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If you eat the right foods, you might assume you’re getting the nutrition you need for optimal health. But nutrient absorption can range from 10 to 90 percent. If you make this common smoothie mistake you’re missing out on a bio-active compound science is studying for prevention of cancer, heart disease and more…

Sciatica is a painful condition caused by the compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve, the longest nerve in the body. Treatment sometimes involves surgery, but thankfully, numerous natural remedies can effectively provide relief for this incapacitating condition…

Oxidation in the body is the start of a chain reaction that ends in hardened arteries, stroke, heart disease or worse. Just as it turns an apple brown or causes metal to rust, oxidation causes harm in our bodies. The good news is that oxidative stress is largely preventable…

The ancient samurai credited this Japanese food secret with giving them exceptional endurance and high energy levels. Modern science reveals it may have even bigger benefits when it comes to circulation…

Traditional healers, naturopaths and even old-school physicians can get clues as to the state and quality of your health by looking at you. Your body offers many “secret signs” that are “hidden in plain sight,” if you know where to look, what you are looking for and what the signs you see mean…

People have been turning to massage for healing and relaxation for more than 3,000 years. Now we have proof how the mechansims behind massage really makes muscles heal not only faster but stronger, by engaging your immune system…

It’s not new news that every time we drink water or eat almost anything we’re consuming plastic particles. What is new is the shocking finding that one of the most common may be particularly toxic and can cross the blood-brain barrier…

When it comes to cholesterol, we need to keep the following balance: high levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol, low levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. A great way to do that is through a healthy diet, including healthy fats. If your LDL is making that difficult, reach for these seed oils…

If you don’t want to go through the agony of surgery or even the inconvenience of attending physical therapy sessions for your knee pain, there are some simple exercises you can do at home to help alleviate the pain and get back to the life you love.

Are you among the 1 in 5 that suffers from hay fever and the accompanying chorus of sneezing and nose-blowing? Sure, you could pop an antihistamine or inhale a nasal spray. Or you could look to an unlikely body part to tame your immune system’s overreaction…

Dozens of pesticides are used on our food, many of which have been linked to hormone disruption, neurological problems, immune system issues and more. Luckily, recent research shows that you can clear as much as 60 percent of them from your system in under a week with the right foods…

It’s hard to understand how a nutrient required for a healthy body can sometimes go awry. You may have read about what happens when calcium collects in arteries, the heart and kidneys, and even joints. But you may not have heard of the cancer connection…

Most of us think loneliness is just a feeling. But that’s not all. In recent years, it’s been found as harmful as 15 cigarettes a day. Worse, even short bouts of loneliness do things to your body that make this a health issue no one should ignore…

Research has established a definite link between poor sleep and cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s. Sleep medication seems the easy answer, but some of those can also raise dementia risks. But there’s a new pill on the block, and researchers think it has potential to lower amyloid and tau…

Sugar and fat. These ingredients are the fuel behind diabetes, fatty liver disease and heart disease. Yet we crave them, so much so that you might even think that sugar hijacks your brain, causing you to eat more and more of it. According to the research, you’d be correct.

Sitting with our legs crossed at the knee is something we do out of habit. When sitting for long periods, it just seems more comfortable, and that’s probably why men are as inclined as women to do it. But aside from circulation issues, you’d be surprised how many problems this bad habit can lead to.

While autoimmune conditions, like rheumatoid and Hashimoto’s are on the rise, treatments that work have been few and far between, especially ones where the side effects aren’t worse than the condition itself. But help could be on the way from a medicinal plant aptly named the Thunder God Vine…

Heart problems have long been associated with men, and research may be to blame. A decade’s worth of cardiovascular studies found only about 38 percent of subjects were women. But one group dug deep and found advice that could lower a woman’s unique risk by almost 25 percent.

The health of your overall brain can protect you from the functional consequences of stroke. That means, the healthier your brain is, the less likely you are to have a stroke, and the less likely you are to have poor outcomes if you do. The key? Keeping your brain young…

Many studies on exercise to improve heart health focus on young adults and high-intensity workouts. But for older adults, exercise choices can be limited. If you had to choose between walking, Nordic walking or golfing, which do you think would improve the numbers your doctor looks at?

You can manage a lot of lifestyle-related risk factors for heart problems. That can be true even if you have a family history or genetic predisposition. But there are just some risk factors that are tougher to deal with, like the shape of your heart…

Caffeine is known to boost metabolism, increase fat burning,and reduce appetite. Just 100 mg (one cup of java a day) has been estimated to increase energy expenditure by around 100 calories a day. Is it any wonder researchers think a few caffeinated beverages a day coud lower risks for obesity and type 2 diabetes?

