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Ways To Boost Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)
Plus: 3 unconventional ways to fix your stiff neck (without stretching)
The 10almonds Team
July 10, 2025
In partnership with
Good morning 👋
❝One cannot think well, love well, or sleep well, if one has not dined well❞
~ Virginia Woolf
In today’s email we cover Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), fixing neck pain without stretching, and why rest is so important.
How was your breakfast this morning? If you skipped it, or if for whatever reason it was Not Great™, then a top-tier option to have always on standby is Huel—it’s shelf-stable (lasts for about a year), and it’s not only nutritionally complete, but also nutritionally optimized (and you can choose different blends if you want for example more protein or less fat or whatnot).
Our favorite: Huel Black ← with 40g of protein per serving, it’s what’s in this writer’s pantry!
Today’s Main Feature
 | Ways To Boost Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)Can we supplement it? Can we get it from our diet? What else can we do? |
Remember When We Said…
It’s now the penultimate day of Amazon’s “Prime Day” deals (different deals each day), which means big savings similar to Black Friday.
So, looking back at our most popular articles this year, to see if there are things that would be useful that we’ve written about that have been heavily discounted today, and…
Now’s the perfect time to get 45% off…
 | The Magic BulletDo you remember the article we wrote about Make Your Vegetables Work Better Nutritionally, that many vegetables have nutrients that are only released by chopping? Or perhaps our article about the special powers of soups and the like, Some Surprising Truths About Hunger And Satiety? But it’s just not motivating without the best kit, and market-leader Nutribullet is so powerful it can effortlessly make nut butters (which is about the greatest test of a blender), and after you’re done, its hassle-free cleaning (yes, it’s dishwasher safe) is a cut above the rest too! Best of all, as part of the Prime Day deals, it currently has a huge discount: |
Watch and Learn
3 Unconventional Ways To Fix Your Stiff Neck (Without Stretching)
Dr. JJ Thomas (Doctor of Physical Therapy) shows us how to do it:
Prefer text? The above video will take you to a 10almonds page with a text overview, as well as the video!
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This Or That?
Vote on Which is Healthier
Yesterday we asked you to choose between guava and lime—we picked the guava (click here to read about why), as did 73% of you!
Now for today’s choice:
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Click on whichever you think is better for you!
Bonus (Sponsored) Recommendation
PS: about that Nutribullet set; it’s good for pretty much everything you might expect it to be, so, here’s to vitamin-packed summer smoothies and you’ll be well set-up for nutritious soups in the fall too 😎 But that 45% off is today only, so grab yours now!
One-Minute Book Review
The Brain at Rest: How the Art and Science of Doing Nothing Can Improve Your Life – by Dr. Joseph Jebelli
The author, a neuroscientist, having watched his parents’ health go from good to bad to worse on account of overwork, makes the case for rest.
Not just as a “necessarily evil” in the sense of “if you don’t schedule time for rest, your body will schedule it for you” (i.e. break down and thus force the issue), but also, because it is during periods of rest when our brain’s “default mode network” (DMN) takes the wheel, and without the DMN, there are a lot of important cognitive functions that will barely happen, if at all.
This is the reason why, for example, people perform better on cognitive tasks after a short rest, than people who had more time to solve the cognitive tasks, but not rest. In essence, rest is time that pays for itself in productivity.
How much rest? Dr. Jebelli presents evidence for there being measurable benefits from 5 minutes; more benefits from 20 minutes, more from an hour, more from 4 hours, 8 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours. And so on. In other words: the benefits are dose-dependent.
That said, it’s not just about productivity. Yes, getting adequate rest will ultimately result in better work, but there’s also a whole chapter devoted to avoiding what the Japanese call karoshi—death from overwork.
The style of the book is mostly explanatory, and in part instructional. It’s mostly very soft science, with hard science merely being pointed to in citations, so it’s very easy to understand. As for the instructional parts, Dr. Jebelli advises on how best to rest (not prescribing hobbies, so much as: there are different kinds of rest, and it’s important to get a good coverage of the different kinds), and how to enjoy the greatest benefits.
Bottom line: if you sometimes feel like you need a break, but at the same time feel like you “can’t, because…”, then this book will empower you to find a way (he advises about that, too).
Penny For Your Thoughts?
What did you think of today's newsletter?We always love to hear from you, whether you leave us a comment or even just a click in the poll if you're speeding by! |
Wishing you the very best of health every day, in every way,
The 10almonds Team
