Three Ways To Reduce Your Cancer Risk
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From this week’s health news, we have:
Skip the meat, skip the cancer
Researchers (Dr. Fayth Butler et al.) followed the health of 79,468 participants (all initially free of cancer) for an average of just under 8 years (as with most longitudinal studies, the period of time will not be uniform as some people die or otherwise drop out of the study).
They found at baseline, that of those nearly 80,000 people, vegetarians were generally older, more educated, breastfed longer (where applicable), and had lower BMI than non-vegetarians.
As the study progressed, they found that all vegetarian diets combined were linked to reduced total cancer risk (12% lower) and reduced medium-frequency cancer risk (18% lower), and in particular, lower risk of lymphoproliferative cancers (25% lower) and stomach cancer (45% lower).
Breaking things down by non-omnivorous groups of interest:
- pescatarians: lower risk of colorectal cancer (21% lower) and breast cancer in older women than omnivores
- lacto-ovo-vegetarians: lower risk of lymphoproliferative cancers and stomach cancer than omnivores
- vegans: lowest risk of breast and prostate cancers
In short, all of the above are improvements on an omnivorous diet.
Read in full: Study finds vegetarians less likely to develop several common and rare cancers
Related: The Whys and Hows of Cutting Meats Out Of Your Diet
Another reason to avoid respiratory viruses
Common respiratory infections, including COVID and flu, can awaken dormant disseminated cancer cells in the lungs, and breast cancer survivors testing positive for COVID have higher all-cause, non-COVID, and cancer mortality.
In particular, in the study we’re referencing here, women with breast cancer who later had COVID showed a consistent trend toward increased lung metastasis risk (i.e. it spreads, which is what makes it most dangerous and most likely to be deadly).
The greatest risk is in the first 6 months after infection:
Read in full: Respiratory viruses awaken dormant breast cancer cells and raise relapse risk
Related: Why Some People Get Sick More (And How To Not Be One Of Them)
Almonds to the rescue
We love almonds, and so it seems do researchers (Dr. Samira Movahed et al.), who found that enjoying more than 60 g/day of almonds significantly reduced lipid damage and DNA damage markers, fighting aging and making cells less likely to turn cancerous.
Notably, raw almonds were found to be best for this, as roasting reduces polyphenols and blanching removes most of them. For that matter, the almond fiber (so, mostly in the skins that blanching would remove) also supports beneficial bacteria that help lower systemic oxidative stress, compounding the benefits.
There was also a small but significant decrease in uric acid levels (that’s a good thing to decrease), which the researchers hypothesize was due to reduced xanthine oxidase activity.
The benefits were dose-dependent, and enjoying under 60g per day showed smaller (or no) associations. 60g is just over 2 oz, by the way!
Read in full: Eating over 60g of almonds a day may protect DNA and cut oxidative damage
Related: What 47 Almonds Can Do For your Gut, Heart, Skin, & more
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The Modern Art and Science of Mobility – by Aurélien Broussal-Derval
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We’ve reviewed mobility books before, so what makes this one stand out?
We’ll be honest: the illustrations are lovely.
The science, the information, the exercises, the routines, the programs… All these things are excellent too, but these can be found in many a book.
What can’t usually be found is very beautiful (yet no less clear) watercolor paintings and charcoal sketches as anatomical illustrations.
There are photos too (also of high quality), but the artistry of the paintings and sketches is what makes the reader want to spend time perusing the books.
At least, that’s what this reviewer found! Because it’s all very well having access to a lot of information (and indeed, I read so much), but making it enjoyable increases the chances of rereading it much more often.
As for the rest of the content, the book’s information is divided in categories:
- Pain (what causes it, what it means, and how to manage it)
- Breathing (yes, a whole section devoted to this, and it is aligned heavily to posture also, as well as psychological state and the effect of stress on tension, inflammation, and more)
- Movement (this is mostly about kinds of movement and ranges of movement)
- Mobility (this is about aggregating movements as a fully mobile human)
So, each builds on from the previous because any pain needs addressing before anything else, breathing (and with it, posture) comes next, then we learn about movement, then we bring it all together for mobility.
Bottom line: this is a beautiful and comprehensive book that will make learning a joy
Click here to check out The Modern Art and Science of Mobility, and learn and thrive!
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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!
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Undo Years Of Knee Damage, Quickly & Easily
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Wear and tear of the knee joint is something that it’s possible to reverse, albeit usually quite slowly.
