War in Ukraine affected wellbeing worldwide, but people’s speed of recovery depended on their personality
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The war in Ukraine has had impacts around the world. Supply chains have been disrupted, the cost of living has soared and we’ve seen the fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II. All of these are in addition to the devastating humanitarian and economic impacts within Ukraine.
Our international team was conducting a global study on wellbeing in the lead up to and after the Russian invasion. This provided a unique opportunity to examine the psychological impact of the outbreak of war.
As we explain in a new study published in Nature Communications, we learned the toll on people’s wellbeing was evident across nations, not just in Ukraine. These effects appear to have been temporary – at least for the average person.
But people with certain psychological vulnerabilities struggled to recover from the shock of the war.
Tracking wellbeing during the outbreak of war
People who took part in our study completed a rigorous “experience-sampling” protocol. Specifically, we asked them to report their momentary wellbeing four times per day for a whole month.
Data collection began in October 2021 and continued throughout 2022. So we had been tracking wellbeing around the world during the weeks surrounding the outbreak of war in February 2022.
We also collected measures of personality, along with various sociodemographic variables (including age, gender, political views). This enabled us to assess whether different people responded differently to the crisis. We could also compare these effects across countries.
Our analyses focused primarily on 1,341 participants living in 17 European countries, excluding Ukraine itself (44,894 experience-sampling reports in total). We also expanded these analyses to capture the experiences of 1,735 people living in 43 countries around the world (54,851 experience-sampling reports) – including in Australia.
A global dip in wellbeing
On February 24 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, there was a sharp decline in wellbeing around the world. There was no decline in the month leading up to the outbreak of war, suggesting the change in wellbeing was not already occurring for some other reason.
However, there was a gradual increase in wellbeing during the month after the Russian invasion, suggestive of a “return to baseline” effect. Such effects are commonly reported in psychological research: situations and events that impact our wellbeing often (though not always) do so temporarily.
Unsurprisingly, people in Europe experienced a sharper dip in wellbeing compared to people living elsewhere around the world. Presumably the war was much more salient for those closest to the conflict, compared to those living on an entirely different continent.
Interestingly, day-to-day fluctuations in wellbeing mirrored the salience of the war on social media as events unfolded. Specifically, wellbeing was lower on days when there were more tweets mentioning Ukraine on Twitter/X.
Our results indicate that, on average, it took around two months for people to return to their baseline levels of wellbeing after the invasion.
Different people, different recoveries
There are strong links between our wellbeing and our individual personalities.
However, the dip in wellbeing following the Russian invasion was fairly uniform across individuals. None of the individual factors assessed in our study, including personality and sociodemographic factors, predicted people’s response to the outbreak of war.
On the other hand, personality did play a role in how quickly people recovered. Individual differences in people’s recovery were linked to a personality trait called “stability”. Stability is a broad dimension of personality that combines low neuroticism with high agreeableness and conscientiousness (three traits from the Big Five personality framework).
Stability is so named because it reflects the stability of one’s overall psychological functioning. This can be illustrated by breaking stability down into its three components:
- low neuroticism describes emotional stability. People low in this trait experience less intense negative emotions such as anxiety, fear or anger, in response to negative events
- high agreeableness describes social stability. People high in this trait are generally more cooperative, kind, and motivated to maintain social harmony
- high conscientiousness describes motivational stability. People high in this trait show more effective patterns of goal-directed self-regulation.
So, our data show that people with less stable personalities fared worse in terms of recovering from the impact the war in Ukraine had on wellbeing.
In a supplementary analysis, we found the effect of stability was driven specifically by neuroticism and agreeableness. The fact that people higher in neuroticism recovered more slowly accords with a wealth of research linking this trait with coping difficulties and poor mental health.
These effects of personality on recovery were stronger than those of sociodemographic factors, such as age, gender or political views, which were not statistically significant.
Overall, our findings suggest that people with certain psychological vulnerabilities will often struggle to recover from the shock of global events such as the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
Luke Smillie, Professor in Personality Psychology, The University of Melbourne
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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How Likely Are You To Live To 100?
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How much hope can we reasonably have of reaching 100?
Yesterday, we asked you: assuming a good Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL), how much longer do you hope to live?
