Diet & Nutrition

Full Fat Dairy May Reduce Your Risk of Diabetes and Other Health Problems

dietary-adviceMost mainstream dietary advice recommends low-fat or non-fat dairy. But a growing number of experts argue that it’s far healthier to eat and drink whole dairy products, with all the fat left in.

Dairy foods contain roughly 50 to 60 percent saturated fat, and conventional thinking is that saturated fat is bad for your heart. This idea has been thoroughly refuted as false. It’s a mistaken interpretation of the science. In a 2010 analysis,1 scientists said:..

 

08 May 2015

3 Reasons You Should Eat More Spicy Food

chili-peppersI love spicy foods and typically enjoy 1-2 habanero peppers a day. If you like spicy food, there’s good reason to indulge your cravings, as the spicy chemical in peppers – capsaicin – and other compounds in spicy food can improve your health.

Chili peppers, one of the main sources of capsaicin, are regarded as a staple in Central America, Asia, and India, but even in the US there are many devotees to spicy food whose mantra is “the spicier the better.”…

 

07 May 2015

Fantastical World of Hormones

HormonesThe Fantastical World of Hormones is a compelling new film exploring the history and discovery of hormones, including enormous advances in this area of medical science that have occurred over the past 10 years.

Recent discoveries about how the endocrine system works have transformed our understanding of the critical roles hormones play in health and disease…

 

06 May 2015

Exercise May Curb His Nightly Trips to the Bathroom

nighttime-urinationWaking up during the night to urinate (nocturia) is the most common lower urinary tract symptom in men, and is thought to affect more than half of men aged 45 and over. Nocturia is more than just a nuisance; it interferes with quality sleep, leaving you irritable, fatigued, and at risk of the myriad of health problems related to insufficient sleep.

If you regularly wake up two or more times a night to urinate (if you wake up three or more times, this is defined as “severe” nocturia), you might…

 

05 May 2015

High Intensity Interval Training and Intermittent Fasting—Two Winning Ways to Reach and Maintain Your Ideal Weight

body-fat-percentageIf you want to alter your body composition, you cannot overlook exercise. However, some forms of exercise are clearly more effective than others in this regard.

Most people who exercise are still focusing on slow endurance-type exercises, such as running on a treadmill, which is not only time consuming but ineffective as well—especially for weight loss…

 

04 May 2015

Long-Term Use of Pills for Anxiety and Sleep Linked to Dementia

benzodiazepines-sleeping-pillsUp to 43 percent of older adults use benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, Ativan, etc.) for anxiety and insomnia, often chronically, even though their long-term effectiveness and safety remain unproven.1

International guidelines recommend short-term use of benzodiazepines, because they cause withdrawal symptoms that make discontinuation problematic. Despite this, many seniors take them for years instead of a few weeks, as is recommended…

 

03 May 2015

Prediabetes Increases Your Cancer Risk by 15%

blood-sugar-testMore than one out of three Americans aged 20 and older has prediabetes,1 a condition in which your glucose, or blood sugar, levels are higher than normal, but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as full-blown diabetes.

For those with prediabetes (86 million Americans in all), 15 percent to 30 percent will go on to develop type 2 diabetes within five years. This is virtually always preventable if you change your diet and exercise, however, which is why a diagnosis of prediabetes can be viewed…

 

02 May 2015

Conflicts of Interest Rampant Among FDA Advisors, Study Shows

conflict-medical-decisionsIt should be obvious that patients need unbiased advice when it comes to making decisions that can impact their health.

With that in mind, it stands to reason that physicians and scientists with financial ties to the drug industry should not be permitted to participate in broad policy and public health recommendations. But this is exactly what happens, and it happens more or less routinely…

 

01 May 2015

Diet and Diabetes

diabeticdie_600x450For most people who don’t feel well, a visit to the doctor can diagnose and fix the problem. Simple, right?

But some diseases can be silent predators, offering few or no warning signs to alert you early on that help is needed. One such disease is diabetes.

Not only does diabetes affect almost 24 million people in the United States, but 25 percent don’t even know they have it….

 

24 Apr 2015

Can Diet Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease?

Alzheimer'sLittle in life is as scary as the idea of forgetting our loved ones, our histories, and ourselves. Yet that is exactly what is happening to the more than 5 million people in North America suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Mild forgetfulness in the early years of the disease slowly expands to include serious problems with memory, language, and abstract reasoning until eventually this brain disorder robs its victims of the ability to function…

 

23 Apr 2015