Your Vitamins are Obsolete: The Vitamer Revolution – by Dr. Sheldon Zablow

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First, what this is not:a book to tell you “throw out your vitamins and just eat these foods”.

This book focuses mainly on two vitamins in which deficiencies are common especially as we get older: B9 and B12.

So, what does the title mean? It’s not so much that your vitamins are obsolete—that would imply that they were more useful previously, which is not the case. Rather, the most common forms of vitamins B9 and B12 provided in supplements are folic acid and cyanocobalamin, respectively, which as he demonstrates with extensive research to back up his claims, cannot be easily absorbed or used especially well.

About those vitamers: a vitamer is simply a form of a vitamin—most vitamins we need can arrive in a variety of forms. In the case of vitamins B9 and B12, he advocates for ditching vitamers folic acid and cyanocobalamin, cheap as they are, and springing for bioactive vitamers L-methylfolate, methylcobalamin, and adenosylcobalamin.

He also discusses (again, just as well-evidenced as the above things) why we might struggle to get enough from our diet after a certain age. For example, if trying to get these vitamins from meat, 50% of people over 50 cannot manufacture enough stomach acid to break down that protein to release the vitamins.

And as for methyl-B12 vitamers, you might expect you can get those from meat, and technically you can, but they don’t occur in all animals, just in one kind of animal. Specifically, the kind that has the largest brain-to-body ratio. However, eating the meat of this animal can result in protein folding errors in general and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in particular, so the author does not recommend eating humans, however nutritionally convenient that would be.

All this means that supplementation after a certain age really can be a sensible way to do it—but do it wisely, and pick the right vitamers.

The style of the book is informationally dense, but very readable even for a layperson provided one starts at the beginning and reads forwards, as otherwise one will find oneself in a mire of terms whose explanations one missed when they were first introduced.

Bottom line: if you are over 50 and/or have any known or suspected issues with vitamins B9 and/or B12, this book becomes very important reading.

Click here to check out Your Vitamins Are Obsolete, and get your body what it needs!

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  • How to Boost Your Metabolism When Over 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.

    Dr. Dawn Andalon, a physiotherapist, explains the role of certain kinds of exercise in metabolism; here’s what to keep in mind:

    Work with your body

    Many people make the mistake of thinking that it is a somehow a battle of wills, and they must simply will their body to pick up the pace. That’s not how it works though, and while that can occasionally get short-term results, at best it’ll quickly result in exhaustion. So, instead:

    • Strength training: engage in weight training 2–3 times per week; build muscle and combat bone loss too. Proper guidance from trainers familiar with older adults is recommended. Pilates (Dr. Andalon is a Pilates instructor) can also complement strength training by enhancing core stability and preventing injuries. The “building muscle” thing is important for metabolism, because muscle increases the body’s metabolic base rate.
    • Protein intake: Dr. Andalon advises to consume 25–30 grams of lean protein per meal to support muscle growth and repair (again, important for the same reason as mentioned above re exercise). Dr. Andalon’s recommendation is more protein per meal than is usually advised, as it is generally held that the body cannot use more than about 20g at once.
    • Sleep quality: prioritize good quality sleep, by practising good sleep hygiene, and also addressing any potential hormonal imbalances affecting sleep. If you do not get good quality sleep, your metabolism will get sluggish in an effort to encourage you to sleep more.
    • Exercise to manage stress: regular walking (such as the popular 10,000 steps daily) helps manage stress and improve metabolism. Zone two cardio (low-intensity movement) also supports joint health, blood flow, and recovery—but the main issue about stress here is that if your body experiences unmanaged stress, it will try to save you from whatever is stressing you by reducing your metabolic base rate so that you can out-survive the bad thing. Which is helpful if the stressful thing is that the fruit trees got stripped by giraffes and hunting did not yield a kill, but not so helpful if the stressful thing is the holiday season.
    • Hydration: your body cannot function properly without adequate hydration; water is needed (directly or indirectly) for all bodily processes, and your metabolism will also “dry up” without it.
    • Antidiabetic & anti-inflammatory diet: minimize sugar intake and reduce processed foods, especially those with inflammatory refined oils (esp. canola & sunflower) and the like. This has very directly to do with your body’s energy metabolism, and as they say in computing, “garbage in; garbage out”.