We got the above-depicted, below-described, set of responses:
- A little over 38% of respondents hope to live another 11–20 years
- A little over 31% hope to live another 31–40 years
- A little over 7% will be content to make it to the next decade
- One (1) respondent hopes to live longer than an additional 100 years
This is interesting when we put it against our graph of how old our subscribers are:
…because it corresponds inversely, right down to the gap/dent in the 40s. And—we may hypothesize—that one person under 18 who hopes to live to 120, perhaps.
This suggests that optimism remains more or less constant, with just a few wobbles that would probably be un-wobbled with a larger sample size.
In other words: most of our education-minded, health-conscious subscriber-base hope to make it to the age of 90-something, while for the most part feeling that 100+ is overly optimistic.
Writer’s anecdote: once upon a time, I was at a longevity conference in Brussels, and a speaker did a similar survey, but by show of hands. He started low by asking “put your hands up if you want to live at least a few more minutes”. I did so, with an urgency that made him laugh, and say “Don’t worry; I don’t have a gun hidden up here!”
Conjecture aside… What does the science say about our optimism?
First of all, a quick recap…
To not give you the same information twice, let’s note we did an “aging mythbusting” piece already covering:
- Aging is inevitable: True or False?
- Aging is, and always will be, unstoppable: True or False?
- We can slow aging: True or False?
- It’s too early to worry about… / It’s too late to do anything about… True or False?
- We can halt aging: True or False?
- We can reverse aging: True or False?
- But those aren’t really being younger, we’ll still die when our time is up: True or False?
You can read the answers to all of those here:
Age & Aging: What Can (And Can’t) We Do About It?
Now, onwards…
It is unreasonable to expect to live past 100: True or False?
True or False, depending on your own circumstances.
First, external circumstances: the modal average person in Hong Kong is currently in their 50s and can expect to live into their late 80s, while the modal average person in Gaza is 14 and may not expect to make it to 15 right now.
To avoid extremes, let’s look at the US, where the modal average person is currently in their 30s and can expect to live into their 70s:
United States Mortality Database
Now, before that unduly worries our many readers already in their 70s…
Next, personal circumstances: not just your health, but your socioeconomic standing. And in the US, one of the biggest factors is the kind of health insurance one has:
SOA Research Institute | Life Expectancy Calculator 2021
You may note that the above source puts all groups into a life expectancy in the 80s—whereas the previous source gave 70s.
Why is this? It’s because the SOA, whose primary job is calculating life insurance risks, is working from a sample of people who have, or are applying for, life insurance. So it misses out many people who die younger without such.
New advances in medical technology are helping people to live longer: True or False?
True, assuming access to those. Our subscribers are mostly in North America, and have an economic position that affords good access to healthcare. But beware…
On the one hand:
The number of people who live past the age of 100 has been on the rise for decades
On the other hand:
The average life expectancy in the U.S. has been on the decline for three consecutive years
COVID is, of course, largely to blame for that, though:
❝The decline of 1.8 years in life expectancy was primarily due to increases in mortality from COVID-19 (61.2% of the negative contribution).
The decline in life expectancy would have been even greater if not for the offsetting effects of decreases in mortality due to cancer (43.1%)❞
Source: National Vital Statistics Reports
The US stats are applicable to Canada, the UK, and Australia: True or False?
False: it’s not quite so universal. Differences in healthcare systems will account for a lot, but there are other factors too:
- Life expectancy in Canada fell for the 3rd year in a row. What’s happening?
- UK life expectancy lagging behind rest of G7 except the US
- Australians are living longer but what does it take to reach 100 years old?
Here’s an interesting (UK-based) tool that calculates not just your life expectancy, but also gives the odds of living to various ages (e.g. this writer was given odds of living to 87, 96, 100).
Check yours here:
Office of National Statistics | Life Expectancy Calculator
To finish on a cheery note…
Data from Italian centenarians suggests a “mortality plateau”:
❝The risk of dying leveled off in people 105 and older, the team reports online today in Science.
That means a 106-year-old has the same probability of living to 107 as a 111-year-old does of living to 112.
