Entries by Chet Zelasko

Purge Week

An Insider sent me an interesting link about meat—more specifically, the red liquid that’s often at the bottom of the plastic bag when you bring home meat from the grocery store or the butcher. I’ll bet you thought it was blood because that’s what it looks like, but that would be incorrect. It’s called purge […]

The Facts on Collagen Supplementation

After covering collagen basics on Tuesday, two questions remain. Are collagen supplements absorbed or are they digested just like any other protein? Second, does research support the use of collagen supplementation to improve skin quality? Let’s take a look. Collagen Absorption The data on collagen absorption is sparse. In almost every study, dipeptides or tripeptides […]

Are Collagen Supplements Effective?

I spent the past weekend with a few thousand of my closest friends, some in person and others via live broadcast; that always means I get some good questions, including one about collagen I couldn’t answer. A healthcare professional had told one attendee that collagen supplements were broken down into individual amino acids before being […]

It’s Still All About the Calories

The keto vs. Mediterranean diet study was interesting for a variety of reasons. The researchers deserve a lot of credit for even attempting to try a study of this magnitude; 40 subjects may not seem like a lot, but to provide food via delivery together with instructions on preparation is very expensive and labor intensive. […]

Face-Off: Mediterranean vs. Keto

Last week ended with the publication of an interesting study on two popular diets, Mediterranean and ketogenic, and their potential benefits for people with elevated HbA1c levels; HbA1c is a blood test that measures your average blood sugar levels over the past three months. I use the word “diet” as a description of the type […]

Citric Acid: Stone Killer?

Increasing fluid intake can reduce the risk of developing stones of all types: kidney stones, gall stones, bladder stones, or uric acid crystals. But there’s one more thing you could do to reduce the risk—add some citric acid to the fluids you drink. While the research on using a form of pharmaceutical is not clear […]

Don’t Forget Fluids

With the unseasonably warm weather many of us are experiencing, I thought it was time to remind you that it’s not all about water: the emphasis should be on fluids. Coffee, tea, milk, soda, sports drinks, soup—all of those count toward your daily fluid intake. It’s true that some drinks are better than others. Sugary […]

Taking Biotin? Tell Your Doctor

Biotin is a B vitamin often used for skin health among other benefits; it’s involved in many metabolic processes in the body. Due to its chemical nature, it’s used as a coenzyme in several tests. One of those tests is for troponin, a protein released from the heart into the bloodstream during a heart attack. […]

Still in Doubt? Check It Out Again

In the last Memo, I said we weren’t done with the person who had waited three days. We spoke again after a couple of days, and she still had the same pain profile: back and chest, not as intense. She’d had a heart catheterization that came back clear: no blockages in any of her coronary […]

Three Freaking Days!

When it comes to health, my experience has shown that women tend to take a little better care of their health than men do. I checked back to when I began to use the phrases, “Never, never, ever, ignore chest pain” and “When in doubt, check it out!” It was about 20 years ago. And […]