Vitamin D & Dementia Risk
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Most people, or at least most women of a certain age, know that vitamin D is especially important to us as we get older (women of a certain age, because: increased osteoporosis risk especially for women and especially with untreated menopause, because estrogen and progesterone are also essential for healthy bone turnover*)
*Unless you’re a man with typical manly hormones, in which case, testosterone has you covered!
But while vitamin D is well-known amongst our demographic to be important for bone health (and quite well-known for being relevant to immune health*, too), its effects on some other systems are not so widely understood, and that’s what we’ll talk about today.
*See for example: Does Vitamin D Help Against COVID? ← short answer: vitamin D does so many things for your immune system, and/but no, protecting you from COVID is not one of them. However, it may reduce the risk of long COVID, at least.
First though, a quick vitamin D primer for anyone catching up:
- Vitamin D2 vs Vitamin D3: What You Would Benefit From Knowing
- Vit D + Calcium: Too Much Of A Good Thing? ← this also talks about safe and effective doses, and what goes wrong if you take too much
- How Taking Vitamin D Supplements Can Sabotage Your Vitamin D Levels
So, what’s this about vitamin D and dementia?
Vitamin D vs Tau protein aggregation
There are some well-known blood biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease pathology, due to the accumulation of harmful proteins in the brain, including α-synuclein, β-amyloid (also called amyloid-β; it’s the exact same protein just written down differently), and tau protein*.
*…which just gets written like that instead of using a Greek letter τ, probably to avoid looking like the Greek letter τ that in mathematics denotes the ratio of the circumference to the radius of a circle (so in other words, 2π).
We talk about this a bit here: New Alzheimer’s Test Makes Diagnoses 94.5% Accurate
Researchers (Dr. Alexa Beiser et al.) did a prospective cohort study, in which 793 adults (average age 39 at the start of the study) had vitamin D levels measured, and then the researchers scanned their brains 16±2 years later, to check on their tau and amyloid-β levels.
You might be wondering about how seriously the participants took their vitamin D levels; 34% of participants had low vitamin D, and only 5% were taking supplements.
Their results, in few words: those who had higher vitamin D levels (>30 g/mL) in midlife, later enjoyed significantly lower tau aggregation, even after adjusting for factors like age, sex, depression, and cardiovascular health.
However, there was no association between vitamin D levels in midlife and amyloid-β levels later on, so vitamin D clearly isn’t a “one thing fixes everything” solution!
Indeed, technically the study does not prove causality outright, but as usual, the researchers are asking for more funding to find out.
You can read their paper for yourself here: Association of Circulating Vitamin D in Midlife With Increased Tau-PET Burden in Dementia-Free Adults
Want to do something about that tau aggregation?
Here’s a very easy way to do it:
Spermine vs Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s!
Take care!
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The Insomnia Breakthrough – by Katherine Coleman
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The author, a massage therapist, knows plenty about relaxation. But how to put that to use when it comes to getting good quality sleep?
She takes a holistic approach, and yes, does start by covering all the things you’d expect to find in any guide to better sleep (aim for regular schedule, have darkness when you sleep, cool room, clean sheets, no alcohol or caffeine before bed, etc).
What she offers in particular beyond that, is the integration of calming routines, building in mindfulness for sleep (when very often people will go for the opposite!), and small cumulative lifestyle adjustments that are conducive to getting a better night’s rest every night.
The style is very light pop-science (as one might expect from someone who is not, in fact, a scientist), and while we do get a bibliography at the back, it’s a meagre 4 pages. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of interdisciplinary knowledge here, explained well.
Bottom line: if improving your sleep is something you’d like to do, this book can almost certainly get you on the right track.
Click here to check out The Insomnia Breakthrough, and don’t stay up too late reading it!
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Dodging Dengue In The US
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Dengue On The Rise
We wrote recently about dengue outbreaks in the Americas, with Puerto Rico declaring an epidemic. Cases are now being reported in Florida too, and are likely to spread, so it’s good to be prepared, if your climate is of the “warm and humid” kind.
