Health Advice
/Health
The power of resiliency to increase longevity
Resiliency, the ability to cope with and overcome challenging life circumstances, may be an important key to living to be 100 or older. That's the conclusion of researchers in a new study in the Journal of Internal Medicine. They discovered that while African Americans have higher death rates than whites before age 80, after 80, that flips. Once...Read more
Tai one on
As you start the new year (and recover from holiday celebrations), it's smart to tai one on. By doing tai chi, that is. If you're still mentally sharp, tai chi can improve your ability to multitask, manage your time, and make decisions. And if you have mild cognitive impairment, tai chi can slow your cognitive decline more than other types of ...Read more
Steady pressure can be good -- steady blood pressure, that is
Everyone's blood pressure fluctuates -- depending on activities, stress, what and when you eat, medications (ibuprofen, for example), and the position of your body. That's normal -- as long as the fluctuations aren't too great and don't cause symptoms like shortness of breath, loss of balance or brain fog. If the variations are significant and ...Read more
Sour news on sweet drinks
The average American, whether young or old, consumes about 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day, or around 270 extra, empty calories. About 50% of those calories come from downing sugary drinks.
We've said over and over that added sugars and syrups are a risky indulgence -- fueling inflammation, obesity, diabetes, some cancers and heart disease. ...Read more
Walk away from depression
Around 21 million adults in the U.S. are diagnosed with major depression. That means they experienced fatigue, sadness, trouble sleeping and difficulty concentrating for most of the day, nearly every day, for more than two weeks. And that number doesn't include the many folks who have transient depression because of difficult life events or ...Read more
Two tasty ways to reduce your risk for Type 2 diabetes
More than a third of U.S. adults have a heightened risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. But they may be able to eat their way out of the danger by indulging in two of our favorite foods -- dark chocolate and fatty fish such as salmon. No joke!
Two recent studies reveal the potential power of these tasty treats. Canadian researchers enlisted ...Read more
How to break out of isolation and loneliness
Around 38% of U.S. adults live alone (it was only 8% in the 1940s) and for 20% of folks, family members live far away from one another. So, it isn't surprising that a research letter in JAMA reveals that around a third of folks say they are usually lonely and almost as many are feeling isolated.
This can have profound mental and physical health...Read more
One more reason to love chicken soup
U.S. adults average four to six colds a year, so the chances are pretty good that at some point this winter, you're going to be contending with sniffles, coughing and sinus pain (or have already).
Our favorite remedy? Chicken soup. Although there aren't double-blind placebo-controlled studies looking at the effect of chicken soup on curing a ...Read more
Take heart
Whether you say "si" or "oui" or "nai," saying "yes" to a Mediterranean diet can protect your heart and extend your life. A new study in Nutrients looked at data on almost 680,000 folks and found that sticking to a Mediterranean diet decreases the risk of a heart attack or stroke by 23% and your chance of dying from a cardiovascular complication...Read more
Bird flu update
Bird flu, also called H5N1, has been detected in nearly 700 herds of cattle from coast to coast, and while there have been a few cases of it then spreading to folks who work with those cattle or have come in contact with infected wild birds, it has, thankfully, not spread widely to humans. To make sure that it doesn't, the U.S. Department of ...Read more
What's your best flu vaccine option?
During last year's flu season, around 40 million people came down with the virus, 18 million of them went to see their doctor or to the emergency room because of their symptoms, almost half a million were hospitalized and 28,000 folks died from influenza-related issues such as pneumonia and inflammation of the heart and brain, and sepsis. ...Read more
General safety of three weight-loss drugs confirmed
Millions of people have taken or are using one of nine approved weight-loss medications. But there's still a lot of confusion about their safety and potential side effects. So, Mayo Clinic researchers decided to take a look at data on the benefits and risks of three of them: liraglutide (Saxenda), semaglutide (Wegovy), and tirzepatide (Zepbound)...Read more
Don't let lousy weather keep you from being active
Even if you're good about getting daily physical activity during the spring, summer and fall, chances are that when winter comes, you spend more time in bed, do less light physical activities like strolling around or doing housework, and shorten the time you spend exercising.
This may happen because it's dreary and cold outside, it gets too ...Read more
Breathe easier with B3
The B vitamins are a confab of eight nutrients, known commonly by name or number as thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, B6, biotin, folate and B12. Overall, they help support every cell's proper functioning and keep your metabolism, brain and nervous system humming along. But some individual B vitamins have their own unique -- and ...Read more
Athletics boost working memory (but be smart about your diet)
It's all over the Internet that Charles Barkley remembers he ate two pizzas and drank three beers right before an NCAA tournament -- and scored 44 points! Whether that's fact or fiction, when we praise the positive impact of athletics and physical activity on memory, that's not what we're talking about.
A new analysis in the journal Memory ...Read more