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- Move over, COVID and Flu! We Have "Hybrid Viruses" To Contend With Now
Move over, COVID and Flu! We Have "Hybrid Viruses" To Contend With Now
Plus: can a night owl become an early bird? Or is that just fighting your genes?
The 10almonds Team
September 28, 2023
Today’s almonds have been activated by:
Loading Screen Tip: want to eat smaller portions, but your food is so delicious? Cut your food smaller if using a knife and fork, or use chopsticks if appropriate for the meal, to slow you down.
Even if you’re having a sandwich or such, cutting it into quarters before eating it will make you feel like you’ve eaten more.
⏰ 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:
With all the talk about COVID and Flu, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) has flown under a lot of radars
Historically it’s been considered only a threat to babies, and old people or people with other extant respiratory issues, but…
There are now a lot more people with “other extant respiratory issues”
RSV is combining with Flu, and potentially other viruses, to create new, more dangerous hybrid viruses
The infection rate, hospitalization rate, intensive care rate, and mortality rate all have a very steep curve upwards as we get older
These numbers are also likely 2.2x higher than was previously thought
There are shots for this, but all the other things you have learned in these past few years about avoiding respiratory infections still apply too
See today’s main feature for more details!
As we get older, our brains can struggle to keep up with maintaining correct levels of some neurochemicals.
Today’s sponsor, Mindhoney, has potent all-natural nootropics to give your brain a boost of the things it needs to keep it in top health.
Read on to learn about these things and more…
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
Can you change your sleep schedule?
How many people are truly night owls or early birds? And is our sleep schedule predetermined genetically, or can we change it?
In this short (4:37) video, Stanford University’s Dr. Jamie Zeitzer* gives insights:
*Dr. Zeitzer provided the content; the narrator is Alexandra Panzer
🦠 MAIN FEATURE
Move over, COVID and Flu! We have "hybrid viruses" to contend with now
COVID and influenza viruses can be serious, of course, so let’s be clear up front that we’re not being dismissive of those. But, most people are hearing a lot about them, whereas respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has flown under a lot of radars.
Simply put, until recently it hasn’t been considered much of a threat except to the young, the old, or people with other respiratory illnesses. Only these days, the prevalence of “other respiratory illnesses” is a lot higher than it used to be!
It’s not just a comorbidity
It’s easy to think “well of course if you have more than one illness at once, especially similar ones, that’s going to suck” but it’s a bit more than that; it produces newer, more interesting, hybrid viruses. Here’s a research paper from last year’s “flu season”:
Best to be aware of this if you’re in the “older” age-range
It’s not just that the older we are, the more likely we are to get it. Critically, the older we are, the more likely we are to be hospitalized by it.
And, which the above graph doesn’t show but the linked article does… The older we are, the less likely we are to come back from hospital if hospitalized by it.
Some years back, the intensive care and mortality rates for people over the age of 65 were 8% and 7%, respectively:
…but a new study this year has found the rates like to be 2.2x that, i.e. 15% intensive care rate and 18% mortality, respectively:
Want to know more?
Here are some hot-off-the-press news articles on the topic:
And as for what to do…
Same general advice as for COVID and Flu, just, ever-more important:
Try to keep to well-ventilated places as much as possible
Get any worrying symptoms checked out quickly
Mask up when appropriate
Get your shots as appropriate
See also:
Harvard Health Review | Fall shots: Who's most vulnerable to RSV, COVID, and the flu, and which shots are the right choice for you to help protect against serious illness and hospitalization?
Stay safe!
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE
A very science-based all-natural nootropic supplement!
An important thing we want to mention immediately about Mindhoney is that it has a dozen very well-studied ingredients—there’s nothing speculative or “based on traditional use” here. For most of these ingredients, there are literally thousands of studies attesting to their benefits.
In fact, many of them are ingredients we’ve featured here before for their many benefits, and others were good reminders that we should be writing about them!
You may be wondering: “All-in-one, though? Isn’t it better to take them separately?” And… no, it is not. This isn’t an all-in-one shower gel we’re talking about here.
Simply put: these ingredients are synergistic and each work on connected systems in different ways, each helping the other to work better. So, by taking them together, you get a Gestalt effect—the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Psst… 10almonds subscribers can use code “STACK15” to enjoy 15% off, and also free shipping! 🤫
Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free
🌏 AROUND THE WEB
What’s happening in the health world…
Stroke-diagnosing AI saves time and lives in new study
"Feels horrible to say no": abortion funds run out of money as US healthcare crisis surges
Beef recall—what you and your family need to know about E.coli
Cough analysis AI as a tool to predict pneumonia in COVID-19 patients
Scientists successfully maneuver robot through living lung tissue
Could creatine supplementation be the answer to post-COVID-19 fatigue?
More to come tomorrow!
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
The Yoga of Breath: A Step-by-Step Guide to Pranayama – by Richard Rosen
You probably know to breathe through your nose, and to breathe with your diaphragm. But did you know you're usually only breathing through one nostril at a time, and alternate between nostrils every few hours? And did you know how to breathe through both nostrils equally instead, and the benefits that can bring?
The above is one example of many, of things that make this book stand out from the crowd when it comes to breathing exercises. Author Richard Rosen has a deep expertise in this topic, and explains everything clearly and comprehensively, without leaving room for ambiguity.
While most of the book focuses on the mechanics and physical techniques of breathing, he does also cover some more mindstate-related things too—without which, it wouldn't be yoga.
If the book has a downside, it's that its comprehensive nature could be off-putting to readers new to breathing work in general. However, since he does explain everything from the ground up, that's no reason to be put off this book, iff you're serious about learning.
Bottom line: if you'd like a deeper understanding of breathwork than "breathe slowly through your nose, using your diaphragm", this book will teach you depths of breathing you probably didn't know were possible.
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Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday,
The 10almonds Team