Your Brain on Art – by Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross

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 notion of art therapy is popularly considered a little wishy-washy. As it turns out, however, there are thousands of studies showing its effectiveness.

Nor is this just a matter of self-expression. As authors Magsamen and Ross explore, different kinds of engagement with art can convey different benefits.

That’s one of the greatest strengths of this book: “this form of engagement with art will give these benefits, according to these studies”

With benefits ranging from reducing stress and anxiety, to overcoming psychological trauma or physical pain, there’s a lot to be said for art!

And because the book covers many kinds of art, if you can’t imagine yourself taking paintbrush to canvas, that’s fine too. We learn of the very specific cognitive benefits of coloring in mandalas (yes, really), of sculpting something terrible in clay, or even just of repainting the kitchen, and more. Each thing has its set of benefits.

The book’s main goal is to encourage the reader to cultivate what the authors call an aesthetic mindset, which involves four key attributes:

  • a high level of curiosity
  • a love of playful, open-ended exploration
  • a keen sensory awareness
  • a drive to engage in creative activities

And, that latter? It’s as a maker and/or a beholder. We learn about what we can gain just by engaging with art that someone else made, too.

Bottom line: come for the evidence-based cognitive benefits; stay for the childlike wonder of the universe. If you already love art, or have thought it’s just “not for you”, then this book is for you.

Click here to check out Your Brain On Art, and open up whole new worlds of experience!

Don’t Forget…

Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

Recommended

  • SuperLife – by Darin Olien
  • Sticky Jackfruit Burgers
    Savor the flavors of pulled pork with a healthy twist: jackfruit! Packed with fiber and nutrients, this recipe offers a guilt-free gourmet experience.

Learn to Age Gracefully

Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • What Too Much Exercise Does To Your Body And Brain

    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.

    “Get more exercise” is a common rallying-cry for good health, but it is possible to overdo it. And, this is not just a matter of extreme cases of “exercise addiction”, but even going much above certain limits can already result in sabotaging one’s healthy gains. But how, and where does the line get drawn?

    Too Much Of A Good Thing

    The famous 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise (or 75 minutes of intense exercise) is an oft-touted figure. This video, on the other hand, springs for 5 hours of moderate exercise or 2.5 hours intense exercise as a good guideline.

    We’re advised that going over those guidelines doesn’t necessarily increase health benefits, and on the contrary, may reduce or even reverse them. For example, we are told…

    • Light to moderate running reduces the risk of death, but running intensely more than 3 times a week can negate these benefits.
    • Extreme endurance exercises, like ultra-marathons, may cause heart damage, heart rhythm disorders, and artery enlargement.
    • Women who exercise strenuously every day have a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes compared to those who exercise moderately.
    • Excessive exercise in women can lead to the “female athlete triad” (loss of menstruation, osteoporosis, and eating disorders).
    • In men, intense exercise can lower libido due to fatigue and reduced testosterone levels.
    • Both men and women are at increased risk of overuse injuries (e.g., tendinitis, stress fractures) and impaired immunity from excessive exercise.
    • There is a 72-hour window of impaired immunity after intense exercise, increasing the risk of infections.

    Exercise addiction is rare, though, with this video citing “around 1 million people in the US suffer from exercise addiction”.

    For more on finding the right balance, enjoy:

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

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Take care!

    Share This Post

  • We don’t all need regular skin cancer screening – but you can know your risk and check yourself

    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.

    Australia has one of the highest skin cancer rates globally, with nearly 19,000 Australians diagnosed with invasive melanoma – the most lethal type of skin cancer – each year.

    While advanced melanoma can be fatal, it is highly treatable when detected early.

    But Australian clinical practice guidelines and health authorities do not recommend screening for melanoma in the general population.

    Given our reputation as the skin cancer capital of the world, why isn’t there a national screening program? Australia currently screens for breast, cervical and bowel cancer and will begin lung cancer screening in 2025.

    It turns out the question of whether to screen everyone for melanoma and other skin cancers is complex. Here’s why.

    Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock

    The current approach

    On top of the 19,000 invasive melanoma diagnoses each year, around 28,000 people are diagnosed with in-situ melanoma.

    In-situ melanoma refers to a very early stage melanoma where the cancerous cells are confined to the outer layer of the skin (the epidermis).

    Instead of a blanket screening program, Australia promotes skin protection, skin awareness and regular skin checks (at least annually) for those at high risk.

