Latest Stories

Latest Stories

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

How to save your muscles without moving

Whether you’ve been injured and stuck in a cast, imobilized due to surgery or stroke or maybe you just have a bad shoulder or knee, being immobile leads to muscle wastage that steals strength that’s hard to get back. But don’t let being sidelined prevent you from exercising the limbs you can move. New research shows the benefits can be transferred to the ones you’re not even moving!

Virginia Tims-Lawson

Why ‘normal’ blood pressure readings set you up for a false sense of security

Healthy blood pressure equals a healthy heart. Or so we’ve been told. But, according to recent research findings, relying on normal blood pressure as a sign that a heart attack or stroke is not in your future has painted a pretty picture that’s been revealed to be nothing but a facade — a false sense of security that could put you in deadly danger.

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Eat takeout? You’re ingesting up to 10,000 plastic particles yearly

A new study has some sobering information for those of us who’ve made a regular habit of it eating takeout. Along with your favorite foods and a hefty side of convenience, those takeout containers carry a mega dose of plastic that’s finding its way into your meals. Here’s how, why you should be concerned and how to reduce the harm…

Joyce Hollman

The secret cancer weapon in oats, barley and mushrooms

The human body has two different immune systems with different roles. But did you know that one of those systems can be trained to seek out and destroy cancer? That’s exactly what immunotherapy is all about and why researchers are excited about a nutrient found in certain foods that could double our immune power against cancer.

Dr. Elizabeth Klodas MD, FACC

5 ways a heart-healthy diet helps beat cancer

When you eat in a way that helps lower cholesterol and improve overall heart health, you’re also helping lower risks associated with cancer, dementia, arthritis and other diseases. Here’s why and how…

Tracey G. Ingram, AuD

Can diet reverse heart failure? Keto might

Based on available research, a ketogenic diet may be associated with improvements in cardiovascular risk factors, such as type 2 diabetes and HDL cholesterol levels. And now, it certainly looks promising as a nutritional intervention for heart failure.

Joyce Hollman

Is a lower body temperature the new normal?

Do you take your temperature and regularly find it hovering around 97 degrees? Or feel sure you have a fever only to find the thermometer reads a “normal” 98.6? There are several theories as to why this happens, but if you’re like me, you want to know if it’s anything to worry about. Here’s what we’ve found…

Carolyn Gretton

Relieving the symptoms of shingles naturally

Shingles can strike anyone who’s had chickenpox, although older adults tend to be more susceptible. This painful, burning, itching rash takes time to heal. But you can relieve its symptoms through a number of natural means while waiting for it to disappear…

Tracey G. Ingram, AuD

Old test could give your doctor new insight into aspirin risk or benefit

Taking a low-dose daily aspirin has been widely accepted for decades as an easy way to prevent a heart attack or stroke. But aspirin’s safety in prevention has been challenged over the last couple of years, and now it’s a call you should leave up to your doctor. Luckily an old test may provide new insight into whether it’s worth the risk for you or not…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

The Chinese proverb that’s helping researchers lower liver cancer

While we tend to hear a lot about cancer of the lungs, breasts and colon, liver cancer tends to be ignored — kept as kind of a dirty little secret. Yet, deaths from the cancer are skyrocketing. But there is good news. A brand-new study has found a simple way to keep your liver healthy and decrease your risk of liver cancer dramatically. And it has to do with how much you eat.

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

The high blood pressure danger of social isolation for women

If you’re a woman, simply not socializing enough can put your heart at as much risk as if you put on weight, regularly take medications with cardiovascular side effects or eat a lot of salt.

Virginia Tims-Lawson

Delay frailty with higher doses of the sunshine vitamin

From preventing osteoporosis to shoring up your immune system, vitamin D is one of the most important supplements you can take. But most people are barely getting the minimum when there’s good reason to get more. To avoid frailty, stay strong, fit and active, higher amounts matter.

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Drinks that lead to heart disease: Sugary, artificially sweetened or both?

You may think of artificially sweetened beverages as a better alternative to sugar-laden drinks and a good way to avoid weight gain. Surely one is at least heart-healthier than the other, right? That’s not just wrong… it could be dead wrong.