Fortunately, most knee pain isn’t actually because of wear and tear, and is rather a matter of other factors that are much more quickly and easily fixable, as over-50s specialist physio Will Harlow explains:
A multivector approach
Contrary to popular belief, wear and tear inside the joint only explains 30–40% of symptoms. Much more common factors are muscle tightness, weakness, and joint stiffness around the knee—all of which can be improved with exercise.
As such, he recommends:
- Calf stretch: stand facing a wall/door, put one leg behind with your heel on the floor, keep your back leg straight, and bend your front knee until you can feel the stretch in your calf. Hold 30 seconds each side, repeat multiple times daily (little and often is best). This improves knee extension, and reduces pressure on the knee joint.
- Straight leg raise: lie on your back, with one leg bent for support, and the other leg straight. Pull your toes up, flatten your leg into the floor/bed, and lift your straight leg until it’s parallel with the opposite thigh, then lower it slowly back down. Add a resistance band around your ankles if 30+ reps are easy. This strengthens your quadriceps, without squatting (useful, as squats are often difficult if you have knee problems, creating a catch-22 of needing to strengthen things enough to do them, without being able to comfortably do them, so this exercise gets you through that stage nicely).
- Wall glute lift: stand facing a wall with your weight on one leg. Then, lift your opposite leg out to the side and slightly back, without leaning. You should feel the contraction in your upper glutes; hold for 30 seconds per side, a few times daily. Again, you can add a resistance band around your ankles if it’s too easy. This strengthens the glutes (critical for many things, including the health of your knees and back), improves leg alignment, and reduces any tendency to inwards knee collapse.
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:
How To Rebuild Your Cartilage ← a trickier, but also perfectly possible, endeavor
Take care!
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Healthy sex drive In Our Fifties
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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
Q: What’s a healthy sex drive for someone in their 50s?
A: If you’re happy with it, it’s healthy! If you’re not, it’s not.
This means… If you’re not (happy) and thus it’s not (healthy), you have two main options:
- Find a way to be happier without changing it (i.e., change your perspective)
- Find a way to change your sex drive (presumably: “increase it”, but we don’t like to assume)
There are hormonal and pharmaceutical remedies that may help (whatever your sex), so do speak with your doctor/pharmacist.
Additionally, if a boost to sex drive is what’s wanted, then almost anything that is good for your heart will help.
We wrote about heart health yesterday:
What Matters Most For Your Heart?
That was specifically about dietary considerations, so you might also want to check out:
Take care!
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How To Unfatty A Fatty Liver
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How To Unfatty A Fatty Liver
In Greek mythology, Prometheus suffered the punishment of being chained to a rock, where he would have his liver eaten by an eagle, whereupon each day his liver would grow back, only to be eaten again the next day.
We mere humans who are not Greek gods might not be able to endure quite such punishment to our liver, but it is an incredibly resilient and self-regenerative organ.
In fact, provided at least 51% of the liver is still present and correct, the other 49% will regrow. Similarly, damage done (such as by trying to store too much fat there due to metabolic problems, as in alcoholic or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) will reverse itself in time, given the chance.
The difference between us and Prometheus
In the myth, Prometheus had his liver regrow overnight every night. But he was a Titan (one of the pre-Olympian gods), and we are not.
In other words: ours don’t recover quite so quickly.
Indeed, the science has good and bad news for us:
❝Liver recolonization models have demonstrated that hepatocytes have an unlimited regenerative capacity. However, in normal liver, cell turnover is very slow.❞
~ Michalopoulos and Bhusan (2020)
Read more: Liver regeneration: biological and pathological mechanisms and implications
If it regenerates, why do people need transplants, and/or die of liver disease?
There are some diseases of the liver that inhibit its regenerative abilities, or (as in the case of cancer) abuse them to our detriment. However, in the case of fatty liver disease, the reason is usually simple:
If the lifestyle factors that caused the liver to become fatty are still there, then its regenerative abilities won’t be able to keep up with the damage that is still being done.
Can we speed it up at all?
Yes! The first and most important thing is to minimize how much ongoing harm you are still doing to it, though.
- If you drink alcohol, stop. According to the WHO, the only amount of alcohol that is safe for you is zero.
- You might like our previous article: How To Reduce Or Quit Alcohol
- Consider your medications, and find out which place a strain on the liver. Many medications are not optional; you’re taking them for an important reason, so don’t quit things without checking with your doctor. Medications that strain the liver include, but are by no means limited to:
- Many painkillers, including acetaminophen/paracetamol (e.g. Tylenol), and ibuprofen
- Some immunosuppressant drugs, including azathioprine
- Some epilepsy drugs, including phenytoin
- Some antibiotics, including amoxicillin
- Statins in general
Note: we are not pharmacists, nor doctors, let alone your doctors.
