The Good Skin Solution – by Shann Jones

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Not everyone knows that eczema is not just a skin condition; it’s an autoimmune condition. And thus to heal one’s skin, the gut is a good place to start.

This is not your average gut health book though, because it is focused on optimizing things for one’s skin… Although the author herself learned about this while helping her husband to battle an MRSA infection. In other words, a multi-fronted battle for sure.

The advices in this book are good for, as the subtitle promises, an assortment of other skin conditions too, including psoriasis, rosacea, and acne. She covers the usual bases, and recommends probiotics, of which she’s particularly keen to praise kefir, while advising against the use of antibiotics unless absolutely necessary—something we’ve talked about from time to time at 10almonds, too.

Not content to merely cover those things, she also talks allergies, and walking the fine line between avoiding triggers and developing hypersensitivity by treating to live in a perfectly clean bubble.

Ultimately, she offers “7 daily habits”, 3 of which involve goat’s milk kefir, that’s how keen on it she is. So if you’re vegan, probably this book isn’t as good value, however much it discusses the health woes that can be caused and/or exacerbated by drinking cow’s milk.

The style is very light and personable, which makes for easy reading, more like one friend talking to another, than a scientific textbook.

Bottom line: if you’d like healthier skin, are interested in dietary tweaks and homemade soaps, and have no aversion to goat’s milk and/or kefir, then this book is full of fascinating pointers.

Click here to check out The Good Skin Solution, and who knows, maybe you’ll find it’s the G.O.A.T!

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  • What is ‘breathwork’? And do I need to do it?

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    From “breathwork recipes” to breathing techniques, many social media and health websites are recommending breathwork to reduce stress.

    But breathwork is not new. Rather it is the latest in a long history of breathing techniques such as Pranayama from India and qigong from China. Such practices have been used for thousands of years to promote a healthy mind and body.

    The benefits can be immediate and obvious. Try taking a deep breath in through your nose and exhaling slowly. Do you feel a little calmer?

    So, what’s the difference between the breathing we do to keep us alive and breathwork?

    Taras Grebinets/Shutterstock

    Breathwork is about control

    Breathwork is not the same as other mindfulness practices. While the latter focus on observing the breath, breathwork is about controlling inhalation and exhalation.

    Normally, breathing happens automatically via messages from the brain, outside our conscious control. But we can control our breath, by directing the movement of our diaphragm and mouth.

    The diaphragm is a large muscle that separates our thoracic (chest) and abdominal (belly) cavities. When the diaphragm contracts, it expands the thoracic cavity and pulls air into the lungs.

    Controlling how deep, how often, how fast and through what (nose or mouth) we inhale is the crux of breathwork, from fire breathing to the humming bee breath.

    Breathwork can calm or excite

    Even small bits of breathwork can have physical and mental health benefits and complete the stress cycle to avoid burnout.

    Calming breathwork includes diaphragmatic (belly) breathing, slow breathing, pausing between breaths, and specifically slowing down the exhale.

    In diaphragmatic breathing, you consciously contract your diaphragm down into your abdomen to inhale. This pushes your belly outwards and makes your breathing deeper and slower.

    You can also slow the breath by doing:

    • box breathing (count to four for each of four steps: breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold), or
    • coherent breathing (controlled slow breathing of five or six breaths per minute), or
    • alternate nostril breathing (close the left nostril and breathe in slowly through the right nostril, then close the right nostril and breathe out slowly through the left nostril, then repeat the opposite way).

    You can slow down the exhalation specifically by counting, humming or pursing your lips as you breathe out.

    In contrast to these calming breathing practices, energising fast-paced breathwork increases arousal. For example, fire breathing (breathe in and out quickly, but not deeply, through your nose in a consistent rhythm) and Lion’s breath (breathe out through your mouth, stick your tongue out and make a strong “haa” sound).

    What is happening in the body?

    Deep and slow breathing, especially with a long exhale, is the best way to stimulate the vagus nerves. The vagus nerves pass through the diaphragm and are the main nerves of the parasympathetic nervous system.

    Simulating the vagus nerves calms our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) stress response. This improves mood, lowers the stress hormone cortisol and helps to regulate emotions and responses. It also promotes more coordinated brain activity, improves immune function and reduces inflammation.

    Taking deep, diaphragmatic breaths also has physical benefits. This improves blood flow, lung function and exercise performance, increases oxygen in the body, and strengthens the diaphragm.

