Food: Can't Live With It, Can't Live Without It (Part 1)
Food... Everyone’s favorite topic. Without it, we cannot sustain basic life functions. It is our primary source of nutrition, vitamins and minerals. It gives us energy to perform our daily tasks and to go from place to place. It certainly tastes good, so we make a bracha on it. Yet for many people, food is the enemy, causing us to engage in a lifetime battle in order to maintain a normal and healthy weight. And that battle can often be unending and can wear us down. So, in order ...
Exercise May Be More Important
For many years, people have become obsessed with weight loss in relation to good health and for good reason. There is an obesity epidemic in the United States today and it is prevalent in other countries as well, and that certainly makes us focus on weight loss. Many studies have shown beyond a doubt that there is great health benefit in keeping your weight at an ideal level. However, many people are not successful weight controllers for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, when they fail in ...
WHO: Radiation From Cell Phones May Cause Cancer
Radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization. The agency now lists mobile phone use in the same "carcinogenic hazard" category as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform.
Before its announcement Tuesday, WHO had assured consumers that no adverse health effects had been established.
A team of 31 scientists from 14 countries, including the United States, made the decision after reviewing peer-reviewed studies on cell phone safety. The team ...
Hospitals Scrambling For Medications Amid Growing Drug Shortage
A growing shortage of medications for a host of illnesses -- from cancer to cystic fibrosis to cardiac arrest -- has hospitals scrambling for substitutes to avoid patient harm, and sometimes even delaying treatment.
"It's just a matter of time now before we call for a drug that we need to save a patient's life and we find out there isn't any," says Dr. Eric Lavonas of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
The problem of scarce supplies or even completely unavailable medications ...
Those Achy Joints
As we age, getting out there for that basketball game, jog or tennis game can begin to take its toll on our joints. Minimally, our joints may feel a little bit achy, but if you have real pain, swelling and/or limited movement lasting for more than two weeks, you may very well have arthritis.
There are two main forms of arthritis - osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis, the second most common form, is an autoimmune disease. The most common form of arthritis, and ...
With Electrical Stimulation To The Spinal Cord, Paralyzed Man Walks Again
Electrical impulses sent to a paralyzed man’s spinal cord allow him to walk again, researchers say. Rob Summers, 25, can voluntarily move his feet and hips and walk on a treadmill with support, in what could be a major breakthrough for the treatment of paralysis.
The research team, led by Dr. Susan Harkema of the University of Louisville, Ky., stressed that the treatment is not a cure for paralysis and that it worked with just one patient in one trial. But researchers not involved in the ...
FDA to Pull Diabetes Drug Avandia From Pharmacy Shelves
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that the controversial diabetes drug Avandia will no longer be sold at retail pharmacies beginning this November, due to the cardiovascular risks it poses to patients.
According to the new rules, which will go into effect on Nov. 18, the medication will only be available to patients who've been safely using the drug, those who have had no success in controlling their blood sugar with other diabetes medications or patients who have been ...
The Metabolic Boost (Part 2)
In last week’s column, we defined metabolism, discussed the benefits of raising one’s resting metabolic rate and highlighted the ways in which having a higher muscle mass boosts metabolism. Below are some tips which can help us achieve that goal, and increase our overall health and well-being.
Tips for Raising Your Metabolism
1. Build lean body mass. As mentioned in last week’s column, metabolism slows as we age, by as much as 2% a year! But there is something you can do to ...
The Metabolic Boost (Part 1)
I’m sure that you’ve probably been to a wedding or Bar Mitzvah and stood at the reception with your mouth wide open in amazement and watched as someone who is as skinny as a beanpole downs three pieces of cake. You say to yourself, “If I did that, my clothes wouldn’t fit anymore.” What’s the difference between that person and yourself? It’s your metabolism.
The word metabolism is used quite frequently, but what does it mean and how does it affect us? According to the ...
Allergy Season May Be Worst Ever On Record
If you are sneezing and itching your eyes this spring allergy season, you are not alone. 2011 is shaping up to be the worst year for allergy sufferers on record.
More than 35 million American suffer from pollen allergies, according to the FDA . Every year, the United States spends $21 billion on health costs related to allergies.
A study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA searched for the cause of a trend towards longer allergy ...
Study: Low Salt Diet Ups Risk Of Heart Attack
Doctors and public health officials have been telling us for years that eating too much sodium can increase the risk of heart attack or stroke by raising blood pressure to unsafe levels. So how to explain a new study that suggests low salt intake actually increases the risk of dying from those causes?
The study, which followed 3,681 healthy European men and women age 60 or younger for about eight years, also found that above-average sodium intake did not appear to up the risk of developing ...
Make Summer Great For Your Health
It is only a few weeks away—SUMMER! My childhood memories bring back trips in my parent’s car in the summer and hearing that song on the radio over and over again about “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.” Growing up on the east coast of the United States, I certainly remember the “hazy” days and I guess sometimes all of the heat and humidity can make you a little “crazy”, but it never pays to be “lazy.”
All year long, we look forward to summertime when we have more ...
Starting Over After Pesach
Pesach! It is the holiday of freedom with not a moment to rest. Preparations for Pesach begin a month or more before, purchases, matzo, cleaning, bedikas Chametz, the seder, Chol Hamoed. It is non-stop, and it also turns into non-stop eating and almost no activity and exercise—a deadly combination.
When the Almighty took us out of Egypt, he brought us from enslavement to freedom. But freedom doesn’t mean doing whatever we want, however we want, whenever we want and unfortunately, ...
CDC: Use Of Dietary Supplements Keeps Climbing
More than half of U.S. adults take dietary supplements, such as multivitamins and calcium, and their use jumped dramatically over a recent 20-year period, according to a new government report.
Between 1994 and 2006, the proportion of Americans using at least one dietary supplement jumped from 42 percent of adults to 53 percent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"The increase in supplement use may be due to increased awareness and education about dietary ...
Too Many Hours At Work Might Harm The Heart
It may be time to add a long workday to the list of risk factors for heart disease.
A new study has found that office workers in England significantly increased their chances of having a heart attack by working more hours than their peers.
The study, conducted by researchers at University College London, found that employees who regularly worked 11-hour days or longer were 67 percent more likely to develop heart disease than those who worked seven- or eight-hour days.
One U.S. expert ...
Researchers find new genes implicated in Alzheimer’s disease
In the biggest such study to date, a group of research institutions including the University of Miami has identified four new genes implicated in causing Alzheimer’s disease.
And while only five or six of up to 100 genes linked to Alzheimer’s are now known, the development signals a “monumental breakthrough” that could lead to identification of nearly all suspect genes in three to five years, said Dr. Margaret Pericak-Vance, who led analysis of the genes for UM’s medical ...
Study: Automatic Faucets Germier Than Manual Ones
Washing your hands in an automatic faucet seems so much cleaner than have to touch a handle on the old-fashioned model. But guess again.
A study revealed that automatic faucets are more likely to harbor nasty bacteria than manual ones.
Electronic faucets may conserve water, "but decreased water flow may increase the chance that bacteria grows, because you're not flushing them through," theorized Dr. Emily Snydor, who led the team of researchers, told MSNBC.
Snydor and her team tested ...
RSS