Unfuck Your Brain – by Dr. Faith Harper

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This book takes a trauma-informed care approach, which is relatively novel in the mental health field and it’s quickly becoming the industry standard because of its effectiveness.

The basic premise of trauma-informed care is that you had a bad experience (possibly even more than one—what a thought!) and that things that remind you of that will tend to prompt reactivity from you in a way that probably isn’t healthy. By identifying each part of that process, we can then interrupt it, much like we might with CBT (the main difference being that CBT, for all its effectiveness, tends to assume that the things that are bothering you are not true, while TIC acknowledges that they might well be, and that especially historically, they probably were).

A word of warning: if something that triggers a trauma-based reactivity response in you is people swearing, then this book will either cure you by exposure therapy or leave you a nervous wreck, because it’s not just the title; Dr. Harper barely gets through a sentence without swearing. It’s a lot, even by this (European) reviewer’s standards (we’re a lot more relaxed about swearing over here, than people tend to be in America).

On the other hand, something that Dr. Harper excels at is actually explaining stuff very well. So while it sometimes seems like she’s “trying too hard” style-wise in terms of being “not like other therapists”, in her defence she’s nevertheless a very good writer; she knows her stuff, and knows how to communicate it clearly.

Bottom line: if you don’t mind a writer who swears more than 99% of soldiers, then this book is an excellent how-to guide for self-administered trauma-informed care.

Click here to check out Unfuck Your Brain, and indeed unfuck it!

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  • The Only Exercise You Need To Strengthen Every Hip Muscle (Ages 50+)

    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.

    One exercise, no equipment, and easy to do without even getting changed:

    You may be on the fence about this one

    Standing on one leg is great, of course, and then…

    Basic exercise:

    • Imagine stepping over an electric fence side to side.
    • Lift each leg high but slowly to engage hip muscles.
    • Adjust the height and speed based on ease/difficulty.

    Variations:

    • Step over an imaginary side fence.
    • Step over an imaginary front fence.
    • Step sideways in the opposite direction.
    • Step backward to complete a square.
    • Ensure both legs are worked evenly.

    As a bonus, it also improves balance!

    For more on all this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

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

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like:

    How Tight Are Your Hips? Test (And Fix!) With This

    Take care!

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  • An Important Way That Love Gets Eroded

    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 is unusual for a honeymoon period to last forever, but some relationships fair a lot better than others. Not just in terms of staying together vs separating, but in terms of happiness and satisfaction in the relationship. What’s the secret? There are many, but here’s one of them…

    Communication

    In this video, the case is made for a specific aspect of communication: airing grievances.

    Superficially, this doesn’t seem like a recipe for happiness, but it is one important ingredient—that it’s dangerously easy to let small grievances add up and eat away at one’s love and patience, until one day resentment outweighs attachment, and at that point, it often becomes a case of “checking out before you leave”, remaining in the relationship more due to inertia than volition.

    Which, in turn, will likely start to cause resentment on the other side, and eventually things will crumble and/or explode.

    In contrast, if we make sure to speak our feelings clearly (10almonds note, not in the video: we think that doing so compassionately is also important), the bad as well as the good, then it means that:

    • things don’t stack up and fester (there will less likely be a “final straw” if we are regularly removing straws)
    • there is an opportunity for change (in contrast, our partner would be unlikely to adjust anything to correct a problem they don’t know about)
    • all but the most inclined-to-anxiety partners can rest easy, because they know that if we had a problem, we’d tell them

    This is definitely only one critical aspect of communication; this video for example says nothing about actually being affectionate with one’s partner, or making sure to accept emotional bids for connection (per that story that goes “I knew my marriage was over when he wouldn’t come look at the tomatoes I grew”), but it is one worth considering—even if we at 10almonds would advise being gentle yet honest, and where possible balancing, in aggregate if not in the moment, with positive things (per Gottman’s ratio of 5:1 good moments to bad, being the magic number for marriages that “work”).

    For more on why it’s so important to be able to safely air grievances, see:

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

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Seriously Useful Communication Skills! ← this deals with some of the important gaps left by the video

    Take care!

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  • Who will look after us in our final years? A pay rise alone won’t solve aged-care workforce shortages

    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.

    Aged-care workers will receive a significant pay increase after the Fair Work Commission ruled they deserved substantial wage rises of up to 28%. The federal government has committed to the increases, but is yet to announce when they will start.

    But while wage rises for aged-care workers are welcome, this measure alone will not fix all workforce problems in the sector. The number of people over 80 is expected to triple over the next 40 years, driving an increase in the number of aged care workers needed.

    How did we get here?

    The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, which delivered its final report in March 2021, identified a litany of tragic failures in the regulation and delivery of aged care.

