What Is Making The Ringing In Your Ears Worse?
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Dr. Rachael Cook, an audiologist at Applied Hearing Solutions in Phoenix, Arizona, shares her professional insights into managing tinnitus.
If you’re unfamiliar with Tinnitus, it is an auditory condition characterized by a ringing, buzzing, or humming sound, and ffects nearly 10% of the population. We’ve written on Tinnitus, and how it can disrupt your life, in this article.
Key Triggers for Tinnitus
Several everyday habits can make your tinnitus louder. Caffeine and nicotine increase blood pressure, restricting blood flow to the cochlea and worsening tinnitus. Common medications, such as pain relievers, high-dose antibiotics, and antidepressants, can also exacerbate tinnitus, especially with higher or long-term dosages.
Impact of Diet and Sleep
Dietary choices significantly impact tinnitus. Alcohol and salt alter the fluid balance in the cochlea, increasing tinnitus perception. Alcohol changes blood flow patterns and neurotransmitter production, while high salt intake has similar effects. Poor sleep quality elevates stress levels, making it harder to ignore tinnitus signals. Addressing sleep disorders like sleep apnea and insomnia can help manage tinnitus symptoms.
Importance of Treating Hearing Loss
Untreated hearing loss worsens tinnitus. Nearly 90% of individuals with tinnitus have some hearing loss. Hearing aids can reduce tinnitus perception by restoring missing sounds and reducing the brain’s internal compensatory signals. Combining hearing aids with sound therapy is said to provide even greater relief.
Read more about hearing loss in our article on the topic.
Otherwise, for a great guide on managing tinnitus, we recommend watching Dr. Cook’s video:
Here’s hoping your ear’s aren’t ringing too much whilst watching the video!
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Easing Lower Back Pain
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Lower back pain often originates from an unexpected culprit: your pelvis. Similar to how your psoas can contribute to lower back pain, when your pelvis tilts forward due to tight hip flexors, it can misalign your spine, leading to discomfort and pain. As WeShape shows us in the below video, one simple stretch can help realign your pelvis and significantly ease lower back pain.
Why Your Pelvis Matters
Sitting for long periods causes your hip flexors to shorten, leading to an anterior pelvic tilt. This forward tilt puts pressure on your spine and SI joint, causing pain and discomfort in the lower back. To help resolve this, you can work on correcting your pelvic alignment, helping to significantly reduce this pressure and alleviate related pain. And no, this doesn’t require any spinal cord stimulation.
Easy Variations for All
A lot of you recognise the stretch in this video; it’s quite a well-known kneeling stretch. But, unlike other guides, WeShape also provides a fantastic variation for those who aren’t mobile enough for the kneeling variation
So, if you can’t comfortably get down on the ground, WeShape outlines a brilliant standing variation. So, regardless of your mobility, there’s an option for you!
See both variations here:
Excited to reduce your lower back pain? We hope so! Let us know if you have any tips that you’d like to share with us.
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SuperLife – by Darin Olien
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We mostly know more or less what we’re supposed to be doing, at least to a basic level, when it comes to diet and exercise. So why don’t we do it?
Where Darin Olien excels in this one is making healthy living—mostly the dietary aspects thereof—not just simple, but also easy.
He gives principles we can apply rather than having to memorize lots of information… And his “this will generally be better than that” format also means that the feeling is one of reducing harm, increasing benefits, without needing to get absolutist about anything. And that, too, makes healthy living easier.
The book also covers some areas that a lot of books of this genre don’t—such as blood oxygenation, and maintenance of healthy pH levels—and aspects such as those are elements that help this book to stand out too.
Don’t be put off and think this is a dry science textbook, though—it’s not. In fact, the tone is light and the style is easy-reading throughout.
Bottom line: if you want to take an easy, casual, but scientifically robust approach to tweaking your health for the better, this book will enable you to do that.
Click here to check out SuperLife and start upgrading your health!
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Black Tea or Green Tea – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing black tea to green tea, we picked the black tea.
Why?
It was close! Ultimately we picked the black tea as the “best all-rounder”.
Both teas are great for the health, insofar as tea in general is a) a very good way to hydrate (better absorption than plain water) and b) an excellent source of beneficial phytochemicals—mostly antioxidants of various kinds, but there’s a lot in there.
We did a run-down previously of the relative benefits of each of four kinds of tea (black, white, green, red):
Which Tea Is Best, By Science?
Which concluded in its final summary:
Black, white, green, and red teas all have their benefits, and ultimately the best one for you will probably be the one you enjoy drinking, and thus drink more of.
If trying to choose though, we offer the following summary:
- Black tea: best for total beneficial phytochemicals
- White tea:best for your oral health
- Green tea: best for your brain
- ❤️ Red tea: best if you want naturally caffeine-free
Enjoy!