    For more on all of this, enjoy:

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

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Burn! How To Boost Your Metabolism

    Take care!

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  • Exhausted To Energized – by Dr. Libby Weaver

    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.

    There are very many possible causes of low energy; some are obvious; some are not.

    Dr. Weaver goes through a comprehensive list that goes beyond the common, to encompass also the “not rare” options—how to test for them where appropriate, and how to improve/fix them where appropriate.

    Thus, she talks us through the marvels of mitochondria (including how to keep them happy and healthy and how to promote the generation of new ones), antioxidant defense mechanisms, coenzyme Q10 and friends, B vitamins of various kinds, macronutrients, the autonomic nervous system, sleep and its many factors, blood oxygenation, digestive issues, what’s going on in the spleen, the gallbladder, the liver, the kidneys, the adrenal glands, our thyroid goings-on in all its multifarious wonders, minerals like iodine, iron, magnesium, zinc, our epigenetic factors, and even psychological considerations ranging from stress to grief. In short—and we have shortened the list to pick out particularly salient pointsquite a comprehensive rundown of the human body to make your human body less run-down.

    The style is on the very readable pop-science, and/but she does bring her professional knowledge to bear on topic (her doctorate is a PhD in biochemistry, and it shows; a lot of explanations come from that angle).

    Bottom line: if you are often exhausted and would rather be energized, this this book almost certainly address at least a couple of things you probably haven’t considered—and even just one would make it worthwhile.

    Click here to check out Exhausted To Energized, go from exhausted to energized!

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  • Does This New Machine Cure Depression?

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    Let us first talk briefly about the slightly older tech that this may replace, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

    TMS involves electromagnetic fields to stimulate the left half of the brain and inhibit the right half of the brain. It sounds like something from the late 19th century—“cure your melancholy with the mystical power of magnetism”—but the thing is, it works:

    Regulatory Clearance and Approval of Therapeutic Protocols of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Psychiatric Disorders

    The main barriers to its use are that the machine itself is expensive, and it has to be done in a clinic by a trained clinician. Which, if it were treating one’s heart, say, would not be so much of an issue, but when treating depression, there is a problem that depressed people are not the most likely to commit to (and follow through with) going somewhere probably out-of-town regularly to get a treatment, when merely getting out of the door was already a challenge and motivation is thin on the ground to start with.

    Thus, antidepressant medications are more often the go-to for cost-effectiveness and adherence. Of course, some will work better than others for different people, and some may not work at all in the case of what is generally called “treatment-resistant depression”:

    Antidepressants: Personalization Is Key!

    Transcranial stimulation… At home?

    Move over transcranial magnetic stimulation; it’s time for transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS).

    First, what it’s not: electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Rather, it uses a very low current.

    What it is: a small and portable headset (as opposed to the big machine to go sit in for TMS) that one can use at home. Here’s an example product on Amazon, though there are more stylish versions around, this is the same basic technology.

    In a recent study, 45% of those who received treatment with this device experienced remission in 10 weeks, significantly beating placebo (bearing in mind that placebo effect is strongest when it comes to invisible ailments such as depression).

    See also: How To Leverage Placebo Effect For Yourself ← this explains more about how the placebo effect works, to the extent that it can even be an adjuvant tool to augment “real” therapies

    And as for the study, here it is:

    Home-based transcranial direct current stimulation treatment for major depressive disorder: a fully remote phase 2 randomized sham-controlled trial

    …which rather cuts through the “depressed people don’t make it to the clinic consistently, if at all” problem. Of course, it still requires adherence to its use at home, for example three 30-minute sessions per week, but honestly, “lie/sit still” is likely within the abilities of the majority of depressed people. However…

    Important note: you remember we said “in 10 weeks”? That may be critical, because shorter studies (e.g. 6 weeks) have previously returned without such glowing results:

    Home-Use Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for the Treatment of a Major Depressive Episode

    This means that if you get this tech for yourself or a loved one, it’ll be necessary to persist for likely 10 weeks, certainly more than 6 weeks, and not abandon it after a few sessions when it hasn’t been life-changing yet. And that may be more of a challenge for a depressed person, so likely an “accountability buddy” of some kind is in order (partner, close friend, etc) to help ensure adherence and generally bug you/them into doing it consistently.

