Health Advice
/Health
Become a threat to what threatens your health
Bo Jackson is the only athlete named to the NFL Pro Bowl and MLB All-Star game in the same season. Deion Sanders hit a home run in the MLB and scored a touchdown in the NFL in the same week. Multi-threats we'd like to see more of. In contrast, we'd like to see less of the multiple threats of diabetes and lung cancer that menace many Americans.
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The sugar-fatty liver connection
Singer-songwriter Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. was known as Fats Domino; silent-screen star Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle went by Fatty Arbuckle; and jazz pianist Thomas Wright Waller was called Fats Waller. These legendary celebs embraced their corpulent nicknames, but most folks don't want to see their extra padding talked about on a billboard.
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Are you bringing home the bacon? Stop it!
There are many types of Bacon: Sir Francis, who helped develop the scientific method of inquiry and experimentation; Kevin, who's won hearts with his film work in "Mystic River" and "Footloose;" and Max, lead singer for the '80s British heavy metal band Moby Dick. However, the type of bacon made from fatty pork is not one that you want to serve ...Read more
Don't go breaking your heart
In 1976, when Elton John and Kiki Dee sang "Don't go breaking my heart," they were more concerned with love gone bad than food that done 'em wrong. But now, 45 years later, it turns out that the real risk for heartbreak comes from ultraprocessed foods. A new study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows that eating ...Read more
Vaccines and variants
Marvel Comics specializes in mutant superheroes -- from Hope Summers and Wolverine to Iceman and Storm. They're only scary to the bad guys. Mutant viruses, on the other hand, are more troubling, and we know COVID-19 is mutating:
There is the British variant (officially called B.1.1.7), the South African strain (B.1.351), the Brazilian one (P.1)...Read more
How to make smart changes when you have Type 2 diabetes
The French Chef, Julia Child, was a CIA intelligence officer before she moved to Paris with her husband at the age of 36 and discovered the joy of cooking. That's a pretty big lifestyle change! Well, if you're overweight or obese and have Type 2 diabetes, it's also a great idea to make far-reaching lifestyle changes. A new study reveals how to ...Read more
More proof that cancer is sweet on sugar
Beyonce made a cool $50 million partnering with Pepsi. Britney Spears also raked in a truckload as a famous frontperson. You wonder if they would have done it if they knew just how dangerous it is for them to drink sugar-sweetened sodas.
A new study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention shows that women who drink sugar-laced...Read more
Broadband protection: Promote heart health and KO cancer
Over 30% of U.S. adults watch movies on their digital devices several times a week thanks to broadband technology and higher connection speeds. Well, it turns out that you can get broadband health results flowing your way, too -- through your cardiovascular connections! In a study published in JACC: CardioOncology, researchers found good heart ...Read more
Alternative milks
Tom Robbins, author of "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues," once said, "You should never hesitate to trade your cow for a handful of magic beans." A 1960s point of view, perhaps. The 2020s point of view is that you shouldn't hesitate to trade cow's milk in for a glass of soy, oat or almond milk. Is that a smart trade?
Almond milk contains no ...Read more
Want your nutrition to mushroom? Then mushrooms it is
Why did the mushroom go to the party? Because he's a fungi! But there's so much more to a mushroom than a good time! A new study in Food & Nutrition Research uncovered the amazing nutritional bounty the happy 'shroom can add to your diet.
About five medium white button mushrooms or 3 ounces (84 grams) of cremini or portabellas increase the ...Read more
Is arthritis pain making your lose sleep? Try this
In the 2002 movie "Insomnia," Al Pacino plays a Los Angeles detective looking for a suspect in the land of the midnight sun -- an Alaskan town named Nightmute (we kid you not). His character, Dormer, is racked with insomnia caused by personal and professional problems and the endless daylight.
For the 32.5 million Americans with osteoarthritis,...Read more
More risks associated with artificial sugars
When Matchbox Twenty sang, "I just want to make you go away/ But you taste like sugar/ Yeah, you taste like sugar," they could have been talking about saccharine, sucralose, aspartame and acesulfame potassium -- and that would have been a really smart for the health of the quartet. (They've struggled to keep their once robust popularity.)
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Directed daydreaming -- the rewards are huge
The Monkees recorded "Daydream Believer" in 1967, and it topped the charts at No. 1. Believing in daydreams has always been a winning idea. Now researchers have confirmed that. They suggest that when you turn your idle thoughts to daydreaming about pleasant memories, a future accomplishment or an event you're looking forward to, you boost your ...Read more
Diabetes, inflammation and cancer
When wildfires sweep across California, the risk of respiratory distress increases. In the summer and fall of 2018, the smoky air in San Francisco was as toxic as smoking a half a pack of cigarettes a day.
When a wildfire hits your body in the form of chronic inflammation, it's a serious health hazard too. If you have prediabetes or full-blown ...Read more
Catching up with kombucha
When the cartoon program "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" premiered in 1969, hardly anyone in the U.S. had heard of the ancient Chinese brew kombucha, a fermented drink that's made from tea, sugar and a glob of yeast and bacteria called a SCOBY (symbiotic cultures of bacteria and yeasts). But recently, kombucha has become one of the top-selling ...Read more
One more way to strengthen your immune system
In "Parks and Recreation," Chris Pratt was a lovable tubby; today, as one of the Guardians of the Galaxy, he's toned and healthy. Making $10 million a movie may be an incentive, but you don't have anything if you don't have your health -- and his amazing exercise routine has given him a lot of valuable perks.
Turns out exercise doesn't just ...Read more
Calming down your cold sore outbreaks
Everyone from Rihanna and Paris Hilton to Justin Timberlake and Brad Pitt has been photographed with cold sores. There's no shame in that. According to the Mayo Clinic, "about 90% of adults worldwide -- even those who've never had symptoms of an infection -- test positive for evidence of the virus that causes cold sores."
Why you get a flare-up...Read more
Added fructose is far worse for you than you know
"We City Folk can pretend that we prefer the rotgut from Starcorps with skim milk and Splenda, but who are we kidding? Maxwell House with French vanilla corn syrup cannot be beat." Tina Fey in her book "Bossypants" summed up America's self-destructive love affair with added fructose -- especially high-fructose corn syrup --pretty accurately. The...Read more
Is sleep apnea giving you memory problems?
Amy Poehler (5 feet, 2 inches tall) and Shaquille O'Neal (7 feet, 1 inch tall) see eye to eye on one thing: Sleep apnea can ruin your life if you don't manage it correctly. Both use a CPAP device at night to maintain steady breathing and uninterrupted sleep. Amy says the therapy "helps you win at life," and Shaq reports that it helps him get ...Read more
You can't whitewash white bread's dangers
Around 150 B.C., wealthy Romans decided they wanted white bread, made in mechanical dough mixers powered by donkeys, to distinguish themselves from the lower classes who ate bread made from unrefined whole grains. That obsession with pale loaves of bread has persisted to this day.
Each American eats about 53 pounds of bread a year -- and ...Read more