The Health Fix – by Dr. Ayan Panja

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The book is divided into three main sections:

  • The foundations
  • The aspirations
  • The fixes

The foundations are an overview of the things you’re going to need to know, about biology, behaviors, and being human.

The aspirations are research-generated common hopes, desires, dreams and goals of patients who have come to Dr. Panja for help.

The fixes are exactly what you’d hope them to be. They’re strategies, tools, hacks, tips, tricks, to get you from where you are now to where you want to be, health-wise.

The book is well-structured, with deep-dives, summaries, and practical advice of how to make sure everything you’re doing works together as part of the big picture that you’re building for your health.

All in all, a fantastic catch-all book, whatever your health goals.

Get your copy of “The Health Fix” on Amazon today!

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    Mila Magnani shares her holistic method for managing PCOS and hypothyroidism – lab tests, natural remedies, and mindful lifestyle changes for hormonal balance.

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  • When the Body Says No – by Dr. Gabor Maté

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    We know that chronic stress is bad for us because of what it does to our cortisol levels, so what is the rest of this book about?

    Dr. Gabor Maté is a medical doctor, heavily specialized in the impact of psychological trauma on long term physical health.

    Here, he examies—as the subtitle promises—the connection between stress and disease. As it turns out, it’s not that simple.

    We learn not just about the impact that stress has on our immune system (including increasing the risk of autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis), the cardiovascular system, and various other critical systems fo the body… But also:

    • how environmental factors and destructive coping styles contribute to the onset of disease, and
    • how traumatic events can warp people’s physical perception of pain
    • how certain illnesses are associated with particular personality types.

    This latter is not “astrology for doctors”, by the way. It has more to do with what coping strategies people are likely to employ, and thus what diseases become more likely to take hold.

    The book has practical advice too, and it’s not just “reduce your stress”. Ideally, of course, indeed reduce your stress. But that’s a) obvious b) not always possible. Rather, Dr. Maté explains which coping strategies result in the least prevalence of disease.

    In terms of writing style, the book is very much easy-reading, but be warned that (ironically) this isn’t exactly a feel-good book. There are lot of tragic stories in it. But, even those are very much well-worth reading.

    Bottom line: if you (and/or a loved one) are suffering from stress, this book will give you the knowledge and understanding to minimize the harm that it will otherwise do.

    Click here to check out When The Body Says No, and take good care of yourself; you’re important!

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  • Saffron For The Brain (& More)

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    Saffron For The Brain (& More)

    In yesterday’s edition of 10almonds, one of the items in the “health news from around the world” section was:

    Clinical trial finds herbal medicine Sailuotong effective for brain health in older people

    But, what is it?

    ❝SaiLuoTong (SLT) is a modern compound Chinese herbal medicine preparation in capsule form containing standardized extracts of Panax ginseng, Ginkgo biloba, and Crocus sativus L❞

    Source: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group 12-week pilot phase II trial of SaiLuoTong (SLT) for cognitive function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment

    We’ve written previously about ginseng and ginkgo biloba:

    So, what’s this about Crocus sativus L.?

    That is the plant better known as saffron. And, for all its wide availability (your local supermarket probably has at least a tiny amount in the spice section), there’s a reason we don’t see much of it:

    ❝Saffron blooms only once a year and should be collected within a very short duration. It is picked during 3–4 weeks in October-November. The method for the cultivation of saffron contributes greatly to its high price. According to some reports, this species is a sterile triploid and so does not produce fertile seeds. Germination can take 1–6 months at 18°C. It takes 3 years for plants to flower from seed.❞

    Source: Crocus sativus L.: A comprehensive review

    That’s fascinating, but what does it do for us?

    Well, in the words of El Midaoui et al. (2022):

    ❝In the frame of a double-blind-placebo-controlled study, 30 mg per day supplementation with saffron for 16 weeks resulted in improved cognitive function in patients suffering from mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

    Moreover, the follow-up of this study in which the authors evaluated the effects of saffron (30 mg/day) for 22 weeks showed that saffron was as effective as donepezil in the treatment of mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease❞

    Read the full review: Saffron (Crocus sativus L.): A Source of Nutrients for Health and for the Treatment of Neuropsychiatric and Age-Related Diseases

    Not just that, but it also has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties beyond the brain (though the brain is where research has been most focused, due to its neuroprotective effects).