Tracey G. Ingram, AuD

Omega-3s shown to help heart attack survivors come out on top

For many years, omega-3s have been reported to be heart healthy. The Mayo Clinic recently quanitified that as a fact in a review of 40 clinical trials. And now we’ve learned that in the event of a heart attack, these fatty acids can make all the difference…

Carolyn Gretton

The plant that’s stepping up against chemo-resistant cancer

Colorectal cancer is most commonly treated with chemotherapy. But the most widely used chemotherapeutic agent is only effective in less than 30 percent of cases. More and more researchers are turning to nature to try to broaden the array of effective therapies, and one plant is stepping up to the plate…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Metabolic benefits from weight loss surgery may outweigh natural weight loss

Your doctor put it all on the line: Lose weight or have a heart attack. How would you do it? Diet? Exercise? Bariatric surgery? It’s a lot to think about, but the Cleveland Clinic has some pretty shocking information that may help you make up your mind…

Joyce Hollman

9 ways to save your brain from disease-causing particles

Research has proven that small particles breathed in from polluted air are connected to Alzheimer’s. Now we’ve learned they can lead to Parkinson’s and motor neuron disease. This brain damage starts at an astoundingly early age because with every breath, aluminum, iron and titanium may build up in your brain…

Joyce Hollman

Why you can ignore what the glycemic index says about potatoes

People with type 2 diabetes are often told to avoid potatoes because they’re high on the glycemic index and thought to raise blood sugar. But a new study shows potatoes may actually be the starch of choice…

Tracey G. Ingram, AuD

How exercise kicks the immune system into gear against cancer

Research has indicated exercise may improve the prognosis of cancer, but experts haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly why. One theory was that exercise activates the immune system to support the body’s ability to prevent and inhibit the growth of cancer. Now researchers know why it works, and not just in mice…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Sugar in the brain may initiate Alzheimer’s

We’ve seen plenty of research on brain plaques and tangles, the telltale signs of Alzheimer’s. But experts may have linked the disease’s beginnings to a surprising cause… one that bolsters a long suspected association with diabetes and increased risk for this mind-robber — sugar made in the brain.

Joyce Hollman

Choose fruits with flavanols to lower blood pressure

Flavanols are natural antioxidants found in certain fruits and vegetables as well as tea and cocoa. They have well-researched benefits that just keep piling up, like substantially lowering blood pressure to help support arteries and prevent strokes.

Carolyn Gretton

The common nutrient that could help fight obesity

There’s no question obesity is a serious disease that’s spreading among Americans. And scientists are working overtime to find ways to treat it beyond the usual diet and exercise. One group of researchers may have found an answer hidden in a common vitamin…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Why blue light blockers may be the easy fix for better sleep

Do you spend lots of time on your laptop or smartphone or binge-watching your favorite shows? If so, you could set yourself up for sleep trouble. Here’s why those screens are trouble, along with a simple solution for better sleep and sight…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Missing link between gum health and heart disease found

Brushing and flossing your teeth is about far more than just avoiding cavities. In fact, the health of your mouth is tied to serious conditions from diabetes to heart disease. But until now, the reason wasn’t clear. Now researchers know it’s tied to a particularly powerful immune cell that, when hyperactivated, can circulate through your body to do major damage…

Tracey G. Ingram, AuD

Why the connection between asthma and osteoporosis?

Asthma can be deadly. The symptoms include coughing, tightness in the chest and wheezing. Because there currently is no cure for asthma, management of the condition is the best our health care providers can offer. However, recent research is proving those treatments can come at a cost…

Joyce Hollman

Shockingly minuscule amount of exercise shown to boost health and longevity

Some recent research has made me feel a lot better about my pretty minimal exercise program. The research insists that even a little bit of physical activity every day can improve health — but I was shocked at just how little could help me avoid disease and live longer…

Virginia Tims-Lawson

Untangling the Alzheimer’s/sleep apnea connection

Doctors and scientists have long suspected a link between Alzheimer’s and sleep apnea. What they haven’t known is exactly how similarly these two conditions damage the brain. Now, researchers have untangled the puzzle and why, if you’re living with sleep apnea, you need to make brain health your top priority right now…

Joyce Hollman

Pterostilbene: The other powerful antioxidant for better blood pressure

Resveratrol may be great for your heart, but there’s another natural antioxidant that your body absorbs much more easily, and that does the same thing and more! Found in blueberries or supplements, it just may be the help your blood pressure is looking for…