If you want to catch up on the news first, here you go:
- UN health agency cites tenfold increase in reported cases of dengue over the last generation
- Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic following a spike in dengue cases
- Dengue fever confirmed in Florida Keys as US on watch for rise in mosquito illness
Note: dengue is far from unheard of in Florida, but the rising average temperatures in each year mean that each year stands a good chance of seeing more cases than the previous. It’s been climbing since at least 2017, took a dip during the time of COVID restrictions keeping people at home more, and then for the more recent years has been climbing again since.
What actually is it?
Dengue is a viral, mosquito-borne disease, characterized by fever, vomiting, muscle pain, and a rash, in about 1 in 4 cases.
Which can sound like “you’ll know if you have it”, but in fact it’s usually asymptomatic for a week or more after infection, so, watch out!
What next, if those symptoms appear?
The good news is: the fever will usually last less than a week
The bad news is: a day or so after that the fever subsided, the more serious symptoms are likely to start—if they’re going to.
If you’re unlucky enough to be one of the 1 in 20 who get the serious symptoms, then you can expect abdominal cramps, repeat vomiting, bleeding from various orifices (you may not get them all, but all are possible), and (hardly surprising, given the previous items) “extreme fatigue and restlessness”.
If you get those symptoms, then definitely get to an ER as soon as possible, as dengue can become life-threatening within hours of such.
Read more: CDC | Symptoms of Dengue and Testing
While there is not a treatment for dengue per se, the Emergency Room will be better able to manage your symptoms and thus keep you alive long enough for them to pass.
If you’d like much more detail (on symptoms, seriousness, at-risk demographics, and prognosis) than what the CDC offers, then…
Read more: BMJ | Dengue Fever
Ok, so how do we dodge the dengue?
It sounds flippant to say “don’t get bitten”, but that’s it. However, there are tips are not getting bitten:
- Use mosquito-repellent, but it has to contain >20% DEET, so check labels
- Use mosquito nets where possible (doors, windows, etc, and the classic bed-tent net is not a bad idea either)
- Wear clothing that covers your skin, especially during the day—it can be light clothing; it doesn’t need to be a HazMat suit! But it does need to reduce the area of attack to reduce the risk of bites.
- Limit standing water around your home—anything that can hold even a small amount of standing water is a potential mosquito-breeding ground. Yes, even if it’s a crack in your driveway or a potted bromeliad.
Further reading
You might also like to check out:
Stickers and wristbands aren’t a reliable way to prevent mosquito bites. Here’s why
…and in case dengue wasn’t bad enough:
Mosquitoes can spread the flesh-eating Buruli ulcer. Here’s how you can protect yourself
Take care!
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True Age – by Dr. Morgan Levine
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Yesterday’s book review (Counterclockwise) was about psychological factors affecting physical aging (progression or reversal thereof); today we have a book about the physiological factors affecting physical aging (progression or reversal thereof).
Dr. Levine is first and foremost a gerontological epigeneticist, and a lot of this book touches on her research in that field and that of her colleagues.
She does also discuss direct environmental factors also though, and—as you might well expect—lifestyle factors.
Regular readers of 10almonds are unlikely to gain anything new in the category of lifestyle matters, but a lot of the other material will be enlightening, especially with regard to the things that might at first glance seem set in stone, but we can in fact modify, and thus “choose our own adventure” when it comes to how the rest of our life plays out, healthwise (so: choose wisely!).
The book is mostly an overview on the (at time of writing: 2022) current state of affairs in the world of longevity research, and although it’s not a “how to” manual, there is plenty in the category of practical takeaways to be gleaned too.
The style is is mostly light pop science, but with a lot of hard science woven in—she is a good explainer, and has clearly made a notable effort to explain complex concepts in simple ways, while still delivering the complex concepts too (i.e. not overly “dumbing down”).
Bottom line: if you’d like to know about what can be done to increase your healthspan and general longevity, this book has a lot of answers!
Click here to check out True Age, and shift yours in the direction you prefer!
