we do speed up the process? And is there anything we can do to slow it down?

    You’ve probably heard that plucking, dyeing and stress can make your hair go grey – and that redheads don’t. Here’s what the science says.

    Oksana Klymenko/Shutterstock

    What gives hair its colour?

    Each strand of hair is produced by a hair follicle, a tunnel-like opening in your skin. Follicles contain two different kinds of stem cells:

    • keratinocytes, which produce keratin, the protein that makes and regenerates hair strands
    • melanocytes, which produce melanin, the pigment that colours your hair and skin.

    There are two main types of melanin that determine hair colour. Eumelanin is a black-brown pigment and pheomelanin is a red-yellow pigment.

    The amount of the different pigments determines hair colour. Black and brown hair has mostly eumelanin, red hair has the most pheomelanin, and blonde hair has just a small amount of both.

    So what makes our hair turn grey?

    As we age, it’s normal for cells to become less active. In the hair follicle, this means stem cells produce less melanin – turning our hair grey – and less keratin, causing hair thinning and loss.

    As less melanin is produced, there is less pigment to give the hair its colour. Grey hair has very little melanin, while white hair has none left.

    Unpigmented hair looks grey, white or silver because light reflects off the keratin, which is pale yellow.

    Grey hair is thicker, coarser and stiffer than hair with pigment. This is because the shape of the hair follicle becomes irregular as the stem cells change with age.

    Interestingly, grey hair also grows faster than pigmented hair, but it uses more energy in the process.

    Can stress turn our hair grey?

    Yes, stress can cause your hair to turn grey. This happens when oxidative stress damages hair follicles and stem cells and stops them producing melanin.

    Oxidative stress is an imbalance of too many damaging free radical chemicals and not enough protective antioxidant chemicals in the body. It can be caused by psychological or emotional stress as well as autoimmune diseases.

    Environmental factors such as exposure to UV and pollution, as well as smoking and some drugs, can also play a role.

    Melanocytes are more susceptible to damage than keratinocytes because of the complex steps in melanin production. This explains why ageing and stress usually cause hair greying before hair loss.

    Scientists have been able to link less pigmented sections of a hair strand to stressful events in a person’s life. In younger people, whose stems cells still produced melanin, colour returned to the hair after the stressful event passed.

    4 popular ideas about grey hair – and what science says

    1. Does plucking a grey hair make more grow back in its place?

    No. When you pluck a hair, you might notice a small bulb at the end that was attached to your scalp. This is the root. It grows from the hair follicle.

    Plucking a hair pulls the root out of the follicle. But the follicle itself is the opening in your skin and can’t be plucked out. Each hair follicle can only grow a single hair.

    It’s possible frequent plucking could make your hair grey earlier, if the cells that produce melanin are damaged or exhausted from too much regrowth.

    2. Can my hair can turn grey overnight?

    Legend says Marie Antoinette’s hair went completely white the night before the French queen faced the guillotine – but this is a myth.

    Painted portrait of Marie Antoinette with elaborate grey hairstyle.
    It is not possible for hair to turn grey overnight, as in the legend about Marie Antoinette. Yann Caradec/Wikimedia, CC BY-NC-SA

    Melanin in hair strands is chemically stable, meaning it can’t transform instantly.

    Acute psychological stress does rapidly deplete melanocyte stem cells in mice. But the effect doesn’t show up immediately. Instead, grey hair becomes visible as the strand grows – at a rate of about 1 cm per month.

    Not all hair is in the growing phase at any one time, meaning it can’t all go grey at the same time.

    3. Will dyeing make my hair go grey faster?

    This depends on the dye.

    Temporary and semi-permanent dyes should not cause early greying because they just coat the hair strand without changing its structure. But permanent products cause a chemical reaction with the hair, using an oxidising agent such as hydrogen peroxide.

    Accumulation of hydrogen peroxide and other hair dye chemicals in the hair follicle can damage melanocytes and keratinocytes, which can cause greying and hair loss.

    4. Is it true redheads don’t go grey?

    People with red hair also lose melanin as they age, but differently to those with black or brown hair.

    This is because the red-yellow and black-brown pigments are chemically different.

    Producing the brown-black pigment eumelanin is more complex and takes more energy, making it more susceptible to damage.

    Producing the red-yellow pigment (pheomelanin) causes less oxidative stress, and is more simple. This means it is easier for stem cells to continue to produce pheomelanin, even as they reduce their activity with ageing.

    With ageing, red hair tends to fade into strawberry blonde and silvery-white. Grey colour is due to less eumelanin activity, so is more common in those with black and brown hair.

    Your genetics determine when you’ll start going grey. But you may be able to avoid premature greying by staying healthy, reducing stress and avoiding smoking, too much alcohol and UV exposure.

    Eating a healthy diet may also help because vitamin B12, copper, iron, calcium and zinc all influence melanin production and hair pigmentation.

    Theresa Larkin, Associate Professor of Medical Sciences, University of Wollongong

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

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  • Fasting Without Crashing?

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    Intermittent Fasting: What’s the truth?

    Before we get to facts and fictions, let’s quickly cover:

    What is Intermittent Fasting?