    And then, of course, you/they might still be in the 55% of people for whom it didn’t work. And that does suck, but random antidepressant medications (i.e., not personalized) don’t fare much better, statistically.

    Want something else against depression meanwhile?

    Here are some strategies that not only can significantly help, but also are tailored to be actually doable while depressed:

    The Mental Health First-Aid You’ll Hopefully Never Need ← written by your writer who has previously suffered extensively from depression and knows what it is like

    Take care!

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  • This salt alternative could help reduce blood pressure. So why are so few people using it?

    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 in three Australian adults has high blood pressure (hypertension). Excess salt (sodium) increases the risk of high blood pressure so everyone with hypertension is advised to reduce salt in their diet.

    But despite decades of strong recommendations we have failed to get Australians to cut their intake. It’s hard for people to change the way they cook, season their food differently, pick low-salt foods off the supermarket shelves and accept a less salty taste.

    Now there is a simple and effective solution: potassium-enriched salt. It can be used just like regular salt and most people don’t notice any important difference in taste.

    Switching to potassium-enriched salt is feasible in a way that cutting salt intake is not. Our new research concludes clinical guidelines for hypertension should give patients clear recommendations to switch.

    What is potassium-enriched salt?

    Potassium-enriched salts replace some of the sodium chloride that makes up regular salt with potassium chloride. They’re also called low-sodium salt, potassium salt, heart salt, mineral salt, or sodium-reduced salt.

    Potassium chloride looks the same as sodium chloride and tastes very similar.

    Potassium-enriched salt works to lower blood pressure not only because it reduces sodium intake but also because it increases potassium intake. Insufficient potassium, which mostly comes from fruit and vegetables, is another big cause of high blood pressure.

    What is the evidence?

    We have strong evidence from a randomised trial of 20,995 people that switching to potassium-enriched salt lowers blood pressure and reduces the risks of stroke, heart attacks and early death. The participants had a history of stroke or were 60 years of age or older and had high blood pressure.

    An overview of 21 other studies suggests much of the world’s population could benefit from potassium-enriched salt.

    The World Health Organisation’s 2023 global report on hypertension highlighted potassium-enriched salt as an “affordable strategy” to reduce blood pressure and prevent cardiovascular events such as strokes.

    What should clinical guidelines say?

    We teamed up with researchers from the United States, Australia, Japan, South Africa and India to review 32 clinical guidelines for managing high blood pressure across the world. Our findings are published today in the American Heart Association’s journal, Hypertension.

    We found current guidelines don’t give clear and consistent advice on using potassium-enriched salt.

    While many guidelines recommend increasing dietary potassium intake, and all refer to reducing sodium intake, only two guidelines – the Chinese and European – recommend using potassium-enriched salt.

    To help guidelines reflect the latest evidence, we suggested specific wording which could be adopted in Australia and around the world:

    Recommended wording for guidance about the use of potassium-enriched salt in clinical management guidelines.

    Why do so few people use it?

    Most people are unaware of how much salt they eat or the health issues it can cause. Few people know a simple switch to potassium-enriched salt can help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of a stroke and heart disease.

    Limited availability is another challenge. Several Australian retailers stock potassium-enriched salt but there is usually only one brand available, and it is often on the bottom shelf or in a special food aisle.

    Potassium-enriched salts also cost more than regular salt, though it’s still low cost compared to most other foods, and not as expensive as many fancy salts now available.

