Saffron For The Brain (& More)

Plus: how to stop sabotaging your body when walking

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The 10almonds Team
October 17, 2023

Today’s almonds have been activated by:

❝Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty❞

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⏰ 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:

  • Saffron is a potent spice with neuroprotective qualities.

    • Not only did it perform equally to donepezil against Alzheimer’s disease, but also it boasts a host of other cognitive benefits, as well as having antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties for the body generally, and a long list of diverse other health benefits too.

  • Omega-3 fatty acids have a lot of health benefits—including for joints and for the brain—but not all sources are created equal

    • Today's sponsor, NativePath, are offering a convenient, sustainable, and highly bioavailable form—far better than cod liver oil!

Read on to learn about these things and more…

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👀 WATCH AND LEARN

3 Bad Habits That Can Make Walking Painful! (6:26)

Over-50s specialist physiotherapist, Will Harlow, demonstrates 3 bad habits that make walking painful—and how to fix them:

Walking menu:

  • 0:37 | walking with the knees too close

  • 2:13 | the "flip-flop" walk

  • 4:17 | not engaging the glutes/core

Prefer text? Harlow does offer a free PDF on how to stop knee pain, though he’ll ask for your email first.

You might also like our previous main feature:

💊 MAIN FEATURE

Saffron For The Brain (& More)

In yesterday’s edition of 10almonds, one of the items in the “health news from around the world” section was:

But, what is it?

❝SaiLuoTong (SLT) is a modern compound Chinese herbal medicine preparation in capsule form containing standardized extracts of Panax ginseng, Ginkgo biloba, and Crocus sativus L❞

We’ve written previously about ginseng and ginkgo biloba:

So, what’s this about Crocus sativus L.?

That is the plant better known as saffron. And, for all its wide availability (your local supermarket probably has at least a tiny amount in the spice section), there’s a reason we don’t see much of it:

❝Saffron blooms only once a year and should be collected within a very short duration. It is picked during 3–4 weeks in October-November. The method for the cultivation of saffron contributes greatly to its high price. According to some reports, this species is a sterile triploid and so does not produce fertile seeds. Germination can take 1–6 months at 18°C. It takes 3 years for plants to flower from seed.❞

That’s fascinating, but what does it do for us?

Well, in the words of El Midaoui et al. (2022):

❝In the frame of a double-blind-placebo-controlled study, 30 mg per day supplementation with saffron for 16 weeks resulted in improved cognitive function in patients suffering from mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

Moreover, the follow-up of this study in which the authors evaluated the effects of saffron (30 mg/day) for 22 weeks showed that saffron was as effective as donepezil in the treatment of mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease❞

Not just that, but it also has powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties beyond the brain (though the brain is where research has been most focused, due to its neuroprotective effects).

(this, too, is a full research review in its own right; we’re getting a lot of “bang for buck” on papers today)

And more?

Yes, and more. Lots more. To bullet-pointify even just the abstract from another research review:

  • Saffron has been suggested to be effective in the treatment of a wide range of disorders including coronary artery diseases, hypertension, stomach disorders, dysmenorrhea and learning and memory impairments.

  • In addition, different studies have indicated that saffron has anti-inflammatory, anti-atherosclerotic, antigenotoxic and cytotoxic activities. (This is all good; the cytotoxic activities are about killing cancer cells)

  • Antitussive effects of stigmas and petals of C. sativus and its components, safranal and crocin have also been demonstrated.

  • The anticonvulsant and anti-Alzheimer properties of saffron extract were shown in human and animal studies.

  • The efficacy of C. sativus in the treatment of mild to moderate depression was also reported in clinical trial.

  • Administration of C. sativus and its constituents increased glutamate and dopamine levels in the brain in a dose-dependent manner.

  • It also interacts with the opioid system to reduce withdrawal syndrome.

  • C. sativus and its components can be considered as promising agents in the treatment of nervous system disorders.

For more details on any of those items, see:

Is it safe?

The effective dose is 30mg/kg and the LD50 is more than 20g/kg, so yes, it’s very safe. Given the price of it, this also means that if you’re the size of this writer (a little over 70kg, or a little over 150lbs) to poison yourself effectively you’d need to consume about 1.4kg of saffron at a time, which would cost well over $6,000.

Where can I get it?

Your local supermarket probably has a tiny amount in the spice section, or you can get better prices buying it in “bulk” online. Here’s an example product on Amazon, for your convenience 🙂

Enjoy!

❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

Convenient, sustainable, highly bioavailable omega-3s (and more)

We've mentioned their other products before, and with good reason.

NativePath's mission is very much aligned with our own: they want to help people live their healthiest lives possible.

They also believe that eating, moving, and living in harmony with the natural state is key to achieving optimal wellness. That's why they keep their products as close to nature as possible, without unnecessary additives. So, what's in this one?

  • Krill oil: oil from krill, tiny creatures that are a potent (and sustainable!) source of omega-3 fatty acids, in a highly bioavailable form

  • Astaxanthin: one of the most powerful antioxidants found in nature (it's also a carotenoid, and that's what gives krill their color!)

  • Gelatin, glycerol, water: these make up the pea-sized softgel!

Bonus: because they break down in your intestines (for better absorption) rather than your stomach (acid!), not only is there no fishy taste… but also no fishy aftertaste or burps (unlike many fish-oil supplements)!

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

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🌏 AROUND THE WEB

What’s happening in the health world…

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

The No-Nonsense Meditation Book: A Scientist's Guide to the Power of Meditation – by Dr. Steven Laureys

We've reviewed books about meditation before, and when we review books, we try to pick ones that have something that make them stand out from the others. So, what stands out in this case?

The author is a medical doctor and neurologist, with decades of experience focusing on neuronal plasticity and multimodel neural imaging. So, a little beyond "think happy thoughts"-style woo.

The style of the book is pop-science in tone, but with a lot of hard clinical science underpinning it and referenced throughout, as one would expect of a scientist of Dr. Laurey's stature (with hundreds of peer-reviewed papers in top-level journals).

You may be wondering: is this a "how-to" book or a "why-to" book or a "what-happens" book? It's all three.

The "how-to" is also, as the title suggests, no-nonsense. We are talking maximum results for minimum mystery here.

Bottom line: if you'd like to be able to take up a meditative practice and know exactly what it's doing to your brain (quietening these parts, stimulating and physically growing those parts, etc) then this is the book for you.

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Wishing you the most well-informed start to the week,

The 10almonds Team