    The former Liberal government was dragged reluctantly to accept that a total revamp of the aged-care system was needed. But its weak response left the heavy lifting to the incoming Labor government.

    The current government’s response started well, with a significant injection of funding and a promising regulatory response. But it too has failed to pursue a visionary response to the problems identified by the Royal Commission.

    Action was needed on four fronts:

    • ensuring enough staff to provide care
    • building a functioning regulatory system to encourage good care and weed out bad providers
    • designing and introducing a fair payment system to distribute funds to providers and
    • implementing a financing system to pay for it all and achieve intergenerational equity.

    A government taskforce which proposed a timid response to the fourth challenge – an equitable financing system – was released at the start of last week.

    Consultation closed on a very poorly designed new regulatory regime the week before.

    But the big news came at end of the week when the Fair Work Commission handed down a further determination on what aged-care workers should be paid, confirming and going beyond a previous interim determination.

    What did the Fair Work Commission find?

    Essentially, the commission determined that work in industries with a high proportion of women workers has been traditionally undervalued in wage-setting. This had consequences for both care workers in the aged-care industry (nurses and Certificate III-qualified personal-care workers) and indirect care workers (cleaners, food services assistants).

    Aged-care staff will now get significant pay increases – 18–28% increase for personal care workers employed under the Aged Care Award, inclusive of the increase awarded in the interim decision.

    Older person holding a stabilising bar
    The commission determined aged care work was undervalued.
    Shutterstock/Toa55

    Indirect care workers were awarded a general increase of 3%. Laundry hands, cleaners and food services assistants will receive a further 3.96% on the grounds they “interact with residents significantly more regularly than other indirect care employees”.

    The final increases for registered and enrolled nurses will be determined in the next few months.

    How has the sector responded?

    There has been no push-back from employer groups or conservative politicians. This suggests the uplift is accepted as fair by all concerned.

    The interim increases of up to 15% probably facilitated this acceptance, with the recognition of the community that care workers should be paid more than fast food workers.

    There was no criticism from aged-care providers either. This is probably because they are facing difficulty in recruiting staff at current wage rates. And because government payments to providers reflect the actual cost of aged care, increased payments will automatically flow to providers.

    When the increases will flow has yet to be determined. The government is due to give its recommendations for staging implementation by mid-April.

    Is the workforce problem fixed?

    An increase in wages is necessary, but alone is not sufficient to solve workforce shortages.

    The health- and social-care workforce is predicted to grow faster than any other sector over the next decade. The “care economy” will grow from around 8% to around 15% of GDP over the next 40 years.

    This means a greater proportion of school-leavers will need to be attracted to the aged-care sector. Aged care will also need to attract and retrain workers displaced from industries in decline and attract suitably skilled migrants and refugees with appropriate language skills.

    Nursing students practise their skills
    Aged care will need to attract workers from other sectors.
    nastya_ph/Shutterstock

    The caps on university and college enrolments imposed by the previous government, coupled with weak student demand for places in key professions (such as nursing), has meant workforce shortages will continue for a few more years, despite the allure of increased wages.

    A significant increase in intakes into university and vocational education college courses preparing students for health and social care is still required. Better pay will help to increase student demand, but funding to expand place numbers will ensure there are enough qualified staff for the aged-care system of the future. The Conversation

    Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne

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

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Related Posts

  • The Power Foods Diet – by Dr. Neal Barnard
  • Ginkgo Biloba, For Memory And, Uh, What Else Again?

    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.

    Ginkgo biloba, for memory and, uh, what else again?

    Ginkgo biloba extract has enjoyed use for thousands of years for an assortment of uses, and has made its way from Traditional Chinese Medicine, to the world supplement market at large. See:

    Ginkgo biloba: A Treasure of Functional Phytochemicals with Multimedicinal Applications

    But what does the science say about the specific claims?

    Antioxidant & anti-inflammatory

    We’re going to lump these two qualities together for examination, since one invariably leads to the other.

    A quick note: things that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, often also help guard against cancer and aging. However, in this case, there are few good studies pertaining to anti-aging, and none that we could find pertaining to anti-cancer potential.

    So, does it have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, first?

    Yes, it has potent antioxidants that do fight inflammation; this is clear, from an abundance of in vitro and in vivo studies, including with human patients:

    In short: it helps, and there’s plenty of science for it.

    What about anti-aging effects?

    For this, there is science, but a lot of the science is not great. As one team of researchers concluded while doing a research review of their own:

    ❝Based on the reviewed information regarding EGb’s effects in vitro and in vivo, most have reported very positive outcomes with strong statistical analyses, indicating that EGb must have some sort of beneficial effect.

    However, information from the reported clinical trials involving EGb are hardly conclusive since many do not include information such as the participant’s age and physical condition, drug doses administered, duration of drug administered as well as suitable control groups for comparison.

