Latest Stories

Latest Stories

Virginia Tims-Lawson

How body fat can function to stave off old-age ailments

Most of us think of body fat as something we need to lose. However, growing research is proving it’s much more than a reservoir for storing calories. Depending on how well it functions, fat may be key to preventing some of the most common age-related ailments.

Carolyn Gretton

The cholesterol-busting power of caffeine

Caffeine has been shown to reduce cardiovascular disease risk. But it’s been unclear exactly how. Turns out, there’s an interesting connection between caffeine and a protein that stimulates cholesterol production.

Joyce Hollman

How the right fiber helps slash dementia risk

We’re always hearing we should eat more fiber. It helps maintain a healthy digestive system, reduces cholesterol and improves heart health. Now, research is finding that eating more of a particular type of fiber may also keep dementia away…

Joyce Hollman

Microplastic ‘magnets’ deliver poisons to your bloodstream

Who in their right mind would sit down and eat a bunch of plastic particles with their meal? But we have been for a long time. To the point that it’s poisoning us in an entirely different and alarming way…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

How much meat can you eat and keep cancer risks low?

More and more, research is proving that being a meat lover can put you at higher risk for cancer. But is it really an all-or-nothing deal? Maybe not. You may only need to follow a few simple rules to enjoy meat and keep the “big C” at bay…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Autoimmune disease over 50: Why the rise and how to stop it

If you’re at an age where heart and brain health are top of mind, you might be missing a threat that’s 50 percent higher in older adults than it was 25 years ago. The good news is that the nutrients that support your heart and brain can also decrease your autoimmune risk by 30 percent.

Joyce Hollman

The diet that slowed over-50 brain shrinkage

With age, the size of the human brain shrinks. Age-related brain atrophy occurs due to a loss of brain cells. With fewer brain cells, connections are lost and cognitive decline begins. What if you could pump up the volume with a simple diet adjustment?

Joyce Hollman

4 ways cherries make you feel better

It’s no accident that the small, sweet cherry has found its way into idioms that express how good life is. To “put the cherry on top” means to make a good thing even better. That’s because there are few downsides to eating cherries, and a lot of benefits to be had…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Melatonin + late-night eating: A recipe for diabetes

Late-night eating can lead to weight gain or high blood sugar levels. That’s a recipe for diabetes. But new findings show many of us carry a gene that can make that habit worse by turning a hormone naturally produced in the body against us.

Virginia Tims-Lawson

Better sleep provides better odds against mind-stealing plaques

When your sleep cycle gets screwed up, so does your health. Disruption to your circadian clock has been found to interfere with the brain’s ability to clear a protein closely linked to stealing your brain functions and memories. But getting it back on schedule isn’t so hard…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Study seems to settle the connection between cancer and alcohol

While none of us doubt that heavy drinking is a danger to health, the jury has been out for decades as to whether light to moderate alcohol use can be helpful or harmful. But one consistent debate has centered on alcohol’s connection to cancer. Well, now, the jury may have made a final decision.

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

The scientific myth putting men’s bones in danger

For years, if not decades, health care providers have assumed people with higher levels of body fat have high bone density and are at low risk of fracture. Turns out that was a mistake that’s left men, especially, in danger.

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Is meat the link to autoimmune reactions and MS?

More and more evidence has mounted over the past decade suggesting that bacteria in the gut can affect the immune system, particularly an autoimmune reaction. If what we eat can affect the bacteria in our guts, could diet also play a role in whether or not we end up with MS?

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

The mistake that could be skewing your blood pressure

A cuff squeezes your arm at your doctor’s office, helping your doctor determine whether he needs to prescribe medication. But you should know those blood pressure readings are wrong surprisingly often…

Joyce Hollman

Red ginseng helps slow aging, boost energy after menopause

Ginseng is an anti-viral and anti-inflammatory that stops our stress response cycle, including the immune response that follows stress. But for those who need help with energy and aging, its benefits may go to the cellular level…

Joyce Hollman

Chronic pain: How the Keto diet can help

A ketogenic diet is a diet that’s very low in carbohydrates. Most people go on a ketogenic diet to lose weight. But research has established other benefits of the diet, including the potential to relieve pain. The reason may surprise you…