    Intermittent Fasting (IF) is an umbrella term for various kinds of time-restricted fasting, based on a schedule. Types include:

    Time-restricted IF, for example:

    • 16:8—Fast for 16 hours, eat during an 8-hour window
    • 18:6–Fast for 18 hours, eat during a 6-hour window
    • 20:4—Fast for 20 hours, eat during a 4-hour window

    24hr fasting, including:

    • Eat Stop Eat—basically, take a day off from eating once a week
    • Alternate Day Fasting—a more extreme version of the above; it is what it sounds like; eat one day, fast the next, repeat

    Non-fast fasting, e.g:

    • 5:2—Eat normally for 5 days, have a very reduced calorie intake (⅓ of normal intake) for the other 2 days
    • Fruit Fasting—have a small amount of fruit on “fast” days, but no other food
    • The Warrior Diet—as above, but include a small amount of non-starchy vegetables

    Why IF?

    While IF is perhaps most commonly undertaken as a means of fat loss or fat management (i.e., keeping fat down when it is already low), others cite different reasons, such as short term cognitive performance or long-term longevity.

    But… Does it work?

    Here we get into the myth-busting bit!

    “IF promotes weight loss”

    Mix of True and False. It can! But it also doesn’t have to. If you’re a bodybuilder who downs 4,000 calories in your 4hr eating window, you’re probably not going to lose weight! For such people, this is of course “a feature, not a bug” of IF—especially as it has been found that, in an acute study, IF did not adversely impact muscle protein synthesis.

    “IF promotes fat loss, without eating less”

    Broadly True. IF was found to be potentially equal to, but not necessarily better than, eating less.

    “IF provides metabolic benefits for general health”

    Broadly True. IF (perhaps counterintuitively) decreases the risk of insulin resistance, and also has anti-inflammatory effects, benefits a healthy gut microbiome, and promotes healthy autophagy (which as we noted in a previous edition of 10almonds, is important against both aging and cancer)

    However, results vary according to which protocol you’re observing…

    For what it’s worth, 16:8 is perhaps the most-studied protocol. Because such studies tend to have the eating window from midday to 8pm, this means that—going against popular wisdom—part of the advice here is basically “skip breakfast”.

    “Unlike caloric restriction, IF is sustainable and healthy as a long-term protocol”

    Broadly True. Of course, there’s a slight loophole here in that IF is loosely defined—technically everyone fasts while they’re sleeping, at the very least!

    However, for the most commonly-studied IF method (16:8), this is generally very sustainable and healthy and for most people.

    On the other hand, a more extreme method such as Alternate Day Fasting, may be trickier to sustain (even if it remains healthy to do so), because it’s been found that hunger does not decrease on fasting days—ie, the body does not “get used to it”.

    The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition wrote:

    ❝Alternate-day fasting was feasible in nonobese subjects, and fat oxidation increased. However, hunger on fasting days did not decrease, perhaps indicating the unlikelihood of continuing this diet for extended periods of time. Adding one small meal on a fasting day may make this approach to dietary restriction more acceptable.❞

    American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

    “IF improves mood and cognition”

    Mix of True and False (plus an honest “We Don’t Know” from researchers).

    Many studies have found benefits to both mood and cognition, but in the short-term, fasting can make people “hangry” (or: “experience irritability due to low blood sugar levels”, as the scientists put it), and in the long term, it can worsen symptoms of depression for those who already experience such—although some studies have found it can help alleviate depressive symptoms.

    Basically this is one where researchers typically append the words “more research is needed” to their summaries.

    “Anyone can do IF”

    Definitely False, unless going by the absolute broadest possible interpretation of what constitutes “Intermittent Fasting” to the point of disingenuity.

    For example, if you are Type 1 Diabetic, and your blood sugars are hypo, and you wait until tomorrow to correct that, you will stand a good chance of going into a coma instead. So please don’t.

    (On the other hand, IF may help achieve remission of type 2 diabetes)

    Lastly, IF is broadly not recommend to children and adolescents, anyone pregnant or breastfeeding, and certain underlying health conditions not mentioned above (we’re not going to try to give an exhaustive list here, but basically, if you have a chronic health condition, we recommend you check with your doctor first).

    WHICH APP?

    Choosing a fasting app

    Thinking of giving IF a try and would like a little extra help? We’ve got you covered!

    Check out: Livewire’s 7 Best Intermittent Fasting Apps of 2023

    Prefer to just trust us with a recommendation?

    We like BodyFast—it’s #2 on Lifewire’s list, but it has an array of pre-set plans to choose from (unlike Lifewire’s #1, Zero), and plenty of clear tracking, scheduling help, and motivational features.

    Both are available on both iOS and Android:

    See the BodyFast App / See the Zero App

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  • Dates vs Figs – Which is Healthier?

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    Our Verdict

    When comparing dates to figs, we picked the dates.

    Why?

    Dates are higher in sugar, but also have a lower glycemic index than figs, which makes the sugar content much healthier. On the flipside, figs do have around 3x more fiber.

    So far, so balanced.

    When it comes to micronutrients though, dates take the prize much more clearly.

    Dates have slightly more of most vitamins, and a lot more of most minerals.

    In particular, dates are several times higher in copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium, and zinc.

    As for other phytochemical benefits going on:

    • both are good against diabetes for reasons beyond the macros
    • both have anti-inflammatory properties
    • dates have anticancer properties
    • dates have kidney-protecting properties

    So in this last case, another win for dates.

    Both are still great though, so do enjoy both!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Which Sugars Are Healthier, And Which Are Just The Same?

    Take care!

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