Unbroken – by Dr. MaryCatherine McDonald

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We’ve reviewed books about trauma before, so what makes this one different? Mostly, it’s the different framing.

Dr. McDonald advocates for a neurobiological understanding of trauma, which really levels the playing field when it comes to different types of trauma that are often treated very differently, when the end result in the brain is more or less the same.

Does this mean she proposes a “one-size fits all” approach? Kind of!

Insofar as she offers a one-size fits all approach that is then personalized by the user, but most of her advices will go for most kinds of trauma in any case. This is particularly useful for any of us who’ve ever hit a wall with therapists when they expect a person to only be carrying one major trauma.

Instead, with Dr. McDonald’s approach, we can take her methods and use them for each one.

After an introduction and overview, each chapter contains a different set of relevant psychological science explored through a case study, and then at the end of the chapter, tools to use and try out.

The style is very light and readable, notwithstanding the weighty subject matter.

Bottom line: if you’ve been trying to deal with (or avoid dealing with) some kind(s) of trauma, this book will doubtlessly contain at least a few new tools for you. It did for this reviewer, who reads a lot!

Click here to check out Unbroken, because it’s never too late to heal!

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  • The No-Nonsense Meditation Book – by Dr. Steven Laureys

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    We’ve reviewed books about meditation before, and when we review books, we try to pick ones that have something that make them stand out from the others. So, what stands out in this case?

    The author is a medical doctor and neurologist, with decades of experience focusing on neuronal plasticity and multimodel neural imaging. So, a little beyond “think happy thoughts”-style woo.

    The style of the book is pop-science in tone, but with a lot of hard clinical science underpinning it and referenced throughout, as one would expect of a scientist of Dr. Laurey’s stature (with hundreds of peer-reviewed papers in top-level journals).

    You may be wondering: is this a “how-to” book or a “why-to” book or a “what-happens” book? It’s all three.

    The “how-to” is also, as the title suggests, no-nonsense. We are talking maximum results for minimum mystery here.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to be able to take up a meditative practice and know exactly what it’s doing to your brain (quietening these parts, stimulating and physically growing those parts, etc) then this is the book for you.

    Click here to check out The No-Nonsense Meditation Book, and re-light the less glowy bits of your brain!

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  • L-Theanine: What’s The Tea?

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    L-Theanine: What’s The Tea?

    We’ve touched previously on l-theanine, when this newsletter was new, and we had only a few hundred subscribers and the carefully organized format wasn’t yet what it is today.

    So now it’s time to give this potent dietary compound / nutritional supplement the “Monday Research Review” treatment…

    What is it?

    L-theanine is an amino acid found in tea. The human body can’t produce it, and/but it’s not essential for humans. It does have a lot of benefits, though. See for example:

    L-Theanine as a Functional Food Additive: Its Role in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

    How does it work?

    L-theanine works by moderating and modulating the brain’s neurotransmitters.

    This sounds fancy, but basically it means: it doesn’t actually add anything in the manner of a drug, but it changes how we use what we have naturally.

    What does it do? Read on…

    It increases mental focus

    It has been believed that l-theanine requires the presence of caffeine to achieve this (i.e., it’s a combination-only effect). For example:

    The combination of L-theanine and caffeine improves cognitive performance and increases subjective alertness

    But as it turns out, when a group of researchers actually checked… This isn’t true, as Foxe et al. write:

    ❝We asked whether either compound alone, or both in combination, would affect performance of the task in terms of reduced error rates over time, and whether changes in alpha-band activity would show a relationship to such changes in performance. When treated with placebo, participants showed a rise in error rates, a pattern that is commonly observed with increasing time-on-task, whereas after caffeine and theanine ingestion, error rates were significantly reduced. The combined treatment did not confer any additional benefits over either compound alone, suggesting that the individual compounds may confer maximal benefits at the dosages employed❞

    See: Assessing the effects of caffeine and theanine on the maintenance of vigilance during a sustained attention task

    It promotes a calmly wakeful feeling of serenity

    Those are not words typically found in biopharmaceutical literature, but they’re useful here to convey:

    • L-theanine promotes relaxation without causing drowsiness
    • L-theanine promotes mental alertness without being a stimulant

    Here is where l-theanine really stands out from caffeine. If both substances promote mental focus, but one of them does it by making us “wired” and the other does it while simultaneously promoting calm, it makes the choice between them clearer!

    Read more: L-theanine, a natural constituent in tea, and its effect on mental state

    It relieves stress and anxiety

    Building on from the above, but there’s more: l-theanine relieves stress and anxiety in people experiencing stressful situations, without any known harmful side effects… This is something that sets it apart from a lot of anxiolytic (antianxiety) drugs!

    Here’s what a big systematic review of clinical trials had to say:

    Theanine consumption, stress and anxiety in human clinical trials: A systematic review

    L-theanine has other benefits too

    We’ve talked about some of the most popular benefits of l-theanine, and we can’t make this newsletter too long, but research also suggests that it…

    If you’re interested in this topic, we recommend also reading our previous article on l-theanine—pardon that we hadn’t really nailed down our style yet—but there’s a bunch of useful information about how l-theanine makes caffeine “better” in terms of benefits. We also talk dosage, and reference some other studies we didn’t have room to include today!

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  • Most People Try The Wrong Way To Unshrimp Their Posture (Here’s How To Do It Better)

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    Many people try to correct posture by pulling the shoulders back and tucking in the chin, but that doesn’t work. Happily, there is a way that does! Kinesiologist Kyle Waugh demonstrates:

    Defying gravity

    The trick is simple, and is about how maintaining good posture needs to be unconscious and natural, not forced. After all, who is maintaining singular focus for 16 waking hours a day?