Virginia Tims-Lawson

What coffee can do about digestion, gallstones and your liver

Research is proving that coffee has more perks than ever previously thought. But there’s one negative holdover: Many people think coffee increases their intestinal problems, when that’s just not the case. A review of 194 research publications shows exactly what we mean…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Researchers weigh in on how to blast belly fat this Spring

Is one of your resolutions to lose some serious weight this year? But, will hitting the gym give you the results you want? And how much can you expect to lose and how long will it take? Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have all of these answers…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

The sleep disorders that more than double heart dangers

What if you did something that doubled your risk of high blood pressure, made you 70 percent more likely to get cardiovascular disease and 47 percent more likely to die for any reason? You’d change your ways, right? It’s not so easy, but these are two sleep disorders to get very serious about…

Carolyn Gretton

Estrogen may give women the edge in COVID-19 survival

Is estrogen a woman’s superpower? It may be when it comes to surviving a run-in with COVID-19. Enough so that researchers are wondering if balancing the hormone can help older women who may be particularly vulnerable.

Margaret Cantwell

Vitamin D2 or D3: Proof one’s a dud and the other fights infection

Vitamin D is mired in controversy. Preventive medicine has always sung its praises, while scientists have been skeptical. But not anymore: Researchers have finally proven one form does next to nothing, while the right form fortifies the immune system and keeps infections away. What’s in your bottle?

Jenny Smiechowski

How to squeeze the most cataract-fighting lutein from spinach

Lutein is a super healthy carotenoid. It reduces the risk of macular degeneration and cataracts, as well as coronary heart disease, stroke and metabolic syndrome. It may even improve your cognitive health. Here’s how to get the most of it from a great source…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Fatigue: How to keep it from shortening your lifespan

Do you feel good about your energy levels or do you struggle to make it through daily activities, even ones you used to enjoy, ending up exhausted? Your answer could predict whether or not you’re going to live a long, healthy life or die within the next three years.

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Death during sex: Not just a danger for older men

Sex isn’t just enjoyable. It relieves stress and boosts your immune system. But it’s not all rosy when it comes to what happens between the sheets. Sometimes people die during or shortly after sex due to sudden cardiac death. And it doesn’t just happen to older men…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

One thing diabetics should eat to bring BP, cholesterol, and fasting glucose down

If you have diabetes, you’d think that it would be enough that you have to deal with the disease itself and all of the symptoms it causes… But you’re wide open for hypertension and heart disease. Luckily, just one nutrient can help you fight three of your worst enemies and hold onto your health…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

The Amazonian fruit offering hope against cancer

If there’s one thing most doctors would agree on it’s that the most difficult disease to treat has to be cancer. And while the emergence of immune checkpoint inhibitors has provided hope, there’s still room for improvement — and an Amazonia berry may be a key player.

Carolyn Gretton

How to get the most out of your N95 masks

As we’re coming out of the omicron wave, many places are beginning to lift mask mandates, but there are still areas where you may still need to wear a mask — like on public transit and airplanes, as well as in airports. That begs the question: How often can you reuse an N95 mask?

Joyce Hollman

The vitamin deficiencies making older adults depressed

Fatigue, memory problems, even walking difficulties all sound like problems to do with aging. So, when depression sets in, well, no wonder. But what if all of these are just symptoms of a simple vitamin deficiency?

Virginia Tims-Lawson

Frailty: The new #1 one risk factor for dementia

Too many believe dementia is a normal part of getting old, when in truth, losing your cognitive abilities is anything but. Even more shocking is that frailty can more than double your risk. That should make preventing old-age frailty a priority by following these steps…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

COVID’s Alzheimer’s-like damage on the brain

Brain fog, fatigue and other neurological and psychiatric symptoms of long COVID syndrome plague many survivors. But there may be more to deal with, including markers of brain damage normally seen with Alzheimer’s…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

A secret for ‘controlling’ how young you can feel

Recent research is proving that the secret to feeling young is something most of us wouldn’t expect… It turns out that while how much stress they’re under and how healthy they are plays a significant role in how old younger adults feel, for the over 60 crowd, one big factor that took center stage…

Joyce Hollman

The medical device ‘coverup’ that could threaten your life

Medical devices are everywhere, from tongue depressors to knee replacements to pacemakers. We’re talking about any non-drug product used in medical treatment. While it’s mandatory that companies report deaths associated with their devices, reporting any other negative outcomes is strictly voluntary.