Check with yours about what is important for you to take, and what alternatives might be safe for you to consider.
Dietary considerations
While there are still things we don’t know about the cause(s) of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, there is a very strong association with a diet that is:
- high in salt
- high in refined carbohydrates
- e.g. white flour and white flour products such as white bread and white pasta; also the other main refined carbohydrate: sugar
- high in red meat
- high in non-fermented dairy
- high in fried foods.
So, consider minimizing those, and instead getting plenty of fiber, and plenty of lean protein (not from red meat, but poultry and fish are fine iff not fried; beans and legumes are top-tier, though).
Also, hydrate. Most people are dehydrated most of the time, and that’s bad for all parts of the body, and the liver is no exception. It can’t regenerate if it’s running on empty!
Read more: Foods To Include (And Avoid) In A Healthy Liver Diet
How long will it take to heal?
In the case of alcoholic fatty liver disease, it should start healing a few days after stopping drinking. Then, how long it takes to fully recover depends on the extent of the damage; it could be weeks or months. In extreme cases, years, but that is rare. Usually if the damage is that severe, a transplant is needed.
In the case of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, again it depends on the extent of the damage, but it is usually a quicker recovery than the alcoholic kind—especially if eating a Mediterranean diet.
Read more: How Long Does It Take For Your Liver To Repair Itself?
Take good care of yourself!
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- If you drink alcohol, stop. According to the WHO, the only amount of alcohol that is safe for you is zero.
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Hold The Banana!
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Bananas are a healthy fruit for most people (there is such a thing as a banana allergy, so we can’t extend it to all people, but certainly most people).
Full of fiber, carbs for energy, vitamins and minerals, and a stack of nutritious phytochemicals.
One thing we will quickly say as a small counterpoint, which isn’t the main point of today’s article but is worth mentioning: the claim of bananas being “a good source of potassium” is true but greatly overstated; they’re not even in the top 10 of fruits for potassium; just, it was mentioned in a popular TV show, referenced in another popular TV show, and then the English-speaking world never let it go.
But that’s just a minor “not quite as good as people make it out to be” thing, rather than an actual negative.
So, what’s the problem with bananas?
It’s about polyphenol oxidase (PPO)
Researchers (Dr. Jodi Ensunsa et al.) found that adding bananas to berry smoothies drastically reduced flavanol absorption, with blood levels dropping by about 84% compared with a flavanol capsule or a low-PPO berry smoothie.
Quick recap on what flavanols are: flavanols are a kind of polyphenolic plant compounds linked to cardiovascular and cognitive health, that are found in foods like blueberries, blackberries, grapes, apples, pears, tea, and cocoa.
See for example: Are You Getting The Right Kinds Of Flavonoids? ← flavanols are a kind of flavonoid
Why bananas had this effect: bananas contain high amounts of polyphenol oxidase (PPO), which (as you might have guessed) mediates the oxidation of polyphenols; it’s the enzyme responsible for the browning of cut fruit, and the researchers believe PPO breaks down flavanols before your body can absorb them.
What the study tested: healthy participants consumed:
- a banana-based smoothie with high PPO activity
- a mixed berry smoothie with low PPO activity
- a flavanol capsule control
What they saw in the results: the berry smoothie produced flavanol absorption similar to the capsule control, while the banana smoothie produced much lower levels of flavanol metabolites in blood samples.
Also! A surprising follow-up finding: even when flavanols and banana were kept separate until consumption, absorption was still reduced, suggesting that PPO continues degrading flavanols in the stomach after ingestion.
You can read the paper in full, here: Impact of polyphenol oxidase on the bioavailability of flavan-3-ols in fruit smoothies: a controlled, single blinded, cross-over study
Quick note before we move on: no, the study doesn’t mean bananas are unhealthy; bananas still provide many wonderful nutrients; it’s just that they don’t pair well with flavanol-rich foods if maximizing flavanol intake is your goal 🙂
Want to learn more?
On a similar topic (it has many important bits of information like the one we discussed today), you might like to check out:
Make Your Vegetables Work Better Nutritionally
As for why you might want to favor getting it from food if you can, then while the title says “vitamins”, this book discusses an assortment of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients; the “other nutrients” category including amino acids (branched chain and essential), prebiotics and probiotics, and triglycerides of various kinds:
Eat Your Vitamins – by Mascha Davis, RDN ← see our review, here
Take care!
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