    Slow breathing reduces heart rate and blood pressure and increases heart rate variability (normal variation in time between heart beats). These are linked to better heart health.

    Taking shallow, quick, rhythmic breaths in and out through your nose stimulates the sympathetic nervous system. Short-term, controlled activation of the stress response is healthy and develops resilience to stress.

    Breathing in through the nose

    We are designed to inhale through our nose, not our mouth. Inside our nose are lots of blood vessels, mucous glands and tiny hairs called cilia. These warm and humidify the air we breathe and filter out germs and toxins.

    We want the air that reaches our airways and lungs to be clean and moist. Cold and dry air is irritating to our nose and throat, and we don’t want germs to get into the body.

    Nasal breathing increases parasympathetic activity and releases nitric oxide, which improves airway dilation and lowers blood pressure.

    Consistently breathing through our mouth is not healthy. It can lead to pollutants and infections reaching the lungs, snoring, sleep apnoea, and dental issues including cavities and jaw joint problems.

    person stands with diagrams of lungs superimposed on chest
    Breathing can be high and shallow when we are stressed. mi_viri/Shutterstock

    A free workout

    Slow breathing – even short sessions at home – can reduce stress, anxiety and depression in the general population and among those with clinical depression or anxiety. Research on breathwork in helping post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is also promising.

    Diaphragmatic breathing to improve lung function and strengthen the diaphragm can improve breathing and exercise intolerance in chronic heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. It can also improve exercise performance and reduce oxidative stress (an imbalance of more free radicals and/or less antioxidants, which can damage cells) after exercise.

    traffic light in street shows red signal
    Waiting at the lights? This could be your signal to do some breathwork. doublelee/Shutterstock

    A mind-body connection you can access any time

    If you feel stressed or anxious, you might subconsciously take shallow, quick breaths, but this can make you feel more anxious. Deep diaphragmatic breaths through your nose and focusing on strong exhalations can help break this cycle and bring calm and mental clarity.

    Just a few minutes a day of breathwork can improve your physical and mental health and wellbeing. Daily deep breathing exercises in the workplace reduce blood pressure and stress, which is important since burnout rates are high.

    Bottom line: any conscious control of your breath throughout the day is positive.

    So, next time you are waiting in a line, at traffic lights or for the kettle to boil, take a moment to focus on your breath. Breathe deeply into your belly through your nose, exhale slowly, and enjoy the benefits.

    Theresa Larkin, Associate professor of Medical Sciences, University of Wollongong and Judy Pickard, Senior Lecturer, Clinical Psychology, University of Wollongong

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

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  • Steps For Keeping Your Feet A Healthy Foundation

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    Important Steps For Good Health

    This is Dr. Kelly Starrett. He’s a physiotherapist, author, speaker, trainer. He has been described as a “celebrity” and “founding father” of CrossFit. He mostly speaks and writes about mobility in general; today we’re going to be looking at what he has to say specifically about our feet.

    A strong foundation

    “An army marches on its stomach”, Napoleon famously wrote.

    More prosaically: an army marches on its feet, and good foot-care is a top priority for soldiers—indeed, in some militaries, even so much as negligently getting blisters is a military offense.

    Most of us are not soldiers, but there’s a lesson to be learned here:

    Your feet are the foundation for much of the rest of your health and effectiveness.

    KISS for feet

    No, not like that.

    Rather: “Keep It Simple, Stupid”

    Dr. Starrett is not only a big fan of not overcomplicating things, but also, he tells us how overcomplicating things can actively cause problems. When it comes to footwear, for example, he advises:

    ❝When you wear shoes, wear the flat kind. If you’re walking the red carpet on Oscar night, fine, go ahead and wear a shoe with a heel. Once in a while is okay.

    But most of the time, you should wear shoes that are flat and won’t throw your biological movement hardware into disarray.

    When you have to wear shoes, whether it’s running shoes, work shoes, or combat boots, buy the flat kind, also known as “zero drop”—meaning that the heel is not raised above the forefoot (at all).

    What you want to avoid, or wean yourself away from, are shoes with the heels raised higher off the ground than the forefeet.❞

    Of course, going barefoot is great for this, but may not be an option for all of us when out and about. And in the home, going barefoot (or shod in just socks) will only confer health benefits if we’re actually on our feet! So… How much time do you spend on your feet at home?

    Allow your feet to move like feet

    By evolution, the human body is built for movement—especially walking and running. That came with moving away from hanging around in trees for fruit, to hunting and gathering between different areas of the savannah. Today, our hunting and gathering may be done at the local grocery store, but we still need to keep our mobility, especially when it comes to our feet.