Jenny Smiechowski

How to know if fibromyalgia is behind your fatigue and pain

Fibromyalgia has been one of the most difficult conditions to diagnose. Doctors could only guess based on symptoms and by ruling out other possible causes. But that may soon be coming to an end. Luckily, researchers just uncovered a simple way to diagnose fibromyalgia with more certainty…

Dr. Elizabeth Klodas MD, FACC

5 reasons almonds are the world’s most nutritious (and helpful) food

The key to losing weight and keeping it off, for good, is to make small sustainable changes, like incorporating more foods that promote health (and fewer foods that promote disease) into your day. One food that can promote both health and weight loss, happens to have recently been named the world’s most nutritious food.

Joyce Hollman

8 rules for preventing a first heart attack

The American College of Cardiology, along with the American Heart Association, issued a new set of guidelines for preventing a first heart attack or stroke. Much of the advice will not be at all surprising to you. But there has been a definite shift, you should know about…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Why ‘fast food’ oil increases your risk for metastatic breast cancer

There’s probably not a woman out there that doesn’t fear a breast cancer diagnosis. And, those that survive the disease live with the constant worry of recurrence since the majority of survivors have dormant tumor cells circulating in their blood, like a time bomb, waiting to go off.

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

One weird reason antidepressants may not work

Anyone who has ever dealt with depression knows how alone it can make you feel. Not only is it like living under a cloud, but it’s hard to really talk about how you feel, especially when the doctors keep insisting their pills will make you feel better. Well, now we know why they’re wrong.

Joyce Hollman

Is aluminum worth it for sweet-smelling armpits?

Have you ever thought about what’s in your deodorant that’s keeping you dry and sweet-smelling all day? Sure, you’re not eating any of the unpronounceable chemicals in there… but your skin may as well be. And research says that makes cancer a threat to you…

Dr. Michael Cutler

Middle-aged? What you need to know about your stroke risk

Most of us were shocked recently when well-known actor Luke Perry passed away shortly after suffering a stroke at the age of 52. But this may shock you even more… Middle-aged Americans are the fastest rising age group for stroke risk.

Jenny Smiechowski

Gaining muscle helps gain blood sugar control and reduces diabetes risk

If you’ve noticed your blood sugar creeping up at your last few doctor’s appointments, diabetes is probably at the top of your mind. Maybe you’ve started eating better and exercising more to shed pounds and keep your blood sugar down. But you’ll need to muscle up if you really want results…

Joyce Hollman

7 unusual signs of lung cancer

There are unusual symptoms of lung cancer that can make themselves known early on. You wouldn’t normally connect these symptoms in other parts of the body with lung cancer. Unless, of course, you know what to look for…

Jenny Smiechowski

Why moisturizing your skin could help prevent chronic disease

If you want to slow the signs of aging, you slather on moisturizer daily to keep your skin looking soft, supple and young. But what if the benefits of moisturizer went more than skin deep? What if moisturizer could fight body-wide inflammation that leads to disease? That sounds outlandish, but research says…

Virginia Tims-Lawson

A midday snooze could help you lose high blood pressure better than meds

Have you heard the phrase, “if you snooze, you lose?” Usually it refers to missing out on something because you weren’t paying attention and let an opportunity pass you by. But here’s one opportunity you can totally snooze on, and still reap some impressive benefits…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

The sweetener that’s like ‘miracle grow’ for colon cancer tumors

You’ve heard that sugar fuels cancer. But there’s a scarier sweetener in most of the sweet stuff we drink., and tumors are able to use it to their benefit to grow at a supercharged rate. Is this behind the climbing colorectal cancer rates?

Jenny Smiechowski

3 factors that fuel age-related brain shrinkage the fastest

As alarming as it is to find a wiry gray hair sprouting from your head or a cavernous wrinkle resting in a formerly smooth section of your face, I think the most alarming part about getting older is what happens to your brain…Now, you’ve probably heard about the alarming effects of brain aging before. But if you haven’t, brace yourself…

Joyce Hollman

6 ways this forgotten health nut can improve your health

There are several health conditions you can improve by chomping on a few nuts. But are you limited to just almonds, walnuts or pistachios? Not at all! In fact you should eat a handful of this forgotten health nut every day. Now, here’s how they can help…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

The low-carb link to heart problems

The low-carb diet I love could be dangerous for my heart. It’s important to weigh the risks and benefits of going low-carb. It’s not an easy decision, and each low-carb dieter has to decide what’s best for them.

