ArcaMax

"American Ultra" is a 2015 black comedy about a mild-mannered slacker turned CIA hit man. That's a pretty good analogy for any super-bland-tasting, squishy, white-bread-encased, fast-food sandwich. That ultraprocessed conglomeration is really a killing machine, just like Jesse Eisenberg's hapless character, Mike.

Three new studies prove the ...Read more

Legendary comic Lewis Black once said, "There is no such thing as soy milk. It is soy juice." And, author Dean Koontz ("Kaleidoscope") declared, "I do not permit ... obscenities such as soy milk at my table." People get stirred up about soy, as well as almond, cashew, hemp, oat, pea and rice milks, but they provide a good alternative to anyone ...Read more

Sienna Miller is often mistaken for her friend Naomi Watts: "We get sent each other's headshots to sign," says Miller. And Samuel L. Jackson says he's consistently mistaken for Laurence Fishburne. If asked for an autograph, "I just sign what they want me to sign for whoever they think I am," he says.

While fans aren't really hurt by these ...Read more

In the U.S., the average age for a first heart attack is age 65 for men and age 72 for women -- but the risk for heart-related disease starts building years earlier. One study suggests that the risk for serious heart problems starts with LDL levels as low as 100 in folks under age 40! And, another study recently found that your cardiovascular ...Read more

American adults are projected to spend 13 hours and 11 minutes a day interacting with media in 2022. That includes information and entertainment on computers, phones, TV, radio, podcasts and social media. If that sounds ridiculous -- when do we think, talk or sleep? Well, the answer is -- we don't, at least, not enough.

These days, a lot of ...Read more

The 1958 Chuck Berry version of "House of Blue Lights" suggested you "Pull up your jeans and we will truck on down/A knocked out joint at the edge of town ... Fall in there, lose your lead/At the house, the house of blue lights."

Great song, but if it had only said, "Fall in there, you'll lose your head at the house, the house of blue lights," ...Read more

A wolf in sheep's clothing is an ancient cautionary tale. One form of the saying appears in the Bible, although the story is often credited to Aesop. Well, welcome to the 21st-century version of the fable: Some non-nutritive sweeteners, which promise all the pleasures of sugary flavor without the sugar, are actually hiding their nasty potential!...Read more

There are a lot of folks, from Michael C. Hall (Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2009) to Joan Lunden (breast cancer in 2014) and Ben Stiller (prostate cancer in 2016), who have been blessed with good news about their cancer. Treatment outcomes have improved dramatically -- by 2032, the number of cancer survivors is projected to increase by 24.4%, to 22.5 ...Read more

Simone Biles graced the balance beam in the 2019 World Championships and took the gold -- without a single wobble. On the other hand, for mere mortals, just getting through a 10-second, one-leg balance test can be a major challenge.

That's the conclusion of a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The researchers found that...Read more

Stephen Colbert has been deaf in his right ear since childhood; Whoopie Goldberg says years of listening to loud music damaged her hearing in both ears. They're just two of the millions of Americans with disabling hearing loss-from about 2% of adults ages 45-54 to 50% of folks age 75 and older. Unfortunately, only about 16% of people ages 20-69...Read more

If you cultivate a daily nut-snacking habit, you may see improvements in cognition, heart health -- even your love life.

For your brain: Almonds, pistachios and macadamias are brain-friendly. Almonds improve memory, according to a lab study that found that the tocopherol, folate, mono- and poly-unsaturated fatty acids, and polyphenols they ...Read more

The 10-episode prequel to "Game of Thrones," "House of the Dragon," lays out how the House of Targaryen got entangled in a civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. Fans are debating whether or not it pales in comparison to the original series.

While the verdict on that is not in yet, we know for sure that when kids have a prequel to ...Read more

Seven brands, over 4,414,000 prescriptions annually in New York and California alone, tens of thousands of lives saved every year -- that's the basic information on statin use in the U.S. But, that may change. More people may reap the benefits in the coming years.

A new U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation says a daily statin is a...Read more

Country music star Carrie Underwood and actress Kristen Bell (the voice of Anna in "Frozen") are vegetarians. Carrie dodges meats but does eat eggs from chickens in her backyard, and Kristen went from vegan to vegetarian when she was pregnant with her first child. Both are health-focused and nutrition wise.

But they -- and around 5% of ...Read more

"It's delightful, it's delicious, it's delectable ... it's deluxe, it's de-lovely." Cole Porter's lyrics sum up the newly confirmed benefits of vitamin D perfectly.

One new study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology shows that getting enough vitamin D may help you tamp down or avoid inflammation -- an underlying troublemaker ...Read more

"Two-Fisted Law" is a 1932 movie starring Tim McCoy, with John Wayne as "Duke." It's a rough-and-tumble tale of how to tell right from wrong in the Old West. Turns out, it takes two fists -- or arms -- to tell right from wrong in a blood pressure reading, too.

According to researchers from the University of Exeter who analyzed data from 53,172 ...Read more

Comedian Wanda Sykes discovered she had ductal carcinoma when she had breast reduction surgery at age 47. And, Shannon Doherty started her ongoing battle with breast cancer at age 44. Neither woman had their cancer identified by a routine mammogram. "Early detection is going to make your prognosis better," says Doherty. "Maybe I wouldn't have ...Read more

It seems like yesterday that we were washing off our groceries before putting them away and unable to see our near and dear for fear of spreading COVID-19. But the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's recent loosening of restrictions is a game changer. The new guidelines say folks who are exposed to COVID-19 don't have to quarantine at ...Read more

A 2014 study looked at tests of 413 Alzheimer's disease drugs and found that over 99% showed no benefit. In 2017, both Eli Lily's Alzheimer's medication failed to mop up plaque as it was expected to do, and Accera's drug, which was supposed to improve how the brain processes sugar -- and fight off Alzheimer's, proved ineffective. Just recently, ...Read more

When William Shatner was on the set of "Boston Legal," he was whisked off to the emergency room for acute lower back pain. Turned out, he had a kidney stone. When he passed it, he auctioned it off for $75,000, which he donated to a housing charity.

Great use of that wickedly painful stone; but, in general, it's better to take steps to avoid one...Read more