Furthermore, when the researchers broke down the data by the subjects’ year of birth, they noticed that over time, more people appear to be reaching age 105.❞
Pop-sci source: Once you hit this age, aging appears to stop
Actual paper: The plateau of human mortality: demography of longevity pioneers
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Oat Milk vs Almond Milk – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing oat milk to almond milk, we picked the almond milk.
Why?
This one’s quite straightforward, and no, it’s not just our bias for almonds
Rather, almonds contain a lot more vitamins and minerals, all of which usually make it into the milk.
Oat milk is still a fine choice though, and has a very high soluble fiber content, which is great for your heart.
Just make sure you get versions without added sugar or other unpleasantries! You can always make your own at home, too.
You can read a bit more about the pros and cons of various plant milks here:
Enjoy!
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A new diagnosis of ‘profound autism’ is on the cards. Here’s what could change
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When it comes to autism, few questions spark as much debate as how best to support autistic people with the greatest needs.
This prompted The Lancet medical journal to commission a group of international experts to propose a new category of “profound autism”.
This category describes autistic people who have little or no language (spoken, written, signed or via a communication device), who have an IQ of less than 50, and who require 24-hour supervision and support.
It would only apply to children aged eight and over, when their cognitive and communication abilities are considered more stable.
In our new study, we considered how the category could impact autism assessments. We found 24% of autistic children met, or were at risk of meeting, the criteria for profound autism.
Why the debate?
The category is intended to help governments and service providers plan and deliver supports, so autistic people with the highest needs aren’t overlooked. It also aims to re-balance their under-representation in mainstream autism research.
This new category may be helpful for advocating for a greater level of support, research and evidence for this group.
But some have raised concerns that autistic people who don’t fit into this category could be perceived as less in need and excluded from services and funding supports.
Others argue the category doesn’t sufficiently emphasise autistic people’s strengths and capabilities, and places too much emphasis on the challenges that are experienced.
What did we do?
We conducted the first Australian study to examine how the “profound autism” category might apply to children attending publicly funded diagnostic services for developmental conditions.
Drawing on the Australian Child Neurodevelopment Registry, we examined data from 513 autistic children assessed between 2019 and 2024. We asked:
- how many children met the criteria for profound autism?
- were there behavioural features that set this group apart?
Because we focused on children at the time of diagnosis, most (91%) were aged under eight years. We described these children as being “at risk of profound autism”.
What did we find?
Around 24% of autistic children in our study met, or were at risk of meeting, the criteria for profound autism. This is similar to the proportion of children internationally.
Almost half (49.6%) showed behaviours that were a safety risk, such as attempting to run away from carers, compared with one-third (31.2%) of other autistic children.
These challenges weren’t limited to children who met criteria for profound autism. Around one in five autistic children (22.5%) engaged in self-injury, and more than one-third (38.2%) showed aggression toward others.
So, while the category identified many children with very high needs, other children who didn’t meet these criteria also had significant needs.
Importantly, we found the definition of “profound autism” doesn’t always line up with the official diagnostic levels which determine the level of support and NDIS funding children receive.
In our study, 8% of children at risk of profound autism were classified as level 2, rather than level 3 (the highest level of support). Meanwhile, 17% of children classified as level 3 did not meet criteria for profound autism.
Our concern
We looked at children when they first received an autism diagnosis. Children were aged 18 months to 16 years, with more than 90% under the age of eight years.
This aligns with our earlier research, showing the average age of diagnosis in public settings is 6.6 years.
From a practical perspective, our biggest concern about the profound autism category is the age threshold of eight years.
Because most children are already assessed before age eight, introducing this category into assessment services would mean many families would need repeat assessments, placing additional strain on already stretched developmental services.
Second, modifications will be needed if this criteria is going to be used to inform funding decisions as it didn’t map perfectly onto level 3 support criteria.
On balance, however, our results suggest the profound autism category may provide a clear, measurable way to describe the needs of autistic people with the highest support requirements.
Every autistic child has individual strengths and needs. The term “profound autism” would need to be promoted with inclusive and supportive language, so as to not replace or diminish individual needs, but to help clinicians tailor supports and obtain additional resources when needed.