Tracey G. Ingram, AuD

2 drinks anyone with type 2 diabetes should be drinking

When you have type 2 diabetes, managing your disease includes avoiding food that could cause your blood sugar to skyrocket. Going too low could also be a problem. But integrating dietary care into daily life could also be as simple as adding beverages shown to impact your health in a very positive way…

Dr. Elizabeth Klodas MD, FACC

How to lower triglyceride levels

Triglycerides are not all that important for heart disease risk on their own. Rather they’re more significant depending upon the company they keep and whether they’re very high. The combination of low HDL and high triglycerides is a particularly worrisome profile. For that reason, let’s talk about how to get them lower…

Dr. Michael Cutler

Getting over a toxic mold infection

Some molds are known human pathogens that can make you quite sick. It’s thought that removing mold can cause those toxins to be released further. That’s why it’s important to know the symptoms of mold mycotoxins, and just as important is how to heal after exposure.

Jenny Smiechowski

More coffee reduces liver cancer up to 50%

There’s no doubt coffee has some amazing neurological benefits. In fact, it protects you from three of the most devastating neurological diseases — Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and MS. But did you also know that coffee also has a protective effect on your liver?

Margaret Cantwell

Is a ‘gateway condition’ stalking you?

It’s the quintessential gateway condition… and with each symptom comes a stronger warning that a bigger, meaner chronic disease is stalking you. But there’s still something to be done at this point…

Easy Health Options Staff

Medications that make you gain weight [slideshow]

We all know that the most common cause for abnormal weight gain is the unhealthy foods we put into our mouth (in addition to genetic predisposition). But what many don’t know is there is a host of medications that also cause weight gain.

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

Secret to living longer found in the snack aisle

There’s one snack you may have been avoiding that can cut your risk of dying from cancer, heart disease and respiratory illnesses by an average of 20 percent. That’s a snack even your doctor would give you the all-clear to eat, right?

Virginia Tims-Lawson

A fresh mouth can give you high blood pressure

It’s habit that most of us take part in… and most of us end up with high blood pressure. Is there a connection? There most definitely is… and it comes down to bacteria.

Dr. Mark Wiley

Deep hip stretch for releasing tension and pain

Hip tightness and pain often prevents people from being as active as they’d like. Even simple things like walking and biking and hiking become problematic when the hips are tight and painful. But these yoga moves will loosen you up in no time…

Jenny Smiechowski

The pre-workout drink that beats brain aging

Exercise is the great brain medicine. But, if you really want to boost your odds of maintaining a healthy brain into old age, there’s one vegetable you should be drinking to ramp up your brain benefits and stack the cognitive health cards in your favor…

Jedha Dening

Why you need choline and how to get it

Choline may be a nutrient you’ve never heard of before. but if it’s out of whack you can expect liver and muscle damage, impaired cognitive function, blood pressure issues, digestive issues, and higher risk of colorectal cancer. Get it in these foods…

Debra Atkinson

Firm and burn in 12 minutes a day

It’s not about what you do but how you do it. We feel this sense of urgency about improving our physical fitness and health not getting any easier to effect as we get older. If you’re feeling there is no time like the present, there’s an arsenal of secret weapons to help you get better results.

Craig Cooper

Dial down the exercise to turn up the romance

A word of caution for exercise fanatics: too much may push your sex drive in the wrong direction. How? By over-stressing your autonomic nervous system. When it’s stuck on the “stressed-out and harried” setting, it’s virtually impossible to get busy in the bedroom when you’re too busy out of it.

Jedha Dening

4 key nutrients for glowing healthy skin

Quite amazingly, your body is working 24/7 to continually fuel, hydrate and replenish your skin’s cells. That’s because your skin is considered an organ. In fact, it’s the largest organ your body has!