    See: Antioxidant Properties of Crocus Sativus L. and Its Constituents and Relevance to Neurodegenerative Diseases; Focus on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease

    (this, too, is a full research review in its own right; we’re getting a lot of “bang for buck” on papers today)

    And more?

    Yes, and more. Lots more. To bullet-pointify even just the abstract from another research review:

    • Saffron has been suggested to be effective in the treatment of a wide range of disorders including coronary artery diseases, hypertension, stomach disorders, dysmenorrhea and learning and memory impairments.
    • In addition, different studies have indicated that saffron has anti-inflammatory, anti-atherosclerotic, antigenotoxic and cytotoxic activities. (This is all good; the cytotoxic activities are about killing cancer cells)
    • Antitussive effects of stigmas and petals of C. sativus and its components, safranal and crocin have also been demonstrated.
    • The anticonvulsant and anti-Alzheimer properties of saffron extract were shown in human and animal studies.
    • The efficacy of C. sativus in the treatment of mild to moderate depression was also reported in clinical trial.
    • Administration of C. sativus and its constituents increased glutamate and dopamine levels in the brain in a dose-dependent manner.
    • It also interacts with the opioid system to reduce withdrawal syndrome.
    • C. sativus and its components can be considered as promising agents in the treatment of nervous system disorders.

    For more details on any of those items, see:

    The effects of Crocus sativus (saffron) and its constituents on nervous system: a review

    Is it safe?

    The effective dose is 30mg/kg and the LD50 is more than 20g/kg, so yes, it’s very safe. Given the price of it, this also means that if you’re the size of this writer (a little over 70kg, or a little over 150lbs) to poison yourself effectively you’d need to consume about 1.4kg of saffron at a time, which would cost well over $6,000.

    Where can I get it?

    Your local supermarket probably has a tiny amount in the spice section, or you can get better prices buying it in “bulk” online. Here’s an example product on Amazon, for your convenience

    Enjoy!

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  • The Little-Known Truth…

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    Myth-Buster, Myth-Buster, Bust Us A Myth (or three!)

    Let’s can this myth for good

    People think of “canned foods” as meaning “processed foods” and therefore bad. But the reality is it’s all dependent on what’s in the can (check the ingredients!). And as for nutrients?

    Many canned fruits and vegetables contain more nutrients than fresh ones! This is because the way they’ve been stored preserves them better. For example:

    • Canned tomatoes contain more bioavailable lycopene than fresh
    • Canned spinach contains more bioavailable carotene than fresh
    • Canned corn contains more bioavailable lutein than fresh
    • The list goes on, but you get the idea!

    Don’t Want To Take Our Word For It? Read The Scientific Paper Here!

    Gaslight, Gymkeep, Girl-loss?

    Many women and girls avoid doing weight-training as part of their exercise—or use only the smallest weights—to avoid “bulking up” and “looking like a man”.

    Many men, meanwhile, wish it were that easy to bulk up!

    The reality is that nobody, unless you have very rare genes, packs on a lot of muscle by accident. Even with the genes for it, it won’t happen unless you’re also eating for it!

    Resistance-based strength training (such as lifting weights), is a great way for most people to look after an important part of their long-term health: bone density!

    You can’t have strong muscles on weak bones, so strengthening the muscles cues the body to strengthen the bones. In short, your strength-training at age 45 or 55 (or earlier) could be what helps you avoid a broken hip at 65 or 75.

    We’re Not Kidding, It Really Is That Important (Read The Study Here)!

    Something doesn’t smell right about this

    There’s been a big backlash against anti-perspirants and deodorants. The popular argument is that the aluminium in them causes cancer.

    This led to many people buying “deodo-rocks”, crystal rocks that can be run under water and then rubbed on the armpits to deodorize “naturally”. But, those crystal rocks are actually alum crystals (guess what they contain…).

    The belief that deodorants cause cancer came from studies done by applying deodorant to cells (like the canine kidney cells in this study) in petri dishes. So, assuming you don’t cut out your kidney and then spray it directly with the deodorant, the jury is still out!