    Now comes the flat footwear you don’t want: flip-flops and similar

    If we wear flip-flops, or other slippers or shoes that hold onto our feet only at the front, we’re no longer walking like we’re supposed to. Instead of being the elegant product of so much evolution, we’re now walking like those AT-AT walkers in Star Wars, you know, the ones that fell over so easily?

    Our feet need to be able to tilt naturally while walking/running, without our footwear coming off.

    Golden rule for this: if you can’t run in them, you shouldn’t be walking in them

    Exception: if for example you need something on your feet for a minute or two in the shower at the gym/pool, flip-flops are fine. But anything more than that, and you want something better.

    Watch your step

    There’s a lot here that’s beyond the scope of what we can include in this short newsletter, but:

    If we stand or walk or run incorrectly, we’re doing gradual continual damage to our feet and ankles (potentially also our knees and hips, which problems in turn have a knock-on effect for our spine, and you get the idea—this is Bad™)

    Some general pointers for keeping things in good order include:

    • Your weight should be mostly on the balls of your feet, not your heels
    • Your feet should be pretty much parallel, not turned out or in
    • When standing, your center of gravity should be balanced between heel and forefoot

    Quick tip for accomplishing this last one: Stand comfortably, your feet parallel, shoulder-width apart. Now, go up on your tip-toes. When you’ve done so, note where your spine is, and keep it there (apart from in its up-down axis) when you slowly go back to having your feet flat on the ground, so it’s as though your spine is sliding down a pole that’s fixed in place.

    If you do this right, your center of gravity will now be perfectly aligned with where it’s supposed to be. It might feel a bit weird at first, but you’ll get used to it, and can always reset it whenever you want/need, by repeating the exercise.

    If you’d like to know more from Dr. Starrett, you can check out his website here 🙂

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  • The Science Of New Year’s Pre-Resolutions

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    The Science Of New Year’s Pre-Resolutions

    There’s a military dictum that “prior preparation and planning prevents p[retty] poor performance”, to paraphrase it very slightly.

    Would it surprise you to know that soldiers going on the attack are not focused on the goal? Rather, they are focused on the process.

    With drills and mnemonics, everything that can be controlled for in advance is; every action, every reaction, everything that can go wrong, and all the “if x then y” decisions in between pre-battle PREWAR and PAWPERSO and post-battle PACESDO (all mnemonic acronyms; the content is not important here but the principle is).

    In short: take Murphy’s Law into account now, and plan accordingly!

    The same goes for making your plans the winning kind

    If you want your resolutions to work, you may need to make pre-resolutions now, so that you’re properly prepared:

    • Do you want to make an exercise habit? Make sure now that you have the right clothes/shoes/etc, make sure that they fit you correctly, make sure you have enough of them that you can exercise when one set’s in the wash, etc.
      • What grace will you allow yourself if tired, unwell, busy? What’s your back-up plan so that you still do what you can at those times when “what you can” is legitimately a bit less?
      • If it’s an outdoors plan, what’s your plan for when it’s rainy? Snowy? Dangerously hot?
      • What are the parameters for what counts? Make it measurable. How many exercise sessions per week, what duration?
    • Do you want to make a diet habit? Make sure that you have in the healthy foods that you want to eat; know where you can and will get things. We’re often creatures of habit when it comes to shopping, so planning will be critical here!
    • Do you want to cut some food/drink/substance out? Make sure you have a plan to run down or otherwise dispose of your current stock first. And make sure you have alternatives set up, and if it was something you were leaning on as a coping strategy of some kind (e.g. alcohol, cannabis, comfort-eating, etc), make sure you have an alternative coping strategy, too!

    See also: How To Reduce Or Quit Alcohol

    We promised science, so here it comes

    Approach-oriented resolutions work better than avoidance-oriented ones.

    This means: positively-framed resolutions work better than negatively-framed ones.

    On a simple level, this means that, for example, resolving to exercise three times per week is going to work better than resolving to not consume alcohol.

    But what if you really want to quit something? Just frame it positively. There’s a reason that Alcoholics Anonymous (and similar Thing Anonymous groups) measure days sober, not relapses.

    So it’s not “I will not consume alcohol” but “I will get through each day alcohol-free”.

