Eye Drops: Safety & Alternatives

Today’s almonds have been activated by:

⏰ IN A RUSH?

Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• Unless prescribed to treat a specific medical condition, eye drops are a bad idea

  • If you want a bright sparkle to the eyes though, the key is good cardiovascular health, hydration, and low cortisol

• Don’t want to cut out wheat, but do want the wheat products you consume to be healthier?

  • Today’s sponsor, Wildgrain, offers high-quality fresh bread, pastries, and pastas made with zero-bleach flour and no artificial additives

Read on to learn about these things and more…

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

Tight hip flexors? Hip pain? Resolve it with this 3-step release and pandiculation (16:24)

Alternatively, it's only about 5 minutes if you want to just skip to the three-step release. If you have time, the preamble and section on pandiculation is also worthwhile, though!

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

• 02:16 | Tight hip flexors in athletes

• 02:53 | Tight hip flexors cause pain

• 03:18 | Is stretching and strengthening a waste of time?

• 03:46 | Tight hip flexors don't make sense

• 04:10 | Benefits of stretching

• 04:57 | Nervous system regulation

• 06:33 | Pandiculation

• 07:13 | Trigger point release

• 07:41 | Trigger point techniques

• 08:19 | Step 1 (hip flexor release, back)

• 11:07 | Step 2 (hip flexor release, front)

• 12:03 | Step 3 (hip realignment)

• 14:39 | Closing thoughts

Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later 🔖

❓ MAIN FEATURE

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!

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 😎

❝Before important business meetings my father used to use eye drops to add a "sparkle" to his eyes. I think that is a step too far, but what, short of eye drops, can we do to keep our eyes bright throughout the day?❞

Firstly, we’d indeed not recommend eye drops unless advised to do so by your doctor to treat a specific health condition:

• Infections from over-the-counter artificial tears

• Are my eye drops safe to use?

• More eye drops recalled due to infection danger

Those eye drops that “add sparkle” are often based on astringents such as witch hazel. This means that the capillaries in the eye undergo vasoconstriction, becoming much less visible and the eye thus appears much whiter and thus brighter.

There isn’t a way to do the same thing from the inside, as taking a vasoconstrictor will simply increase your general blood pressure, making the capillaries of your eyes more, rather than less, visible.

However, what you can do is…

• look after your general vasculature (cardiovascular health)

• in particular, reduce hypertension

• that includes limiting salt

• stay away from vasoconstrictors (including caffeine)

• reduce your resting cortisol levels

• that certainly also means reducing alcohol consumption

• maintain good hydration

Take care!

📊 POLL

We turn the tables and ask you a question…

We’ll then talk about this tomorrow:

❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

Wildgrain | Carbs, better.

Craving the warmth of freshly baked sourdough, the special comfort of fresh pasta, or the delights of artisanal pastries?

Wildgrain has you covered, with their "25 minutes or under" bake-from-frozen range. The fresh pasta can of course be boiled 😉

“But wait,” we hear you say, "this is a health science newsletter; what's with the carbfest?"

A confession, dear readers: we've been known to enjoy a carb or two in our time; the trick is to go for the best options:

• Wildgrain doesn't use any bleached flours at all

• They do use organic ingredients wherever possible

• They don't use artificial flavors or preservatives

• As for dietary restrictions, you can check out their website for their options

As for how it works, you have complete flexibility of your membership. Enjoy free delivery, tailor your box frequency, and customize your selection to suit your needs and taste preferences—and yes, you can reschedule, pause, or cancel at any time.

• Bonus: 10almonds readers who sign up today will enjoy free croissants with every box for life! 🥐

• Bonus bonus: for every new Wildgrain member, they donate 4 meals to a food bank. 'Tis the season!

Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

🌎 AROUND THE WEB

What’s happening in the health world…

• Obesity linked to neurodegeneration through insulin resistance

• Improving heart health habits may slow biological aging

• Prototype pacemaker turns heartbeat energy into battery power

• Collective intelligence can help reduce medical misdiagnoses

• Zen and the art of mitochondrial maintenance: the machinery of death makes a healthier life

• Gender-neutral HPV vaccination best at preventing cervical cancer

• "Why did I get it?": Research into early onset Parkinson’s hopes to give patients answers

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: And Two Other Short Guides to Achieving More at Work and at Home – by Laura Vanderkram

First, what this is not: this is not a rehash of "The 5AM Club", and nor is it a rehash of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People".

What it is: packed with tips about time management for real people operating here in the real world. The kind of people who have non-negotiable time-specific responsibilities, and frequent unavoidable interruptions. The kind of people who have partners, families, and personal goals and aspirations too.

The "two other short guides" mentioned in the subtitle are her other books, whose titles start the same but instead of "...before Breakfast", substitute:

• ...on the Weekend

• ...at Work

However, if you're retired (we know many of our subscribers are), this still applies to you:

• The "weekend" book is about getting the most out of one's leisure time, and we hope you have that too!

• The "work" book is about not getting lost in the nitty-gritty of the daily grind, and instead making sure to keep track of the big picture. You probably have this in your personal projects, too!

Bottom line: if, in the mornings, it sometimes seems like your get-up-and-go has got up and gone without you, then you will surely benefit from this book that outstrips its competitors in usefulness and applicability.

Click here to check out What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and get the most out of your days!

Wishing you a bright and healthy day,

The 10almonds Team