Latest Stories

LDL (bad) cholesterol levels in the blood are determined predominantly by two very different biochemical pathways. Depending upon which one is dominant for you, it’s possible to determine how well you’ll respond to medication versus simple diet changes to lower cholesterol.

The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced they are voluntarily recalling several lots of blood pressure medications due to the presence of a cancer-causing impurity known as nitrosamine. Find out if you’re affected and what to do…

Menopause is a natural part of a woman’s life. But because doctors expect to hear women come to them with complaints of fatigue, sleep problems, headaches and joint pain during this time, women are being left behind when it comes to a dangerous and potentially deadly condition…

What’s the harm in a daily drink? Despite what smaller studies have found, it turns out just one drink followed by just one more can exponentially age your brain by shrinking it. In fact, a shockingly small amount can steal a decade from your brain…

Breathing in ozone pollution is harsh on the lungs. It can also raise the risk of heart attack and stroke. Is that the worst of it? Long-term exposure to ozone has been found to contribute to cognitive decline. You have to breath, but you can still protect your brain….

Endless commercials tell us if we join weight loss programs and eat their pre-packaged meals, the pounds will drop. Maybe you’ve tried them or followed a diet at home, working out on top of all of that, but the scale keeps going up. Let me be the first to tell you to stop beating yourself up. Here’s why…

AMD leads to loss of the sharp vision required for activities like reading, driving, recognizing faces and seeing the world in color. It can also lead to blindness. To keep that from happening, research looks into gene therapy, inflammation and oxidative stress…

If you still think being mindful about your eating habits has something to do with meditation, you’d not only be wrong, you’d be missing out. Here are 8 ways to simplify eating better, losing weight if you want and avoiding disease to live healthier…

Anything you can do to develop stronger muscles will add years to your life — up to 20 percent more! But if you’re like me you’re not a fan of breaking a sweat. I have good news for all of us: When it comes to the benefits of muscle-strengthening exercise, less is more…

They plop. They fizz. And what a relief they bring. But the reason those fizzy pain relievers dissolve so well is the sodium they contain. Surely, it’s not that much, right? It’s enough to raise risks for stroke and heart attack even if you don’t have high blood pressure.

Arthritis, menstrual cramps, fibromyalgia, back pain — you’ve probably dealt with one or more of these forms of chronic pain in your lifetime. And maybe you’re still trying to rein in your chronic pain… even after you’ve tried everything medicine has to offer…

Having a pet is great for your health, particularly if you’re a senior. Your pet can keep your blood pressure and stress levels down, keep you from getting lonely and make sure you get daily exercise. And now, there’s evidence having a pet may even benefit your brain…

There are a lot of factors believed to contribute to Alzheimer’s. Without a cure, there’s hope that early identification of these factors may give us the chance to intervene. These 10 factors have been identified as those most likely to manifest many years before Alzheimer’s onset…

A review of cardiovascular care in the U.S. found it’s prone to a high frequency of “low-value” tests and procedures. It happens to nearly half of patients and leads to more invasive tests that come with higher risks, costs and questionable benefits. Are you one of them?

You may think your immune system is only activated when you’re sick. Truth is, it remains active in your body even when you’re perfectly healthy. In fact, It has cells stationed all over the body that are busy performing vital functions, such as those related to energy production and burning fat…

The gut influences processes in our body far beyond digestion. In fact, it’s known that disturbances in the microbiome and heart problems can go hand in hand. But there’s been some uncertainty about where the issues actually begin and what could be done to decrease the harm…

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.

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.

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…

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…

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…

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.

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?

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…

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.

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…

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.

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.

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?

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…

Making changes to your lifestyle is just not easy, no matter how much you want to exercise more or eat better, or both, because you know those things will make a significant difference in your health and your future. But that smell…

Study after study has made the connection between cell phone use and cancer, brain damage and other diseases. So if you’re not taking the threat seriously still, time to get with the game. Find out if your phone is a bigger threat than you think, and how to avoid the danger…

You are what you eat… or, to be more precise, your cells are what you eat. And cell function affects aging and disease. But if feeling healthy and young matters to you, it’s not just what you feed your cells, but how you eat, that can supercharge your cells to protect you from premature aging and disease.

LDL plays a central role in the initiation and progression of plaque build-up. That’s why it’s the number you and your doctor are most concerned with. But plaque buildup is determined not only by LDL levels. That’s why we need to talk about cumulative LDL exposure and what it means for you…

The words dessert and diet don’t seem to go together, right? Well, the truth is there is a way to make eating dessert work for weight loss. Shocked, right? Stick with me while I lay out the details on how you can have your cake and eat it too, and lose weight, starting with four separate experiments…

Inflammation. It’s been called the root of disease. Not just heart disease either. Recent research is positing some compelling evidence that inflammation plays a role in the development of mental illness. No one’s prescribed an Advil for schizophrenia, but you should be concerned at what drug could be…

There are a lot of great things about being a woman who is past menopause, but your stroke risk isn’t one of them. In the decade after menopause, your stroke risk doubles. That’s why it’s important to find ways to get it back down. Luckily, there’s a simple way to do just that…

If you’re a women wondering if you should be using hormone replacement therapy, you might like to know there is increasing evidence regarding overwhelming health benefits, supported by research. But benefits and risks vary depending on how you’re getting your hormones…

When you’re trying to lose weight and balance your blood sugar, you must face a sad truth… Your microbiome might be working against you. Research shows that certain strains of gut bacteria can make it harder to lose weight. They can also impact the amount of sugar in your blood.

