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At The Heart Of Women's Health
Plus: chocolate & health: fact or fiction?
The 10almonds Team
February 15, 2024
Today’s almonds have been activated by:
Happy Valentine’s Day! Always a great time to pay extra attention to your body and mind.
⏰ 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:
“Women’s health” evokes ideas of the health of organs that live under where a bikini goes. But, there’s a lot more to us than that.
Today’s main feature looks at some of the sex differences inherent in heart disease, and why on a societal level it is much more of a women’s issue than breast cancer
Do still be wary of breast cancer, of course, especially if you have any known risk factor(s). But, the stats are very one-sided on this, as you’ll see!
Kegel exercises are a great way of guarding against urinary incontinence and prolapse, but it's easy to do them wrong, or otherwise not get the most out of them
This Valentine’s Day, today’s sponsor Elvie are offering 10almonds readers a 25% discount on their Smart Kegel Trainer—check it out, and you’ll see why it makes such a difference!
Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive
🤫 A WORD TO THE WISE
 | How much weight do you actually need to lose?It might be a lot less than you think: |
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
5 Things You Should Never Do To Your Breasts (5:14)
Plus tips for care (to bra or not to bra; that is the question), and things to worry about (e.g. dimpling; could be a sign of cancer) or not (e.g. hair growth; perfectly normal); there's a lot packed into these five minutes:
Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later 🔖
YOU MAY HAVE MISSED…
Which Tea Is Best, By Science?
Are Waist Trainers Just A Waste, And Are Posture Fixers A Quick Fix?
Simply The Pits: These Underarm Myths!
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🫀 MAIN FEATURE
A woman’s heart is a particular thing
For the longest time (and still to a large degree now), “women’s health” is assumed to refer to the health of organs found under a bikini. But there’s a lot more to it than that. We are whole people, with such things as brains and hearts and more.
Today (Valentine’s Day!) we’re focusing on the heart.
A quick recap:
We’ve talked previously about some of these sex differences when it comes to the heart, for example:
…but that’s fairly common knowledge at least amongst those who are attentive to such things, whereas…
…is much less common knowledge, especially with the ways statins are more likely to make things worse for a lot of women (not all though; see the article for some nuance about that).
We also talked about:
…which is well worth reading too!
A question:
Why are women twice as likely to die from a heart attack as their age-equivalent male peers? Women develop heart disease later, but die from it sooner. Why is that?
That’s been a question scientists have been asking (and tentatively answering, as scientists do—hypotheses, theories, conclusions even sometimes) for 20 years now. Likely contributing factors include:
A lack of public knowledge of the different symptoms
A lack of confidence of bystanders to perform CPR on a woman
A lack of public knowledge (including amongst prescribers) about the sex-related differences for statins
A lack of women in cardiology, comparatively.
A lack of attention to it, simply. Men get heart disease earlier, so it’s thought of as a “man thing”, by health providers as much as by individuals. Men get more regular cardiovascular check-ups, women get a mammogram and go.
Statistically, women are much more likely to die from heart disease than breast cancer:
Breast cancer kills around 0.02% of us.
Heart disease kills one in three.
And yet…
❝In a nationwide survey, only 22% of primary care doctors and 42% of cardiologists said they feel extremely well prepared to assess cardiovascular risks in women.
We are lagging in implementing risk prevention guidelines for women.
A lot of women are being told to just watch their cholesterol levels and see their doctor in a year. That's a year of delayed care.❞
(there’s a lot more in that article than we have room for in ours, so do check it out!)
Some good news:
The “bystanders less likely to feel confident performing CPR on a woman” aspect may be helped by the deployment of new automatic external defibrillator, that works from four sides instead of one.
It’s called “double sequential external defibrillation”, and you can learn about it here:
(it’s in use already in Canada and Aotearoa)
Gentlemen-readers, thank you for your attention to this one even if it was mostly not about you! Maybe someone you love will benefit from being aware of this 🙂
On a lighter note…
Since it's Valentine's Day, a little more on affairs of the heart...
Is chocolate good for the heart? And is it really an aphrodisiac?
We answered these questions and more in our previous main feature:
Enjoy!
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE
Elvie Trainer | Take Charge Of Your Pelvic Floor
Weak pelvic floor muscles can mean urinary incontinence and even prolapse, both of which are a lot more common in older age than most people think, and can definitely more than ruin your day.
Kegel exercises make a big difference in keeping those things at bay, but it's easy to do them wrong, or otherwise not get the most out of them. That's where Elvie Smart Trainer comes in!
You put it in (it's small and comfortable and body-safe and easy to clean) and get squeezing, and its gamified app helps perfect your technique, showing stats for your strength, response speed, hold stamina, and other metrics too. What gets measured, gets done, after all!
Because of its optimized feedback system, it gives noticeable improvements in as little as four weeks (based on exercising 5 mins per day, 3 times per week).
And yes, you may well notice the difference in the bedroom too 😉
PS: 10almonds subscribers enjoy 25% off the Evie Trainer with discount code ALMONDS25 😎
Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free
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📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
Self-Care for Tough Times: How to Heal in Times of Anxiety, Loss & Change – by Suzy Reading
A note on the author: while not “Dr. Reading”, she is a “CPsychol, B Psych (Hons), M Psych”; a Chartered Psychologist specializing in wellbeing, stress management and facilitation of healthy lifestyle change. So this is coming from a place of research and evidence!
The kinds of “tough times” she has in mind are so numerous that listing them takes two pages in the book, so we won’t try here. But suffice it to say, there are a lot of things that can go wrong for us as humans, and this book addresses how to take care of ourselves mindfully in light of them.
The author takes a “self-care is health care” approach, and goes about things with a clinical mindset and/but a light tone, offering both background information, and hands-on practical advice.
Bottom line: there may be troubles ahead (and maybe you’re in the middle of troubles right now), but there’s always room for a little sunshine too.
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Wishing you a wonderful Valentine’s Day,
The 10almonds Team
