How To Stay In Shape At 70

Plus: This Memory Test Can Predict Who's at Risk of Cognitive Decline

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The 10almonds Team
April 20, 2023

Loading Screen Tip: The best time to do something might have been 20 years ago, but the second best time is now!

⏰ 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:

  • Aging healthily can be as simple as diet and exercise… if you do it right! (see today’s featured video)

  • Creatine supplementation is helpful if (and probably only if) you’re doing certain kinds of exercise, such as weight training or HIIT (see below for more details)

  • Topical caffeine and minoxidil can be used to treat hair loss, but there are things to bear in mind… And other things to try too!

Read on to learn about these things and more…

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

Ellen Ector (70 years old) Reveals 5 Tips to Stay In Shape

Ellen Ector, a 70-year-old fitness enthusiast and trainer, shares her secrets to conquering aging and staying in shape. As we age, taking care of our health and well-being is essential!

Ellen emphasizes the importance of consuming a balanced diet that includes immunity-boosting foods and maintaining an active lifestyle through regular exercise and training. Ellen's tips are practical and easy to follow:

❓ MAIN FEATURE

Questions and Answers 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!

This newsletter has been growing a lot lately, and so have the questions/requests, and we love that! 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 😎

I have a question: what are the pros and cons of older people (60+) taking creatine every day?

It depends what else you’re doing, as creatine mostly helps the muscles recover after exercise. So:

  • iff you’re doing resistance training (such as weights or bodyweight training), or HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), then creatine monohydrate may help you keep at that and keep doing well.

  • if you’re just doing light-to-moderate exercises, you might not get much benefit from creatine!

The topic merits diving deeper though, so we’ll queue that for one of our “Research Review Monday” days!

I wanted to ask if you think marine collagen is decent to take. I've heard a lot of bad press about it

We don’t know what you’ve heard, but generally speaking it’s been found to be very beneficial to bones, joints, and skin! We wrote about it quite recently on a “Research Review Monday”:

Natural alternatives to medication for depression?

Great question! We did a mean feature a while back, but we definitely have much more to say! We’ll do another main feature soon, but in the meantime, here’s what we previously wrote:

^This covers not just the obvious, but also why the most common advice is not helpful, and practical tips to actually make manageable steps back to wellness, on days when “literally just survive the day” is one’s default goal.

I am now in the "aging" population. A great concern for me is Alzheimers. My father had it and I am so worried. What is the latest research on prevention?

One good thing to note is that while Alzheimer’s has a genetic component, it doesn’t appear to be hereditary per se. Still, good to be on top of these things, and it’s never too early to start with preventive measures!

You might like a main feature we did on this recently:

Side effects of statins, are they worth it? Depression, are antidepressants worth it?

About statins, that depends a lot on you, your circumstances, and—as it happens—your gender. We covered this in a main feature recently, but a short answer is: for most people, they may not be the best first choice, and could even make things worse. For some people, however, they really are just what’s needed.

  • Factors that make them more likely better for you: being a man, or having atherosclerosis

  • Factors that make them more likely worse for you: being a woman in general

Check out the main feature we did: Statins: His & Hers?

As for antidepressants? That depends a lot on you, your physiology, your depression, your circumstances, and more. We’ll definitely do a main feature on that sometime soon, as there’s a lot that most people don’t know!

I am interested in the following: Aging, Exercise, Diet, Relationships, Purpose, Lowering Stress

You’re going to love our Psychology Sunday editions of 10almonds!

You may particularly like some of these:

(This coming Psychology Sunday will have a feature specifically on stress, so do make sure to read that when it comes out!)

Hair growth strategies for men combing caffeine and minoxidil?

Well, the strategy for that is to use caffeine and minoxidil! Some more specific tips, though:

  • Both of those things need to be massaged (gently!) into your scalp especially around your hairline.

    • In the case of caffeine, that boosts hair growth. No extra thought or care needed for that one.

    • In the case of minoxidil, it reboots the hair growth cycle, so if you’ve only recently started, don’t be surprised (or worried) if you see more shedding in the first three months. It’s jettisoning your old hairs because new ones were just prompted (by the minoxidil) to start growing behind them. So: it will get briefly worse before it gets better, but then it’ll stay better… provided you keep using it.

  • If you’d like other options besides minoxidil, finasteride is a commonly prescribed oral drug that blocks the conversion of testosterone to DHT, which latter is what tells your hairline to recede.

  • If you’d like other options besides prescription drugs, saw palmetto performs comparably to finasteride (and works the same way).

    • You may also want to consider biotin supplementation if you don’t already enjoy that

  • Consider also using a dermaroller on your scalp. If you’re unfamiliar, this is a device that looks like a tiny lawn aerator, with many tiny needles, and you roll it gently across your skin.

    • It can be used for promoting hair growth, as well as for reducing wrinkles and (more slowly) healing scars.

    • It works by breaking up the sebum that may be blocking new hair growth, and also makes the skin healthier by stimulating production of collagen and elastin (in response to the thousands of microscopic wounds that the needles make).

    • Sounds drastic, but it doesn’t hurt and doesn’t leave any visible marks—the needles are that tiny. Still, practise good sterilization and ensure your skin is clean when using it.

See: How To Use A Dermaroller ← also explains more of the science of it

PS: this question was asked in the context of men, but the information goes the same for women suffering from androgenic alepoceia—which is a lot more common than most people think!

How to get to sleep at night as fast and as naturally as possible? Thank you!

We’ll definitely write more on that! You might like these articles we wrote already, meanwhile:

Q: How to be your best self after 60: Self motivation / Avoiding or limiting salt, sugar & alcohol: Alternatives / Ways to sneak in more movements/exercise

…and, from a different subscriber…

Q: Inflammation & over 60 weight loss. Thanks!

Here are some of our greatest hits on those topics:

Also, while we’ve recommended a couple of books on stopping (or reducing) drinking, we’ve not done a main feature on that, so we definitely will one of these days!

🌍 AROUND THE WEB

What’s happening in the health world…

We particularly recommend checking out that last one!

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

The Wim Hof Method: Activate Your Potential, Transcend Your Limits - by Wim Hof

In Wednesday's main feature, we wrote about the Wim Hof Method, and/but only scratched the surface. Such is the downside of being a super-condensed newsletter! However, it does give us the opportunity to feature the book:

The Wim Hof Method is definitely loudly trumpeted as "up there" with Atomic Habits or How Not To Die in the category of "life-changing" books. Why?

Firstly, it's a very motivational book. Hof is a big proponent of the notion "if you think you can or you think you can't, you're right" idea, practises what he preaches, and makes clear he's not special.

Secondly, it's backed up with science. While it's not a science-heavy book and that's not the main focus, there are references to studies. Where physiological explanations are given for how certain things work, those explanations are sound. There's no pseudoscience here, which is especially important for a book of this genre!

What does the book have that our article didn't? A good few things:

  • More about Hof's own background and where it's taken him. This is generally not a reason people buy books (unless they are biographies), but it's interesting nonetheless.

  • A lot more advice, data, and information about Cold Therapy and how it can (and, he argues convincingly, should) be built into your life.

  • A lot about breathing exercises that we just didn't cover at all in our article, but is actually an important part of the Wim Hof Method.

  • More about stepping through the psychological barriers that can hold us back.

Bottom line: this book offers benefits that stretch into many areas of life, from some simple habits that can be built.

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May your days bring you only the best kinds of challenges,

The 10almonds Team