Health Advice
/Health
Taking a weight-loss drug? Ramp up your nutrition
About one out of every eight adults in the U.S. has taken a GLP-1 medication, such as Trulicity, Ozempic, Rybelsus or Mounjaro -- and half of them are still on the meds. They use them to lose weight, manage the risk of heart disease, and/or control Type 2 diabetes. GLP-1s do all that by mimicking a hormone that your small intestine makes to ...Read more
Prostate screening saves lives -- so save yours
In 2021, just over a third of men ages 55 to 69 had had a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test to check for prostate cancer in the past year. That may be because there's been a lot of confusion about the advantages and risks (of unnecessary treatment) that go along with getting the test. But data are adding up that indicate that it's a ...Read more
Feeling unhappy? It may be because of your food choices
When 10 million people are brought together in one massive review of 14 studies, you're getting some pretty reliable health info. And that's what a 2024 meta-review did when it explored the association between eating ultra-processed foods and health problems. The result? The researchers identified 32 different conditions that can be linked to ...Read more
Use coffee filters to reduce your lousy LDL cholesterol
Grabbing a cup of coffee at work is a time-honored tradition -- to boost your ability to concentrate on tasks at hand and to socialize for a couple of minutes with colleagues. In fact, one survey found that two-thirds of folks say they start their workday with a cup of coffee -- and most drink three cups at their desk or workstation.
I'm a huge...Read more
The skinny on fatty liver risks
Fatty liver disease, now called MASLD, which stands for Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease, is a silent epidemic affecting around 100 million Americans. That means, because of elevated lousy LDL cholesterol, insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes and/or obesity, a person's liver is laced with excess fat, interfering with its ...Read more
One more virtue of light to moderate wine drinking
"All things in moderation" isn't always true -- moderate exposure to someone with measles when you haven't been vaccinated (or had the disease) isn't smart. Neither is moderate indulgence in highly processed foods -- that'll up your risk of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, dementia, and cardiovascular disease. But you'll be glad to hear that sometimes ...Read more
Breakthrough in slashing elevated LDL cholesterol to save lives
More than 92 million Americans take statins, according to the Cleveland Clinic, and you can bet all of them are hoping that will protect them from having what doctors like to call "an adverse cardiovascular event" (aka heart attack, stroke, heart failure, peripheral vascular disease or A-fib) and prevent death from such conditions. But for folks...Read more
A two-step way to a longer life for older women
According to Mayo Clinic Proceedings, women gain around 1.5 pounds a year while going through menopause. That may not sound like a lot, but if your hormone shift takes 10 years, that's 15 pounds. So, it adds up -- 75% of women age 60 and older are overweight, increasing their risk for lower quality of life, more chronic disease, dementia, hip ...Read more
Improve your surgical outcome with psychological therapy
Back in 1979, I designed a two-week habit-changing program that could be followed pre-operatively to make your RealAge 10 years younger than your calendar age and improve pre -- and post-surgical experiences. Now it's being expanded and is proving (once again) to be tremendously beneficial.
That's great news for the folks undergoing the 40-50 ...Read more
Here comes the sun (we hope)
Every year, about 100 million Americans get a sunburn -- and it's often associated with doing outdoor activities (as opposed to intentionally trying to get a tan), binge drinking and using sunless tanning products (your skin is "tanned" and you don't notice the burn that's happening). If that happens year after year, you're at a hugely increased...Read more
Breakthrough in identifying Crohn's disease risk
Wouldn't it be wonderful if around age 18 you could have a blood test that accurately predicted which chronic diseases you would get 10 to 60 years later? And what if docs then could put in a fix that prevented you from getting those conditions? That now may be possible for at least one disease.
Around 1 million Americans contend with Crohn's ...Read more
Fabulous fiber
Fiber is a carbohydrate the body cannot digest or absorb. Soluble fiber dissolves in water to form a gel that slows digestion and can help lower cholesterol and blood sugar. It's in good supply in avocados, carrots, apples, oats, bananas, barley and citrus fruits. Insoluble fiber, in bran, 100% whole-wheat flour, nuts, beans, cauliflower, ...Read more
Screen time and heart disease
TV or not TV (or more aptly, "to screen or not to screen"), that is the question. Americans average more than seven hours a day of screen time on internet-connected devices, and TV time varies between less than two hours a day for teens and over four hours daily for seniors. But wherever you focus your attention, too much sitting around looking ...Read more
Oil vey!
If you're a fan of croissants, buttery, grilled cheese sandwiches, and creamy, dairy-soaked mashed potatoes, it might be time to give up butter and other over-the-top dairy fats for better health. A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at 30 years' worth of data on 200,000 folks and concluded that substituting canola, olive and ...Read more