    A more recent systematic review sorted out quite clearly the ways in which aluminium was, or was not, harmful, and said:

    ❝Neither is there clear evidence to show use of Al-containing underarm antiperspirants or cosmetics increases the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease or breast cancer. Metallic Al, its oxides, and common Al salts have not been shown to be either genotoxic or carcinogenic.❞

    Critical Reviews in Toxicology

    …but also says that you should avoid eating aluminium while pregnant or breastfeeding. We hope you can resist the urge.

    See The Summary For Yourself Here!

    (actually the whole article is there, but we know you value condensed knowledge, so: the abstract at the top will probably tell you all you want to know!)

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Related Posts

  • Science of Yoga – by Ann Swanson
  • Passion Fruit vs Persimmon – Which is Healthier?

    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.

    Our Verdict

    When comparing passion fruit to persimmon, we picked the passion fruit.

    Why?

    You may be wondering: “what is this fruit passionate about?” and the answer is: delivering nutrients of many kinds!

    Looking at the macros first, passion fruit has a little more protein and a lot more fiber, while persimmon has more carbs. This means that while persimmon’s glycemic index isn’t bad, passion fruit’s glycemic index is a lot lower.

    In terms of vitamins, passion fruit has a lot more of vitamins A, B2, B3, B6, B9, E, K, and choline, while persimmon has more vitamin C. For the record passion fruit is also a good source of vitamin C, with a cup of passion fruit already giving a day’s daily dose of vitamin C, but persimmon gives twice that. Still, that’s a 8:1 win for passion fruit.

    When it comes to minerals, passion fruit has more copper, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while persimmon has more calcium and iron, meaning a 6:2 win for passion fruit.

    Adding up the three convincing individual victories shows a clear overall win for passion fruit.

    Enjoy (passionately, even)!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Take care!

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  • What Nobody Teaches You About Strengthening Your Knees

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    Strengthening unhappy knees can seem difficult, because many obvious exercises like squats may hurt, and can feel like they are doing harm (and if your knees are bad enough, maybe they are; it depends on many factors). Here’s a way to improve things:

    The muscle nobody talks about

    Well, not nobody. But, it’s a muscle that’s rarely talked about; namely, the tibialis anterior.

    It plays a key role in decelerating knee motion—in other words, the movement that hurts if you have bad knees. It’s essential for absorbing shock during activities like walking, climbing stairs, and stepping off curbs

    So, of course, strengthening this muscle supports knee health.

    The exercise this video recommends for strengthening it involves leaning against a wall with feet about a foot away (closer feet make it easier, further makes it harder). Note, this is a lean, not a “Roman chair”.

    The exercise involves squeezing the quadriceps, lifting toes toward the nose, and engaging the tibialis anterior muscle. If you’re wondering what to do with your hands, they can be held out with palms open to work on posture, or hanging by the sides. Do this for about 1½–2 minutes.

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

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

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    When Bad Joints Stop You From Exercising (5 Things To Change)

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

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  • The Brain As A Work-In-Progress

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    And The Brain Goes Marching On!

    In Tuesday’s newsletter, we asked you “when does the human brain stop developing?” and got the above-depicted, below-described, set of responses:

    • About 64% of people said “Never”
    • About 16% of people said “25 years”
    • About 9% of people said “65 years”
    • About 5% of people said “13 years”
    • About 3% of people said “18 years”
    • About 3% of people said “45 years”

    Some thoughts, before we get into the science:

    An alternative wording for the original question was “when does the human brain finish developing”; the meaning is the same but the feeling is slightly different:

    • “When does the human brain stop developing?” focuses attention on the idea of cessation, and will skew responses to later ages
    • When does the human brain finish developing?” focuses on attention on a kind of “is it done yet?” and will skew responses to earlier ages

    Ultimately, since we had to chose one word or another, we picked the shortest one, but it would have been interesting if we could have done an A/B test, and asked half one way, and half the other way!

