Heart Health vs Systemic Stress

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:

• When it comes to heart health, things like statins should not be a first port-of call for most people.

  • Today’s main feature looks at the impact of lifestyle medicine, and especially the relevance of managing stress beyond “go meditate or do CBT”.

• Have you tried everything for sleep and still find yourself getting to sleep later than you’d like, and/or sleeping less soundly than you’d like?

  • Today’s sponsor Cornbread Hemp is offering 30% of their gummies that combine organic CBD with lavender, valerian, and chamomile, for a synergistic soporific effect that’ll have you peacefully snoozing in no time, guaranteed (literally, they offer a guarantee).

• Today’s featured recipe is for avocado, coconut & lime crumble pots, whose ingredients come together to make a very good essential fatty acid supplement. See our recipe sectoin for more details on how nutritionally comprehensive this quick and easy snack/dessert is!

Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive

A Word To The Wise

Watch and Learn

"Why Does It Hurt When I Have Sex?" (And What To Do About It)

There are actually many possible reasons, not all of them obvious, but they are easy enough to narrow down (and thus address). Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, OB/GYN, is here to help:

Prefer text? The above video will take you to a 10almonds page with a text-overview, as well as the video!

Tuesday’s Expert Insights

At The Heart Of Good Health

This is Dr. Michelle Albert. She’s a cardiologist with a decades-long impressive career, recently including a term as the president of the American Heart Association. She’s the current Admissions Dean at UCSF Medical School. She’s accumulated enough awards and honors that if we list them, this email will not fit in your inbox without getting clipped.

What does she want us to know?

First, lifestyle

Although Dr. Albert is also known for her work with statins (which found that pravastatin may have anti-inflammatory effects in addition to lipid-lowering effects, which is especially good news for women, for whom the lipid-lowering effects may be less useful than for men), she is keen to emphasize that they should not be anyone’s first port-of-call unless “first” here means “didn’t see the risk until it was too late and now LDL levels are already ≥190 mg/dL”.

Instead, she recommends taking seriously the guidelines on:

• getting plenty of fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein

• avoiding red meat, processed meats, refined carbohydrates, and sweetened beverages

• getting your 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise

• avoiding alcohol, and definitely abstaining from smoking

See also: These Top Five Things Make The Biggest Difference To Health

Next, get your house in order

No, not your home gym—though sure, that too!

But rather: after the “Top Five Things” we linked just above, the sixth on the list would be “reduce stress”. Indeed, as Dr. Albert says:

This is where a lot of people would advise mindfulness meditation, CBT, somatic therapies, and the like. And these things are useful! See for example:

No-Frills, Evidence-Based Mindfulness

…and:

How To Manage Chronic Stress

However, Dr. Albert also advocates for awareness of what some professionals have called “Shit Life Syndrome”.

This is more about socioeconomic factors. There are many of those that can’t be controlled by the individual, for example:

Read in full: AHA president: The connection between economic adversity and cardiovascular health

What this means in practical terms (besides advocating for structural change to tackle the things such as the racism that has been baked into a lot of systems for generations) is:

Be aware not just of your obvious health risk factors, but also your socioeconomic risk factors, if you want to have good general health outcomes.

So for example, let’s say that you, dear reader, are wealthy and white, in which case you have some very big things in your favor, but are you also a woman? Because if so…

Women and Minorities Bear the Brunt of Medical Misdiagnosis

See also, relevant for some: Obesity Discrimination In Healthcare Settings ← you’ll need to scroll to the penultimate section for this one.

In other words… If you are one of the majority of people who is a woman and/or some kind of minority, things are already stacked against you, and not only will this have its own direct harmful effect, but also, it’s going to make your life harder and that stress increases CVD risk more than salt.

In short…

This means: tackle not just your stress, but also the things that cause that. Look after your finances, gather social support, know your rights and be prepared to self-advocate / have someone advocate for you, and go into medical appointments with calm well-prepared confidence.

Take care!

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This Or That?

Vote on Which is Healthier

Yesterday we asked you to choose between tofu and seitan— we picked the tofu (click here to read about why), as did 65% of you!

Now for today’s choice:

Click on whichever you think is better for you!

A Quick Question

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Recipes Worth Sharing

Avocado, Coconut & Lime Crumble Pots

This one’s a refreshing snack or dessert, whose ingredients come together to make a very good essential fatty acid supplement. Coconut is a good source of MCTs, avocados are rich in omega 3, 6, and 9, while chia seeds are a great ALA omega 3 food, topping up the healthy balance:

Click below for our full recipe, and learn more about its secrets:

Penny For Your Thoughts?

Wishing you a heartily healthy day,

The 10almonds Team