    Woman gets man to try her cooking
    It looks and tastes like normal salt.
    Jimmy Dean/Unsplash

    A 2021 review found potassium-enriched salts were marketed in only 47 countries and those were mostly high-income countries. Prices ranged from the same as regular salt to almost 15 times greater.

    Even though generally more expensive, potassium-enriched salt has the potential to be highly cost effective for disease prevention.

    Preventing harm

    A frequently raised concern about using potassium-enriched salt is the risk of high blood potassium levels (hyperkalemia) in the approximately 2% of the population with serious kidney disease.

    People with serious kidney disease are already advised to avoid regular salt and to avoid foods high in potassium.

    No harm from potassium-enriched salt has been recorded in any trial done to date, but all studies were done in a clinical setting with specific guidance for people with kidney disease.

    Our current priority is to get people being managed for hypertension to use potassium-enriched salt because health-care providers can advise against its use in people at risk of hyperkalemia.

    In some countries, potassium-enriched salt is recommended to the entire community because the potential benefits are so large. A modelling study showed almost half a million strokes and heart attacks would be averted every year in China if the population switched to potassium-enriched salt.

    What will happen next?

    In 2022, the health minister launched the National Hypertension Taskforce, which aims to improve blood pressure control rates from 32% to 70% by 2030 in Australia.

    Potassium-enriched salt can play a key role in achieving this. We are working with the taskforce to update Australian hypertension management guidelines, and to promote the new guidelines to health professionals.

    In parallel, we need potassium-enriched salt to be more accessible. We are engaging stakeholders to increase the availability of these products nationwide.

    The world has already changed its salt supply once: from regular salt to iodised salt. Iodisation efforts began in the 1920s and took the best part of 100 years to achieve traction. Salt iodisation is a key public health achievement of the last century preventing goitre (a condition where your thyroid gland grows larger) and enhancing educational outcomes for millions of the poorest children in the world, as iodine is essential for normal growth and brain development.

    The next switch to iodised and potassium-enriched salt offers at least the same potential for global health gains. But we need to make it happen in a fraction of the time.The Conversation

    Xiaoyue Xu (Luna), Scientia Lecturer, UNSW Sydney; Alta Schutte, SHARP Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, UNSW Sydney, and Bruce Neal, Executive Director, George Institute Australia, George Institute for Global Health

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

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  • Moore’s Clinically Oriented Anatomy – by Dr. Anne Argur & Dr. Arthur Dalley

    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.

    Imagine, if you will, Grey’s Anatomy but beautifully illustrated in color and formatted in a way that’s easy to read—both in terms of layout and searchability, and also in terms of how this book presents anatomy described in a practical, functional context, with summary boxes for each area, so that the primary concepts don’t get lost in the very many details.

    (In contrast, if you have a copy of the famous Grey’s Anatomy, you’ll know it’s full of many pages of nothing but tiny dense text, a large amount of which is Latin, with occasional etchings by way of illustration)

    Another way in which this does a lot better than the aforementioned seminal work is that it also describes and discusses very many common variations and abnormalities, both congenital and acquired, so that it’s not just a text of “what a theoretical person looks like inside”, but rather also reflects the diverse reality of the human form (we weren’t made identically in a production line, and so we can vary quite a bit).

    The book is, of course, intended for students and practitioners of medicine and related fields, so what good is it to the lay person? Well, if you ask the average person where the gallbladder is and why we have one, they will gesture in the general direction of the abdomen, and sort of shrug sheepishly. You don’t have to be that person 🙂

    Bottom line: if you’d like to know your acetabulum from your zygomatic arch, this is the best anatomy book this reviewer has yet seen.

    Click here to check out Moore’s Clinically Oriented Anatomy, and prepare to be amazed!

    PS: this one is expensive, but consider it a fair investment in your personal education, if you’re serious about it!

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  • Why do I need to take some medicines with food?

    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.

    Have you ever been instructed to take your medicine with food and wondered why? Perhaps you’ve wondered if you really need to?

    There are varied reasons, and sometimes complex science and chemistry, behind why you may be advised to take a medicine with food.