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Dr. Patrick Walsh’s Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer – by Dr. Patrick Walsh & Janet Farrar Worthington
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Prostate cancer is not glamorous or fun, and neither is this book.
Nevertheless, it’s a disease that affects 12% of men in general, and 60% of men aged 60+, with that percentage climbing every year after that.
So, if you have a prostate or love someone who has one, this book is worthwhile reading—yes, even as a preventative.
Like many cancers, prostate cancer is easy to treat if caught very early, becomes harder to treat as it goes, and almost impossible to cure if it gets as far as metastasis (i.e., it spread). Like all cancers, it’s better off avoided entirely if possible.
This book covers all the stages:
- How to avoid it
- How to check for it
- How to “nip it in the bud”
- Why some might want to delay treatment (!)
- What options are available afterwards
This latter is quite extensive, and covers not just surgery, but radiation, thermo- or cryoablation, and hormone therapy.
And as for surgery, not just “remove the tumor”, but other options like radical prostatectomy, and even orchiectomy. Not many men will choose to have their testicles removed to stop them from feeding the prostate, but the point is that this book is comprehensive.
It’s asking whenever possible “is there another option?” and exploring all options, with information and without judgment, at each stage.
The writing style (likely co-author Worthington’s influence; she is an award-winning science-writer) is very “for the layman”, and that’s really helpful in demystifying a lot of what can be quite opaque in the field of oncology.
Bottom line: absolutely not an enjoyable read, but a potentially lifesaving one, especially given the odds we mentioned up top.
Click here to check out Dr. Patrick Walsh’s Guide To Surviving Prostate Cancer, and be prepared!
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Fitness 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 worthwhile fitness goal for people in their 50s?
A: At 10almonds, we think that goals are great but habits are better.
If your goal is to run a marathon, that’s a fine goal, and can be very motivating, but then after the marathon, then what? You’ll look back on it as a great achievement, but what will it do for your future health?
PS, yes, marathon-running in one’s middle age is a fine and good activity for most people. Maybe skip it if you have osteoporosis or some other relevant problem (check with your doctor), but…
Marathons in Mid- and Later-Life ← we wrote about the science of it here
PS, we also explored some science that may be applicable to your other question, on the same page as that about marathons!
The thing about habits vs goals is that habits give ongoing cumulative (often even: compounding) benefits:
How To Really Pick Up (And Keep!) Those Habits
If you pressingly want advice on goals though, our advice is this:
Make it your goal to be prepared for the health challenges of later life. It may seem gloomy to say that old age is coming for us all if something else doesn’t get us first, but the fact is, old age does not have to come with age-related decline, and the very least, we can increase our healthspan (so we’re hitting 90 with most of the good health we enjoyed in our 70s, for example, or hitting 80 with most of the good health we enjoyed in our 60s).
If that goal seems a little wishy-washy, here are some very specific and practical ideas to get you started:
Train For The Event Of Your Life!
As for the limits and/or extents of how much we can do in that regard? Here are what two aging experts have to say:
And here’s what we at 10almonds had to say:
Age & Aging: What Can (And Can’t) We Do About It?
Take care!
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How Healthy People Regulate Their Emotions
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Some people seem quite unflappable, while others are consistently on the edge of a breakdown or outburst. So, how does a person regulate emotions, without suppressing them?
Eight things mentally healthy people do
Doing these things is hardest when one is actually in a disrupted emotional state, so they are all good things to get in the habit of doing at all times:
- Recognize and label emotions: identify specific emotions like anxiety, excitement, frustration, and so forth. You can track them for better emotional management, but it suffices even to recognize in the moment such things as “ok, I’m feeling anxious” etc.
- Embrace self-awareness: acknowledge emotions without judgment, using mindfulness and meditation to enhance emotional awareness and reduce reactivity—view your emotions neutrally, with a detached curiosity.
- Reframe negative thoughts: use cognitive reappraisal to change your perspective on situations, viewing setbacks as opportunities for growth.
- Express emotions constructively: use outlets like writing, or talking to someone to process emotions, preventing emotional build-up. Creating expressive art can also help many.
- Seek social support: cultivate strong relationships that provide emotional support and perspective, helping to manage stress and emotions.
- Maintain physical health: exercise, sleep, and a balanced diet support emotional resilience by improving overall well-being and brain function. It’s harder to be in the best mental health if your body is collapsing from exhaustion.
- Use stress management techniques: practice deep breathing, meditation, or other (non-chemical) relaxation methods to reduce stress and calm the mind and body.
- Seek professional help when needed: when emotions become overwhelming, consider therapy to develop personalized coping mechanisms and emotional regulation strategies.
For more details on all of these, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
- How Are You, Really? (Alexithymia & Emotional Regulation)
- How To Manage Chronic Stress
- How To Set Anxiety Aside
- A Selection Of CBT & DBT Tools For Emotional Regulation
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
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