The mind-body connection is usually meant as a figurative link between our thoughts and emotions and how that impacts our physical well-being, even specific health conditions. But scientists are suggesting the mind-body connection is more literal than previously thought…

If you have heart surgery coming up, the last thing you want is complications. If everything goes smoothly, you can get home and back to normal life faster. But before the hospital will discharge you they have some criteria you must meet. That’s where a stick of gum will come in handy.

Once hair goes gray, there’s no going back. Or is there? Scientists exploring what lies at the root of the process made a discovery about the cells responsible that could potentially mean the end of gray hair and provides a big clue about melanoma…

Whether you suffer from migraines or cluster headaches, when the pain hits, everything stops. And for many, these headaches come with incredible regularity, even down to the time of day they start. It’s a fact that’s led researchers to some startling findings and potential relief…

The number of people suffering from type 2 diabetes is rising globally, and at a much faster rate in developed countries like the U.S. Research has honed in on three dietary factors responsible for 7 out of 10 cases…

Obesity has been blamed for putting a wear-and-tear load on joints that can lead to and affect the progression of arthritis. If that were all that was going on, weight-bearing and non-weight-bearing joints would not be equally affected. Here’s what’s really happening…

In Rome, walnuts were considered the food of the gods. Considering what we now know of their exceptional heart health benefits, there’s good reason to hold them in such high regard. But the biggest benefit may come from the nuts special relationship with your gut…

Obstructive sleep apnea steals your sleep and worse, the oxygen your body needs. That struggle to breathe may be your brain’s biggest enemy. That’s because even if you’re otherwise healthy, sleep apnea can put you squarely in the crosshairs of premature cognitive decline.

Heart attack continues to be the leading cause of death in men. But women do suffer heart attacks, and when they do, they appear to get the shorter end of the stick. In fact, recently published research found women to be at a surprisingly higher risk for heart failure and heart attack death than men… […]

It’s not always easy to feel happy, alert and bursting with energy, even if you’re on the healthy side of things. But you may look at some mundane activities you do every day quite differently when you understand this one major underlying benefit…

The holiday season is buzzing with celebrations, albeit smaller this year, that include plenty of drinks to go around. But it’s no secret that alcohol affects the brain. Though the occasional celebratory drink may be alright, researchers have identified three key times in our lives when alcohol can be especially harmful to our brains. The […]

Sadly, almost 380,000 people are likely to die this year due to heart failure. And while numerous factors can raise your risk of becoming one of those statistics — like high blood pressure, heart attack and even diabetes that damages your blood vessels — there’s an easily modifiable risk factor that might surprise you… your […]

For a couple of years, stress has been fast approaching crisis levels in the U.S. Some of us have tried self-care, meditation, exercise and calming herbs. But managing stress could be even easier with the right diet… One that’s already known for amazing health benefits…

Have you noticed a progressive decline in your cognitive skills? If so, you could be living with mild cognitive impairment, a condition that can precede Alzheimer’s disease. Even so, there is something you can do about it right now… You only have to commit to about 20 minutes a week to see big benefits. But one warning from the researchers: Don’t wait!

You pull yourself out of bed in the morning and your back aches. You head into the kitchen to get breakfast and notice that your neck and shoulders are tense and your hamstrings tight and painful. Every movement hurts. And you think, “Today, I’ve got to stretch.” But you may be surprised to learn that what you’re eating could be causing your muscle pain.

According to the CDC, 88 million Americans are now living with prediabetes and are on the path to a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis in the coming years. Yet, as scary as that number is, it can also be looked at as 88 million cases of diabetes that are preventable with the right steps. And those steps are exactly what a brand-new study published in the international journal JAMA Internal Medicine has given us…

Eggs have had a bad rap. Many people stay away from them, to avoid high cholesterol and heart disease — and the newest research says eating eggs may lead to diabetes. But as it turns out, eggs could be one of the best things to include in your diet to stabilize your blood sugar — with one caveat…

If you have a dog, they’re part of your family. And you want to do whatever it takes to protect their health and well-being. Good nutrition is an important part of that equation, and it turns out the timing of a good diet needs to be precise to protect your dog from a particularly irritating health problem…

For years, doctors and researchers have seen a tantalizing connection between vitamin D and cancer. Yet, that connection has always been just out of reach. Now, a brand-new look at that VITAL study data has once again delved into the connection between vitamin D and cancer and found good news for us all — an up to 38 percent reduction of metastatic or fatal cancers.