    To complicate matters, some similar medicines need to be taken differently. The antibiotic amoxicillin with clavulanic acid (sold as Amoxil Duo Forte), for example, is recommended to be taken with food, while amoxicillin alone (sold as Amoxil), can be taken with or without food.

    Different brands of the same medicine may also have different recommendations when it comes to taking it with food.

    Ron Lach/Pexels

    Food impacts drug absorption

    Food can affect how fast and how much a drug is absorbed into the body in up to 40% of medicines taken orally.

    When you have food in your stomach, the makeup of the digestive juices change. This includes things like the fluid volume, thickness, pH (which becomes less acidic with food), surface tension, movement and how much salt is in your bile. These changes can impair or enhance drug absorption.

    Eating a meal also delays how fast the contents of the stomach move into the small intestine – this is known as gastric emptying. The small intestine has a large surface area and rich blood supply – and this is the primary site of drug absorption.

    Quinoa salad and healthy pudding
    Eating a meal with medicine will delay its onset. Farhad/Pexels

    Eating a larger meal, or one with lots of fibre, delays gastric emptying more than a smaller meal. Sometimes, health professionals will advise you to take a medicine with food, to help your body absorb the drug more slowly.

    But if a drug can be taken with or without food – such as paracetamol – and you want it to work faster, take it on an empty stomach.

    Food can make medicines more tolerable

    Have you ever taken a medicine on an empty stomach and felt nauseated soon after? Some medicines can cause stomach upsets.

    Metformin, for example, is a drug that reduces blood glucose and treats type 2 diabetes and polycystic ovary syndrome. It commonly causes gastrointestinal symptoms, with one in four users affected. To combat these side effects, it is generally recommended to be taken with food.

    The same advice is given for corticosteroids (such as prednisolone/prednisone) and certain antibiotics (such as doxycycline).

    Taking some medicines with food makes them more tolerable and improves the chance you’ll take it for the duration it’s prescribed.

    Can food make medicines safer?

    Ibuprofen is one of the most widely used over-the-counter medicines, with around one in five Australians reporting use within a two-week period.

    While effective for pain and inflammation, ibuprofen can impact the stomach by inhibiting protective prostaglandins, increasing the risk of bleeding, ulceration and perforation with long-term use.

    But there isn’t enough research to show taking ibuprofen with food reduces this risk.

    Prolonged use may also affect kidney function, particularly in those with pre-existing conditions or dehydration.

    The Australian Medicines Handbook, which guides prescribers about medicine usage and dosage, advises taking ibuprofen (sold as Nurofen and Advil) with a glass of water – or with a meal if it upsets your stomach.

    Pharmacist gives medicine to customer
    If it doesn’t upset your stomach, ibuprofen can be taken with water. Tbel Abuseridze/Unsplash

    A systematic review published in 2015 found food delays the transit of ibuprofen to the small intestine and absorption, which delays therapeutic effect and the time before pain relief. It also found taking short courses of ibuprofen without food reduced the need for additional doses.

    To reduce the risk of ibuprofen causing damage to your stomach or kidneys, use the lowest effective dose for the shortest duration, stay hydrated and avoid taking other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines at the same time.

    For people who use ibuprofen for prolonged periods and are at higher risk of gastrointestinal side effects (such as people with a history of ulcers or older adults), your prescriber may start you on a proton pump inhibitor, a medicine that reduces stomach acid and protects the stomach lining.

    How much food do you need?

    When you need to take a medicine with food, how much is enough?

    Sometimes a full glass of milk or a couple of crackers may be enough, for medicines such as prednisone/prednisolone.

    However, most head-to-head studies that compare the effects of a medicine “with food” and without, usually use a heavy meal to define “with food”. So, a cracker may not be enough, particularly for those with a sensitive stomach. A more substantial meal that includes a mix of fat, protein and carbohydrates is generally advised.

    Your health professional can advise you on which of your medicines need to be taken with food and how they interact with your digestive system.

    Mary Bushell, Clinical Associate Professor in Pharmacy, University of Canberra

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

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