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It’s Research Review Monday at 10almonds, and today we’re bringing you the condensed low-down on some of the hottest supplements on the rise this year—which of these would benefit you the most? Depends what you’re looking to improve!
Check out these impressive contenders…
🥒 COOL AS A CUCUMBER?
Cucumber Extract Beats Glucosamine & Chondroitin… At 1/135th Of The Dose?!
Do you take glucosamine & chondroitin supplements for your bone-and-joint health?
Or perhaps, like many, you take them intermittently because they mean taking several large tablets a day. Or maybe you don’t take them at all because they generally contain ingredients derived from shellfish?
Cucumber extract has your back! (and your knees, and your hips, and…)
It’s plant-derived (being from botanical cucumbers, not sea cucumbers, the aquatic animal!) and requires only 1/135th of the dosage to produce twice the benefits!
Distilling the study to its absolute bare bones for your convenience:
Cucumber extract (10mg) was pitted against glucosamine & chondroitin (1350mg)
Cucumber extract performed around 50% better than G&C after 30 days
Cucumber extract performed more than 200% better than G&C after 180 days
In conclusion, this study indicates that, in very lay terms:
Cucumber extract blows glucosamine & chondroitin out of the water as a treatment and preventative for joint pain
🍄 IS THERE MUSHROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT ON THIS?
☕️ Mushroom Coffee!
We’ll get straight down to the meat of it:
Mushroom coffee offers the benefits of instant coffee with the goodness of medicinal mushrooms.
It contains less caffeine than your ordinary cup of coffee but offers a multitude of health benefits based on the mushroom blend you use in your products.
For example, Lion’s mane may support mental wellness, Chaga is high in antioxidants, Reishi’s benefits may include supporting immunity, reducing stress, and enhancing sleep, while Cordyceps may promote energy and improve physical performance.
So, while mushroom coffee may enhance the taste of coffee, it also offers the health benefits of mushrooms minus the caffeine’s side effects.
We were curious about what the actual science had to say, and here’s the breakdown:
Lion’s Mane—might not have immediate cognitive benefits in healthy humans / it makes mice less anxious though! / and in humans, may be good against Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and depression
Chaga—indeed has antioxidative and neuroprotective effects and can help against Type 2 Diabetes
Reishi—has general immune system benefits, and additionally has anti-cancer properties
Cordyceps—is very good for your cardiovascular health.
Yes, this is the same Cordyceps that famously produces “zombie spiders”, “zombie ants”, and like. It’s actually used as a biological insecticide for this reason.
But all known strains of Cordyceps can’t survive at human body temperature, so a Cordyceps-induced zombie apocalypse à la “The Last Of Us” is (happily!) not a risk at this time.
🌱 GET A PHOTOSYNTH O’ THIS
Chlorophyll Heaven
Hard science is all well and good, but if you don’t live in a lab, you might sometimes want more practical advice on how to get the right results! If so, this one’s for you—your skin (and immune system) will thank you!
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
Quit Drinking - by Rebecca Dolton
Many “quit drinking” books focus on tips you’ve heard already—cut down like this, rearrange your habits like that, make yourself accountable like so, add a reward element this way, etc.
Dolton takes a different approach.
She focuses instead on the underlying processes of addiction, so as to not merely understand them to fight them, but also to use them against the addiction itself.
This is not just a social or behavioral analysis, by the way, and goes into some detail into the physiological factors of the addiction—including such things as the little-talked about relationship between addiction and gut flora. Candida albans, found in most if not all humans to some extent, gets really out of control when given certain kinds of sugars (including those from alcohol); it grows, eventually puts roots through the intestinal walls (ouch!) and the more it grows, the more it demands the sugars it craves, so the more you feed it.
Quite a motivator to not listen to such cravings! It’s not even you that wants it, it’s the Candida!
Anyway, that’s just one example; there are many. The point here is that this is a well-researched, well-written book that sets itself apart from many of its genre.
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Wishing you a healthy day of productivity and night of rest,
The 10almonds Team