Semi-volatile organic compounds hang in the air and dust of your home, and they’re changing the composition of your gut microbiome. That’s a big deal considering your gut is command central for your immune system and helps fight off not only bacteria and viruses, but also myriad diseases. This danger may be invisible, but the threat to you and your family is not…

The damage caused by stroke can range from mild to life-threatening, depending on the severity and how quickly health care professionals intervene to stop it. Researchers are working overtime to find ways to combat stroke damage… One new way focuses on calcium’s confusing relationship with ischemic stroke.

Light is connected to migraine in more ways than one. Anyone who suffers from them knows that during an attack light is like salt on a wound. Light hurts and makes a migraine worse. But light can also be a trigger. When I changed the light in my life, I also changed how migraine affected my life.

There has been considerable scientific interest in recent microbiome studies related to diabetes. But what exactly do the bacteria in your gut have to do with type 2 diabetes? Your gut microbiota can form a molecule that can lead to the progression of type 2 diabetes…

The prospect of anti-cancer properties is just one of the many researched benefits of curcumin. So why not add more curcumin to your life? Here are a few fun and easy ways you can…

Sugar offers little to nothing but calories. But we really like it, except when it leads to weight gain. A new study, however, may change the way you think about it. You know the saying — “the hair of the dog” — used often when someone suffering a hangover needs a little of what got them that way to get over it? It turns out that sugar could be the key to eating less over the holidays…

It’s no secret that a sedentary lifestyle can wreak havoc with your health. But sometimes it can seem impossible to work even 30 minutes of exercise into your busy life. Luckily, experts are finding more evidence that smaller stints of exercise can be just as powerful, yielding significant benefits you can’t afford to pass up.

Functional pain refers to pain that occurs without injury. Migraines and fibromyalgia fall into this category. Turns out more women suffer this kind of pain and now we know why. For starters, a female hormone acts on sensory pain receptors and may ramp up that stimuli. To make matters worse, certain pain treatments can kick it into high gear.

When inflammation goes unchecked for too long, the nervous system becomes damaged and can lead to diseases like Alzheimer’s or multiple sclerosis. That’s just one example of why inflammation is often called the root of all disease. But researchers have found a peptide in the beetroot that could make all that a thing of the past…

Walnuts are known to have numerous health benefits, many of which involve the heart — I’ve lost count of how many I mention in this one post! And now, the largest and longest study to date exploring the benefits of walnuts has discovered how they can help protect you from one of the most destructive processes in the human body…

A new study shows that people doing hard physical work have a higher risk of developing dementia than those doing sedentary work — 55 percent higher. Why? There’s a difference between hard labor and exercise. One of them hurts the blood supply to the brain and the other boosts it…

It’s time to stop thinking of menopause as something perfectly normal. While the menopause symptoms women experience may seem annoying, the truth is they can actually be a harbinger of things to come for your heart. So, what turns a menopause symptom into a heart disease trigger? The number of them you might suffer carries more weight, even if they’re moderate to severe…

2020 has been a very unpredictable year, and levels of anxiety and depression have skyrocketed. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by it all. Even the thought of how to shake it seems like an insurmountable task. But what if all it took was just one thing… one step… one new habit to ditch what’s bringing your down and feel like your old self again? Not to mention the added benefits…

Vitamin D builds strong bones and teeth and prevents osteoporosis. It also helps control the overactive immune response. Now, research has shown that a lack of vitamin D in pregnant women could predict future cognitive deficits for their unborn children.

Why do some people gravitate toward chili peppers and enjoy the burn while others can’t stand it? Perhaps they sense something that more and more research is revealing: that chili peppers may help you live longer. So, if you’re not traditionally a fan of spicy foods, it may be time to change your ways…

Men need to be watchful for any signs of testicular cancer, especially if they are at higher risk for the disease because of age, race, family history or medical condition. Recently, a study turned up another risk factor for testicular cancer — a medical procedure that can be difficult to avoid but could raise the risk almost 60 percent…

When you live with inflammatory bowel disease, you have a lot to watch out for. There’s the chronic inflammation of your digestive tract, the weight loss and diarrhea and the increased risk of colon cancer. But IBD also triples the risk of a life-threatening blood clot. For 1 in 7 IBD patients, it could be even higher…

The Endocrine Society has spent over 14 years researching our exposure to environmental toxins that are present in the air, water, soil and our homes. They interfere, imitate or alter pathways of hormones in the body that lead to disease. And now there’s proof that our exposure can lead to diabetes that we can pass onto our children.

You’ve probably heard that if you want to lose weight, you should eat your biggest meals early in the day. The theory is you drop weight faster by taking in most of the calories you plan to eat in a day several hours before bedtime (when your metabolism naturally slows). The idea of not worrying over what to eat so much as when seemed easy enough. But, we’re learning it may have sounded too good to be true…