    About one in three Australian adults have had a clinical skin check within the past year.

    clinician checks the back of a young man with red hair and freckles in health office
    Those with fairer skin or a family history may be at greater risk of skin cancer. Halfpoint/Shutterstock

    Why not just do skin checks for everyone?

    The goal of screening is to find disease early, before symptoms appear, which helps save lives and reduce morbidity.

    But there are a couple of reasons a national screening program is not yet in place.

    We need to ask:

    1. Does it save lives?

    Many researchers would argue this is the goal of universal screening. But while universal skin cancer screening would likely lead to more melanoma diagnoses, this might not necessarily save lives. It could result in indolent (slow-growing) cancers being diagnosed that might have never caused harm. This is known as “overdiagnosis”.

    Screening will pick up some cancers people could have safely lived with, if they didn’t know about them. The difficulty is in recognising which cancers are slow-growing and can be safely left alone.

    Receiving a diagnosis causes stress and is more likely to lead to additional medical procedures (such as surgeries), which carry their own risks.

    2. Is it value for money?

    Implementing a nationwide screening program involves significant investment and resources. Its value to the health system would need to be calculated, to ensure this is the best use of resources.

    Narrower targets for better results

    Instead of screening everyone, targeting high-risk groups has shown better results. This focuses efforts where they’re needed most. Risk factors for skin cancer include fair skin, red hair, a history of sunburns, many moles and/or a family history.

    Research has shown the public would be mostly accepting of a risk-tailored approach to screening for melanoma.

    There are moves underway to establish a national targeted skin cancer screening program in Australia, with the government recently pledging $10.3 million to help tackle “the most common cancer in our sunburnt country, skin cancer” by focusing on those at greater risk.

    Currently, Australian clinical practice guidelines recommend doctors properly evaluate all patients for their future risk of melanoma.

    Looking with new technological eyes

    Technological advances are improving the accuracy of skin cancer diagnosis and risk assessment.

    For example, researchers are investigating 3D total body skin imaging to monitor changes to spots and moles over time.

    Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms can analyse images of skin lesions, and support doctors’ decision making.

    Genetic testing can now identify risk markers for more personalised screening.

    And telehealth has made remote consultations possible, increasing access to specialists, particularly in rural areas.

    Check yourself – 4 things to look for

    Skin cancer can affect all skin types, so it’s a good idea to become familiar with your own skin. The Skin Cancer College Australasia has introduced a guide called SCAN your skin, which tells people to look for skin spots or areas that are:

    1. sore (scaly, itchy, bleeding, tender) and don’t heal within six weeks

    2. changing in size, shape, colour or texture

    3. abnormal for you and look different or feel different, or stand out when compared to your other spots and moles

    4. new and have appeared on your skin recently. Any new moles or spots should be checked, especially if you are over 40.

    If something seems different, make an appointment with your doctor.

    You can self-assess your melanoma risk online via the Melanoma Institute Australia or QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.

    H. Peter Soyer, Professor of Dermatology, The University of Queensland; Anne Cust, Professor of Cancer Epidemiology, The Daffodil Centre and Melanoma Institute Australia, University of Sydney; Caitlin Horsham, Research Manager, The University of Queensland, and Monika Janda, Professor in Behavioural Science, The University of Queensland

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

    Share This Post

  • The Exercises That Can Fix Sinus Problems (And More)

    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.

    Who nose what benefits you will gain today?

    This is James Nestor, a science journalist and author. He’s written for many publications, including Scientific American, and written a number of books, most notably Breath: The New Science Of A Lost Art.

    Today we’ll be looking at what he has to share about what has gone wrong with our breathing, what problems this causes, and how to fix it.

    What has gone wrong?

    When it comes to breathing, we humans are the pugs of the primate world. In a way, we have the opposite problem to the squashed-faced dogs, though. But, how and why?

    When our ancestors learned first tenderize food, and later to cook it, this had two big effects:

    1. We could now get much more nutrition for much less hunting/gathering
    2. We now did not need to chew our food nearly so much

    Getting much more nutrition for much less hunting/gathering is what allowed us to grow our brains so large—as a species, we have a singularly large brain-to-body size ratio.

    Not needing to chew our food nearly so much, meanwhile, had even more effects… And these effects have become only more pronounced in recent decades with the rise of processed food making our food softer and softer.