It’s been proven that our bodies have an entire system that runs on cannabinoids, the chemicals found in cannabis. Is it any wonder then that research is demonstrating the power of cannabis to curb inflammation, fight off disease and live pain-free? The plant could also be the key to defeating colon cancer…

A strong immune system is the key to warding off annual flu bugs; and there are many ways to prime your defenses, including healthy diet, supplements, exercise and stress relief. If you do get sick, these unique natural flu remedies can help speed up recovery time and relieve uncomfortable symptoms.

You may have heard the saying, “Getting old isn’t for wimps.” And, boy is it right… As you age, it seems like everything breaks down, moving gets more difficult, not to mention the likelihood that you end up with heart disease, diabetes and a host of other diseases. But do you have to?

If you’re a victim of RA, you know it can leave you exhausted, depressed and in severe pain, with joint swelling and stiffness. Even worse, when you go to your doctor for help, the likelihood of finding safe relief without miserable side effects is almost non-existent. That may be changing…

Fitness has become a lifestyle for many. But to keep feeling good, losing weight and building muscle, some turn to supplements that promise big results faster. Sometimes these supplements promise results before the science is there. Or worse, they provide results that sacrifice your health in other ways.

Last year, the National Cancer Institute delivered good news… Cancer diagnoses and deaths went down again, continuing a promising trend that’s lasted for the past 20 years or so. But there are certain cancers that bucked this trend — like prostate cancer.

Many of the cold and flu medications you take to ease your discomfort are hard on your heart. And the strain caused by the virus combined with the strain caused by these medications could be more than your heart can handle…

Chronically high levels of the stress hormone cortisol can lead to heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis. Now, there’s evidence that stress can have more far-reaching effects on your body than you might have imagined.

A new study by researchers at NYU College of Dentistry has finally compared the different options available to patients suffering from jaw pain, giving us insight into what the most effective options for pain relief really are…

Not all cholesterol risk is explained by LDL cholesterol levels. It turns out there’s another factor that impacts the significance of this “bad” cholesterol, tripling your heart disease risk. You read that right. Triple.

How many times has the pharmaceutical industry scoffed at studies showing a natural cure was just as effective or more so than high-priced, side effect-ridden drugs? Too many to count, right? Big Pharma is on board with these remedies, as long as they can profit from them. And now they’ve figured out how…

Can stress cause diabetes? Isn’t that all about blood sugar? Not according to recent evidence. It seems there’s a real connection between stress, hostility, pessimism, and the onset of diabetes…

So, you’re thinking about testosterone therapy. Let’s start at the beginning and discuss the signs of low testosterone in men and women, see what makes someone a good candidate, review the potential adverse effects and see what it takes to manage replacement therapy…

I’ll never forget the first time I had a kidney stone… and if you’ve ever had one, you probably have the exact same worry I do… “Am I going to have another one? And how soon will it happen?” Luckily, a new online tool can now give you some of those important answers…

There are so many different autoimmune disorders out there, and they affect so many different body parts that it’s easy to forget that they all share a common cause… But not only that, they are becoming more common. Thankfully, there’s one food that might slay them all…

If you’re trying to eat healthier, you may have cut back on meat. And whether that means trading in your steak and burgers for salmon filets and tuna steaks, or cutting meat out altogether in favor of plant-based protein like tofu, tempeh and quinoa, watch out for this depression danger…

There are five little-known reasons the acid reflux medications you’re taking could be making you feel worse – and could put your life in danger. The dangers are so great that they’re even being highlighted by the FDA.

A misconception about ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is that it’s an inherited condition. While we still don’t know much about its causes, there’s a disturbing connection in terms of who ends up with this disease that slowly steals your ability to move, talk, and breathe…

You eat right, exercise, take your vitamins, and manage your stress. In short, you do everything right, but you walk into your doctor’s office and, bam! Suddenly you’re diagnosed with high blood pressure. Your hypertension could be tied to a mineral deficiency…

Parkinson’s disease used to be rare. But neurological disorders are growing at an alarming pace and none as quickly as Parkinson’s. Why are Parkinson’s rates rising so significantly? There’s a factor driving a potential Parkinson’s pandemic that’s far less predictable…

Right now when we speak of genetically modified foods in the U.S., we’re talking crops — not animals. Changing the DNA in animals meant for the table, or animals that produce food for your table, like eggs, is new territory. But what about using them for medicine?