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For Better Longevity, You Are What You Eat…And Do

So what does that say about most Americans?  An increasingly large segment of the US population is overweight or obese, and nearly as many admit to being couch potatoes. Convincing evidence shows that weight gain and obesity increases the risk of several different cancers, including colon, prostate and breast cancer. Studies continue to reveal a link between food consumption, exercise, lifestyle choices and health impact. And the latest research suggests eating fruits and vegetables, limiting alcohol intake and regular exercise just may lower your risk for cancer.  Read the rest of this entry »

Too Young To Have A Stroke? R.I.P Nate Dogg

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States and it is the number one cause of serious, long-term disability. Most of us think about strokes as a condition affecting the elderly.  While it is true that the vast majority of strokes occur after age 65, recent statistics point to a troubling trend among young to middle aged people.  The incidence of stroke is increasing at the highest rate among the 40 to 60 year old segment of the population.  Currently, nearly 1 in 4 strokes occur before age 65.  Are you at risk? Read the rest of this entry »

Get Your Mojo Back

Remember how good you felt in your twenties?  You were full of energy, vigor and lust.  Your responsibilities were few and just having fun was fairly routine.  The world was your oyster.  You really had the mojo-thing going on.  But life can get in the way.  Career, family and the demands of our modern life can make you feel tired, overwhelmed, stressed-out, grumpy, and lethargic.  Once you’ve lost some of your mojo, it can be hard to muster the enthusiasm to get it back.  But that is precisely when you must fight the hardest.  One of the best ways to get back into a groove is to become more physically active. Read the rest of this entry »

How Long Do You Want To Live?

Many of us are fascinated by stories of unusual longevity.  It seems every television network has some variation of a segment celebrating birthdays at or around 100 years old.  Perhaps it is because those over the century mark are one of the fastest growing segments of the United States population.  So often, getting to triple digits, living longer, and being the oldest kid on the block seems to be our obsession.  We like thinking about how long we want to live, rather than how well we want to live.  Is there a way to do both – live well, and live long? Read the rest of this entry »

Can Dairy Fat Reduce Your Risk of Diabetes?

We are all aware of the current obesity trend in this country and across the globe.  Avoiding fat in our diet has been the conventional mantra now for the last 4 or 5 decades.  But what has this low-fat obsession gotten us?  Well, Americans are now fatter than ever.  Paralleling that trend has been a dramatic rise in diabetes cases and, cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer of Americans.  New research has focused on a trans fat component found mainly in dairy fat that may ward off type 2 diabetes and protect cardiovascular health. While more research is needed, it suggests fats may play a more complex role in human health than previously acknowledged. Read the rest of this entry »

Alzheimer’s Disease…Have We Been Barking Up The Wrong Tree?

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is often called the most common form of dementia.  All dementias are characterized by a progressive loss of mental functions.  Since 1906, AD has been considered to be a distinct form of dementia distinguishable from all other dementia by certain structures found in the brains of sufferers.  Although this has been the conventional wisdom among neurologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, gerontologists, and others medical professionals, a new breed of scientists are challenging that notion.  The conventional theories about AD may be trying to treat the wrong issue. Read the rest of this entry »

Avoid Getting Sick, Naturally

Despite all of the tremendous medical advances of the last century, strategies to fight the viruses that cause seasonal flu and the common cold remain largely unchanged.    There are no cures for either which makes prevention all the more important.   Last year, we suffered through the first flu pandemic in 40 years courtesy of a new and very different flu virus named H1N1. Although there are thousands of fatalities attributed to the flu every year, getting a cold is usually less serious though still very unpleasant.    What are your options besides just rolling the dice and stockpiling Kleenex? Read the rest of this entry »

Does Hormone Therapy Increase Breast Cancer Risk?

Over the last decade, the safety of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been questioned in the media, in medical journals and in doctor’s offices across the country.  Unfortunately, the discussion is usually over-simplified and delivered to the public in sensationalized sound bites.  Without even getting into the scientific controversy, we can apply some rudimentary logic to the discussion.  If human hormones are the major cause of heart disease and breast cancer in women, wouldn’t you expect to see the greatest incidence when hormone levels are the highest?  For women, that would be their teens and twenties; a time when both breast cancer and heart disease are distinctly uncommon.[i]  But, when hormone levels decline at and around menopause, the incidence of both rises dramatically.  Perhaps there is more to the story than the sound bites suggest. Read the rest of this entry »

Breast Cancer Prevention – Myth or Reality

The statistics have become familiar enough to most of us: Breast cancer accounts for almost 200,000 new cases and 40,000 deaths every year. The National Cancer Institute estimates that 12.7 percent of women alive today will be diagnosed with some form of breast cancer during their lifetime. This makes breast cancer by far the leading cancer in women, accounting for almost 40% of all cancers diagnosed in women. Read the rest of this entry »

Sweet Dreams

It may seem obvious that sleep is beneficial. Even without fully grasping what sleep does for us, we know that going without sleep for too long makes us feel terrible, and that getting a good night’s sleep can make us feel ready to take on the world.  When we awaken from a restful sleep, we feel more alert, more energetic, happier, and better able to function. However, the fact that sleep makes us feel better and that going without sleep makes us feel worse only begins to explain why sleep might be necessary. Numerous studies have linked poor sleep with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, a weakened immune system, cancers, high blood pressure, obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Read the rest of this entry »