    It changed the shape of our jaw and cheekbones, just as the size of our brains taking up more space in our skull moved our breathing apparatus around. As a result, our nasal cavities are anatomically ridiculous, our sinuses are a crime against nature (not least of all because they drain backwards and get easily clogged), and our windpipes are very easily blocked and damaged due to the unique placement of our larynx; we’re the only species that has it there. It allowed us to develop speech, but at the cost of choking much more easily.

    What problems does this cause?

    Our (normal, to us) species-wide breathing problems have resulted in behavioral adaptations such as partial (or in some people’s cases, total or near-total) mouth-breathing. This in turn exacerbates the problems with our jaws and cheekbones, which in turn exacerbates the problems with our sinuses and nasal cavities in general.

    Results include such very human-centric conditions as sleep apnea, as well as a tendency towards asthma, allergies, and autoimmune diseases. Improper breathing also brings about a rather sluggish metabolism for how many calories we consume.

    How are we supposed to fix all that?!

    First, close your mouth if you haven’t already, and breathe through your nose.

    In and out.

    Both are important, and unless you are engaging in peak exercise, both should be through your nose. If you’re not used to this, it may feel odd at first, but practice, and build up your breathing ability.

    Six seconds in and six seconds out is a very good pace.

    If you’re sitting doing a breathing exercise, also good is four seconds in, four seconds hold, four seconds out, four seconds hold, repeat.

    But those frequent holds aren’t practical in general life, so: six seconds in, six seconds out.

    Through your nose only.

    This has benefits immediately, but there are other more long-term benefits from doing not just that, but also what has been called (by Nestor, amongst many others), “Mewing”, per the orthodontist, Dr. John Mew, who pioneered it.

    How (and why) to “mew”:

    Place your tongue against the roof of your mouth. It should be flat against the palate; you’re not touching it with the tip here; you’re creating a flat seal.

    Note: if you were mouth-breathing, you will now be unable to breathe. So, important to make sure you can breathe adequately through your nose first.

    This does two things:

    1. It obliges nose-breathing rather than mouth-breathing
    2. It creates a change in how the muscles of your face interact with the bones of your face

    In a battle between muscle and bone, muscle will always win.

    Aim to keep your tongue there as much as possible; make it your new best habit. If you’re not eating, talking, or otherwise using your tongue to do something, it should be flat against the roof of your mouth.

    You don’t have to exert pressure; this isn’t an exercise regime. Think of it more as a postural exercise, just, inside your mouth.

    Quick note: read the above line again, because it’s important. Doing it too hard could cause the opposite problems, and you don’t want that. You cannot rush this by doing it harder; it takes time and gentleness.

    Why would we want to do that?

    The result, over time, will tend to be much healthier breathing, better sinus health, freer airways, reduced or eliminated sleep apnea, and, as a bonus, what is generally considered a more attractive face in terms of bone structure. We’re talking more defined cheekbones, straighter teeth, and a better mouth position.

    Want to learn more?

    This is the “Mewing” technique that Nestor encourages us to try:

    Share This Post

Related Posts

  • SuperLife – by Darin Olien
  • What are plyometric exercises? How all that hopping and jumping builds strength, speed and power

    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.

    If you’ve ever seen people at the gym or the park jumping, hopping or hurling weighted balls to the ground, chances are they were doing plyometric exercises.

    Examples include:

    • box jumps, where you repeatedly leap quickly on and off a box
    • lateral skater hops, where you bound from side to side like a speeding ice skater
    • rapidly throwing a heavy medicine ball against a wall, or to the ground
    • single leg hops, which may involve hopping on the spot or through an obstacle course
    • squat jumps, where you repeatedly squat and then launch yourself into the air.
    Photo by cottonbro studio/Pexels

    There are many more examples of plyometric exercises.

    What ties all these moves together is that they use what’s known as the “stretch shortening cycle”. This is where your muscles rapidly stretch and then contract.

    A runner skips over an obstacle course in a field.
    Runners routinely practise plyometric exercises to improve explosive leg strength. WoodysPhotos/Shutterstock

    Potential benefits

    Research shows incorporating plyometric exercise into your routine can help you:

    Studies have found plyometric exercises can help:

    • older people who want to retain and build muscle strength, boost bone health, improve posture and reduce the risk of falls
    • adolescent athletes who want to build the explosive strength needed to excel in sports such as athletics, tennis, soccer, basketball and football
    • female athletes who want to jump higher or change direction quickly (a useful skill in many sports)
    • endurance runners who want to boost physical fitness, run time and athletic performance.