    Instead, pay attention to how the body relates to gravity without excessive muscle tension, aligning the (oft-forgotten!) hips, and maintaining balance. The importance of hip position is really not to be underestimated, since in many ways the hips are a central axis of the body just as the spine is, and the spine itself sits in the hips.

    A lot of what holds the body in poor posture tends to be localized muscle tensions, so address those with stretches and relaxation exercises.

    For a few quick tests and exercises to try, 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 ← no video on this one, just 6 concepts that you can apply to your daily life

    Take care!

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Related Posts

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  • What Matters Most For Your Heart?

    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.

    Eat More (Of This) For Lower Blood Pressure

    Heart disease remains the world’s #1 killer. We’d say “and in the US, it’s no different”, but in fact, the US is #1 country for heart disease. So, it’s worse and perhaps some extra care is in order.

    But how?

    What matters the most

    Is it salt? Salt plays a part, but it’s not even close to the top problem:

    Hypertension: Factors Far More Relevant Than Salt

    Is it saturated fat? Saturated fat from certain sources plays more of a role than salt, but other sources may not be so much of an issue:

    Can Saturated Fats Be Heart-Healthy?

    Is it red meat? Red meat is not great for the heart (or for almost anything else, except perhaps anemia):

    The Whys and Hows of Cutting Meats Out Of Your Diet

    …but it’s still not the top dietary factor.

    The thing many don’t eat

    All the above are foodstuffs that a person wanting a healthier heart and cardiovascular system in general might (reasonably and usually correctly) want to cut down, but there’s one thing that most people need more of:

    Why You’re Probably Not Getting Enough Fiber (And How To Fix It)

    And this is especially true for heart health:

    ❝Dietary fiber has emerged as a crucial yet underappreciated part of hypertension management.

    Our comprehensive analysis emphasizes the evidence supporting the effectiveness of dietary fiber in lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of cardiovascular events.❞

    ~ Dr. Francine Marques

    Specifically, she and her team found:

    • Each additional 5g of fiber per day reduces blood pressure by 2.8/2.1 (systolic/diastolic, in mmHG)
    • Dietary fiber works in several ways to improve cardiovascular health, including via gut bacteria, improved lipids profiles, and anti-inflammatory effects
    • Most people are still only getting a small fraction (¼ to ⅓) of the recommended daily amount of fiber. To realize how bad that is, imagine if you consumed only ¼ of the recommended daily amount of calories every day!

    You can read more about it here:

    Dietary fiber critical in managing hypertension, international study finds

    That’s a pop-science article, but it’s still very informative. If you prefer to read the scientific paper itself (or perhaps as well), you can find it below

    Recommendations for the Use of Dietary Fiber to Improve Blood Pressure Control

    Want more from your fiber?

    Here’s yet another way fiber improves cardiometabolic health, hot off the academic press (the study was published just a couple of weeks ago):

    How might fiber lower diabetes risk? Your gut could hold the clues

    this pop-science article was based on this scientific paper

    Gut Microbiota and Blood Metabolites Related to Fiber Intake and Type 2 Diabetes

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

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  • Strong At Every Age: 15 Habits To Level Up Your Health & Fitness

    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.

    Not every increase in health and fitness needs to look like a training montage from the “Rocky” movies!

    Making progress every day

    We’ll not keep the 15 habits a secret; they are:

    1. Follow the one-minute rule: commit to just one minute of action—this makes starting easier, and often you’ll end up doing more once you’ve got started.
    2. Make the habit exciting: add fun elements to make the habit more enjoyable, like using new gear or accessories.
    3. Do it first: prioritize new habits by doing them early in the day to ensure they get done.
    4. Share the love: pair new habits with activities you already enjoy, where practical, to do “temptation bundling”.
    5. Embrace the uncomfortable: get used to discomfort daily to grow and build resilience for bigger changes.
    6. Do as little as possible: start small with habits, to minimize resistance and focus on consistency.
    7. Think how to be lazy: simplify processes and use shortcuts; there are no extra prizes for it having been difficult!
    8. Make the appointment: schedule habits with set dates and times, to increase accountability.
    9. Let habits evolve: adapt habits to fit current circumstances; that way you can still stay consistent over time.
    10. Plan ahead: prepare in advance to avoid setbacks—what could stop you from succeeding, and how can you pre-empt that?
    11. Pause to reflect: regularly evaluate what works and what doesn’t, to adjust and improve.
    12. Shut off your brain: avoid overthinking and start taking action now, not later, to build momentum.
    13. Question and learn: stay curious and open to learning, or else you will plateau quickly!
    14. Ask why: understand the deeper reasons behind any resistance, and make clear for yourself the value of the habit.
    15. Love your failures: embrace any setbacks as learning opportunities and, as such, stepping stones to success.

    For more on all of each of these, enjoy:

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

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

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

    Take care!

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  • Mediterranean Diet Book Suggestions

    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 at 10almonds!

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

    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

    ❝What is Mediterranean diet which book to read?❞

    We did a special edition about the Mediterranean Diet! So that’s a great starting point.

    As to books, there are so many, and we review books about it from time to time, so keep an eye out for our daily “One-Minute Book Review” section. We do highly recommend “How Not To Die”, which is a science-heavy approach to diet-based longevity, and essentially describes the Mediterranean Diet, with some tweaks.

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