Entries by Chet Zelasko

Why Optimism Isn’t Enough

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In the messages this week, we’ve looked at a study that examined an optimistic mental state along with health metrics related to cardiovascular health. I left you with a question on Thursday:

Do you simply need to maintain a positive mental attitude to have great heart health?

I told you I think there’s more to it. Let’s begin by talking about something called The Stockdale Paradox.
The Stockdale Paradox
You might remember Vice-Admiral Jim Stockdale as a third-party candidate for Vice President in 1992. Before that, he was a Navy pilot who was shot down . . .

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Optimism and Heart Health: The Results

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Tuesday I told you about a study on optimism and cardiovascular health and gave you the details of how the study was done. Today let’s look at the results.

The researchers compared over 5,000 subjects’ level of optimism to their scores on the Life’s Simple 7 assessment of heart health. The subjects were divided into quartiles of optimism, from most to least. When researchers compared the top quartile (highest level of optimism) to the bottom quartile (lowest level of optimism), the optimists were 51% more likely to have an intermediate rank of heart health and 92% more . . .

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Optimism and Heart Health

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Every day, I check the health headlines to see the latest research in medicine, nutrition, and fitness. Recently an intriguing headline said “Optimistic People Have Healthier Hearts”; I’ve seen that type of statement before and it makes sense. The problem is that pencil and paper tests on mental health and attitude and the occurrence of heart disease are not metrics based on hard numbers like blood pressure, but I think this study did it right.

In 2000, researchers began the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) of over 6,000 subjects aged 52–84. Data were collected for 11 . . .

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Paula’s Turn: I’m a Survivor!

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For a week in October, I had breast cancer. But maybe I should start at the beginning. In September I got my usual mammogram and was called back for more images, which had happened before so I wasn’t worried. But this time, the radiologist saw something and recommended a biopsy. An ultrasound-guided core biopsy was […]

Coping with Radiation Damage

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At some point in the future, people are going to look back at this time of cancer treatment as barbaric, but it’s the best we have today and we can’t use undiscovered treatments. However, we can help limit the damage radiation may cause to healthy tissue.

I may sound like a broken record, but it all starts with eating more vegetables and fruit; they contain vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients in the proper proportions to help your body. Cruciferous vegetables and berries are better choices but all are great. Green tea has phytonutrients that are beneficial if you can . . .

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Breast Cancer: Radiation Therapy

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Last week’s messages sparked questions related to breast cancer, so this week we’ll look at an improvement in radiation therapy for breast cancer that’s been in the news recently.

The most important thing to understand is that there are many different forms and degrees of breast cancer. The only way to understand the type of breast cancer you may be facing is to discuss it with your physicians. Some of the terms are estrogen-positive or -negative, invasive or contained, HER2-positive or -negative, and many more. If you don’t understand the words, get a full . . .

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Cancer: Do Your Best

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We’ve spent this week looking at whether many forms of cancer are just due to bad luck or whether other factors come into play. Based on the statistics derived from comparing the lifetime rate of getting a specific cancer and the cell division rate of the tissues, about two-thirds of cancer cases are due to chance. That leaves genetics and lifestyle choices to make up the rest—and remember, breast and prostate cancers were not included in the analysis.

Some cancers, lung cancer for example, are influenced by habits such as smoking. Colon cancer is influenced by genetics . . .

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Cancer: Timing is Everything

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We’re continuing our look at whether the development of cancer is simply bad luck or if there could be more to it (1); most of all, we need to look at why we’re at risk for cancer when cells divide. Let’s start there.

The reason we’re most at risk when cells divide is that’s when they’re vulnerable to mutations—mistakes in copying the cell’s DNA. Cancer cells are typical tissue cells that multiply faster than they should; their DNA is damaged and they aren’t “behaving” normally. The damage to the DNA most . . .

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Cancer: Just Bad Luck?

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There’s nothing like starting the New Year with a bang, and I don’t mean firecrackers. A couple of scientists found a different way to shake up health news with a recently published paper in the journal Science (1). While the title of the article, “Variation in Cancer Risk Among Tissues Can Be Explained By The Number Of Stem Cell Divisions,” didn’t seem too exciting, the interpretation of their statistical analysis was. The headlines from every news service and newspaper were similar to the Message headline: Is getting cancer just bad luck? The answer is yes and no . . .

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2015 Health Goals

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January 1 has come and gone. The traditional first day of work is a couple of days away. This is the perfect time to set your health goals for 2015.

In my experience, all health goals fall into one of these categories:

  • Losing weight
  • Getting fitter
  • Managing diseases

Losing weight is always number one on everyone’s list. Most of the time, having more endurance, getting stronger, and having more energy goes hand in glove with that goal as well; if we have high blood pressure or have some other health issue . . .

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