Including the category in future clinical guidelines, such as the national guideline for the assessment and diagnosis of autism, could help ensure governments, disability services and clinicians plan and deliver supports.
What can you do in the meantime?
If you’re concerned your child requires substantial support, here are some practical steps you can take to ensure their needs are recognised and addressed:
Explain your concerns
Not all clinicians have experience working with children with high support needs. Be as clear as possible about behaviours that affect your child’s safety or daily life, including self-injury, aggression or attempts to run away. These details, while difficult to share, help give a clearer picture of your child’s support needs.
It can also be a challenge to find and access clinicians with appropriate expertise. Another potential benefit of having a defined category is that it can better help families navigate care.
Ask about support for the whole family
Our studies show that many caregivers want more support for themselves but don’t always ask. Talk with clinicians about supports for yourself as well, including respite, or family support groups.
Reach out
Coming together with other carers and families can reduce your own isolation and normalise many of the unique challenges you face. Connecting with like-minded people can provide a supportive, empathetic and empowering community.
Plan for safety
For children with high support needs, prioritise safety planning with your child’s care team. This can include strategies to reduce risks, as well as planning how best to support your child’s interactions with health, education and disability services over time.
Kelsie Boulton, Senior Research Fellow in Child Neurodevelopment, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney; Marie Antoinette Hodge, Clinical Lecturer, University of Sydney, and Rebecca Sutherland, Lecturer & Speech Pathologist, University of Sydney
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Beyond Sunscreen: The Ultimate Guide To Photoprotection For Your Skin
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Dr. Andrea Suarez, dermatologist, gives us a lot more tools:
Under the sun
Everybody knows to wear sunscreen.
However, Dr. Suarez explains that sunscreen alone isn’t enough, so what more can we do?
First, a quick reminder on different kinds of solar radiation:
- UVA makes up over 95% of UV from the sun, penetrates deeply, accelerates aging and pigmentation, and passes through window glass
- UVB causes sunburn and direct DNA damage, albeit there’s a lot less of it and it’s more easily blocked, even just by windows
Avoiding the sun is of course a fine strategy, and timing counts for UVB but not UVA, because UVB peaks between 10:00 a.m. and 2 p.m. while UVA is constant all day and even on cloudy days, and exposure increases with altitude and near the equator.
Note, however:
- Shade is something of an illusion, and by this we mean: shade can still expose you to about 50% of UVA due to scattering and reflection, meaning umbrellas and trees don’t provide complete protection.
- Clothing, however, can help: in particular, tightly woven, thicker, darker fabrics and materials like polyester or wool provide good protection, while coverage and fabric condition matter more than whether clothing is labeled UPF.
Some quick extra notes on that:
- What’s going on with those UPF ratings: UPF 50 fabric allows only 1/50th of UV through, but regular clothing can perform similarly if dense, dry, and not worn out.
- Wet and worn fabrics: wet, stretched, or aged fabrics lose protective ability, while washing can sometimes improve protection by tightening the weave.
- About hats: wide-brimmed hats offer significantly more protection for your face, ears, and neck compared to baseball caps, with brim width directly affecting coverage, for obvious reasons
As for your eyes:
- Yes, sunglasses help: UV exposure increases risks like cataracts and ocular damage, so look for sunglasses labeled UV 400 or 100% UV protection (price is no indicator of quality, so check the labels).
- The design counts too: wraparound styles reduce side exposure, and of course bigger is better than smaller.
- What we said about windows matters here too: standard windows block UVB but allow UVA through, meaning indoor and car exposure still contributes to cumulative skin damage.
- A special case, however, is car windows: windshields block most UV, but side and rear windows often allow UVA unless treated with UV-blocking films.
Some other things to consider:
- Topical antioxidants: ingredients like vitamin C, vitamin E, ferulic acid, green tea, and niacinamide help neutralize reactive oxygen species generated by UV exposure, and thus also help reduce the harm.
- DNA repair enzymes: compounds like photolyase and T4 endonuclease have been shown to reduce UV-induced DNA damage and precancerous lesions, though they’re not so widely available as the other measures discussed.
- Oral supplements: some supplements can help, for example Polypodium leucotomos extract has evidence for reducing UV sensitivity and inflammation, especially in photosensitive conditions.