    Semantics? Maybe, but it’s also science:

    A large-scale experiment on New Year’s resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals

    Why January the 1st? It’s a fresh start

    Resolutions started on the 1st of January enjoy a psychological boost of a feeling of a fresh start, a new page, a new chapter.

    Similar benefits can be found from starting on the 1st of a month in general, or on a Monday, or on some date that is auspicious to the person in question (religious fasts tied to calendar dates are a fine example of this).

    Again, this is borne-out by science:

    The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior

    Make it a habit

    Here be science:

    How do people adhere to goals when willpower is low? The profits (and pitfalls) of strong habits

    As for how to do that?

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

    Trim the middle

    No, we’re not talking about your waistline. Rather, what Dr. Ayelet Fischbach refers to as “the middle problem”:

    ❝We’re highly motivated at the beginning. Over time, our motivation declines as we lose steam. To the extent that our goal has a clear end point, our motivation picks up again toward the end.

    Therefore, people are more likely to adhere to their standards at the beginning and end of goal pursuit—and slack in the middle. We demonstrate this pattern of judgment and behavior in adherence to ethical standards (e.g., cheating), religious traditions (e.g., skipping religious rituals), and performance standards (e.g., “cutting corners” on a task).

    We also show that the motivation to adhere to standards by using proper means is independent and follows a different pattern from the motivation to reach the end state of goal pursuit❞

    Read: The end justifies the means, but only in the middle

    How to fix this, then?

    Give yourself consistent, recurring, short-term goals, with frequent review points. That way, it’s never “the middle” for long:

    The fresh start effect: temporal landmarks motivate aspirational behavior

    See also:

    How do people protect their long-term goals from the influence of short-term motives or temptations?

    Finally…

    You might like this previous main feature of ours that was specifically about getting oneself through those “middle” parts:

    How To Keep On Keeping On… Long Term!

    Enjoy!

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  • Exercises for Sciatica Pain Relief

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    Jessica Valant is a physiotherapist and Pilates teacher, and today she’s going to demonstrate some exercise that relieve (and also correct the cause of) sciatica pain.

    Back to good health

    You will need a large strap for one of these exercises; a Pilates strap is great, but you can also use a towel. The exercises are:

    Pelvic Rocking Exercise:

    • Lie on your back, feet flat, knees bent.
    • Gently rock your pelvis forwards and backwards (50% effort, no glute squeezing).

    Leg Stretch with Strap:

    • Straighten your left leg and loop the strap around the ball of your right foot.
    • Gently straighten and bend your right leg while holding the strap.
    • Perform a “nerve glide” by flexing and pointing your foot (not a stretch, just gentle movement).
    • Repeat on the left leg.

    Piriformis Stretch:

    • Bend your right knee and place your left ankle over it (figure-four position).
    • For a deeper stretch, hold your right thigh and pull your legs inwards.

    Lower Back Release:

    • Let your legs fall gently to one side after stretching each leg, opening the lower back.

    Back Extension:

    • Lie on your belly, placing your elbows down, palms flat.
    • Optional: push up slightly into a back bend if it feels comfortable.

    Seated Stretching:

    • Finish by sitting cross-legged or on a chair.
    • Inhale while raising your arms up, exhale while lowering them down, then reach sideways with your arms to stretch.
    • Perform gentle neck stretches by tilting your ear to your shoulder on each side.

    She recommends doing these exercises daily for at least a few weeks, though you should start to see improvement in your symptoms immediately. Nothing here should cause a problem or make things worse, but if it does, stop immediately and consult a local physiotherapist for more personalized advice.

    For more on all of 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:

    6 Ways To Look After Your Back

    Take care!

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  • Vibration Plate, Review After 6 Months: Is It Worth It?

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    Is it push-button exercise, or an expensive fad, or something else entirely? Robin, from “The Science of Self-Care”, has insights:

    Science & Experience

    According to the science (studies cited in the video and linked-to in the video description, underneath it on YouTube), vibration therapy does have some clear benefits, namely:

    • Bone health (helps with bone density, particularly beneficial for postmenopausal women)
    • Muscle recovery (reduces lactate levels, aiding faster recovery)
    • Joint health (reduces pain and improves function in osteoarthritis patients)
    • Muscle stimulation (helps older adults maintain muscle mass)
    • Cognitive function (due to increased blood flow to the brain)

    And from her personal experience, the benefits included:

    • Improved recovery after exercise, reducing muscle soreness and stiffness
    • Reduced back pain and improved posture (not surprising, given the need for stabilizing muscles when using one of these)
    • Better circulation and (likely resulting from same) skin clarity

    She did not, however, notice:

    • Any reduction in cellulite
    • Any change in body composition (fat loss or muscle gain)

    For a deeper look into these things and more, plus a demonstration of how the machine actually operates, enjoy:

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

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Take care!