    We therefore call on clinicians and clinician-scientists to establish a set of standard and reliable standard operating procedure for future clinical studies to properly evaluate EGb’s effects in the healthy and diseased person since it is highly possible it possesses beneficial effects.❞

    Translation from sciencese: “These results are great, but come on, please, we are begging you to use more robust methodology”

    ~ Zuo et al

    If you’d like to read the review in question, here it is:

    Advances in the Studies of Ginkgo Biloba Leaves Extract on Aging-Related Diseases

    Does it have cognitive enhancement effects?

    The claims here are generally that it helps:

    • improve memory
    • improve focus
    • reduce cognitive decline
    • reduce anxiety and depression

    Let’s break these down:

    Does it improve memory and cognition?

    Ginkgo biloba was quite popular for memory 20+ years ago, and perhaps had an uptick in popularity in the wake of the 1999 movie “Analyze This” in which the protagonist psychiatrist mentions taking ginkgo biloba, because “it helps my memory, and I forget what else”.

    Here are a couple of studies from not long after that:

    In short:

    • in the first study, it helped in standardized tests of memory and cognition (quite convincing)
    • In the second study, it helped in subjective self-reports of mental wellness (also placebo-controlled)

    On the other hand, here’s a more recent research review ten years later, that provides measures of memory, executive function and attention in 1132, 534 and 910 participants, respectively. That’s quite a few times more than the individual studies we cited above, by the way. They concluded:

    ❝We report that G. biloba had no ascertainable positive effects on a range of targeted cognitive functions in healthy individuals❞

    ~ Laws et al

    Read: Is Ginkgo biloba a cognitive enhancer in healthy individuals? A meta-analysis

    Our (10almonds) conclusion: we can’t say either way, on this one.

    Does it have neuroprotective effects (i.e., against cognitive decline)?

    Yes—probably by the same mechanism will discuss shortly.

    Can it help against depression and anxiety?

    Yes—but probably indirectly by the mechanism we’ll get to in a moment:

    Likely this helps by improving blood flow, as illustrated better per:

    Efficacy of ginkgo biloba extract as augmentation of venlafaxine in treating post-stroke depression

    Which means…

    Bonus: improved blood flow

    This mechanism may support the other beneficial effects.

    See: Ginkgo biloba extract improves coronary blood flow in healthy elderly adults

    Is it safe?

    Ginkgo biloba extract* is generally recognized as safe.

    • However, as it improves blood flow, please don’t take it if you have a bleeding disorder.
    • Additionally, it may interact badly with SSRIs, so you might want to avoid it if you’re taking such (despite it having been tested and found beneficial as an adjuvant to citalopram, an SSRI, in one of the studies above).
    • No list of possible contraindications can be exhaustive, so please consult your own doctor/pharmacist before taking something new.

    *Extract, specifically. The seeds and leaves of this plant are poisonous. Sometimes “all natural” is not better.

    Where can I get it?

    As ever, we don’t sell it (or anything else), but here’s an example product on Amazon

    Enjoy!

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  • Fully Present – by Dr. Susan Smalley and Diana Winston

    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.

    “The Science and the Art of…” tends to be a bit of a fuzzy obfuscation, but in this case, it’s accurate, especially in this presentation. The authors are, indeed, a scientist and an artist—and both practitioners, meeting in the middle.

    As such, we get the clinical insights of a researcher and professor of psychiatry, and the grounded-yet-spiritual insights of an erstwhile Buddhist nun.

    While the book is pop psychology in essence, the format is much more that of a textbook than a self-help book. Will it be useful for helping yourself anyway, though? Yes, absolutely, if you apply the information contained within.

    Don’t be fooled into thinking that a textbook format makes it dry, though—the writing is very compelling, and you’ll find yourself turning pages eagerly. There’s no time like the present, after all!

    Bottom line: if you find the scientific evidence-base for the usefulness of mindfulness appealing, but find a lot of guides a little fluffy, this one is perfectly balanced—and very well written, too.

    Click here to check out Fully Present, bring yourself into the moment, always!

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  • Flax Seeds vs Pumpkin Seeds – 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 flax seeds to pumpkin seeds, we picked the flax.

    Why?

    Looking at the macros first, they are equal on protein, and flax seeds have a lot more fiber while pumpkin seeds have a lot more carbs. We’re going to prioritise fiber over carbs and call this a win for flax.

    In terms of vitamins, flax seeds have a lot more of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, C, E, K, and choline, while pumpkin seeds have a tiny bit more vitamin A. An easy win for flax here.

    When it comes to minerals, flax has multiples more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and selenium, while pumpkin seeds have more zinc. Another win for flax.

    Adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for flax, but by all means enjoy either or both; diversity is good!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    What’s Your Plant Diversity Score? ← seeds count as plants!

    Enjoy!

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