Dr. Mark Wiley

Fruity trick fights blood sugar spikes

While a balanced diet should contain fresh fruit, people with blood sugar problems have been told it’s best to avoid fruit because the sugars would negatively affect the diabetic condition. But research points to the opposite effect…

Jenny Smiechowski

What your body shape says about your cancer risk

Looking for an accurate way to gauge your cancer risk right now without going to your doctor’s office and getting pricked and prodded? Well, all you have to do is stand in front of a mirror and look for the places on your body where…

Dr. Mark Wiley

5 lymph hacks to boost wellness and energy

You know you have a lymphatic system, but have you really ever thought about what it does and how important it is to your overall health? Well, it does an awful lot — so let’s start there…

Dr. Isaac Eliaz

The science of walking barefoot

Remember the guy you knew who went barefoot everywhere, even in winter? He may have seemed a little eccentric but perhaps you admired his tenacity. As it turns out, he was on to something. This quirky habit has real wellness benefits for you…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

5 ways to ‘shake off’ body fat

If you’re looking to lose weight, get in shape and blast away the excess body fat, you should be drinking protein shakes. In fact, replacing one to two meals per day with a high-quality protein drink is one of the easiest ways to drop pounds fast…

Jedha Dening

Why you may need double the vitamin E

Around 40 percent of Americans are afflicted with metabolic syndrome. If you find yourself in this situation, frequently the dietary advice is to decrease your fat intake. But it turns out, you could pay an awful price by doing so…

Jenny Smiechowski

The serious problem with high SPF sunscreens

You probably already know that sunscreens are chock-full of concerning ingredients. But a recent analysis of popular sunscreens uncovered some alarming facts about the sunscreens you’re slathering on your summertime skin, including this doozy…

Jedha Dening

Plant weeds out cancer, improves therapy

The power of natural plant compounds as cancer prevention and treatment agents is astounding. As scientists delve deep into research, they’re discovering these natural substances may provide protection above and beyond medications…

Dr. Michael Cutler

Yeast, fungi and mold, oh my!

There are thousands of known mold species. They all require moisture in order to grow and feed on organic material and then their “digestive” enzymes decompose it. If you are routinely indoors near a moldy/musty smell, dampness, or obvious mold growth, you should take note: some molds are known human pathogens.

Margaret Cantwell

How to counteract cancer-causing cocktails

This weekend will be full of celebration. It is the New Year, after all… and that usually means at least one champagne toast. But if you’re a woman, drinking any amount of alcohol can have a direct impact on your breast cancer risk. Just make sure you’re countering that risk…

Easy Health Options Staff

7 things you need to know before taking antibiotics (slideshow)

The problem with antibiotics is that they represent too much of a good thing. Like any drug, it’s good to steer clear of overuse to optimize a drug’s effectiveness. Here are the top reasons to avoid antibiotics and how to take them safely when you must…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

The power of green superfoods

If you haven’t started taking a green superfood powder yet, you’ve been missing out. But, what are they and why are they so super? The answer is that they’re like a multi-vitamin on steroids…

Dr. Mark Wiley

3 simple poses for a strong, supple spine

Spinal health is essential to quality of life. A restricted spine reduces your ability to live an active life causing limited range of motion. Here are maneuvers that will get your spine nice and supple and loose again…

Virginia Tims-Lawson

Dementia drinks: Are you at risk?

Do you think drinking diet sodas in order to avoid the sugar in other drinks is healthy? Think again! Those diet drinks you’ve been tipping up could erase your memories, leaving you suffering from dementia…

Debra Atkinson

Hip stretches your lower back will love

The agony and ecstasy of more physical activity that comes with warmer weather and longer days… the most common sources of agony being hip, lower back, knee and shoulder pain. There are two equal but opposite reasons three out of four of those are lower body joints…

Jenny Smiechowski

Scientists want you to eat this fabulously healthy food

You’ve probably heard (on more than one occasion) that you shouldn’t eat a lot of processed food. And this is wise advice. But there’s an exception to this golden rule of good eating…

Craig Cooper

Once-weekly habit helps avoid cancer, stroke and Alzheimer’s

We live in America, the land of the super-size! We love our food so why would we not eat? That’s crazy talk! But in case you are inclined to join me and millions of others who are convinced of the proven health benefits of this new habit, here are tips to get started…

Dr. Adria Schmedthorst

The sleep-breast cancer connection

In your lifetime, you have a one in eight chance of developing invasive breast cancer. So, it’s vital that you look beyond drug therapy and doctor’s visits alone to increase your chances of recovery and avoiding cancer. And, one of the secrets to living longer following breast cancer may just surprise you.

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