- Dietary carotenoids: nutrients like beta-carotene and lycopene from whole foods may support skin resilience, though supplements are less clearly beneficial in this case.
Finally, remember that consistency generally matters most: daily is is much more important than occasional perfect use, because cumulative exposure is what really drives skin damage and cancer risk.
For more on all of this, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
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Are Collagen Molecules Too Big To Be Absorbed?
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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 😎
❝I read your article about collagen, but I heard collagen molecules are too large to be absorbed, so supplementing with collagen is basically useless, have I been misled?❞
Great question! And the answer is… Nuanced.
Firstly let’s note: absorbed where? The gut (oral supplementation), or the skin (topical application)?
You said “supplementing”, so probably you’re thinking about the gut; we’ll give good attention to that, but for the sake of being methodical, let’s briefly talk about the skin and products with topical collagen that’s applied externally:
Yes, collagen molecules are absolutely huge and cannot be absorbed by the skin. Not only that, but the epidermis (the outer part of your skin) is not where collagen synthesis happens, so this is a bit like trying to fix a structural problem in your house by flinging mud at it from the outside. The mud may have the same minerals that are needed, but it’s just going to sit on the outside of your house until it gets washed off.
So it is with topical collagen creams, masks, etc. They can give a brief “filler” effect at best, but they’re not doing anything for your actual skin and will just get washed off when you wash.
Now, about hydrolysed collagen peptides
This term means that the huge collagen molecules have been broken down into little bits. These now are are small enough to get absorbed.
When it comes to topical treatments, there is currently no good science that we could find to show that they actually help, though, perhaps because while they’re small enough to get absorbed, most aren’t. We can’t know for sure yet though, as studies that do exists are usually not only funded by the beauty company making the tropical product, but also, tiny and often methodologically weak.
Here’s an example; it’s a tiny (n=22) study, funded by the beauty company whose product is being tested, with no control group, the main outcomes were subjective satisfaction, skin roughness measurement (that would be affected by anything physically smoothing over the top of the skin), and then more technical measures that while cited as improvements, have numbers that look like:
❝Furthermore, the skin surface elasticity (total recovery/total elongation; gross elasticity (R2)) increased from 0.81 ± 0.03 to 0.83 ± 0.03❞
Read in full: Effect of a Topical Collagen Tripeptide on Antiaging and Inhibition of Glycation of the Skin: A Pilot Study
Perhaps better, more conclusive studies will be conducted and their results will vindicate the use of topical collagen treatments, but the current state of science is, if being honest about things, “we don’t know”.
About that “subjective satisfaction” thing though—it’s worth noting that that there are no known adverse side effects (beyond rare adverse reactions, usually to some other ingredient), so if you have a topical collagen treatment that you enjoy using, don’t let us stop you.
Now, about the gut
Collagen molecules are, once again, far too large to be absorbed by the gut, too. Hydrolyzed collagen peptides are, once again, the answer.
And this time, not only are they small enough to be absorbed, but also, there is a lot of science to indicate that it really does meaningfully improve bone density, alleviate symptoms of arthritis, and so forth.
And as for its benefits for the skin from the inside, it’s hard to know whether it’s getting there or not, but what we can know is that collagen synthesis is increased systemwide in people who take hydrolysed collagen peptide supplements in the recommended dosage range of 5–20g/day, and that many measurable signs of skin aging are meaningfully reversed (much more so than the paltry numbers in the topical treatment study we linked above):
This is what we wrote about in the article you read, which for convenience we’ll link again here: We Are Such Stuff As Fish Are Made Of ← we also link to where you can get good quality hydrolyzed collagen peptides.
Vegan/Vegetarian?
At present, only animals make collagen. We say “at present” not because it’s likely that plants or fungi are likely to start doing it soon, but rather, because lab-made stuff is often around the corner.
For now, however, all sources of collagen are from animals.
So, what to do if vegan/vegetarian?
The best thing to do is to simply do like those animals did, and include in your diet plenty of the ingredients required for your body to make collagen internally.
As for what they are, check out: The Best Foods For Collagen Production
Enjoy!
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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❞
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).
(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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