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ADHD 2.0 – by Dr. Edward Hallowell & Dr. John Ratey
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A lot of ADHD literature is based on the assumption that the reader is a 30-something parent of a child with ADHD. This book, on the other hand, addresses all ages, and includes just as readily the likelihood that the person with ADHD is the reader, and/or the reader’s partner.
The authors cover such topics as:
- ADHD mythbusting, before moving on to…
- The problems of ADHD, and the benefits that those exact same traits can bring too
- How to leverage those traits to get fewer of the problems and more of the benefits
- The role of diet beyond the obvious, including supplementation
- The role of specific exercises (especially HIIT, and balance exercises) in benefiting the ADHD brain
- The role of medications—and arguments for and gainst such
The writing style is… Thematic, let’s say. The authors have ADHD and it shows. So, expect comprehensive deep-dives from whenever their hyperfocus mode kicked in, and expect no stones left unturned. That said, it is very readable, and well-indexed too, for ease of finding specific sub-topics.
Bottom line: if you are already very familiar with ADHD, you may not learn much, and might reasonably skip this one. However, if you’re new to the topic, this book is a great—and practical—primer.
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Bamboo Shoots vs Red Cabbage – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing bamboo to red cabbage, we picked the bamboo.
Why?
Both have their merits!
In terms of macros, bamboo has slightly more fiber and protein, while red cabbage has slightly more carbs; the numbers are close though, so we could call this round a tie if not a small nominal win for bamboo.
In the category of vitamins, bamboo has more of vitamins B1, B3, B5, B7, and E, while red cabbage has more of vitamins A, B9, C, and K, yielding a modest 5:4 win to bamboo here.
Looking at minerals, bamboo has more copper, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while red cabbage has more calcium, iron, and magnesium, making this one a 6:3 win for bamboo.
In other considerations, red cabbage is higher in polyphenols, so that’s a point in its favor.
Adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for bamboo, but by all means do enjoy either or both, as diversity is best!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Don’t Be Bamboozled By Bamboo! ← including how to eat bamboo, for those unfamiliar with such, as we have been asked about it 🙂
Enjoy!
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How to Get Relief From Degenerative Disk Disease
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Dr. Alyssa Kuhn shows us how:
Giving your spine the support it needs
While exercises can’t do much about the actual degeneration of the disks in question, what they can do is support your spine such that much less pressure is placed on them during everyday life, because the muscles of your back are lifting them up.
Naturally, it is important to do the exercises carefully, because you don’t want to do the opposite of take pressure off the spine, and do yourself an injury while unduly pressuring it during exercise.
So, here’s how to balance those needs and get where you need to be:
- Pelvic tilt with alternating leg lifts: lie on your back, tilt your hips backwards to press your lower back into the floor, bend your knees, lift one leg, then the other while keeping your lower back flat and preventing it from arching.
- Modified side plank: lie on your side with your knees bent, prop yourself up on your elbow with your shoulder directly above your elbow, lift your hips from your knees, squeeze your glutes, and hold the position.
- Stair calf stretch: place the balls of your feet on the edge of a step with your heels hanging off, stack your feet if comfortable, lower your heels to stretch your calves, and hold the position.
- Standing high knee march: stand tall with your shoulders rolled back, lift one knee as high as you can without leaning forwards, lower it, then alternate sides while keeping your chest upright.
- Resistance band row: secure a resistance band to a sturdy anchor, hold both ends, stand tall with your shoulder blades back and elbows close to your sides, pull the band towards your torso while squeezing your shoulder blades together, pause briefly, then slowly return your arms to the starting position.
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:
For a much deeper understanding of treating back pain, here’s a great book that we reviewed a little while back:
Treat Your Own Back – by Robin McKenzie ← he’s a physiotherapist and not a doctor, and/but with 40 years of practice to his name and 33 letters after his name (CNZM OBE FCSP (Hon) FNZSP (Hon) Dip MDT Dip MT), he seems to know his stuff. His work is very well-respected, and almost any English-speaking physiotherapist will have read his books.
Take care!
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