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  • Why You Can’t Skimp On Amino Acids

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    Our body requires 20 amino acids (the building blocks of protein), 9 of which it can’t synthesize (thus called: “essential”) and absolutely must get from food. Normally, we get these amino acids from protein in our diet, and we can also supplement them by taking amino acid supplements if we wish.

    Specifically, we require (per kg of bodyweight) a daily average of:

    1. Histidine: 10 mg
    2. Isoleucine: 20 mg
    3. Leucine: 39 mg
    4. Lysine: 30 mg
    5. Methionine: 10.4 mg
    6. Phenylalanine*: 25 mg
    7. Threonine: 15 mg
    8. Tryptophan: 4 mg
    9. Valine: 26 mg

    *combined with the non-essential amino acid tyrosine

    Source: Protein and Amino Acid Requirements In Human Nutrition: WHO Technical Report

    Why this matters

    A lot of attention is given to protein, and making sure we get enough of it, especially as we get older, because the risk of sarcopenia (muscle mass loss) increases with age:

    Protein vs Sarcopenia

    However, not every protein comes with a complete set of essential amino acids, and/or have only trace amounts of of some amino acids, meaning that a dietary deficiency can arrive if one’s diet is too restrictive.

    And, if we become deficient in even just one amino acid, then bad things start to happen quite soon. We only have so much space, so we’re going to oversimplify here, but:

    1. Histidine: is needed to produce histamine (vital for immune responses, amongst other things), and is also important for maintaining the myelin sheaths on nerve cells.
    2. Isoleucine: is very involved in muscle metabolism and makes up the bulk of muscle tissue.
    3. Leucine: is critical for muscle synthesis and repair, as well as wound healing in general, and blood sugar regulation.
    4. Lysine: is also critical in muscle synthesis, as well as calcium absorption and hormone production, as well as making collagen.
    5. Methionine: is very important for energy metabolism, zinc absorption, and detoxification.
    6. Phenylalanine: is a necessary building block of a lot of neurotransmitters, as well as being a building block of some amino acids not listed here (i.e., the ones your body synthesizes, but can’t without phenylalanine).
    7. Threonine: is mostly about collagen and elastin production, and is also very important for your joints, as well as fat metabolism.
    8. Tryptophan: is the body’s primary precursor to serotonin, so good luck making the latter without the former.
    9. Valine: is mostly about muscle growth and regeneration.

    So there you see, the ill effects of deficiency can range from “muscle atrophy” to “brain stops working” and “bones fall apart” and more. In short, any essential amino acid deficiency not remedied will ultimately result in death; we literally become non-viable as organisms without these 9 things.

    What to do about it (the “life hack” part)

    Firstly, if you eat a lot of animal products, those are “complete” proteins, meaning that they contain all 9 essential amino acids in sensible quantities. The reason that all animal products have these, is because they are just as essential for the other animals as they are for us, so they, just like us, must consume (and thus contain) them.

    However, a lot of animal products come with other health risks:

    Do We Need Animal Products To Be Healthy? ← this covers which animal products are definitely very health-risky, and which are probably fine according to current best science

    …so many people may prefer to get more (or possibly all) dietary protein from plants.

    However, plants, unlike us, do not need to consume all 9 essential amino acids, and this may or may not contain them all.

    Soy is famously a “complete” protein insofar as it has all the amino acids we need.

    But what if you’re allergic to soy?

    Good news! Peas are also a “complete” protein and will do the job just fine. They’re also usually cheaper.

    Final note

    An oft-forgotten thing is that some other amino acids are “conditionally essential”, meaning that while we can technically synthesize them, sometimes we can’t synthesize enough and must get them from our diet.

    The conditions that trigger this “conditionally essential” status are usually such things as fighting a serious illness, recovering from a serious injury, or pregnancy—basically, things where your body has to work at 110% efficiency if it wants to get through it in one piece, and that extra 10% has to come from somewhere outside the body.

    Examples of commonly conditionally essential amino acids are arginine and glycine.

    Arginine is critical for a lot of cell-signalling processes as well as mitochondrial function, as well as being a precursor to other amino acids, including creatine.

    As for glycine?

    Check out: The Sweet Truth About Glycine

    Enjoy!

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