Jenny Smiechowski

Tired of antibiotics in your food? Oranges are next

In case you haven’t heard, citrus trees in Florida have been struggling with a bacterial disease called citrus greening. That means the citrus industry has been struggling too. Citrus farmers are desperate. And you know the saying: Desperate times call for desperate measures. Well, that includes widespread use of antibiotics in your oranges.

Jenny Smiechowski

The surprising impact distant relatives with Alzheimer’s have on your risk

It’s common knowledge that if someone in your immediate family (like your mom, dad or siblings) has Alzheimer’s, you have a higher risk of the disease. But things get a little murkier when it comes to aunts, grandparents and so on. These numbers will get you serious about avoiding the disease.

Jenny Smiechowski

Treating this common eye condition might cure your migraines

Now, the exact cause of migraines is still a mystery. But all these eye-related symptoms make you wonder… Is the answer to migraines in the eye? It could be. In fact, a new study shows that migraines are closely connected to one eye condition in particular…

Joyce Hollman

Let this oil flow once a week for better blood flow

Heart disease is still the number one cause of death among adults in the United States. But there’s some advice that could keep you from being one of them. It turns out that for good blood flow, you need to let the oil flow. What kind? The one shown to reduce heart attack risk by 30 percent…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

How to use bedtime snacking to grow more muscle

No matter how much I worked out, or how many weights I lifted, that muscle tone I’m so envious of remained elusive. But, it’s an easy fix. It turns out I was eating wrong — or more accurately — not eating at a particular time of the day that can spur muscle growth for bigger gains.

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

What Yo-Yo dieting does to your heart

New Research shows that yo-yo dieting may make it harder for women to control a variety of heart disease risk factors, leaving them in danger. And, considering that heart disease is the leading cause of death for women across the world, this is a serious issue you should know about…

Dr. Michael Cutler

Cinnamon: The super antioxidant-rich disease-fighting spice

Did you know that more herbs are among the foods with highest antioxidant value? And one of my favorites is right up there near the top… cinnamon. You might be pleasantly surprised to see what science has to say about cinnamon and Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer and blood sugar…

Joyce Hollman

How mouthwash raises your blood pressure

Have you heard the expression, “throwing the baby out with the bath water”? It means getting rid of what’s good, along with what’s bad. This happens a lot when it comes to things we do and use that are supposed to make us healthier… like gargling with mouthwash.

Jenny Smiechowski

The vegetables that slash colorectal cancer risk 79 percent

No one should ever let the fear of bad breath keep them away from garlic too often. That’s because allium vegetables could have a valuable service to offer: cancer protection. And the more you eat, the better. You could cut your colorectal cancer risk a whopping 79 percent!

Virginia Tims-Lawson

The inactive ingredients in pills that trigger allergies

Do you have a food allergy or sensitivity? If so, you know some can be quite uncomfortable and others, quite dangerous. So if you had a problem with gluten, lactose or peanuts, you’d never expect to find anything like that in your medication, right? Think again…

Joyce Hollman

Is ‘meat glue’ causing your digestive problems?

Have you heard of “meat glue?” Yes, you read that right… It’s an additive that showing up in everything from meat to dairy, and even baked goods. Its purpose is also to bind proteins together, giving products a better texture and longer shelf life. Here’s how it can make you sick…

Jenny Smiechowski

Waiting till middle age to get fit can still get you the benefits of a 20-something

We all made mistakes in our youth… But don’t get down on your younger self too much, especially if you neglected exercising because you had something better to do. There’s strong evidence that even if you lived a less-than-healthy lifestyle in your youth, you can make up for it later…

Jenny Smiechowski

Which diet offers better dementia prevention?

There’s a question that’s probably at the top of your mind, because it could save it: What diet provides the best dementia protection? Several studies found the Mediterranean diet reduces Alzheimer’s risk. But recently, it’s gotten stiff competition from a diet designed specifically with brain health in mind.

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