    Why we picked those ages

    We picked those ages as poll options for reasons people might be drawn to them:

    • 13 years: in English-speaking cultures, an important milestone of entering adolescence (note that the concept of a “teenager” is not precisely universal as most languages do not have “-teen” numbers in the same way; the concept of “adolescent” may thus be tied to other milestones)
    • 18 years: age of legal majority in N. America and many other places
    • 25 years: age popularly believed to be when the brain is finished developing, due to a study that we’ll talk about shortly (we guess that’s why there’s a spike in our results for this, too!)
    • 45 years: age where many midlife hormonal changes occur, and many professionals are considered to have peaked in competence and start looking towards retirement
    • 65 years: age considered “senior” in much of N. America and many other places, as well as the cut-off and/or starting point for a lot of medical research

    Notice, therefore, how a lot of things are coming from places they really shouldn’t. For example, because there are many studies saying “n% of people over 65 get Alzheimer’s” or “n% of people over 65 get age-related cognitive decline”, etc, 65 becomes the age where we start expecting this—because of an arbitrary human choice of where to draw the cut-off for the study enrollment!

    Similarly, we may look at common ages of legal majority, or retirement pensions, and assume “well it must be for a good reason”, and dear reader, those reasons are more often economically motivated than they are biologically reasoned.

    So, what does the science say?

    Our brains are never finished developing: True or False?

    True! If we define “finished developing” as “we cease doing neurogenesis and neuroplasticity is no longer in effect”.

    Glossary:

    • Neurogenesis: the process of creating new brain cells
    • Neuroplasticity: the process of the brain adapting to changes by essentially rebuilding itself to suit our perceived current needs

    We say “perceived” because sometimes neuroplasticity can do very unhelpful things to us (e.g: psychological trauma, or even just bad habits), but on a biological level, it is always doing its best to serve our overall success as an organism.

    For a long time it was thought that we don’t do neurogenesis at all as adults, but this was found to be untrue:

    How To Grow New Brain Cells (At Any Age)

    Summary of conclusions of the above: we’re all growing new brain cells at every age, even if we be in our 80s and with Alzheimer’s disease, but there are things we can do to enhance our neurogenic potential along the way.

    Neuroplasticity will always be somewhat enhanced by neurogenesis (after all, new neurons get given jobs to do), and we reviewed a great book about the marvels of neuroplasticity including in older age:

    The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity – by Dr. Norman Doidge

    Our brains are still developing up to the age of 25: True or False?

    True! And then it keeps on developing after that, too. Now this is abundantly obvious considering what we just talked about, but see what a difference the phrasing makes? Now it makes it sound like it stops at 25, which this statement doesn’t claim at all—it only speaks for the time up to that age.

    A lot of the popular press about “the brain isn’t fully mature until the age of 25” stems from a 2006 study that found:

    ❝For instance, frontal gray matter volume peaks at about age 11.0 years in girls and 12.1 years in boys, whereas temporal gray matter volume peaks at about age at 16.7 years in girls and 16.2 years in boys. The dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, important for controlling impulses, is among the latest brain regions to mature without reaching adult dimensions until the early 20s.❞

    ~ Dr. Jay Giedd

    Source: Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Adolescent Brain

    There are several things to note here:

    • The above statement is talking about the physical size of the brain growing
    • Nowhere does he say “and stops developing at 25”

    However… The study only looked at brains up to the age of 25. After that, they stopped looking, because the study was about “the adolescent brain” so there has to be a cut-off somewhere, and that was the cut-off they chose.

    This is the equivalent of saying “it didn’t stop raining until four o’clock” when the reality is that four o’clock is simply when you gave up on checking.

    The study didn’t misrepresent this, by the way, but the popular press did!

    Another 2012 study looked at various metrics of brain development, and found:

    • Synapse overproduction into the teens
    • Cortex pruning into the late 20s
    • Prefrontal pruning into middle age at least (they stopped looking)
    • Myelination beyond middle age (they stopped looking)

    Source: Experience and the developing prefrontal cortexcheck out figure 1, and make sure you’re looking at the human data not the rat data

    So how’s the most recent research looking?

    Here’s a 2022 study that looked at 123,984 brain scans spanning the age range from mid-gestation to 100 postnatal years, and as you can see from its own figure 1… Most (if not all) brain-things keep growing for life, even though most slow down at some point, they don’t stop:

    Brain charts for the human lifespancheck out figure 1; don’t get too excited about the ventricular volume column as that is basically “brain that isn’t being a brain”. Do get excited about the rest, though!

    Want to know how not to get caught out by science being misrepresented by the popular press? Check out:

    How Science News Outlets Can Lie To You (Yes, Even If They Cite Studies!)

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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