    And when it comes to plyometric exercises, you get out what you put in.

    Research has found the benefits of plyometrics are significantly greater when every jump was performed with maximum effort.

    Women jump on and off boxes.
    Jumping can help boost bone strength. WoodysPhotos/Shutterstock

    Potential risks

    All exercise comes with risk (as does not doing enough exercise!)

    Plyometrics are high-intensity activities that require the body to absorb a lot of impact when landing on the ground or catching medicine balls.

    That means there is some risk of musculoskeletal injury, particularly if the combination of intensity, frequency and volume is too high.

    You might miss a landing and fall, land in a weird way and crunch your ankle, or get a muscle tear if you’re overdoing it.

    The National Strength and Conditioning Association, a US educational nonprofit that uses research to support coaches and athletes, recommends:

    • a maximum of one to three plyometric sessions per week
    • five to ten repetitions per set and
    • rest periods of one to three minutes between sets to ensure complete muscle recovery.
    An older person does jumps on a race track.
    With the right guidance, jumps can be safe for older people and may help reduce the risk of falls as you age. Realstock/Shutterstock

    One meta-analysis, where researchers looked at many studies, found plyometric training was feasible and safe, and could improve older people’s performance, function and health.

    Overall, with appropriate programming and supervision, plyometric exercise can be a safe and effective way to boost your health and athletic performance.

    Justin Keogh, Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University and Mandy Hagstrom, Senior Lecturer, Exercise Physiology. School of Health Sciences, UNSW Sydney

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

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Signs That Are Present When Someone Is Dying

    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.

    You’ve probably been there a few times, although given the emotional nature of the thing, it’s likely that you weren’t taking notes. Hospice workers, on the other hand, do take notes, so here are some things you might want to know, and if anything makes the next time even a little easier, that’ll be good:

    Last stages

    Here are the discussed signs of the “active dying” phase:

    • Increasing unconsciousness:
      • The person will be mostly unresponsive most of the time.
      • Eyes may be open or partially open but not making eye contact.
      • Mouth will likely remain open due to muscle relaxation.
    • Cessation of food and water intake
      • The person will likely not eat or drink for several days.
      • This is a natural process and does not cause suffering per se (e.g. thirst, hunger).
      • Dryness of mouth, however, can be treated with a little moistening, for comfort.
    • Changes in breathing
      • Breathing patterns will change and may be irregular.
      • This is a natural metabolic response, and is not a sign of distress.
      • Terminal secretions (“death rattle”) may occur:
        • A gurgling sound caused by saliva buildup due to loss of swallowing reflex.
        • Not painful or distressing for the person.
        • Can be managed by repositioning or using medication to dry secretions.
    • Skin color changes / mottling:
      • First appears on fingers and toes (purple or gray discoloration).
      • May spread to knees, nose, or other extremities.
    • Temperature fluctuations:
      • The body loses its ability to regulate temperature.
      • Person may feel hot but be cold (or vice versa).
      • Fevers are common—cooling measures and/or Tylenol can help.

    A person in discomfort may appear restless, have a furrowed brow, or show physical agitation. If on the other hand they appear peaceful and unresponsive, they are almost certainly not in distress. At such times, it’s best to focus on just keeping them clean and comfortable.

    For more on all of these, see:

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

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Managing Mortality: When Planning Is a Matter of Life and Death

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Apple vs Pear – 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 apple to pear, we picked the pear.

    Why?

    Both are great! But there’s a category that puts pears ahead of apples…

    Looking at their macros first, pears contain more carbs but also more fiber. Both are low glycemic index foods, though.

    In the category of vitamins, things are moderately even: apples contain more of vitamins A, B1, B6, and E, while pears contain more of vitamins B3, B9, K, and choline. That’s a 4:4 split, and the two fruits are about equal in the other vitamins they both contain.

    When it comes to minerals, pears contain more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc. A resounding victory for pears, as apples are not higher in any mineral.

    In short, if an apple a day keeps the doctor away, a pear should keep the doctor away for about a day and a half, based on the extra nutrients ← this is slightly facetious as medicine doesn’t work like that, but you get the idea: pears simply have more to offer. Apples are still great though! Enjoy both! Diversity is good.

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    From Apples To Bees, And High-Fructose Cs: Which Sugars Are Healthier, And Which Are Just The Same?

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails: